The following day, Vic was woken up by the sound of the horn at 5:35 AM. It was time for the soldiers to wake up. Vic stretched his arms out and yawned loudly. He was now ready to perform his first task as a soldier.

The soldiers were inside individual showers washing up and got dressed in their army uniform. It was a dark morning, in which the sky was still pitch dark blue with a hint of pink on the bottom. All the soldiers in the Fort Baxter Air Base were lined up while listening to Sergeant Peppah's instructions.

"Alright, fellas!" he announced pacing back and forth in front of them. "We are soldiers who learned one important rule of being in the military. Can one of you guys tell me what that one important rule was?"

"Don't sleep on the job, sir?" one of the soldiers blurted out.

"Man up, sir?" another one surmised.

"Soldiers never wear make-up, sir?" the third soldier asked.

"NO!" Sergeant Peppah bellowed. "Never judge a book by its cover."

He motioned over to Vic, who stood there proudly. "You see this man here?" Sergeant Peppah asked the soldiers. "This man is passionate about this. He came here because he's an avid soldier who is very serious about joining the army - well that and he really wants to make money for his sick brother. So why did I kick him out of the military weeks ago?"

The other soldiers shrugged. "Because I found drugs in his barracks," Sergeant Peppah told them, "and he brought a prostitute in the base, and as you have known, any of that illegal bullshit is strictly prohibited in the military!"

"So why did you let him back in?" another soldier asked.

"Hold your horses!" Sergeant Peppah told the soldier. "I'm getting to that part! So it was only later that I discovered by Vic's arms dealing buddy Phil that Martinez was responsible for all that Vance here was accused of, and in retrospect, you guys want to know my biggest mistake?"

Once again, the soldiers shrugged. "I'll tell you my biggest mistake!" Sergeant Peppah continued. "It was not testing the soldier. After learning everything this man had to do to finally join the army, I should have given him a drug test just to see if he was clean enough to join the army. So all of you guys need to get tested right now before we're able to get the task done, because I don't want to find out one of my soldiers were using drugs during their career."

So for the next fifty-five minutes, each and every soldier in the Fort Baxter Air Base took a drug test to verify that they were drug free. Sergeant Peppah took his position as a sergeant seriously, and unlike Martinez, he was genuinely opposed to drugs of any kind. So it was integral for him to make sure every last one of his soldiers were clean. After a while, every soldier was tested negative, and they all returned to line up in a row to face Sergeant Peppeh.

"I'm proud of you men," the sergeant told the soldiers. "You learned just why we oppose to drugs in this military base. And as soldiers, we will be doing our first task: taking out the drug smugglers. Based on the tape of Sergeant Martinez, his allies are smuggling the goods via boats and helicopters back into his office. So we have to destroy every smuggler that steps foot neat this base! Now let's move!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" all the soldiers chanted in compliance.

"Now pick a partner and keep the drugs out of our area!" Sergeant Peppah ordered.

One of the soldiers Vic was partnered with was a soldier named Shawn Woodard. The other soldiers had dispersed and spread around as they exit the Fort Baxter Air Base. Many of them were headed to the docks to board boats, and Vic and Shawn decided to ride a black-and-red Squalo.

"Okay, Vic!" Shawn told Vic as the latter started to speed up in the water. "You ride up to the drug smugglers! I'll shoot!"

Japan's "Quiet Life" was playing on the radio, and Vic rode deep in the ocean to find some drug smugglers on boats. The soldiers' boats were scattering around the smugglers' boats, and Vic pulled up closer for Shawn to fire at one of the drug smugglers' boats. Vic fired bullets at the boat as well, causing it to explode, killing the smugglers aboard.

All the soldiers on the boats split up, and Vic rode the Squalo deeper in the ocean to ride under the bridge between Little Haiti and Leaf Links. He spotted another drug smugglers' boat coming up ahead, and by the time Vic got closer, the smugglers on the other boat started firing back as well.

So as Shawn started firing back at the smugglers, Vic swerved around the ocean to avoid the firing bullets coming his way. As he got closer himself, Vic pulled out his machine gun and started firing at the drug smugglers on the boat until it caught fire and eventually exploded. Vic rode through the ocean to find more drug smugglers.

The soldiers of the Fort Baxter Air Base were all riding around the ocean to make sure that not a single soldier made their way to the jetty next to the military base, and Vic and Shawn had took out multiple drug smugglers' boats trying to get closer.

After a while, Vic drove the Squalo around the ocean to search for more of the smugglers. Shawn held his hands up high as he cheered.

"We did it!" he cheered. "We wiped out the drug smugglers! We make a great team!"

Just then, Shawn caught a bullet in the leg from behind. "Arrgh!" he cried out in pain. "Piece of shit!"

Vic turned to see an army of drug smugglers riding a yacht and firing at Vic and Shawn. Vic just reached in the Squalo and pulled out an M249.

"Hang in there, Shawn," Vic told the wounded soldier. "I got this!"

So as the drug smugglers on the yacht fired at Vic, the latter just aimed his weapon at the smugglers and fired bullets himself, killing several smugglers. Vic fired as many bullets at the yacht as he could until the yacht eventually caught fire and exploded, killing every last smuggler on it. Shawn was still wounded and was in desperate need of medication.

"Hang on, Shawn!" Vic told the wounded soldier. "We're gonna get you to the paramedics!"

So Vic drove the Squalo through the ocean on his way back to the Fort Baxter Air Base as fast as he could. He needed to help his fellow partner get his wound treated before he bled to death from his injury.

Vic finally made it to the jetty, and he barely carried Shawn out with him, walking him over to the other soldiers already on land.

"My partner needs some medical treatment!" Vic told them.

"We got this," one of the soldiers reminded as he and his partner helped Shawn hobble to the medical center inside the military base to get treatment for his wound.

Sergeant Peppah walked over to Vic. "I'm proud of you, Vance," he said. "Not only did you prove to be courageous fighting against those lowlife drug smugglers, you proved to be loyal to your fellow soldiers and showed just how much respect you have for your teammate."

"Hey," Vic told him, "my father once told me that a great soldier never leaves another man behind."

"Very true," Sergeant Peppah replied. "Keep this up, we might reward you with something prestigious."

Things were so far looking good for Vic ever since he was recruited back into the army, and it felt good to have his career back. Not only was he expecting a great amount of money his way, he was determined to finally have Martinez caught in the act and be stripped of his position as a sergeant. He was prepared for a brighter future his way.