"Fantastic," Jacob muttered to himself as he leaned against the wall to his holding cell. He drummed his fingers absentmindedly against his lap. "The one time I try to do something right, and I get locked up in a holding cell. Guess this is karma's way of telling me to piss off."

Despite his current predicament, Jacob couldn't complain about the conditions they were keeping him in. The holding cell that had become his home for the last few days could probably pass as a proper barracks room, and they were feeding him regularly, so it could certainly be worse for him. What Jacob was more concerned about, though, was getting his chance to prove himself. So far, the commander from earlier had only visited him once, and it was to ask for the location of the other Skyshards, information that Jacob gladly gave them. That was days ago, though. He hadn't been keeping track, but nobody had visited him since then.

Suddenly, the faint sound of squeaking wheels interrupted Jacob's thoughts. Gradually, it got louder and louder until finally, the door opened, and a man in a wheelchair pushed himself in front of Jacob. He didn't say anything at first. Instead, the man just kept his eyes on him as if studying him intently.

"So, you're the mercenary that's been causing so much buzz around here?" he finally asked. "The one that brought us this advanced fighter?"

Jacob nodded. "I suppose so," he answered with a low murmur. "Jacob Perry, callsign Zero," he introduced himself.

"Dominic Santiago, callsign Torch. Or rather, it used to be," the man smirked as he looked down at his wheelchair. "I doubt I'll be doing much flying anymore."

"You were a pilot?" Jacob asked, blinking with surprise in his eyes as he looked the man up and down. "What happened?"

Up until that point, Torch had some semblance of a smile on his face. As soon as Jacob asked his question, though, it vanished, and a scowl replaced it. "Farbanti, May 30th. That ring a bell for you?"

Jacob lowered his head into his hands with a heavy sigh. He recognized the day instantly. "Dammit," he muttered, voice overwhelmed with defeat. "So, lemme guess… it's my fault you're in a wheelchair?"

To Jacob's surprise, Torch shook his head. "Not really. Although the argument could be made that I might not've gotten shot down if not for you, but that's nitpicking. Regardless, you still took something important from me that day, or rather, someone."

"Who?" He looked up, and his eyes were narrowed, his mouth had a slight frown, and his eyebrows were angled downward. His bitterness wasn't aimed at Torch, though. It was at himself. Seeing how good-natured these people seemed, Jacob thought they'd be happy to help along his path to redemption, but when they unleashed all their virulence onto him because of the people he killed that were close to them, it ate away at his gut. "Who'd I take from this world that didn't deserve to die?"

Torch was caught off-guard by his remark, and his expression suddenly softened, if just by a bit. "My flight lead. His callsign was Domino," he answered. The new tone he spoke in matched the shift in his look. "He was a good man, probably my best friend."

Jacob scoffed. "Ok. Now you're just trying to make me feel guilty."

Torch shrugged. "Yeah, I am," he admitted bluntly. "Because regardless of why you chose to defect or what kind of person you end up being after the fact, you still killed him. That's why I want to ask you one simple question."

"And that would be what?" Jacob raised an eyebrow to display his curiosity.

Torch wheeled himself right up against the door and murmured just one word. "Why?"

Jacob had asked himself that same question so many times over the last few months that he lost track of the exact number. Most of the time that the question surfaced in his mind, he didn't have an answer, or rather, not a very good one. It wasn't until he finally decided to defect that he found an answer he knew was right.

Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out despite his best efforts. He paused for a moment, trying to think of how best to say what he wanted to before eventually sighing and trying again. "I was a fool." He made sure not to even look in Torch's direction, fearing how he may judge him. "At first, I was only in it for the money. I tried to deny it all I could, but deep down, I knew it was true. I thought that it didn't matter who I crossed, as long as I got paid. I can't believe I was so stupid."

"Do you regret it?" Torch asked.

"There's a lot of things I regret. I've got a lot of red in my ledger," Jacob replied. "Taking this contract was absolutely one of them. That's why I had to defect, though. Even if I can't make up for all the shit that I've done in the past, fighting on the right side of this war would be a nice start to making things right." He let out a defeated sigh and rested his head on his hands. "Now it seems like I won't get the chance, though. I mean, I can't say I blame them, but… I dunno. I was hoping to be able to make things right. Kinda hard to do that from a holding cell."

