"This is gross."

Edward Houck complained about the food. I patted his back and said, "Don't worry, laddie, you'll soon get used to it. I've been living on this for five years."

He gave me an even sourer look of surprise and scandalize. "What the - " he spat out all contents that was in his mouth. "Five years?"

Tyrell Thompson and Danny Roberson sniggered at the other side of our table. I compressed laughter and said in a deadpan face I tried to make, "Yeah, kiddo, five whole years. It'll make six two months later."

He stared at the plate of food miserably. "Five years?" he echoed.

"Trust me, the other dishes get nothing better than this," I said in a sympathetic way.

He gulped hard and looked towards the kitchen.

Danny couldn't restrain himself anymore and bursted out howling with laughter. "For god's sake, man, don't take it so seriously – that's just a stupid little prank!"

Edward stared up. I started guffawing and Tyrell explained through chortle, "She told you in getting the worst dish – the food here in the air force base except this are actually spectacular."

"Okay, I apologize for tricking you, I'll get you another better dish," I patted his shoulder as he glared at me in rage revengefully. I left the table and headed for the kitchen, and got another way better dish.

"There you go – eat up!" I said cheerfully. Suddenly my pocket beeped.

"Oh my god – okay, Tyrell, gear up and we have work to be done."

"Jo – Jo – wait!"

Tyrell ran and attempted to catch up with me, huffing and puffing all the way behind.

"Wow, jelly legs, train your speed!" I laughed as I turned and stop for him.

"You've – huh – gotta be – kidding me," he stopped in front of me, trying to catch his breath. "I just had dinner! We need time to digest! And even if we're summoned you don't need to be in such a hurry!"

I punched him hard on the shoulder and he yelped. "I'm a year older in experience than you, so don't bargain with me. When I say go and you'll come with me."

"Jeez, that fucking hurt, man," he moaned and complained as he clutched his shoulder hard and massaged it. "You needn't punch me so hard. I know you're strong, dude."

"C'mon, I'd hate to kiss Colonel Williams' ass," I scoffed. "If we don't hurry, wait and see, it'll be a harsh one."

I turned and ran at a slower pace so Tyrell could catch up with me easily. And soon we arrived at command.

"Johanna Grace and Tyrell Thompson reporting, sir," I said as we arrived.

"Ah, yes, Captains," Colonel Williams turned and said. "We've got an unidentified inbound infiltrator entering our airspace, about 20 miles to our north. You'll check the aircraft."

"Yes, sir," I replied and dashed back into open air.

I entered one of the F-22s in base as Tyrell entered the other. I started up the engine and flew it away, and soon enough I saw it – a F-16C.

"Tyrell, you copy?" I called through the communication device as I flew to the right of the jet while Tyrell went left. "Can you tell me if you can see the jet's identity code? I saw nothing. Over."

"Then that's creepy. I saw none too. Over."

"Son of a bitch…" I cursed lowly. "I'll call back to command, you stick to the son of a bitch's ass."

"This is Johanna Grace, reporting to command. Unidentified aircraft confirmed to be a F-16C, and we couldn't find its identity code. Over."

A short while later I received this message: "Captain Grace and Captain Thompson, please escort the unidentified aircraft back to base. Over."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "That's awesome work. The most idiotic mission ever!" I said in fake dismay through the two-way radio to Tyrell. I turned my jet and stayed close to its right, and escorted it back to base.

"Yeah," he replied through a half-laugh. "That's totally… WHOA!"

He broke his sentence as the F-16 suddenly paused in midair and we went ahead of it. Then with a loud, long blast I realized that jet was attacking us.

"No, no, it got me!" Tyrell yelled through the radio. I looked over to him while I turn, and the left back flap was hit down, and his plane was slanted to a side. Then the F-16 turned its aim towards me.

I took control over my jet and avoided the series of attack frantically. "Command, you copy?" I cried through the communication device. "Grace and Thompson are under attack! Request air support!"

