12266/Going in the Hard Way

Going in the Hard Way
Date of Scene:	02 August 2022
Location:	Hydra Secret Volcano Island Base
Synopsis:	SHIELD Agents fly through a dangerous Hydra kill zone to take out a volcano base where Hydra is manufacturing alien weapons and things get very metal.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Zinda Blake, Achilles, Yelena Belova, Jessica Drew, Jane Foster

---

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Hydra maintained a worldwide network of arms manufactories in isolated and highly secure areas. Snake Island, an isolated reef far off the coast of South America, near Antarctica, was one of them. For months SHIELD had painstakingly tracked alien technology from the Shi'Ar invasion vanishing and isolated it to that location. The possibility of Hydra reverse engineering alien weaponry was too dangerous to imagine. Said island, anchored in a large volcano for security, rendered bombardment near impossible. A massive network of radars, anti-air defenses, and jammers made an infiltration mission by air or sea too difficult to have any realistic chance of success.
    Which left them with needing a pilot skilled /and/ crazed enough to brave the AA gauntlet, a team being dropped with minimal support into heavily fortified enemy territory,and fight their way through a Hydra base built into a dormant volcano.
    Welcome along for the ride.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Taking off from the SHIELD base was uneventful, the strike team all tucked nicely into the back of the Quinjet. The pilot, who has been quiet and professional so far, comes over the comms. It's a female voice, with a thick, Georgia accent.

Good evenin', Ladies an' Gentlemen, this is your Captain speakin'. We are comin' up on our drop zone real soon, so please fasten your seat belts. Put your seat backs and tray tables in the upright and locked position, and this concludes our scheduled refreshment service."

The cabin interior lights switch to red, and she adds. "Intel says they've got full air defenses, so we're goin' in low an' fast. Hope nobody had anything heavy to eat, 'cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride. I'll give warnin' before we dive down."

Achilles has posed:
    Speaking of AA gauntlet. The Hydra forces include an engineer who has ... for lack of a politically correct term... become a savant when it comes to armaments. Taking some Shi'ar power cells and technologies... and combining them with some of the most effective world war two weapon systems.

    So, Engineer Billy Bob was not really very well educated. He just has a way with weapons. So we have 35mm Anti-Aircraft flak cannons loaded with shells containing Shi'ar plasma pellets.

    Not to mention concealed emplacements that include old german MG-42's loaded with converted ammunition that turns the bullet being fired into a micro-grenade. Imagine that being fired at 700 rounds per minute. What he has in insane weapons, he lacks in people crazy enough to fire them. Given a catastrophic failure rate of around seven percent, it's difficult to find volunteers.

    Billy Bob himself is tweaking the loadouts on his pride and joy... a more modern weapon. Think about the same ammunition from those MG-42's being fired from a stolen Aegis defense weapon system from the US Navy. Yes, a 3000 round per minute minigun firing micro-plasma explosives. He is just connecting the ammo feed line to the weapon and making sure there's at least fifteen thousand rounds in the ammo drum... grinning like a loon as he works.

    Two Hydra agents stand nearby, guarding the man. Agent Hansen says to Agent Reid, "Are you sure he's not going to blow us up?"

    Meanwhile, in the belly of the Quinjet, Angelo looks up from prepping his suppressed P-90, making sure the holographic sight was powered and ready. He nods but doesn't speak because.. it's not like the pilot can hear him anyway right now.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena looks nonchalant in the back, or perhaps it's her version of bored? Her expression is one that speaks that she's done this millions of times. Besides, there are no windows to look out of from the side!

As the voice calls back over their earpieces, there's a snort from the white-leathered blonde Widow. "Remind me to complain to your FAA about this flight later. Drinks were too small." She lifts her hands, and between thumb and forefinger, perhaps an inch. "I pay good money for this.

"Bah." The utterance falls in the direction of the cockpit before looking back at the crowd in the back. Lifting a shoulder in a 'don't touch me' gesture, she shuffles slightly to the side. Too many people!

"But, will be good. Like rollercoaster that can break at any moment. Should be fun."

Jessica Drew has posed:
    P-90 reaasembled, extra magazines in a pack, knife, ICER. Last weapons check made, Jess closes her eyes and leans back into her seat. The thrum of the Quinjet, winging its way to their objective is soothing.

     The spider mutant wears tactical gear with one small difference, boots have been exchanged for a soft gym shoe. Joking with a colleague when asked about them, she said: 'All the better to cling with, my dear.'

    The agent's dark wavy hair is swept back into a braid to accommodate the tac helmet with its state of the art HUD. Jess's green eyes open and she smiles at their pilot's thick accent and gives Yelena a thumbs up and a nod.

Jane Foster has posed:
Be that as it may, Georgia hospitality on a plane headed to the eternal winter-bound night of Antarctica in summer has a definite veneer of competency about it that Jane can truly appreciate. She plots the course of the Quinjet over the desolate Furious Fifties, plotting the course across the Drake passage with a grimace. "Elephant Island, the South Shetlands, and the South Orkneys are actually somehow less hospitable than their Scottish counterparts," observes the astrophysicist from a jump seat that lashes her down quite well. "Considering the Shackleton Expedition's outcomes, I hope we have a heroic plan B on getting back to Ushuaia if things go pear-shaped." Bumpy means setting her goggles on now rather than later, the lens giving her filtered data that go along with the little spherical device that isn't full-on DWARF because no way is she putting that technology in HYDRA's hands and Fitz would probably kill her for a second time.

