"What Am I To You?"

Threat

Maverick walked down to the hangar the next and saw the guys all getting ready to go fly.

"Good morning aviators!" Maverick said as he saw them all going over flight plans.

"Good morning admiral!" They all said. Maverick chuckled slightly as he looked at them and raised s brow.

"What's this you all are doing?" He said.

"We have orders from above, to patrol the Californian coast." Hangman said as he looked. "Rooster and I are going up the coast in our F-18s, Fanboy and Payback are going down the coast to the US/ Mexico border..."

"And I'm heading out to the ocean to patrol." Coyote said. "And here is your orders from above to come with me." Coyote said as he handed Maverick the paper.

Maverick read the orders to see who above gave them these orders.

Fleet Admiral Tom Kazansky

"Ah. I see... and we have no combat orders since we're gonna be so close to the coast. Understandable." He said.

"Alright. Wasn't expecting to fly today, but I'm game. See y'all out there." Maverick walked over to the gear to get suited.

He has this feeling of a eerie calm. Kinda like the eye of the storm. They're on the edge of it until the rain and hail come plummeting down on them.

The groups eventually got up into the air and started to go their specific directions. Maverick raced ahead with Coyote.

"Be on the lookout and on the radar." Maverick said as the racer over the ocean.

"Yes sir." Coyote said as he put in more throttle and blasted forward. They scanned the area. "What did the file say we were looking for?" Maverick asked.

"They're looking for about 3 enemy fighters. One for each area we're going to as well." Coyote said. Maverick frowned at that.

"They're sending one fighter per team..." he didn't like this.

"This means they probably have an upper hand somehow." Coyote said. Suddenly the two of them saw a dot on the horizon. Mavericks eyes widened.

"Evasive manners now!" The two dove in opposing directions as the enemy jet raced right between them. Maverick and Coyote both shot up and kept tally of the enemy jet.

It went vertical and raced right back at them. Guns were being shot at them. "Evade!" Coyote said as he started to get chased.

Maverick raced after the enemy and fired at them. The jet drove down towards the ocean. Maverick and Coyote raced down after him but quickly aborted.

"Get back to US territory! They won't follow us inland!!" Maverick said. He looked at the jet and realized they were fighting something new.

They got closer to the US border and raced in land, and to their surprise, they were followed into California.

"North Island! This is Maverick! We need assistance from the Air Force and call the FAA to ground all commercial airlines. There is a battle in US territory!" Maverick yelled into the coms.

Suddenly Maverick saw Rooster and Hangman in the same situation.

"Rooster! Hangman! What's happening!?" He said as he raced back towards the ocean. Except the enemy jet didn't follow him.

"They followed us into US territory and won't leave! We aren't allowed to engage!" They yelled.

Maverick turned his jet around and raced after the jet that ignored him. He prepped his guns. "You have permission to engage!"

Maverick when full throttle after the jet that was heading east. "Be aware! These are sixth generation fighters ! They'll be on you quick. Out smarter them!"

Coyote followed behind Maverick.

Maverick started firing at the jet. It evaded and went vertical. Maverick winced and followed continuing to shoot. Coyote went besides Maverick and started to fire at them as well.

The jet flipped around and started to pursue them, firing at them. Maverick dove to the ground when suddenly another plane raced by and shot the enemy plane out of the sky.

Maverick and Coyote leveled as they recognized the plane that saved them.

The U.S Air-forces F-35 Lightning II. The jet pulled up in between Coyote and Maverick.

"Thanks for the assist." Maverick said. A woman chuckled.

"Sure thing sir. It's a pleasure being able to fly by a legend like yourself." The lady said.

"May I have a call sign?" Maverick said.

"Call signs Deadline sir. I will escort you two back to north Island. My buddies are helping your guys up north and south. We have also called in retrieval crews to find the pilots and take the planes in to be observed." Deadline said.

"Thank you ma'am. We appreciate it." Maverick said with a impressed tone of voice.

"No problem sir. Don't forget, the Air Force owns the sky." She smirked and raced forward.
Coyote raised a brow.

"We should catch up."

"Yeah.. good idea." Maverick said.

Maverick realized how serious this was. "They completely ignored us and headed further into the country..." Maverick said to Coyote.

"This is serious..." Coyote said.

The group headed back to North Island and landed. Maverick and was greeted by a woman in a suit.

"Yes?" He said.

"You have a call from the Fleet Admiral." She said. She handed him a phone. Maverick took the phone and brought it to his ear.

"Hello?" Maverick said as he sat down.

"You okay? I heard things didn't go as they should've..." Ice said.

"Yeah I'm alright. The enemy followed us past our border and in land... they engaged in combat with us. Out of the three, 2 were shot down. The pilots were retrieved too... but one got away." Maverick said as he saw Rooster land. His wing was tore up.

"Shit... okay. I'm on my way to DC. I have a meeting with the president. We're going to be having daily patrols on the east and west coast." Ice said as he paced in his jet.

"Since when do you call the shots for the west coast..." Maverick said.

"Since he got blown up in his carrier... I've been promoted to the Fleet Admiral of the United States." Ice said seriously.

Maverick was not surprised. "Alright... be careful. And may I make a suggestion?" Maverick asked.

"Go for it..."

"We need to strike back now..."