Copilot~ Rooster (Top Gun: Maverick FanFic)

chapter 5

May 8th

We all got to our classroom and sat in our seats. Maverick comes walking up between the desks and stands at his podium.

"Time is your biggest enemy," he starts. There's a simulation on the monitor behind him. "Phase 1 of the mission will be a low level attack with two teams. You'll fly through the narrow canyon to get to the target. Enemies radars pick up what's in the air, not the canyon." he continues.

He's got to be joking. I look at Reaper, us basically reading each others minds and thinking the same thing. "That's because the enemy knows nobody's stupid enough to fly that low." Rooster speaks up.

"That's exactly what I'm going to be training you to do. Your altitude for this mission should be 100 feet maximum. Today, for training your altitude will be 300 feet. If you go above that altitude, the radars will see you and shoot you down. Your speed will be 660 knots, minimum." Mavericks says.

"Your time is two and a half minutes, the fifth gen fighters will be waiting at a nearby airbase. A head to head with these fighters in your F-18s, you'll be dead. You get in, hit your target, and get out." He continues to explain the mission. Us all looking around at each other.

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Me and Reaper are in the air with Coyote, Bob, and Phoenix. We're flying up to the canyon. We finally enter it and we're weaving through the narrow path and sharp turns. But we're not going fast enough.

"Rebel we need to go faster. We're 2 seconds behind time." Reaper says to me on our private channel. That's when Bob starts talking. "Time to target is a minute and 30 seconds. Two seconds behind. Increase to 490 knots."

We increase. "Cmon Coyote. We gotta pick it up or we're not making it." Phoenix says increasing speed, I copy. "Increasing now." he responds.

Me and Phoenix had increased speed and flew over him so we didn't hit him. "Shit. We went into the missile range. We're dead."

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We had all taken turns going up, all unsuccessful. After we all went through the training and none of completed it, we return to the classroom.

He stands in front of the tv screen with our test flight on it. "Why are they dead" he asks looking at Phoenix. The screen showed our planes fly up above the missile range. "The SAMs took us out." she responds. "We broke the 300 foot ceiling." I add to her answer.

"No why are they dead?" he asks again shaking his head. "It's my fault. I slowed down without a warning." Coyote says. "Was there a reason you didn't communicate with your teammates?" he asks.

"I was focusing-" Coyote starts. Mav interrupts him. "What excuse will their family except at their funerals?" "None, sir."

My dad turns to me. "Why didn't you just slow down?" I look at him with a confused look. "I didn't anticipate the turn, sir." "Why didn't you anticipate the turn? You were briefed on the missions terrain."

I go to answer but he interrupts. "Don't tell me. Tell their families." He says and points at Reaper and Bob. Hangman, Fanboy, and Paybacks turn was on the screen now. Of course hangman leaves them behind, like always.

"What happened?" he asks them. "I flew as fast as i could," he stops smiling around the room. "kinda like my ass depended on it." he continued. "Well you made your team fail and your wingman's dead." Maverick says.

"They couldn't keep up." He says, still having the cocky smile. "Why's your team dead?" he asks Rooster. Here he goes. "Mav, he's the only one to reach the target." I say defending Rooster.

"A minute late. He gave the enemies time to catch them. They're dead." he says. "You don't know that." Rooster says looking at him. "You're not flying fast enough. You can't waste any time." Hangman says. "We made it to the target." Rooster says.

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on the way out." Maverick joins. "Then it's a dogfight." Bradley continues to argue. "Against fifth generation fighters?" he starts to raise his voice. "There's a chance. " "In an F-18?"

"It's not the plane, it's the pilot." he says. "Exactly!" he yells. My eyes widen. He's always been so hard on Bradley. Bradley clinches his jaw. "There's more than one way to fly this mission. " he finally says.

"You really don't get it." Hangman says, we all shift our eyes to him. "A man either flies like Maverick, or a man doesn't come back. No offense ladies." he says winking at me, but i'm already looking at him with squinted eyes.

"And yet you always manage." Bob says to his comment. "We're going into a level of combat no pilot has ever seen." Hangman looks at my dad. "not even him. Nows not the time to think about the past."

I gasp at his comment. Anger starting to boil in me. I turn around to look at Bradley. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asks Hangman. Hangman chuckles. My nails dig into my hands as I clinch my fists.

"I can't be the only one who knows Rebels daddy here used to fly with Roosters old man." I stare at him with more anger. "Seresin shut up." He ignores me. "and Maverick with there when his old man-"

Rooster jumped out of his seat towards Hangman and pushes him. I leap towards Bradley and stand in front of him. The others hold Hangman back and attempt to hold Rooster back but he gets away from them.

I place both hands on his chest. His eyes go from Hangman to me, his face softens and he calms a little. "Cmon B, it's not worth it." I say pushing him back slightly. "Yeah Rooster. I think you should listen to your b-" I whip my head around before he could finish his sentence.

I walk towards Hangman. His face goes blank. "Go ahead. Finish your sentence. His what?" He just looks at me "I was gonna say his... gorgeous girlfriend." That makes me even more mad because of the sarcasm.

I walk closer to him and Im about to punch him when Rooster walks up and throws me over his shoulder and looks at my dad. He nods meaning to take me out of there, knowing Im way too mad. "You're all dismissed!" He yells as Bradley's carrying me away and Im fighting to get away from him.

"Bradley let me down!" I yell at him, kicking around. "Only if you promise to calm down." "Fine." I chill out and him stands me in front of him while we stand in the lounge.

I throw myself toward him and wrap my arms around his neck, crying. I tend to cry when I get really mad. He stands there with his arms around my waist picking me up slightly. "Stop crying Em, everything's okay." He rubs my back gently.

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(1183 words)
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