𝔹𝕒𝕞𝕓𝕚 | Bradley Bradshaw

|3|

ᴿᵉᶜᵃˡˡⁱⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵃˢᵗ

Maria's eyes fluttered opened as she heard the sound of her alarm, then she sighed. "Hey momma." She mumbled as she had a dream of her mother, maybe it was for reassurances, whatever it is, she really needed.

Now being back at Top Gun for this mission, Maria was missing her mother very deeply. She remember the moments of her parents time at top gun, while they were at Top Gun, Maria would stay with grandmother, sometimes even with Viper because the commander would admit, he did enjoyed the little Perez's company, so did his wife, Viper just knew she would become like her parents.

People would call the callsign, childish. Maria earned the callsign Bambi by many at Top Gun, as she had the same admiration as the animated character but her mother gave her the callsign as it was once a nickname. Maria, well the callsign stuck. People don't think of Bambi as childish, think the ultimate level of a badass because of the things Maria accomplish at her time at Top Gun.

Maria got out of bed and got ready for the day. "Well, I wonder what today's going to bring?" Maria asked herself.

..........

Maverick made his way to front which everyone had their focus on him. He stood in front of a monitor that displayed a flight simulation. "Phase one of the mission will be a low-level attack. You'll be flying along the narrow canyon walls to the target. The surface-to-air missiles defend the skies above, not the canyon below." He explained.

"That's because no one is insane enough to fly below." Rooster commented. "That's exactly what I'm going to train you to do." Maverick responded. He described the low altitudes and high speeds the pilots would be flying for today's simulation. It was an improvement from the actual altitude and speed required for the mission, but it was still worrying. No pilot had ever flown a mission like this before, not even Maverick. "Time to target is two and a half minutes." "Fifth-generation fighter jets wait at a base nearby. You need to get in, get your target and be gone before there planes even have a chance at catching you. This makes time your greatest adversary." Maverick explained.

..................

Bambi sighed in frustration as she, Thumper and Moose did the course. "Our speed is good." Bambi said. "Bambi, we have to pick it up or otherwise they'll get us..." Moose said but Bambi interrupted. "Our Speed is alright, we are still in time for the target, our best bet is to not think but focus and not hit the wall, keep on task for the target." Bambi said. "We are following you Bambi." Thumper replied.

"Bambi... why are you dead?" Maverick asked the young woman. "I made it to the target, was I minute late. I'm not perfect, nobody isn't going to get it right on the first try. I was always taught you don't think, you do, because if you think out on that course, your dead. I didn't want my team to panic." Bambi said, which Maverick froze. Her father must of put that into her head or she took his conversation at ten years old very seriously.

"Moose, why is Thumper and yourself dead?" Maverick then asked. "Because I followed Bambi's instructions, because I trust Bambi, so does Thumper, if we didn't trust her, do you think we would've done opposite of her instructions?" Moose asked Maverick. "Valid point." Maverick answered. "Like Bambi said, you can't always strive for perfection, you can try over and over, until you get it right, which we will all do, but with the mission, you only get one shot, so you gotta make it count." Thumper responded. Maverick was pleased with the trio's answers so he moved on, to Hangman, Payback and Fanboy.

"What happened?" He questioned Hangman. A prideful smirk evident on his face, "I flew as fast as I could. Kind of like my life depended on it." He answered and Bambi rolled her eyes. "Yeah and you put your team in danger and now your wingman is dead." Rooster criticized him. "They couldn't keep up." Hangman answered. "You are acting like Grand Theft Auto out there, you are going to not only get your team killed but yourself, Don't do stupid crap." Thumper spatted. "Kind of like how your father dipped before Top Gun." Hangman said, her eyes widen. "Hey, Cougar had his reasons, like you have your reasons on continuing to act like jackass in the air, so leave anyone else past except your own stupidity out of the conversation." Bambi spatted.