Poison || Jake Seresin - TGM

11 | Run

song for the chapter

Run, OneRepublic

"Good morning."
Warlock spoke to all the aviators finally sitting in their seats.
Danielle had taken a seat behind Hangman, next to Razor. She had to set her mind straight and focus on the mission ahead.

Hangman was becoming a distraction.

"The uranium enrichment plans that is your target will be operational earlier than expected. Raw uranium will be delivered to the plan in ten days time." He sighs "As a result, your mission has been moved up, one week,"

Danielle glances at Razor for a moment before quickly looking forward again.

"In order to avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation."

"Sir, no one here has successfully flown a low-level course." Coyote says tilting his head.
Warlock only nods.

"Nevertheless, you've been ordered to move on."
He turns to the side to face Maverick.
"Captain."

Maverick then walks forward taking the front of the room.
"We have one week left to focus on phase two. It's the most difficult stage of the mission."
he paces the front of the room.

"Pop-up strike with a steep dive, requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles."

Danielle watches as a graphic of mountains and f-18s flying through pops up onto the screen in front of them. She took slow, deep breaths, as Maverick explained how they would need to fly through.

It was the first time she had started to get nervous about this mission. The first time she stated doubting herself.

Razor noticed the shift in her attitude and discretely tapped her hand with his pinky. Danielle turns and looks to see him give her a nod. She softly shakes her head and looks forward pulling herself back into the conversation.

"A steep climb at that speed, you're pulling at least eight G's." Hangman says looking up at Maverick.

"Nine, minimum." Maverick nods.

"The stress limit of the f-18's airframe is 7.5." Rooster says raising his head.
"That's the accepted limit. To survive this mission you'll pull beyond that. Even if it means bending your airframe."

"How can this be safe for the f-18s?" Razor speaks up and Danielle looks ahead at Maverick for an answer.

"It's safe enough." Maverick looks back at the screen to continue explaining the extent of the escape.

Danielle zones out, thinking about how they are expected to do this. She wasn't sure she could pull it off. How would she make the team? Her mind was running in circles until she felt a tap on the shoulder.

She looks up to notice a few people standing.
"We're up." Razor says looking at her. She nods and slowly stands from her seat. She watches as Rooster, Phoenix, Bob, and one other stand from their seats as well.

They all walk out of the room towards their lockers to get ready out on the tarmac.
"You ready for this?" Natasha asks walking beside her.

"As much as I can be I guess." Danielle shrugs.

Natasha smiles "I know it'll be tough. We got this." she nudges her shoulder.

Natasha walks ahead with Bob and Razor who seemed to be talking each other's ears off. Didn't think Bob could talk so much.
Danielle closes her locker and grabs her helmet as she starts following after them.

"Hart."
She stops and slowly turns around. Hangman.

"What're you doing?" She asks, tilting her head.

"I wanted to wish you luck." He smirks. Danielle squints raising a brow. "What?"

"Just wishing me luck?" she crosses her arms.

"Look, I saw you in there. You seemed nervous." He shrugs. Danielle nods, not doubting the observation. "So, good luck."

"Thanks." she smiles at him and turns back making her way outside.

Danielle climbed up into the f-18 and looked back at Razor behind her. "You ready?"
"As much as I can be." He chuckles.
"Let's get up in the air."

Once all four F-18s were in the air, Danielle took a few deep breaths as their timer began counting down.

"How are we on time?" Danielle asks Razor as they follow behind Rooster.
"We're a few second behind, we need to speed up."

"Rooster-"
"I heard him." Rooster nods and speeds up to gain time.

Danielle follows after Rooster as they closer to the target.
"Get ready for pop-up." Rooster says as the keep flying.

Both pop-up and fly over the imaginary mountain and the target comes into view.
"Get the laser." Danielle calls back to Razor while following Rooster.
"Set. All you Rooster." Razor says.

As they inch closer to the target Rooster stares and carefully aims and successfully hits the target. Razor cheers as they pull up once again.
"Can't celebrate yet." Danielle says as they fly higher. She groans feeling the gravity pulling against them.

Her vision seems to flash almost becoming dark. Luckily, they level out and she lets out a long sigh.

Back in their seats the rest of the day, everyone had watched a mix of different groups go through the same drill. It was getting towards the end and Phoenix, Bob, and Coyote were up next.

Danielle sat talking to Razor as they watched them run the drill. This time, Maverick had gone out as a Bandit to try and stop them.

They were able to listen in on the coms as they watched from afar, listening to the team's strategy.
"twelve seconds is life or death with a bandit out there." Razor comments and Danielle nods.

"Hey." Hangman walks up behind them at the window. They both turn around, startled. "Sorry, didn't mean to sneak up on ya'."

"It's alright." Danielle nods, leaning back against the window sill.

"Just wanted to let you know you guys did good out there."
Danielle and Razor look at each other for a moment then back at Hangman.

"Thanks." Razor squints and sighs. "I'll catch up with you guys later." he walks past Hangman towards some of the other aviators.

"You're being very obvious." Danielle says turning back to look out the window.

"What do you want me to do, avoid you?"
"That's what you'd usually do."

Hangman chuckles. "True." he stares out the window then turns and looks down at Danielle. "You ready for all this?"

"I don't know." she shrugs "I'm scared something Is going to happen, that force is intense." she gestures to coyote flying outside. The group was getting towards the end of their drill.

"You'll be fine. We both will." Hangman nudges her.
Danielle smiles at him then looks out the window again.

"Oh my god." she stands up straight. Hangman furrows his brows then looks out the window to see one of the f-18s free falling with one of the engines on fire.

Danielle focuses in on coms. It was Phoenix and Bob. Danielle felt her heartbeat quicken as she watched hoping they would level out.

"Eject!" someone yells on the coms and she takes a step back from the window. Hangman puts his hand on her shoulder trying to calm her, but she pulls away and runs out of the room.

A/n:

sorry it's been so long i've been SO SO busy it's actually crazy. And again this chapter is a little short but I think it's better than no chapter at all right?

also this wasn't all that fun for me to write so. :/ anyway