"Alright children are you sitting comfortably? Because Daddy's got a story for you."

Major Jenkins as 'Daddy'...god that was just too damn creepy at that time of night...or any time of day.

"It begins with once upon a time in the desert an important asset was taken hostage and ends with my crew saving the day and making Daddy very proud."

Bay gulped. An active mission tonight it would seem.

"We need you guys to get in there cleanly, get out cleanly and get the asset to the coordinates in the brief file more cleanly that you mother keeps that goddamn redundant guest bedroom you've all got at home."

Bay gulped again, his mom was not much of a cleaner and he was pretty sure their guest bedroom had more cobwebs than an Indiana Jones movie.

"Ibis you are the winchers tonight, in charge of picking up the asset. Bobcat you're on cover and backup, anything gets close to the Ibis and you blow them to smithereens okay?"

Nods all round.

"Look kids, there's a big cheese coming into town tomorrow and I really don't want to have to lie and pretend I love you, so just make me love you for real okay? Do your fucking jobs well tonight."

Jenkins breathed in deeply, gearing up for something.

It was coming wasn't it.

"In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind..."

It was here.

Jenkins's Independence Day speech that he whipped out for special occasions and 'morale boosting'. The first time he had done it Benji had gotten confused and thought they were actually meeting up with other aircraft, he had kept looking edgily at the radar all night.

"...We will not go quietly into the night!..."

Bay glanced over at his team. Luca was flicking through the brief files staring intently at the information on the pages and Aziz was stroking his stun gun.

"...we're going to survive. Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" Jenkins finished, practically purple in the face now, his temple vein throbbing.

The Major even did a fist pump. Bay figured he must really want to impress whatever high ranking official was arriving the next day.

They powered up and lifted off. Merit was riding with them in Ibis because it was going to be a two man winch operation.

Bay set the stabilisation systems and activated stealth mode. He stifled a yawn because he knew Luca wouldn't be impressed.

Bay really wished he could have gotten some sleep that day but Benji had kept prodding him to ask how to tell if a girl likes you or not. Bay hadn’t been much help as he had never had this problem, all the girls at his school had made it pretty obvious.

"I know you're tired Bay but please try to focus tonight," Luca was saying to him.

"What? I'm not tired! What makes you think I'm tired?" Bay exclaimed defensively.

Luca sighed, "Bay I can read your body vitals and heart rate, your suit is linked up to my cerebral system."

"Dude...you listen to my vitals? That's kind of stalkerish," Bay smirked

Luca huffed out a breath of air, "It's important as the pilot and aircraft commander to keep track of how the rest of the crew are doing physically."

Bay slid his eyes sideways, "So...in all these hours of flying we've been doing, you've been secretly listening to my heart?"

Aziz chuckled and Merit giggled behind them as Luca made an exasperated sound.

"I don't just sit here and listen to your breathing Bay, it just so happens to be plugged into the damn machine I'm trying to fly. Now shut up before I give you a shot of adrenalin."

Bay grinned as the radio began bleeping.

"Ibis, this is Mikos Base, your ETA is twenty minutes, Aeolus is aware of your status so you're cleared for the inbound. Please be aware we have hostiles on the ground. Asset is currently being held at established coordinates."

Luca spoke back into the mic, "Any airborne hostiles Base?"

"Ibis this is Base, not that we can currently detect but there could be some stealth birds up there, careful flying Ibis."

Well that was reassuring.

They were quickly approaching the target and Bay could feel his heart beating in his chest. He hoped it wasn’t distracting Luca.

When they were directly on top of the coordinates they dropped low against the ground. Bay checked the infra-red, there were multiple bodies moving below, the tracking device was activated on the asset and he was showing up green.

"Bobcat this is Ibis, come in Bobcat."

"This is Bobcat," Lily began replying. "We are lining up by your side and ready to activate the Ultrasonic Disorientater."

Bay felt nervous, it was the first time they had used the U.D. - a sound weapon designed to broadcast an incredibly loud noise out from the aircraft and leave everyone momentarily disabled.

Apart from, hopefully, the other SADAARS aircraft, which was built specifically to deal with and minimise the U.D. output.

If Bay’s ears started bleeding any minute now he was going to be so mad at the engineers back at Base.

"Copy that Bobcat, ready and waiting to winch. Over," Luca replied grimly. Bay wondered if he too was a little anxious about the future state of their ear drums.

"Activating in ten seconds from my mark. MARK," Lily announced.

Bay counted down the seconds in his head when suddenly there was a sound like a sonic screeching barrelling into them and he was pretty sure someone needed to call Sam and Dean because there was a motherfreaking Banshee on the loose.

"Oh my god!" Bay yelped, but it was drowned out by the noise. He knew it must be worse for people outside the helicopters because the sonic imagery was showing him the people on the ground and they had all fallen to their knees or were lying down, knocked out.

Suddenly, Bay became aware of movement behind him, Aziz and Merit had thrown open the cabin doors and were currently manoeuvring a high speed winch across and out of the aircraft. Bay felt himself being tipped back at the aircraft dropped lower. He scrambled at the display in front, trying to watch what was happening using the sonic imaging system.

There was a flash of white light off to their side and Bay knew that Bobcat were throwing flash grenades. Bay wheeled round to Aziz again, the winch-man was going to have to move fast, the aircraft could only power the U.D. for so long.

Aziz turned to look at Bay, he had an explosive cable cutter strapped to his chest that Bay knew was for emergencies only and hopefully wouldn’t be needed that night. Then Aziz was gone, he had jumped out the cabin doors via the winch.

Luca swore violently as he struggled with the positioning and Bay was on the controls again. He could hear gun fire over the now weakening U.D. pulse and he was pretty sure it was coming from Bobcat.

Bay watched as Aziz dropped onto the asset, who had been knocked unconscious by the sound wave. They would administer Nectar later when he was securely in the chopper.

Aziz was attaching the strop-clip when Bay noticed the U.D. had stopped and the hostiles were becoming active again. Bobcat started reeling around, coming in closer to the ground, there were more flashes to their side.

Lily was running it way too close to the ground, but Bay understood, if it was someone he loved out there on the floor, he would be doing the same thing.

Aziz was ascending now, Merit brought him up at high speed with Aziz waving his arms in circular motions to stop him and the asset rotating on the wire. Suddenly, Luca snatched at the controls.

"Luca?" Bay asked unsurely.

"Incoming hostile. Airborne," Luca snapped.

Fuck.