Pāhonoa te oro

It’s 0347 hours local time, deep in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine. A camouflaged forward airstrip— hastily reinforced with pierced steel planking— lies silent under a thin layer of frost. A single MiG-29S, upgraded to MU2 standard and carrying four GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs with extended-range kits, sits at the end of the runway. Callsign: Ghost 21.