Torch didn't say anything. Instead, he looked at Jacob with an unreadable expression. Jacob couldn't tell if he was judging or sympathetic to him, which only made it worse. He could feel the anxiousness gnawing away as he wondered what Torch would say. Jacob thought he made a pretty good case for himself and that with a bit of luck, he might've convinced Torch to get him up in the air again, but he couldn't tell what the man was thinking with that face. Eventually, Torch simply turned around and started wheeling away, once again leaving Jacob alone in an empty room with nothing but his thoughts.

The first thing Eva saw when she stepped into the briefing room caused her smile from the usual banter with her wingmen to dissipate immediately. Zero sat in one of the chairs toward the back of the room, and he faced toward the door, presumably watching for her and the others to show up. Eva didn't have the slightest clue what he was planning, but he didn't trust it for a moment.

"What the hell is he doing here?" she demanded. "I thought we were keeping him in the holding cells."

"I've decided that we're going to give him a chance," Commander Knight told her. "If he's as good as you've claimed he is in the past, and he truly wants to help make things right, then we'd be foolish not to put him to good use. Besides…" he looked at Eva with a smirk. "If he was dumb enough to try something, then he'd already be surrounded by some of the best pilots I know. That's why I'm putting him in your squadron as Kestrel 6."

"Wh-" Eva stopped herself from raising her voice at her commanding officer. Even if she didn't like it, she had to admit that what Lucky said the other day still held true. If Zero truly was out to make things right, then they'd need to give him a chance. "Fine," she grumbled, moving over to her usual seat. "But if I feel like he's got some sort of ulterior motives, or he does something that puts any of my wingmen in jeopardy, then he's gone."

Knight dipped his head with a smirk. "That's the idea, Lieutenant. Now, let's get on with the briefing, shall we? Trust me when I say that you guys will enjoy this one."

"What's the mission, exactly?" Charger asked, taking his eyes off Zero and shifting his gaze to the briefing screen. "And what about it is gonna make us love it so much?"

"First of all, we finally made contact with Gorgon Squadron and the rest of their group. They are indeed taking shelter at Los Canas, but there's more to it than that," Knight explained. "As it turns out, they've been a lot busier than we have. The satellites going down was nothing but a minor inconvenience for them. They just carried on with business as usual, but they also started working on ways to address the issue of not having key systems like comms or IFF. That's why you're all here."

Magic's eyes lit up. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Knight smirked and nodded. "Yes. We're finally going to be getting IFF and comms back. At least, within a certain range."

"How we gonna pull that off?" Clown asked. "We just happen to have a spare satellite or two lying around somewhere?"

"Actually, yes. It was Gorgon Squadron's group that found them. They're located at the launch facility on Comona Island," Commander Knight explained. "They've already sent in a team to secure the satellites and get them ready to launch, but it seems one of the rogue Erusean factions still roaming the area caught onto our plan, and they're trying to take out everyone currently stationed there so they can use the satellite for themselves."

"You mean they're under attack right now?" Eva asked, looking at the island centered on the screen. "What are we doing here, then?"
"Explaining the situation, but you also needed to know that Zero is coming with you, so that's why we're doing this here and not over an in-flight briefing," Knight replied. "Our main concern is the enemy's airpower," he carried on. "Thanks to your efforts in Comberth Harbor, they don't have much of a navy to send, so they're relying on their fighters to try and take the island from above. Needless to say, you can't let that happen, so hurry up and get going. Our boys are counting on you."

Eva and the others stood up and gave the Commander a rigid salute. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it, sir," she assured him. As she turned around to start toward the hangars, her eyes rested on Zero, and she briefly scowled at him before continuing on her way with the others right behind her. She didn't care if that mercenary followed after her. She just kept walking.

"Hey!" Zero called out as he broke into a jog to catch up with the group. "I, uh, I know things are bit… y'know, tense between us, but I-"

Eva dug her heels into the floor and whipped around to face him, stopping the man in his tracks. "Listen. That right there is Lucky, Charger, Poet, and Magic." She pointed to each pilot as she listed off their names. "They're more than just my wingmen- they're family, partly because we've been through so much together. In fact, one of the things we've had to deal with over the last few months was you trying to kill us not once or twice but four times. I don't give a half a damn what made you have a change of heart. All I care about is that if you make one slip-up, or do anything that hurts them or me at all, then I'll shoot your ass out of the sky myself."

Zero eyes were wide with surprise as he took a step back. "You won't have to worry about that," he promised Eva. "I'll make sure I prove myself to you guys."

"Heh. Y'know all those times we fought, I never would've had you pegged to be such a damn pushover," Eva muttered before turning back around and continuing onto the hangars. As she moved, though, she noticed that even her wingmen were looking at her with concerned faces, especially Lucky.

