17549/HUNGER Sidequest: SHIELD Rotunda Rumble

HUNGER Sidequest: SHIELD Rotunda Rumble
Date of Scene:	05 April 2024
Location:	SHIELD Rotunda - Atlantic Starport
Synopsis:	Chaos at the Starport as SHIELD agents rush to stop... SHIELD agents from sabotaging the station and stealing some of its formidable technology. In the chaos, the rogue agents use the same strange magic-tech from previous incusrions against the Triskelion and Avengers mansion, bypassing the Starport's wards by smuggling in short range portal devices. Amazon security responds, a gun battle is fought int the rotunda, ultimately brought to a close as Diana Prince makes it back from her previous Justice League mission to (mostly) save the day. Now, nearly all of the SHIELD presence at the port find themselves detained while the Amazons decide who they can trust.
Cast of Characters:	Darcy Lewis, Natasha Romanoff, Morrigan MacIntyre, Diana Prince, Kate Kane, Richard Stadler

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Darcy Lewis has posed:
Last time on Agents of ThemyiSHIELDa...

With the Starport housing many refugees from the alien flotilla, an otherwise 'normal' day has seen a number of small crises spiral into greater chaos. Challenges in alien biology have caused food shortages, unrest, and most recently, left several young aliens in the medical bay with 'cheese product poisoning.' Others clamor for better accomodations, for repairs to their vessels so they can return to space... or for more permanent options to stay on Earth.

There was even a dose of space-lizard apocalyptic preaching.

All of this has led to protests and small scale riots, and while Amazon security acts quickly to bring things under control, the situation has strained their (wo)manpower considerably. Just in time for a sudden alarm and request for a lockdown of the SHIELD rotunda -- a worrying and inauspicious event given tension between the Starport nations and the rest of the world.

Now!

With the halls and promenades filled with protesting aliens and clashing security, the immediate responders arrive ahead of backup; it will take time for those situations to be brought under control and security to arrive in greater numbers. So whoever gets here, including the SHIELD agents who first uncovered the cause of the alarm, is likely on their own to start.

Well, 'on their own.'

The SHIELD bay area is... far from empty. It's actually full of people. All of them are presently looking around in various degrees of confusion as the alarms go off. No one told them there was an emergency. Visible out the side of the hangar's launch bay, a pair of Quinjets are hovering out over the water, held up by the Starport air traffic control and waiting to land, and there's a vague flicker in the air to indicate the forcefields are up. On the ground, there are tons of supply crates in various states of unloading, some piled up on the the sides, some being unloaded from already-landed vehicles. Agents oversee it all, at least until they stop to look around in confusion.

Darcy is by one large pile of crates with her tablet, taking inventory. "Uh... who set off the fire alarm?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova is doing her best to not draw her weapon and simply use her near century of skills as a Russian to stare down anyone into submission. Some things are hopefully cross species, cross-galactic. All she has to do is gaze down at anyone and hopefully cow them while they figure things out and can stop hte lockdown. Or extend it. She goes to speak to her comm <<Agent Stadler, what are we working with here?>> By that she means 'what did he find, and what else is going to blow up on them'. <<Agent Lewis, if you can get a quick look at the retrieved artifact, is it inert or active and likely to be used to breach shortly?>> Her questions are quick and curt as she works at wrangling people/aliens and trying to make them stay in place.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Given Mo is a consultant for SHIELD when it comes to aliens, weird things and apparently schools, it was safe to say she had a vested interest in being present at times. But alarms go off and the bay is suddenly in a confused panicky state and the Doctor sighs. "Just when we thought that the day couldn't possibly get worse. Here we are." the Irish woman states. The Master of the Mystic Arts just...sees what is going to happen for the moment before she decides on what to do.

Diana Prince has posed:
With Wonder Woman not on site today, Donna is dealing with the vast majority of the unrest to the south side of the starport near the landing platforms. Donna, and her squad commanders, have issued teams around the starport's four leaf clovered rotunda complexes, with one team arriving at the SHIELD rotunda now to check in with SHIELD personel...

Through the main entrance area, a group of Amazonian women arrive, clad in gilded armor of golds, silver, and supple leathers, the group of armored warriors march in through the open doors. At their lead, their Lieutenant steps forward, her eyes roaming over the interior of the SHIELD rotunda, doing an obvious visual check of the site, whilst waiting for a SHIELD representitive to approach them, should one even choose to.

Kate Kane has posed:
Well, even though she's not a member of SHIELD, Kane Industries /is/ providing a lot of bankrolling for humanitarian aid in this situation. Which means that Kate Kane was here in person, clad in a black jacket and slacks, white dress shirt, and looking much like a CEO instead of her normal party girl outfit.

