"It's been an honor flying with you. Each of you represents the best of the best. This is a very specific mission, and my choices are a reflection of that and nothing else." Maverick says, pausing to overlook at the pilots in the room.
Admiral Bates commanded, "Choose your two foxtrot teams."
"Payback and Fanboy. Phoenix and Bob."
"And choose your wingman." Vice Admiral Simpson added.
I give a grateful smile to Hangman.
Maverick announced, "Rooster."
Admiral Bates says, "And the reserve?"
"Hangman."
Jake looked up at Maverick, and nodded slowly out of surprised. He believed that he had totally washed out because of yesterday. I guess not everything got past Uncle Maverick.
We leave the room, and Hangman pulls me into another room, where we're alone.
"Jake! We have to go!" I whisper yell, trying to move around him.
His lips smash on mine, and he wrangles me into a short, but passionate kiss.
"I love you," Hangman says, almost as if he can't believe he's finally saying it out loud.
"I love you too, but you need to go and get ready. And I need to get to the bridge."
"See you soon Zoe."
"Bye Jake." I said, leaving the room, making sure my face wasn't red and my hair hadn't been fussed up.
I found my place beside Warlock and Cyclone, under the blue lighting of the air craft carrier's mission control.
"Dagger One, up and ready." Maverick announced over radio.
Phoenix said, "Dagger 3, up and ready."
After a moment of hesitation, Rooster stated, "Dagger 2, up and ready."
"Dagger 4, up and ready." Payback followed.
We watched from the deck as Maverick's F-18 took off into the air, three more closely following him, leaving us on the aircraft carrier.
They flew over the ocean, slowly becoming nothing more than tiny dots.
Comanche had already given the team leader the go ahead, "Picture is clean. Decision is yours."
"Dagger attack."
Tomahawks and other missile were launched from the carrier, and spared above our F-18ms air craft. They descended upon the enemy airfield, rendering it useless.
Maverick was leading, and the others started to get behind him in a line, and the descended below 100 feet, disappearing from radar.
And one by one, they blipped off of the radar,
"Approaching target. Two minutes and thirty seconds in three, two, one, mark." Maverick said, crossing into the canyon.
"Two mark." Phoenix calls off for herself and Bob.
Rooster repeated, "Three mark."
"Four mark." Payback continues.
The countdown began.
They started on the course through the canyon, each following the plane in front of them.
I left out a breath once they passed the first SAM site undetected. One wrong move, and it would all be over for them.
"Looks like we're clear on radars, Mav." Rooster says.
"Let's not take it for granted." Was his reply.
Fanboy said, "More SAMs up above."
"We're two minutes to target." Bob informed their group.
We saw on the analytics board as Rooster stalled, creating a gap between the two teams. I could imagine Hangman in his cockpit, listening to the radio, trying to piece what was going on.
"Speed up Dagger Two." Fanboy said nervously behind Payback. "We're 10 seconds behind."
"Dagger Comanche, we're picking up two bandits."
"What's going on?" Simpson panics.
"Long- route routine flight?" Warlock guessed.
"Comanche what's their heading?" Phoenix asked, still weaving through the canyon.
"They're headed away from us. They don't know we're here." I assured the Dagger crew.
"Once the bandits see their base, they'll immediately go to defend the target." Maverick said, informing us of the obvious. And yet, there wasn't a single thing we could do about it.
"Rooster where are you?" Maverick asked.
"Come on," Payback says, "Bandits are inbound. We gotta move."
We watch as suddenly Rooster pulls a 180, almost doubling his speed.
After a few moments, we hear Payback practically yelling into his headgear, "Woah Rooster! Slow down, you're going to clip the canyon!!"
Payback was falling behind.
"Watch you head," Rooster said, and he, Payback and Fanboy pass under the bridge.
Maverick signaled that he, Phoenix and Bob were approaching the uranium plant.
Locking onto the target with the laser, Bob shouted out the coordinates.
Maverick fires.
