And then, there’s the added shock of hearing back from them.
So hear me out. I think no one could hear Mav and Brad until Bradley got the radio going. So Overwatch and the ship’s command center did confirm that they were airborne in an F-14 but they don’t hear anything from them until Bradley gets that radio going. So imagine not being able to hear from them. The last Jake heard was Bradley being shot down. He fights to fly and gets denied. When Overwatch reports the F14, he fights to fly again and provide support but gets shot down. And when Overwatch reports one of the bandits flying over the ocean, he is told to be on standby and he swears he would punch Cyclone if he could.
So imagine Jake’s relief when he hears his voice on the radio. And just as quickly, have that relief turn into ice cold fear. Because the first thing he hears over the static of the radio from Brad and Mav is “Oh my god.”
(the transcript is below and this is how I imagine it happened on Jake’s side)
“Where the hell is this guy?”
“He’s on our nose.”
(and please ignore my input but I believe his is the point when Jake says screw it, I’m going, fuck orders. He flies as fast as he can, being able to launch only because Coyote and the rest of the pilots help him. No one else was going to risk their careers to defy orders, but the pilots do)
“Damn it, we’re out of ammo.”
“Smoke in the air! Rooster flares!”
“We’re out of flares Mav.”
(Jake flies faster, pushing beyond 8g, the air frame of the plane can go to hell. he needs to get there faster.)
“SHit, he’s already on us.”
“We took another hit!”
“No no no no no!”
(At this point Jake is pushing beyond 8.5g, he’s flying as fast as he could. He’s not a prayerful man, but he prays to whatever god is looking down on him that day to please let him get there in time.)
“We can’t take much more of this.”
“We can’t outrun this guy, we gotta eject. We need altitude. Pull the ejection handles the second I tell you.”
“Rooster there’s no other way.”
And then Jake hears the words that made him push the plane beyond 9g.
Jake flies fast, but he’s never flown this fast before. He makes it in time, just so. And he has nightmares that he doesn’t. He has nightmares that he misses the missile. He has nightmares about the bandit getting tone a split second earlier. He gets nightmares about Maverick being less of a pilot and that plane going down in the ocean.
And all this time, all he can think about is that the last conversation he had with Rooster was him insulting the memory of his dead father. He did say give em hell, but did that count when Rooster said nothing? No, and all Jake could think about was that he didn’t even get to apologize.
Have I overthought this part from Jake’s POV? Why yes, yes I have. And this is why the fanfic I’m writing is from Jake’s POV because dang it, there’s so much to explore here. The guilt, the desire to get there, hearing all the words above. There’s so much.
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