The Finger of God
"I don't think we're welcome here," Rescue Officer Jace Petrowski casually observed, seeing several people watching his squadron from the gas station’s convenience store window. "Probably because of what happened yesterday at Base Tranquility, yeah?"
"No," Lieutenant Vest countered, struggling to chew an apple, slicing pieces away with her knife. "People around these parts just don't really like the UN. It's nothin’ new, Petrowski. Just keep your head up and your eyes to the storms. We've got a lot to prove out here on this trip. Don't let a few foul gazes get in your way of helping to prove to UNIRO Command that this squadron's existence is necessary."
"Right," Jace nodded, checking the Doppler radar on his glass tablet. "UNIRO's first weather surveillance squadron. Pretty badass."
"We're not badasses, we're - "
"Lieutenant!" cried Rescue Officer Bjork from the group's radar truck. "Doppler has a strong rotation signature twelve miles northwest of here… Might even be a debris ball. Warnings are going up!"
"Shit," Vest muttered, throwing her apple into some bushes. "That was fast." She looked northwest at the greening sky. As if on cue, the low roll of thunder filled her ears. "Okay!" she shouted. "Weather Surveillance Squadron 1, move out!"
Vest and Jace ran up to the convoy’s lead vehicle, a modified Volvo X60 that had a hail protection cage welded over its roof and windows, large communications antennas, and dozens of scientific instruments and cameras. Vest pressed the vehicle’s start button and sped away under the silence of its hydrogen engine before she could even put on her seatbelt.
Three more vehicles of the same make followed behind them with a fourth, the squadron’s radar truck, trailing the group; guiding the convoy with the returns of its spinning dish.
"Bjork, what’s the forward speed of the storm?" Vest radioed.
"Forty-three miles per hour heading north-northeast, Lieutenant. If it keeps on its current track it will be in the Tulsa suburbs in less than thirty minutes. The vorticity signature is definitely getting stronger. Wouldn't be surprised if we pull up to at least a strengthening EF 3."
"Tulsa!" exclaimed Jace, kinking his head. "Zephyrus might get its first test."
"It might," Vest smiled. "Get the National Weather Service on the line and tell them we are inbound to this supercell," she instructed, pointing through the windshield at the enormous thunderstorm in front of them. "Tell them we are going to attempt a probe intercept and any data we collect will head their way as soon as we get it."
"Understood," Jace nodded with excitement. "We are badasses!"
"We are not badasses," Vest grinned, quickly looking over at Jace. "We're something better. We're stormchasers."