You're lucky I'm a private person
I've quietly carried your burden
And everyone thinks your an Angel
But shit I'd probably use different wording
°。°。°。°。°。
Anastasia was thankful for her upbringing . It brought her to be where she was
Today. A lieutenant in the navy with the natural talent of a Mitchell and the lessons from kazansky she was practically unstoppable in the sky.
She worked hard to get herself to where she was today. She was proud of herself and didn't stop working to get where she wanted to be. She learned in life that she needed to teach herself mostly everything Because she couldn't rely on anyone in her life.
The only constant in her life was iceman, and his family. They were always there for her even if she pushed them away as hard as she could, she learned eventually that they were her chosen family and nothing she could do would make them love her any less.
°。°。°。°。°。
Training started later today , maverick deciding to cut the team some slack with the early wake up calls , he knew he hated those in his Topgun days.
Anastasia sat in the middle row of the room, this time Phoenix sat with Bob her back seater , rooster sitting at the front by himself and hangman and coyote across from him. The other pilots sat in the back two rows.
"Time is your greatest enemy" maverick started the class "phase one of the mission will be a low level ingress attacking in two plane teams. You'll fly along this canyon to your target." He paused to look at everyone , not one of them seemed scared , interested maybe but definitely not scared.
"Radar guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area , these sams are lethal" he continued "but they're designed to protect the skies , not below the canyon"
"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to fly below them" payback butted in , out of all the people in the class Anastasia didn't think he'd be the one to shout out.
"That's exactly what I'm going to train you to do. On the day you're altitude will be 100 feet maximum, you exceed this and the radar will spot you"
"Time to target is 2 and a half minutes. That's because 5th generation fighters will be waiting at a base nearby. Going head to head with these fighters in your f-18 and you're dead"
The faces of the class started at him intently , hanging into his every word. This mission was one they might not come back from and they were prepared for that.
"You'll fly a route in your nav system that recreates the canyon , the faster you navigate this the easier it will be for the radar to spot you"
Maverick droned on about more information that the team would need for todays activities, explaining to them that the force of gravity would compress their lungs, forcing the blood from their brains and impairing their judgement
Everyone had their own issues with the activity that had been set up for them. Sitting back in the meeting room maverick looking at them all "why are they dead?" He looked at Phoenix
"We broke the 300 foot ceiling and a Sam took us out" payback spoke. Phoenix looked over at payback and fanboy , the teammates that 'killed' her
"No why are they dead" he spoke again , keeping his attention on payback.
"I slowed down and didn't give her warning , it's my fault" payback spoke again only to be interrupted by maverick
"Was there a reason you weren't communicating with your team?" Maverick spoke again keeping his eyes on payback
"I was focusing on" payback started again but maverick cut in once again
"One that their family would accept at their funeral" Anastasia was a little shocked at the morbid twist training had taken. She knew the risks of this mission but didn't see the need in this much harshness
"None sir" payback quietened down, feeling a little deflated now.
"Why didn't you anticipate the turn?" Maverick moved onto his next victim "you we're briefed on the terrain , don't tell it to me tell it to her family" maverick looked briefly at angel who did an eye roll
"I flew as fast as I could , kind of like my ass depended on it" hangman replied , he didn't think it was his fault that his wingman's aircraft didn't make it, he seen that as a problem of angels.
"And you put your team in danger , and now your wingmans dead" maverick continued on calmly
"They couldn't keep up" he shrugged it off , but he didn't know that he was speaking to angels father. Only rooster , Phoenix , Angel and maverick knew that.
"As long as you're alive at the end of the day everything's fine right?" Angel muttered from her seat, but it was enough to get hangman to turn his head
"Yeah and we all know you don't have the best track record of keeping people alive" Anastasia's head whipped towards hangman, getting herself out of her seat going towards him.
Getting in one good punch to hangman's face before rooster pulled her back "how dare you bring her up. You have no right! None" Anastasia shouted towards him , still trying to get out of roosters grip.
