Nightingale 》Jake Seresin

Chapter 6

Training today did not go well.

The aviators were told more of the scope of this mission and how they would need to fly this mission. Safe to say, it was only slightly nerve-racking.

When Nova had heard the information, she just started praying. She wasn't even religious, but she started praying to any deity that was out there.

Bring them home safely. All of them. Please.

And so, the aviators went up in groups. And each group failed in one way or another. Coyote didn't speed up when he said, causing Phoenix to go above the hard deck. Hangman, once again, abandoned his wingman by flying faster than they could. Another group went above the hard deck once again. But it was Rooster's run that set off the tense chain of events for the day.

"Why are you dead?" Maverick asks Rooster, once his team is back in the mission room. "You're team leader up there, why are you, why is your team dead?"

"Sir, he's the only one that made it to the target," Phoenix defends. Yes, he got there late, but he was the only one to successfully make it without crashing the deck.

"A minute late, he gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down," Maverick shoots back. "He is dead." Nova shook her head. She understood what her father was getting at, but he was driving this hard.

"You don't know that," Rooster defends himself.

"You're not flying fast enough," Hangman chimes in. He was still salty about the night previously. "You don't have a second to waste."

"We made it to the target," Rooster continues to defend. He glances at Nova, but she can only shrug. She can't intervene in this matter because it's nowhere near her job. She was there for medical assistance, not flight.

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out," Maverick starts to get angry. He had to drill this into all of their heads. He couldn't have a pilot not come home. Especially not Bradley.

"Then it's a dog fight," Rooster fires back at him. 

"Against fifth generation fighters?" Maverick questions angrily.

"Yea, we still have a chance," Rooster says

Phoenix looks down and Hangman looks smug, like he knows something no one else does. Nova just bites her thumb nail. This was getting much more heated than she would have liked, especially with the others in the room. She was well aware of what this was actually about, but this was not the time nor place for the two to hash is out.

"In an F-18," Maverick stresses. What was he not getting about this?

"It's not the plane sir, it's the pilot," Rooster says, somewhat arrogantly but also making a point.

"Exactly," Maverick says, straight to his face in front of everyone. Nova let out a light gasp, unbelieving that he had just said that. Rooster looks pissed and a little hurt as well.

"There's more than one way to fly this mission," Rooster says

"You really don't get it," Hangman starts. Nova shakes her head, this time willingly trying to make eye contact with him. But Jake refuses. "On this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or man does not come back. No offense intended," he directed at Phoenix.

"Yet somehow you always manage," Bob defends Phoenix instantly.

"Hey, I don't mean to criticize," Hangman continues, "you're conservative, that's all."

"Hangman," Nova tries just before Maverick. "Lieutenant," Maverick tries to stop Hangman.

Jake ignores them both.