The next day, Aziz, Angelos and Merit got new armour delivered straight from the labs. It had a tactical helmet and a built-in throat mic. The suit itself was meant to stop certain small arms, it was called 'active armour'.

The idea was, that if a bullet struck it, it had built-in small release explosions in the opposite direction to hit whatever was coming at you and it subsequently dissipated the impact.

These all sounded like major pros in favour of the suit but there was a serious con: it hadn't been tested in the field yet.

This was probably the explanation as to why Bay was now stood in front of Aziz holding an HKP30 pistol out in front of him pointed at said winch-man's chest.

That was one explanation, the second was that Bay lost when they had drawn straws to find out who was going to be court-martialled for killing a member of the US air force.

"So...what if the suit doesn't work?" Bay yelled back at the rest of the team who were wearing ear defenders with linked in mics and giving him the thumbs up.

They were in a small cleared out area in the south of the camp that people used for target practice. Bay was pretty sure it looked a bit suspicious, the 'listening station' team shooting at each other whilst wearing exploding body suits, but no one had questioned them yet...although the gun Bay was holding might have had something to do with that.

"I'd rather know now than in the field!" Aziz called back.

"Can't I shoot Brent instead?" Bay asked desperately, I mean, if he had to kill somebody.

"Aziz volunteered!" Sydney called out. Bay glanced at Lily, she was frowning hard at him. Lily was scary enough even when Bay wasn’t about to mortally injure her boyfriend.

"Just shoot me Bay," Aziz shouted at him.

Bay kind of wished Luca was there to witness him doing something as manly as actually firing a gun, then again, perhaps the lack of witnesses the better when the whole thing went to court later.

Merit did a countdown over the comms and Bay...Bay actually fired.

Bay opened his eyes, well, yes, perhaps he shouldn't have fired with his eyes closed... and saw...Aziz! He was standing!

"You're alive!" Bay exclaimed, perhaps a little too surprised.

"That's because you didn't even hit him you idiot." Brent drawled over the mic, "Jesus Pereira, I feel sorry for Jeong sometimes having such a deadweight on his team."

Bay pouted, "Fine, someone else come do it or we might run out of ammo with my aim."

Merit giggled and ran over, taking the gun from him. Bay nodded gratefully at her and jogged over to where Benji was stood.

"God she looks so good." Benji whispered to him, reddening as Merit turned around beaming and flushed, yeah, open mic systems Benji, nice one.

"You do realise your gun fetish is starting to worry me dude." Bay replied as Benji elbowed him hard in the ribs.

Sydney stepped forwards and did a second countdown, Merit fired and there was a loud bang, even with the ear defenders on, and a cloud of smoke around Aziz.

"Did it work? Shit did it work?" Muttered Bay as Lily hurried forwards. A few moments later, Aziz emerged from a hazy grey cloud.

A cheer went up from the team. Aziz grinned at them before wincing and rubbing his chest.

"You alright there Aziz?" Bay called over to him.

"Yeah, but I won't be trying that again, hurts like a motherfucker," Aziz grimaced.

The south side of the Base was a good twenty-five to thirty minutes walk from Bay and Benji's dorm block so they had taken a Jeep out to the practice range.

Bay had offered to drive, he loved driving the Jeep and he went way faster than you were meant to back through the camp, flying over the sandy bumps on the road.

"Dude slow down or I'm gonna hurl!" Benji cried out as Bay laughed maniacally.

Bay grinned at his friend as they turn the corner back up to Dorm Block C,

"I can't believe Merit heard me say she looked hot, do you think she'll make fun of me now?" Benji was groaning when he suddenly snapped, “Wait - isn't that Luca?"

Bay looked up and had to slam his foot on the brakes because there, staggering out into the road holding his hand up in front of him was Luca Jeong.

The guy looked like he was suffering from a deadly virus or something as he collapsed right in front of the Jeep and rolled on the road.

