Copilot~ Rooster (Top Gun: Maverick FanFic)

chapter 14

May 18th

"Attention," Admiral Simpson says at the front of the room. "Where's your dad?" Riley whispered at me. I shrugged. "Captain Mitchell will no longer be your instructor. As of today, there will be new perimeters. Time to target is now four minutes." he continued as the two and a half minute target changed to four minutes on the screen.

This has got to be a joke. Maverick is the only person that could get us ready for this. "You will be entering the canyon at a reduced. You will not exceed 420 knots." This is insane. We will not make it out. "You will be attacking the target from a higher altitude, level with the North Wall."

"That's not even going to be possible sir." I speak up. His eyes lock on mine. "It doesn't give us enough time to get out and that's putting us in the target range for the SAMs. We all know that these fifth generation fighters are more advanced than us. You even taught us that our F-18s cannot withstand a dogfight with these fighters."

"Lieutenant, I understand Captain Mitchell is your father, but we need to move on." He says, getting angry that I'm talking back. "Are you just going to tell my father to 'move on' when his daughter doesn't come back? All of their parents?" I say pointing to all of my classmates.

The room was silent until there was a beep on the screen, meaning someone was on the practice course. Only one person it could be. One and only Maverick Mitchell. I lean up to the edges of my chair.

"Maverick to range control. Entering point Alpha. Confirm Green Range." My dad comes over the radio. "Range control to Maverick. Green Range is confirmed, I'm not seeing an event scheduled for you today, sir."

"I'm going anyways." He says. My teammates all looked at me to see my expression. I'm staring at the screen with a big smile.  His plane pulled up to the start of the course. "Time to target, two minutes and 15 seconds." My eyes get wider.

"He's just as crazy as you, Rebel. You're definitely his kid." Hangman says across the row. "Thank ya" I smile big at him. "Maverick inbound". I honestly don't know if it'll be possible in that time. But he's Maverick. Anything's possible for him.

The timer started, meaning he entered the simulation canyon. He continued through the course and went through the checkpoints. Getting closer to the target my anxiety was going crazy. My leg was bouncing up and down. Riley could sense my nerves and placed her hand on my knee to calm the bouncing.

"30 seconds to target," he says over the radio. He went over the imaginary mountain and pushed down, inverted. "Cmon dad." I whisper, putting my hand on my mouth. "Bombs away." He says.

It's completely silent until we get confirmation it was a bullseye. I slam my hand on the table. "Hell yeah!" I say, not too loud. Miracle number one. We hear him breathing heavy and grunting, pulling the 5G pull up.

Maverick shoots up and the timer goes off. He did it, he actually did it. I jump up out of my seat, so does Reaper. "Woooo!" I said while hugging Riley. Everyone else is cheering too. Admiral Simpson look annoyed but Hondo and Admiral Bates were smiling.

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As soon as my dad got to the ground he was called to to the Admrials office. He was in there for a little bit but walked back out to the tarmac where me and my teammates were. When I saw him, I ran to him and hugged him. "You're crazy you know that?" I say pulling away from the hug.

He smiles. "Where did you think you got it from?" He laughs. The rest of my teammates walk over. "How much trouble you in old man?" I ask. "Not too much." His face had a weird expression. There was something he wasn't telling me.

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"Rebel, Reaper, Rooster, you're up first." Warlock says. My dad had already headed out to his plane. We begin to walk over to our planes to try the course again. We stop at Roosters plane first. "Good luck up there Rebel." He says and kisses me. "Good luck Chicken." He glares at me, he hates when I used to call him that. I laugh and mess up his hair. "Don't get your feathers ruffled." I smile and join Reaper in walking to our plane.

While climbing up into our plane, we bump our helmets together, sit in our seats, and slid in our helmets. The canopy's lowered and locked into place. "Reaper, Rooster, ready to kick some ass?" I ask maneuvering us to the runway, Rooster right behind me. "Yes ma'am" They say at the same time. And we're off.

"Rebel to range control. Entering point Alpha. Confirm Green Range." I say the same thing as my dad over the Comms, clipping in my mask. "Range control to Rebel. Green Range confirmed." "Rebel inbound." "Rooster inbound." We enter the canyon. "2 minutes and 30 seconds and counting." Reaper says.

Rooster is still following me, a quite a bit of distance between us. We're inverting left and right to navigate through the fake canyon. Approaching the mountain, we spin around to an inverted dive into it. "One minute to target." She says. "Little faster, Roost." He immediately speeds up. We're quickly approaching the target.

"You got my lasers ready Reap?" "Affirmative, target is locked." "Dropping in 3,2,-" The bomb is dropped. I immediately pull up, feeling the Gs press again my body. I continuously blink to keep myself awake. "Rooster dropping!" I hear over the comms while finally leveling out. "Bullseye!" I yell as Roosters bomb blows the hole up.

He quickly pulls up. "Cmon Bradley." I whisper. "15 seconds to target." Reaper says. Rooster levels out. "We did it!" Reaper screams. "10 seconds to spare, baby! Good job, Roost!" I yell. "Good job, girls!" He says back, out of breath. "Good job, now make your way back to base." My dad says.

"Rebel, requesting a fly by." I say and I hear my dad laughing. "Negative, Lieutenant." Cyclone responds. I laugh knowing my dad was known for it and remembering how I did to while I was in Top Gun. We land, Roosters spot right beside us. The canopy pops open, we slide our helmets off, and hop out of our plane. Once we're on the ground, me and Reaper hug each other. Rooster met us at our plane, I run up and wrap my arms around his neck.

I pull away then pull Riley into a group hug. "We did it!!" I yell to them. We turn and begin walking back. I see my dad standing with the others in the tarmac, waiting for us to get to us. As we get closer I look up at Rooster and smile, he knows what I wanna do. "I feel the need," I start loudly, still looking at him. "the need, for speed!" We say together loud then high-fiving. He then puts his arm on top of my shoulders, pulling me into his side, and kissing my temple.

My dad has a huge smile hearing we used his and Gooses tradition after they flew. "I'm so proud of you." Maverick says pulling me into a hug. We put our helmets in our locker and the next team goes up. Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote are second. Hangman, Payback, and Fanboy third. Fritz, Halo, and Omaha fourth. Coyote goes back up with Harvard and Yale for the last group.

Bob, Phoenix, and Coyote successfully did the course as well as Fanboy, Payback, and Hangman. We finish up for the night and decide to go to the Hard Deck one last time before our mission tomorrow. We take our showers and put our uniforms on before leaving.

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(1341 words)
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