Hang Me Out to Dry

In the Air

Maverick stood in front of the room holding up the F-18 handbook for everyone to see. 

"This book contains everything they want you to know about your aircraft," he said indicating Cyclone and Warlock on the side of the room. "I'm assuming you know this inside and out by now?"  

Everyone agreed in their own way, Sadie herself simply nodded from her seat flipping the book open ready for a long morning of theory. She watched in shock as he held his hand over the garbage can, letting the manual drop. This was going to be a lot more interesting than she thought. 

"Forget this. Your enemy knows it just as well as you. What they don't know is your limits. I intend to test them and push you beyond what you thought you were capable of. So, today, we will start with what you think you know. Get ready to show me what you're made of." 

Sadie looked to Fanboy who shared the same grin that she did. She was ready.

"Rooster, Payback, and Fanboy you're up first. Casper, Fritz, and Halo you're on deck." 

Sadie stood on the tarmac running through her pre-flight checklist as she waited for the first group to be done.  She got the signal to prep for take off so she climbed up, hopping into her jet. Settling in to the enclosed space, she grabbed her lucky ghost keychain and set it on the display in front of her. This had been a gift from her wingman in Top Gun when they graduated and now she never flew without it. 

Flipping her radio on she received the go ahead to taxi out. The jet engines roared to life causing the whole jet to shake slightly, despite this, Sadie's hands remained steady as she drove. The rushing of the ground outside of the jet never failed to thrill Sadie. Even after all these years she still loved flying. Once she entered the training airspace she maintained a steady cruising speed as she waited for Fritz and Halo to set up. 

"Hello aviators, today's exercise is dogfighting. Guns only, no missiles, and no one go below the hard deck of 5000ft. You would have missed this being on the tarmac during the first round but your teammates made a little wager for you all. First to be shot down does 200 push-ups. Any issues?"

"Sir, don't tell me this was Fanboy's dumb idea," Sadie asked over the radio.

"Actually you have Payback to blame for this one." 

"Great," Sadie mumbled to herself. Then looking to her left to see Fritz and Halo she spoke to them. 

"Let's do this. I'm not looking to do pushups today." 

"Let's turn and burn," Maverick's voice came over the radio, signalling the start of the exercise. 

"Fritz, stay close on my tail. Halo, keep me updated on the radar." 

"Nothing so far Casper," Halo called back. "Wait, bogey approaching from the South. Look out, look out. Veer left." 

Sadie and Fritz both pulled into a tight turn to the left trying to situate themselves into a good position to take out Maverick. 

"Casper, follow me. We'll come around behind him and chase him down." 

"No, keep on my tail Fritz. Get ready to decelerate on my mark. Ready, and now!" she yelled as her plane seemed to halt in mid-air while Maverick flew by them. Fritz followed along meaning they were now behind Maverick, now the hunters instead of the hunted. 

Fritz pulled up until he was flying side by side with Sadie. He looked over at Sadie, using hand signals to indicate that he was going to move to cut Maverick off setting her up for a take down shot. She tried to signal back for him to stay but he had already pulled off. Splitting up backfired because Maverick anticipated their moves, separating them and suddenly tailing after Sadie.

"Fritz I need a hand where are you?" she yelled, but spotted him still a ways out. She took a deep breath in and sped up, moving into a corkscrew trying to keep Maverick from locking on to her. If she could just hold out for a bit longer then Fritz would be able to get a shot in. Their run was cut short when she heard the sharp tone signalling that she had been shot down. Fritz showed a second too late shooting Maverick after he had already taken out Sadie. She groaned at the thought of the push-ups waiting for her.

Her arms shook as she lowered her body slowly to the ground only to push them to raise her back up again. Hondo stood above her counting out as she moved but she had long since blocked him out. If she could focus her mind on counting the number of stones beneath her nose every time she got closer to the ground, she could almost ignore the pain in her muscles. 

"Ok Casper that's 200, you're done." 

She immediately rolled over onto her back, taking a moment to lie there, enjoying the feeling slowly returning to her hands. Approaching from the hangar was Phoenix, Bob, and Hangman. They must have just finished their run through. Sadie scanned their faces trying to determine who had been shot down first seeing that both Bob and Phoenix looked pissed, while Hangman looked as smug as ever. Hangman probably wasn't doing pushups.

Phoenix and Bob got down onto the ground next to her, verifying her theory. As he passed, Hangman winked down at Sadie to where she still laid on the ground. Bob glared at his receding back and Hondo got ready to start his countdown again. Sadie looked over, raising an eyebrow wondering what happened. 

"Fucker hung us out to dry. Offered us up on a silver platter to be shot down," Phoenix said.   "Guy only worries about himself."