a/n - Having fun yet? gonna be a wild ride as our boys are about ti find out.

"Talk to me, Duck." Gibbs stood over the Medical Examiner as he looked over the body of Staff Sergeant Shaffer. There was something about this base that bothered Gibbs and he wanted a quick resolution to the case.

Dr. Mallard continued the exam, used to the rants of the other man. He positioned the liver probe as he spoke. "Really, Jethro, I just got here. You could give me a few minutes to at least properly meet the deceased."

"You don't need a liver probe to know what time he died, Ducky. We were here, remember?"

"Procedure, my good man." Ducky removed the probe and whistled at the results. "According to this, he will die sometime early this evening." He bent over and pulled one of Shaffer's eyelids back. Even in the short time since his demise, the corneas had begun to cloud over.

"What?" It took a second for Ducky's words to register and for Gibbs to bark out a response. "He's still alive?"

"Heavens, no, if he were the liver probe would have been quite uncomfortable. However, our Sergeant was running quite a fever when he died, which will make confirmation of the TOD a tad difficult. We will be forced to be satisfied with your estimation."

"A fever?" Ziva stepped closer to not raise an alarm, even though her voice would have clued anyone in that something was wrong. "Was he contagious? He attacked McGee."

Palmer brought the plastic close so they could begin to wrap the body before placing it in a bag. Ducky didn't answer until they had him securely wrapped. "Contagious, who knows? Until we know for sure, we'll treat it as such. I'll have Abby put a rush on the lab work when she gets back in the morning, unless you want me to have it sent to the FBI's lab today?"

Fornell aside, Gibbs opinion of the FBI was well known. Palmer spoke up before he even thought about it. "A lot of the tests I can do myself, Agent Gibbs. That is, if it's all right with you and with Dr. Mallard."

"Excellent thought, Mr. Palmer." Ducky gave his approval to his assistant. It would give them a jump start without involving an outside lab, something the agents at NCIS were loath to do. Thinking about what Ziva had said about McGee, he turned back to Gibbs. "Just to be safe, I should give Timothy a quick once over when he gets back to headquarters. Be sure to send him down to me." Just to make sure, he waited until Ziva nodded also before continuing to prepare the body to be moved.

Gibbs barely acknowledged Ducky's request to examine McGee before he was moving back to Major Lowe's office, Ziva at his heels. The major had been strangely reluctant to hand over what Shaffer had been working on, and Gibbs' patience had just about worn out. "Major, do you have authorization yet to hand over those files?"

"Not yet, Agent Gibbs." Lowe seemed to become more nervous as the day progressed. "It's the middle of the night over there."

Gibbs was not in the mood for these games and was a little worried about McGee and DiNozzo if he were honest with himself. They had been gone almost four hours without calling in to complain even once. "Over where?"

Major Lowe hesitated until he saw the look on Gibbs' face. "Diego Garcia."

"Diego Garcia?" Gibbs wracked his brain; it sounded familiar but he couldn't place it. It was Ziva who gave him the answer.

"In the Indian Ocean? You have to get approval from someone stationed all the way over there?"

Patience gone, Gibbs snapped at the Major. "Either wake someone up over there or go over their head and call further up the chain of command. I'm not going to sit here all day without a decision." Lowe's desk phone rang at that moment and he practically dove to answer it.

"Sir, yes, sir… I understand, sir… I will inform him of that, sir… I'm sure he will pass that on, sir… good day, sir." He set down the phone and turned his attention to Gibbs. "Director Galloway regrets to inform you that your agency does not have clearance to look at the files in question."

"Director Galloway of?" Gibbs waited for the Major to fill in the blank. When the Major didn't, Gibbs' irritation grew. "The last time I checked, this was a Marine Corps base, therefore under the jurisdiction of NCIS. So, I am going to ask one more time, who the hell is Galloway?"

"National Security Advisor Galloway reports directly to the President. He has been named liaison for the commission regarding the matter of which you do not yet have clearance for. He suggests that if you have any questions you have your director make a request to the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

That level of doubletalk made Gibbs blink and even Ziva was stunned. Gibbs turned slowly to look directly at him. "You are telling me that the President and the Joint Chiefs are worried about what a Staff Sergeant was working on when he died? On this little second hand base?"

