The Black Hawk successfully took off, and everyone inside let out a sigh of relief. The most dangerous part was over, and their retreat was already halfway successful.
"Thunderbird has received the package, preparing to return..."
The two Black Hawks didn't linger. After the pilots reported to the Nest, they immediately prepared to return. Their mission was to extract the Unicorn, not to eliminate all enemies. Besides, the bandits below had been almost completely decimated. Even if some were still resisting, they posed no threat to the helicopters.
"Roger that, Nest out. Good luck."
In CTU, Janet and Jack Bauer watched the entire operation unfold, each secretly sweating for the rapid response team. Fortunately, Thunderbird had arrived in time.
In the sky, the two Black Hawks began flying away from the battlefield side by side. Just as the people onboard were beginning to rejoice, the cabin suddenly rang with a "beep beep beep" alarm.
"Warning, we've been locked on..."
The pilot of Little Bird One shouted, and the cabin's atmosphere instantly became tense.
The pilot kept a close eye on the aircraft's display screen, while Steve Owen looked down from the open door. He soon saw two streaks of fire shoot out from the enemy camp below.
That definitely wasn't RPGs. RPGs leave white smoke; these were streaks of fire. Owen had a hunch—what was coming at them wasn't RPGs, but surface-to-air missiles.
On the ground, Mikhail and one of his bodyguards dropped the empty launchers in their hands. They had taken a serious beating earlier. What had seemed like a sure win turned into near annihilation in an instant. His men were mostly dead or wounded. If not for sheer luck, Mikhail himself would've been torn in half by that earlier barrage.
He did have high-grade weapons like surface-to-air missiles, even on the vehicle itself, but his convoy had taken the brunt of the attack. His men hadn't even made it to the vehicle before being turned into mincemeat.
Only after the helicopters started leaving did he manage to get to the missile launcher and fire before they were out of range.
In the sky, the two missiles, trailing long plumes, sped toward the Black Hawks. Inside the helicopters, the pilots stared unblinking at the warning screen, where alerts were flashing more and more rapidly.
Two hundred meters, one hundred fifty meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters...
"Deploy flares..."
Bang bang—an eruption of sounds. Under the pilot's control, Little Bird One released its flares. A string of high-temperature red flares scattered down, drawing the incoming missiles, which collided with them and exploded in bursts of fire.
It had been a hair-trigger situation, but they had successfully deceived the missiles. Owen breathed a sigh of relief, though in his heart he cursed Mikhail endlessly. This bastard seemed to have everything—not just conventional weapons, but even surface-to-air missiles that cost tens of thousands of dollars each. And he had two of them!
That resentment lasted only a moment before it was interrupted by the urgent voice of Number Two.
"Report, Little Bird Two failed to deploy flares. Repeat, flare deployment failed. Damn it, that earlier RPG must have damaged my launch system..."
The situation turned dire. Everyone in the rapid response team looked out the cabin. Not far away, in midair, the Black Hawk codenamed Little Bird Two hadn't released any flares, just as the pilot had said—the RPG earlier had probably damaged their flare launch system.
But that thought lasted only a second. In the next instant, a streak of fire hurtled toward Little Bird Two at nearly visible speed. The pilot barely managed an evasive maneuver before the missile struck, exploding into a fireball.
A loud boom followed. Owen saw with his own eyes the missile hit Little Bird Two's tail rotor. The aircraft lost control and began spiraling like a headless fly.
"Report, Little Bird Two has lost control. Little Bird Two has lost control..."
The pilot shouted. Owen actually found himself admiring him—for staying so calm and composed under such circumstances.
In the sky, smoke poured from Little Bird Two's tail. With the rotor damaged, the helicopter spun out of control and began veering toward them.
"Shit—"
It was the first time Owen had ever heard the pilot curse. Little Bird Two was barreling at them like a headless fly. The pilot of Little Bird One frantically maneuvered to evade, but it was too fast. In a flash, Little Bird Two collided with them. Both helicopters began spiraling downward.
Owen felt the world spin around him. Instinctively, he gripped the handrail inside the cabin as tightly as he could. They were falling, and up ahead seemed to be a village.
The helicopter stalled. The "beep beep beep" of alarms was nonstop. He could hear the pilot shouting, but the words were garbled. All Owen knew was that they were falling, and all he could do was hold on.
In the air, the two helicopters collided again. Rotor blades snapped. Little Bird One's tail was sheared off by Two's blades. Things went from bad to worse. With its forward momentum turned into a free fall, it plummeted downward.
The world spun wildly. Owen, flung around inside the cabin like he was weightless, slammed into the walls. He hadn't fastened his seatbelt. The enormous inertia of the impact finally threw him out.
Below, the roof of a building loomed. Owen had no time to think. His body hit the roof hard, and his mind went blank—pain, nothing else.
At the same time, the two helicopters, tangled together, slammed onto a rooftop. After a brief slide, the wreckage of Little Bird One was wedged into the structure and stopped. Little Bird Two, however, slid down the slanted roof and exploded into a fiery ball.
They had landed in a small mountain village. Little Bird One happened to crash on the two-story building at the highest point. The helicopter was severely damaged, but luckily hadn't caught fire.
Dazed, Ghost groggily opened his eyes. His first feeling was searing pain in his shoulder. He unclipped his safety belt—looks like that had saved his life.
His mind slowly cleared. Ghost looked around. Everyone was there—except Owen. He went around waking the others. Thankfully, the rapid response team hadn't suffered serious injuries, aside from some bruises from the seatbelts and general dizziness. The pilot and the machine gunner weren't so lucky. The pilot had been killed by debris that pierced through the cockpit. The gunner, despite being belted in, had his neck broken from the impact.
The team stumbled out of the wreckage and quickly spotted Owen lying not far away.
...
Owen faintly felt someone calling him. The voice grew clearer and clearer until his consciousness returned. He groggily opened his eyes to see his teammates gathered around him, with gunfire echoing nearby.
What the hell happened? Owen shook his head, and then the memories came rushing back. He finally pieced it all together.
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Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 677)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 1059)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1418)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1422)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1452)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1504)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld!(Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 703)
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