BANG. My left flap got hit and was half-damaged, and I started to return fire at full strength. To both my surprise and horror, the jet received full attack but no damage was made.

And at the same time my F-22 started to lose height and slanted to the left at a dangerously high speed. "Grace is hit! Please send help!" I yelled through the radio, and within seconds I made a cowardly decision in my point of view – I punched hard onto the emergency escape button.

The glass cover of the plane over my head opened and my seat was shot straight up with great force – along with me screaming.

As soon as I started to fall a parachute ejected from the seat, slowing down my dropping speed. And I braced myself as my falling F-22 exploded below me, engulfed in flames.

My heart raced at top speed. Then another explosion, this time above me sent a brain shock to me. "No, no…" I trembled and flopped around madly.

I descended even faster aside, and finally stopped when the parachute attached to me was hooked onto a tree, and tangled me in the middle of stings.

I decided to stop wriggling around like a madman, and pulled off my helmet. I threw it away and it disappeared in the middle of branches of trees. My braid fell onto my left shoulder as I looked up. Not the slightest sign of any planes, or even a bird.

It was dusk already, as I could see the sun setting at the horizons. I started to worry about my own personal safety.

I struggled hard to reach my hand to my left boot, which was an uneasy task, as both my hands and legs were hung in the strings attached to the parachute and me. After what seemed forever I finally grabbed hold of the knife hidden in my left boot and started sawing and cutting the parachute off me.

As soon as I broke free from the parachute I fell hard onto the ground back first, which send sensation of stabbing pain straight up my spine. I groaned and managed on my foot, and staggered around.

Not even the tiniest idea of where I was dawned on me. It seemed that I was trapped in what seemed like a forest, and I couldn't be sure if there were any immediate threats.

I reached for the GPS in my survival vest, packed with all kinds of applicable tools in my situation, and turned it on. "Screw this," I muttered, as the screen showed that the satellites couldn't detect my location.

I thought of using the map and compass in my whole set of equipments in my suit, but the truth was that I wasn't even sure where I was hit by the F-16. In other words, I was alone and lost in the middle of nowhere.

I forced myself to move around, to investigate what could be found or used. And half an hour later, I did find something – my downed jet.

The beautiful yet deadly designed fighter jet had nothing but a pile of metal waste left. Nothing was left. I was hopeless.

I slumped down onto the ground. I was hopeless of surviving.

Despite the inevitable fact I lighted my spirit up with 'what if…' questions. What if I finally can make it back? What if they're actually searching for me? There were thousands of possibilities in the world.

That's when I thought of Tyrell. Tyrell... where was he? Was he also downed? Could he be... no, he's tough, he's as live as he could be...

A chilly breeze blew my way and I shuddered. Even having layers of suit couldn't keep me warm for long. I ignited a fire with some matches in my pocket, and started it with branches I could collect. Then I popped a flare, hoping someone could see poor little Jo's location.

As soon as I sat down I started to feel dehydrated as I slouched against a tree. Then five seconds later the little while of harmony was destroyed as I see a comet – or rather a fireball flew my way, and landed about a mile to my left with a KA-BOOM and an earthquake.

As soon as the ground stopped shaking I stomped my foot hard and started screaming like a havoc, "GOD! IS THIS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME YET?! I'M LOST AND YOU STILL WANT TO MAKE FUN OF ME? THIS-IS-NOT-FUNNY!"

I panted and I could feel my cheeks heated up with rage and blood pounding angrily in my ears. This was like an insult: it seemed like God was feeling, oh, this little chick wasn't suffering enough. Now let's give her a bit of 'excitement'.

Despite my anger I couldn't help from feeling a little curious of what fell from the sky. I took a lighted branch as a torch and extinguished the fireplace. Then slowly I paced towards where the fireball landed.

I hid behind a tree as I reached it, and immediately extinguished the fire as it moved.

And with a bit of moonlight I saw it. It moved and I could hear metal clanging, and what appeared to be a super massive robot rose to its feet…

It was a transformer.