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ramp of the helicopter which was now opening. One of the army officers dressed in his NBC suit also ran up to the side of the helicopter just as the crew-chief opened the side door. The army captain was to the point as he spoke through his suit’s mask:
                  “Can you take some of these civilians out of here on your return flight?”
                  The crew-chief waved for him to hold and ran up to the cockpit where the pilot and co-pilot were seated. The pilot unstrapped himself and walked back to the side door. He saw that other army personnel were already unstrapping the BMP vehicle that they had airlifted in the cavernous interiors of the helicopter.
                  “What’s the problem here?” he asked the army officer as he jumped on to the flattened grass. He was taken aback by the sight of the mask-wearing army officer in front of him. A voice in his head asked him: has it gone that bad here?   
                  “Sir,” the army man replied, “we have civilians caught out here and no mode of transport for them to be evacuated on! The roads are all clogged with water or traffic! Can you take some of them with you on the flight to Pune?”
                  The pilot, was the commanding officer of the air-force’s “Featherweights” squadron that operated these massive helicopters. Over the decades, the attrition on the handful of available helicopters had been significant. Of the four available birds, one had been lost during operations in Bhutan and two others had been removed from the roster for no longer being airworthy; a result of heavy operations.
                  The pilot looked back at the helicopter. This was his last bird available. It would not survive this hazardous operation. But under the circumstances, he was at a loss to find a better way for the last bird of his squadron to go…
                  “Get them aboard as soon as the NBC recon vehicle has been offloaded and mobilized!” He then turned to his crew-chief: “Get the civilians on board. As many as you can! And as fast as you can! No mad dashes! In double file and up from the ramp!”
                  The crew-chief nodded in the affirmative so the pilot nodded to the army officer. The latter man turned and ran to his men guarding the perimeter around the mass of civilians. Once back in the cockpit, the pilot looked at his co-pilot and sighed:
                  “Call up Pune and tell them we have landed with the cargo and are disgorging. Also tell them to be prepared with DE-CON teams pending our return. We are taking as many civvies out of here as we can!”
                  As the co-pilot began speaking on the comms, the pilot went back into the cargo cabin behind him and saw the armored NBC recon vehicle based roll off the ramp, leaving the helicopter’s fuselage visibly relaxed. A few moments later the first of the civilians began lining up at the back of the helicopter to begin boarding. The relief was visible on their faces and in their eyes. It was a tragic sight to see so many people being displaced from their homes this day…
                  “Sir,” the co-pilot said, causing the pilot to turn around.
                  “What?”
                  “Ops wants to know how many civilians can we get out of here and how many more will need evac!”
                  Thousands, probably! The pilot let out a muffled curse. He finally recollected his composure: “tell them we will need to make dozens of trips if we are to get all these people to the safe zones before the fallout hits this area!”
                 
     
    G oddamn it!
    Air-Commodore Verma vented his frustration as he overheard the communications from the Mi-26 crew on the ground near the fallout areas. He turned away from the banks of radios lining his operations center at the