[h1][center][color=lightcoral]Yuna Xu[/color][/center][/h1]

As the squadron dove to just above the deck and extinguished their lights, Yuna felt a particular tension in the air. It was a tension present on any combat sortie, one that Yuna and the rest of Cobalt Haze had felt hundreds, if not thousands of times. To Yuna it was like a warm blanket, telling her that her senses were tuned to maximum and that the air around her and the job at hand were the only things that mattered. She wasn't just used to it, she [i]welcomed[/i] it...but this time the feeling was a little different. It was a feeling she hadn't felt for awhile, certainly not since joining Cobalt Haze. It was a feeling of flying into a hornet's nest, baring your fangs against an enemy that might have bigger ones.

This squadron had performed very well so far, but Yuna felt this operation was its first real test. It was time to prove why she deserved her seat beyond a shadow of a doubt, and she knew that others in the squadron felt the same. There were nerves, sure, but Yuna always said that a little more stakes never hurt anyone, and as the radios crackled back to life she cracked a small smile.

Just another day in the office.

[quote=@Rhona W]
"Skywatch to all Cobalt Squadron aircraft, engage"
[/quote]
[quote=@Smike]
[color=00a651]"Alright then Flight 2, go to work."[/color]
[/quote]

Yuna's radar was already lit up like a Christmas tree, and the picture it painted was grim. [color=lightcoral]"Fuck, 29s,"[/color] she muttered to herself. This was a far cry from the MiG-23s she had just fought over Lampedusa. This was the A-team. There was no time to dwell on it though, and as Yuna tracked a pair of MiG-29s turning towards Peacenik and Brightspark, she sprang into action immediately. She shoved the stick to an intercept vector, punched the afterburner, and selected her R-73E missiles. [color=lightcoral]"Alright, let's do this shit,"[/color] she muttered. She was about to draw the moths to her flame, which was exactly the plan.

She approached the pair of enemy aircraft quickly, her vector perpendicular to theirs. As her lock-on system began hunting, she knew it would only be seconds before she'd get others trying to lock on to her. She had to distract the two heading towards her squadron mates before that happened. One target at a time. Her vector put her behind the MiGs, and once she reached their flight path, she yanked the stick right and slid in a ways behind the two MiGs, hunting for a missile lock as quickly as possible. The lock came in about two seconds, and she punched the trigger the instant she heard a solid tone. She called out [color=lightcoral]"Fox Two!"[/color] as she moved to focus on the other MiG. The first MiG punched flares and broke left, diverting the missile into the flares. Yuna began locking on to the second MiG, but had barely started before the second MiG broke right. She elected to chase the first MiG, and yanked the stick hard left. She had successfully diverted the two MiGs from attacking Fuka and Myk, but now she had two MiG-29s on her ass. [i][color=lightcoral]You win some, you lose some.[/color][/i]

As Yuna began giving chase, she rattled off a radio call. [color=lightcoral]"Peacenik, Brightspark: I'm tangled with two MiGs, got them off your trail. There are more though, watch your back!"[/color] She hoped the other MiGs would be focused on other things for the time being. The three aircraft quickly became tangled in what can only be described as aerial spaghetti. The enemy pilots were clearly competent dogfighters, but hadn't managed to link up a kill shot on Yuna yet. Yuna knew that moment could come at any point, especially as her missile lock warning had been blaring more often than it wasn't. She'd need to pull out all the stops. Just after a MiG made an unsuccessful pass, she punched the throttle, gaining airspeed and allowing the other MiG to get a good look behind her. [color=lightcoral]"Come on..."[/color] she grunted, disabling the angle of attack limiter as she did so. Like clockwork, the missile lock warning blared again, and she yanked the stick hard back, causing the plane to face straight up as it bled speed. At the right moment, she added power and brought the nose back down again, completing a successful Cobra maneuver and sending the chasing MiG past. As the nose on Yuna's Su-33 came back down, her eyes caught the other MiG fast enough to aim and unload her GSh-30-1 autocannon into it (yapping out [color=lightcoral]"guns"[/color] three times as she did so), shredding the engine and resulting in a fiery explosion just as the pilot ejected. Yuna pulled hard to the right as she yelled in excitement, but her jubilation was short lived.

She could see the other MiG crossing at her 2-o'clock high, and neither of them were in a position to get a lock. Yet, her missile lock warning started to blare. [color=lightcoral]"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckin' A!"[/color] she exclaimed as the warning turned to a missile approach warning. She pushed the stick hard forward and left to dive as she deployed flares, which successfully diverted...two missiles??

She rattled out a radio call as quickly as possible. [color=lightcoral]"Splashed one but I got at least three on me now. Need help!!"[/color]