This story is a sequel to my Story Direwolf.
Allen saw David getting out of his third generation Chevrolet Corvette. Allen had found it interesting that the man who designed, built, and maintained some of the most advanced systems he had ever seen maintained and drove the most obsolete car he had seen on the road in years. As they walked to the entrance of the main building Allen said "Is it still carbureted?" David replied "It's as close to how it came from the factory as it can be without being numbers matching. It still has a carb, points, and a manual transmission with a cable clutch. It even has stock heads, cam, and intake along with the original gear ratio in the differential. For a seventy one it's not unusual that it doesn't have Air conditioning being a convertible." Allen laughed and asked "Why drive it? I know you can afford a something a lot more modern. I saw your financials when I was deciding to keep you on my team." David shook his head and said "I have a two year old Ford truck too, you know that as well I assume. The thing is modern vehicles don't have a soul. It's kinda like Airwolf, when you fly her you can tell she's alive in a way. The same goes for my Vette, it's alive when you drive it." Allen considered it and asked "Did you restore it yourself or have someone do it for you?" David replied "I bought it from a used car dealer who took it in on trade. He had it two days when it started knocking. I bought it cheap, pulled the engine and discovered the conversion to stuff a hopped up 454 into it was done poorly. I hunted down an engine from another seventy one Vette, that was totaled a few years after it had been built. I rebuilt the engine and got a close ratio Muncie four speed tranny like mine came with to replace the turbo four hundred that had been stuffed into it with the big block. I payed to have the paint and body work done. But most of the work restoring it I did myself." Allen asked "Sounds like you enjoyed it." David replied "I did." Allen then asked "How would you feel about restoring something else, maybe an old truck or something with more room and a bit safer on the road." David said "I know where there is a sixty seven Ford F-100, if you want it I'll gladly help you restore it. I also know where there's a fifty eight Chevrolet Apache if you prefer a GM product." Allen simply said "Let me think about it. Right now I think you and Addie are scheduled to pre-flight Airwolf."
Inside the office building Allen found Gabriel who said "I can't stick around, but I've assigned Nora to assist you. She's in room sixteen with your friend, she already has him going over the NDAs and everything." Allen said "Sounds good, something I need to be aware of?" Gabriel shook his head and said "Not unless you want to take my place and deal with bureaucracy." Allen smiled as he said "I might live dangerously, but I am not suicidal. Go have fun pushing papers and trying to stay awake at meetings." Gabriel laughed and said "In that case I will do my best to find a situation where you will need my assistance on an Airwolf mission." Allen chuckled as he made his way to room sixteen, pausing briefly before knocking and entering the room.
Nora, who Allen had not met before asked "I presume you are Mr. Hawke?" Samuel Hansen, better known as Sam, looked at him and "Allen Hawke! Things must be pretty serious if the brought both of us in on this, what ever it is." Allen laughed and said "Nothing serious right now, and lets hope it stays that way. You already sign everything?" Sam replied "Not yet, Opsec is pretty tight on whatever is going on based on everything I am reading in this packet and now I discover you are part of it." Allen said "We can't tell you a thing until everything is signed. Go ahead and do it, you won't regret it but I don't plan to tell you anything until you see it. Besides, what else are you going to do fly a NYPD chopper around and look for some guy running around in a t-shirt with a skull logo on it?" Sam looked at Allen quizzically and signed the different pages of the NDA before asking "Now what?" Allen said "Now we go for a ride."
Out at the helipad an Airbus H175 sat running and Nora led Allen and Sam to the passenger compartment. Once in the air Sam said "8 seat passenger configuration, with the center two seats removed. Kinda of an odd configuration." Allen replied "As much as you love odd things, you simply must wait." When the Airbus arrived at Red Star, Allen led Sam inside the command Bunker while Nora pacified security with Sam's temporary clearance as their transportation lifted off and returned to head quarters. Allen then explained "Part of your job now is to be a liaison officer between the company and the NYPD. I understand there are classified materials from NYPD that you can not share with us and there will be classified materials from us that you can not share with the NYPD. What you are about to see is one of those. The company might appear to be a private intelligence contractor on paper, in reality it exists in a grey area of law as it is entirely owned by a number of government agencies, some of which do not officially exist. The company was originally a government agency of it's own until the mid eighties, during that time they developed a prototype called Airwolf. Airwolf is classified so high that your police commissioner can't even be made aware of it. Ironically, Airwolf itself is now privately owned and for lack of a better term it is leased to the company. Your about to see it flown by it's Bravo team engineer with it's Alpha team engineer at the engineer's station. When it's modern counterpart enters production, NYPD will be slated to receive a down rated version." Sam asked "What exactly is an Airwolf?" Allen laughed and said "According to my mother Airwolf is the reason she met my father. Sometime I'll tell you the story but what you need to know is the aircraft you are about to see is the original prototype, Direwolf was the most recent and was destroyed to prevent it from being turned over to a hostile power by it's test crew. My understanding is that the next prototype will be built to nearly identical specs. As for what Airwolf is, and by extension Direwolf, all I can say is watch."
