Just an FYI, looking back at the first two chapters, I've realized that I kind of rushed through them. Now that I have the story planned out a little better, I will be editing them in the near future. Nothing incredibly major, just a few detail changes that I think will make them flow better with the rest of this story.

I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

eye of sparta - Glad you liked the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as well.

Guest - I haven't completely sorted this story out, but I like the idea. How they would deal with that issue is the question.

US Navy Outpost 17 'Fulcrum', March 4, 1987

US Navy Lieutenant Alexsandr Kallus groaned as he stretched. He was tired, like he was almost every morning. 'Morning' might not be the best term, as days in the antarctic were completely different than days spent at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. He had been assigned to the antarctic as a helicopter pilot and a search and rescue specialist, if one was needed. Kallus had lept at the chance. Antarctica was this new, unknown setting that would be interesting, maybe even fun. The first few weeks seemed to have shattered that idea. Antarctica was nothing but a frozen wasteland, but in time, Kallus had grown to appreciate the solitude of the base, and the company of the personnel made the bleak, windswept ice at least somewhat hospitable.

US Navy Outpost 17, codenamed 'Fulcrum', had 13 total personnel stationed there. There was himself and three other military personnel. The rest were civilians recruited for their various talents.

Kallus, at 32 years of age, was the second-in-command. The 38-year old commander of the expedition was an old Navy friend of his. Commander Ahsoka Tano was a seasoned naval officer who had once been the commander of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer Kallus was a helicopter pilot for. Ahsoka could be hard-as-nails, but also extremely sympathetic and caring at the same time. Everyone looked up to her and she was a natural-born leader. There were rumors that she had been present at an incident at the North Pole about 20 years earlier, but Ahsoka remained close-lipped on her past. Only her closest friends knew what had transpired at the North Pole, Kallus was one of them.

Commander Tano's and Outpost 17's Royal Air Force liason was Group Captain Hera Syndulla. Although technically higher in rank than Ahsoka, Hera always followed Ahsoka's orders and never complained. Hera was in her early 30s and often adopted the position of a mentor to several of the younger crewmen. Her husband, Kanan Jarrus, was the station commander at the nearby McMurdo Base. Hera's role at Outpost 17 was to relay scientific information to Royal Engineer Captain Garazeb 'Zeb' Orrelios at the Faulkland Islands.

The final military member of the outpost was a US Marine, Corporal Jyn Erso. Usually optimistic and rebellious, Jyn was the youngest crewmember, about 21 years old. Her position was the station's chief mechanic, maintaining all non-aviation equipment. She also maintained a good cache of weapons. Under the Antarctic Treaty, military activity was banned in the antarctic, as were firearms. But weapons were allowed on base for self defense, like Jyn's cache of handguns and rifles, or for scientific/non-aggressive purposes, like the cache of flamethrowers and thermite. Jyn's cache would become critical in the coming week. Kallus and Jyn had somewhat of an older brother-younger sister relationship, and her parents were also old friends of the station's chief biologist, Saw Guerrera. Over 50 years old, Saw could be ruthless in the pursuit of finding the answer to things. He was often cranky, but held a softer spot in his heart for Jyn. Saw was also a former soldier, but lost one of his legs to a land mine in Vietnam and required periodic use of an inhaler throughout the rest of his life. Kallus, like everybody, seemed to have a love-hate relationship with Saw. He could be kind and polite, or cranky and hopping mad.

The station's medic was Jai Kell, about 27 years old. Jai had a good sense of humor, and was kind with all of the station personnel. He even tried to flirt with Jyn a few times, only to be shut down. Kallus liked Jai, he reminded Kallus of himself when he was younger.

The crew's cook was Zare Leonis. He was a kind young man in his mid-20s. Zare had a strong moral compass and would play cards or other games with the rest of the crew when he was off shift. He also was the station's unofficial janitor and took more shares of the work than others. Kallus liked him for this reason, Zare would always do whatever was needed and was well liked by the rest of the crew.

Mart Mattin was an interesting character. Twenty five years old, headstrong, and single, the geologist was a bit of a wild card. Mart drank and absolutely hated the antarctic. The only thing that kept him there was his infatuation with the station's dog handler, Gooti Terez. Terez was a beautiful, flirtatious lady with 28 years of age under her belt. She did not come to the antarctic to be with Mart, which was what he thought. She was instead recruited to take care of the station's team of huskies. Her love for animals made Gooti a welcomed part of the crew.

