Tuán and Lotus Squadron were coming in to land at the Villamor Air Base in Manila after another successful mission. All they knew was that another mission was lined up for them already, but not what it was. They had to land in the Phillipines to find out.

Tuân never expected to have command over a squadron, but now he did. But commanding a squadron came with responsibilities. He was responsible for everyone in his squadron, whether they liked it or not. He had to make sure they all came back safe from whatever shit hole Command sends them too.

Since Tuân was the first to take off, he would be the last to land. That's how he preferred it. He would lead them off the ground and follow them down when landing. It was procedure for the first to go up is the last to come down, so he made sure the squadron followed his lead.

One by one, his squadron members landed their aircraft before it was finally his turn. He lowered the landing gear and extended the flaps before lowering his Phantom Bridge down towards the runway and flared slightly, allowing the rear landing gear to touch down first before gently lowering the front gear to touch down. He then slowed down his aircraft to taxi speed and left the runway, leaving his aircraft parked on the flightline. He made sure to switch off the radar and render it safe before leaving the cockpit.

Before he could even get out of his flight gear, a Filipino officer called him over. Turned out he was needed at the academy to be briefed on his next mission. He was led to a vehicle just outside the barracks and watched as the driver leaned over and opened the front passenger side door and told him to get in.

After a ten minute drive, more officers greeted him at the door and led him to a conference room upstairs. He entered the room and noticed that no one was there. Before he could ask where everyone was, a bright blue light appeared on the other side of the room.

As he approached, the light formed a ring and began expanding. An image of a room with gray walls appeared in the centre of the ring, a lot like a room that would be found on a modern warship. He heard voices and what sounded like footsteps coming from the room. He heard someone call his name and rank and immediately looked around, thinking someone else had entered the conference room. He realised that whoever had called him was on the other side of the image.

"Are you in whatever this is?" Tuân said, not understanding what was going on. He was asked to step through by the voice inside. He turned to see the officer behind them nodding. He slowly stepped into the image and appeared in the gray room on the otherside.

He looked to his left and saw a Filipino admiral, much older than himself. "Admiral." Tuân said before saluting. The admiral returned the salute. Before Tuân could even ask, the admiral said that the portal would be explained shortly. Tuân nodded and joined the other pilots.