Yang barely has time to spot the anti-air emplacement on the desert floor before it opens fire, ripping into of her A-10C with a smattering of 23mm armor-piercing rounds.

"Oh c'mon, you assholes! Cheap shot!"

Now properly mad, Yang depresses the Bomb Release button on her control stick.

All eight of the A-10's 227 kilogram bombs break loose from their mounts and fall 400 meters before finding their mark. The weapons rip the anti-air gun apart and gouge a noticeable crater in the surface of the desert. Yang looks behind her, over her seat and sees that her bombs have found their mark and that her right engine had taken quite a beating, seeing that it is pouring out black smoke.

The blonde aviator shakes her head to re-focus but is interrupted by Coco's panicked voice over the radio.

"YANG! SUKHOI ON YOUR TAIL!"

Yang doesn't bother trying to get a look at her attacker, instead choosing to release a large burst of chaff and infrared flares and attempt to dodge, only for her plane to barely respond due to her heavily damaged control surfaces.

Seeing that the A-10 is almost completely crippled, the pilot of the attacking Su-27 takes position behind the painfully slow attack jet and obtains a missile lock. Yang has Missile Alert flash on her HUD before her plane is hit by an R-77 missile. The missile blows the right wing off and severs the body of the plane in half, leaving less than half of the plane remaining.

With her plane reduced to scrap metal, Yang grips the ejection seat handle on the base of her seat and pulls with all her strength. She hears a massive bang as the canopy of the fighter is separated from the cockpit. An instant later, Yang feels the force of 1,000 punches on every square inch of her body as the ejection seat is propelled away from the doomed aircraft via a rocket motor.

Now 100 meters from the plane, the blonde pilot feels as if she is kicked in the back by a horse as a compressed gas charge separates her from the seat and deploys her parachute.

With most of the pain and extreme noise over, Yang opens her eyes only to be met with extremely blurry vision due to the intense G-forces. Yang looks up and sees that her parachute is fully opened and has slowed her descent to a crawl. Now more aware, Yang looks around and spots the remains of her A-10 crash into the ground in a massive ball of orange flame.

Yang lets out a sigh at the sight of her plane being destroyed before the Su-27 blows by, very nearly colliding with her. Before her vision can stop vibrating, Coco's Harrier follows, hot on the Sukhoi's tail and fires its two Sidewinder missiles. The pair of missiles impact the enemy fighter in the dead center of its body and completely vaporize the plane.

Now slipping in and out of consciousness, Yang hears Coco's voice in the handheld radio on her shoulder.

"Vulcan five! Come in! Give me a sign Xiao Long, anything!"

Yang wearily touches the top of her right fist to the top of her helmet, the universal 'I'm okay' signal.

"Thank god. Just save your strength, I'll have search and rescue come and pick you up as soon as possible. It could be awhile though. Just hold out, Yang!"

Yang's radio then goes quiet and she spots Coco's Harrier speed off into the distance, back home to get help.

With her eyelids getting heavier, Yang looks down and sees the sandy desert floor rapidly approaching. The blonde braces her legs and slams into the ground, tumbling end over end several times and becoming tangled in her parachute wires before coming to a stop. Yang lets out a small chuckle before letting unconsciousness take her.

Eight hours later, at the crack of dawn, Yang's eyes snap open and she snaps bolt upright in an instant and shifting her vision from side to side. She sees that, for one, she is still tangled in her parachute in the middle of the desert, and that it has been several hours since the crash. The blonde grabs her survival knife from her belt and cuts herself free from the tangled mess of parachute cord.

Yang stands up and starts stretching out to see if she sustained any injuries during the flight as well as remove her helmet. With no major injuries, aside from a few minor cuts and bruises, the pilot hikes up a small hill and takes in the surrounding landscape.

When Yang's eyes adjust to the blinding sunlight, she is completely overtaken by the sheer natural beauty of the desert that surrounds her. Additionally, Yang spots two large columns of black smoke against the lovely blue and pink sky.

After taking a few moments to enjoy the gorgeous hills of sand on a blue backdrop, Yang descends the hill and makes her way to her previously abandoned ejection seat. Yang examines the now bent and twisted seat that saved her life and retrieves a small bag of survival gear to add to her equipment vest's supplies. However, Yang quickly notices something is missing from her gear, or rather two things. Ember Celica.

Now in a state of extreme panic, Yang sits down and re-traces nearly every step she took in the past 48 hours.

"I got the call for the mission, I went to my room, I got dressed, I grabbed my gear, I walked to the briefing room, I walked to the hanger, I met up with… I left them on my dresser."

