Cutscene: In the interrogation room, the person interrogating Blackburn says that Faruk Al-Bashir and the PLR seized power in Iran around the same time as the earthquake, and 50,000 marines were sent in a few weeks later. They ask Blackburn what his role was in going after Al-Bashir, and more specifically his first mission. He answers that they were doing a battle damage assessment (BDA) after air strikes in Tehran to ascertain whether a high value target was hit or not. They ask him about his interaction with Lieutenant Colby Hawkins, an F-18 pilot. He denies knowing her.
Cutscene: You, Hawkins, are in a corridor on an airplane carrier. A pilot lets you know that plans have changed and that you will be doing a strike mission over Tehran Mehrabad airport immeditately, as they believe Al -Bashir to be there. You follow him out to the deck of the carrier, put your helmet on, and get into the plane seat behind him.
Follow the prompts to close the airplane canopy and initiate the helmet's HMD visor. Then follow the prompts to switch to the cannon, and fire it. Then do the same again for the missiles. Follow the prompt to test the countermeasures, then follow the prompt to take off.
After take off, listen to the radio chatter until the enemy plane locks onto your plane, then deploy countermeasures, and press the same button again when the pilot tells you to dump flares. When the pilot asks you to lock on, keep the enemy plane in the target reticule until LOCK appears and then shoot your missiles at it until it is destroyed. There will then be several more planes for you to lock onto and shoot down. After your allied plane is taken out, you'll need to deploy your countermeasures and dump flares a couple of times, then take out the two MIGs.
Now it is time for the strike on the airport. Follow the prompt to switch to ground missiles, lock onto the targets and then shoot them. Follow the prompts to select bomb guidance and switch over to infra-red, then aim at the planes which show up in white and fire, then keep the reticule over the target until it explodes. Do the same for the other stationary planes. You will then need to do the same to take out a couple of planes about to take off from the runway.
When given the clear to engage, follow the prompt to call in the A-10 Thunderbolt, then target the helicopter and fire. Finally take out the people who are running away.