Copilot~ Rooster (Top Gun: Maverick FanFic)

chapter 7

May 13th

I wake up and do my normal morning routine. Put my hair in a bun, brush my teeth, put my uniform on, eat, leave for work.

Today when we all get into the classroom and in our seats, it wasn't my dad at the front of the room. It was Admiral Bates. "We've received intel that the uranium plant will be up and operational sooner than we thought. Raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in 10 days. Your mission is being moved up by one week."

I look over at Riley, who had the same shocked look on her face as me. "In a week and a half we could die, Rebel. WEEK AND A HALF." She whispers. "Yeah. Not too thrilled about that either." I turn to Rooster and give him a soft smile, which calms his face a little.

"Sir no one has successfully flown the course." Coyote explains to Warlock. "Then you're ordered to move on." He steps away and Maverick takes his place. "We have one week to focus on Phase 2. The most difficult part of the mission." He turns to look at the screen behind him that has what we need to do.

"A pop up strike with a dive, consisting of two miracles. Two pairs of F-18 will fly in a column formation. Teamwork and and coordination is essential to the mission and your survival." The plant is shown on the screen.

"The plant is located between two mountains. You'll need to dive into them to have the only angle of attack." He zooms in on the screen. "The target is only 3 meters wide. The pairs in the air crafts with use lasers to lock the target for the solo pilots.  First missile will be released into the ventilation shaft. This creates an opening for the second missile. If either team misses the target, the mission is failed." Everyone is still silent.

I finally speak up. "And what do we do after the missiles are dropped?" He looks at me. "You pull up to make a steep climb out of the valley, missing the mountain." he replies. "A climb like that you're pulling at least 8 G's." Hangman says.

"9.... minimum." He clarifies. Is he actually insane. "Sir the stress limit of an F-18 is 7.5." Rooster questions. "That's the accepted limit.To survive this mission you will have to pull beyond that. You'll pull so hard you'll weigh 2000 pounds. Your skull crushing your spine, lungs crushing like an elephant sitting on your chest. Fighting with everything in you to stay awake."

He turns to look at us all. His eyes landing on mine. "This is where you'll be most vulnerable. This is called coffin corner." He looks around the room again. After avoiding crashing into the mountain, you'll fly straight into enemy SAMs radar. Within seconds you'll be targeted by them. You've all faced things like this before, but this will take you and your aircraft to your breaking point." Still silence until Payback spoke up.

"Sir, is this even achievable?" he asks. He turns to look at Payback. "The answer to that will come down to the pilot in the box."

~~~~~~

We were split into groups to run this test. I walk over to our plane and give it a pat. While our helmets in our hands, me and Reaper bump our blue and green helmets together. This is the perfect time to show our helmets off.