Yang buries her face in her hands at her own stupidity.

"Good job, Yang. Real smooth."

The weaponless pilot stands and grabs her radio from her shoulder strap and tunes it to the correct frequency.

"Vale AFB, this is Vulcan five, what's the status on my rescue operation?"

After a few seconds of silence, Yang hears the other end of the radio come to life, with the distinctive crackle of gunfire and jets rushing overhead in the background.

"Vulcan five, we are currently under attack from both the ground and air. Your rescue operation is going to have to be postponed. Vale command, out."

The blonde aviator promptly throws the radio to the ground and grips the sides of her head in extreme frustration. Yang closes her eyes and grinds her teeth together.

"Just my luck…"

Slowly calming down, Yang sits on the desert floor and opens her scroll as well as a map of the area. She closely studies the map and sees both the large ammunition depot that she destroyed, and a huge Vacuo air base only a few kilometers away. Deciding to pay the base a visit, Yang folds up her scroll and starts off on a route that takes her past the destroyed ammunition depot.

After a few minutes of walking, Yang walks by the destroyed depot and is met with the smell of burning sulfur and explosive debris. The blonde surveys the destroyed warehouses, gun emplacements and garages that litter the acres of blackened desert. Deciding that there is nothing of value to take advantage of, Yang continues on her lonely hike.

With another hour and a half of walking behind her, Yang lies on her stomach at the crest of a hill carefully surveying the Vacuo air base with a pair of binoculars. Yang watches as a Su-34 Fullback attack jet takes off from the main runway, struggling to get itself airborne with a full bomb load weighing it down. Continuing her observation, Yang struggles to find a way past the three layers of chain-link fences layered with razor wire to get inside the base.

After waiting for nearly 20 minutes for any kind of opening, Yang spots a squad of soldiers clad in three color desert camouflage BDUs slowly making their way towards a chain-link gate in the fence. The blonde aviator flattens herself against the desert floor, stows away her binoculars and ties her hair back, preparing to run.

Yang peeks over the crest of the hill and sees that the distance to the fence is about 300 meters of flat running distance away. As the first soldier reaches the gate and swipes his keycard to disable the lock, Yang leaps up from her hiding spot and runs in a dead sprint for the gate. Crossing the distance in nearly 40 seconds thanks to the downward slope of the hill and reaches the gate just after the last soldier crosses through.

Yang watches in horror as the gate begins to swing closed. At the last second, the blonde dives forward and sticks her right forearm in-between the closing gate and the frame. Yang barely suppresses a scream as the gate is stopped, nearly crushing her radius and ulna in the process.

With a ragged breath and tears in her eyes, Yang stands up and shuts the gate behind her. The blonde aviator rolls up the right sleeve of her flight suit and sees that her arm is already starting to bruise from the impact. Ignoring the pain, Yang looks around her and realizes that she immediately sticks out as a potential intruder thanks to her out of place olive drab Vale Air Force flight suit.

Moving through the next two unlocked gates without any trouble aside from the throbbing, burning pain in her arm, Yang starts looking for a person whose clothing she can steal. Turning back to the squad of soldiers now starting to disperse, Yang considers the only two female soldiers.

The first soldier is stocky and muscular, with similar overall body proportions to Yang, but is several centimeters shorter. Even if the BDU is tailored correctly, she would stick out like a sore thumb due to the poorly-fitting pants and shirt. The second soldier is skinny and slightly taller than Yang but also has bright blonde hair, hopefully adding a layer to her disguise that should hopefully make up for the ill-fitting clothing.

"Huh, some Goldilocks I am."

Yang waits until the taller soldier walks into the divide between two storage buildings, far from anybody else and follows her as stealthily as possible. Yang hugs the corrugated steel wall of one of the buildings, now less than three meters from her target. Ignoring the stupidity and obvious risks of attacking an armed opponent who is wearing body armor, Yang delivers a swift kick to the back of the soldier's knee and wraps her right arm around her neck in an attempt to choke her out.

The soldier counters by driving her left elbow into her attacker's ribs, prompting Yang to release her grip and stumble backwards slightly. With her adrenaline now pumping, the blonde soldier whips around and gets a good look at her attacker, seeing Yang in her Vale Air Force flight suit. Although extremely confused, the soldier recognizes the threat and begins to raise her assault rifle to fire at Yang.

