AS SKYE LOWERED THE VISOR OF HER HELMET, HER EYES SQUINTED IN CONCENTRATION. it was a beautiful day. a perfect day, even. especially to be flying. and yet she still couldn't let go of the unfamiliar knot in her stomach as she saluted one of the flight officers on the carrier and began to taxi down the flight deck behind her father.
at least, she thought, maverick was there with her.
knowing that her dad was flying too made her feel infinitely better, and skye also felt secure with katia seated behind her. then, of course, there was rooster, who was moving into his position behind her.
after an okay and a confirmation from air traffic control, maverick was off the carrier. skye flew off almost immediately after him, feeling the familiar dip in her jet as it released from the deck. it was as exhilarating as it always was, and skye found herself smiling the nerves away as she confirmed, "dagger three, up and away."
the four planes moved along the guided course towards where the enemy lines were, listening in as they were instructed to move below radar. skye looked over to rooster, who was flying his jet next to hers. their eyes met for a moment in a silent interaction that skye took as an understanding. they forgave each other for everything that had gone wrong.
maverick was soon telling the group to move into their attack formation, forcing skye to refocus. she moved her super hornet away from rooster's, moving to her position behind her father's jet. rooster was then behind her and katia, with phoenix and bob bringing up the rear.
"proceeding to target." maverick said. "two minutes and thirty seconds in three, two, one...mark."
"two mark." rooster replied immediately.
skye pressed a button in front of her to begin her own timer. "three mark."
"four mark." phoenix finished.
skye watched for a moment as the numbers began to tick down, and then, with one more big breath, she was tilting her plane and speeding behind her father into the canyon that she'd flown through so frequently in simulations.
the planes all slowed down, moving as close to the ground as possible as they scoped the area. "first s.a.m. sight overhead." maverick warned, and skye looked up. sure enough, there were missiles nestled above them on the side of the snowy hills. those would be a pain in her ass later, she assumed.
despite being fully briefed on the terrain, and being fully aware of what a surface to air missile looked like, seeing them all lined up in person was an entirely different story. skye took a sharp breath as she tore her gaze away from them.
"more s.a.m.s." rooster commented a moment later. "three o'clock, high."
skye looked up again, taking them in for another brief second. "you know, i could've been a bartender, or a librarian, or something." she said mainly to katia, who laughed.
"thirty seconds 'til tomahawk impact on enemy air strip." a voice sounded in skye's ears. a moment later, there was a new voice.
"dagger commanche, we're picking up two bandits, single for over two contacts."
skye's brows furrowed. "where the hell did they come from?" she mumbled. "what's their heading?" she then asked the woman, who she assumed was on air traffic control.
"bullseye, zero nine fifty. southwest."
"they're headed away from us." rooster determined. "they don't know we're here."
"the second those tomahawks hit the airbase, those bandits are gonna move to defend the target." maverick concluded. "we have to get there before they do. increase speed."
skye complied, following her father in increasing her speed. "right behind you." she confirmed, moving along the terrain with him.
a few seconds later, the tomahawk missiles landed on their target, destroying the enemy runway. "think they know we're here now?" skye asked rhetorically. "we need to pick up the pace. where the hell are you, roost?"
"the bandits are moving to defend the target." the same air traffic control voice came through.
"rooster!" phoenix's voice sounded. "we don't have time. you need to increase your speed."
skye could practically see the look on rooster's face just through her imagination. the frustration with himself combined with the fear of making a choice that wasn't specified in the book. "c'mon, roost."
"rooster, where are you?" maverick asked. skye was about to try to say something more to him when maverick's voice came through again. "heads up, riot."
up ahead, there was a bridge-looking contraption. "thanks, mav." skye grunted through her teeth as she used sheer strength to adjust and shift the plane. it was now soaring between the pillared forms of the bridge just as maverick had demonstrated moments prior.
"holy shit." katia mumbled under her breath as she put a hand on the canopy, looking up at the bridge as the plane passed through it.
"if we don't increase our speed now," phoenix said, "then those bandits will be waiting for us when we reach the target."
"we have to go, rooster." bob agreed, though his voice sounded more like a plea.
there was a second of silence before rooster's voice came through as a whisper. "talk to me, dad."
"c'mon, kid, you can do it." maverick whispered back. "don't think, just do."
"jesus, rooster, not that fast." a voice sounded seconds later, and skye grinned.
"okay, let's go." a now confident rooster said.
bob let out a surprised yelp as phoenix supposedly rounded a corner too harshly. "rooster, take it easy!"
skye chuckled. "atta boy." she stated proudly, following her father through the trees and snowy hillsides. "we've got thirty seconds to target. missile all good?"
katia moved it around for a second. "looks good to me. code verified. laser is a go!"
"thank you!" skye called back. "ready for the incline." she looked up at the steep hill.
"three, two.. one." maverick counted down.
skye pulled up on her joystick, feeling her entire body feel as if it was being pushed downwards. her back hit her seat, and she clenched her jaw shut, attempting to keep a hold on her consciousness. the only sounds in her ears were that of her and katia's heavy breathing as she inverted their jet and declined into the canyon.