Or her OTHER outfit, which most folks aren't exactly aware of.

When the alarm goes off, she blinks in surprise, and looks around for a SHIELD agent to ask what the heck is going on, as she doesn't exactly have a place to change... so, she decides to stay in character. At least she's ex-military, so has one up on her cousin.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler's on the comms as he walks, having been reluctant to leave those alien kids at the aid station. There wasn't a lot he could do with them, however; someone like Morrigan might have a better way of putting the theoretical use of biology into treatment plans that were more complex than 'keep blood on the inside'. Barring that, local medical personnel for the species, as... overloaded as they were right now. But there was a more strategic issue facing them all at the moment.

<<Consultant, Widow. I know better than to be shanghai'd into 'Agent' without setting some terms." He notes, quickly heading up thesteps to the rotunda. <<Heading your way with the package, but the short of it is, we have a device; modified, in a SHIELD hard case, part of the SWORD shipment that was sent here. There's modifications, but it's appearance is strikingly similar to the devices used to create a portal into the Triskelion. Unknowns are why it's here, how did it get here, and if it's already been used.>>

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Miss Kane, it sounds like there's some kind of security incident. If you would, you can step over toward the offices on the east side of the rotunda, just until we verify what the issue is..."

Darcy clearly has no idea what is happening here. She's definitely not in charge, but as a relatively senior SWORD agent she's been coordinating on various technical issues. And in her spare time, well, everyone chips in, which includes simple things like double-checking inventory, which is what she was doing as the whole mess started. But once there's trouble, she starts doing the things she's trained to do, like politely shuffle VIPs away from any potential threats and into a secure area. Nevermind that the VIP could kick her ass twelve different ways. She doesn't know that!

As Nat comes in over the comms and she looks around, before manually tapping on her earpiece to respond, at a lower volume, obviously not trying not to be too loud with anything scary that Kate might overhear! <<Retrieved... artifact? You're going have to uh, slow down and walk about three or four steps backward there, boss. What artifact? What's this alarm for?>>

She waits a moment.

<<Oh, didn't know you were here Stadler. It's - wait, what? Well THAT is very not good. I uh. In a SWORD case?>>

She looks around. There's dozens of crates with SWORD labels. "Uh..."

No one inteferes as the Amazon security detachment arrives. Indeed, most of the SHIELD folk look confused, looking around this way and that. Darcy is busy over by her PILE, so a random younger agent approaches the phalanx of Amazons. "Can I, erm, help you ladies? I didn't think there was a drill scheduled today..." It might all seem like a big misunderstanding, maybe some kind of false alarm, to those who haven't seen the evidence up close.

Everyone is probably disuaded of that notion as there's a low echoing rumble, recognizable by the more military-minded as some kind of distant explosion. Not here in the bay, somewhere else in the facility, muffled by whatever intervening parts of the structure. It continues for several seconds, and the lights flicker once, then come back on.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would go to speak calmly to the comms <<You're our resident on-hand expert, Agent Lewis. We need answers on that quickly. And then scan for others of them. I don't want us to have a jump in assault team. Quartermain, follow up with SWORD immediately to track the shipment an it's origins, and who handled the containers and transit. Have anyone associated with it detained and investigated>> Even as she assigned Clay Quartermain, eternally sufferig logistics asset, to the thankless job of yelling at people, tracking them down, and then telling them politely they just had a 'few questions to answer' off-site.

Then the explosion is going off, and Natasha goes to immediately take out her sidearm but keeps the safety on. <<Status report. Spaceport Operations, exact location of detonation. Request access to immediate logs and records of area>> SHe was in full combat mode now. Anything not helpful would be a 'pushed out of the way' or 'taken out of the way'.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate looks a bit amused, "Doctor Lewis, or can I call you Darcy? I don't think that I need to be shuffled to the side just because of a little drill..." She gives Darcy a definite /look/ at that, evaluating the woman even as she overhears a bit about what's going on. Not that she is going to let Darcy get clued in on that, obviously.

However, she looks over at the Amazons when they arrive, and seems about to say something when the rumbles happen. And she glances at Darcy, "Doctor Lewis, those were most definitely explosions, in another part of the facility." How she knows that, she doesn't say, but her military history (however abbreviated) is a matter of public record after all. Though while she sounds very flighty (and more than a little flirty) with Darcy prior to that...

Her eyes show that she seems to taking the situation far more seriously than it appears.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan's senses reach out and there is something very weird that comes up. She heads towards one of the agents and there is a smile as she takes of her sunglasses, her weird eyes showing to the one she talks to, "Could I possibly borrow your radio?" she asks. Assuming they let her, she gives a smile, "This is your friendly neighborhood consultant, Doctor MacIntyre here in the SHIELD bay, we've got some sort of teleportation magic in use and I am guessing that the wards are not going to catch it. So..we're going to have something arriving...or leaving fairly soon." she comments over them calmly.