Yang rushes forward and grabs the barrel of the rifle with her right hand and keeps the muzzle pointed away from her. As the two begin to struggle over the rifle, Yang delivers a powerful punch to the soldier's right hand, loosening her grip just enough to be able to rip it out of her hands. As a gunshot would compromise her stealth more than anything, Yang delivers a swift strike with butt of the weapon to the soldier's chest, knocking the wind out of her.

After taking several steps backward and taking a painful breath, the soldier rushes forward and uses her weight advantage to tackle Yang to the concrete, forcing the assault rifle more than a meter out of reach for both of the combatants. The soldier uses her knees to pin Yang's legs to the ground and draws a 15cm Tanto knife from a sheath on her ammunition vest. The titanium alloy blade glitters briefly in the brutal desert sunlight as the soldier uses both of her arms to drive the knife downward.

Alarmed at her opponent's strength, Yang holds back the knife whilst letting out a guttural, throaty growl. With the two women using all of their strength to get control over the knife, the soldier looks up and starts quickly looking from side to side to see if anybody else is around to assist her. Realizing that she is about to scream for help, Yang uses her right hand to cover the soldier's mouth as best she can. In response, the soldier bites down with all of her strength, causing blood to start rushing from Yang's hand.

Yang's eyes flare red as her bleeding hand compresses into a fist and she punches the soldier in the nose, breaking it in a large splash of blood. Temporarily stunned, the soldier stands up, freeing Yang from her position on the ground. Back on their feet, the two square off, Yang with her fists raised in a defensive posture and the soldier holding her knife held in an icepick grip, with the blade pointing downward.

Taking the initiative, the soldier takes a swipe at Yang, the horizontal slash aimed at her attacker's neck. Yang quickly ducks under the strike and throws a pair of punches that impact her opponent's chin and right cheek. Now clutching her injured face in pain, the soldier attempts to re-focus herself before Yang delivers a roundhouse kick, the toe of her boot contacting the bridge of her opponent's already broken nose, knocking her unconscious.

Yang takes several large breaths, hugely surprised at her opponent's close-quarters fighting ability. The blonde aviator wastes no time throwing open the side door to one of the luckily vacant and air conditioned storage buildings and dragging the soldier inside. Thankful that their fight didn't raise any attention, Yang begins to strip her opponent of her equipment and clothing, leaving her in only a pair of compression shorts and a sports bra.

The blonde aviator begins to don her opponent's clothing, making sure to transfer every piece of equipment from her flight suit to her new equipment sling. Additionally, Yang keeps the suit itself underneath the new uniform to make the whole outfit fit slightly better due to Yang's comparatively smaller build. After bandaging her hand and putting on the gloves, the blonde grabs the soldier's weaponry.

Yang inspects the rifle picked up from her opponent and sees that it is an XM8. A highly advanced selective fire assault rifle designed by Heckler & Kotch in Atlas and manufactured in armories across Remnant, the XM8 is used by several militaries and tactical police units. Yang detaches the 30-round plastic box magazine and pulls back the charging handle to inspect the interior of the rifle.

Seeing that the firing mechanisms are perfectly clean, Yang snaps the magazine back into place and uses her left thumb to depress the bolt release, chambering a 5.56mm round. Now armed and dangerous, the blonde flips the safety of her XM8 on and dons the soldier's lightweight combat helmet, making sure to secure the chin straps.

Stepping back out into the intense summer heat, Yang shuts the door behind her and starts walking in the direction of the base's center. Yang attracts basically no attention aside from the occasional glance as she trots down one of the base's many walkways crammed with engineers, soldiers and other personnel. With her disguise seemingly working, the blonde looks at the flightline and sees several dozen Vacuo jets undergoing maintenance.

Of all the jets, one in particular catches her eye, a modernized Sukhoi Su-35S on the opposite side of the runway getting fitted with air-to-air missiles and a pair of drop tanks filled with range-extending fuel. Yang stops dead in her tracks and a very dangerous thought crosses her mind.

"Am I really stupid enough to try this?"

Yang continues staring down the Sukhoi and sees that the plane's pilot is already standing nearby as the ground crew finishes prepping the fighter for takeoff. Yang considers the numerous problems with attempting to steal the plane and fly it back to help her comrades fight off the attack in Vale. Among the many problems include the fact that she has never flown a plane that is so fast and maneuverable, is completely unfamiliar with the controls and might simply not be able to steal it in the first place.

"Hey there, Sandy!"

Yang is bought out of her trancelike state by a male soldier walking towards her with a big smile on his face. Now in full panic mode, Yang glances at the badge located above one of the pockets on her shirt and sees Cpl. Sandra Bishop stitched into the fabric. The male soldier wraps Yang in a close hug and her lilac eyes go wide in terror.