Her expertise, other than calling out the dangers of landing in the Southern Ocean, is not being a cyber ninja or frankly anything along those lines. You need the scientist for the science things... or apparently climbing elevator shafts at nearly Jessica speeds to forcibly haul Baron Strucker out like a naughty boy at camp caught stuffing his face with extra chili or spaghetti.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Over on the ground as well are other Hydra agents that are in ready positions. They've been drilled time and time again. And also had the 'morale booster' of a number of staged executions to help ensure that discipline has held. As it was said 'the murders will continue until morale improves' ha dmade for some quite inspirational levels of enthusiasm.
    So even now as they may or may not know that things were coming they were still on alert.
    Along the island was a large helipad dug into the side of the large volcano. Over the side of the volcano had been carved the massive multi-headed monster that was the symbol of Hydra. Whomever had commissioned this base had truly gone old school.

Zinda Blake has posed:
"Alright, now. Y'all hang on tight. We're goin' in." There's a sudden lurch and the engine pitch changes as the Quinjet goes into a dive. Zinda flips a couple of switches and the terrain-following radar lights up with a holo image of their approach. "Well ain't that nifty." she exclaims. "Works jus' like they said it would, too."

It's probably a good thing that there aren't any windows in the back, so the strike team doesn't see just how ridiculously LOW they are flying above the waves. Zinda accelerates. "Hopefully we're goin' in below the radar. Can't go much lower without gettin' the plane wet."

The plane starts to bounce around with the turbulence, in spite of Zinda's efforts to keep it under control.

Yelena Belova has posed:
The thumbs up is received with proper Yelena grace.. a confused, puzzled expression followed by a 'Yay', and a thumbs up in response before she leeeeeans forward to try and see out of the cockpit window. Land ho!

As Zinda's second and probably more important message comes through, and she can feel the subtle (not!) lurching of the change of air circulation around wings as they bounce just above the waves. "Does this thing go under water too? That would be so cool, and so very not surprising for SHIELD. I have heard stories." It probably doesn't, or rather, it's.. an undocumented feature?

"It probably sinks like stone. Oh well."

Jessica Drew has posed:
    The tilt of the aircraft tells the story of their descent. If Zinda lives up to her reputation, Jess knows they are in for a landing that might go into the pilot's annals...if any who witnesses it lives to tell the tale.

    With complete confidence in their pilot, Jess shares a grin with Yelena. The engines reach a crescendo of noise, the quinjet bouncing enough to merit keeping your mouth tightly closed or risking a bitten tongue.

    "Nope. She's good. We're good. Let's go have some fun!"

Jane Foster has posed:
Doesn't matter how fast they happen to be moving, Jane knows the likelihood of their hearts bursting, G forces pushing them back into their seats, and the risks of aneurysms or perishing from sheer excitement. She fortunately has nothing to worry about for vomiting -- small benefits at the expense of having a pulse that isn't recreated.

"Hitting the water at this speed wouldn't end well for you. Even with its reinforcement," Jane dryly answers Yelena. "You need the maritime hot air balloon reinforced for burning underwater, since it can maintain immediate buoyancy when needed."

Her grip on her tablet is a little tighter so it doesn't go flying somewhere else, since no one needs that. The engines may strain, and she is peculiarly silent. No point in telling Zinda anything about flying the Quinjet, she knows how. She's just the scientist; maybe she is mentally calculating how many pieces they fly into upon impact, based on current likelihood of trajectory. In fact, she's probably considering how she'd outpace the jet and take down /that/ missile or those bolts, but the problem is that jumping out to face them would blow cover, so...

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The Quinjet starts to bounce. Turbulence going in at high speed into rough weather can always be a thing. Even here on a clear day some distance from the frozen tundra. Along the island, large radar domes are starting to 'ping' as they power up. Along the ground, Billy Bob's overly enthusiastic setup of anti-aerial death starts to spring over into action as turrets are starting to deploy from hardened points, SAM units are going to scramble to power up, and numerous Hydra troopers are going to grab MANPADs and heading to covered areas.
    They're not -quite- at the distance where they can be under direct fire, but everything on the island is flickering along to let them know as soon as they are.
    Probably best to turn off whatever auditory system in the back cabin gives warning of missile lock.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda holds the jet steady on the ultra-low approach, her displays lighting up as the island's systems start to lock on. "Pretty sure this bird CAN go underwater, actually." she offers casually to Yelena. "The hard part'll be gettin' back out again."

An ominous tone sounds in the cabin and Zinda's voice comes over the comms again. "Hang on, now. I got multiple missile locks. Deployin' countermeasures and goin' evasive." And now, just in case the low-and-fast approach wasn't enough, now the Quinjet is zig-zagging as well. There are rapid popping sounds as chaff is deployed and everything gets very chaotic for a moment.

Then just as suddenly it all goes calm, like the Quinjet just, well, stopped. Around the far side of the island now, it hovers low enough to almost touch the waves. Lights are off, and the bird slowly eases forward and touches down near the base of the volcano. There's a click and a hiss as the cabin depressurizes.

"Okay, everybody. I saw a helipad up top on the satellite pictures. You go do what y'all need to, an' I'll meet all y'all up there."

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena shrugs her shoulder in a very Russian manner; offhandedly in the face of certain death. "Then I will be in little pieces as it sinks like stone. In all, not bad way to die." She holds to her harness, blue eyes searching the front as even more hazard lights go off. It's only that heartbeat before Zinda makes her announcement, and the countermeasures begin in earnest. "So, blown up, little pieces and sink. That is not so fun way."

It's strange, from speeds to nothing; still as the grave, and as the bird touches down, Yelena is already on the move, grabbing what few things she has into pockets. Dark vest over white, Widow leather jumpsuit. It's vaguely reminiscent of Natasha's, but updated, and possibly upgraded. The blonde, messy hair is in a French braid down her back with pieces sticking out already.

"Is very old-school, this island. Built on volcano? Bah.. no imagination."