It was a direct hit.
"Dagger Two status!" Maverick called out.
Rooster, Payback and Fanboy came in right behind the first group.
Rooster announced, "Almost there. Fanboy, where's my laser?"
"I can't find the missile lock! Dead eye! Dead eye!" Fanboy panicked.
"There's no time, I'm dropping blind. Bombs away."
We hear a second explosion, but no guarantee of destruction.
One of the officers below said, "Confirmed target hit."
Now they awaited coffin corner, and the SAMs waiting to shoot them down.
The four planes flew into SAM's territory, and began fighting for their lives, trying to race away from the missiles.
"Two bandits on radar redirecting towards Dagger Team!" One of them called out.
My heart dropped.
"Dagger defending." Rooster said, letting out flares, which the surface to air missile would hit instead of him.
At that moment, something clicked. The four pilots and two weapons systems officers became a real time, helping each other not die and get hit, all watching each other's back.
"I'm out of flares!" Rooster panicked, and took evasive moves to get out of the way.
We watch as Maverick moves into the way, his last words, "I'm sorry Rooster."
Maverick's plane disappears from the screen, and we know he's been shot down.
"Did anybody see him?" Rooster asks.
"Negative, I didn't see a parachute." Payback says.
"We have to go back!" Rooster says hopelessly.
"Rooster, he's gone. We can't go back, we have to return to the aircraft carrier." Bob speaks up.
Rooster turns around to go after Maverick.
Cyclone sighs, knowing that he's lost another pilot.
After a few minutes of Rooster ignoring check ins, his plane explodes too.
Phoenix and Bob have landed, and Payback and Fanboy are circling around to land.
We sit for another 20 minutes.
"Admiral Bates, we should retreat back into our waters," Vice Admiral Simpson recommends.
"I know. Prepare a course back to out territory." Warlock says to nobody in particular, but his orders will be carried out anyways.
"Wait! This is Maverick we're talking about. He's stuck himself in a cockpit for 30 years, do you really think he could be taken out so easily?" I defend, trying to buy more time for people who may or may not be dead.
"5 more minutes." Admiral Bates says.
"Thank you."
"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for them."
Nevertheless, I was still grateful. I had to help my dad's best friend somehow.
The minutes trickle into seconds, and eventually time is out.
"Chart a course for home," Admiral Bates says.
I don't fight his commands. But last beacon of hope happened when there's a soft beeping coming from the radar.
"Sir, Rooster's emergency GPS has gone off." The female officer reports.
"Where?" Warlock demanded.
"Near the coast. But it has to be a mistake." She says.
"Why?"
The officer answers, "He's supersonic."
Comanche Dagger comes in, "Admiral, there's visual of a F-14 heading towards the aircraft carrier."
A realization rolls through the room, that Rooster is alive and coming back. In a dust bucket of all things.
Cyclone shakes his head, "That's impossible."
"Not if it's Maverick," I reminded them. He was the only one old enough to have extensive experience in flying a F-14.
"Two bogies heading towards Rooster," Comanche Dagger informs us.
Admiral Bates nodded at me, "Send him out."
"Hangman, you've been ordered to engage with the incoming enemy aircraft." I say into the radio.
"Copy that, Avalanche," he says, immediately getting ready to go.
I'm selfish, so I say, "Come back."
"I will. You'll miss me too much."
I roll my eyes, as laughter echoes throughout the mission control room.
I watch as Hangman heads towards Rooster's location, and engages with a Fifth-Generation pilot. It goes down in a plume of smoke, and Rooster and Maverick are saved at the last second.
Hangman's cocky smirk was heard when his voice came over the comms, saying, "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is your savior speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts, return the tray tables to their locked and upright positions and prepare for landing."
I let out a soft laugh, and beam brightly at his voice.
They survived.
And the one thing I promise I would never do, happened.
I fell in love. With another naval aviator.
But it was Hangman, Jake Seresin, and I would never regret loving him. Not in a million years.
❅