How it Is
Interlude 12: Technical Sergeant Robert Epps
By: Nightelfcrawler
Disclaimer: Obviously Transformers is not my own, and is property of Hasbro. Be gentle.

Antarctica. Cold, desolate and bleak. White and blue merged smoothly on the horizon with jagged ridges of mountains in the distance.

Tech Sgt. Robert Epps sighed, and tugged the hood of his parka closer, pulling his warm wool ski cap down to cover his shaved head. Ok, as much as he hated the desert, he hated ice worse. He swore by the time he got back he'd never complain about how hot it was at Edwards again. He glanced out the window of the C-130 Hercules and stared down at the sunlit airstrip of McMurdo Station stretching out beneath him. Now he could officially say he'd been to every continent in the world.

Cool. No wait, correction… Cold.

Too damn cold. Damn Fig for getting out of this one on account of his injury. Too risky to 'slip' on the ice, he said. Wiseass.

It was actually late summer down here, which was good for landing. Apparently he didn't want to be here in the winter. Course' he didn't wanna be here now. The endless ice and snow seemed bleak among the glimpses of ground. He could see the airstrip coming up as they pulled in for a landing, the ground clear of ice and snow which made the landing easier, though Epps admitted he had been curious to find out how those ski things worked on the plane. Nonetheless, he got up as they taxied to a stop, and jogged down the stairs once he was given clearance to exit the plane. He was greeted at the bottom by three people.

"Tech Sergeant." The first man said, saluting to him. Epps stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and returned the salute smartly. "Welcome to McMurdo Station."

"Thank you sir." Epps said, purposely not adding that he was glad to be here. It was frigid with a stiff wind blowing at his neck. He hated it already.

"Colonel Danson." The man said, nodding once and gesturing for him to follow as he turned heading back towards the row of bunkers and buildings off the airstrip. "This is Ellen Ryan and Clyde Thompson." He nodded to the two walking beside him. "Chief researchers in charge of the project."

Epps nodded to them, a younger woman with dark hair and a tall thin man with a thick beard. "I wasn't given much on the details, sir. What project are we talking about?"

"Ice extraction." Ellen spoke up. "We're doing analysis of samples in the shelf, dating analysis, oxygen concentration, working on studying the effects of global warming."

Epps nodded, immediately uninterested. Global warming, whatever. There was a reason he wasn't a scientist. "So you found something interesting?"

"Very interesting, Sergeant." Danson spoke up in a low voice. "We'll talk inside."

Epps was quite glad to enter the building, the warmth immediately making his face tingle as he unzipped the parka. It was bare and simple, with heat fans running full blast. There were several people milling about at various rows of computers as they made their way towards the back, through some doors into a more office-like space. Down a few hallways past various military personnel's offices, they entered a conference room where Colonel Danson removed his parka and the others did the same as they all sat down at the table, the door locked behind them.

"Well Sergeant…" Danson said finally, his pepper gray hair short and neat, with a slight moustache under his nose. "…let me tell you, I've been in the Air Force for a long time… I've seen just about every plane out there." He reached over, and slid a manila folder across the table to Epps. "And I haven't ever seen anything like this. They said you were a specialist, but I'm not sure what more you can tell us. This aircraft isn't like anything I've ever seen before."

Epps felt that tight feeling grasp at his gut again. "So it is an aircraft, sir?"

"Yes, far as we can tell. Sonar has some images of it." He pointed at the folder.

Epps slid it open and studied the report. The first page was information on the official findings, but wasn't that helpful. He gave a low whistle at the specs though. This thing was BIG. He flipped the page and frowned as he studied a few of the pictures. It was hard to tell what was what, the thing was solidly encased in ice. He couldn't make out any particulars until he glanced at the sonar and finally figured out it's outline. Then, his heart clenched in fear. It was frightening how similar this thing looked. He'd only seen glimpses of that big badass mofo during the battle of Mission City, but one glance told him that the make and model was very similar.

Only this one was bigger.

It had a clearly different design, but the likeness was striking. He leaned forward, eyes carefully scanning the pictures for any sign, any at all, of WHAT it was… friendly, or not. But there was no way of telling. He sat back with a sigh.

"You seen one of these before?" Danson asked, watching Epps face carefully.

He glanced up, his brown eyes meeting the mans gray. "Yes, sir." He said quietly. "I have."

He exchanged a knowing glance with the Colonel, who nodded at his questioning gaze.

"They have priority clearance."

"Yes, sir." Epps said solemnly. "They'll need it."

