linacruise: loving the ground
45.6K likes
user1: wow!
user2: Tom Cruise did a good job producing that
user3: 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
user4: can't take my eyes off of her
user4: thought aviators were supposed to be buff
jakebloom: soon you will be up in the air again with that goddamn tail on fire
user5: boyfriend?
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user6: colleague
______________________________
LINA'S POV
"Attention on deck!" Admiral said loudly and we all stood up straight as the Chief of Navy and the Chief of Top Gun walked up to the podium. We all sat down and I looked around. Why were the chiefs here?
"Good morning, aviators. Great to see you... all." The Chief of Top Gun said and quickly glanced at me and I looked away.
"We have gotten a mission on our hands, not the type you are used to." He said and I furrowed my brows. What was going on?
"This mission requires one of our best aviators." He said. One? Only one?
"There will be a new production of Top Gun. A sequel. Confirmed a week ago. They need one of you to teach their actors how to fly an F18. You need to teach them how to become an aviator." He said and my eyes widened. Wtf.
"Your responsibilities will include looking over the script so the terminology is correct, put together a program to train the actors to be aviators, be on set and make sure that the scenes look accurate." He said and I looked down at my feet.
"The movie will portray Mission Valley and they want someone who worked on that mission." He said and I sighed.
"We have picked out the aviator most fitting for this mission." He said and looked over at the Chief of Navy.
"Captain Lina Cruise, you will report for duty in two days." He said and I looked up. Wtf.
"Well, that wasn't unexpected." Captain Mark Smith, callsign Hurricane, said with a smirk.
"What is your problem?" I asked.
"When you crash, you get burned." He said and I scoffed. I wasn't burned, just grounded from flying.
"You are all dismissed." Chief of Top Gun said and we all walked out of the lecture hall. My head was spinning. Why hadn't my dad said anything? He basically runs the production of Top Gun. Why me? I had no interest in teaching these kids. I wanted to fly. I wanted to get back up in the air.
I walked angrily into the locker rooms and grabbed my stuff. But not without comments from my fellow aviators.
"Did daddy call in a favour, Maverick?" Hurricane asked with a smirk.
"Not that it's any of your business Hurricunt, but whatever my dad do when he works has nothing to do with me." I said annoyingly.
"Hurricunt, that was a new one." He said, still smirking.
"Whorecane, is that better?" I asked and he chuckled.
"Whatever you say, Maverick." He said and I pushed past him and out of the locker rooms. I walked over to the Chief's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in." He said and I opened the door.
"Captain Cruise, come on in." He said.
"Chief." I said as I walked in.
"I'm requesting to be reassigned." I said and he put down his pen.
"Why?" He asked.
"Because teaching actors how to say "copy that" is not going to get me back up in the air." I said.
"Maverick, it wasn't a question to do this, it's an order." He said.
"You want to get back up in the air?" He asked and I nodded.
"Then report for duty in two days." He said and I felt the anger boil inside.
"Respectfully-" I said but he cut me off.
"Respectfully Captain, the accident has nothing to do with your ability to fly. It doesn't make you a less qualified aviator. You are still at number one. But our health team hasn't cleared you for combat missions." He said.
"And they think and I agree that this is a good step in that direction. You will fly, doing this. You will be up in the air with these actors. You just won't shoot them down." He said and I looked away.
"You are dismissed." He said and I walked out of his office.
The anger was boiling inside.
______________________________
1 MONTH LATER
I looked myself in the mirror and fixed my bun. My flight suit was newly washed and felt crisp and clean. Only ten minutes left until the introduction. My mind wasn't spinning as much as it did a month ago. I was still pissed. While my colleagues were training for a mission abroad, I was going to teach a bunch of numb nuts to fly one of the most superior jets in the world. These son's of bitches had no idea how to even salute properly. And once again did my mind go to my dad. I hadn't seen him since before Mission Valley. It was almost 1,5 years ago. I had my hands full with practicing for the next mission and my dad apparently had his hand full with getting this shit show on the road.
