Chapter Text
Veronika “Osprey” Novikov once loved her country. She was as nationalistic as one could get, disillusioned with grandeur for fighting for her nation. Wanting to take the land and blood of their neighboring countries for the good of hers.
Those days were long gone, replaced with only flying for survival against a nation that was astronomically impossible to beat at their state.
It all started with the US aerial bombing campaign they commenced after they invaded their neighboring country. The uranium enrichment facility was their last hope in turning the tide of war. Veronika, however, didn’t care for that anymore. She needed a way out, to be set free of her country, leave and never return.
She got her wish when she spotted the downed American pilot snooping around in her hangar trying to start up her plane. Veronika kicked away a tool box, pulled her pistol out, and pointed it towards him.
The American pilot froze as he slowly turned around with his hands up saying something in English that she couldn’t really understand. Taking in his appearance the pilot was tall, at least a foot taller than she ever would be. Widened brown eyes stared at her and then her pistol.
“Don’t shoot…” the American pilot said slowly while backing away from her slightly.
Veronika just stared at him for a minute or so before coming up with an idea. An idea that would either end up with her escaping or dying. But with the distraction that the American planes pulled it was just enough time for her to get out of dodge. She just needed the downed pilot.
Rooster had been in a lot of shit before, however, this took the absolute cake. He was shot down, he’s behind enemy lines, and worst of all one of the pilots for the tomcats has a handgun pointed towards his face.
He expected to get his head blown off within the next 30 seconds. Rooster’s made peace within himself during that time, he saved Mav and completed the mission. What more could he ask for?
A thickly accented female voice, however, pulled Rooster from his thoughts and into reality. “I help you in… escaping…. You help me escape.”
Rooster blinked, “Say again?”
The enemy pilot responded by getting closer and shoving the gun in his face. She nudged her head in the direction of the generator to the left of them before putting her weapon down.
“I’m gonna start the ground electric power… wait for this to hit 120, I’ll give you the signal to flip the switch up. Once the left engine starts, disconnect everything and pull those keychains for the weapons.”
She started to climb up the ladder towards the cockpit. He couldn’t help but wonder why she was helping, but Rooster wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Hey, Store the ladder for me!” Rooster nodded and stored the ladder as she hopped inside the front seat. He could see her flipping switches before she made a signal with her hands.
Rooster flipped up the switch up and eagerly waited for
the engines to start.
Veronika looked down at the bottom left and held the switch that started the left engine. There was a loud bang as it started to come to life.
She watched as the American pilot ran up to the plane to disconnect everything. Veronika once she deduced enough time had passed held the switch down on the right side. A second bang was heard as the American pilot climbed into the back seat.
“Oh my god this thing is so old!” The female pilot heard him yell. She ignored him and started to taxi out the hangar. “How are you gonna get this thing into the air! We destroyed the entire runway.”
“Your people shouldn’t have destroyed it then!” She yelled back, lowering the canopy.
Rooster huffed, “Shouldn’t have been makin’ nukes then!”
Veronika shook her head and looked down at the wing sweep button. She pushed the lever forward and waited for the wings to come out.
She heard a thump on the canopy glass and looked over to see the American pilot's face on it. “Wait, what are you doing? This is a taxiway not a runway .”
“Live a little.” Veronika responded with. The Tomcat's wings extended all the way as she pushed the throttle forward.
The American pilots face contorted into confusion, “Oh my god don’t tell me you-“
The plane jerked suddenly before starting to take off. Veronika flipped the take off flaps on and pulled the stick up. The Tomcat barely made it over the fuel silos as the front landing gear was removed forcibly.
She reset the wing sweep and the Tomcats wings started to fold in as she climbed into the sky. Veronika laughed as this was it, she was getting out.
CVN-72 USS Abraham Lincoln
Warlock stared at the radar screen, “What do you mean he’s airborne?”
“Sir, he’s going supersonic and heading towards our position.” The person manning the radar explained in disbelief.
Cyclone and Warlock exchanged looks, “What’s he in?”
“Sir, an F-14 Tomcat.”
“What…? Get Maverick.”
“ Can you call your fellow Americans and talk to them?”
Rooster fiddled with the controls in the back of the aircraft, nothing seemed to be working properly. “Everything’s dead in this hunk of junk. Walk me through how.”
The pilot in the front seat glanced over towards him. “I don’t know, that was my RIOs seat.”
“Ah, well, names Rooster. Thanks for getting me out of this mess.” Rooster heard the pilot in the front seat laugh. “Hey, it’s an amazing callsign!”
“I’m not laughing because of that.” She explained, “… Ok I am laughing because of that. But my call sign is also a bird, it's Osprey.”
They sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Osprey piped up again, “What bearing is your ship?”
“Direct south, keep heading the course you're going and you should be able to see it.” Rooster started to look around the back seat and tried to find the radio.
“Just flip up the radio switch or something.” Rooster heard her say.
He sighed as he looked over to see a dozen switches. “I can’t! There’s like a dozen of the- aw shit… Hey! Uh, Osprey. Tally two 5 O'clock low.”
Veronika didn’t understand anything that came out of his mouth. “What?”
“Look to our right! We’re in a lot of trouble right now.” Rooster said as he started tapping the glass towards whatever he saw.
She looked over and she froze. Flying in formation next to her were two SU-57s. “Блядь, put your mask on! They won’t recognize you.”
Veronika saw the lead pilot doing hand signs “What does that mean?” She heard Rooster say.
“They want us to follow him.” Veronika did a couple signals with her hands.
Rooster looked back at the flying SU-57s. “Ok, what are you saying now?”
“That our radio doesn’t work and that we were ordered to intercept the American planes.” Veronika huffed as she flipped the master arm switch to on.
Her heart rate increased dramatically. She knew they wouldn’t let her leave without a scratch, let her have her freedom.
Veronika would have to fight for it.
She could feel the American pilot’s eyes bore into the back of her head. “Don’t tell me we’re gonna fight them. I’m sure you're a good pilot, but those planes outclass yours!”
Her breath hitched as she eyed the SU-57 coming into a shooting position. “We just need to make it close enough that your people will send a squadron to help.”
Rooster braced as Osprey turned sharply into one of the SU-57s and gunned it down. The tomcat spun as it dove towards the ground.
He looked around and saw the other SU-57 close behind them lining up for a shot. The aircraft’s RWR was screaming loudly in the seat in front of him. Rooster could hear the opposing aircraft’s cannon fire.
Bullets rattled the airplane as rounds pierced through the canopy. Rooster heard a painful grunt in the front of the cockpit.
“Osprey you good?! He’s right on our six.”
Rooster got a, “да! живой!” which he hoped meant she was ok.
The tomcat groaned and wobbled as it did a barrel roll. “He just passed us, get your nose on him!”
The SU-57 dove into a canyon with an F-14 hot on its tail. “Can you get a positive lock?”
Osprey snarled as she yelled back, “What do you think?!”
He could see the airplane slowly outrunning their tomcat. Both of them bobbing and weaving through the walls of the canyon. Short bursts of fire from the F-14 softly shook the cockpit.
However the SU-57 was evading them, rounds from the 20mm always falling short. “Save your ammo Osprey, try and get a positive tone!”
As the guns went silent the sidewinder growled angrily at the Russian made Sukhoi. It took a long fifteen seconds before the sidewinder got a lock. It’s growl turned into a high pitched whine as she launched it.
Rooster looked towards the right and saw it leave the aircraft’s hardpoint. With a trail of smoke behind it, the missile barreled towards the enemy aircraft.
The pilot must’ve noticed this because it immediately pulled up. This gave a target wide as a barn to Osprey who, with the remaining rounds she had emptied into the plane.
Veronika let out a sigh of relief as she saw the plane turn into a fireball. No ejection had occurred, her rounds must’ve killed the pilot, but she didn’t care.
The female pilot banked left and could see the ocean before her.
She touched her stomach where a piece of shrapnel from the Sukhoi’s cannon had hit her. Veronika brought her hand up and it became apparent that she was slowly bleeding out in the cockpit.
Veronika could hear Rooster cheer in the back seat congratulating them and calling her amazing or something like that. She couldn’t really understand him.
Then the aircraft’s RWR had started to come to life again and started to scream at them that someone was locking them. She had assumed it was the aircraft carrier, but one look at it made her heart drop.
The words 57 were staring back at her in bright green. The two digits were close to the top of the RWR so she looked in front of her.
Veronika almost puked because the last SU-57 flew towards them at supersonic speed. She could see a small cloud of smoke appear from one of the pylons of the plane.
“Chaff and flares shoot ‘em off now!” She yelled at her back seater.
Rooster pressed the button conveniently named ‘Countermeasures’ and let loose a barrage of them.
Osprey pulled the plane up and the missile narrowly missed them. She then turned the nose into the SU-57 and fired at it as the aircraft screamed past them.
Veronika just barely missed the SU-57 as it climbed into the sky. Rooster had lost sight of it so she zoomed towards the deck. “Shit Osprey, it's gone. What do we do now?”
There was desperation in his voice, what could they do now? Sticky red fluid stuck onto her flight stick. If they ejected she would bleed out in the water.
