Husein landed his F-5 and walked to the briefing room on his own feet, technically succeeding the mission. knowing very well that it was sheer luck that saved him from any damage during this sortie, which was the first real engagement he was in. He knew he will need a lot of work to be capable in combat and not be one of those mooks who would only serve to add the kill tally of a war's aces should war ever happened, which may well be likely after that engagement.
At first, Husein found himself struggling hard to convince himself that he was to take a briefing from colonel Popov. The Estovakian nationality of the colonel, at least that was what he judged from the colonel's accent, was the cause of it; how could a fighter pilot be briefed by an officer from a country that had invaded his country in a time fresh within everyone's memory? The fact that all the A-Team members, who were originally competing against each other for a gold medal at the IPG, were transferred to a newly formed fighter wing by the same colonel added his dislike to the colonel. Orders were orders, however, and he understood the need for them to fight together after he was informed of a coordinated attack against the world's major nations.
As soon as the briefer changed, he finally managed to fully focus himself on the briefing instead of the briefer. It turned out that what they had just faced was a fighter a half century ahead of most of the aircrafts they were flying, and not the Berkuts as what he initially thought. While he knew that this was now escalating into actual warfare, he was still worried over whether he would survive this sortie. He was about to ask about which Flanker did the Osean officer refer to, since there were many planes referred to as Flanker, but before he could do so, the briefing finished and the new fighter wing was ordered to get to sortie as soon as possible.
Husein walked out of the briefing room and started doing standard pre-flight checks. Knowing that his aircraft had no problems and had been refueled and re-armed, he stepped back into the cockpit and said his prayers before starting the engines of his F-5. The fact that the F-5 was a rather slow fighter made him asking to himself whether he would made it to Oured in time and in formation. The fact that there were subsonic aircrafts around the squadron, namely the Skyhawk, made him to believe that he would arrive in formation, but adds to the doubt that the formation would arrive to Oured in time. He taxied the aircraft out and queued for taking off.