15792/Just a Training Exercise

Just a Training Exercise
Date of Scene:	05 September 2023
Location:	Flight deck: Helicarrier
Synopsis:	A SHIELD training exercise becomes a surprise live-fire drill.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Zinda Blake

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
They had been roused at three am and told to assemble for an operation. A group of a dozen or so agents that would be fast dropping in to a target area. Coffee, a map, and a to-do list. See how well they would perform when completely groggy and told what to do. Drop in an area, secure a perimeter, and then they would get further briefings when there.
    In the Quinjet, Natasha is settled over at the pilot's seat. "Team, get ready to deploy. This will be retrieval. Upon locating the item, you will secure the area for the dropship to come in for extraction. The item is to be taken in securely."

Zinda Blake has posed:
What the team doesn't know is that this mission is also a test of their ability to perform in a live-fire environment. None of the agents selected for the mission have seen actual, battlefield combat. There have been training simulators, and a lot of them, but the enemy was always digital.

Tonight, however, the wildcard for the agents is about 3 miles from the drop zone and circling. Lady Blackhawk is in a refit F7F Tigercat fighter from WWII. It's updated with modern electronics, including nightvision for the pilot, but functionally the original ordnance package.

Zinda Blake is patched into Natasha's headset for communication, with the agent team's comms on speaker in the cockpit. <This is Predator, I am on station and circling.>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would go to speak to the comm and toggle a few switches <<Drop team is going down>> The gropu of a dozen or so agents in the 'strike team' go to groggily head on down. They're not quite used to full functioning with this little alert. They're paying attention, but they've not yet learned the ability to function wtih very little sleep and to do so whenever they can catch an opportunity. They're not talking amongst themselves or chattering - not doing the banter or the normal back and forth a group might do. But they're not being sloppy and tehy're reasonably focused.

They go to spread out, weapons with them and held in the way that only recruits just through training know how. Tight, firm - but without the springiness that more experienced personnel use to let them move the gun easier. They'll numb their fingers doing it. They go to spread out, doing a sweep of the area.

Zinda Blake has posed:
<Roger that, heading towards the rendezvous. I'll start my run in 3 minutes.> Zinda's voice is quiet and calm, like a commercial airline pilot. Matter-of-fact. She angles the Tigercat over and pushes the throttles forward.

The twin-engine black plane is big and fast and noisy, at least once you're behind it. Two minutes later, Zinda's voice clicks on the radio again. <Targets spotted. I'm gonna wake 'em up a bit with the light guns.>

The 'light guns' on the F7F is four .50 caliber machineguns.

The team on the ground hears the low droning of the engines on approach, and that's the only warning they receive. Red tracer rounds lance from above, tearing up the turf. Then there's the deafening roar of the engines, followed by the hurricane-force wind as the plane zooms by at over 400 miles an hour.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
There's not quite a sonic boom to it - far from it. But the psychological impact of having a plane dive on them firing tracers is there. It had always been there, since the first planes made of wood and canvas flew in the first world war and pilots took up grenades and small machine guns to take potshots over at them as they went by overhead. Whether it has the siren of a Stuka or not, a plane racing by firing at you has an instinctive effect in humans.

Namely the team yells and goes to scramble for cover. They're all hitting the ground and going in every direction - they're not panicking, but they're definitely scattering. No one is taking charge of the group or giving them instructions. There's babble over the comms asking Natasha what to do.

<<Secure the area, field team. With an unknown jet in the area I have to stay at range until you can secure the package and I can go in for a quick extract. This craft isn't armed>> Not 'they're on their own', just that she only has one hcance to get in, and she needs to be able to get them all in one group.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Natasha can follow the Tigercat on her sensors, of course, and if she WAS in an armed craft this would be a very different story. Zinda's voice chirps on the comms again. <Well they're definitely awake, now. Pretty good scatter drill, too. Let me help 'em along a bit.>

In the darkness they can still hear the low drone of the engines. Out there. Somewhere. Zinda has been on the giving as well as the receiving end of a strafing run. The waiting is the hardest part (as the song goes).

The pitch of the engines increases as the plane goes into a shallow dive. That's their cue, of course. Zinda's second run is perpendicular to the first, dropping a line of tracers across the back of the group as if to keep them moving forward. In addition to the .50 caliber rounds, there's the steady <thump><thump><thump> of the 20mm cannons throwing big clumps of dirt.

