After walk-rounds, each team clambered into their respective aircraft, although the Tegu team weren't actually getting airborne that day. The disappointment was coming off Sydney in tsunami-sized waves.

Bay couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. After all, Sydney had even contributed to some of the minor software design features. But at the same time his own excitement was bubbling through his chest at finally going up in the Ibis.

Bay craned his neck round to check out their winch-man Aziz in the back. Aziz was huge and looked like he could bench five Bays. At least that was reassuring if something were to go wrong and they had to land in a combat situation.

Then again, the pilot, Luca Jeong, looked like he could take care of himself too. Bay’s eyes traced up the tight torso to the stubbled chin, the faint freckles across the nose… suddenly Bay realised Luca was actually talking to them.

"Okay Jenkins says all pilots are aircraft commanders for these operations. It's normally the winch-man, so let me know if this is going to be a problem for you Aziz?"

"No."

Man of few words that Aziz.

"Good. Well let's get this bird in the air shall we?" Luca replied.

Bay sat back and watched the display light up in front of him, he looked over at Luca who was now wearing a full helmet. Luca wasn’t moving his hands but the digital display was sliding across the glass which means he must have already activated the experimental cerebral controls.

Flying military helicopters with mind control. Could this get anymore Skynet?

Okay so fine, the actual 'flying' part was the only thing that couldn't be done with mind control, but everything else, radio frequencies, displays, environment, that was all going to be directly linked to Luca Jeong.

"...Bay?"

Luca's voice cut through Bay's reverie.

"Is it not 'Bay'?" Luca asked, sounding slightly confused.

"What? No yes I'm Bay!" Bay cried out in a panic.

There was the familiar sigh of exasperation that Bay was all too used to from his pilots.

"I said you need to put your visor down, on your helmet," Luca was looking at Bay now, but the instrument display was still whirring across the screen.

"Ah..." Bay wasn't sure how to explain, he never put his visor down, it limited his vision, made him feel claustrophobic, sometimes even triggered his anxiety (although that diagnosis would never be admitted on the military record. Ever.)

"I don't normally wear my visor down..."

"Fine," Luca replied gruffly and turned back to the controls.

Well that was easy.

Bay looked through the window and saw the ground crew scurrying about. Jenkins was looking nervous and kept batting whoever got within reach of him with a clipboard.

The Bobcat chopper was ahead of them and was already starting up, behind them was Tegu. Bay wondered how Sydney and Toby were doing.

"Engine online, back up in standby, engaging main rotors,” Luca was speaking now, Bay stole a peek at him. Even the gruff pilot looked excited, there was a faint but definite curve to Luca’s lips as the engine roared into life.

It was deafeningly loud, but they weren’t in stealth mode right then and there was no harm in having a bit of fun.

"Only one engine?" Aziz's voice came across the comms. "Forty million dollars and they only gave us one engine?"

"Well actually, we have an advanced singular power plant that allows for 'limp-home' power but technology restricted size of the power plant, up and down, couldn't be bigger or smaller. The compromised solution was one main power plant and one other backup and I mean why have two engines if you're going to only be able to limp home on one anyway?" Bay started to explain in a rushed voice.

Bay looked round excitedly but Aziz was just staring at him blankly.

"It's okay...we probably don't need two engines?" Bay suggested smiling hopefully. This at least earned a silent nod.

Bay looked back at Luca who had an eyebrow arched and that faint lip-curve was back. Bay’s stomach did a funny back flip that he blamed on the cockpit’s vibrations.

"Rotors spalling up to flight idle," Luca stated a moment later.

Oh god it was better than dirty talk. Bay tried to stretch the excited tension out of his muscles and accidently nudged the pilot's arm.

"Sorry!"

Luca sighed, "Just try not to hit the display."

"Oh my god would it hurt you if I did - because you're like cerebrally linked with it? Would it give you a headache?"

Another sigh. "No, it's because it costs $120,000 to replace if you crack it."

Ah.

Bay saw Luca give him another sideways glance, "Although, what you said about being linked, they have warned us about that."

"Oh my god are you serious?! That is so fucking cool dude, I mean Captain," Bay cringed.

"Call me Luca,” Luca huffed. “They just mentioned in training that we might start to experience...connections to the aircraft, we might be able to sense when something is mechanically wrong through the cerebral link."

"That - is – awesome," Bay gasped.

"It can go wrong though can't it? The link?" Aziz piped up from the back.

"Yeah..." Luca replied, and Bay though of the rumours he had heard about pilot Joseph Jeong.

"They've ironed those problems out though right?" Bay asked nervously.

"Hope so," Luca muttered, moving his hands to the levers.

"Rotors at 100%," Bay gulped, grateful for the first time that day that he was not the one with his brain plugged into the futuristic technology.

"Let's go," Luca said drily, "Ops, this is Ibis, Captain Jeong clear for take-off."