My dad was fearless and a thrill seeker. Did someone say that something was impossible, something inside him lit on fire. And it was the case here. Some numb nut said it wasn't possible for these actors to fly F18's and my dad got to work. And now they aren't just going to learn how to fly an F18, they are also shooting every flight scene in the air. These son's of bitches are going to act, steer a super hornet, make sure the cameras had good angles and lightning, and survive it. Sick bitches.
"We are ready for you." A woman in the production team said and I nodded. I grabbed my folder and followed her out to the lecture all that had a view over all of these powerful super hornets. I looked at the backs of these actors and actresses, I was going to bust their asses in this program.
"And for the exciting part." I heard the director say as he saw me at the end of the hall.
"Actors, actresses. You are probably debriefed on this already but what is so special with this production is that not only are you telling a real story, you are also going to fly these jets. But as you all can imagine, it's not just to climb into an F18 and take off." He said and they chuckled.
"To be able to do this you need serious training. It's not going to be easy, especially because you are doing it under 6 months when the real aviators had a full year." He said.
"During the past month we in the production team have worked with the best aviator in the world, ranked number one, we have put together a 6 month program to get you all ready to fly these jets." He said and I started walking down the hall.
"Let me introduce, the first female captain under the age of 30." He said.
"Captain Lina Cruise, callsign: Maverick." He said and everyone chuckled as my callsign was extremely fitting. They turned their heads with chuckles on their faces as I walked down the hall and up to the podium. I shook the director's hand before placing my folder on the podium and looked out on the bunch of actors and actresses I was going teach these coming 6 months.
"Good morning, future fake aviators." I said and they chuckled.
"These coming 6 months are gonna be the best and the worst of your life. I'm gonna push you to the breaking point. Training to be an aviator isn't something you do in a week. It takes time, effort and hard work." I said.
"You've all read the script, you know how many Gs you will need to pull and without training and proper preparation, g-forces exerted on the body by acceleration can result in illness or a dangerous loss of consciousness." I said and they looked at each other like "what have gotten ourselves into".
"And before I even let you up in the air you will go through a specially designed program to build up your g-force tolerance. You will are eventually going be able to sustain up to 8 G's, or around 1600 pounds of pressure." I said.
"You will workout twice a day in the gym, plus the work you need to put in with the program." I said.
"I will be there every step of the way. I will guide you through it. It's going to be gruelling and painful but I'm sure you all will get through it." I said.
"I will push you through it." I added. I looked over at my dad who smiled proudly and I quickly looked away.
"We will go through following topics, Acceleration/G-Forces, Altitude Physiology, Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device Training, Aeromedical Aspects of Ejection, and Aviation Life Support Systems, before proceeding to Ejection Seat Trainer and Virtual Parachute Descent/ Parachute Landing Fall/ Lateral Drift Training. Then the program will go on to water survival training, in case something goes south up there and you end up in the water." I said and they all looked overwhelmed.
"You will receive approximately 34 to 36 hours of cumulative flight training each, and personalized nightly feedback from me on your progress. You will work your way up from Cessna 172 Skyhawks, to Extra 300s, to the L-39 Albatross, to finally the F-18 Super Hornets." I said.
"Thank you for your patience and attention and welcome, to Aviation Survival Training Curriculum, the ASTC." I said and they gave me an applause, I once again shook the director's hand before grabbing my folder and made me way out of the lecture hall.
"Impressive." Chief said.
"Thank you Chief." I said.
"So, what's first on their agenda?" He asked.
"Getting their strength up, building muscles and increasing their lung capacity. I will take them up in the air in a Cessna so they will get a feel for it. Teach them terminology. Basically, it's base camp." I said and he nodded.
"You will do a good job, Maverick. Make us proud." He said.
"Yes, sir." I said and he walked away. I looked at the clock, I had an hour before I needed to be back.
An hour later and I grabbed my helmet and put on my flight gear. I walked out to the runway where dad and the actors and actresses had already arrived. I walked over confidently and they almost looked intimidated. I signed to my warrant officer Bill to take down the ladder and he gave me a thumbs up.
"That was hot." I heard someone mumble.
"Good morning again." I said.
"Hope you had a good breakfast, soon you will learn how to keep it down up in the air." I said and they chuckled.