But… Rooster would have a chance to get rescued. “Listen Rooster, arm your ejection seat. It’s a little switch on top of your seat, I’ll climb up to a high enough altitude where you can eject safely and I’ll distract him so he won’t target you.”
This was it, the end of the line. All memory of meeting the American pilot and subsequent fight was zipping through her head.
Rooster couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What?… what about you!”
Veronika looked at her wound again, eyes watering, “I got hit from the first attack, I’m gonna die if we don’t get to your carrier.”
“We’ll get there, we can still fight him. I’m not leaving you here.” Rooster said softly, the RWR started to warn them again of a missile lock.
Osprey wiped the tears from her eyes. If she couldn’t get out herself then she would at least try and help someone else make it out. “We’ll have a better chance this way.”
She pulled the aircraft up and soared into the sky. Rooster hesitantly armed the ejection seat. Once she had gotten to altitude she steadied out.
“Eject! Eject now!” Veronika yelled. “Pull the things above you down!”
Rooster did and he awaited the feeling of the wind smashing into his face. He awaited to see the enemy pilot he teamed up with to get shot down. But that didn’t come.
He pulled again, and again, and again. “It doesn’t work, the ejection seats don’t work!”
The SU-57 appeared right behind them firing its cannon and hitting the tomcat's fuselage.
Veronika dove towards the deck once again in a futile attempt to outrun it. “How many flares do we have left?”
“Not enough to make it to the carrier.” Rooster said solemnly.
She started to apologize in her head as she dodged a second missile from the Sukhoi. Say sorry to her deceased squad, to her family, and finally to Rooster. She apologized to him the most. For not being able to make it to his carrier, to his people.
Veronika’s vision started to blur as the RWR started to warn them of their impending doom. Rooster had gotten quiet sitting back in his seat thinking of maverick.
Suddenly as the SU-57 lined them up ready to fire, it exploded into flames. Both pilots had widened eyes and dumbfounded expressions as two F-18s sandwiched them.
The three planes flew in formation for what seemed like forever to Osprey and Rooster. Rooster himself was flicking switches in the backseat to at least try and make contact with the two hornets.
After three minutes of searching he got his wish and turned a dial. He could hear the sound of Maverick trying to make contact with him.
“-ooster!, hey Rooster! Are you there?” Rooster started to cheer again as he looked for Mavericks F-18, “What you did was stupid, what were you thinking?”
Rooster found Mavericks F-18. He waved at him before shrugging.
After a long sigh Maverick started to speak again, “That doesn’t matter anymore, speaking of whic-“
“your pilot knows how to land on a carrier right?” It was Hangman’s voice that finished what Maverick started. While Rooster would never admit it out loud he was relieved to hear it. “Cause that doesn’t look like you in the pilot's seat. Rooster who the fu-“
“You know how to land on a carrier right?” Rooster repeated to her.
Osprey made a noise of acknowledgement and nodded, “it’s… been a while since my country had a functioning carrier, but I think I can do it.”
The female pilot snuck glances at Rooster who was doing a bunch of complicated hand signs and gestures to the two hornets.
After glancing back a final time she could see the massive carrier group in the distance. Her heart rate sped up at seeing all the ships, she’d never been this close before. Any pilot who tried was shot down before they could even see them.
“Good, we’ll wait for them to land. Then they’ll put the barricade up since we don’t even know if this rust bucket can put its arrester hook down.” Rooster watched the two F-18s land before the carrier crew had put the barricade up. “How’s your wound by the way?”
“Hurts, lost a lot of blood.” Osprey said simply as she slowed her speed and descended towards the carrier. “Vision is blurry and I feel like I’m gonna pass out…”
Veronika grit her teeth, the wound hurting was an understatement. It was one of the most painful things she felt in her life.
“Just hold on, we're almost there. I’ll get them to patch you up in no time, it’s the least I can do.” Rooster said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Something in Veronika’s stomach fluttered, “Promise?”
Rooster smiled. “Promise… Now let’s land this baby!”
Veronika beamed under her mask and focused the best she could on the task at hand. The carrier became bigger and bigger until she slammed into the deck. The tomcat screeched as it scraped over it. The barricade that was placed down caught the aircraft quickly before it could slide off over the edge.
Scared as she was, Veronika was excited even more. She was free from the grasps of her country, free from fighting, free from the war.
She was tired.
After all the excitement the wound on her stomach was finally getting to her. Osprey laid back into her seat and couldn’t stop from passing out with a small smile on her face.
She wasn’t conscious to hear Rooster popping the canopy and calling out to her. Trying to shake her awake and call for medics to come get her.