"last night was great"

~~~~~

maverick was in the front of the room teaching us as he talked "time is your greatest enemy, phase one of the mission will be a low level attack with two teams" he stepped in front of the tv screen "you'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target, radar guided surface to air missiles to defend the area. the sams will be lethal"

the photo on the screen changed and maverick continued talking "they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below"

rooster cut in, stating some facts "that because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below"

"that's exactly what i'm going to train you to do" maverick said and i immediately look behind me at hangman with a shocked and confused face, he gave me the same back to me

"today your altitude will be 100 feet, maximum. if you exceed this altitude the radars will spot you and you dead" mav exclaimed "your air speed will be 660 knots, minimum. time to target is two and a half minutes"

he then started to explain why the time was what it is "the time is two and a half minutes because fifth generation fighters will wait at a airbase nearby, in a head to head in these f-18s you dead" he said "that's why you need to get in hit your target and be gone before these planes have a chance of catching you"

he looked at the screen then back to the rest of us and said "this makes time your greatest enemy"

~~~~~

phoenix and bob followed closely behind coyote and i, i have to admit we were going a bit slow

"time to target is 1 minute and 30, we are 2 seconds behind. increase to 490 knots" bob said into the helmet

"we gotta move scout" phoenix said to me calmly

"copy increasing speed now" i says but coyote yelled out before i could and that made phoenix fly up above me "shit"

~~~~~

"why are they dead?" maverick asked the four of us

"the sams took us out, we broke the 300 foot ceiling" phoenix spoke loudly

but maverick eyes coyote and i "no why are they dead?"

"i slowed down and didn't give them a warning, it's my fault" i told him

"was there a reason you didn't communicate with your team?" mav asked me

"coyote yelled so i was focus-"

i was cut off by maverick "what excuse will their family accept at the funeral?"

"none sir" i replied and he then looked at phoenix

"why didn't you anticipate the turn? you were briefed on the terrain" he asked her and when she started to talk he cut her off "don't tell me, tell his family"

we all watched the screen as it played the formation of hangman's, fanboys and paybacks turn

"what happened?" maverick asked, looking at the three of them

hangman smirked and started talking "i few as fast as i could, kinda like my life depended on it"

i rolled my eyes at he, he can fire be a dick head

"and you put your team in danger and your wingman's dead" rooster scoffed at hangman

hangman turned his head to him and only shrugged "they couldn't keep up"

"why are you dead? your team leader up there. why are you, why is your team dead?" maverick eyes rooster and hit him with the question

"sir he's the only one that made it to the target" i said out loud, i felt hangman staring right through me head from behind me

maverick then looked at me and said "a minute late, he gave enemy aircraft time to shoot him down" he then moved his eyes to rooster "he's dead"

rooster scoffed "you don't know that" he protested

""your not flying fast enough, you don't have a second to waste" hangman cut in to the conversation

"we made it to the target" rooster exclaimed

"and superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out" maverick told him

rooster straightened up his back "this it's a dog fight"

"against fifth generation fighters?" maverick asked him

"we still have a chance"

"in f-18s" mav fought back

rooster to a deep breath "it's not the plane, sir. it's the pilot"

"exactly" maverick snapped at him harshly

after a couple of seconds rooster started to talk again "there's more than one way to fight this mission"

"you really do get it?" hangman said "on this mission a man flys like maverick here, or a man does not come back"

hangman looked at phoenix and bob "no offense"

bob leaned is arms on the table, looking at hangman "and yet you always manage"

"i don't mean to criticize, your conservative that's all" hangman said to rooster "we're going into combat son, on a level no living pilots ever seen, not even him" he looked at mav

"hangman" i said, warning him

"it's not the time to be thinking about the past" hangman said

"what's that supposed to mean?" rooster titled his head to hangman

hangman only shrugged "i can't be the only one that knows maverick used to fly with his old man, and the maverick was flying when his old man-"

hangman was cut off by rooster standing up and going after him but was stopped by all of us holding them both back. i helped hold rooster back from hangman

"he's not cut out for this mission" hangman looked at maverick "you know i'm right"