Expo City was as beautiful as ever. Tall, majestic skyscrapers shot straight up into the sky. Some of them came close to piercing straight through the clouds. A newly-built monorail wrapped its way across the entire city, dipping up and down, twisting this way and that before leading away into the countryside. Then, there was the airport that was all too familiar to Eva by now. More than anything, it was the sheer size of the whole thing that left her staring at it in awe every time. It was a sight to behold for sure, and it was one that never got old.

Lucky let out a content sigh as the six pilots stepped off the plane. "Ah… it feels good to be back." He paused, letting his eyes drift across the horizon at the base.

Zero smiled. "I'm with ya there. Doing flybys in peacetime is a nice change of pace, but this is just…" paused as he looked around the tarmac- at all the planes lined up on the asphalt. "Home."

Eva didn't reply, as she was too focused on the man making his way toward them. He was a little older than them, and wore the outfit of a high-ranking UPEO officer. It was Commander Gilbert Park- the newly-appointed Head of Operations for UPEO's Peacekeeping Forces. He carried himself well, chin held high and shoulders propped back as he took even and measured steps toward the group of six pilots.

Eva was about to greet him when he beat them to the punch. "Colonel, it's a pleasure to see you and your squadron back here. I trust things went well?"

"Yes sir, they did," she replied with a slight nod. "Although I think I can confidently speak for all of us when I saw we're eager to get back to work."

Park smiled. "I'm sure you are. In fact, that's why I'm here- to bring you a… surprise, of sorts. Or rather, to bring you to the surprise."

Eva looked back at the others, who all exchanged the same look of confusion and uncertainty. "What… kind of surprise, sir?" she asked, finally turning her attention back to the Commander.

"Well, if I told you now, that would just ruin the surprise, now wouldn't it." He turned around and started walking back in the direction he came, gesturing for the pilots to follow. "Don't worry, it's not far."

Once more, Eva exchanged a confused look with the others before following him. Seeing Park this pleasant and in such a good mood was certainly a strange sight. On any other day, he was a strict, by-the-books officer- which Eva didn't particularly have a problem with, per say, but it didn't exactly make him the easiest person to be around. Now, though, he felt like a totally different person, and comparing him to what Park was usually like, she decided not to complain. Although, she still wasn't sure what to make of this surprise he kept going on about- nor did she have any idea what it even was. She had a few thoughts, but all of them went right out the window when she realized he was leading them to their hangar.

Finally, Park opened the door and stepped aside to reveal what he had to show them: new planes. Ever since they had officially joined UPEO four years ago, they'd been flying the same Su-37s. Now, sitting in their place were six new MiG-35s, and it didn't take long for Eva to see which one was hers. It bore the same livery as her old Su-37- the standard tan paintjob that every UPEO plane had, only the brown on the wingtips was replaced with blue, and on the tail was the same kestrel emblem that had gotten her so much recognition five years ago. The other five planes all bore the same emblem on the tail, but their wings were all the standard brown of UPEO.

"Behold, your new planes," Park announced as he gestured to the six MiG-35s.

Eva started circling around her plane, inspecting it from top to bottom. "These are two-seaters," she observed. "This your way of telling us that we're getting WSOs?"

"Not exactly," Park replied, making his way over to Eva's plane. "If you look at the back seat, you can see that there's already something occupying the space." He pointed to a small round ball covered in what looked to be lenses sitting in the back seat. "This thing will perform all of the duties of a Weapons System Officer automatically while also making extensive recordings of your flight data."

Eva looked at him with a raised brow. "What exactly do you need our flight data for, sir?"

"Technically we aren't the ones who need it- although, we could certainly put it good use in training for our new pilots. It's all part of an initiative with General Resource for a big new project that they're working on. I tried getting more information than that, but they won't tell me much," he explained. "They said having data from an ace squadron such as yourselves would all but guarantee the success of the project."

Magic scoffed. "I hope they plan on cluing us in on whatever it is they're using our data for."

"Don't you worry. I made doubly sure that this initiative would end up benefitting UPEO in all sorts of ways," Park assured them. "Now, there was one more thing I wanted to show you, but I'm not quite sure if they're ready yet." Suddenly, he paused as a sound in the distance grew louder and louder: fighter jets. "I stand corrected, it seems this is perfect timing." He turned toward the main door of the hangar as it slowly opened. More and more sunlight poured into the room as it opened and eventually revealed the runway- more specifically, it revealed a flight of four UPEO Typhoons touching down and taxying into the hangar. Park gestured to the pilots as they climbed out of their planes one by one. "Kestrel Squadron, meet the newest fighter squadron here at the Expo City Air Base: Bastion Squadron. They just finished their training at Tyler Island and got shipped here a few days ago."

Four young pilots stood at attention beside Park. The first looked like the oldest, and most certainly the tallest of the group. His hair was just barely short enough to be considered an appropriate length, but what stood out about him the most was his expression. His lips were curled into a wry smirk, and the glint in his eyes made it seem like he was ready and willing to fight an entire air force by himself if he wanted to. The second looked like the first person to pop into Eva's head when she heard the word pilot- average build with short dark hair and brown eyes. Third in line was the only woman, but she looked to be the most mature of the group at a glance- tall with brown hair tied into a bun and a look that could probably cut a hole through solid steel. Lastly was the shortest of the group, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in enthusiasm.

