G Force

Review

Once everyone is back, Maverick reviews their runs, starting with Coyote, Bob and Phoenix, "why are they dead?"

"We broke the 300-foot ceiling, and a SAM took us out," Phoenix looks up to Maverick a bit disappointed in herself.

"No," Maverick turns to Coyote, "why are they dead?"

Coyote takes a deep breath, "I slowed down and didn't give her a warning. It was my fault."

"Was there a reason you didn't communicate with your team?"

"I was focusing on..."

"One that their family will accept at the funeral."

"None, sir."

Maverick turns to Phoenix, "Why didn't you anticipate the turn? You were briefed on the terrain." Phoenix starts to speak but Maverick cuts her off, "don't tell me. Tell it to his family," he gestures over to Bob. Maverick then plays the footage of Hangman, Fanboy and Payback, "what happened?"

"I flew as fast as I could," Hangman shrugs, "kind of like my ass depended on it."

I scoff, "you put your team in danger, and your wing man's dead."

"They couldn't keep up."

Maverick shakes his head and sighs, fed-up with Hangman, as are the rest of us. Then he moves to Rooster, Harvard and Yale, looking to Rooster, "why are you dead? You're team leader up there. Why are you and your team dead?"

I take a deep breath and lean forward a bit, placing my elbow on my thigh as I do, "Sir, he's the only one who made it to the target."

"A minute late," Maverick sighs again. "He gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down. He is dead."

"You don't know that," Rooster shakes his head.

"You're not flying fast enough," Hangman leans back in his chair, speaking as if he has repeated the same thing five times, "you don't have a second to waste."

"At least they made it to the target," I lean back and cross my arms.

"At least we're getting fly time."

I roll my eyes, as Maverick starts explaining why it doesn't matter, "superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out."

"Then it's a dogfight."

"Against fifth-generation fighters."

"Yeah. We'd still have a chance."

In an F-18."

"It's not the plane, sir, it's the pilot."

"Exactly!" Maverick shouts a bit, causing everyone to go quiet for a minute.

Rooster looks like he is holding back tears, as he nods, "there's more than one way to fly this mission."

"You really don't get it," Hangman shakes his head, "on this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or a man does not come back." He then glances between Phoenix and I, "no offense intended."

Bob leans forward a bit, "yet somehow you always manage."

"Look, I don't mean to criticize. You're conservative, that's all."

"Lieutenant," Maverick shakes his head, trying to get Hangman to stop.

"We're going into combat, son, on a level no living pilot's ever seen. Not even him. That's no time to be thinking about the past."

This last sentence catches Rooster's attention, "what's that suppose to mean?"  

"Rooster," Maverick looks between the two men. 

"I can't be the only one that knows that Maverick flew with his old man," Hangman has now turned almost completely around to talk to Rooster. "I also can't can't be the only one to notice that the biggest one here hasn't gone up more then once."

"That's enough."

"Or that Maverick was flying when his old man..."

"Lieutenant, that's enough!" Before anyone can say or do anything else, Rooster has jumped over me and is heading for Hangman. Maverick manages to get between them before Rooster reaches him. "That's enough!"

Everyone gets up and splits keeping the two of them part, but Rooster is seeing red, "you son of a bitch!" 

Hangman just chukles and bats those around him away, "hey, I'm cool, I'm cool." 

"Rooster, that's enough," I stand in front of him, trying to get his eyes to move from Hangman to me. 

"He's not cut out of this mission. Neither of them are."

"That's enough," Maverick warns. 

"You know it." Hangman walks up to Rooster, who is still in a rage, not even looking at me, "you know I'm right." 

I don't know if it's the fact that he is picking fights with Rooster, the idea that he is going to get everyone on this mission killed , the fact that he has been nothing but rude to me since the moment I met him, but something clicks for me. Well, not so much clicks as snaps. I have never been one of true unadulterated violence, but before I know it, I am turned, facing Hangman, he is on the ground and my hand, that is balled up into a fit, feels like it is on fire. Hangman is looking up to me in shock with his hand on his jaw. Maverick looks over the scene in front of his as if no one knew what was happening until it was done and over, "uh... You're all dismissed."