Lowe bristled at the comment. "We may be a small base, Agent Gibbs, but what we work on here is of the utmost importance. I'll be waiting for you to receive clearance." In an obvious dismissal he returned to his own paperwork. Gibbs glared at him for a few seconds then stormed out the door. Ziva scrambled to get out of his way, and then scrambled to keep up.

---NCIS---

DiNozzo and McGee looked at each other. The last echo from the gunfire was fading and they realized how remote of a location they were in. The two men began walking towards the MCRT van, picking up speed as they went. DiNozzo pulled up short and grabbed McGee's arm. "Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"It was like a light flashed against the van. Are you sure you didn't see it?"

"Tony," McGee was panting and would have fallen if DiNozzo hadn't caught him. "In comparison to the day so far, why are you worried about a light?"

"Good point, let's get out of here." He tugged McGee who had stopped dead in his tracks.

"Do you see that, Tony?" McGee was staring past the van. The other man glared at him.

"We just did this, McGee, and you said…"

"No, Tony, look." Tim pointed and Tony could see what he was talking about, but still had no idea what it was. Whatever it was, it was large and silver and moving towards them at a high rate of speed. McGee was still trying to determine what it was, while DiNozzo took the more practical approach.

"Let's get out of here, now."

They ran, full out, trying to reach the van but the explosion that destroyed it knocked them both off their feet. The front bumper sailed over their heads to land in the field. As they lay on the gravel road, the silver object grew closer, but they couldn't see it clearly through the dust and smoke in the air. Coughing, Tony climbed to his hands and knees, waiting for the dizziness to pass. Beside him, McGee was trying to roll to his side in an effort to regain his footing. DiNozzo grasped his arm and the two of them leaned against each other as they struggled to stand. Running more on instinct than anything else, DiNozzo tugged McGee until they were back off the road and in the field. From there they had a better view of the approaching item. It was even bigger than they had first thought and looked like a huge metal cat, running on all fours, a heavy spiked tail swishing behind it. Without debate, they turned to run in the opposite direction. McGee was still looking over his shoulder as they ran and plowed into Tony when the other man came to a stop.

"Why'd you stop?" McGee turned and yelled, then saw why. Another large metallic object was coming at them from the other direction. This one ran upright on two feet with a slightly humanoid appearance. Changing direction once again, the two men ran for the nearby grove of trees. They circled around a fallen tree too large to jump over and ducked down behind it.

"Robots? When did the Marine Corps start building robots, McGeek?"

"How the hell would I know? They sure don't look like anything I've ever seen before." The catbot tumbled on the ground, changing its shape as it rolled, coming to stand on two feet with similar proportions and shape as the second robot. They watched and listened as the two metal giants collided. Engaged in battle, neither robot reacted when the two human ran through the trees, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the battling robots.

Both men remembered the basic layout of the base from the wall map they had studied and were able to cut across various fields and practice areas to reach the cluster of office buildings in the center of the base. They pulled up short as they came to the building housing Major Lowe's office, gasping for air. Neither of them had come up with how to explain their experiences when Gibbs came storming out of the building with Ziva hurrying to keep up.

Gibbs looked at the two men, relieved to see them back. They both had stunned expressions on their faces and were covered with dirt and bits of greenery. "What happened to you two?"

McGee and DiNozzo looked at each other, but it was DiNozzo that spoke up. "Wild story, Boss. Long wild story."

The two men were back and relatively intact and Gibbs wanted nothing more than to get off the base. "Fine. You can tell me on the way back. Let's get out of here." DiNozzo's phone chose that moment to ring and Tony sent it sailing in a panic. The battery popped off when it landed and the two rattled agents attacked the two pieces, stomping them to bits.

Ziva smirked at them. "You do know there is an ignore button on the phone?" Gibbs just held his hand up to stop any explanation.

"I don't know what's going on, but you can tell us the whole story on the way back."

McGee looked up from where he was still poking at the remains of the phone. "Umm, Boss, getting back might be a problem."