With that she hands the radio back to the person that she borrowed it from and drops her sunglasses into her pocket. She then turns to look around the room, seeing if she might be able to catch said teleportations arrival. She probably wouldn't be able to, she wasn't Strange.

Diana Prince has posed:
Since the island of Themyscira began to deploy contingents of its timeless warriors to the greater corners of the mortal world, certain leeways have begun to get incorporated in to the military might of the Amazon warriors, case in point, a ear comm chimes inside of the Lieutenant's right ear. She overhears a summation of the situation, and with a light nod of her head she focuses her eyes upon the SHIELD rep. "There is a security situation spreading across the Starport complex as a whole. It may directly be connected to SHIELD, thus we are here to help keep this area secure." The woman says in a thickly accented English. "I am Lieutenant Ayla, and you may refer to me with any questions, however, we shall be spreading out our forces within the SHIELD rotunda to provide better overall security to the facility."

The women were calm, even following the rumblings of explosions, and as the tall Aayla turned to face her soldiers, she began to bark orders out in Themysciran. Splitting down the group of armor-clad Amazons, three lines spread out to march toward opposite sides of the shield hangar, each armed with a mini arsenal of weapons, all of which are still properly stowed and at-rest at their owner's side, or harnessed to the soldier's back.

Aayla, turns back to the SHIELD rep, and levels her gaze upon them. "We recommend your people go to as high of an alert status as you are trained for." The dark haired Lieutenant tells them, with her amber hued eyes once more roaming the interior of the rotunda, as though waiting to see visual evidence of some nare-do-well activity unfolding in the moment.

The Amazons were split on how much they trusted SHIELD. Some believed in their public facing noble causes they claimed to act in favor of, while others amongst the Themysciran people of the Atlantic Starport, seemed to think SHIELD was far more closely geared toward being an untrustworthy puppet to nefarious shadow masters.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler pauses when he feels the rumble in the ground, that distant sensation he knew to be a detonation... somewhere. And the problems they had were quite numerous. <<They could be using the portals to transport explosives in; some sort of weapon delivery system. If they're transporting troops, we need to divine their objective. There's not a lot we can do if->> He starts, before Morrigan comes on the line. "Doctor MacIntyre, are you sure? What are we looking at? Any idea what they might be coming in with?>>

He's heading up toward the rotunda itself, whistling to one of the SHIELD guards on duty. "Sidearm. Now." IN a tone that does not broach argument. At least he was seen coming in by the same guard, enough to get that Glock and a few clips. Press check, round in the chamber; check the clip, full load, all right. He didn't feel naked.

The next statement is quieter, subvocalized. <<Net, I think we have to keep in mind that this might be a UN operation that's coming in here. And if it is, just what our intentions are.>>

Darcy Lewis has posed:
<<Scan for it?>> Darcy answers Nat. <<The things from the Trisk secure storage incident were off-brand WAND tech, as far as I know. You know. Hocus pocus stuff. Not entirely my department. I can try and see if I can- hold on a sec, boss.>>

As Natasha relays the information back to her logistics contact, what they CAN track is something much simpler than any weird techno-magical signatures. They can track the... tracking number. Because, masquerading as a valid shipment, the case Richard found has all that stuff on it. Valid batch numbers, tracking codes, et cetera. In the background, over the comms, in an office half a world away, and then back to Darcy's tablet.

"OK got it. That ID series all came in on..." She looks toward one of the transport craft sitting on the hangar deck. This one isn't a SHIELD craft, itself. Like with Miss Kane's assistance, the project requires the use of civillian contractors to do the heavy lifting. This one belongs to some private aerospace firm, contracted through SWORD. It's a good bet.

Darcy is half turning, ready to argue with Kate, when they both hear it. "Uh that's- yeah I think it's not a drill," she agrees, reaching down to where even she, nerdy space gal, carries her regulation sidearm. "Can I ask you to head over there, or just take cover, or..."

She's interrupted by another voice on the radio. Darcy doesn't know Morrigan, but she's on a SHIELD channel and she's talking mumbo-jumbo. Good enough! <<Hey there! So what you're detecting is probably a short-range portal device. Point-to-point. Used them in the Triskelion robbery. I'm guessing they can't punch through the wards but if some jokers smuggled them inside... Can you, uh, track that kind of thing?>>

This is where shit hits the fan. Darcy has pointed people toward a particular large transport craft as suspect. The first to approach it? They take gunfire from the open ramp in the back.

