She was alone in the desert skies. Four unknown assailants rushing at her fighter from all directions as she flicked the control stick around, looping, banking, climbing. They managed to bait her into fighting at high altitude where their aircraft would have more room to maneuver around. Which they did. Two of them banked, forming a wide circle in an attempt to bait her into chasing while the other two disappeared into the clouds.

Unwilling to play any more games as the fight dragged on, instinct took over as she dived at full throttle, the four assailants then promptly reforming their formation, chasing after her. 

And apparently the pilots were not paying attention to their altimeters, two of them crashing face-first into the swirling desert sands as she pulled the nose of her fighter up, pushing the throttle to full, the strain of the high-G maneuver pushing her down in her seat as the jet's airframe vibrated under the strain. 

A fifth blip appeared on her radar, rapidly approaching her fighter as she levelled out, intending to meet the new assailant head on, keeping her eyes on the other two, who then promptly backed away, keeping their distance, as to not intervene in the coming showdown. 

Assailant number five closed in, both its aircraft and hers rolling over, the cockpits facing each other as they merged. And as time seemed to slow down, she squinted at the pilot, whose visor was raised as he then glared back at her. 

Major Xu Minghao. Her former flight leader. Former partner. 

Both planes rolled away as she looped around, intending to shoot him down. But he out-maneuvered her beyond her expectations and now the tables had the former PLAAF pilot as she was now the hunted, her former flight leader latching on to her tail and staying latched on.

Familiar with his flying style, she decided to cut and run, unwilling to prolong the dogfight. She jinked left, right, attempting to throw off his lock and not give him any chances to take a perfect shot. 

But he took it anyways, the heat-seeker missile cutting through the clouds and slamming into the rear of her fighter.

Flames away at the fuselage as she pulled and pulled on the ejection handles on her seat to no avail. The instruments died in showers of sparks as the flames reached the cockpit, her hands still fruitlessly tugging away as the seat's rockets failed to fire. 

-

She found herself running down a corridor. The walls were white but the lighting (or lack thereof) made everything look washed out in a shade of grey. Clocks lined the walls, top to bottom. The incessant ticking already echoing inside her head.

She didn't know how long she kept running, or how she even started running. All that mattered now was to run as the sounds of clattering boots echoed through the hallway behind her. 

She stumbled and fell. 

Falling. Falling. 

And she found herself in a chair, both arms handcuffed behind her back. Gagged and blindfolded. She heard a door open. Then a hand (or was it a pair of hands?) grabbed her by the cuff of her flight suit. 

Dragged, Handong felt herself being dragged. The ticking seemed to get louder, punctuated by voices speaking in Mandarin. 

A blast of heat seared her as she felt the blindfold being ripped off, along with some of her blonde locks. A kick in her lower back made her drop to her knees as she looked up at the figures surrounding her. 

Her former squadron mates. Minghao, the leader. Junhui, Quankun and Meiqi. All of them glowered at her as she looked up, glaring back in defiance, even as Minghao raised a pistol, pressing its muzzle against her forehead before pulling the trigger. 

-

Handong's eyes fluttered open. She sank back into her bunk with a deep sigh. She had seen her death in her dreams many times. Mostly involving a firing squad or being hanged by a People's Liberation Army tribunal. But today was different. She knew that it was a sign. Probably Minghao had caught on to her trail already. 

The first part of the dream felt so real. She could feel the heat of the flames surrounding her. She could feel the air being cut off from her lungs. 

And before her eyes could close, she reached for a bottle of water on the bedside table, sitting up before splashing some of the cool liquid on her face, drawing in a deep breath after, burying her face in her hands. 

If she was fated to die out here in the desert then so be it. 

At least I'll die free.

-

Ismail International Airport.
Azadistan City
Republic of Azadistan.

A dark grey transport plane circled the airport, its escorting fighters peeling away as it made its final approach. From his window, Major Xu Minghao gazed out at the desert, staring at the undulating dunes, the tell-tale pitch change of the engines powering down indicating they were about to land.

Finally. He leaned back in his seat, the jolt of the transport's wheels hitting tarmac giving him a strange sense of relief. The three hour flight out of Djibouti proved to be extremely monotonous, the incessant droning of the plane's engines proving to be a not-so-subtle form of torment for him. 