Maverick had a hold on hangman, he didn't think that he would be so stupid to go for her. Rooster and Phoenix both got a better grip on Anastasia, taking her out of the meeting room whilst the rest stood there
Taking her to a separate room, Phoenix stood at the door whilst rooster took Anastasia further into the room, he let her go and she began angrily pacing in the room.
"I can't believe him" she began speaking into the room, not actually speaking to her teammates. "The nerve of him. Almost everyone has lost a wingman or a backseater at one point" she threw her hands up in frustration
Rooster knew she had lost her last backseater , that's how they ended up falling out all those years ago. Angel was on a mission and they ended up getting shot down, they couldn't eject in time and her backseater ended up dead.
Angel got let off with a few minor injuries , cuts and bruises. Her biggest regret that day was not anticipating the shot and not avoiding it.
Phoenix knew about the story too. It was the first deep conversation angel and Phoenix had once they became friends. Phoenix had encountered a eject situation and whilst they were talking about it , Anastasia decided to give advice by using her own experiences.
A knock at the door made Phoenix open it to see maverick standing there , Anastasia stopped pacing in the room looking at the door. It was the last person she expected to see at the door , well maybe second last. The last person being hangman.
He walked into the room and Phoenix took that as her cue to leave , she knew rooster wouldn't be too willing to leave her so shut the door behind her.
"Anastasia" maverick spoke softly , he didn't know the story behind what made his daughter go for one of her teammates. "Can we talk about what just happened"
Rooster turned to look at Anastasia. She turned to look at rooster and nodded , he took that as his cue to leave, shutting the door behind him.
Maverick took a seat on the couch and Anastasia took one across from him. She didn't know what the conversation here was going to be about , but knew it was going to segue from what just happened to them.
"What was hangman talking about back there?" The conversation started light , like Anastasia expected.
"Back when I was on a tour. I didn't anticipate a missile and my jet got shot down. We couldn't get ejected in time and ended up crashing. My back-seater , didn't make it. I however got let off with a few cuts and minor injuries, ever since then I've flown alone. Her parents blame me and I do too. I could've avoided it if I was just quicker" Anastasia explained. This was the third time she had told this story, she didn't know how Jake knew about it but pilots did like to talk after all.
Maverick sat and listened to her. He didn't know much about his daughter and that was partly his fault. He was taking penny's advice and was going to use this opportunity to explain everything to her.
"He shouldn't of brought that up. And I understand why you punched him , but in future it won't be allowed. Things like this get people kicked off missions or deployed to other places" maverick tiptoed around the subject.
"Come on, we all know you're dying to ask me something , or tell me something" Anastasia was slowly becoming her usual self , her anger moving to a mix of sadness and anger but now directed at maverick instead of hangman. it wasn't solely because their history but he was currently the closest person she had no quarrels with letting her anger out on.
"I just wanted to tell you I was sorry. Sorry for never being there. Your mother and I, we had a difficult relationship. She gave me a choice , a choice that she would go or I would. I decided it would be better for me to go, a child needs a mother more than her father and I got deployed on a mission. I regret it now but your mother wouldn't let me see you , I tried I really did" he explained to her.
Anastasia had a few tears in her eyes "it wasn't me" she whispered to herself , relieved. She wasn't as mad anymore , she was even more mad at her mother, she lied to her this whole time about what really happened with her father. she was upset that she had missed out on so many years with her father because of another person's actions.
Anastasia shut her eyes tightly not wanting to cry in this moment. She was just so relieved that it wasn't because of her. Yes , it would take time to even decide if she wanted to entertain having maverick in her life. But she finally got some closure.
the pair both knew that one conversation wouldn't automatically make them a dynamic father and daughter duo, but it was the start of a string of conversations that would bring them closer.
[authors note]
Hey guys!! Another chapter. I wanted to settle the daddy issues earlier on as it just tends to drag out most of the times and there isn't any closure. I decided to do that earlier on just to focus more on the story aswell.