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It's been a long 3-hour flight. 

"Approaching Filipino airspace." The pilot at the head of the formation, Captain Tuan, broadcast to the remaining aircraft. The southern-most area of the South China Sea had mostly been under ASEAN control, so the flight to the Philippine mainland had been relatively uneventful and remarkably chatty. Doing nothing the entire 3 hour would perhaps drive people insane. But now that the message was broadcast, chatters cut off immediately. "Lotus Squadron to Manila. This is aircrafts of the VPAF, would you kindly allow us to land at your strip for some pork belly?"

A moment of silence lingered the captain's cockpit, before the request was answered. "This is Commander Darna, thank god you are finally here." The woman sounded a lot less amused. "You are welcome to land, but there's not any time for food. We will need you in the air as soon as possible."

"What's going on?" The captain asked.

"Lingayen is under heavy bombardment. It may be overrun any minute now." Her reply was grim. 

Tuan briefly glanced down at his terminal. "I assume they needed a bail then?" 

"Affirmative."

"We still have quite a bit of fuel left. We can head north immediately." 

She was silent for another few seconds. "Permission granted. Second Lieutenant Noel Alonso is in charge. Contact on approach. Good luck and god bless you."

All 8 crafts heard the transmission, and proceeded, in perfect V-shaped formation, to turn North to head towards the battlefield. 

[color=7bcdc8]"[i]Second[/i] Lieutenant?"[/color] Spoke Senior Lieutenant Hoang Van Cuong, piloting the third aircraft on the left side of the formation. The emphasis on the ranking is because he technically outranked this guy. [color=7bcdc8]"Don't tell me this guy's in charge of the city's defense."[/color] 

[color=ed1c24]"How much are you guys willing to bet..."[/color] A voice echoed both in the comm channel and right behind him. The only foreign-blooded pilot of the squadron, and Cuong's co-pilot, Lieutenant Nikolay Phan. [color=ed1c24]"That this guy is also a kid. Out of every junior officer possible"[/color] 

"No way..." Another pilot replied. "Dinner's on me tonight if he even is [b]one[/b] year below 18."

[color=7bcdc8]"Tch. That's not as good of a bet as you might think."[/color] Cuong replied, slightly amused. [color=7bcdc8]"As insane as it sounds."[/color]

[color=ed1c24]"So you're on my side then, Cuong?"[/color] Nikolay replied. 

[color=7bcdc8]"Whoa whoa, I never said I wanted in on your gambling spree."[/color] He retorted from in front. [color=7bcdc8]"My money's precious, ok?"[/color]

[color=ed1c24]"Come on, it's food! And it's the Philippines. Better have a free meal while we're still here and alive to."[/color] 

"Alright alright, settle down." The captain commanded. "We'll be in Lingayen in 10 minutes. Contacting the city."[hr]
<< Thank you [@Letter Bee] for contributing to this section >>
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The plane contrails left an uneasy sight for unaware ground forces and volunteers below. Despite being told they were friendlies, they looked nothing like allied jets. In fact, they were Russian jets. Eight [url=https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/01/1024x512/landscape-1483469070-gettyimages-540052796.jpg?resize=1200:*]SU-30MK2[/url] over the mountains, coated in azure paint with [url=https://media.istockphoto.com/vectors/lotus-flower-icon-vector-vector-id901041370?k=20&m=901041370&s=612x612&w=0&h=j5SfhJZOjBPx_m-LdtGgyA56EG3uL5xS8gCXHLCtw6w=]pink lotus emblems[/url] on their tails, flew in from the south. No Filipino fighters intercepting them, none flew with them either. They just waltz in like cars in an empty parking lot. 

Noel, who were in the middle of fighting in the Wall of Light, heard a strange accent came over his comm. 

"This is Captain Tuan of the VPAF's Lotus Squadron. Is this Second Lieutenant Alonso?"

Noel stopped firing his submachine gun to answer the radio, saying, "Lotus Squadron! You came at the right time! Enemy airpower is being focused on the municipality behind us, while we have reason to believe that an Arms Master is being used to aid their conventional assault from afar. If they burn down our fallback position," aka the municipality of Lingayen, "We'll have nowhere to go should the Wall of Light fall; would you guys mind culling the enemy bombers?"

"Understood." The captain replied curtly, hearing the gunshot in the background.[hr]
"Alright comrades, you hear that?" He said, switching frequency back to the pilot's. "Climb to nine thousand."

[color=ed1c24]"I hear free dinner~"[/color] Nikolay excitedly spoke. No confirmation until they meet the guy, if ever, but if that voice was any indication, this boisterous co-pilot likely won the bet. 

"I hear free dinner too!" The same pilot that made the bet also said. "Look at that." 

It wasn't the bet he was referring to, however. Above the squadron, thirty, no, fourty aircrafts, flying in a rather...familiar formation. At least to the squadron. This was exactly what they were doing in Vietnam 11 months prior. Flying close and massing numbers. It did work pretty well here, since there were still no signs of the Philippine's air force yet, and electronic countermeasure could go some ways against ground anti-air. But oh are they in for a big surprise...

"Split up, we'll do a 'double attack'." Captain Tuan called over the radio. "Lotus 2, 3 and 7, follow me. We'll go first. Lotus 4, you're in command of the second group. Commence assault!"

"Roger!" The pilots replied. 

Four aircraft immediately broke loose from formation, spread out and began to make rapid ascension towards the bombers. Some broke straight through the clouds right into missile range of the enemy formation. Chinese jets were caught by complete surprise and barely responded when the first SU-30 loosed 2 missiles into the Chinese bombers, sending the monster slowly tumbling to the ground in flames. The second one that followed shot down an escort jet that strayed too close to his line of shot. Both climbed above the Chinese formation only to dive back down with their cannons. The third one did not have a good angle so it subsequently missed their armaments. The fourth one approached from a much shallower angle, but allowed a missile to cleanly bag a bomber. 

Meanwhile, the remaining 4 SU-30s lurked beneath the clouds below. The food tonight looked increasingly tasty.