Simultaneously, outside, where the two Quinjets have been in their holding pattern, the craft in the rear pops its under-nose autocannon and fires a quick burst. Not at the Starport (yet), but at the other Quinjet ahead of it. Raking over one of the engines and wings, it's quite precise, just enough to send the other bird into low-speed controlled spiral down toward the drink. Disabled, but the crew on board? Probably OK.

The attacks from both the Quinjet outside and the transport plane on the deck are probably enough to spook the Amazons into action, but it gets worse. This place is full of SHIELD personnel. The vast majority of them are loyal.

But not all. A few, here and there, drop behind crates, and start shooting at the Amazons. Others, in large number, seem to have taken up positions on the multi-tiered balconies above, giving them dangerously advantageous positions to shoot down from every angle. And unlike in the prior incident at the Triskellion, there are no 'spooky dark mercenary outfits' to distinguish friend from foe. They're dressed as SHIELD. Or maybe they are SHIELD.

The Amazons probably don't split hairs.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Magical portals being used to randomly teleport explosives. Other possible acts of sabotage. Traitors. Make a to-do list and start checking things off of it. Natasha goes to very cleanly take the safety off her guns, and is rapidly advancing through the cramped corridors to bypass any panicking refugees or civilians. They have infiltrators, that means comms aren't secure. She has to trust in her people to do the thing. And that anyone stupid enough to try and engage Amazons with small arms will fight about as well as they think.

She's going quiet now even as seh moves to break into a run, heading towards the docking bay where the melee is happening. It's just one part of what she's thinking is a coordinated strike. She's still several seconds beyond getting in to the cramped hangar area and so the others will be in a better position to respond to it.

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate grins, "Okay, but I still think you're cute when you're angry. Like, militant librarian, especially with the fancy gun there." She does, however, follow directions and takes cover at Darcy's request.

Well, until she's not looking. And then she gives Darcy, and everyone else the slip. With that, she stealthily creeps through the area towards the plane that's there. Though first things first...

Coming up behind one of the fake-SHIELD goons shooting at an Amazon, she quickly grabs him in a chokehold and sends him to not-blissful unconsciousness. Smirking, she takes his ICER and checks it, then makes her way towards the plane, keeping to the shadows and doing her best to avoid notice. Which, considering there's a full on firefight between the rest of the fake SHIELDies and the Amazons and real SHIELDies, shouldn't be that hard. Even if she wasn't a Bat.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan listens to the voices over the radio and there is a bit of a intense look at the information that comes over it. She leans in and presses the button on the radio, <<Stadler I'm not sure what we are dealing with. Will report back though.>> she comments to him. <<I will try to track them, yes.>> she tells Darcy.

When the non-SHIELD transport is pointed out she decides to head that way. Only to be fired upon, the bullet grazes her arm and it causes her to dive to the side. That's when her eyes start to glow, "Well, looks like we're doing this the hard way." the woman mutters as she rushes up the ramp, violet magic blasting into the person that shot her. It's about to get REALLY loud in that small space.

Diana Prince has posed:
When it came to light that the transport vehicle parked inside of the rotunda hangar was not SHIELD< but a unaffiliated craft representing SWORD, Lieutenant Aayla, and one of her adjacent soldiers began to march toward the vehicle. they were just about within range for Aayla to speak out to those aboard it when the crew opened fire! Two shots rang off of Aayla's chest plate, followed by a second ripping through the leather covering her right arm. It caused the Lieutenant to drop to the ground, and roll behind cover, her companion warrior following her in suit. Both women started shouting to one another, followed by Aayla speaking orders in to her comms.

All members of the Amazon detachment stopped their marching toward their assigned points within the open hangar, and all of them suddenly took up shields from their backs just as the shots began to rain down from various points. The women moved with trained grace and dedicated motion in to protective shield circles, moving around fallen Amazons who took bullets, or icer rounds from the ambush prepared for them. Their sisters created full on shield walls to protect the injured, while those armed with long range weapons began to pull them from their veritable harnessed arsenals. Some of the women threw small javelins, with deadly precision, while others raised up ornate short bows that were quickly armed with golden arrows that took flight on the wings of screaming fletching! The arrows added a whistling howl of ghost-like wails to the unfolding chaos, while a small number of Amazon suddenly pulled forth small tech-based crossbows that were instantly put to use, unleashing glowing orbs of strange energy... as the tech progression of the Themysciran forces was now on full display!

Lieutenant Aayla was one of the women armed with one of these matte-black tech crossbows, and having pulled it from her harness, she swung out from behind her cover, found a target and unleashed a bolt of hot plasma energy toward the first crewman... the very one who'd taken those trio of ambush shots at her with the intent of ending her life! Seems the Lieutenant has a good memory, and a knack for holding immediate grudges!