He leaned in close and whispered to Eva, "Are you sure you're not coming on a bit too strong with him?"

"You're siding with this asshole?" Eva asked in quiet disbelief. "After everything that he's' done to us?"

"I'm just saying he seems to genuinely want to change, and to do that, we need to give him a fair shot," Lucky rationalized, occasionally glancing back at Zero as they walked.

Eva carried on, walking in silence for a moment or two before finally saying, "Whatever happens, happens. If he's really out to prove himself, then he'll do just that on this mission." She didn't bother waiting for a reply, and instead, she picked her pace. Truthfully, Eva felt guilty about getting angry at Lucky like she did, especially when she knew he was right, but she wasn't about to just let this lie. Zero wasn't telling them something about the situation, and that only made her more suspicious of him. At the moment, though, that wasn't her primary concern. All that she was focused on was getting up in the air and over to Comona Island. Getting the satellite up in the air would be a game-changer, and it would be a good way to continue their winning streak, so everyone sped up, and before long, six F-35Cs took off from Fort Grays, and four F/A-18Es followed after them as they set out to change the course of the war.

The flight to Comona Island was agonizingly long. Especially with Zero continually trying to make small talk along the way. Occasionally, he got a brief reply from some of the others, but Eva didn't say one word to him. Until she knew whether or not she could trust him, she was going to interact with him as little as possible.

Suddenly, Sky Keeper cut any conversations going on short. "All aircraft, cut the chatter. We're nearing the AO," he ordered.

Eva looked down at her radar and saw dozens of yellow air targets flying around. A few moments later, she had a visual, and the chaos of the scene unfolded in front of her eyes. Fighters would twist and turn to get behind someone, only to break off a moment later with no warning. The plethora of missile trails snaking across the sky lowered visibility, but not enough to seriously hinder anyone's ability to fight.

"God damn! This is getting ridiculous. Every time I think we're thinning their numbers, more of 'em just keep showing up." Eva recognized the voice of one of the pilots from Gorgon Squadron over the radio.

"Just keep holding on," Gorgon 1 assured them. "Reinforcements are on their way. This mess'll all be over soon enough."

"Ha. I dunno what you guys are talking about. I'm having a blast up here," Gorgon 3 chimed in. "I'm one kill off my second ace. Who wants to give me a hand?"

"Well, you're about to have a lot more help," Eva said with a smirk. "This is Kestrel 1 from Fort Grays. Kestrel Squadron and Mage Squadron are entering the AO now."

Another pilot Eva didn't recognize scoffed. "About time you showed up," he muttered. "Better late than never after all."

"Oh, lighten up, Centaur 1," Gorgon 1 teased him. "We've been doing alright on our own so far, and now that we've got help, this battle is pretty much in the bag."

"We ain't out of the woods yet- not by a longshot," Clown reminded them. "A lot could happen to tilt the scaled into the Eruseans' favor, so let's keep our heads in the game."

"This is the AWACS Sky Keeper. I'm patching into everyone's nose cams now," the AWACS operator informed everyone. "Try to get close to your target so I can ID them and update your radars via datalink."

Eva nodded. "Right, once we have everyone IDed, it'll make this a hell of a lot easier. Now, let's get to work. Kestrel Squadron, engaging." As she pushed the throttle forward and sped toward the action, Eva turned her attention to her wingmen. "Alright, Magic, you're with me. Everyone else, disperse and keep an eye on one another."

As usual, Charger dove in headfirst, angling his plane down to get some extra speed before pulling back up right into the middle of the furball. Meanwhile, Lucky and Poet took a more measured approach, opting to gain altitude to try and identify a few targets before joining the fray themselves. What Eva was most interested in, however, was how Zero would react to the battle. To her surprise, he wasted no time going after the few targets that had been identified in the short time since they arrived and taking them out one by one.

'Heh. Well, at least he's got no issues going up against the Eruseans,' Eva thought to herself. 'Although, I suppose that could also mean that he could be just as willing to betray us.'

Eva had other things to worry about, though. She was approaching the far end of the furball with Magic right behind, and the two of them were ready for action. For a moment, she almost let a 4AAM salvo loose out of instinct, but she managed to keep her finger off the trigger. Instead, she looked for fighters near the edge of the cluster and started chasing after them. Her first target was an F-15C that pitched straight up into the sky. Eva took a deep breath and followed after them. Sky Keeper marked them as friendly a few moments later, and she broke off to look for another target. Suddenly, the sinister beeping that signaled a radar lock started going off in Eva's cockpit, and she jerked her plane to the right as hard as she could. As the F-35 sliced through the air, she got a good look at her pursuer, a Rafale that was already marked hostile. Luckily for her, the Rafale didn't come at her at the right angle and ended up overshooting, giving her a perfect chance to shoot them down.