"You doing okay, girl? You don't seem so good."

Amazed that her disguise is still working, Yang's mind goes into complete overdrive trying fabricate a story.

"Ah… you know. Fuckin' desert… I'm just not feeling so good is all."

The male soldier immediately releases his hug on Yang and looks her dead in the eyes.

"What the, I've never heard you swear before…and why are your eyes pur..."

Yang draws the Tanto knife from its sheath and presses the tip of the blade against the male soldier's stomach, just below his sternum while still within hug distance as to not alert any passersby.

"I'll tell you what, if you give me your radio, scroll, and promise not to tell anybody about this little incident, I'll tell you where this Sandy girl is."

The male soldier's face hardens into a grim expression.

"Fine, what did you do with her?!"

Yang presses the tip of the knife further towards the soldier's stomach, although not enough to injure him. The blonde aviator switches to a cheery singsong voice.

"That doesn't sound enthusiastic enough!"

"Finefinefinefine! Just please don't hurt me. Here."

The male soldier hands Yang his radio and folded scroll. Yang attaches the radio to her equipment vest and pockets the phone whilst keeping the knife in place.

"Sandy's in the blue storage building near the south gates. She's probably pretty concussed so I'd get her to a doctor if I were you. Now leave."

Yang watches as the male soldier takes several steps backward before turning and running towards the south gates, disappearing into the crowd. The blonde pilot exhales nervously and re-sheathes the knife onto her equipment vest.

"Hey! Why'd you have that knife out?!"

Yang turns around and sees an officer, a captain, looking right at her with a very serious look on his face.

"What are you talking about?"

The captain points to the sheath on Yang's equipment vest.

"The knife that you had out while talking to that guy. Explain yourself… who even are you?!

Yang's eyes quickly dart to the name patch on her shirt.

"I'm Sandra Bishop."

"Okay. What's your rank, unit, and I.D. number… without looking at your damn patch."

The argument begins to attract attention and within only a few seconds, Yang feels several dozen pairs of eyes on her.

"I'll ask you one more time. Tell me who the hell you really are. We can work this out."

Yang tentatively takes a step backwards as the captain begins to reach for his sidearm as well as several of the soldiers turning off the safeties on their rifles. The blonde pilot switches her XM8 to burst-fire and reaches for her vest.

"Men, take her into custody. Let's find out what she knows."

As the group of Vacuo soldiers take their first steps forward, Yang pulls an M84 stun grenade, also known as a flashbang, from her vest, pulls the pin and lets the spoon release. Yang hurls the hexagonal tube at the captain as hard as she can. The grenade bounces off his chest, lingers in the air for a second, and detonates.

Yang, with her eyes covered, is spared from the blinding flash of light but leaves her ears uncovered, temporarily deafening her. The blonde aviator turns and runs for the Su-35 as fast as possible. As the crosses the tarmac, the ringing in Yang's ears slowly starts to dissipate, she is able to pick up the sound of close by jet engines, very close by jet engines. Yang glances to her left and sees a MiG-29 slowly lumbering towards her.

Without thinking or aiming, Yang shoulders her XM8 and fires a pair of three round bursts into one of the engine intakes. The six rifle bullets strike the compressor fan and wreak complete havoc on the delicate engine, causing it to completely tear itself apart due to the massive amount of fast-moving components. This prompts a massive fireball to erupt from the engine and the plane to slowly veer off the runway.

With the fighter out of the way, Yang continues her sprint toward the Su-35, only for several bullets to whiz by her and strike the ground near her feet. Yang wastes another few precious seconds turning around and taking a crouching position. Properly sighting in the XM8's integrated red dot sight, she fires four more bursts toward the group of soldiers, doing her best to disperse her rounds amongst the crowd.

Although Yang is no sharpshooter, she manages to temporarily keep the group at bay with her spray of bullets. With the plane and its crew only 40 meters away, Yang continues her sprint and sees that the crew has drawn weapons of their own and are preparing to fire. Before she can even think about pulling the trigger, the pilot of the Su-35 opens fire with his P90 submachine gun, hitting Yang once in the center of her ballistic vest.

The sheer impact of the 5.7mm bullet contacting the armor nearly cracks one of Yang's ribs and causes her to lose her footing and fall forward, sending her chin crashing into the blacktop. Doing her best to ignore the awful pain, she brings her XM8 to bear on her attackers and flips the selector switch to full-auto. Yang squeezes the trigger and fires until the rifle clacks empty. The large burst of rifle bullets wounds three of the attackers including the pilot, who takes a round in his unarmored side.

