Chapter 1
During the battle in L.A. many NEST soldiers died and got severely injured. They had all been found and returned to there families for burials or, if they survived, rehab if they needed it. It had been three weeks since the last battle and luckily none of the Deceptions seemed to be planning on bringing the joint down again any time soon. Now, back in the Ohio NEST base, Lenox was preparing for a trip to California, it was going to be a three hour flight and a one hour drive to the naval base he was going to be visiting. Epps was coming too, as well as a couple of the Autobots. The Autobots Ratchet, Mirage, Sideswipe and Ironhide were assigned to accommodate the two humans on their trip so that they could help find the new recruits for the team.
"Kay! Were leaving people! Epps, get you ass on the plane!" Lenox shouted over the powerful C-130 Hercules engines. All the Autobots had showed up and were now in the plane but the sergeant seemed to be running late again. Then he appeared out of one of the corridors. He was cladded in his usual gear and had his bag flung loosely over his right shoulder.
"I'm commin'!" he shouted back as he ran to the plane. Once Epps had entered, the door started to shut. He dumped his bag on the ground before putting his hands on his knees and trying to catch is breath.
"Where were you man?" Lenox shouted to him over the roar of the engines. Epps put up one hand in front of him as if to say give me a second. After a couple of deep breaths he stood up straight and put one hand on his hip.
"I told you I was commin'!" He shouted back before sucking in another breath. Lenox shook his head disapprovingly and walked to his bag, he got out his laptop and started typing something up. Still a little out of breath, Epps leaned on Ironhide for support as he picked up his bag and rummaged through its contends. He found one apple, two slices of bread with ham, a note pad, one pencil and pen and an old Nintendo DS light.
"Oh man…" He groaned. Lenox looked up from his work to see what was bothering his friend.
"What is it?" he said.
"I forgot my laptop…" Epps said with a melancholy expression.
"Yeah, so?" Lenox said as he returned his attention to the screen of his laptop.
"I still need to write a report! If I don't have it done before we come back, Mearings going to kill me." Epps said before looking back into his bag to double check that it was not in there.
"Get a notepad and write it by hand." Lenox said as he started typing away again. Epps looked at his partner as if he had gone mad, he was never going to be able to write a full report in less than two days by hand, let alone make it legible as his handwriting had not improved ever since he had turned seven. But seeing that he did not have much of a choice in this matter, he was just going to have to take his mate's advice. With a deep, dramatic sigh, Epps took out the note pad and his pen. He slid down the topkick's side until he was sitting on the ground with the pad in his lap and pen in hand. Then he started jotting down notes of what he was going to go through in his report and so on. Ten minutes after he started, Epps took a break. He had written half a page and his hand felt like it was going to literally drop off. He had put the pen and the note pad on the ground and walked to where Lenox was sitting, massaging his hand and wrist as he went.
"What's up?" He asked idly as he stopped next to his comrade.
"The sky." Lenox replied sarcastically.
"That's really lame" Epps said as he leaned down towards Lenox's laptop to see what he was doing.
"Lameness, lameness makes me famous." Lenox said in a singsong voice. Epps ignored him as he read through the document the captain was writing. He only needed to see the first sentence to realize that Lenox was also in the middle of writing some inglorious report about training and what not.
"You too hmm?" Epps said as he stood back up.
"Yeah, this really sucks." Lenox said as he pointed an accusing finger at his laptop.
"You know how much longer till we arrive?" Epps asked as he leaned on one leg.
"No, sorry… Ask 'Hide, he'll know. He keeps track of everything." Lenox said as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder indicating the black GMC Topkick standing behind him.
" 'Hide! How much longer!" Epps shouted to the car.
"We have been flying for half an hour." Ironhide said flatly.
"Kay… so we have… two and a half more to go?" he asked nobody in particular.
"That's correct." Ratchet said coolly. Epps smile dropped of his face. How the hell am I going to survive this trip, he thought.
"Are you sure?" Epps asked Ironhide.
"Affirmative." Ironhide replied. Epps groaned as he walked to where he had put his note pad and pen and sat down. He picked the two things back up and started writing again. After about half an hour of writing, Epps's pen finished. In the middle of a word his pen stopped writing. Epps glared daggers into it as he tried to finish the word but his visual threat did not seem to affect the pen in any way. Slowly losing his patience, Epps shook it and then tried again with no success. Dammit pen! He thought angrily as he threw it at the wall opposite him.
"Is there a problem Sargent Epps?" Ratchet asked the obviously angered human next to him.
"No. No, there is no problem." Epps practically growled back as he reached for his bag. After a minute of searching he found the pencil and finished the word he was in the middle of writing. When he had only one more paragraph to go, his pencil broke.
"God dammit!" Epps shouted, "Why? You couldn't just stay intact for two more freakin' minutes?"
"Dude, what is your problem?" Lenox hissed. While Epps was writing, the whole plane had gone silent except for the engines. Lenox had somewhat fallen into reverie and was, to say the least, not expecting an outburst like that.
"The pencil! That's my problem!" Epps said as he held up a yellow broken pencil.
"Why don't you use the pen?" Lenox asked groggily as he rubbed his eyes.
" 'Cos the pen stopped working." Epps said trying hard to keep his cool.
"Oh… well" *yawn* "I'm sure they have more pens on the plane somewhere." Lenox said as he stretched is arms.
"Ugh… Never mind." Epps said as he lay himself down on his back.