"i've got the target in sight." maverick said as soon as he'd straightened back out. "where's my laser?"
"right here with you, mav." katia said, adjusting it as skye moved to give her a better view of the target. "standby.. got it!" she locked the target.
"acquired, bombs away." maverick replied, launching a smoothly executed drop on the target.
skye immediately pulled back up for the second incline, feeling her eyes start to close as if she was going to fall asleep. her head suddenly felt too heavy for her body as her helmet hit the headrest of her seat. "come on, come on." she mumbled.
"we've got impact!" katia said a moment later. "direct hit, direct hit!"
skye let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. "miracle number one."
"dagger two, status?" maverick called out for rooster, who was still seemingly behind them.
"almost there, mav." rooster replied. "almost there."
bob struggled with the laser for a moment, but was able to lock the target and get rooster another bullseye shot.
"and death star!" skye cheered to the best of her ability, though her everything was starting to hurt from pulling 9.5 gs.
"we're not out of this yet." maverick reminded her. at almost the exact time the words left his mouth, maverick was out of the incline and within s.a.m. target. "smoke in the air! riot, break right!"
"dagger three defending!" skye called out, pressing onto the red flare button to her side. "there's another one right behind you, mav!"
he moved away from it. "dagger one defending! rooster, status!"
rooster grunted, and skye assumed he was making the sharp incline. sure enough, his jet became visible seconds later. "oh, my god." he mumbled at the sight of the missiles flying. "smoke in the air, smoke in the air!"
"break right, phoenix, break right!" bob exclaimed.
"breaking right!" she replied.
skye found herself looking over at rooster's jet, and she felt a pit in her stomach. she didn't want him to be here anymore. though his presence had comforted her at first, she then wished that he would just go back to the aircraft carrier; away from harm. "rooster! on your six!" she exclaimed at the sight of smoke.
she watched as his plane tilted away. "imploring counter missiles!" he said. "negative contact!"
"dagger one, defending!"
"talk to me, bob!"
"break right, break right! nine o'clock!"
everyone had begun yelling instructions at each other, all of them just hoping that they could avoid getting themselves (or their squad mates) blown up. it had become complete chaos, and skye forced herself to listen just to katia, taking her focus away from rooster and her father for a moment.
"shit, i'm out of flares!" the voice brought her out of her previous focus on solely katia. rooster's jet was barely visible to skye from where she was, but she could pick up that there was a missile following after him. and he was out of flares.
skye and katia's plane was already moving the opposite direction, headed towards the aircraft carrier. the mission was done, after all, they were about to go home. to celebrate. skye was about to hug rooster again, to tell him how much he meant to her. and yet he was out of flares, and there was nothing she could do from her distance to help him.
"rooster, evade, evade!" maverick encouraged.
"i can't shake 'em, they're on me!" rooster replied.
in the matter of a second, maverick had moved in front of rooster. the missile collided and burst, and maverick's flares formed a halo around rooster's jet. and then there was a second burst of an explosion, and all skye could make of it was flame.
"mav, no!" she heard.
"dagger one is hit!" phoenix yelled. "i repeat, dagger one is hit!"
skye felt herself stop breathing. she didn't think she was blinking, either. she was simply stuck there, hovering over the ground. she was completely void of thoughts, only wondering what she'd just seen happen. it wasn't real, it couldn't have been. there wasn't any possibility of maverick's plane getting shot down. he was pete mitchell. he was maverick. it wasn't possible.
to think that seconds prior, she'd been worried about rooster. now it was her father whose plane had gone down.
"dagger one, status. status!" rooster called. "anyone see him?"
skye could tell that the two other planes were skirting the terrain in search of wreckage, but she couldn't bring herself to follow them. she was merely hovering in time and in space.
"skye." katia said from behind her, attempting to bring her back to reality.
"does anyone see him?" rooster was continuing to ask. "dagger one, come in!"
"i didn't see a parachute." bob said.
"he's down there." skye said, though it came out as more of a blind belief than a fact. "my father is down there, and i'm not leaving him."
rooster was even more adamant. "we have to circle back."
"you have bandits headed for you." an order came through. "all daggers report back."
"what about maverick?" was rooster's immediate reply.
"we can't leave him down there on enemy territory." skye agreed, trying with everything in her to shove her tears down before they swelled in her eyes.
the last voice skye expected to hear sounded through her ears. "dagger spare request permission to launch and fly air cover." hangman said. if she hadn't been so shocked and horrified, skye would've been more touched by his request.
"negative, spare."
"dagger, you are not to engage." a final order sounded. "repeat, do not engage."
"dagger two, dagger three, return to carrier. acknowledge."
skye had been given a direct order.
her jaw clenched, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she turned her joystick, moving her jet back around. "acknowledge." she forced the word to come out.
"dagger two." the voice came back. "dagger two, return to carrier. dagger two?"
"rooster," bob sighed," he's gone. maverick's gone."