Dragging herself up from the ground, Yang's eyes go completely red and her hair begins to ignite. The infuriated blonde ejects the empty magazine, stabs in a fresh one and depresses the bolt release. Moving quickly, Yang sees that the pilot is using the body of the Su-35 to keep himself upright with his other hand still clutching his P90.

Without breaking stride, Yang launches a perfectly aimed punch that impacts the pilot's cheek and knocks him to the ground. Yang rushes past and grabs the pilot's helmet and oxygen mask before doubling back for the cockpit ladder. The blonde aviator scrambles up the ladder and plops herself down in the cockpit.

Amazed she has gotten this far to begin with, Yang flips on the safety of her XM8, lays the rifle on the floor of the cockpit and puts on her newly acquired helmet. Snapping down the visor and attaching her oxygen mask, she looks around the cockpit in a panic and spots a control panel on her left labeled Master electrical controls.

"Heh, god bless the idiot proof Air Forces of Remnant."

Yang flicks all the switches, activating the plane's electrical systems in the blink of an eye. The plane's cockpit lights all light up and flash in perfect synch for a few seconds before the pair of touchscreen control boards on the center console spring to life, displaying a number of engineering settings and commands. Yang jabs the 'Quickstart Engines' button, ignoring the several warning prompts of problems that can occur from forgetting to perform pre-flight checks.

"Okay, little Sukhoi, let's see what you've got."

Within the span of a few seconds, the Su-35's pair of massive Saturn AL-41F1S engines begin to spool up, producing a roar that completely engulfs the surrounding area and the still-open cockpit. After searching for a minute, Yang hits the brake release and feels the jet start to move forward. Yang looks across the tarmac and sees dozens of troops, as well as half a dozen armored vehicles amassing in formation and pointing towards the Su-35.

Yang grabs the control stick and moves the jet so that the nose, and by proxy, her gunsight, will sweep just over the heads of the group of Vacuo soldiers. Quickly thumbing through the pages on her control panel's touch screens, she finally arrives at the weapon manager. Yang quickly jabs a button on the touchscreen and the words GUN RDY flash once on her helmet's HUD.

Just as the gunsight begins to cross over the group, Yang squeezes the trigger, firing 50 rounds from the plane's GSh-301 autocannon. The burst of 30mm ammunition forces the group of soldiers to flatten onto the ground as two of the armored vehicles are shredded. Yang closes the plane's canopy and opens up the throttle as the Su-35 continues its turn onto the runway.

The group of Vacuo soldiers open fire, peppering the fighter jet with small-arms fire. Yang flinches several times as the bullets fail to penetrate the heavily reinforced canopy. Realizing that the plane can only take so much punishment, Yang pushes the throttles to maximum afterburner.

Yang is flattened into the back of her seat, stunned at the plane's incredible acceleration and engine power. The Su-35 reaches takeoff speed in only a few seconds and Yang pulls back on the control stick, sending the plane leaping into the air.

"Holy crap this is awesome!"

With the plane's engines putting out enough thrust to nearly accelerate upwards at a 90-degree angle, the Vacuo air base soon becomes a small grey splotch in a vast and featureless desert. Yang very delicately manipulates the control stick to level out the plane at 10 kilometers, struggling with the fighter's three-dimensional thrust vectoring giving her unbelievable maneuverability.

Now free from immediate danger, Yang inputs the coordinates of Vale central AFB into the Sukhoi's navigation systems and shuts off her afterburners to save fuel. The blonde aviator takes a large breath and holds her hand out in front of her. Yang sees that her hand is unconsciously shaking violently with her thumb's joints twitching without her control.

Yang activates the plane's radio and tunes it to the correct frequency.

"Vale air traffic control, this is Vulcan 4-5 of the 21st fighter squadron of the Vale Air Force. Do you copy?"

"This is Vale air traffic control, go ahead Vulcan five."

"I'm currently in a stolen Vacuo Air Force Sukhoi Su-35S moving at 300 meters per second heading towards southwest Vale. I'm going to assist our forces under attack at Vale central AFB. Please alert all of the forces along the way that I'm a friendly."

"Roger that, Vulcan five. When you get closer to your base you'll meet up with Avalanche squadron, the 111th TFS, you know Colonel Weiss Shnee, Right?"

Yang breathes a sigh of relief, hearing a familiar name.

"I do. I'll meet up with the 111th as soon as possible. Vulcan five out."

Yang shuts off the radio and de-activates her radar to avoid her plane's signals from getting picked up by enemy sensors and settles in for the three-hour flight home.