What? Luca you can't be serious?" Bay flapped his arms and turned to face his pilot, whose expression was now set so grimly it rivalled Bay's dad's when Bay had asked if he could backpack across Europe that one summer.

"Jenkins will have your balls," Aziz called out from the back.

"I've got spares," Luca muttered and oh my god was this guy for real? Did they even make people like this anymore or do they just pop fully formed out of a Die Hard movie or something?

Bay didn’t know whether to burst into hysterical laughter or pinch himself to check he hadn’t fallen asleep whilst drooling over a romance novel…again.

"Ibis this is Base, please commence landing sequence. Over," a voice announced over the radio.

The transmission hung in the silence of the cockpit for a moment before Luca swore under his breath then turned to Bay,

"Bay?" Luca asked tentatively.

Oh my god is he asking if I'm with him on this? Does he need me to be with him on this?

Bay closed his eyes and tried to imagine if it were him that had gone down in a chopper in the middle of hostile territory and couldn't be rescued for 'political reasons'.

Bay exhaled slowly, opening his eyes.

"Engaging manual flight," Bay said, trying to hide the tremble in his voice as he leaned forwards and tapped the controls.

Bay turned to Luca, "She's all yours Captain."

Bay could have sworn Luca smiled at him, but in a flash it was gone, and oh god, so were they, skimming at 250 knots across the desert in the wrong direction.

"Ibis. Come in Ibis, this is Base...What the holy fucking hell are you idiots doing? Over."

Moment of silence

"What I was trained to do Sir. Over," Luca replied in a gravelly voice.

Sound of giant steel balls clanging 300 feet above ground

***

Four years in the library at college, a gruelling year of accelerated flight training, sixth months in a lab resembling the black hole of Calcutta studying software more complicated than translating Klingon into Gallifreyan.

All of it had just flown out the window and was now lying, a-la Taylor Swift, on the cold hard ground, or rather, the Mikriski desert. Because when they got back Bay wasn't going to be allowed near a helicopter again, not even a remote controlled one.

Most likely Bay was going to get a dishonourable discharge, actually this was Black Ops, he might just mysteriously disappear one night and they would blame it on the camel spiders.

Bay was comprised of equal parts hatred and respect for Luca Jeong at that point.

Holy Shit did Luca just do a perfect wingover away from the base?

Okay fine, maybe Bay was more parts respect now. But seriously, what the hell were they thinking?

This wasn't the Boy Scouts, they couldn't just go on unauthorized missions and expect a simple slap on the wrists when they got back. They couldn't just have angry parents and get grounded...oh wait actually, grounded.

Bay started to laugh hysterically until he noticed both Luca and Aziz were looking at him with concern. Bay cleared his throat, "Okay, er, we are approaching the village coordinates, eta. thirty minutes. What's the plan exactly?"

"Ask the winch-man," Luca replied gruffly. "He's the retrieval expert, I just fly the bird."

Okay, so NOW you show false modesty? NOW?

Bay wrenched himself round on his seat. Aziz was already stretching across the cabin to reach for various pieces of equipment.

"We gonna do some winching?" Bay asked hopefully. Winching meant they just rescued the person without having to land. It was the cleanest, least compromising method of personnel retrieval, and Aziz would have had extensive training in it.

"Not if he's been taken to the village." Aziz grunted, "We'll have to land and go in."

"G...go in? Like...with weapons?" Bay swallowed and turned back round in his seat suddenly feeling slightly airsick.

"You do have weapons training Bay?" Luca was frowning at him.

"Er, yeah, of course, but like...didn't really think I'd have to use it," Bay swallowed hard.

I didn't think I'd ever be leaving the safety of this blessed airborne metallic womb.

Luca rolled his eyes, "When we land, stick close to me and Aziz."

Oh but I was thinking I'd wander off on my own to have a picnic in the hostile territory...OF COURSE I'LL FUCKING CLING TO YOU LIKE A NEEDY LIMPET.

"Sure thing Captain," Bay gulped, pressing a sweaty palm to his chest and attempting to slow his heartbeat.

Bay turned to Aziz again, "Um, if we get this guy, are we, er..Nectaring?"

What Bay meant was, were they drugging him?

It was something that had been agreed on in all the hours of tactical prep work they'd had. You rescued someone, - you drugged them so they didn't know they had been rescued by an elite special operative crew piloting a prototype technology that officially didn't exist.

I mean there was no point in being 'Top Secret' if everyone could identify you afterwards as the guy who gripped them tight and raised them from perdition.

"Affirm on the Nectar," Luca said in a monotone voice.

Okay, this shouldn't be too hard - find crashed pilot in enemy village, drug said pilot, retrieve said pilot, fly back to base avoiding enemy fire, re-enter American airspace without official authorisation or a mission to hide behind and even if they get through all that? - Face Jenkins. Piece of cake. If cake were SATAN

Bay shuddered and reached for his side-arm to check it was there, it's a standard issue HKP30.

Bay and Luca would both carry them, but the guy with the big guns, that would be Aziz. Bay craned his neck to look round at the man in question.

In the space of a few minutes Aziz had managed to load himself with so many weapons he looked like a walking armoury.

From what was visible, Bay could see a side arm, machine pistol, stun and flash grenades, a night vision visor with linked in communication systems and some kind of close range exotic stun weapon.

"Nice guns you got there Aziz," Bay stammered awkwardly.

Aziz grinned, "Yeah, most of them are German made and modified."

"Oh...good." Was that good? God, please let that be good.

"I got this baby yesterday," Aziz was now stroking the creepy looking stun weapon, "It's never been tried in actual combat and takes a minute to recharge."

That didn't sound good.

Bay tried to understand why that would be good.

"Okay, but we have other guns right? Like ones with ammo that don't need recharging?" Bay asked, a nervous uptick in his voice.

Bay was getting the ‘look’ again from Luca, the one with the eyebrows, well screw the look, this was Bay's life on the line here!

"We have ammo Bay. Just trust Aziz to do his job," Luca stated calmly as if Bay was some hysterical Austen character in need of smelling salts.

"I trust him! I am full of the trust, I am like a trust piñata, each mission just beats a little more out of me..."

"Bay?" Luca interrupted him.

"Yeah?" Bay squirmed anxiously.

"Shut up."

They started to drop to 200 feet, signifying they were clearing out of friendly airspace, this was also the moment Bay regretted having two portions of beef stew for dinner.

"We'll drop down to Nap of the Earth 25-50 feet for the final run into the village," Luca announced.

"I've got the pilot's personal GPS coming over the system now!" Bay exclaimed, turning in surprise to the others.

"Seriously, Base are helping us after we disobeyed them?" Aziz asked.

A moment later, Bay recognized the signature on the code. "It's Sydney!" Bay cried. "She must be up in control tower. Probably wanted to see the drama for herself," he added, muttering.

"That's good," Luca nodded. "Now we can track the pilot directly."

Bay hummed thoughtfully, this might actually work, you know, unless they got shot at.

Which was likely.

Bay used the Sonic Mapping and Vision to locate a good landing space that was about 50 by 50 feet, it was tight, but it would do.

"Alright Luca, I’m putting my faith in you not to do a face plant on this one," Bay gulped.

The dust rose up off the desert ground, whipping about them as they inched in. The landing was good, okay the landing was extremely good given the current visibility.

"Nice piloting there Maverick," Bay wheezed as his internal organs rearranged themselves.

"Bay," Luca turned to him,

"Yup?"

"Never call me that."