"This is the launch facility," a new voice introduced itself. "All systems are running smoothly so far. We should be good to go in about seven minutes. As long as you keep us safe until then, this'll all be fine."

To Eva's surprise, Zero was the one that spoke up. "Don't worry. We'll make sure you're alright," he told them. "Just make sure everything's ready."

Eva decided to hold back a snide remark. Despite the fact that she still didn't trust him, even she had to admit that he was more than pulling his weight so far. They'd only been in the fighting for a minute or so, and he had already taken down about three fighters. In fact, Eva was even feeling a bit impressed deep down, although she didn't plan on admitting that. Once they got back, she intended to have a proper conversation with him about what his intentions are, but that was something she decided to worry about later.

Another radar lock warning went off in Eva's cockpit, but it was silenced a moment later as Magic shot down the plane closing in on her and passed overhead. "Good thing I'm right here with you, eh?" Magic said with a smirk. "Who knows how lost you'd be without me," she added sarcastically.

"Well, I'm sure if anyone knew, it'd be my roommate," Eva quipped back. "Now, let's drive these assholes back."

Slowly but surely, the Osean fighters started turning the tide in their favor. Whether it was luck, their numbers advantage, Sky Keeper making sure they knew friend from foe, or a combination of all three, it eventually became apparent how things would turn out if they carried on the way they did. As usual, Eva led the way and took out one fighter after another, but surprisingly, Zero was keeping up with her kill count more than anyone else was. He even stole a few of her kills, which she made sure to thoroughly lambast him for.

"How much longer?" Boggard asked as he shook an F-14 off his tail.

"Not too long, now," the person at launch control assured them. "Only about three minutes left."

"Thank god for that," Poet murmured. "This mission just feels like it's dragging on and on."

"Yeah, but think about how much easier our lives will be after it's done," Lucky pointed out, ever the optimist. "We won't have to do any more of this manual target ID for a start."

"Plus, if we're lucky enough, we might be able to make contact with High Command," Charger added.

"Just gotta make it through this alive," Eva reminded them. She would've said more, but at the time, she was too busy focusing on the Su-35 she was chasing after. The g-force weighed down on her like a sack of rocks as she struggled to keep up with the Flanker. For a brief moment, she wished that she still had her own Su-35, but Eva didn't let that thought distract her for too long. Suddenly, the sound of a missile closing in on her got her attention. Her hands squeezed onto the control stick as tight as they could as she jerked it to the left and then as far back as it would go, pulling her around in a loop. Eva tried to keep track of the Su-35 she was chasing for a moment, but she quickly realized she wouldn't be able to do that and evade the missile on her tail at the same time. She kept a close eye on her speed, which was quickly decreasing as she continued to turn. Once she heard the missile whiff past her, though, Eva slammed the throttle forward and pulled back around. The first enemy she saw was the one that fired the missile at her, another Rafale, and she took it out with a single 4AAM. Then, the Su-35 she was chasing initially made the mistake of flying into her sightlines again, and this time, Eva didn't let them escape.

As she took a glance at her radar, Eva was about to make a remark about how the enemy fighters seemed to be thinning out, but Sky Keeper spoke up before any words left her lips. "Attention all aircraft, we A-10s approaching from bearing 350, determined hostile. If they get within range of the facility, it'll be all over."

Since Eva was already looking at her radar, she quickly spotted the enemy aircraft in question. "Magic and I are the only ones close enough to make the intercept in time," she decided. "We'll take care of it. The rest of you, focus on the remaining fighters."

Everyone murmured some sort of approval, and Eva turned away to head straight toward the incoming A-10s. Once Magic was behind her, they both hit the afterburners and sped away as fast as they could. Eventually, they started to show up on Eva's HUD- ten of them in total. Even though Eva could see them, however, they were still a fair distance away. They had plenty of time to intercept the A-10s, which caused her to smirk. A moment later, though, that smirk vanished.

"Dammit. Can someone get these guys off my ass?" Lucky asked with a hint of worry in his voice. "Seriously, there's like, four of them behind me right now, and I can't get 'em off."