Morad Sumar, a man in his early 40s, was the station's physicist. Sumar came to study the magnetism of the South Pole and other related areas. He was fascinated by the antarctic landscape and the effects of the South Pole. While somewhat of a loaner, Sumar often conversed with the crew and offered advice.

The station's radio operator was Ketsu Onyo, a young woman about 28 years old. She was once a police officer, but was discharged after taking a severe bullet wound to her abdomen in a drug raid three years prior. She had been recruited by a friend of hers, the station's civilian helicopter copilot/assisstant mechanic, Sabine Wren.

Sabine Wren, soon to play an extremely important role in the events of the next week. She grew up with a fascination of how vehicles worked and a love of art. She soon learned how to fly helicopters after working on them for a long time. Now 27, her art made life at Outpost 17 interesting and a little more colorful than the white and grey of outside. Her drawing of the aurora australis was prominently placed above the dinning table in the mess hall. Kallus had developed a close friendship with the younger woman, but not nearly close enough to challenge that of her fiance.

Sabine was recruited to be the station's copilot by her fiance, Ezra Bridger. Ezra was the station's 26-year old meteorologist with an intense connection with nature, but especially the sky. He had come to Antarctica to study the aurora, and had offered the remaining spot of a copilot to his fiance Sabine. The two of them often sat outside watching or painting/drawing the sky and landscape after shifts, spending the time together.

The crew were all very close-knit, knowing most details about other's lives. It seemed as though the base would endure another antarctic winter, then they would pack up and let the next expedition take over when they arrived.

However, the routine was broken on the morning of March 4th by an unscheduled radio call. Ketsu's voice resounded through the PA system, "Commander Tamo, Captain Syndulla, and Lieutenant Kallus, please report to the radio room."

The three officers filed into the radio room and Ketsu turned to them. She held out a piece of paper to Ahsoka. Ahsoka read it and gave a sigh. Kallus noticed this, "Something wrong, Commander?"

"It's a message from Kanan at McMurdo. He says that he needs me at McMurdo as soon as possible. He fell sick and wants me to take command for a few days."

Hera spoke up, "Do you mind if I join you, Commander? If Kanan is sick, I'd like to be with him." Ahsoka nodded, "Of course. We can also drop of these latest research reports and get some extra supplies." She turned to Ketsu, "Ketsu, can you get all station personnel to assemble in the rec room?"

Ketsu nodded and turned to the intercom, "All personnel, please report to the rec room at once. Repeat, report to the rec room at once." The four then moved through the hall towards the rec room.

Upon arrival, Ahsoka got up on one of the tables and addressed the group, "Everyone here? Good. I've been asked to take command of McMurdo station while their station commander recovers from illness. I may be there a couple days, maybe a couple weeks. Captain Syndulla will be going with me. In my absense, Lieutenant Kallus will be in charge. Any questions?"

Receiving none, Ahsoka stepped off the table and called Kallus and Sabine over, "Prep the chopper. I'd like to get there as soon as possible."

"Yes, Commander."

Less than an hour later, Outpost 17's Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopter lifted off from the base with Sabine and Kallus at the controls. Ahsoka looked over her shoulder as the copter throttled skyward. She sighed.

Hera looked over at her, "Are you okay, Commander?"

Ahsoka shook her head, "I don't know. I feel that something bad is going to happen while I'm gone." Sabine shrugged from the cockpit, "Maybe. But Kallus will take good care of us while you're away." She turned to look at Kallus, "You will, won't you?"

Kallus chuckled, "No, I'll obviously destroy the base and let all of us freeze to death."

Ahsoka laughed, "You'd be getting a court martial for that. Not to mention I'd probably shoot you upon seeing you."

Kallus mocked surprise, "Shoot me? Your old navy friend of who knows how many years!"

Ahsoka groaned and lightly puched him in the back of the shoulder, "Thanks, but I can't help but say I have a bad feeling about this."

Late in the afternoon, Sabine and Kallus touched down back at base. Sabine was met by Ezra and the two walked off to the mess hall to get some food. Kallus was about to follow when he ran into Jyn, "Lieutenant, you got a minute? Sumar said he wanted to talk to you when you landed."

Kallus nodded, "Thanks Jyn. I'll head over."

Sumar was standing over a magnetometer when Kallus walked in. He turned and said, "Good afternoon, Lieutenant. Thanks for stopping by." He indicated a seat. Kallus took it, "Jyn said something about how you wanted to talk to me."

