It’s 2003, and Iran plans to decimate an American air base using vastly improved missiles and chemical weapons. This thrusts Victoria, a novice American F-16 fighter pilot, to overcome critical personal and professional failures and launch into the dogfight of her life against Iran’s ace, a legendary F-14 fighter pilot.

SYNOPSIS:

VICTORIA “SHIRLEY” MACMILLAN, 25, flies an F-16 simulator during a training mission. But once the simulated fight begins, she shoots down her instructor, mistaking him for a low-flying enemy striker. This becomes the genesis of her hated call sign, “Shirley.” She must also live down the perception that her father, a major general, got her the highly-coveted fighter pilot slot.

CHRISTOPHER GRAY, 26, is an enlisted aircraft maintainer in the 55th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, supporting the “Shooters,” a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. He is an influential leader, backed by his jokester best friend SMITTY, 26.

Victoria becomes permanently assigned to the Shooters and meets two other F-16 fighter pilots, MUSSELS, male, 32, and LAMB, female, 30. Lamb becomes her good friend and shows her how to navigate the macho, male-dominated profession of the fighter pilot. Lamb tells her, “I quickly realized that I didn’t have to be a man to be a bad ass.”

Victoria and Chris have a chance meeting on the flight line, and, against better judgment, begin dating. They know an officer-enlisted romance is off-limits, against Air Force regulations.

But they continue, and share a whirlwind romance before being discovered. Her commander gives her an ultimatum: break up with him or lose her pilot wings. She chooses her wings.

In the meantime, Iran is working on a new technology that vastly improves their “Phoenix” air-to-air missile system. They aim to attack U.S. Forces embroiled in the ongoing 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iran wants to finish its “Imposed War” with Iraq from the 1980s, once and for all.

MOEIN "MAD DOG" MAHMOUDI, 53, is the commander of the Iranian fighter squadron, flying the F-14 Tomcat. He is Iran’s greatest fighter pilot, a legendary ace from the Imposed War. It is up to him to lead his men into combat against the Americans.

But he has second thoughts after a new wrinkle is introduced to his attack plan: a lone aircraft, laden with chemical bombs, plans to lay waste to the American air base and everyone in it.

To compound matters, a rogue Iranian F-14 pilot shoots down an American F-16 over Iraq, killing its pilot. The dead pilot turns out to be Victoria’s best friend from flight school.

This brings Victoria to the low point of her life. Not only must she endure her hated call sign, the perception that her father got her the job, and the forced breakup, but now her friend is dead.

Victoria’s squadron is called to action, where she has the chance to make everything right. But before going to war, a countermeasure needs to be fielded against Iran’s new weapon.

In step Chris and Smitty. They, along with the other aircraft maintainers of the Shooters, ready their F-16s for war through long hours of preparation. Without the countermeasures they provide, none of the Shooters will survive the fight to come. Even fighter pilots need heroes!

Victoria must face her fears and overcome everything that has been stacked against her. What follows is an exhilarating aerial duel between twenty-four American F-16 Vipers against an overwhelming number of Iranian F-14 Tomcats.

The tension builds as the low-flying striker aircraft nears the base, while the action above it is exciting, fast and dangerous. Fighter jets rush across the sky at each other like warriors on a medieval battlefield. Ultimately, Victoria succeeds! She saves the day and gets her man, to boot.