Danger Zone - Top Gun: Maverick

3. Below The Hard Deck

Nova was up at the crack of dawn inspecting aircraft. Her and the rest of the maintenance crew had to check every plane for errors, and make sure all cables were connected. As a crew was topping off each jet with fuel, Nova drove an F-18 labeled with the name Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell onto the taxiway. This was the fourth plane she's picked up and set out since she got here an hour ago, and the sun was just beginning to rise. Nova was thankful for the extra pair of aviatior sunglasses she kept with her as the orange sky grew brighter and brighter.

Today was gonna be a good day. She hoped.

"Nothing like the sweet smell of jet fuel in the morning!" The girl grins, walking back down the short runway alongside her repair crew.

"You got that right, Mitchell." A friend of hers, Jeremiah, replied. Jeremiah is a Line Service Technician here, so they work together a lot.

"Mornin' ladies!" An aircraft fueler, Sam nods to his coworkers.

"Excuse me!" Jeremiah defends. Nova just laughs and greets the rest of her colleagues. Everyone seems pretty excited about the mission, but Nova can tell that they're also a little on edge. She likes the way they joke around to distract themselves from the danger of their situation. It's comforting.

As she walks through the halls towards Hangar 1, Nova is greeted by almost everyone she sees. Not only is she the only girl working with maintenance, she's also one of the youngest engineers in the Navy, and she worked her ass off at the Naval Academy to get where she is today.

Nova carries a positive energy around, something that is much needed in such a serious work environment. She's always been one to lighten the mood, and although they would deny it, Warlock and Cyclone love having her on base. She really is the princess of Fightertown to say the least.

"Good morning aviators!" Nova enters the kitchen for some much needed coffee.

She finds the Top Gun instructor greeting hilariously outdated, and never wastes an opportunity to say it in her best instructor voice.

"Morning, Mitchell." Warlock nods at her, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Where's that father of yours? Class is about to start." Cyclone asks her.

"Probably off flirting with Benjamin's daughter or something. I haven't seen him since yesterday." She remarks, making all the workers around her laugh. It's no secret that Maverick and Penny Benjamin go through phases sometimes.

"Alright, well we better go brief the mission to these kids. Mitchell, I need you to figure out the required speed for the incline, and roughly what the effect on the planes would be. You up for a little math problem?" Warlock asks her just as Maverick walks through the door.

"Yeah, you said something about the airframe?" Nova's father joins the conversation.

"You're late, Captain."

"My apologies sir, had some trouble with a gas pump on my way here." He grins at Nova, making up a fake excuse just to tease her about Bradley.

The two admirals go into the conference room to talk to the twelve pilots, and introduce Maverick. Nova heads to her office and searches through her computer file with all of the information she has on the F-18.

"Your instructor is a Top Gun graduate with real world experience in every mission aspect you'll be expected to master." Warlock begins his speech, grabbing everyone's attention, including Nova's. "He is considered to be one of the finest pilots this program has ever produced."

Nova listened through the wall, peaking out the side of her door to catch a glimpse of the class.

"I give you Captain Pete Mitchell. Call sign, Maverick." He introduces. Mav enters the room with a hard look on his face. After fully calculating how this mission needs to be flown, Nova leaves the information on her desk for later and joins Hondo in the classroom.