Another roar of the engines, another rush of wind as the plane zooms past at a low enough altitude to feel like it's going to land on them. And then it's gone.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The agents go to scramble along hte ground, rapidly crawling. They've spread out over enough that they can't all be tagged in one strafing pass. Admittedly not that they have any cover. They're also resisting the urge to fire over at it with their small arms - at long range it would just waste ammo. They're at least not panicking and running at it. They've currently spread themselves out over about twenty five or so meters in every direction and are quickly glancing about.

Then the first complication hits them as one goes over along the radio <<What does the extraction target look like?>> Natasha grins. Something they should have asked going in and gotten a confirmation of before they dropped.

"<<Large container package, ground team. There's likely a tarp or something thrown over it to give it some concealment. not aware of exact placement.>> It's dark - if they use their lights to swing around it makes them easier prey for the strafing craft.

Then, being inexperienced trainees, they go to start looking for it by hand - rapidly running around the ground or at anything heavy to try nd feel about for a tarp.

<<Go in in about three minutes, give them another pass. Be a bit more aggressive - they've had a couple of runs to get adjusted, now keep them under pressure.>>

Zinda Blake has posed:
<More aggressive. Roger that.> Zinda squawks back. <Three minutes from... mark. I'll save the rockets for the last pass. We gonna give 'em a time limit before I blow up the package?> Which is an interesting twist, to be sure.

While the agents fan out to start their hand search, the relentless, low, circling droning of the engines continues in the air above them. Somewhere. In many respects a helicopter attack would've been easier. Sure, there's the pop-up-and-shoot feature, but it's less than half as fast.

The engine pitch increases slowly, signalling another attack run. This time Zinda's burst runs right up the center of the group, tracers separating them. With the night vision and her marksmanship, no one is hit. But they don't know she's trying to miss.

Another roar and rush of wind, then the plane disappears into the darkness again.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would muse over and think for a few moments <<Yes. I'll defer toyou. See how well they hold up. If they're not making progress or having an idea, go to finish it off if you see fit>> She's deferring to Zinda as the one with the gun and the cannon.

The rookies are defintiely trying - as Zinda goes inf or another attack run, a few of them go to open fire at her with quick bursts of their small arms. None of it comes close to hitting the plane, but it's suppressive fire and at least if they got in concentrated fire it could damage the plane - or at least get her to abort a strafing run.

In other words, it's better htan nothing. The group tries to coordinate, moving in groups of two or three while the others try to keep a bead on the plane. No one is moving to use lights or flares- which means they're not a painted target.. But in the dark searhcing by hand when they're not able to adjust to the dark thanks tot he bullets - and another failure as no one asked for night eqiupment.

Zinda Blake has posed:
Zinda isn't terribly worried about small arms fire; her plane has self-sealing tanks to withstand punishment from a lot bigger guns than the agents are carrying. There is no delay now, as she makes pass after pass after pass. From her vantage over the field, Natasha can see that Zinda is making a tic-tac-toe board with each line of her strafing runs.

<I'm gonna throw 'em a bone.> she offers over the comms. On the next pass she fires one of the 5 inch rockets, aiming somewhat close to the target package. Close enough that the flames illuminate it in the darkness.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The group is able to make it out. They're going to rush along even as one goes to comm along <<Located package>> The group moves to quickly try to surround it, moving to stay spreado ut so they couldn't be hit by a bombing run if the plane came in to strafe again.

<<secure it and ready it for extraction>> Natasha would note while hse would spin the Quinjet about, even as the ground burns from fire and flames.

The group on the ground rapidly secures an extraction winch to it so they can lever it up and over as soon as the Quinjet comes down!

Zinda Blake has posed:
<This debrief is gonna be interesting.> Zinda offers. Yes, she knows the agents are going to get roasted. But lessons were hopefully learned, at least.

The drone of the engines changes pitch in that all-too-familiar way, yet again. Only this time instead of the anticipated gunfire, Zinda's voice comes over the radio into everyone's earpieces.

<<Good work, and no hard feelings, fellas.>> The Georgia accent is difficult to miss. And as the Tigercat makes a very slow pass -under- the hovering Quinjet, Zinda flips on all the running lights and rocks the wings. She throttles up as she cuts the lights and angles off towards the helicarrier.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Better to have things resolved in training than out in the field. They're being thrown in to a live fire exercise they weren't ready for and didn't think of what to do ahead of time. That will be covered in their debriefing. And that's why assignments like this needed.

FOr virtually every soldier since the dawn of time. Preparedness can come often only from experience - no instruction can ever drill the point in. And given they can't send out recruits to the battlefield.. They have to make the circumstance as close to reality as they can.

As Zinda goes to speak to the comm, there are several colorful swears sent her way. Some of which she might want to save to use later.