"These are lieutenants Caldwell, Fauzer, Maven, and, Berglen, respectively," Park introduced each pilot as they remained at attention.

"It's an honor to meet you all," Berglen was the first to say. "We've heard quite a bit about you. It'll be a pleasure to learn from such skilled pilots."

"Whoa, whoa, tone back the bootlicking, Timmy," Caldwell stepped in, maintaining his cocky smirk. "Need I remind you that we graduated at the top of our class? We're the best UPEO has to offer-" he was stopped by Fauzer putting a hand over his mouth.

"Sorry about him. He gets too big for his boots sometimes," he apologized.

Caldwell swatted Fauzer's hand away and gave him an indignant glare. "All I'm sayin' is we could take you guys in a fight without breaking a sweat."

Maven sighed and rolled her eyes. "They've been back for less than an hour, and Arin already tried challenging them to a dogfight," she murmured to the other two.

Eva looked over her shoulder at the other pilots of her squad, who all gave her some degree of an approving look. They all knew what was about to happen, and they wholeheartedly supported it. Turning her attention back to the new pilots, she stepped toward them with a smirk. "Is that right?" she asked Arin. "In that case, why don't we have ourselves a dogfighting exercise- the four of you against me."

Arin suddenly looked like he'd just stumbled across winning lottery numbers. "Seriously? You're on."

Suddenly, Park loudly cleared his throat, which immediately grabbed the attention of everyone else in the room. "You can settle all of this later. For now, there's an important matter to be discussed now that Kestrel Squadron is back, so come with me."

The discussion quickly died after that. Nobody risked saying anything as to avoid the potential of provoking the Commander's ire- especially not Kestrel Squadron. After all, they'd seen him truly angry before, and it was not a pleasant sight. Fortunately, he seemed more annoyed at the present moment more than anything else. He simply kept his eyes locked forward, making one sharp turn after another as he wound through the base toward the briefing room. The pilots all took their seats and he wasted no time in starting up the briefing software at the front of the room.

"As everyone in this room is aware, the Free Erusean threat has been our top priority here on Usea for the last five years. However, they've proven to be rather resilient and elusive."

"Talk about an understatement," Magic murmured under her breath.

"However, thanks largely to the efforts of Kestrel Squadron, their air power is far less of a threat than it was when they first appeared at the end of the Lighthouse War- until now, that is," Park continued. He brought up a map of the Usean continent on the large screen at the front of the room. "For years now, Free Erusea has essentially been using guerrilla tactics against us, and they've been working. But that all changed about two weeks ago when Steel Squadron was providing CAS for an operation." He brought up a shaky recording following an F-16 as it made a gun run. The camera barely managed to follow the plane as it pulled back up into the sky only to explode. The camera quickly found and followed the target: an F-15C with Free Erusean markings. Park froze the video on the plane and stepped forward. "This moment seems to have opened up the floodgates. Ever since, Free Erusea's been counterattacking- holding ground." He shaded in a sizeable chunk of Central Usea from blue to red. This is the real deal."

"They did all of that in two weeks?" Charger asked. "How?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Eva finally demanded. "Don't you think that a real counterattack- a truly significant threat from Free Erusea- would've been more important to us than a flyby? We could've come back. We could've stopped this!" She looked back up at the map. It was like one of her worst fears was being realized. All those five years of her life that she put into this fight were for nothing.

"We had intel we still needed to confirm before calling you back, and as of yesterday, it was. Unfortunately, it's not good news," Park said before turning back to his computer. After a series of keystrokes, a familiar-looking airframe appeared on the screen. "I'm sure Kestrel Squadron recognizes it, but for the sake of explanation to Bastion, this is the XFA-30 Skyshard. It was an experimental fighter developed by the EASA during the Lighthouse War and tested by our very own Major Perry. Toward the end of the war, five finished airframes were developed before Doctor Adrian Francis, the head of the project, was killed, and his protégé, Doctor Lillian Stanton, went missing. One was taken by the Major when he defected from Erusea- that one now resides in Osean custody. The others were unaccounted for until a few weeks later when three of them were being piloted by Rogue Squadron- a rogue Osean penal squadron that joined Free Erusea. Kestrel Squadron then destroyed those three airframes. For years, all we could do is speculate about the last airframe and its whereabouts, but as of yesterday, we confirmed that Free Erusea is in possession of it."

"They're running out of options," Lucky realized. "They're pulling out all the stops because we've got them on the ropes."

"So, our objective is clear then, we destroy the damn thing once and for all," Poet agreed. "We just need to figure out where it is."

"That's the problem," Park interjected. "Ever since Free Erusea's counterattack, we haven't been able to pin down where their air power is based out of. They've taken over several airframes since they began, but they're still empty. The leading theory is that they managed to construct their own impromptu airfield over the last five years- either hidden in the rainforests or underground beneath the deserts."

"So, we find their base, blow it to hell, and make sure the Skyshard goes with it," Eva decided, standing up and gradually moving closer to the map. She glared at the red spot on the map. "It's time to end Free Erusea once and for all."