Soon enough, however, Yelena is deplaning as the ramp goes down, moving quickly out and through; training is full on in use.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    They shake, rattle and roll into the final approach. Nothing like high speed turns combined with G-forces to settle a stomach. Jess grins more.

    At the sudden quiet, she is already unsnapping her harness before the cabin depressurizes. P-90 slung over her shoulder, she heads for the tail of the Quinjet, neck and neck with Yelena.

Jane Foster has posed:
Nope, deceleration to a standstill is not fun at all. Not with a winged horse or a Quinjet, or a lot of webbing. Nothing about that rings as particularly desirable for Jane, who bites her lip and ends up pressed hard into the seat built for forces and weights far more significant than she ever will be. Demanding forces try to flatten her, and the imperious presence of an unremarkable, entirely ignorable wire-thin hoop of dull gold around her wrist protests. So she happens not to be in pieces. That's a win.

The tethered belts lashing her into place can't come off fast enough. She snatches up the tablet in its resilient case, the go-bag with the medkit, and an assortment of scientific gear. Those goggles give her an expanded view into the infrared spectrum, useful when it comes to a dormant or active volcano in a freezing night where the sun barely comes above the horizon.

Landing on basalt is never fun; it's slippery and unpleasant, but she hastens away from the Quinjet, staying behind the Widow. <<Comms links live. Let's see who decides to get flushed out.>> A small round pellet that she brings along has an uncanny habit of levitating around her like an unremarkable ioun stone.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's old school, yes. Even as Zinda goes to drop the team off in a quick release, there are explosions around the Quinjet as rapid fire gatling guns go to spew out hundreds of heavy rounds a minute through the air aimed at the offloading Quinjet! Plasma pellets detonate around the Quinjet, likely rocking it hard! The Quinjet has gone close enough to ground that it has at least several secounds until the numerous missile lockons can pick up again, but there's still several Hydra troopers that are going to yank up shoulder launched missile launchers to rachet them about.
    The ground is being covered with numerous Hydra troopers bringing out lots and lots of weaponry. A few hundred meters away, a group is rushing to setup a small mortar. A trio of heavy machine guns on tripods are being setup while dozens of troopers are scrambling towards the landing SHIELD agents. There's going to be hell to pay as the group hits the ground!

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda Blake keeps the Quinjet low for long enough to offload the team. The door is still closing as the bird lifts off again, a minigun dropping out from an opening hatch on the ventral side. "YAAAAAAAH!" Zinda yells, her comm still on as she sprays the nearest HYDRA troops. Multiple flashes of light go off as Zinda begins rapidly unloading the Quinjet's missiles. Not quite arbitrary in her selection of targets, the smoke from the missile launches provides some cover to the SHIELD team and also attracts attention away from them towards the bird. And while Zinda opens fire, she keeps one hand near the ejection seat handles. Just in case the bird gets hit.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And even as the team deploys and weapons go to flae out.. Down the island, away from the helipad are Hydra's own fighters beginning to scramble. Some sort of fifth and a half generation knockoffs, putting down wheels to the turf of the separate airfield as the Alert-Five flight is going to rapidly l aunch up.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Not the first time the Widow has been through a firefight like this; not the first time she's had a drop-off that was hot. At least this time, she was //warned// that the LZ was hot, that is, in the fact that they'd flown through flak and fire to get there. She seems pretty calm under fire, even if there is the occasional obvious curse under her breath. Everyone here will get an education of what //not// to say in polite company in Russian through their comlinks.

It's goggles down time, however, and the darkened eyewear makes her look just a little more spy-like, if not a touch more dangerous. Glancing back to see Jane behind her, she exhales in a soft, frustrated sigh as if remembering, 'keep the brain alive'.. and a glance is spared, quickly, towards Jess who is beside her in silent acknowledgment. Yelena has worked in teams before; just not with teammates where she doesn't really know the full extent of what they can do.

As she moves, she plots the trajectories of the bullets as they land, and is able to extrapolate back to where the main sets of firepower is coming from. It helps give her a path, though it may not be the same one each time.

"It would be wonderful of you if you could take out nests," is called back to the Quin. "You are air support, so I would love some support so I may keep breathing."

Jessica Drew has posed:
<<Copy that. Looks like we've flushed a few,>> Jess quips wryly, zig zagging at a run to the nearest outcrop. Already the -whomp- of mortar rounds greet them with wicked intent. The red of muzzle flash marks the the origin of the machine gun adding its chatter to the mortars.

    <<I'm going for the machine gun on the southern edge,>> she announces over coms. Then dropping into a crouch, she beetles to a farther outcrop, gun held at the ready, that just might allow her to come in on the bias to the outer group of gunners.

Jane Foster has posed:
Were trust a matter on the table, they all might have considerably less to worry about. Some things a girl has to keep under her stylish hat, even from the all-seeing eye of Nick Fury. What the brunette can do is most definitely not parallel to a Spider-Woman trained to run into battle. <<I should call myself Jumping Spider to fit the theme.>> A slight grin speaks to gallows humour, or some way to overcome being outright unsettled to the point of terror by so many damned HYDRA agents showing up for the party.

She produces what looks for all the world like a tonfa with a few cool blue-limned lines. Because this is SHIELD, they do love their glowing sticks. Just ask Natasha. This, however, doesn't have the benefit of battering things to a pulp. "Look away," she warns.

Tiny charges pop-pop-pop in a trinity, sending forth small pellets. Thanks to their light weight and carbonite bodies, the projectiles arc ahead fairly far. When the outer capsules crack, they do little harm clinging to rock, metal, random clothes like a burr. Of course, the greater danger comes from the cores; three explode with smoke of varied acrid contents, detonating to make it both hard to see and breathe. A flashbang won't produce as strong a reaction as the big ones, but it still flash-flares to say HEY LOOK AT ME! Nothing like having eyes stinging with a contact irritant that makes look bear spray seem as friendly as a Glade plug-in. The fourth is the bitch.

