She's a fighter, not a lover // A Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw story

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"Time is your greatest enemy." My dad started, I looked at the screen behind him which wrote three minutes. "Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams. You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target." The screen changed while my dad still spoke "Radar-guided surface to air missiles defend the area. These SAMs, they're lethal." The screen changed showing the narrow canyon we'll have to go through again. "But they are designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below." My dad finished, looking at the screen behind him.

"That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try to fly below them." Rooster chimed in, he wasn't wrong flying that low in a canyon was kind of insane, but that definitely won't stop my dad. My dad turned to face Rooster "That's exactly what I'm going to train you to do. Your altitude will be one hundred feet, maximum." My eyes met Phoenix's and Bob's as they both looked back at me, probably thinking exactly what I was. This is insane. "You exceed this altitude the radar will spot you and you're dead." My dad looked at me, I nodded indicating I understood.

"Your air speed with be 660 knots minimum, time to target: 2:30 minutes." My eyes widened suddenly a little intimidated by the time and the speed. "That's because 5th generation fighters wait at an air base nearby, and a head to head with your F-18s, you're dead" He explained, I took a breath and leaned forward in my chair a bit. My dad looked at me "that's why you need to get in, hit your target, and be gone. Before these planes even have a chance of catching you." I looked at ahead and saw Hangman look at Rooster, I sitting directly behind Hangman and decided to kick his chair a little.

"This makes time your greatest adversary." My dad spoke, then I stuck my boot up on the back of his chair pushed my boot into it. Nobody else realized what I did but Hangman for sure did. He turned around to look at me and I met his eyes. I made a 'what' looking face and then stuck up my pointer finger, spinning it around indicating that he should turn around. He did in fact turn around "You'll fly a route in your nav system that simulates the canyon." He paused, than began again, "the faster you navigate this canyon, the harder it will be to stay under the radar of these enemy SAMs." I began to feel nervous and picked at my nail.

"The tighter the turns, the more intensely the force of gravity on your body multiplies, compressing your lungs, forcing the blood from your brain. Impairing your judgment and reaction time." I took a breath just thinking about it, "So for today's lesson we are going to take it easy on you. Max ceiling: 300 feet, time to target: three minutes. Good luck." I looked down at my feet. "Head to your planes, you are dismissed." My dad said, I stood up and was immediately stopped by Hangman.

"It looks like your apology last night was all bullshit." He angrily said, everyone was going to their planes so we were all alone. "Hangman I want you to promise me something, I'm being serious." I stated seriously hoping he will listen to what I have to say. He looked at me, then sighed "fine, what."

"Can you promise me that you will stop messing with me and Rooster. We're a team." I asked kind of sounding like I needed to be assured by him. I didn't need to be assured by him, but I did need him to promise me. "You are now saying that we're a team but you are the one that slapped me yesterday." Hangman spoke anger slipping from his mouth. "I said I was sorry, fine I'm not doing this, see you up there Bagman." I huffed walking past him, I didn't make it very far when I heard my dad call me, pulling me away from my path to my plane.

"Legacy, I heard that you slapped Hangman, that's not appropriate, I would ask you to sit out for today but we can't miss a day of training. Also you're with Rooster for the first set of training today" He explained to me. "Yeah I did, but I had my reasons." I told him and then crossing my arms over my chest. "It's inappropriate, I hope you said sorry. Also today's training is difficult, I need you to be careful up there" He said, " I did, don't worry, but we all are committed to get those mission spots, I think we need a team bonding practice because none of us are really acting like a team." I mentioned to him, hoping that he's understanding what I'm saying. He looked down at the ground and I walked forward running to catch Rooster.

"Guess whattttt" I spoke loudly in a sing-song voice as I approached Rooster. "Mhm?" He hummed looking down at me. "I'm your wingman to start today." I smiled at the fact that he was smiling too. I wrapped my arm around his so our arms were locked. He looked at our arms confused as we walked. I'm really just trying to lift my own  spirits because I'm kind of freaking out. I began to skip but not fast enough to unlock our arms, we used to do this as kids. We would link arms and skip around all day, down the sidewalk, in the house, and even when we went out to eat somewhere.

"I'm not doing that." He laughed at me, "Never said you had to lieutenant." I told him as we reached our planes, I unhooked our arms and did a two finger salute causing a huge smile to form on his face. I turned around and gripped my helmet tightly feeling my nerves kick in. Nerves are a natural human thing, although I've been doing this job for several years I still get nervous. Today the nerves really kicked in, it's going to be a hard day.
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Super sorry this took long to get out. OKAY BUT 4K READS THAT IS INSANE!!!! Thank you all for the support and hopefully I will the next part out this week. Also more Y/N and Rooster to come, (the beach scene is going to be so cute between these two, at least im going to try to make it cute.) I love you all!