Epps was given a bunk to spend the night in, ate a full meal, with the knowledge that they were setting out into the Antarctic the following day. It was a good day's travel by snowmobile to the find, somewhere in the middle of the ice shelf. The reason they'd found it when they did was the recent shifts in global warming had cracked the shelf in that area. They'd been doing some core samples and run into something much harder than ice, and done some investigating. By now, most of the science crew knew they'd found something big and metal buried there, but it was up to Epps and Danson to determine who they let in on what exactly it was. Epps was glad that wasn't HIS decision.

The trip across the ice shelf proved as miserable as he'd anticipated. It was cold, windy and made worse by the fact they were skimming over the ice shelf at high speeds. In any other situation, Epps might actually be having a bit of fun. He loved to ski-jet, but the glaring sunshine gave him a headache as it reflected against the ice and snow, the wind biting at his exposed skin. Cheeks hidden under a scarf as they zipped along. It had a certain beauty to it, in that glacial way. Still, he was glad when their pace slowed and they pulled up along side a few heavy duty trailers staked to the ice. They dismounted and Epps was led to the side of the first trailer, where a large yellow tarp was tacked over a sloping ice cave that had been burrowed out of the ground.

"Watch your head." Ellen suggested, as she took the lead, stooping a bit as she started down the narrow tunnel. Some lights had been strung down the top illuminating their path as they walked down the tunnel. "Took us weeks to dig this far down." She said as she led the way. "But I'll tell you, it sure was worth it."

And with that, the narrow cave opened up into a larger room where they could stand freely, the size of a large conference room… and that's where he saw it.

It was even bigger than he'd thought.

The ice here was very very clear. It faded to an frosty blue further back, but even so they could see most of the object's mass through the ice.

That mofo was huge!

"They won't tell us what it is, but we have some ideas." Ellen said, crossing her arms as she stared at it. "Besides, the ice core samples tell the story without it."

"You can date it?" Epps asked, slowly walking towards the opposite wall where they had cleared ice away from some of the object. It was still coated in frost and flakes of ice, but the metal was clearly visible.

"Yeah." Ellen said softly. "The ice dates at over a million."

Epps blinked. "A million years old?"

"Older than that." She said smiling. "Far before humans had ever invented metal, let alone vehicles." She glanced over at him, her eyes knowing as he returned the gaze. "And then they call in some specialist with top secret clearance." She shook her head. "I just hope I get to do some analysis on this thing."

Epps ignored her. He wasn't interested in what scientists wanted. His job was to find out what they were dealing with. The scientists could fight it out later. He walked up to the wall again, and hesitantly put his gloved hand on the metal poking out of the ice. It didn't seem anything extraordinary, just the tip of a wing. But as he stared intently at it, he knew it was of a design and alloy totally unlike anything this world used in it's aircraft. He brushed some ice away, but didn't learn much else. The thing was too far buried for him to make out anything.

He had the feeling he was going to be here a while.

Epps wasn't mistaken. The order came the next day that they were to uncover the item. Epps had questioned whether this was a smart idea or not, given that as to date all the flying NBE's that he'd seen had been hostile. Lennox had relayed to him that the Big Guy, their name for the alien leader, said there had been non-hostile fliers in their ranks, and if this one had truly been here for as long as the ice claimed he had, then he might have no knowledge of the ongoing war between the factions. If this was the case, he might not be hostile IF he was still alive. But could even an alien species survive for over a million years, frozen in ice?

Epps didn't know. But it was his job to help oversee the extraction, and stand ready in case it woke up. Of all those there, he was the only one who knew stuff about them, stuff that he could pass on, questions that could be answered.

Plus, he knew how to kill them.

It had been a quiet order. If the alien turned hostile and so much as harmed one human, he was to blast it right in it's chest cavity, where something called a spark casing was. A couple high-yield shots should do it. He had the large sabot-round loaded gun safely strapped to his side, as did five more soldiers, three stationed outside, two inside.

The extraction was slow. First off, getting the personnel out here was tricky enough. Luckily, most of the science crews were still stationed down here at this time of year, so they had been diverted to assist. Military staff had been shipped in via the USCG Polar Star, docked at McMurdo, having shuttled the needed staff down from a carrier in warmer waters. But even with added crew hacking away at the ice, carting away what they could, they had barely scratched the surface. So far, only the full extent of one wing and part of the upper portion had been extracted. The form was becoming clearer, and the more he saw of it, the more it reminded him how dangerous and deadly these things were. But as of yet, there had been no motion, no energy spikes, nothing to indicate this thing was alive.

But then, Epps knew better. These things were smart.

At the moment, it couldn't hurt a thing, he thought bitterly, staring at it as he finished climbing down one of the ladders attached to the ice shelf around the thing. They'd hollowed out the area, allowing the sun to beat down through the white camouflage tarp spread over the top. The thing was still solidly encased, however. It wasn't going anywhere.

