Little Bird

16

Nic' s PoV

When we arrive at training the next morning, Phoenix gives me a smirk telling me we are going to be talking later. We all find our seats and wait for Mav to arrive.

After about 10 minutes of waiting we all get a bit worried, then the door opens at the back of the room and in walks Cyclone and Warlock.

Cyclone is the first to speak, "Captain Mitchell is no longer your instructor." He gives a short pause before continuing. "And as of today there are new mission parameters."

We all look around at each other confused before Cyclone points at the board behind him that has the mission simulation on it.

"Time to target is now 4 minutes. You'll be entering the valley at a reduced speed, not to exceed over 420 knots." There is a long silence before Bob voices the question running through everyone's minds.

"Sir, won't we be giving their planes time to intercept?"

"Well lieutenant, you have a fighting chance against enemy aircraft. What are the odds of surviving a head-on collision with a mountain?"

Phoenix and I make eye contact, both obviously nervous about the new mission plans. Cyclone continues, "You'll be attacking the target from a higher altitude, level with the north wall. It's gonna be a bit harder to keep your laser on target, but you'll avoid the high- G climb out."

Coyote turns to us in the row across from him and Hangman and whispers, "Will be sitting ducks for enemy missiles."

The monitor behind Cyclone then starts to beep signaling a jet and Cyclone whips around. "Who the hell is that?"

Suddenly a voice comes through the comms radio in the back of the room next to Hondo.

"Maverick to range control. Entering point Alpha. Confirm green range."

"Uhh, Range control. Uhh, Green range confirmed. I don't see an event scheduled for you sir." Range control seems a bit confused about what is happening.

"Well I'm going anyway."

Phoenix lets out a chuckle before commenting, "Nice."

"Setting time to target, 2 minutes and 15 seconds."

That causes a record scratching silence in the debriefing room.

"2:15? That's impossible." Payback calls.

"Final attack point. Maverick's inbound."

All we can do is sit and watch the simulation follow Mav's jet as he flies the course, the timer on the side counting down.

"Popping in 3..2..1.. Bombs away!"

We all sit there, completely still, no one daring to move as we watch the missile drop and the G counter rise.

A few seconds pass before I jump up and yell, "Bulls-eye! Holy shit!"

The timer stopped 0.16 seconds from zero, and Cyclone looks pissed. I look at the G's pulled and go wide eyed at the 10 staring back at me. Hangman is the one who voices everyone's thoughts.

"Damn."

Cyclone takes off down the hall in a fury, Warlock following close behind trying to hide his smirk. All of us gathered around by the board looking at both the time remaining and the G's pulled to complete the simulation.

"See guys, it can be done." I say looking around.

Rooster still looks nervous, "Still, look at the G's he had to pull to succeed though. Have any of you pulled that before and not passed out?"

"I have." Bob starts quietly. "Technically." He says scratching the back of his neck. "The pilot I was flying with before this was kind of a dumbass. He wasn't fully paying attention to what he was doing and drifted too low during a drill. He had to pull up pretty fast and hard to avoid colliding with the mountain. It didn't feel great but it is possible."

I turn to look at him, "Ok I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing you almost collided with a mountain because of a pilot not paying attention. I'll need a name after we are through here. But see Roost, it's totally doable."

Rooster shook his head while Hangman decided to put his two cents in. "Yeah come on Roost." He laughed.

"Hangman shut up before I break your nose again." I roll my eyes and turn towards Bob who is failing to hold in his laughter.

The door in the back of the room opens, cutting off all laughter and Warlock walks through.

"You are all to report to your jets for final training in 10 minutes." With that he turned and walked back out the door.

We all turn and look at each other one last time before walking to our jets and beginning preflight checks.

The first group to go up today was Me, Payback, and Fanboy. We were quick in the air and hit our target within the allotted time, But I clipped the tip of the mountain in the climb out.

When we landed I was frustrated with myself and walked quickly away from the tarmac, not talking to anyone.

The next group to go was Phoenix, Bob and Hangman. Hangman being himself tried to just fly as fast as he could, and ended up missing the target because he didn't wait for Bob to get the laser locked.

The next group was Rooster, Harvard and Yale. In their flight they hit the target spot on, but were 10 seconds late to the target.

Group after group we each got better, but no one had a perfect run. By the end of the day everyone had improved on small things, but we all still felt defeated.

After being dismissed for the day, we all make our way to Hard deck, wanting to sulk a bit. When we arrive, we find Maverick and Penny there with a table big enough for all of us toward the back with a white screen pulled up.

"What's this Mav?" I ask slowing down to a stop next to him looking at the screen with curiosity.

"Well you all seem to be sulking like a bunch of puppies who just got kicked, so I figured you could use a bit of fun before we ship out tomorrow." He smiles back, throwing his arm over Penny's shoulder.

"So what is this supposed 'fun' we will be having?" Phoenix asks, walking towards the front of the group.

"Well after a bit of convincing, Penny is closing the bar a few hours early and we are having some Karaoke fun." Maverick responds with a big smile.

"Alright! That's what I'm talking about!" Payback yells before pulling up a seat.

Rooster is the one to kick it all off with Great balls of fire. This gets everyone on their feet and their blood pumping. Once Rooster's song comes to an end, Hangman and Coyote are up next.

No one seems surprised when 'Im sexy and I know it' starts to play. They put on a full production for their song and have everyone falling over with laughter.

After their song comes to an end Payback and Fanboy are pulling a reluctant Bob up to the screen with them. Phoenix plops herself into the vacant seat next to me as we watch a terrified looking Bob try to keep up with Payback and Fanboy as they sing Fergalicious.

The trio has the whole group laughing harder than before. Fanboy tries to get Bob to dance along, but all he manages is to get Bob to slightly sway back and forth.

As the song comes to an end, Bob rushes off back towards his seat that Phoenix is still in. Phoenix stands up as he skids to a stop and offers his chair back to him, still laughing. Then Phoenix takes a turn singing Shania twain's Man! I feel like a woman.