In the skies above the Black Sea north of Turkey, a fleet of F-22 Raptors fly routine maneuvers during a NATO training exercise when disaster strikes. The US Air Force pilot ditches the disabled fighter jet on the coast of Russian-occupied Georgia. The injured pilot radios for help from the only team that can rescue him.

Sergeant Jason Mulder, pararescueman and element leader of the Air Force Guardian Angel squad scrambles the team to save him. Mulder’s mission, with dangerously high tensions between Russia and the United States, is to retrieve the downed pilot and destroy the F-22 without escalating matters between the two former cold war enemies.

The mission starts well, but Russian Ground Forces arrive and they move in to kill the pilot and the rescue squad sent for him. It’s Mulder’s job to ensure that that doesn’t happen, but a gunfight erupts and the success of the mission is in jeopardy.

Can the Guardian Angel team recover the downed US Pilot without starting World War III?

"Raptor Down"

by Robert Goluba