He walked along the scaffolding to the bottom of the pit, staring down at it as the crews worked chipping and hacking away. He knelt down beside what they had unanimously decided was the nose of the craft. It was pointed straight down, as if it had crashed into the ice and been unable to move after that. It seemed damaged, they had come to realize. One wing had a massive rip in it, with a strange cloudy blue substance in the ice around it, that appeared to be fluid from the craft itself. There were no obvious score marks that might indicate a battle, but there were several indentations and solid dents on the wings that they could see, mostly on the front of the wings, possibly indicating it had run through either a meteor storm or ice storm. Beyond that, it was a mystery what had happened to it.

He liked to come down here when he was off-duty, just to stare at the thing, like he was now. Everyone was stopped for the night, most of them asleep, but he hadn't been able to sleep well since he'd been here, knowing that thing could wake up at any moment. He'd been sure to tell them to keep as much ice around it's body as possible, so they kept it's temperature constant so it might not wake up. But he knew that even the ice picks and vibrations might rouse it's consciousness, if it still existed. Still, it was eerie standing here in complete silence, the illumination of the lamps dim as he flipped the switch, and stood in front of it's nose, staring up at it. It was warmer down here than up on the surface, since no wind reached down into the pit, and the ice insulated against the clear chill of the Antarctic night.

It still unnerved him, being around it. These things were deadly killing machines, had taken out his own teammates, and innocently crushed buildings and people simply by 'accident'. He dreaded to think what would happen if they purposely attacked the humans, like that friggin' copter had at the base… Slaughtered hundreds by itself without a single shred of damage to show for it.

Yeah, Epps hated these things.

He stared up at the alien craft, his breath frosting in the dim lights strung overhead as he stared at the silent silver form. He shuddered despite himself, fingering the reassuring presence of the gun strapped over his back. "Man…must be nuts." He muttered to himself, frowning up at the thing. It didn't reply, silent as ever. Epps sat down on one of the crates housing some of the equipment, and stomped his feet as he stared up at it. No matter how much Lennox told him of his experiences, Epps still wouldn't get it. These things had taken out buildings without meaning to, crushed humans like bugs, and caused so much death by bringing their war to an innocent planet. Why were they stuck in the middle of this? They hadn't provoked anyone, they hadn't even done anything to grab these aliens' attention. Suddenly, one day they'd just landed in their laps, caused a bunch of trouble, and now had the whole military defense on alert against an enemy they barely understood.

It wasn't fair.

He could handle defending his country against things that were equal to him, had machinery comparable, men trained the same, using the same shit they had… But how could they compete against homicidal alien robots that probably saw them as lower life forms?

Epps sighed and stood up. Man, you're starting to go nuts down here. He wasn't even sure why he'd come down here, the thing just was stirring his anger. He shook his head and turned to return back to the warmth of the trailer.

That's when he heard it.

The pit was so silent, the sound echoed loudly in it despite the fact that it had been just as quiet as a breath or a groan. A digital frequency that didn't belong down here. There was no electronic equipment to make a sound like that.

Epps whirled around, gun immediately in hand as he turned to face the lump of ice, eyes narrow as he held his breath, certain of what he'd heard. That THING had made a damn sound, he knew it.

There was no motion from it, however.

Epps didn't back down, instead he took a few slow steps forward and stood about where he assumed it's front was, and stood there. "I heard you." He said finally. "You're not foolin' anyone."

There was empty silence, before another digital burst of static filled the pit, soft and crackling, muffled by the ice surrounding it. Epps' grip on the gun tightened, but he didn't engage a hostile position yet. So far, it hadn't moved, just let him know it was awake. He couldn't see any lights or indications of it's awareness, but there was a very low hum that he began to become aware of, and he could feel the ice beneath his boots vibrating slightly. It was very faint, but enough to draw his attention. It was awake.

"All right." Epps said taking a deep breath. Calm down, Rob… You're trained to negotiate with it, start there. "Let's see what you do." He had instructions to follow in case this happened… and despite his instinct to blow the effin' thing away, he was going to follow those orders. He lowered the gun slowly, but kept it handy in one hand, lifting his other slowly to his left front parka's pocket, and pulling out a small handheld device. He held it up, as if to say that it wasn't a weapon, then turned it on. "Ok… here's the deal." He said aloud. "I know you don't understand a word of what I'm sayin' so this here's loaded with the latest and greatest 'How to speak English for Big Ass Alien Robots.' I just hope you can figure out how to get into it." He held the thing up, waving it slowly, holding it out in a clearly offering position towards the craft. For a long time, nothing happened. Then Epps heard a small beep from the device in his hand, and turned it towards him. As he watched, the screen began to flash through various pages of the tutorial, faster than he could see. The alien was downloading the information wirelessly, just like they'd told him it would. He swallowed hard, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Ok, so far so good. It hadn't powered up weapons, or done anything aggressive. All it took was one move and he would be on the radio in a heartbeat. But so far the alien seemed complacent. The blackberry beeped, indicating the end of the documents, and Epps lowered it, facing the craft as he waited to see what it would do next.