"Lucky, are you ok?" Eva demanded. She refused to let him of all people get shot down, not after everything they've been through.

The longer he stayed quiet, the more nervous Eva got. Eventually, he responded with a grunt. "Shit. I need help here!" The desperation in his voice was much clearer the second time around, and it was like a knife through Eva's heart.

"Hang on, Lucky. I'm coming back for you!" she assured him. She was just about to yank the control stick to loop back around when Magic stopped her.

"Diamond, no! We have to take out these A-10s," she urged her squadron leader. "If we don't, then all of this is for nothing."

Eva hesitated for a few seconds, then let go of the control stick. She knew Magic was right, as much as she hated it. All she could do was watch Lucky's blip on her radar as she sped toward the A-10s with Magic. "Someone go help Kestrel 2, now!" she ordered with more intensity than she had ever used in her voice before.

"Dammit. I'm hit!" Eva prayed she would never have to hear Lucky say those words, and now that he did, her skin went pale. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to turn around. Although, that decision was partially aided by the knowledge that if she turned around now, she wouldn't be able to make it anyway. "I don't know how much longer I can hold out here."

Eva couldn't hold it back any longer. Before she even realized it, her body let out a guttural cry filled with anger, sadness, and fear that materialized itself as one word. "LUCKY!" At that moment, Eva didn't cry out to him as a wingman or even as a friend, but instead, something she didn't know whether or not she wanted to call them. Now that he was moments from death's doorstep, though, she knew exactly what they were: lovers.

By that point, Eva just wanted to shut everything and everyone out. It didn't matter anyway, but then, one voice cut into her mind. "Kestrel 6, Fox 3 by four!" It was Zero.

Looking down at her radar again in bewilderment, Eva saw Zero's blip behind Lucky's. All four of the enemies behind Lucky had vanished, leaving him panting for breath. "Holy shit, that was… that was close," Lucky murmured. "Zero, you… you saved me. Thank you."

What Zero said next, Eva didn't expect one bit. Rather than just saying thank you and carrying on or making some remark about how they can trust him, he asked, "Are you ok?"

Lucky hesitated for a minute, presumably checking his plane to see how it was holding up, before responding with, "Well, my plane has certainly seen better days, but yeah, I'm fine," he assured Zero. However, judging simply by the slow and deliberate tone he used, Eva could tell that was meant for her too.

"Kestrel 2, withdraw from the AO. Kestrel 3, escort him," Eva ordered as she fired a salvo of 4AAMs at the nearest A-10s. She didn't want to take any chances.

"Don't worry, Diamond. I'll get 'im out of here safely," Charger assured her. "C'mon, Lucky. Let's go."

Eva let out a sigh of relief as she saw Lucky and Charger pulling away from the furball. Once that was out of the way, she could finally focus all of her attention on the remaining A-10s. Between herself and Magic, they took out four of them in a single pass, and as the two of them looped back around, they managed to shoot down another three with guns before they realized what was going on. The remaining three tried their best to evade, but with how sluggish the A-10 was, they didn't stand much chance against the two F-35Cs. Suddenly, as Eva and Magic made their way back to the island, which had less than five enemy fighters above it by then, a realization finally hit Eva: Zero saved Lucky's life. He could've just as easily said he couldn't reach him in time, but instead, he chose to engage four hostiles simultaneously to save someone he only met a few days ago. When Eva first learned that Zero would be flying as one of her wingmen, she certainly didn't expect to have her opinion of him changed, especially so quickly, but she couldn't deny it any longer.

Then, as if on cue, the launch control personnel spoke up again. "Alright, all systems go. Beginning launch sequence. All aircraft clear the launch area. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, start ignition. 3, 2, 1, ignition!"

Suddenly, the ground shook and the rocket shot up from the ground, leaving a blazing trail behind it as it climbed higher and higher into the sky. Several people started cheering over the radio, Eva included, because they knew that this was a huge win for them.

"All aircraft, the satellite has reached 40,000 feet and is now immune to enemy action," Sky Keeper announced, signaling more cheers. "Mission is complete. RTB to your respective bases."

"Hang on a minute, I just realized something," Magic spoke up. "Diamond, didn't you say your flight instructor took part in a battle here?"

Now that the area was clear of hostiles, Eva took a moment to look around the islands. "Yep. He was even here for the same reason we were, if I recall correctly, launching a satellite." She smirked as she and the others turned back toward Fort Grays. It felt like a lifetime ago since she had seen him, but she couldn't help but think of how far she had come.