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler was almost hoping this was some sort of official UN Mission. At least then they'd know what to expect; deals could be made, areas would be known as off limits for attack. But that was dashed when there was talk of a contracted company. It screamed black operations, and worse, suddenly there were explosions from the sky. He was in position to see the wreckage from one of the Quinjets fall into the sea below, and know that one of them was up there, that he didn't know the intentions of. and then things simplified enourmously as the gunshots started ringing down from the balcony.

<<Tell me we have a countersign!>> He yelled into the radio, quickly sliding into cover and firing rounds up to the top deck where at least he could be sure those were enemies. At least he wasn't wearing a uniform; he liked to think of himself as 'well known' enough at this point, but without some sort of IFF system or a simple goddamn counter sign, this would be.. difficult.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
In the distance, more explosions, evidenced both in the rumbing sounds and the occasional power flicker. The Starport has a lot of redundancy, to stand up against this kind of thing. It's being tested, now. And its defenders know how serious the situation is.

For the Amazons, there's constant security background chatter echoing across the station. Natasha and the other SHIELD agents still have access to some of these channels... but the communication suddenly switches into their native ancient Greek dialect, a dead language to the rest of the world. It's a very simple, and perhaps frightening statement: we no longer trust you. Amongst themselves, they report damage. Report intruders located and 'eliminated.' Which systems are under attack and where. They are efficient, and their voices cold.

Those approaching the large transport plane find it well-defended, as it is now very clearly at the center of whatever operation is underway. Up until as recently as maybe an hour ago when Donna Troy demanded more thorough inspections, SHIELD - and its contractors - have been granted wide latitude and trust in terms of the kind of inspections and controls over what they bring aboard. Although they've had to carry a large amount of genuine supplies to cover their ruse, they now unveil some heavy weaponry, setting up machineguns on a tripods at the open rear of the plane. Even as the first few soldiers get blasted - by magic, by Amazon weaponry that may as well be - they soon return a heavy volume of fire back in their direction.

<<Watch out, we know these guys use some odd tech, stolen magic... The ones that hit the Avengers had, uh, rune-scribed something? It punched through magic defenses. Then there was the demon grenade, the brains in jars, the rocket-propelled genie...>> Darcy is briefing them as they go, on the truly weird tools these people have employed. <<And they stole some stuff right outta the Triskelion, like that robot suit and the Grey power cell->>

Stop jinxing it, Darcy!

Morrigan is the first one to approach, and she gets a bit of a look inside (before getting shot at with a whole lot of everything): the ramp leads to the rear cargo area of the plane, which is now mostly empty of everything they brought abouard. Instead, a dozen glowing portals are open in two lines down the length of the fuselage on either side. Each one shows an open door through space, with the matching destination visible on the other side: engine rooms, power junctions, storage areas. Through some, she can see the Amazons fighting on the far side of the portals.

As far as she can see, no genies or brains in jars. One does simply walk up to the edge of the ramp and roll a metal ball down it, though. It's about the size of a cantaloupe, and covered in runic carvings

For the Amazons, the main danger, despite their superior weaponry, is the vantage point of those firing from the balconies above. The Amazons are deadly shots, but they're also masters of tactics and would know well the value of the high ground. And the SHIELD confusion continues to strain everything. Darcy echoes back at Richard. <<Color response is chartreuse but I have no idea what's compromised and not.>>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha can get the gist of what the Amazons are saying - she's not nearly passable in the language but the cirsp, efficiency of language tightened for combat and coordination is universal. The inflections, the tones.. All to use just a minimum of effort to focus on the fight. That she can track well enough. And the Black Widow goes to dart her way through the halls, coming to the melee.

The area is a crossfire - the enemies have the high ground and partial cover, but their heavy weaponry is limited to that of the craft they flew in on. The Amazons are holding their own and probably winning, and will do so quite efficiently. That leaves the immediate problem of the heavy weaponry.

The machine guns will make mincemeat of the rest of them. She doesn't have heavy weapons on her own and she can't get into range of it. So she goes to calmly take out her grapple gun, snaps open her WIdow's Bite and a small plasma welder.. And fires it up to land along the bottom of the plane, yanking herself up towards it with the torch ready to start to melt her way on in!

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate slips her way into the front of the plane, much to the surprise of the two people in the cockpit. One of whom says, "Wait, who're you!"

A pair of ICER shots later, and Kate says, "Sorry, this is a Kane Industries audit." She smirks a bit as the two are unconscious, and then takes another ICER from one of them as she moves through the back of the plane. There's random exclamations from soldiers being taken from surprise, before being blasted by the ICER and knocked unconscious. Gradually, she makes her way towards the back of the plane, seeing the glowing portals... and blinking a bit.

