mission soon™A few days go by and word of the previous engagement gets out, resulting in Gus receiving a letter from Arkadi Nikitin thanking him for protecting his company's assets, as well as getting a medal and a promotion. Kommandant and Virvel catch up to him as he's returning from receiving the latter two.

: Congrats on the promotion,
Captain. I can't believe it took 'em that long to get around to it.

: I've been doing my homework on your squadron's history, and I'm honestly shocked. Over a dozen kills over half as many engagements in the past year alone, staying behind to defend a Mercanan convoy by yourself and
succeeding, being one of only three planes to survive Tlacelel's onslaught, and until today you were just a Lieutenant? If I were calling the shots, I'd have bumped you up to Major and put
you in charge instead of Kirves a long time ago.
(As for where the other NPCs are; Pansar and Coaxoch are in the gym, Frisk and Eremit are in the hangars, and the robot is walking the dogs.)