Fly With Me // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Six

"Time is your greatest enemy," Maverick says seriously.  The aviators were spending the first part of the day being briefed on the first part of the mission and then trying to fly it for the second half.  As Mav explains how dangerous this mission is, Razor takes a deep breath, while taking notes.  None of them had ever faced anything like this before.  It was nerve-racking.  Even Hangman, who sat beside her, had nothing to say about the mission perimeters, which seemed impossible to fly.

Sophie looked back at Rebound with wide eyes when Mav said that their altitude would be no higher than one hundred feet and airspeed would be six hundred and sixty knots minimum.  His knee was shaking uncontrollably, his tell that he was just as nervous as his pilot.  The speed was one thing, but staying under one-hundred feet too; it was a lot to take in for Sophie.

The anxiety was running rampant through the room as the briefing finally finishes up and the first group got ready to try out the course through their nav system.  Sophie stays quiet, staring at the clock in front of her.  Three minutes.  Two minutes and thirty seconds on the day of the mission.  That was all the time they had to fly through the canyon and precisely drop the bomb on their target.  There was no room for error.  If someone slipped up and made even the tiniest of mistakes, a SAM could take them out or a bandit could intercept them.  One wrong move and the mission would fail.  One wrong move and someone wouldn't make it home.

Sophie feels a nudge on her arm, bringing her out of her thoughts.  "Hey, don't stress too much.  You're a great pilot.  You'll be fine," Hangman reassures.

She nods her head, giving him a small smile.  He's right.  Don't stress.  You haven't even tried to fly the course yet.

Once Hangman leaves to get ready to fly his course, Razor and Rebound go over some strategies for their upcoming run.  Rooster would be their team leader for this exercise, so communication shouldn't be an issue.  They came to the conclusion that as long as Rebound kept his eyes sharp and let Razor focus on the pilot shit, then they should be good.  This course was tough, but it had to be achievable. 

When they were finally up in the air to run their simulation, Rooster started off slower than she expected.  This is a time-sensitive mission, after all.  He was the team leader though, so she followed his lead.

It was when they hit the two-minute mark and they were way behind schedule that she and Rebound started getting frustrated.  "Rooster, we're twenty seconds behind.  We need to increase our speed."

"We're fine.  Speed is good," he replies to Razor's backseater.

Razor kept looking at the timer quickly ticking down.  They needed to move now or else they would fail.  "Rooster, we're not going to make it on time if we stay at this speed.  Increase to five hundred knots."

Rooster could hear the slight irritation in Sophie's voice but had no time to think about it.  He was flying the mission the way he believed to be the safest for everyone on his team.  "Negative, Razor.  Hold your speed."

Razor bit her lip as she made another sharp turn.  The pressure on her body was making her anger amplify.  "Rooster, we're late," Rebound speaks up for her, sensing her frustration.

"We're alive," he says, a matter of factly.  That's all he cared about.  Keeping him and his team alive.  Keeping Sophie alive.  "We'll make up time in the straight away."

"We're not going to fucking make it, Rooster," Razor yells out.  "Bandits will intercept us if we don't increase our speed."

"Just trust me.  Maintain your speed.  We can make it," he ignores them once again.

***

They didn't make it in time.  Sophie was pissed off.  She aggressively takes her helmet off and walks with Rebound back to the classroom they were in.  "What the fuck was that," he asks.  They walked right past Rooster without even batting an eye in his direction.