Not typically something you see in Gotham City.

Diana Prince has posed:
Bullets and ICER rounds were completely ineffective against Themysciran steel. Sparks flew from bullet impacts, and the energy darts of an ICER round just plunked right off of the impressively formed metal. The shield walls were effectively invulnerable to the attacks from the ambushing rogue agents. However, that is not to say that there are not gaps and vantage points to be exploited amongst the covered Amazon warriors, and once the women within the shield barriers had their injured under control the various teams of Amazons began to move together to form an even larger sphere of shielded protection. The three lines met at the middle of the hangar floor, shouted orders creating intentional gaps that would levy volleys of ranged shots toward called-out targets from the team leaders within the shield wall's protective spaces.

But Aayla and her companion were not within the Amazon shield wall, they were yet still hiding behind the cover of a stack of containers, and a small break wall.

The Lieutenant unleashed another volley of shots from her position, followed by her companion Amazon throwing a direct javelin toss in to the chest of one of the crewmen of that plane that happened to duck out from cover at the same time.

"Heavy weapon!" Aayla's companion shouted when she came back, causing the Lieutenant to duck further back in to cover. As able bodied as the Amazons were, heavy mounted machine guns were still a bitch!

"Shield up!" Aayla told her partner, both women going back to back and creating a cocoon of Amazon steel over and around each other's form.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan starts to run up the ramp like a crazy person...or one that can definitely not dodge bullets! But she is met with the lines of portals that run down the length of the inside, <<Alright this is something that is a problem, they've got portals to different areas opened up in the back of this transport.>> she states over comms. <<And...they just rolled some runed metal ball at me.>> she states.

It's more reflexive what happens, her booted foot winds back and KICKS the ball towards the ramp, "No time for dodge ball here boys!" she shouts. Oh this is going to go SWIMMINGLY!

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler was trying to plug into the local nets, the local security forces; it meant getting, albeit slowly, a sense of what was happening her; where they were attacking, and where they were attacking. It was... jarring when the language changed to tones he'd only heard a few times, and certainly not enough to understand what they were saying. It was... understandable, Rick thought, the weapon firing upwards as he tried to move from the cover he was in to the next piece, working his way toward stairs upward. The enemy was practicing perfidy, and, unlike SHIELD, the Amazon's had an integrated way to determine friend from foe; they were certainly distinctive in looks and language, after all.

But that meant, Rick thought, as he finally reached a stairway up, firing two rounds into the throat of a 'SHIELD' agent raising a rifle at him, that trust was going to be hard to replace, with them thinking SHIELD was comprimised (and who knows, maybe it was). That meant pushing out the international team here, and that meant escalation with the UN forces.

He had to wonder how long it would be before he was up on those balcony's himself, doing the same thing.

He grabbed at a rifle from the man he had killed, checking the clip as he moved up, held up and ready as he finally managed to get up the balcony. Let's see how these people liked enfalide fire.

<<Portals? That means they can access any part of the facility. Doctor, you need to secure that ship, and secure it with those portals active. If we can cut off their hub, we stand a better chance of isolating them. Headed up to the balconies.>>

Darcy Lewis has posed:
One might wonder what was happening with the Quinjet out front. As the situation turns hostile, the Starport's external defenses immediately go active as well. Or, they try. One of the first things reported in that Amazon tongue is a power failure at the juncture that supplies the nearby turret: <<Sector defenses not responding. Shield main power down, first backup down. They are taking them down in sequence.>>

It's well-planned.

At the front of the plane, they're less prepared for attack. Indeed, they may have been preparing to flee, with the pilot doing some pre-flight checks as Kate makes her way in. Looks like that won't be happening. At the same time, Nat gets on top of the plane. This now makes it a triple pincer maneuver.

Well, maybe a double. As Morrigan kicks the strange metal ball (clearly aimed not only at her, but the large advancing formation of Amazons), rather than going sailing, it... breaks apart, as if every one of the little runes was a separate piece, all being held together and now released. At the same moment, there's an expulsion of strange spectral energy. Mostly it engulfs Morrigan, though a few stray spirits contnue off in other directions. Every one they touch is immediately met with emotions and distant thoughts of the beings once held within, an army of angry spirits, spurring rage, paranoia, turning friend against foe...

...or, well, mostly Morrigan against everyone? It's REALLY good that thing didn't make it into the middle of the Amazons.

That leaves two to secure the center of the ship. It's actually mostly empty. Or rather, it was. Through each of the portals, they can see the successful teams now returning to the plane. Others start to de-activate, seemingly on timer, 'stranding' any failed or captured teams and preventing the Amazons from chasing them back through.