Which is why he was the first to dash out of the plane and immediately regretted it, the hot desert air searing his skin and lungs. Already, a welcoming commitee of Azadistani Army troops stood to attention, saluting in unison as Minghao (who had managed to quickly regain his composure) and the pilots of his squadron walked down the runway. The eight pilots were then quickly ushered into a waiting truck before being shuttled over to the far end of the airport terminal. 

-

"Major Xu."

"Colonel Zhang." He reached out, shaking the hand of the officer in front of him. Colonel Zhang Yixing was Minghao's direct superior officer, who'd been the first to transfer over to Azadistan, on behalf of the People's Republic as the commander of the contingent that was to fight on the side of the rebel forces in Asran. It was he, who Minghao had contacted the night Handong took off in one of the squadron's spare fighters.

With a nod of  acknowledged, Yixing motioned for the eight pilots in the meeting room to take their seats.

Immediately, Yixing went to close the door behind them, glancing theatrically in both directions as he then locked it, before turning back to the eight pilots in the room with him. 

"Welcome to Azadistan, ladies and gents. You lot already know why you're here." He glanced at the eight faces around him who then proceeded to take their seats. 

"And as you all know, we had a traitor in our midst. I won't go into any more detail as Major Xu has briefed you all on your new objectives. But I am compelled to inform you lot that there is one more reason why we must capture Lieutenant Han dead or alive."

He the projector in the middle of the table, then pressed a few keys on his laptop in quick succession. Immediately, all eyes were fixed on a clip of CCTV footage, showing a certain blonde pilot in a server room, pulling a data drive from its terminal and stuffing it into her flight suit's pocket.

"This was taken less than half an hour before she stole that J-10 and deserted. That drive holds one out of five backup copies of the data on Project Tianlong. The Asranians will have no use for it but if she decides to keep running, she will most likely hand that drive over to the UN forces stationed in the Republic of Krugis."

"But sir, isn't Tianlong already in its final stages?" Quankun had enquired, to which Yixing nodded towards Minghao to continue explaining. 

"If I may. Project Tianlong may be nearing completion but if the UN gets their hands on the backup copy, it may spell disaster as many of the member superpowers will attempt to match Tianlong. So once you get your hands on the data drive Lieutenant Han stole, either return it intact or destroy it if damaged or decrypted." 

"Now on to your first mission." Yixing's fingers worked fast. Immediately the image from the projector changed into that of a map, showing the border between Azadistan and Asran, followed by color-coded arrows; blue to indicate the movements of the anti-government forces across the border, with red to indicate the movements of the Asranian government.  

Both red and blue arrows criss-crossed over a patch of land which was filled with rolling hills and a bunch of rock formations. 

Yixing then ran a laser pointer over said patch of land.

"Alright. So this stretch of no-man's land here is known as Airspace X-1, also known as The Crucible. It's seen lots of aerial engagements between the anti-government and pro-government forces. As of now, the airspace is in control of anti-government units. Your mission today is to patrol this airspace. If any intruders try to shoot at you, you may shoot back. Keep in mind that this will not be a walk in the park. Alright. That's the end of it. Any questions?" 

"What will we do for planes?" Someone had asked. It was Meiqi.

"Planes? To maintain cover, we'll be using J-7s for now. All the roundels will be removed. If the rebels get their hands on more advanced aircraft, we'll have your J-11s shipped over. As for now, we only have a limited number of J-7s available. So Captain Meng, 1st Lieutenant Zhou, 2nd Lieutenant Cheng and 2nd Lieutenant Wu will be flying on this op."

"Any major threats we should watch out for?"

"Yes. The mercenaries from the government-held air base Area 88 have been known to make incursions into the Crucible. Watch for an F-20, an F-14 and a squadron of 5 F-5Es." 

"Any more questions?"

There was a collective silence in response.

"Alright. Get to your planes. I am expecting you to be in the air within 10 minutes. And remember, no Mandarin."

-

Back at McCoy's hangar was where Handong found herself, enquiring about a plane she could rent. Surprisingly, base security let her out without a guard this time. The hawkish old man led her down that familiar row of tarpaulin covered planes before pausing, pointing out the sleekest-looking jet in the left hand row; a Mirage F-1C with a two-tone camo of dark green over desert yellow. 

Another round of negotiations over price and she then rolled her eyes before handing over a wad of cash, grumbling under her breath at nearly three quarters of her savings gone just like that. 

-

This is sure taking a while. Hanbin scratched the top of his head before turning back to his keyboard, typing in lines of code as he attempted to crack into the data drive's encryption. Handong, Mino and Taehyun peering over his shoulder while Junhoe slumped over the table in a deep sleep. 

