Fire Birds

We were working with local military anti-drug forces.

A search and destroy mission on cocaine labs.

Lt. Dobbs and I had been training local pilots in Cobras

for their own strike forces against the cartel.

Lead, this is Snake Two entering sector 4079.

Roger. Advise collab ops of our position.

Wilco, Dobbs. How's the view up front, buddy?

I'm not crazy about it, man. I'll be glad when we get out of this canyon.

I was flying wing that day with Captain Tejada.

Lt. Dobbs, the other American was with Captain Mendez,

the flight leader in the front Cobra.

Between the two Cobras was a Black Hawk helicopter

with a support team of American and South American DEA agents.

It was our fourth mission as a team, and we'd work well together.

We were entering a sector we've never been before.

It was rumored among the locals that this was an area of offensive cartel activity.

But we were used to such rumors.

We were 5 miles from the objective,

when we saw the Scorpion attack helicopter.

Dobbs, bogey at your 12 o'clock!

Dobbs!

Snake Two to Black Hawk, get the hell out of there.

The Black Hawk began evasive action,

but the Scorpion was too fast,

heavily armed, and hard to find.

The pilot was better than anyone I'd ever seen before.

I tried to pull the Scorpion away from the Black Hawk,

but to no use.

He was a cold killer.

Tejada! Tejada!

Wake up, goddamn it!

I took the controls, put her in a dive,

and crossed over the top of the Scorpion before he could fire.

I made it out of the area.

We said the cartel was up to something.

I'm not blaming anybody.

Last time I looked, we were all on the same side.

We have some decisions to make.

Thank you, Mr. Preston. That will be all.

May I say something, sir?

Go ahead.

I volunteered to fly with these local anti-drug forces, sir.

And I watched the men in those choppers put their lives in the line

for their families and their country every day.

The cartel has them outpaid, outmanned, and outgunned.

But knowing that, they still went out.

They didn't stand a chance.

They're heroes, and they should be avenged.

It's a little more complicated than that.

I beg your pardon, sir, but I think it's very simple.

They killed our people and they killed our friends.

Their drugs kill Americans every day.

It's a war, and it's our duty to fight.

Thank you, Mr. Preston. You're excused.

Gentlemen, does anyone else in this room feel as frustrated as I do?

We all do, Oscar, but it's a complex problem.

I disagree.

We have an executive mandate to stop the drug cartel

and we're sitting on our hands.

That pilot out there has the clearest take on this mess.

We are at war, and we deal with the problem as such.

So what are we gonna do? Go back to the same sort of operation?

Sir, the DEA is fighting a war with its hands tied, and we're losing it.

Not anymore.

General Olcott, I want the army to ready a task force immediately.

- I want that operation taken out. - Yes, sir.

My Apache crews are trained for ground support, General,

they're just not up to speed for air-to-air combat.

If this enemy helicopter is half as good as we hear,

I'm gonna need help to bring him down.

Anything you want.

Well, I need as much information as I can get on this operation.

Who is this enemy pilot, and what's his support like?

And I've got to have Brad Little and his team.

They're down at Fort Rooker right now training rookies.

I want them at Fort Mitchell as soon as possible.

This is a need-to-know operation. All reports eyes-only to me.

And that Preston...

He impressed them in there. See if you can keep him in the mix.

Will do, General.

- Preston? - Yes, Sir.

You've seen this bogey work.

Can the Apache stand up to it?

It is the only aircraft that will, sir.

How soon can you qualify on the bird?

I've completed the academics,

and I'm scheduled to start hands-on as soon as I get back to Fort Mitchell.

General Olcott wants you in this mission.

Now, I believe in you, son.

Can you handle it?

You can count on me, sir.

At ease. Take a seat.

Gentlemen, we've all got a lot to do today, so I'll make this brief.

It's my honor to introduce our new combat instructor pilot,

Chief Warrant Officer Brad Little.

He's here to bring us up to speed on air combat manoeuvres.