On the balconies, Richard can see a few of the faux-SHIELD firing down, as well as some unconscious bodies on the ground, possibly loyal agents taken out first. ICER'd. It's interesting that the SHIELD-on-SHIELD violence continues to be low-lethality, although clearly the guys on the ship aren't following those rules, especially toward the Amazons. Either way, from having to shoot someone to get up here, he doesn't quite get the drop on them. Indeed, an ICER round hits just near him on the stairway railing as he comes up. "Pal you're on the wrong side of this."

On the plane, what seems like the last team walks through, their portal closing on an image of explosions on the far side.

<<Sector shield second backup failing,>> reports the Amazon channel.

At the same time, the Quinjet outside turns its weapons toward the bay.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the men go to charge inside to the plane from the portals and readying to exfiltrate, they're met over with a hum. Two hums, rather. Natasha Romanova has clearly drawn out both glowing batons from her back, and set them for maximum charge in the midst of the beings rushing inwards.

"Today, you are going to get a lesson." She speaks in Russian. Sadistic, sadistic Russian. The tone in her voice that of the Mongols raiding along the Steppes centuries ago. "The lesson will be in pain. I will be your instructor." She goes to charge into the men, laying into them, batons slashing out, leaving electric arcs in their passage, so bright as to be blinded. Set for a level to take on high level metas, hopefully wtih even passing strikes disabling anyone from a hit.

"Grades will be on a pass or fail basis. You have already failed the class." All coming out in a frenzy, feral burst of Russian from someone that lived through the seige of Leningrad and hid under bodies when the occupiers poked them wtih bayonets to make sure that they were actually dead.

Her strikes hold back enough to not kill. For the most part. Cripple and brutalize?

Very much so.

Natasha fights in a way that is not like the way Amazons do. It is one of the ways the Red Room taught her. Efficiency in brutality. Each strike for maximum power, maximum pain, maximum efficiency. Each blow is designed simply to be an efficient way of neutralizing someone. It is Natasha cutting loose.

Kate Kane has posed:
With only Natasha as a witness, Kate smiles a little as the remaining soldiers in the plane try to flee towards her. Seeing the CEO as clearly an easier target than Natasha. Kate just smiles, and between her purloined ICERs and martial arts training... well, the few that escape Natasha don't make it far past Kate. Though at one point, Kate does look at Natasha.

"Just say you saved me from being abducted by these creeps, okay?" She grins a little, needing to keep up a bit of the 'helpless CEO' front, and that's a good enough cover story to work.

Diana Prince has posed:
With the outer energy shield compromised, and the hostile Quinjet making its VTOL approach toward the SHIELD rotunda's open hangar doors, it has a perfectly accessible target shot on everything, and everyone inside of the open hangar. The hostile Quinjet hovers in mid air outside, as its guns extend, prime, and prepare to fire.

Just as each rotary canon was spinning to life, the sudden onslaught of bright cyan-blue plasma energy spatteres across the hull of the hostile Quinjet! Its outer hull plating instantly burning to molten cinders, as the plasma rounds splash against it from an unseen source, until suddenly the hostile Quinjet explodes in to a brilliant ball of blooming fire, and blossiming shattered pieces! What follows is a powerful blast of energy from the resulting explosion, followed by the shimmering presence of another vehicle passing through where the Quinjet had been mere moments before.

A flash of motion against the backdrop of fiery wreckage falling to the ocean below, presents the form of a singular person lunging their way in to the hangar, and landing with a stride of motion,a run that leaves them stuttering to a sudden stop.

Uncoiled lasso drapes across the hangar floor, golden glinting in the sunlight streaming in from behind her form, as Wonder Woman lets her eyes scan across the space around her, and the chaos that her people have found themselves mixed up within.

Wonder Woman doesn't linger in thought for long, however, as she begins to run forward, her muscled legs carrying her at rapid speed toward the enemy plane that the small team is attempting to siege. She leaps up in to the air, a arching jump that has her coming down upon the heavy weapon emplacement firing upon her Amazonian commander, and warrior companion! Diana's sword crushes the emplacement in to two halves, before she spins her form around to drop the soldier who'd been manning it, a powerful leg sweep dropping him to his spine within a matter of a second passing.

Diana is gone before another second passes, now her armored form leaping in to the air up toward the balcony opposite from the one Richard has rushed up to, and with golden lasso in hand, Wonder Woman lashes out with it, grabbing the legs of two men, yanking hard upon it, to send them twirling behind her and slamming hard in to stone pillars over her shoulders. At a full rush, Wonder Woman's bracers begin to block incoming bullet attacks, as she advances forward down the line of faux SHIELD agents gone rogue. With sword in one hand, lasso in the other, she leaves a wake of broken weapons, fallen soldiers, and countless broken bones until she clears out the entire western balcony.

