Operation: Flanks for nothing
Once the three get the spots out of their eyes, the first two remove their seatbelts and get to the back. "What the hell was that?"/"Do you have to ask...maybe not, the time's still 3 in the morning."/"Yeah, great; now who wants to take point?" They are saying as Lady-Jaye opens the ammo storage crate disguised as a cooler.
"He does." Both men replied while pointing to the other. "Why me?!"/"You wanted to tag along, Sci-Fi, so go on!"
After rolling her eyes, Lady-Jaye shoves them aside. "Out of the way, I'll do it...bunch'a bottom of the barrel geeks." She says before peeking out the driver-side window to see that they are surrounded. "I hate roadtrips." She thinks to herself when she recalls what she went through as Xamot's "captive".
Elsewhere, Beachhead watches one of the staff scroll through a computer checklist with things like "Penaplastic polymers", "Atomic powered hair dryer", "Transit Plate", and..."Ion Correlator; is da Hydro-Masteh here as well, Dr. MacGuffin?" He asked.
"No, that is in another location; now for what you were sent for...oh, there you are." The researcher says, both aware of the Laser Core having been damaged beyond repair recently. They head for a storage room where he climbs a ladder to get one of the smaller boxes down before taking it to one of the labs. The crate is opened and a small red vase-like object with a black handle is removed.
"Did yuh find owt wut it is?"
"All we've done so far is a metallurgical test on some of the device's scrapings. The casing is ordinary steel, just painted over...despite all those centuries under the silt." Dr. MacGuffin explained.
"But what abowt dis gray part wit' da X in it?" Beachhead asked next. "Is it supposed tuh be open laik dat?"
"That; the men who found it thought it was broken in the crash like the other handle they found later, but if you look closer you can see these wires curving into it. As for function, our consensus is that this is the control panel. One other thing of note is that the inner parts have heavy traces of iridium, much more than can be found on Earth. All in all, it'll be a while before we get to it's purpose or even what it's power source is."
"Awlrait, but jes' wut do y'awl thenk da purpose was?"
"Well, given the parabolic dish, it could have been anything from a directed energy weapon to scanning equipment."
"Ah guess yuh can rule owt emergency beacon, seeing as how da ship it was found in is still here, rait?"
"Oh, far from it, Mr. Beachhead; with how vast the known universe is, it could broadcast for a thousand years and never be detected. Shall we start the testing?"
"Let me ask da General, first. Ah'll stop at dat hotel ah saw on my way here and cawl him." Beachhead tells him, not sure what to make of being called Mr., only for the research to raise a hand.
"If you mean the three-story Victorian down the road, that's just Sunnydale Orphanage. Sometimes they come over to watch us work." He replied.
"Yuh got civilians dat close to a potential Cobra tahget?!" Beachhead asked him angrily, but backs down when told that had been in the area since the goldrush.
While Beachhead is making his way back to the base, the other three Joes are discussing their situation. "It doesn't look like the fang gang, but they could just be disguised like we are." Mainframe says as a searchlight shows a ring of soldiers in black uniforms around them with what looked like a couple of aircraft hangers behind them.
"You in the van; come out, get on the ground, and place your hands behind your backs. This is your only warning." They hear from outside.
"Should we?" Sci-Fi asks after glancing at the other two.
"You heard him, only warning; I'll go first." Mainframe replies, and puts down his pistol before opening the driver-side door. "I'm exiting, don't shoot!" He says before he kneels and is zip-tied while some other soldiers move in.
"Exterior is clear."/"Tango-1 in custody."/"Open the back door slowly and slide whatever weapons you have towards us...Tango's 2 and 3 in custody." Some of them say before the three are led away.
"Hey hey, can't this be looser, i need that hand-for shooting stuff!"/"That better be all you do with it."/"No talking; move!" Sci-Fi, Lady-Jaye, and one of the soldiers say when the former notices something. "Guys, four o'clock."
The other two glance back to find what must have caused the blinding effect on the van's right. It was a third M.A.S.S. device. Once the trio is brought inside one of the buildings, their captors change behavior. "That's that; untie 'em."/"Got it, Capt. Are these really G.I. Joes, cause that was boring as shit just now." They say before the Joes restraints are removed.
"Boring?! Call me that again, pogue, and I'll shove that rifle up your ass!" Mainframe says when the soldiers start stand at attention as two more people walk in. "You're the one behind this, i take it?" He asks the second one.
"We had to make it look convincing. A lot of birds in these parts." A man in a black suit replied.
"Capt. Dubosky, just these three?" The other person with a Major's leaf asked while motioning to the Joes.
"Yes sir, we took them easier than expected, sir." The lead soldier replied.