/It/ ignites a sonic attack at a frequency outside human hearing, but plenty strong enough to start messing with human senses as the spiked torus finds anywhere to land. The radius may not be huge, but it's the sort of thing to produce disorientation, tripped to Jane's tablet to produce a violently oscillating range of intensities that makes it hard to deal with.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Bullets are flying towards the group, even as a trio of Hydra troopers are trying to lay down suppressing fire over towarsd the SHIELD Agents. As Jessica Drew goes to work her way towards one machine gun nest, two troopers go forwards to try and block off her run. They're wearing heavy latex suits, and have heavy tanks on their backs. Wearing the attire of Hydra flamethrower troopers, if not intercepted they would each go to try and blast out at the approaching Jessica Drew with bursts of more than ten meter long each napalm cones!
    Yelena as the first one off has the first real attention put to her. The Hydra troopers have apparently taken offense to the blonde Widow's existence, and are meeting her over in a hail of gunfire even as several troopres are going to try and line up bulky auto-shotguns on her, fumbling around with the heavy weapons to try and get a bead on her if they can setup the shots!
    The Quinjet jumps and bounces, somehow managing to -not- get hit in the chaos over as the team goes to drop. There are now three jets screaming on by at relatively close range as they go to pull around. The good news is this is leading to a slowing of the AA and the missiles being launched over. The downside is that the three jets have small turreted gatling cannons on them that are going to spew out rapid fire at her. Since when did in this day and age fighters come with built in cannons!?
    Jane's weapons are quite effective as she goes to engage. They drop the targets as soon as they impact, moving to have them dropping like dominos. No one has quite picked out the super-science agent in the midst of the landing SHIELD group, but they're rapidly coming under fire from every direction, so it's incredibly likely that she will be in the same state. Over on the helipad, small attack choppers are rapidly having crews scramble to them.

Zinda Blake has posed:
"Roger that!" Zinda calls out cheerily over the comms. The rotary gun spits out red tracers as she begins systematically blasting the gunner nests, one by one. Zinda has taken out three when she calls out again. "Whoah! My radar jus' lit up like Christmas. We got company, folks. I'll distract 'em!"

Zinda spots the other jets fly by and laughs. "Got a visual! Here we go!" she calls out. The Quin is a LOT more maneuverable than pretty nearly anything she's flown before. And she intends to exploit that to its fullest. With the AA fire diminishing, she takes the opportunity and goes suddenly vertical... Daring the other jets to pursue.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    Tongues of fire lash at the running agent. Not dragons of yore to be slain with a mighty sword. Infrared limns the two men wielding death in eery green.

     Jess drops to the ground. Above her the air heats to temperatures that guarantee chemical sear burns that will work their way to the bone. P-90 propped on her arm, Jess rakes the legs of the oncoming dragons.

Yelena Belova has posed:
"Thank y- der'mo!"

One of the first rises from the blonde Widow for the evening. Yelena searches quickly for a spot where she'll have just a modicum of cover as she hears a version of 'fire in the hole', SHIELD-style. Of course, she can't help herself, and she lets out an appreciative 'oooooh' even as she dodges the fire. She's quick, and good, but not enough to constantly evade. Finally, however, she's frustrated, and pulls a small bit on her wrist, only to have something *click* ever so softly. A dark object makes its trajectory towards the fumbling nest that is trying so very hard to be a people pleaser.. and in the next second, there's a blue-light flash.. and screams. Basic oil fire. Napalm at its best, and worst, right there.

It's the gunshots that Yelena doesn't care for, and once gaining a spot, she looks up in the air. "Company? I do not have enough sweet bread, or tea for it. Tell them to come back later."

Yelena takes quick stock of the others, particularly Jane. "You will have to run to me, Ja--" she rolls her eyes, and continues, "Silly little jumping spider. I will take care of them, so you will have approximately 3 seconds to reach me." True to her word, Yelena has yet another trick up her sleeve before she has to resort to her own bullets.

"Other spider, you are okay?"

Yelena's voice lowers and she shakes her head, "Everyone wants to be spider. I should change my name one day to something cooler."

Jane Foster has posed:
Team Science -- all one of them, with Zinda flying and Jessica engaged -- doesn't make like a tree and root to the ground. Cover cannot be found in the middle of a helipad. Jane beelines for a rockier outcropping hopefully not housing a vent of sulfuric gasses or a nest of HYDRA agents trying to weaponize skipping ropes. The ICER plucked from its holster gives her an opportunity to shoot at anything or anyone foolish enough to get too close, though she hasn't got the accuracy of the more successful agents who regularly zap things on a regular basis.

Just enough to say this little jumping spider has actual teeth, though she lacks anything close to the venom or a deadly risk they might worry about. Pew-pew! Wide of the mark and completely unimpressive, in the vaunted tradition of ivory tower academics missing. Maybe someone will duck the blue glow. Maybe someone will filet her cross-section. But she at least does what she's told by Yelena.

