The sound of a jet's exhaust reverberated over the desert floor as a lone fighter streaked across, it's light colored undersides almost perfectly camouflaging it against the cloudless sky as its contrails left a white line across the endless blue. 

The Chinese pilot in the front seat kept her focus on the instruments, her attention turned to the altimeter as they were flying under an altitude restriction while her co-pilot's focus was on a map in his lap. He fought the urge to nod off as he tried to determine their heading on the map, silently cursing whoever it was that restored their Phantom for not installing GPS in it.  Their mission today was to test the defences of an enemy air base that Commander Vashtal intended to raid later, with Area 88's top two aces leading the attack. The Phantom would penetrate the air base's defence perimeter as the rest of Outlaw Squadron

The Phantom was loaded minimally, packing rocket pods on the inner wing pylons while the outer ones had a pair of Sidewinders each, which Taehyun had prepared to jettison as he knew one or two would be defective.

Commander Vashtal somehow always had a mission each day. Handong often heard the other mercenaries grumbling about it, as if it was a bunch of never-ending chores. But she didn't mind, or care. As she had a 1.5 million dollar bounty to pay off so like Shin, the pilot of the blue F-20 she often saw taking off every day, she had decided to take whatever came her way, as long as it paid well. 

-

The pilots and officers surrounding the table stood to attention and saluted as the doors opened. Another pilot, this time dressed in his service uniform instead of the blue and drab flight suits the other pilots wore, stepped in. All of them wore the yellow-outlined red stars of the People's Liberation Army Air Force on each shoulder but the higher-ranked pilot wore on his shoulders a gold star flanked by a gold line on each side, indicating his rank as a Major. The name tag over his pocket read '徐明浩' (Xu Ming Hao)

"Major Xu!" went the chorus of voices as he raised a hand, motioning for all present to take a seat. 

"Ladies, gentlemen." He begun as the lights dimmed down on cue, placing both hands on the table in front of him, his gaze falling over those present in front of him.

"I am sure you all have heard of Lieutenant Han's recent defection by now." He went on. Some of the female pilots present gasped, apparently still unable to process that little fact.

"As you all know, such a major infraction against the People's Liberation Army is never taken lightly. I have taken the liberty of informing High Command. You all will be glad to know that we all will not be punished for her mistake but we now have new orders. We are to deploy into Azadistan as normal to assist our allies in Asran from across the border but we are also to hunt down Lieutenant Han."  He then paused, pointing at one of the female pilots, a dark haired Captain from Henan with the surname Meng, to speak up. And so she did.

"And once we hunt down Lieutenant Han, what do we do?"

His expression darkened as the hints of a bitter smile crossed his lips. This level of betrayal, he didn't take lightly. Cause not only did Lieutenant Han betray everything the People's Liberation Army Air Force stood for by deserting, she had also betrayed him by disappearing suddenly without a word. He drew in a deep breath, releasing a weary sigh before responding to Captain Meng's query.

"Bring her in. Dead or alive. By any means necessary."

"Do we have an idea where she might have run off to?" A young lieutenant, known to the others as Quan Kun spoke up too, as the other pilots turned to look up at him. 

"We suspect she's gone to Asran. Most likely seeking asylum with the pro-government forces there, which works in our favour. We will be fighting alongside the anti-government forces so assuming our hunch is correct, we are guaranteed to encounter her sooner or later. Any more questions?"

"Yes. Major." Major Xu's other wingman, who he called Jun but whose full name was Wen Junhui, had decided to join the 'discussion'. 

"When do we take flight to Azadistan?" 

"In 36 hours. Pack your belongings, ladies and gentlemen as it will be a long flight."

-

The Phantom streaked over a sea of dunes, flying at twice the speed of sound as two MiG-21s trailed behind, attempting to gain missile lock as their quarry flew even lower, attempting to mask the heat signature of its engines against the hot desert sand. 

A warning light on Handong and Taehyun's consoles flashed read, indicating they were being tracked by ground-based radar. There would be anti-aircraft missiles flying at them soon. 

Taehyun's anxiety was already rising. The electronic jamming equipment on the Phantom had decided to give up the ghost as another pair of MiG-21s had decided to join the party, making a total of four hostile planes pursuing their Phantom. Handong remained cool, her focus fixed on ensuring their Phantom wouldn't end up as a flaming wreck in the sand below. 

"How far are we from target?" 

"30 seconds out. Let's make this quick as the odds of us g-"

"Never tell me the odds, anarchist." 

-

The rebel air base that the two outlaws were to spy on descended into chaos as the Phantom flew above, the hastily retrofitted reconnaisance pod strapped to its belly snapping pictures of the base and its anti-air positions. Down below on the tarmac, a flight of Migs preparing for take off exploded in a sea of flames as the Phantom made a low-level pass, buzzing the base's control tower before raking it in a hail of 20mm high explosive rounds. 

The Phantom made another pass, expending its rockets on the aircraft parked on the runway, then climbed at full throttle to meet its pursuers. 

"They got some interceptors up. Looks like MiG-23s." Taehyun observed, watching a pair of planes that looked like darts beginning their take-off run, their wings sweeping back as Handong then rolled the Phantom, allowing the two MiG-21s behind them to shoot past, before she downed one with gunfire and Taehyun downed the other with a Sidewinder that surprisingly managed to explode once it hit the target. 

Jettisoning the empty rocket launchers, Handong turned the Phantom to the West after making a final pass on the base, the recon pod's camera recording still images of the burning runway. She kept the throttles at full, pushing the jet to maximum speed as the pursuing MiG-21s fell behind. 

"We lost them." Taehyun heaved a sigh of relief as he slumped back in his ejection seat, wiping sweat off his forehead as Handong then eased back slightly on the throttles. 

"Hopefully we managed to get away before those MiG-23s got up. Think we earned quite a bit today." Handong eyed her radar screen, noting four blips approaching them head on. The rest of Outlaw Squadron was here, with the main attacking force in tow. The two pilots would then hand over the contents of the recon pod's cameras to Commander Vashtal as soon as they would land, leaving the calculating of their payout to him.

"Hang on. I got a bogey behind us." Handong raised an eyebrow as the warning lights flashed, then a missile alert sounded. 

And before she and Taehyun could take evasive action, and before the friendly pilots could react, a missile detonated under the rear end of the Phantom, shredding its tail as the stricken fighter trailed a thick plume of black smoke. One of the MiG-23s that had managed to take off had launched off a long range missile from its maximum range and had turned east to escape the incoming mercenary force.

-

"Damn the luck." Handong muttered as she reached over her head, pulling the ejection handles as the rockets attached to her seat then propelled her upwards, punching through the cockpit glass. 

"That's the end of Outlaw 5. Eject! Eject! Eject!" Taehyun did the same, ejecting a few moments after Handong, both pilots now drifting downwards towards the desert under the cloudless skies of Asran.