Great Balls Of Fire | Top Gun - Maverick & Bradshaw

7

SIENNA'S POV

"Shit." I heard Payback mumble as Admiral Simpson had just told us that the mission had been moved up a week.

"Sir, no one here has successfully flown the low level course." Coyote said.

"Nevertheless, you have been ordered to move on." He said.

"Captain." He said and dad walked up on the podium.

"We have one week left to focus on phase two, the most difficult stage of the mission. A pop-up strike with a steep dive requiring nothing less but two consecutive miracles." He said, this was going to be interesting.

"Two pairs of F18s will fly in a welded wing formation." He said.

"Teamwork is essential to both the mission's success and your survival." He said.

"As you know, the target rests between two mountains." He said as it was shown on the screen.

"To maintain the lowest possible altitude you'll invert directly into a steep dive you then roll upright and dive steeply. Your target is an impact point less than three metres wide." He said and we all looked intensely at the screen.

"The two-seat aircraft will paint the target with a laser bullseye. The lead single seat will breach the reactor by dropping a laser guided bomb through an exposed ventilation shaft on the surface. That's miracle number one." He said as it was all shown on the screen.

"Second team delivers the kill shot. That's miracle number two." He said.

"If you can't hold your dive, if you lose your laser lock, you'll miss." He said.

"If either team misses.... you'll fail." He said.

"Egress is a steep, high G climb out." He said as it was shown on the screen how steep the mountain was. Jesus Christ.

"And this is where you will be the most vulnerable." He said.

"This.... is coffin corner." He said and everyone looked at each other, that name doesn't ring a nice jolly bell.

"Should you manage to avoid this mountain you'll climb up straight up into enemy radar losing all your airspeed and boom, the enemy SAMs fill be fired upon you." He said.

"How fast you can dive back down into the canyon will mean the difference between life and death." He said and I didn't know whether to laugh or be gobsmacked.

"A climb like that, at that speed, we'll be pulling at least 8 Gs." Hangman said.

"9. Minimum." Dad said and the looks one everyone's faces were just insane.

"The stress limit of the F18s airframe is 7.5Gs, sir." Bradley said.

"That's the accepted limit." I said and everyone looked back at me.

"You wanna survive this mission? You'll have to pull beyond that limit, even if it means bending your airframe." I said.

"Exactly." Dad said, he kind of looked proud.

"Climbing out of that canyon, you'll be a sitting duck with SAMs coming at you from all directions." He said looking at the screen.