"Fuck!" Bay swore as the Jeep shuddered to a halt. Benji and Bay jumped out of the car and ran over to the pilot.

Luca was as white as a sheet and there was sweat running down his face by the bucket-full, the veins around his neck also looked eerily orange.

"Jesus, get him in the Jeep - we've got to get him to Medical!" Bay reached down but Luca opened his eyes and clutched at Bay's arm,

"No..." Luca rasped then lay his head back on the dirt.

"Shit, okay call Medical - tell them we're coming!" Bay looked at Benji, who was not moving. "Buddy?" Bay gestured frantically but Benji scrunched his faces up.

"Bay it's the Nectar..."

"Yes? And? He needs treatment right now Benji not our House M.D. diagnoses!" Bay felt hysterical.

Benji rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and looked pained, "Bay if we take him to Medical and they record this he'll be discharged for sure. Jenkins said if anyone shows a bad reaction to the drugs they're off the program, they don't want another repeat of..."

...Luca's brother.

"Fuck!" Bay exclaimed looking back down at Luca who had closed his eyes again. "What the hell do we do?" Bay spun around wildly.

"We need to get him out of the open first," Benji said, hurrying round to Luca's other side and helping Bay lift him up.

"You know, for a guy who never eats he sure weighs a ton."

"Shut up Benji, this is so not the time," Bay hissed.

They managed to lift Luca all the way to their room, although the sweat made them slip a few times and Bay bashed his elbow nastily against the door on the way in.

"Get him on the bed!" Bay grit out as they collapsed across the room.

Once Luca was on Bay’s bunk, Bay mopped his own brow with his T-shirt, "What the hell do we do now? Just hope he doesn't die?"

Bay reached forward and put his palm on Luca's forehead. Bay's palm was pretty hot currently but Luca still felt a lot hotter than that.

"His fever's out of control Benji!" Bay announced in a panicked voice.

Benji leaned over Luca and pulled down the front of the pilot's shirt, Bay swore loudly as they saw that the veins there were darkened, like blood orange pulp.

"What the fuck is happening?" Bay asked wildly as he groped around to try and find a bottle of water to throw on...whatever the fuck was currently happening on his bed.

"Nectar poisoning," Benji replied, sounding a lot calmer that Bay.

Who knew Benji would be so good under pressure? Guess it figured he was a pilot.

"Okay so...what the hell do we do for that? Go on some quest to the Hellfire Peninsula for an antidote or something?"

Bay was jumping up and down with stress now, he really didn't need this. Bay was stressed enough this morning with having to shoot his team member and everything. Now his other team member was dying in his bed.

Of course, he’d had dreams where Luca Jeong was in his bed before but carrot coloured veins? Not what Bay had pictured exactly.

"I've read the files on this," Benji said frowning.

Bay did the frantic hand gesture again to encourage his friend to elaborate.

"We need to give him a shot of Nectar," Benji nodded.

"What? But you just said that's what poisoned him?" Bay’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates in sheer disbelief.

"It's not that simple Bay, we need Nectar to stabilise his system and then he needs to detox, like seriously detox," Benji explained.

"Okay how do we get Nectar? It's not like I've just got vials of the stuff in the mini-fridge Benji! And they took away my lab access since that 'incident' a month ago!" Bay groaned.

Benji made a frustrated noise and got up from the bed, "I'll go try get some, I think Jenkins keeps a stock in his office, you have to get his fever down, he's burning up."

Benji went over to the wash basin and wet a flannel with water before handing it to Bay,

"On his forehead, get some ice as well if you can. I'll be back as soon as I have the Nectar. Don't tell anyone Bay, not even the rest of the team or Luca will be sent home and I don't think he'll be too pleased about that."

Can't imagine he'd be too pleased about DYING either.

But before Bay could protest Benji was already out the door.

Bay knelt down beside the bunk and gingerly placed the flannel on Luca's forehead,

"Hang in there buddy," he whispered.