<<Be a boomslang, everyone fears those.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Zinda goes to have the Quinjet leap nearly vertically, like a Harrier jet might have in wars past. This has the trio of Hydra jets going to scream over past her at high speed, the gatling cannons on them twisting tos wivel back to aim at the Quinjet in passing until the angle got too bad for them to fire. They would each in turn peel away at high speed, going evasive and spiraling around. They were each two seaters, going close enough past her that Zinda could see the Hydra pilots rapidly working over the controls in the cockpits trying to reorient towards the surprisingly maneuverable Quinjet.
    The first shots from Jessica's P-90 don't penetrate the heavily armored suits of the Hydra Flamers. But the next few shots do after it. What happens is a huge explosion, a fireball as a ricochet goes in and hits the fuel tank of one of the troopers. The resulting explosion is almost enough to kncok those around off their feet, and it covers the machine gun nest over in flaming jelly, the troopers at it and teh weapon being reduced to melting goo before they could even scream in terror.
    That mortar is rapidly being setup, and even at near point blank range as far as the firing arc it would be extremely nasty if they get off anything. The only thing that might hold off Hydra from shooting is thier own troops. But, given how little care Hydra often gave for their own personnel that would be very, very questionable to have any form of faith in.
    Detonating over thrown from Yelena anotehr of the machine gun nests goes up in flames. A few more troopers are getting up to try and pop up and fire at her with machine guns. They're not particularly well trained or disciplined, standing fullyupright adn spraying over at her with tehir guns on near full auto. Not hitting.. But perhaps quite effective suppressive fire if they could hold the group down!
    Jane's inspirational words over to Yelena on possible codenames are possibly wisdom to be considered later. For now, Jane is coming face to face over with a Hydra trooper charging over at her. That's wielding some sort of almost theatrically overstyled Shi'Ar dueling blade that's been reconfigured in the form of a giant chainsaw, blade ends revving over as the man would try to advance on her.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda Blake stays vertical until the HYDRA jets roar past, the WW2 ace waiting for just that moment. The Quinjet pitches over in a hammerhead turn, the multiple vectored-thrust engines helping gravity much too well. For a moment she meets the gaze of one of the HYDRA crews, flashing a grin and a wink as well. "Sorry, fellas. Nothin' personal."

A jinx to the left lines up the crosshairs and the Quinjet sprays tracers at one of the HYDRA jets as the trio roars past. Sparks, then smoke as an engine shuts down. Then half the tail disintegrates and the jet starts a flat spin out to sea.

Zinda isn't watching, however. The Quinjet accelerates and she closes the distance to ease in behind the other two.

Yelena Belova has posed:
Once Jane gains a little bit of cover, and Yelena has a second to breathe, she is laying down some cover fire for the scientist. The Hydra trooper wielding that very silly Shi'Ar chainsaw monstrosity gains an eyeroll from the consummate professional asssassin. "Oh, please." It's a quick draw from her thigh holster that would have made gunslingers in the old west impressed, and with a single shot, draws a bead and shoots the man right between the eyes, Indiana Jones style. All while continuing her commentary"Jumping spiders are cute, and fuzzy. Have lots of eyes and wear raindrops as hats." It's probably the reason why she felt so silly calling Jane that. Of all the spiders she could have chosen? "We will discuss this later."

It's her batch of baddies that she has to attend to, and with a hand up, finger raised in a 'do not move' motion, she's sliding from her perch and running to grab the dropped weapon. "So cool," is murmured. She'll have to learn the proper response to picking up a chainsaw at the next SHIELD movie night!

Yelena is getting annoyed now, and with another lob of a napalm grenade, with the satisfying hot fire hue that emenates, it's time to move once again. "Time to go, now. If Rechkalov" World War II Soviet flying ace, "up there can give just a touch of gunfire, we can be gone." Gone and inside!

Jessica Drew has posed:
<<Well, f***.>> Are Jess's poetic words as a napalm tank blooms into a fiery flower that consumes its burden bearer. Petals of flame fall on the other soldier, adding another bloom to the bouquet. Jess grabs her braid, checking to see if it survived the conflagration.

    The night is quietly cold after the flames have gone out. The spider hops to her feet to sprint the remaining distance to the machine gun, drops and rolls, one-handing a high-explosive grenade at the arc of the roll.

    <<Be my boomslang, Yelena>> she croons. <<Next objective, mortar?>>

Jane Foster has posed:
Oh, look: the halcyon technology of an empire spanning the stars, in the hands of someone who has no business. Change in plans, for Jane confirms the visual appearance of the chainsaw with distaste. "Volcano and tundra," she mutters under her breath. "It's treeless here!" Well, fools in paradise for a penguin. The compartmentalized risk to herself and Yelena means not backpedaling or cowering in fear. Her arms come up, hands wrapped around the ICER for balance. Silvery-blue light blooms and streaks off to menace the other people firing on blonde Widow. Or them both. Is it a bonding experience?

<<Are we sure this is the only piece of tech?>> No, she is not certain of that, sweeping the grounds with a nightvision-enhanced optical view. <<Drew, left, thirty-five degrees up. Embedded.>> Oh yes, she can see the agents hiding in the dark, even without actually needing to spot more than the ruddy halos of their heat patterns.

She can see when they're going to die because her afterecho walks the battlefield to pluck the spirits of the deceased from their mortal shells that shudder and bleed, expiring in soot-smirched flame or iron-bitten perforations.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
One might almost say the crazed blonde in the pilot seat o fthe Quinjet was enjoying herself as one of her targets immediate would be blasted out, slamming over into the ground merely a few hundred meters away. The other two jets would pull up, them rapidly engaging afterburners to go evasive. Showing a surprising amount of skill going into the quick dogfighting maneuvers. And one of them going to pop a missile off at her while flying in the full opposite direction. The missile would fall several meters, targeting sensors kicking in, then rocket firing to put enough pwoer in to counter the inertia going forwards to have it loop around in a hideous arc to try and aim off at her. Huh, 360 degree targeting capabilities and pilots dumb enough to actually fire it that way. Or the missile with a big enough rocket on the end to make it work.
    Yelena has managed to shoot the Hydra agent with the oversized alien melee weapon in the chest, and he drops hard. If she were American, there would be something almost instinctive about grabbing the large weapon and wielding it. Something emotional. Something inspiring. But alas, Yelena is Russian. Some things do not necessarily cross-culture for awesomeness. Jessica's targets are down and the immedaite field has been swept clear of Hydra agents as a second line is forming up around the mortar even as the troops now have no qualms on aiming it with everything friendly in the area dead. There are two attack helicopters starting to launch off along the helipad, rapidly going to power up.
    Under Jane's guidance, other pockets of Hydra agents in cover are tkaen out. And there is no doubt a lot of tech here. One doesn't use a secret volcano base with a supervillain insignia carved onto the side of it to hide just a /small/ amount of weaponry now. That's practcically an insult.