Softly, in a static filled crackled and glitching voice that made the ice rumble vibrate slightly under his feet, it spoke.

"….i-iden---tify…."

Epps let out a slow breath. The voice was deep rumbling and emotionless, but it still scared the crap out of him. "Tech Sergeant Robert Epps, United States Air Force." He said firmly.

"…w-where….am-m-m I…?"

"You're on a planet called Earth." He said, his heart pounding despite his calm exterior. Man oh man this is some rush… His hands felt sweaty in his gloves. This was the first time he'd actually interacted directly with one of these things. Before he'd mostly he'd been staring and running. "Southern pole area. How did you get here?"

"…c-crash…dist---ortion …::fszzzt:: blocked-d-d…. Sen---sors….d-d-d-dis---oriented….hit s-s-surface, o-overl---oad….stasis-lock imp-p-plemented."

Epps thought that over. It meshed with what he'd thought happened. The alien had crashed and been unable to free itself, just like that other one had. "How long you been here?"

"…unk-k-known. C-c-chronom-m-meter… dam--aged."

Epps frowned. Well that answered one question. "You're damaged? Know how bad?"

"…energy r-r-reserves low… t-ten ::fzzt:: percent available…s-systems af-f-f-fected….sub-freezing t-t-temperatures aff-f-fecting all sys-s---tems… s-s-significant dam---age to ex-x-xterior hull pla---ting, int-t-t-ternal workings com---promised. Es-s-stimated stasis-lock in fi---ve ….::screech::"

Epps winced at the last word. It had been in that warbling tonal language of theirs. Apparently it had no translation. The thing seemed to be in bad shape, from what it sounded. The fact that it had woken up at all was impressive. "All right well we're working on getting you out. But there's one thing I gotta know first. Whose side you on?"

"…d-d-does not com---pute…ple---ase c-c-c-clarify."

Epps lifted an eyebrow. Please eh? At least it was polite. "Are you one of the… uh, the Autobots, or the Decepticons?"

There was a pause, then the voice replied again, this time clearly confused. "…does not c-c-compute… f-f-factions ob---solete."

"Obsolete, eh… yeah thought you'd say that." Epps muttered. So it seemed their visitor had no idea what was going on… which meant maybe, just maybe, they weren't so screwed after all. "Ok… here's the deal. We're getting you out, but I gotta tell you that if you harm any humans, or try to escape on your own, we will attack." He said firmly. "We have no intention on harming you if you remain peaceful. We'll help you out as long as you surrender peacefully."

There was a pause. "…t-t-terms acce---ptable. I will n-n-n-not re---sist…"

Epps sighed in relief. "Good." Now, he needed some info. "Is there any danger to your uh.. systems?"

"….aff-f-f-firma---tive." The answer came. "S-s-significant da---mage to ::fzzt:: wing j-j-joint. En---ergon leak… ex-x-x-xposure to environ---ment not ad-d-dvised."

Epps slowly walked around to the area that he figured the thing meant. It was the cloudy blue area by the wing, where the damage was. "Ok… we'll make sure not to defrost that part yet, then. Anything else?"

"N-n-negative. No oth---er crit-t-tical sys---tems that can---not ::fzzt:: be r-r-repaired in time."

"Right." Epps said, studying the thing intently. "You self-repair, right?"

"Affirma---tive."

"Most of your systems will self-repair on their own if removed from the ice?"

"Aff-f-firmative. Ex-x-xception: wing joint re---quires medic a-t-t-ttention."

Epps frowned. Ok, that wasn't a good sign. If they got him out of the ice, that wing joint was going to be exposed eventually. And he knew that there was no way they could get it out of here without clearing off all the ice. In addition, no medic who could work on that thing was available, so it was up to him to find a solution. "Any way we can patch you up long enough to move you and get you off this continent?"

"Unk-k-known…do not ::fzzt::… know cap---abilities…." The voice seemed less coherent again, and Epps had a feeling it was about to laps back into unconsciousness, or stasis-lock as it called it.

"All right, you go rest up then, recharge, whatever… we'll work on a solution. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Aff-f-f-firma---tive…" And with that, the vibrations in the pit died down again, until they stopped. It had lapsed back into stasis-lock.

Epps didn't release his hold on the gun, just in case, but there was no further reply from the alien, so he quietly hit the radio's alert button, backing off a bit. "Team, report for duty." He announced. "We got a live one here."