"I thought why waste anymore time, let's get down to business." I said.
"Our primary focus right now is to get your strength up, building muscles and increasing your lung capacity, which we will do in the gym. But I wanted to give you some motivation, because I know how hard it can be, working for something. You need something to look forward to." I said and they nodded with small smiles.
"So, I'm going to show you how amazing it can look when you are up in the air, and you are going to strive to be able to do the same when this production is coming towards an end." I said.
"I heard from the Kosinski here that you already have gotten your call signs." I said and gestured towards the director and they all chuckled.
"Usually doesn't go so fast. Call signs almost never reflect on how you are flying but more on how you are as a person or if you just have done something stupid. I have a colleague whose callsign is Blaze, sounds quite cool, right?" I said and they nodded.
"He set the kitchen on fire in the academy. That's it, that's the whole story." I said and they chuckled.
"So, please, tell me your real name, character's name and respective call sign." I said with a small smile.
"I'm Monica Barbaro, playing Lieutenant Natasha Trace, call sign Phoenix." Monica said and I nodded.
"I'm Lewis Pullman, playing Lieutenant Robert Floyd, call sign Bob." He said and I chuckled.
"It's a wussy call sign." He said and I chuckled while nodding.
"Well, Glen Powell, playing Lieutenant Jake Seresin, call sign Hangman." He said with a smirk and I chuckled. Yep, he was going to play a complete ass.
"Danny Ramirez, playing Lieutenant Mickey Garcia, call sign Fanboy." He said. They sure had some interesting call signs.
"Jay Ellis, playing Lieutenant Reuben Fitch, call sign Payback." He said.
"Greg Davis, playing Lieutenant Javy Machado, call sign Coyote." He said. I liked that one.
"I'm Miles Teller, I'm playing Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw, call sign Rooster." He said and I nodded. And last but not the least, pops himself.
"Tom Cruise, playing Captain Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick." He said and I nodded and I saw that Rooster raised his hand like we actually were in a middle school classroom.
"You don't have to raise your hand." I said.
"Nah, I was just wondering. You two have the same last name and the same call sign. Is it a weird coincidence?" He asked and I looked over at my dad. This son of a bitch hadn't told them.
"That's all on you." I said to him with a pleased smile.
"Guys, this is my daughter." Dad said and they raised their eyebrows and their eyes widened.
"Daughter?" Rooster asked and I nodded.
"It quickly became clear in the academy who my father was and which character he had portrayed." I said.
"So, they gave me the nickname Maverick to tease me." I said.
"And that she actually flies like a Maverick is a whole other conversation." Bill got out and I turned around and looked at him.
"You shush." I said and he raised his hands. I've known Bill since the academy, we have worked together ever since then. He knew me better than anyone.
"You do though." He said and I sighed and put on my helmet.
"I'm gonna run you over." I said as I climbed up the ladder.
"Wouldn't be the first time." He said and they all chuckled.
"Just stow the ladder and get out of my sight." I said as I sat down.
"Yes, Captain." He said and stowed the ladder. Dad took the actors to a safe spot with a radio and a screen so they could see and hear everything that went on in the jet, they could even communicate with me. The canopy lowered above me.
"Top Gun Tower, F18 Super Hornet 446, Maverick, ready for takeoff." I said as I had checked all of the systems.
"F18 Super Hornet 446, cleared for takeoff." The ATC said and I started the engines and rolled out to the runway.
"Alright, aviators. Ready to have some fun?" I asked and pushed the throttle forwards and took off in an incredible speed.
"Hooly shit!" I heard Hangman say. I pulled the throttle backwards and lifted up into the sky. I reached an acceptable altitude and I looked out at the beautiful crisp sky.
"Alright, rule number one when you are up in the air." I said as I was breathing heavily.
"Don't think, just do." I said broke a hard right, rolled over inverted as I was free falling, it was an incredible feeling.
"Jesus Christ!" Phoenix said. And before I reached a dangerous altitude, I rolled over and pulled up into a high G climb, I made a loop before pushing the throttle forward and the G forces hit my body like a missile.
"Yeehaw." I said and they chuckled.
I couldn't help but smile.