"I did. I've detected something strange, an anomoly."

Kallus was curious, "Strange? Strange how?"

Sumar chuckled, "I've detected a magnetic anomoly about 80 miles southwest of here. I can't explain what it is, but I know that there is something there. I'd like to request to scout it out using a snowcat."

Kallus thought about it for a moment, "I don't see why not. Who's going with you?"

Sumar pondered this, "I think I'll take Mart with me. He's a geologist, so he may help us figure out what's down there."

Kallus nodded, "Take Jai as well. If one of you gets hurt, it would help to have a medic with you. Let me know what you find, I'll fly down in the helicopter if needed."

Sumar nodded and shook Kallus' hand, "Thank you, Lieutenant. I'll let you know about anything we discover, if there is anything there."

Around 1800 hours, the snowcat set off with the three researchers. Mart, Jai, and Sumar arrived sometime after midnight and quickly set up a small camp. Sumar checked his magnetometer, "It should be right in this area. Get some sleep, we'll check it out tomorrow."

The next day at the base went like normal and passed without incident. Saw was cranky as usual, Jyn performed maintenance on her weapon cache, Sabine tinkered with the helicopter, and Ezra delivered a weather report to Kallus, showing possible signs of bad weather. Ketsu heard nothing from Sumar's expedition, and the crew went to sleep like normal.

But things were different down at the scout camp the next morning. Mart was driving the snowcat towards the disturbance with Jai and Sumar inside. Mart had just made a comment about how he still believed that Gooti was head-over-heels in love with him. Jai had thrown it back at Mart, saying that Saw had a better chance of going on a date with the Commander than Mart did with Gooti. Sumar burst out laughing and Mart had angrily swiped at Jai, who was too far into laughter to even care.

Recovering slightly, Sumar looked out the windshield, "Mart! STOP!" Distracted by Jai's remark, Mart had driven onto a patch of thin ice. He quickly tried to put the snowcat in reverse. The ice cracked and the snowcat barely avoided falling into a ravine. The three looked down and were startled by what they saw. A dark, long silhouette buried inside the blue ice.

At 1430 hours on March 6th, Ketsu called over the intercom, "Lieutenant Kallus, please report to the radio room. Sumar expedition has made contact."

Kallus walked into the radio room and Ketsu handed him the transmitter, Sumar was on the other line, "Lieutenant, we've found it."

"You found the disturbance? That's good. What was it?"

Sumar hesitated, "Err... I can't really explain it that well. It looks to be an aircraft of some kind, burried under the ice. Also, it's big. I'd say about over 250 feet long and 50 feet wide."

"So... a strange object?"

Sumar chuckled, "Yes, I guess so. We'll check it out further tomorrow and inform you of whatever it is we find."

Kallus thought about it, "Alright. Let me know what you find."

Sumar agreed, "Very well. Also, we kind of almost wrecked the snowcat."

Kallus raised an eyebrow at this, "You almost wrecked it? How?"

Jai's voice was heard from the other end, "We'll explain later. It's kind of a long story. Sumar group out."

Mart, Jai, and Sumar worked for hours into the darkening skies, digging through the ice, until they reached it. On the other side of an ice wall was the object. And it could only be one thing, a spaceship.

Jai hefted his ice pick and slammed it into the wall. The wall splintered and fell away and there it was in a chamber under the antarctic ice. The heat from the craft's engines must have melted the ice upon impact, leaving a large chamber at least 100 feet underground. Jai whistled as he walked in, his flashlight lighting up the craft. Snow drifts were pilled here and there, indicating a blizzard when the ship had crashed. It was 250 feet long and about 50 feet wide. There appeared to be an access hatch on the side, but it was buried in more ice.

Mart walked towards the skin of the craft, it was as smooth and black as obsidian. He grabbed his file and tried scraping some of the metal off. It repelled the file, nothing would scrape the skin. Sumar grabbed his shoulder, "Lets get back to camp and get some sleep. I'll inform the others in the morning." Mart and Jai nodded and they rescaled the ice wall of the crevace.

-0-

The Thing awakened when the ice pick had broke the chamber that trapped its ship for so long. And it heard them as they left the chamber. Finally, after several hundred thousand years of captivity, it was on the verge of being found. All it would take was some influencing of these creature's minds and it could be discovered, and eventually freed. It would find food again, and could spread across this forsaken world. For now, all it could do was wait, and imagine what fun it could have upon release.

Next Chapter: The Thing is unearthed, and the trouble begins to start.