"Uh-huh...good work then; dismissed...They're all yours." The Maj. says. He gives one last glance before he shakes his head, nods to the man in the suit, and leaves.
"Well that was rude." Sci-Fi says under his breath.
"Best get used to it; we're only "P.M.C.'s", after all." Lady-Jaye tells him.
"You mean the old equipment testing routine, right...Sgt. Hart-Burnett?" The man in the suit asked while smirking. "Cpl. Parker; Specialist Fine."
"Anybody you know?" Mainframe asks Lady-Jaye.
"No, but Scarlett would. We sort of met during a job in Estonia just before G.I. Joe was formed." The man answered.
"She said she was the only survivor of that...Just who are you and why do you have one of those?" Lady-Jaye asked, but he just chuckles.
"This way, please...and welcome to Groomlake AFB."
Back at MacGuffin labs, Beachhead has returned after an "all-clear" from General Hawk. "Yuh may proceed, Dr. MacGuffin." He says.
"Very well. Do you wish to join in, or will you just watch?" The head researcher asks him.
"...We did sorta find da ship it was on, so ah guess ah'll try it owt first." Beachhead replied, then walked past the ballistics barrier and headed over to the device to aim it at a pre-placed cement block. When he presses the controls, he feels a slight jolt as a pale green light envelopes him, which shoots from his eyes and turns the block into a gorilla wearing a black beret with a red badge that had two plungers forming an X over a spork on it. "...Aw, hell!"
"Is uh...Is this meant to resemble one of your teammates?" Dr. MacGuffin asks as the other researchers walk over.
"Erm, no; dun' look laik no-one ah eveh saw...And ah'm gonna need da footage of dis; security reasons." Beachhead asked just before the gorilla vanished.
At Joe H.Q., Hawk is "reviewing" one of the Gr.I.T. recording with Duke and Flint when the latter sneezes. "Where'd that come from?" He asks himself.
"I dunno why, but it reminds me of something Snake-Eyes mentioned once about how the Japanese have some belief about that, but i forget the specifics of it."
"Dr. MacGuffin, what do you suppose happened?" Another of the researchers asked next.
"I believe i have a way to explain all this, but we'll need to try it again; and with more professionalism this time, please." The lead researcher says before leaning into Beachhead's ear and whispering a suggestion. Once the scientists are back behind cover, Beachhead picks the device up a second time and starts the process over. This time turning a second block into a blonde woman with a pony-tail wearing civilian clothes. "Hmm; considering 3-D projections don't, or atleast shouldn't, cast shadows...Can someone switch the image to thermal; is this a physical person, Dr. Fields?"
"Yes, Dr. MacGuffin, she's there, alright; but how?" The second researcher asks him. "And who is this, exactly?"
"Dat's what ah was 'bout to ask; any of you fella's know wher-." The lady told him before she vanished.
"...Let's just pretend we didn't see any of this. Sergeant, go and make that call first to confirm my theory, please."
"Awrait, one moment." Beachhead uses the nearest secure phone. "Hello, Irene*?...Yes, ah'm sorry, ah know wut taim it is; jes' cawlin' to ask if yuh day went well...ah see; sorry again, dear. Bye." He says before heading back to the testing area. "Well, seems yuh're rait; the device ain't a...Wuteveh generateh, eitheh."
"Wormhole...and since it isn't that or a holographic projector, the only thing it can be for is the rearranging of the atomic structure of any object for bringing whatever the user is thinking of into reality."
"Incredible. But if that's true, Dr. MacGuffin, then we have to send this to G.I. Joe headquarters immediately." A third researcher says, but is turned down.
"I have to disagree, the device would be more vulnerable being transported."/"Ah'll second dat; Ah'll have a temporary post setup nearby fer when Cobra shows it's scaleh hide."
At the same time, the other three Joes are being led further into the base. "Just how far down are we?" Mainframe asks him after a few dozen minutes.
"Around these parts, only the cafeteria and the restrooms are declassified info, but i can say that...We're here." The man in the suit tells him before sliding a card and opening a door to a construction area with a vaguely T-shaped silvery machine with a circular dish just beneath a set of 16 blue square panels with two rows of eight more colored from red to yellow attached to the front of it.
"That must be the most bodacious thing i ever saw." Mainframe said aloud.
"But what is it, and why show us?" Lady-Jaye asks.
"This, lady and gentlemen, is the future of power." The man in the suit tells them. "Or half of it, at any rate. The actual name...is the Broadcast Energy Transmitter."
Chapter one. Read and review, please.
*The name's made up, but Beachhead did have a framed picture of a similar looking woman on his desk in "Iceberg Goes South" at around 4:16.