Zinda Blake has posed:
The two remaining HYDRA jets begin banking at high speed, but the Quinjet is far more maneuverable. It also has one of the deadliest pilots alive at the controls. Zinda is still accelerating in behind the second when the third pops off a missile.

"Well there's somethin' you don't see every day." The Quinjet accelerates and matches speed with Number 2, who tries to shake her. Now that Zinda is up to speed there's really no chance in hell of that. The missile arcs wide, locking onto the Quinjet and closing. Gradually. Zinda's gaze flickers between the radar and the jet that is frantically trying to ditch her. The radar tone gets faster and faster as the missile closes.

The Quinjet suddenly cuts forward thrust, banks hard, and peels away as Zinda fires the Z-direction thrusters, leaving a trail of popped chaff behind. The confused missile picks the next closest target and explodes near the jet Zinda was chasing.

"YEEEEEE-HAAAWWWWWW!"

Yelena Belova has posed:
Yelena *tsks* softly, "Such language.." is offered in softly accented Russian. "What is even boomslang? It sounds.. not good. In a not good way."

A rounding curse emenates from the Widow in the next second as her shot misses. She was going for between the eyes, she hits center of chest. Not good enough! Nowhere near as cool, but it does the job, and as her napalm has done its job, and giving the team a chance to move out. Not breathe, mind..

"Okay, let's go while there is lull. No picking up cool toys until clean up." Except for her. The chainsaw is cool. Bulky, but cool.

Making a run towards what has always been traditionally a 'secret' door leading into a secret lair, Yelena looks back, brows rising. "Yes?" And why shouldn't it be?

Pulling some cord from a wristlet, Yelena is packing it for a quick burn and entrance. Seconds, precious seconds.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    <<Boomslangs are very good. Trust me. Jane knows.>> comes Jess's prompt response, she laughs at the other agent burning com links with her language.

    Jess leaves the cool pickings to their scientist and fellow spider. She -is- a cool weapon or, at least, her hands are. Ensuring that they make a scientist sandwich between them, Jess follow Jane and covers their back while Yelena sets them up to make a not very secret entry into the base.

Jane Foster has posed:
The chainsaw has to go somewhere. They can't just leave that for HYDRA, can they? Jessica is the one with the sticky stuff, she might be the one to bring along the Shi'ar weaponry encased in silk. Jane certainly considers snagging the oversized, stupid machine gun but how would she even possibly carry it?

The more important task lies in breaching the interior and finding the package. Packages? Who knows? She looks over her shoulder briefly at Jessica. <<Dangerous, highly venomous snake that lurks in trees.>> Never mind they are cute, with big round eyes and handsome two-toned viridian scales that help them blend in. They're fantastic. The jitters of passing ahead into HYDRA territory chase down her spine, refusing to disperse nearly as much as she would like. Her back stiffens a bit. <<Clear a path and see what we can find. I doubt highly they're going to have a stockroom.>>

Her silvery, invisible selves pluck up the dead, few as they might be, escorting them away. It doesn't work well for spying unless someone in said Shi'ar room fell over from an apoplexy.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Zinda is definitely enjoying herself. Even as the wreck of one Hydra jet is going to crash into the ground, two more are looping about and a missile is going streaking towards her, chaff pod taking hte missile, the explosion of it making the Quinjet buck around wildly in return. It would rock about, even as the second jet is taken down by the missile and dropping. The third jet pulling up goes to launch several micro-missiles towards her. Any single one of them would only inflict moderate damage if it hit. But a dozen small missiles were a dozen small missiles coming in from seemingly random directions. Hydra had soem -very- weird weapons designers.
    There's more fire coming in towards the SHIELD Agents, as what's now is a firing line of Hydra troopers spraying them down over with rapid fire, some plasma bursts detonating around. Hydra had managed the difficult work of making plasma eneryg rifles that could do full auto. Single hits might very well disintegrate them if they hit. Fortunately only a few troopers seemed to be carrying them, but they were a far more dangerous weapon in suppression even at the longer range the troops were at. Fortunately, as Yelena is going to rapidly go to breach the ever-so-secret entrance to the secret volcano base with ehr new chainsaw-sword. It might almost be fun as she goes to dig her way in, having effective cover thanks to being pressed up agaisnt the mountain.
    IS Jane perhaps australian? That might be reason enough to trust her knowledge of scary and effecrtive killing spiders that were less well known. Jessica is able to give them some cover, shots peppering off as Yelena goes to work ehr way through. The mortar is, however, only seconds away from getting some sounds off and shrapnel -will- likely kill or cripple them if they don't get in VERY fast.
    They get in just with time enough to spare as they havea few seconds as the mortar round is detonating about fourty ro so meters off target. So they're inside. And now they have a sweeping volcano base to go through. There are, fortunately, no immediate personnel around the corridor as alarm klaxons are wailing. The area is big. It's a manufactory.
    Alas, even the volcano bits visible do /not/ have sprawling open walkways atop them.

Yelena Belova has posed:
In!

This is why Yelena is a Black Widow.. in a white jumpsuit. Entrances and egresses are her specialty, plus all that individual killing in the middle. With Jess in the rear, they're making a scientist sandwich, certainly. "Silly little jumping spider, you are between us grown up spiders. Keep your googly eyes peeled, and things may work."

Bah.. boomslang.

