Name: Yuna Xu
Callsign/Nickname: Calico
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Appearance: Yuna stands at a proud 165cm, or about 5'4". Her black, banged hair falls straight, and she has an average thin physique. She has a pretty face, but she's the kind of girl that usually blends in rather than stands out (except for her height, or lack thereof).
Nationality: Singaporean
Personality: Yuna is chill and kind, with a collected lightheartedness about her in most situations. She does have a bit of a sassy side – venomous and sarcastic with those she doesn’t like, and playful with those she does. She tries to find the fun in every situation, even if she has to make it herself. She is not afraid to embarrass herself to accomplish this, which has caused discipline from her superiors in the past.
Of course, when it’s time to go to work, Yuna is all business...at first. Yuna is no more playful than when in the middle of a dogfight, and finds whimsy in the aerial dance even through the high-G pulls and missile lock warnings. Even so, she has a hard-earned reputation for being reliable and accomplishing the mission every time, and she doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t pull their weight. If you get on her bad side, either professionally or socially, her typically rosy disposition will give way to a highly judgmental one.
History: When the Heavenfall occurred, Yuna had only just earned her wings in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF). The island nation was hit hard by the disaster, but survived. As the RSAF had sustained heavy losses, it found itself in dire need of more fighter pilots to replace the fallen and defend against new threats. But even moreso, it desperately needed flight instructors to train these new pilots, as all the existing instructors had lost their lives in the Heavenfall. As the best pilot in her class, Yuna was assigned the position of lead flight instructor and began immediately.
For the next four years, she executed countless dogfight exercises with her students and earned a reputation for being a relentless opponent. This reputation only increased when she didn’t re-sign at the end of her four years and left to pursue a better salary with a PMC, this time doing dogfights for real.
Yuna's first employer was a fledgling PMC based out of Kazakhstan that called itself the Gleaming Demons, with an air wing that focused on ground attack more than air superiority. But any bombing run needs its escorts, and as one of the only real fighter pilots in the whole PMC, Yuna was put in the top cover role often. But owing to the PMC's tiny numbers, she was often the
only plane running defense. So she got in a lot of dogfights, further honed her skills, and learned how to survive and win against tall odds.
It was in the Gleaming Demons that Yuna was first assigned to the Sukhoi Flanker platform, after her assigned MiG-23 met a fiery end in combat at the hands of two F-15Cs. Yuna and her assigned Su-27 became fast friends and accrued many flight-hours together, earning themselves a fearsome reputation in the skies over Kazakhstan and the surrounding nations. But as time went on the quality of operations degraded significantly, so after two years of service Yuna left in pursuit of a better, more stable employer. The Gleaming Demons didn't last long after Yuna's departure, losing most of their remaining pilots in a poorly-planned bombing run and dissolving completely shortly thereafter.
Yuna was better off; she bounced around a few other PMCs over the next four years, gaining some ground attack experience in the process but still being deployed mostly against aerial targets. Finally, she was found and recruited by Shattered Steel, who almost immediately assigned her to the Cobalt Shadows to plug some of the recent holes in the squadron. In addition to the standard contents, Yuna stipulated one additional clause in her contract: her plane had to be a Flanker. Fortunately, Russian platforms were unpopular amongst the Shattered Steel pilots, so the only Flanker in Shattered Steel’s inventory was hers for the taking.
Personal Gear:- SIG Sauer P226 - Yuna's preferred sidearm, as it is what she trained on in the Singapore Armed Forces.
- H&K MP5 - Yuna has no need for an SMG and she knows it, but a friend of hers back in Singapore found an MP5 used by the Singapore Special Operations Task Force after the Heavenfall, and gave it to Yuna as a gift. Said friend lost his life shortly after, so she keeps the MP5 as a memento of both her friend and Singapore. And who knows? It might just come in handy one day.
Personal Aircraft: Sukhoi Su-33 “Flanker-D” carrier-capable air superiority fighter
Yuna's Su-33 is painted in a striking red, white, and black camouflage paint scheme, in homage to the Singaporean flag. Her plane is christened "Naga Merah" ("Red Dragon" in Malay), and is adorned as such.
Aircraft Modifications: upgrades mirroring that of the Shenyang J-15T and J-11D, to include: full glass cockpit, more composite materials in the airframe (lighter weight and lower observability in the engine intakes), AESA radar, IRST scanner, fly-by-wire controls, 3 hardpoints per wing, and improved engines.
Anything Else:- The way Yuna was given the callsign "Calico" is...not safe for work, to put it nicely. (Hint: it's related to her sexuality)
- Being from Singapore, Yuna is fluent in English and Singaporean Mandarin. She can mostly understand "proper" mainland Mandarin, but can't change her accent to match a mainlander. Her Singapore accent is thick when speaking English, though it has been Westernized a bit since she started working for PMCs. She has generally traded Singlish words and mannerisms for a more S'porean-American flair, but when on the phone with family members or other S'porean friends, the Singlish comes right back.
- Yuna's spirit of choice is gin, but she usually prefers malty beer or a good rosé.
shylarah
Carlyle