Gibbs glared at him. "No, it's not because you two nuts are not driving. I am." He turned and began walking to the van which was now parked on the other side of the lot. "DiNozzo, that phone is coming out of your paycheck."

DiNozzo wasn't worried about the cost of the phone; he had bigger concerns at the moment, concerns that McGee shared with him.

"How'd the van get here, McGee?"

"It's not our van. Ours blew up, remember?" They watched in dread as the left tail light shifted and rotated into position. "Oh, crap. How are we going to tell Gibbs?"

"How the hell should I know? You're the tech guy, think of something?"

"Me? You're the senior agent."

"Can it both of you and get in. I want off this damn base." Gibbs threw the driver's side door open and climbed in, slamming it shut as he yelled.

Ziva muttered "children" as she also got in the vehicle. The look on her face told them they would find no support on that front. Slowly they took their customary places as Gibbs floored the accelerator. DiNozzo kept looking through the window into the back while McGee shifted from staring at DiNozzo and examining every inch of the back of the box van that was suddenly not so familiar.

They were waved past the main gate with not even a second glance. DiNozzo wasn't sure if that was good or bad, convinced that any second they would be arrested for stealing top-secret government weaponry. Of course, if he were honest, Gibbs was the one technically stealing the weapon, but he just knew he was the one going to be blamed for it. He turned back to McGee again, but the other man still looked shell-shocked and was not going to be using his creative writing skills to come up with a reasonable sounding explanation before Gibbs starting demanding answers.

"Start talking, DiNozzo."

"Well, Boss, it's like this…" He looked back at McGee one last time who only shrugged his shoulders. "He, we, they…"

"If I wanted a grammar lesson, I'd ask McGee. Now what has got the two of you so rattled?"

"They've got some pretty big secrets on that base, Boss."

"Well yeah, DiNozzo, I know."

"You know?"

"You do?"

Ziva's head kept swiveling between the three men. "Wait a minute. Tony, are you saying you and McGee know what the secret…" She stopped speaking as she threw up her arms to prevent her face from smacking into the dashboard. "Gibbs, why did you stop like that?"

"I didn't." Gibbs was looking at the gauges and trying to rev the engine to no avail. "I don't know what's wrong with it. Maybe the transmission or…"

A frantic look passed between McGee and DiNozzo before they reacted. McGee scrambled out the back door as DiNozzo grabbed Ziva's arm and started pulling and yelling. "Crap, everybody out now!" Gibbs bellowed at them to get back in but then his door flew open and he found himself sliding out and onto the ground.

McGee fell out the door as he saw what was following them. A large military hummer was gaining speed as it barreled down the two lane road towards them. Without slowing, it began to transform into the giant metallic cat from the earlier attack. His feet slid as he took the corner around the van and headed to where Gibbs was still laying. "Tony, we've got company!"

Tony circled around the front of the van as he heard McGee shout. "Not again."

Ziva looked at him, then at what he was staring at. "What is it?"

Not listening to the conversations around him, Gibbs watched, transfixed, as the side mirrors folded up against the body and the engine compartment rotated up onto the cab. DiNozzo and McGee each grabbed one of his arms and dragged him backwards out of the way as the MCRT van stood up. Ziva was still frozen in place and Tony snagged her sleeve as they ran past, not stopping until they were down in a ditch, covering their heads.

The catbot leapt and hit the other robot mid-chest. They both went down and rolled twice. Their robot was the first one back on its feet and charged the cat, tossing it in the air. Mid-air, the catbot changed into the two legged version and ran at their robot again. The ground shook when they collided and the four human witnesses dove further down into the ditch. This fight seemed to last much longer than the last one to DiNozzo. When they heard the roar of one of the robots leaving he raised his head up enough to see. The robot he was now thinking of as theirs was standing facing them. There was a piece of metal lying near the scene of the fight but he could see no visible damage on the robot so it must have come from the attacking one. He and McGee stood for a second before Gibbs grabbed them and yanked them back down into the ditch, glaring at them both.

"Did I miss a memo about an upgrade to the truck?"