Making her way through the entrance, there's a little bit of a drop, and she does it easily, without the hero pose! "So stupid," is mumbled before she responds to the explanation of 'boomslang'. "It is snake?" She shudders, "I do not like snakes. They are not cute. They have fangs.."

Come to think of it...

"Come on.." and she starts to lead a way. "This way looks good. All secret lairs seem to go in clockwise spiral. No one lays it out like grid."

Zinda Blake has posed:
Okay, so this is new even for Zinda. The Quinjet is still spiralling away when the cloud of small missiles expands outward and the smoke trails begin to converge towards Zinda. She heads for the deck, hitting the afterburners and pushing the yoke forward.

It takes her out to sea, and in this case the deck is the ocean. While she tries to put as much distance between the Quinjet and the micro-missiles, Zinda checks the radar and looks all around for the last HYDRA jet.

Accelerate accelerate accelerate... The micro-missiles are converging and, for all her speed, they are gaining on the Quinjet. Closer and closer. Zinda picks up a little altitude, which only lets the missiles close faster.

Just as the micro-missiles are almost close enough for their warheads to fire, Zinda maxes the afterburners, nudges the nose down and pops a few more chaff cannisters. The Quinjet breaks the sound barrier, the shockwave bouncing off of the ocean waves to scatter chaff and a plume of seawater. The micro-missiles are also scattered and the Quinjet goes vertical again. G-forces build but Zinda holds it together, taking the dogfight farther away from the island as she looks for the last jet.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    After a last burst of weapon fire to their rear, they are in. Into the secret places they go with sirens wailing and the whomp of mortar quartering the distance to them.

    Spirals. Will they get dizzy running them at full speed, downward to the heart of the secret base in the pocket of a volcano? Spiders of every ilk know there way around them.

    Perhaps Yelena and Jess have the same thought. <<So do spiders, Yelena. And venom, too. On your six!>>

Jane Foster has posed:
"They have charming big eyes and little smiles as they loll on branches. You've only seen the unfriendly ones. The boomslang looks much more interesting than a fat anaconda or a garden-variety rat snake." Jane evidently has a soft spot for anime-esque snakes that occasionally slay humans by proximity or being concerned. At least thinking about snakes means not thinking about HYDRA agents who co-opted the most delightful octopus for their acts of evil.

The place is a volcano. Of course they aren't likely to go in straight lines, but through lava tubes expanded to serve their purposes. "We might expect to go down to the main vent if they built badly." If they built well, who knows! Only one way to look and she isn't flinching from that since Jess blocks her escape route. "I hope our pilot's faring well." Because otherwise they're swimming home. Attack choppers might not have a range and ditching in the wintry Southern Ocean is a death sentence. But, oh, look! All those fabulous pieces of technology just waiting for someone to make some terrible life choices. It's nearly as bad as a stick of dynamite lobbed into a mine.

Running sounds coming, then? If there's an obvious electrical lead, the woman plans on taking that out if at all possible. How? Just some casual jiggery-pokery of the engineering sort, though nothing as elegant as someone like Whitman or Fitz would manage. Oh no, she's doing it the astrophysicist way.

Introduce a small circular device, briefly let it spin up, and watch what happens when the interruption to the circuit involves a pinpoint wormhole to... somewhere. Those rifts probably all land on the other side of the Oort Cloud. Or another reality. It's sort of fuzzy when the coordinates are infused in microseconds.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's not often likely that Zinda Blake faces off with something new and unexpected. She might even enjoy it as she has to rapidly improvise over to figure out how to counter the tech and then evade it. Now however the Hydra jet is burning around in a loop and there's pinging over on the radar as it's attempting once again to go for missile locks. This time the plane is seeming to fire everything! And there is ever so much from everything even as Zinda goes to take on the last aerial threat that's come up so far.
    There's always a button somewhere that says 'ALL THE ROCKETS'. This pilot has definitely hit it as every single imssile pod on the jet goes to suddenly launch. And there are quite a few of them. Seemingly more than such a plane should be able toc arry, with all of the munitions it's expende don top of that.
    Yelena's instinctive navigational abilities lead the group true. Perhaps it's just something genetic about Russian spies and giant lairs. It's something that comes to them naturally. In the distance that she leads them, they can rapidly figure out where the storeroom is. There are the sounds of heavy, automated machinery going on as lots of industrial scale THINGS are being done. The place seems highly automated. And there is a LOT of toys there.
    Jessica had probably beter take her dramamine. The group isn't quite that dizzy while they go through, but there is a spiral networked stairs going from the top of the volcano base to the bottom that forms into a massive Hydra symbol in a rotating array. It's horrifically beautiful. An abomination. An aesthetic waste of space and yet somehow horribly, twistedly appealing. There are running sounds coming towards them. Whatever troops that are left inside the building are converging. Likely anyone alive left outside is also rushing in. So they're going to have to be quick and violent.
    Then by Jane's abilities the group os WHOOMSHED over to exactly where they need to be. They're over in a huge room filled with weapons. Massive amounts of weapons. Comedically oversized weapons. Those whom have had the (mis)fortune of running into a gunrunner infamous for such designs known amongst the community as 'The Rob' would recognize much of his weaponsmith work. Definitely incorporating alien tech. Large, bulky exoskeletons, tanks, smaller, less bulky exoskeletons. Huge blades. At least one gun clearly meant for a normal person to hold that was more than three meters long. Well, they knew who Hydra had been working with on making everything here..

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda is angling around to start closing on the last Hydra jet when it just dumps ALL of its ordnance at once. "What? I don't think this bird's -got- one of them buttons." With the other jet in front at least the missiles are all arcing around to approach the Quinjet from the front.

The Quinjet manages to squeeze off a burst to explode one missile before it twists and dodges through the cloud.

I am a leaf on the wind.