Handong watched Hanbin work, eyeing the flashing strings of numbers, symbols and letters. She was gifted in a lot of things but the kind of coding and commands Hanbin was using was still a black art to her. 

"Any luck?" Mino leaned closer, only for Hanbin to push him back as he kept his eyes on his laptop screen. "No. This kind of encryption is a totally different ballgame than simply tapping into one of the base servers. I'm gonna let this decryptor do its work. If it fails, I'll run another one."

"Take as long as you need. I need this decrypted one way or another." Handong sat down, leaning back, watching Hanbin from the other side of the table as he worked. 

He then pushed his seat back, stretching before wiping the sweat off his brow.

And before anyone could say any thing more, the sounds of a guard banging on the barracks door jolted everyone. 

Commander Vashtal had a new mission for them it seems. 

And as Hanbin turned back towards his screen, he saw a string of red letters, telling him that his decryption attempt had failed. 

And as he got up, he typed more code, activating another decryptor program before he and the rest of the Outlaws stepped out to meet their guards.

-

Handong sat in the front row in the briefing room, the rest of the Outlaws on either side of her as someone dimmed the lights, Commander Vashtal pointing out a spot on the map on the board in front of them. 

"For today's mission, we will be conducting an assault mission near the Azadistan border. You will attempt to retake the airspace on grid X-1, aka The Crucible, currently under rebel control. You will draw out their fighter force and engage them in battle. More Asranian Royal Air Force squadrons from Area 81 and Area 85 will be joining the fight if it drags on.
You'll be expected to face fierce resistance from rebel squadrons stationed within the Crucible. You have permission to defend yourselves as you see fit but make sure no rebel fighters escape over the border. Last thing we need is to start an incident with Azadistan, even though they're harboring rebel pilots." 

He then adjusted his shades as the lights went back up in brightness.

"The time has come for your skills to be tested." He nodded, turning to the Outlaws after.

"And as for you five, there are those that are starting to see some form of redemption in you. Do well on this mission and the bounty to drop your penal status will be given a big, fat discount. I trust you will not disappoint us. Especially you, Koo."  

Junhoe shrank back in his seat as the base commander's gaze fell on him.

"Time is of the essence. Scramble now. Outlaw Squadron will be the first in the air while the other teams will launch after.

-

Asranian air space X-1

'The Crucible'

30 miles from the Asran-Azadistan border.

12:16 pm

A formation of F-5s, followed by a Mirage F1 in tow streaked across the desert. Some distance behind them,  an F-20, an F-14 and a flight of Mirage IIIs tailed the penal squadron at a higher altitude

The flight of 11 pressed on, their aircraft flying in close formation, close enough for each team to appear as a single fighter on enemy radar. 

"This is Base Command, callsign Sparta. We're tracking you through the early warning radar network as our AWACS aircraft is still undergoing repairs." Commander Vashtal's voice was distorted by static. The Crucible's hills hid several large veins of minerals with magnetic properties. At lower altitudes, the magnetic field generated from the mineral deposits would affect any radio communications. Therefore whichever unfortunate soul that had to eject in the Crucible often had to wait for days, if not a week, for rescue.

"Alright. You will be divided into three flights for this. Outlaw team will be known henceforth as Alpha team for this operation. The rest of you will be Bravo team."

:"Alpha lead, copy."

"Bravo lead, copy."

Many pilots from Asran considered the Crucible as the grand stage where all pilots performed. No ranks or affiliations to hinder them, the only real rule of engagement in the Crucible was to survive. 

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Commencing radio silence. Godspeed."

 Silence fell over the double formation as they crossed over the circular plateau of mountains below that gave the Crucible its name. Each fighter pushed the throttle, going to full afterburner as the formation then split into six groups of two planes each. 

Hanbin flew with Mino on his wing. Chanwoo paired off with Junhoe while Handong and Taehyun paired off with each other. 

Overhead, two more fighters joined the formation, a Harrier and an F-104.

"Alright. Breaking radio silence." Commander Vashtal broke the silence, his voice crackling from the interference. "We're picking up bandits on our radar. You have permission to fire at will."

Finally. This was starting to get boring. Handong's grip on the throttle and joystick tightened, her lips parting in a sly grin as she eyed the approaching blips on her radar screen.

"Alpha Five to all planes. Looks like it's party time.