Head in the Clouds

Out of Line

"Time is your greatest enemy. Phase one of the mission will be a low level attack with two teams," Maverick started the morning with a visual presentation depicting the uranium mine that they would be targeting. With the click of a button, the screen suddenly flashed to a view of the canyon. "You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar guided SAMs defend the area, and they are lethal. But, they were designed to protect the sky above, not the canyon below."

 "No one is insane enough to try and fly below," Rooster spoke up. The whole team looked back and forth between him and their instructor. 

"That's what I'm here to teach you how to do. Day of your altitude will remain below 100 feet but I'm going to take it easy on you today. Max altitude will be 300 feet." The whole team was silent as they processed the information. To make matters worse, he continued. "Your air speed will be  660 knots, minimum. Time to target is 2 and a half minutes. This is because at a nearby airbase wait 5th generation fighters. In  a dogfight against these planes you lose. This makes time your greatest enemy. Now suit up. I'm giving you 3 minutes today."

 For days the pilots ran the course, and for days they failed to succeed. With each day of failures, Maverick sat the group down, forcing them to watch as their simulated selves crashed time and time again. 

"Why are they dead?" he asked the pilots after rewatching Phoenix, Bob, Coyote, and Yale attempt the course. 

"We broke the 300 foot ceiling, SAMs took out our aircraft," Phoenix stated. Maverick stepped to stand in front of Coyote looking him dead in the eye. 

"No. Why are they dead."

Coyote's eyes refused to meet Maverick's. 

"I slowed down and didn't give a warning. It was my fault."

"And why didn't you communicate with your team?" Maverick demanded. When Coyote opened his mouth to speak, Maverick cut him off. "One that their family will accept at the funeral." Coyote kept his mouth shut so Maverick turned to focus in on Phoenix instead.

"And you. Why didn't you anticipate the turn?" Phoenix stuttered, trying to get something out but was cut off as well. "Don't tell me. Tell his family." 

Next to her, Bob looked apologetic as Phoenix get reamed out by the captain. Maverick was taking no prisoners today. No one was safe. Wren was nervous for their practise run coming up next. 

"What happened?" Maverick demanded as the simulation showed Payback and Fanboy's plane crash into the so called canyon wall. Next to Wren, Hangman looked especially proud of himself. 

"I flew kind of like my life depended on it." Wren found that even she was annoyed by his constant fiddling with his toothpick at the moment. From across the aisle Rooster has clearly had enough of him. 

"And you lead your wingman to his death in the process." 

Wren felt ashamed as she heard her voice over the recording ignoring Payback's call to slow down, instead urging Hangman to keep on course, hoping that they would be the first to finish the trail. Hangman on the other hand felt no shame. He simply shrugged.

"They couldn't keep up."

Maverick zeroed in on Rooster, flipping the screen to show Rooster's run. 

"And you, why are you dead?"

The anger between the two was undeniable and the entire team was worried that the two might go at each other any second. Phoenix tried to break the tension by chiming in.

"Sir, he's the only one who made it to the target."

"A minute late. That gave the enemy time to shoot him down. He's dead." Maverick was relentless.

"You don't know that," Rooster challenged.

Hangman, never one to miss an opportunity to take a dig at someone put in his two cents.

"You're not flying fast enough," he said punctuating every word. Rooster turned to face Hangman and Wren was shocked to see the intensity in his eyes. The team watched as the conversation volleyed back and forth between Rooster and Maverick, until it quickly ended.

"It's not the plane it's the pilot."

"Exactly."

The air was sucked out of the room and Maverick's statement settled in the room. Wren thought that Maverick had gone too far, stating openly that he didn't believe in Rooster. In his position, Wren was sure she would have walked away, but Rooster instead faced the older man, refusing to back down.

"There is more than one way to fly this mission." 

Next to her Wren felt Hangman get up from his seat. She reached out to stop him, sure that nothing good was about to come from this but he pulled out of her grasps easily.

"You really don't get it. On a mission like this, a man either fly like Maverick here, or a man doesn't come home." He turned to face Phoenix. "No offence." 

"And yet, somehow, you always manage," Bob said. Ignoring Bob, Hangman continued, turning and directing his speech to the entire team, but still talking to Rooster. 

"This isn't a criticism. You're conservative, that's all. We're heading into a combat that no one has ever seen, not even him," Hangman said indicating the captain. "There's no time to be thinking of the past."

Wren sucked in air sharply. Surely Hangman wouldn't stoop so low. She had been with Hangman when he discovered the picture of Maverick's top gun class and the pair had determined what happened to Rooster's father.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Rooster asked tensing up as he rose from his seat. Wren's faith in Hangman was wrong.

"I know I'm not the only one who knows Maverick used to fly with his old man. Atlas and I discovered that he was even flying when his old man..." 

Before Hangman could finish his statement, Rooster sprung forward showing the other man backwards. With the speed of highly trained pilots, the entire room was up from their chairs pulling the two men apart. The struggle died down and Hangman once again pushed himself front and centre. 

"He's not cut out for this mission, and you know it." This last statement was directed to Maverick. 

"Everyone out. You're dismissed." 

The roomed cleared as everyone dispersed. No one knew what to say.