The missiles streak past the Quinjet, banking around hard. Almost as an afterthought, Zinda lines up the last jet in her sights and squeezes off a short burst. The engine explodes, taking the rest of the jet in an expanding fireball. Zinda rolls the Quinjet onto its back to keep the fireball between her and the approaching missiles. None of them make it.

"This is Blackhawk One to ground team. The skies are clear, repeat, the skies are clear. I'll make sure the LZ is nice and boring for when y'all are finished inside."

Jessica Drew has posed:
    The run for the heart of the volcano doesn't dizzy a spider used to webs. Super hearing brings her the first burst of footsteps converging on them, << We have company incoming.>> Not that they weren't expected.

    Her first entry into the magical heart filled with bizarre weaponry is to the sound of the P-90 she cradles, pinging security cameras. HYDRA knows the agents have already breached their secret fortress but Jess doesn't feel like giving them any feed for their next TikTok.

    Unslinging her backpack, she begins to seed the racks of weapons with thermite bombs, cleverly linked into a wireless network that any of the three agents can detonate.

    She leaves her easter eggs among the exoskeletons not without a moment of regret. <<These look unbelievably cool>>.

    A rack of monster guns, Shi'ar in make, stop her and she takes down a sleek shiny model that their agent Erickson had shown her once and slings it over her available shoulder. Then, places a bomb.

    <<They will never find all the eggs. Finished here.>>

Yelena Belova has posed:
The sirens, the klaxons, the red lights that flash when 'under attack' is annoying to no end. Yelena glances up at the red light tucked in an iron cage and curses softly at it, just because. "Next time, we come in cloaked. Or by boat. Or something," is muttered. "So noisy."

Still, corridors, and with Jess on her six, which she nods to acknowledge, she has her new Shi'Ar weapon in hand but slung quickly across her back, awkwardly, but still! She'd hefted it once or twice, checking the balance and the weight distribution. In all? "Not bad."

The path leads, quite obviously, to their destination. Even Yelena is a touch surprised, but perhaps it is genetics, or it's just yet one more thing that had been programmed into her psyche during training. Either way?

Going through the door, Yelena can't help a 'Whoa..' escaping, followed up by, "Okay, now this is cool."

Even cooler? The teleportation.

Yelena yelps, and finds herself on solid ground once more. That's new, and she's looking around for the culprit. "What the hell was that?" is called out before she shakes her head, cursing under her breath. Still, it's destination One, and it's time to pull and to set charges before getting the heck out of there.

Jess seems to have exactly the same idea, so once she does her own thing to follow up on, she does pull a couple for herself. Straight-forward looking guns from the outside; she'll see what they can do later!

She's ready in seconds, then, and with her rope, she's ready to pull herself up and out; as well as any hanger on. "Are you going to do that 'thing' again?" Why does that sound almost accusatory? "Our flight out is waiting."

Of course, it would be a great deal more cinematic if the girls went up and had the room explode under them, but.. volcano. Quicker, more expedient, perhaps, to get out as quickly and cleanly as possible.

Eventually, it will explode.. and the heroes should be safe.

Jane Foster has posed:
Zinda's aerobatic accomplishments for running a gauntlet are equal to anything a Night Witch managed on the Eastern Front, and they deserve to be serenaded by someone who appreciates her elegant manouvres. Alas that her counterparts are simply not as aware being trapped in the bottom of a volcano. Or let's be clear, the top.

Having used a tiny principle of a wormhole to disrupt the electricity /into/ the evil HYDRA lab, the much bigger task lies ahead... which is getting past the guards, through the harrowing array of dangers, and /lots/ of threatening objects lying around that even Jane's vaguely seasoned eye can tell should not be there.

<<I need a distraction. As loud or dangerous as you can make it, over there. Keep the path open and meet me in ninety seconds or so.>> Her instructions resolve around the principle of 'go look that way,' as simple as one can get. The weapons racks created by a devious mind working for the enemy aren't exactly her point of expertise. Exoskeletons and blades that could conceivably turn even a regular Joe into a super-soldier that might give Cap a bit of a run for his money -- until he passes on the left, anyway -- are far more problematic.

Thus, she cheats when backs are turned, because they bloody well need to be. Ready in seconds? That's nice, a minute will do. Maybe two. Can she get two, five even? Whatever the case may be, Jane treads right into the thick of the metallic bits and bobs -- on hands and knees if she must -- and plays tag.

It's dark for a reason. Not cover of darkness for safety but for /thievery/. One by one, large objects start to vanish from among their peers. And this mecha goes there, and that exoskeleton over here, yanked and hurled through a slender rift that wasn't ever really intended for such purposes but serves anyways. She earned the byways of the Nine Realms the hard way and if that means piling up ten foot long swords, several weird boxes that do something, and possibly a reconstituted Shi'ar pleasure yacht of death armed with harpoons of joy into a warehouse somewhere in Connecticut with "TO MICHAEL ERICKSON" stamped on a post-it note scrawled hastily in the dark, so be it. Let SHIELD figure THAT present out.

Until one of the swords bounces off his desk.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The island is going to be exploding soon enough. They've set off enough detonators to be sure it's not going to be useful for anything again anytime soon and much of the things within have been taken away to be sent to the poor, poor SWORD division that has to review and analyse alien tech. MIchael is likely to wonder how exctly to get a sword longer than his desk through the door of his office to clear his desk.

And like always, they shoot their way back to the helipad, fly away on the Quinjet as the explosions rock along hte volcano, and smoke flies up from it through the large Hydra symbol carved into the mountain to make it look like the volcano is erupting. It's beautiful in it's own twisted way as all of Hydra's efforts go up in smoke, explosion.. And SHIELD steals whatever bits there were left.

And Jane does something that might even get a grin from the Prince of Lies himself.