Episode list

Wayward orphan knave Rutger de Man dodges another juvenile parole sentence by volunteering to join the Royal Ducth Military Academy (KMA), air force section. A silly drag race dare got him on a bad footing with his platoon class corporal even before arrival. Ironically, top general Roderick Walema's son Guus gets into worse trouble, on 'suicide,watch' after a misunderstood booty call, with Ruther as assigned minder, while the class corporal plots their elimination, but the brass decides. After the arrest of Serbian separatist general Branko Titov during a restaurant interview, the Dutch minister of defense and his generals worry about rising tension with Russia.

Guus's class completes their general Royal Military Academy (KMA) training, despite Rutger's trigger-happy failure for the whole team in a combat situation. They are admitted to the pilot training on air base Woensdrecht, under civilian instructors, notably failed cadet Erik Groenmans. Russian fighters test NATO alertness by invading even Dutch air space, a it happens just on the day Rutger despairs passing the gravity vomit simulator test and 'steals' first and his possibly last flight as Guus's wing-man, then ignores commands to return but manages to scare off the bear in the air. Branco Titov starts his International Criminal Court trial in the Hague, pleading the only 'real war' is against Muslims. Journalist Julia Hofstee is assigned to research the case's background, and focuses on Rutger, whose criminal past may spell big trouble.

Rutger's illicit stunt to chase the Russians gets him summoned to court martial, but his general kin gets him off and once the politicians decide to award him the highest air force decoration, he's 'untouchable'. The promoted class starts their F-16 training on a US air base in Tucson, Arizona, instructed by the legendary Dutch pilot Derek 'Lucky' Lanshof, who preaches the outspoken culture of speaking up among all ranks. Rutger starts commiserating with his rival, slowest-learning classmate Dennis, who looses his self-confidence and can't cope with his aptly mates-chosen nickname stutterer, leading to a diabolical drinking contest, followed by a rib-injuring accident which he swears Rutger to silence about, only to get into trouble in the air. Gus -about his late hero brother- and even Lucky confide their fatal traumas.

Although officially expected to just wait at the base, Rutger and mates Guus and Leyla set out to search for Denis's crashed fighter in the vast surrounding Arizona desert.,Past a huge wrecked US military airplanes graveyard with a reserve section which makes Guus feel small countries are irrelevant besides superpowers, even within NATO, they head for the huge canyons. After spending the night in an abandoned bar, they are awoken -a moment at gunpoint- but its veteran publican, who serves them he disgusting shots fitting the legend of crashed US pilot Jeremiah Weed. While they find Dennis, back home reporter Julia Hofstee contacts Rutger's estranged sister Melanie, who betrays the secret he never even disclosed to Gus, and his protector.

The team is repatriated from Arizoan to attend crashed Dennis's funeral. Rutger planned some time off alone, but Guus' father, general Roderick Walema, Commander of the Dutch Armed Forces, takes them all to a champagne reception on the fancy family estate, where daughter Paula flirts with Ruther but Guus can barely control his bitter memories, always having been in the shadow of his domineering father and late brother. Rutger panics when journalist Julia Hofstee calls to ask his view on the dark family past, having interviewed his estranged sister Melanie de Man. Roderick promises to help Rutger, too prominent to dump after his high decoration, and has Rutger, Guus and Leyla returned to the USAF training base in Tucson, Arizona.

The pilots class is ready for graduation at the Arizona air base and early assignments, as Dutch operations in Syria must be resumed soon. General Roderick Walema tells instructor Derek 'Lucky' Lanshof to exclude Leyla, whose Turkish family fled Istanbul when her father, a colonel, refused to partake in Erdogan's counter-coup repression. Rutger threats to resign unless she graduates too, after which the general withdraws his opposition to the press exposing Rutger's parricidal past and unqualified stunt with the MiGs. Guus and Rutger are still assigned to fly F-16 fighters in Syria, Leyla gets a transport helicopter.

At the international The Hague court, Serbian war criminal Branco Titov is diagnosed mystery-ill halting his trial, but scarily well-informed about the Russian beef with NATO. The Netherlands participate in the latest NATO intervention in civil war-torn Syria against IS. Rutger and Guus are among the pilots on base Hamilton, where Guus is about to crack mentally into stoic carelessness, ignoring missile alerts but cashing in on such wagers. Rutger is tired of being 'poster boy' rather then active F-16 pilot, but they also fly mission together. When surprised in the normally safe 'green zone' by a heat seeking missile, Rutger only survives by a daring move from Guus, who gets hit himself and crashes but escapes by ejector seat. He is reported missing, likely dead, but from trough the desert reaches a villager where he bribes kids to be driven to the Turkish border, while Rutger is repatriated and stays at Roderick Walema's home, resuming his hot fling with Guus's sister Paula.

In Syria, the search for Guus seems pointless after weeks without results. In fact he was captured and is torture-questioned by Jihadist rebels under Russian control but refuses even to give his name. After Leyla's Turkish contact informs them its' a Dutch general's son, a deal is offered, acceptable to the Dutch government: a prisoner exchange with Serbian war criminal Branco Titov, who seems sick enough to qualify for a humanitarian release anyhow. Rutger is reluctantly excluded from foreign missions, being the 'poster boy', assigned to command a northern air base and do some flights in the NATo air space patrols. As such he is ordered by chief of defense staff Roderick Walema, who obsessively refuses his second son -having lost Maarten executed by the Taliban- to benefit from an exception of the principal refusal of negotiations with terrorists, to threaten the Russian plane picking up Titov in the air. The Syrian teams stands by to repatriate Guus is Ruud puts loyalty first, but the Russians have their own secret plans for Titov and Ruud is the brass's scapegoat.