Mr. Little.

You men know all there is to know

about air-to-ground technique.

Starting right now, you have a new objective in your lives,

and this new objective is to become masters of air-to-air combat tactics.

When we have mastered these tactics,

we will use them to seek out,

and confront the forces of evil, and kill them deader than hell.

We're lucky men.

We're in the United States Army and we face the opportunity of a lifetime.

I do not expect you to watse or throw away or neglect this opportunity.

I expect you to improve every shining minute of my time

by becoming the best air-to-air helicopter pilots in the whole wide world.

You will fight as teams of gunners and pilots,

each more dependent on the other than they were on their own mama.

Sir!

Our mission has the highest national priority.

I can't stress that enough.

We're going against an enemy, who's defending his own territory.

We've got to get up to speed immediately.

The clock is running, folks,

and it's running fast.

Group! Attention!

Carry on.

Looks like a fine group of aviators, sir.

They are that, Brad.

That kid, Preston, showed extraordinary courage in South America.

I want you to pay a special attention to him.

It's beautiful in an ugly kind of way.

Somebody called it a flying race car with guns, but that's bullshit.

It's not that simple.

Here...

Put your hands here, here and there,

put your feet here, here, here and here,

and here, do not step here or there.

That's it. Crawl right on in there, lad.

Riding in the gunner's seat in this aircraft at 150 knots through the treetops

is like having your ass strapped to the nose of a bullet.

Basically, you will be flying like a bat out of hell,

you will be shooting at the enemy, you will be jiggling around

dodging bullets, and missiles, and rocks, and arrows,

and spears, and ducks, and geese.

Sounds like a full-time job.

Boy, you're gonna be as busy as a three-peckered goat.

So let's get to it.

You really get into this, don't you, sir?

- I love it to death. - I can tell.

Heaven, here we come.

So, what do we do first?

Gee, is this a quiz, sir?

Your whole life's a quiz, young man.

Now, you tell me the first order of business, hot shot.

Program the inertial nav systems, enter the laser codes,

punch in target and Doppler coordinates,

initialize weapon systems, and optimize FLIR sensors.

Okay, perfect. Well done. Now, let's see if the damn thing will start.

It has a roll rate of 150 degrees per second,

so if you need to duck, dive, or disappear,

this buggy will do it before your brain can think it up.

We could crash this aircraft at 20 G's and survive,

but I am not gonna prove it to you.

Darn!

You got missiles on this thing that can take out a door at 5 miles without knocking.

But in air-to-air combat, your best weapon is agility,

and this gunship is agile, mobile, and hostile.

That was great.

- How's the ride up there, Preston? - Unreal!

Good!

God!

Ordinarily what we'll do is hide in a hole and cause things that are far away to blow up.

Your new trick is to move like a thief, keep you nose down,

then come out of nowhere,

and blow your enemy to pieces.

Sound like fun?

- Yeah. - Good.

- Sir... - Yeah?

That was totally cool.

I'd marry that thing.

You're as good a pilot as they say you are, I'll give away the bride. Buzzard!

I want you to meet Jake Preston. He's part of the Apache task force.

This is Scott Buzz, my chief scout IP,

and Billie Guthrie, his co-pilot.

Billie Lee Guthrie.

I think I've heard of you.

How you doing?

I do fine.

How about a drink this evening?

Jake, not a chance.

"Not a chance."

- How much flight time did you log, Buzzard? - 2.3.

- What? - 2.3, sir!

2.3.

You have a problem with women in the army, Preston?

Not with all of them, sir.

Just that one.

I'll see you at 0700.

The cartel has made the decision to go on the offensive

and expand their operation into neighboring countries.

They've brought in Cuban arms, Cuban advisory team,

and they've hired this man, Eric Stoller,

a crack helicopter attack pilot and international mercenary,

to ride shotgun on their missions.

He received his terrorist training in Europe and North Korea.

Now he sells his expertise to the highest bidder.