Allen turned his attention to one of the people in the control center and asked "Is Airwolf ready?" The young woman replied "Yes sir." Allen said "Let them know it's time to see if all that training paid off." Allen then pointed to the windows and said "Let's watch the show." As they watched they could hear the woman speak into her radio as she said "Airwolf you have a go. This scenario has you supporting the insertion of a strike team into a hostile compound. The compound consists of six buildings, fifteen anti-air emplacements, two attack helicopters on the ground, and two attack helicopters providing CAP. Of the buildings two need to be destroyed. They will be marked in red on your HUD. One building will be marked yellow on your HUD and contains hostages. The remaining three buildings contain classified components that can not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. The AA emplacements consists of three DShKs, three ZSU-23-4 Shilkas, there are five S-300 missile launchers with an unknown radar control unit, the remaining four AA systems consist of old Bofors 40MM guns. All these systems are remote controlled and are active. The command center for the AA system is located in the building with the hostages and can not be targeted for any reason. You will need to ensure the site is secure for the strike team who are already en route onboard four UH-60 Black Hawks. Be advised this is a live fire exercise." As the young woman briefed the Airwolf team a larger monitor over the windows displayed the information being sent to Airwolf. Sam looked at Allen and said "I recognize that compound, we are in the building listed as having the AA control center and hostages. The buildings needing to be destroyed are on either side of us." Allen smiled and said "Yep, as long as Airwolf doesn't miss we'll be just fine." Sam asked "What happens if they miss?" Allen replied "Things get messy, and my sister inherits Airwolf. If you look to the left you can see the data from Airwolf's flight systems. Essentially you can see speed, weapon status, and sensor returns."
Elsewhere Michael was in a conference room with Marella, Gabriel, and a third man. Michael was looking over a folder and addressed the others "This looks like a good plan. Marella do you have any concerns?" Marella said "Only that by having two development teams we are doubling our risk of compromise." Gabriel said "I understand your concern, however that is addressed by the fact we are actually splitting the development team into three separate units. The unit that handles hardware design and software development will remain here at Knightsbridge, and report directly to you. The teams that Raphael and myself are leading will simply be tasked with implementing the designs into our respective air frames and testing them. Only the people in this room will be aware that there are two separate build teams and two prototypes. We will recruit two sets of test pilots as well. They will also remain in the dark about the other team." The other man, Raphael, added "We will also keep the Airwolf team in the dark about the extent of the development and testing for the new prototypes. As far as they are concerned there is only one prototype being developed. If we need to conduct hardware testing using Airwolf we will simply make the alterations at Red Star. Airwolf's own crew will install and conduct the tests of the equipment. Everyone involved will be made aware that they do not get to interact with anyone outside of their team for security reasons." Marella commented "David will not be happy that he is not involved in the development process." Michael replied "True, but he will understand that it is for his and the Airwolf Team's protection. Additionally it will allow us to keep the development teams from knowing that Airwolf is working for us. In fact I want all the Direwolf wreckage taken to Red Star, and setup in the development hanger. Make sure it looks like we set up the wreckage to look like we are using it redevelop Direwolf. Make sure each team is given a tour of the facility and have something from the wreckage being compared to a working version when the build teams visit. As they leave send the 'acceptable' component back with them to integrate into their prototype. Do the same for the Airwolf team, but with an upgrade for them." Marella looked at Michael and asked "Are you sure this plan is wise? Allen is too much like his father, and now that he legally owns Airwolf we should avoid antagonizing him." Michael simply said "The worst that can happen is he takes Airwolf and refuses to cooperate. Besides, he has a need to serve his country and we ensured that he has to come to us by helping him separate from the Army." Gabriel then asked "So who interfaces with the Airwolf team?" Marella looked at him and said "You and I, or our aides, but we keep the Airwolf team in the dark about Raphael."
In Airwolf Addie was in the zone as she lifted off, and received her briefing. She was surprised when she saw the compound diagram and realized it was a live fire exercise with Red Star control at it's center. Addie asked David "You ready?" David replied "I am and more importantly, so is Airwolf." "Combat mode," Addie said, and once the weapons were deployed she simply said "Turbos." Airwolf quickly hit mach 1.4 as Addie began terrain following, unknown to her she was following almost the same exact path that Moffett had used in his attack run prior to stealing Airwolf. Unlike Moffet Addie was flying Airwolf to prove she and David could operate as a team. As Airwolf approached the compound Addie didn't slow down but instead blew past it and circled back. Using the sensor data from their first pass David programmed an air to surface missile strike for their second pass. As they broke cover on their second pass Airwolf cut loose with seven missiles. One for each of the missile launchers and one for each building that had to be destroyed. As soon as all three missiles were launched Airwolf pulled up into a vertical climb and performed a hammer head stall. On it's way back to the ground Addie fired rockets destroying the DShKs and ZSU 23-4 Shilkas. Next Addie hit the two helicopters on the ground with her guns destroying them. The camouflaged Bofors were a bit more trouble to pick out at speed but in the dive Airwolf's sensors found them and Addie dispatched each with a rocket each. Finally Airwolf found the two drone helicopters and dispatched them with side winders. With everything that needed killing destroyed, Airwolf orbited the site for three minutes before the Black Hawks showed up and disgorged the strike team which made a point of securing the site as they conducted their own training exercise. When they were cleared to leave, Airwolf returned to company headquarters.
Addie and David helped rearm and refuel Airwolf in addition to supervising the process. David asked "How do you think we did?" Addie replied "From where I was sitting it looked like everything was on target. I think we just bested Alex and my score." David replied "That was an entirely different scenario, and an easier one in my opinion. Go in, destroy everything, and get out. You two scored nine ninety four out of a thousand on it too." Addie replied "I know, and I think we got a perfect score. Even if we didn't I won't accept anything less than a nine ninety eight." David replied "Allen is the only person to score perfect on a live fire exercise, and even then he was flying solo." Addie replied "I know, and I think we matched it." David watched as the last of the guns was reloaded and said "I guess it's time for you to take her back to the Lair." Addie replied "Not exactly. It's time for us to go to the lair. I need to leave for Texas and Airwolf is needed to train this new co-pilot that Allen is recruiting." David replied "I don't have access to the lair." Addie smiled and said "Actually you do, and I'm supposed to show you around. Let's get going."