"Form up!" Aayla shouts, she and her companion soldier rushing toward the central shield wall. "All attention to the east!" Aayla shouts, the western balcony neutralized, the Amazons can help assist Richard in assaulting the other side of the hangar now. ^R

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan has made a very BAD decisions. Richard doesn't get an answer and that might either be from her doing things or she is just not able to respond. That's probably because she just got blasted by anger spirits and the sorceress doesn't have time to react to repelling them. So Morrigan stands there for a moment, breathing started to grow ragged as she locks eyes on one of the imposters.

The generally quiet and composed Doctor reaches out to violently grasp the man by the shirt and then her forehead connects with his before she sends him staggering out of the transport with her hot on his heels as someone comes to interject she bares her fangs at them in a rage filled growl, "FUCK. OFF." she spits out as she pulls out a knife to stab at them with and she is eerily accurate with her stabbings given she was the vessel for a war goddess for about two years.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler's already up to the balconies themselves. Finally. Of course, Rick's experience didn't exactly embrace the 'non-lethal side of things himself. But whatever had occured may have happened too fast to police the weapons around here, and, as the Icer rounds slammed next to him, he dove to the floor, skidding around to a wall jutting out to point in the balconies. He tugged at an unconscious SHIELD agent's holster, drawing the ICER (what a goddamn odd weapon) out before sending a few rounds across to keep them honest. "Oh, yeah, I agree. But then again, you sons of bitches don't look like blue helmets." He says, poking out of cover to fire off another round. "And who the /fuck/ wrote up your OPPLAN? Kissinger?"

Another two rounds, and this time, there was a break, as he was able to direct them both towards the man's chest. They'd need to gather intelligence after this, which meant at least a few of these bodies needed to be warm. Because Stadler wanted to know what the hell was going on, and weather he needed to yell at people in Brussels, New York, or D.C.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Ambushed by two very capable ladies, in close quarters, and even with those big scary machineguns are facing the -wrong direction-? Yeah, it goes poorly for the dudes in the plane.

Make no mistake: they're quality enough soldiers. This speaks to the effort being undertaken here, to the resources expendended. But also to the tremendous skill of their opponents. It's not saying much to beat up your average mooks. To watch the Black Widow demolish several squads of well-trained men? That's something else.

She makes it look so easy Kate barely has to help! Barely. Still fun to shoot a couple of them.

After that, the plane is theirs, with all the portal devices shutting down.

No, all but one.

Outside the plane, everything comes to a head very quickly. One second, they're all anticipating the moment where thousands of rounds of ammunition start to shred everything in the hangar floor. Maybe the Amazon shields could hold up to the bullets, but the sheer force would threaten to overwhelm them, and the richotets to turn the chamber into a blender.

The next second? There's nothing but flame and smoke, and then the blur of motion as Wonder Woman demolishes first one enemy position, and then another, bouncing from one side of the combat to the other in near the blink of an eye. It's not a side most but the greatest heroes ever see of her, and it puts her frightening power on full display.

With that, the battle turns. Although Morrigan may be lost in a fury (to the unfortunate end of one poor infiltrator), around her the chaos is subsiding. The Amazons, freed from that pinning fire, and with support from the far side as Richard claims a good firing position of his own, can easily rush and clear the remaining balconies and secure the larger floor. What comes isn't exactly pretty. And even the loyal SHIELD agents quickly find themselves backed up at spear- and sword-point, the wiser quickly dropping their weapons.

Even Darcy finds herself hauled out by the scruff of her neck. No one on the SHIELD side seems above suspicion.

Inside the plane, the two women can make it to the single portal that remains open. Through it, they can see some sort of technical facility. A lab, maybe. An armory? A research area. On the far side, the team in there doesn't return through the portal. Indeed, as they see Natasha and Kate at the far side, one of them raises their weapon...

...and fires at the base of the device on their side, closing the window between them.

In the aftermath, the Amazon security chatter continues as they round up ALL the SHIELD agents to sort them out. <<Floor two secure. Floor three secure. Main hangar secure. Remove prisoners to holding cells. What is status->> Most of it is routine. But at that last moment, something very much isn't: <<Damage in sector 1! Warding systems compromised, going to backups... backups re-established. Downtime is two point t hree seconds.>>

On the floor, where Diana has only finally been able to land and begin getting a handle of what is going on, one of her subordinates walks up to her, and whispers something in hear ear. On top of everything else, it's not happy news.