18786/SHIELD: Operation Retrieval
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SHIELD: Operation Retrieval | |
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Date of Scene: | 16 August 2024 |
Location: | Hydra Base |
Synopsis: | A group of SHIELD Agents and heroes go to rescue a deep cover operative from Hydra. They get him out, but not all things have happy endings. |
Cast of Characters: | Natasha Romanoff, Xiomara Rojas, Felicity Smoak, Stefani Houston, Damian Wayne, Eddie Brock, Jane Foster
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- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
SHIELD had very few deep cover agents within Hydra. Those agents were some of the most precious assets the agency had. Also some with the highest risk. All were volunteers. Few made it in. Fewer still made it out. One such agent was codenamed Counterpunch that as of approximately fourty two minutes ago had sent out a distress beacon of a 'status compromised' that had pinged to their location. And then total silence. In such circumstance, SHIELD could only throw everything they could at it. A team consisting essentially of anyone close to the hangar bay and armory of the Triskelion that could be shoved onto a Quinjet in about thirteen minutes before launch, a call by a higher up to break protocol and put out a request for immediate aid along the open spectrum hero network giving a location and a thirty second summary..
And now a Quinjet was racing towards a nuclear silo that Hydra had taken over that SHIELD hadn't even been aware was a base until fourty two minutes ago and that their intel team was scrambling to dig up the plans for from archives at the Pentagon with the team barely having had time to get weapons and gear.
The Quinjet's stealth system having been under maintenance it was flickering as the Quinjet was flying on afterburner, flak cannons starting to burst through the air and missing by dozens of meters, the Quinjet barely avoiding shrapnel as it was skimming along the ground at about five meters above the terrain, a few hundred meters away from the launch bay of the old silo..
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Although not SHIELD, or an Avenger, Crush was in fact an able body with a purpose. She was with Tony Stark when the call went out, and seeing as the man is always too busy, she offered to take his place on this one. Only after the promise that she's listen to who ever was in charge was issued, did she take several long distance leaps across New York to the Triskelion.
She introduced herself as, 'Crush, Stark's associate' and left it at that while climbing onto the Quinjet. Taking a ride on a Quinjet was a new experience, but then having anything at all to do with SHIELD was new. She didn't trust them, she didn't like them, but anyone who risked their lives for the better of the world and needed help in return, she was there.
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Surrounded by an array of high-tech screens, consoles, and holographic displays, Felicity Smoak sits in the command center of the Triskelion. The room buzzes with activity, every surface sleek and polished, reflecting the blue and green glows of the monitors. She adjusts her glasses, fingers flying over the keyboard as she taps into the secure archives. The usual protocol would have involved waiting for the official records to arrive, but Felicity is anything but usual.
"Alright, Felicity, you've got this," she mutters to herself, biting her lip as the data starts to stream in. "Plans for the nuclear silo... accessing now. Uh, and maybe bypassing a few firewalls while I'm at it. Sorry, SHIELD, but we're on the clock here."
Her eyes flicker to another monitor as she initiates a drone start sequence on the Quinjet. The drone, a sleek, dark machine bristling with sensors, begins to power up near some of the field agents. "Okay, baby, let's get you ready. We're going to need some eyes in the sky, and you're the only one who can give them to us."
Felicity's ponytail bounces as she spins in her chair, grabbing a comms earpiece and adjusting it. She checks the connections, linking the feeds from the Quinjet, the drone, and the ground team's body cams into a single network.
<< "Alright, comms check, everyone. If you can hear me, say something cool, like... 'Overwatch, you're a genius,' or, you know, just say 'copy.' That works too." >>
As the team responds, Felicity grins, feeling the adrenaline kick in.
<< "Okay, here's the sitrep. I've got the plans for the silo downloading now. I may have, uh, expedited the process by hacking into the Pentagon's archives. You're welcome. I'm bringing a drone online for aerial recon, and I'm tying all your video feeds into the network. If you've got a camera, I can see what you see." >>
She pauses, her fingers tapping rapidly as she works on another console.
<< "I'm also working on getting into the facility's network. If I can access their security system, I can start locking down doors -- or unlocking them -- and maybe even get a peek at what Hydra's doing in there. I'll keep you updated on the status of the security systems and let you know if I can get any doors open or traps disabled. Just keep moving, and remember, I'm right here with you, in your ear, the whole time." >>
She adjusts her glasses again, the reflection of the screens flashing in her lenses.
<< "Let's bring Counterpunch home, guys." >>
- Stefani Houston has posed:
Extracting an undercover agent from a hostile zone was no small feat, but it was also not a new thing to Agent Houston. She'd been tapped to join the team, due to her status as one of the leading snipers within the agency. A dutiful agent, with an extensive military background, she was on the Quinjet well before take-off, and had fully kitted out prior to even putting one boot aboard the plane.
During the ride, she'd gone over her various pieces of equipment, while seated on one of the passenger benches. With her dark hair tied back, a loose pony tail sticking out the back of a black military cap, Houston was ready, and rearing to go.
When a com check came, she confirmed her mic with a simple whistle noise, melodic and short. When the flak began, Stefani took a bit of a more rigid posture, and when they got ready to deploy, she was on her feet, with her equipped slung over her back. Dressed in a sleeveless black bodysuit, Agent Houston was decked out in web belt harnesses, thigh holsters, and her sniper system strapped to her back. She stepped to the exit ramp, one hand reaching to grasp hold of a metal rail, her eyes glancing back toward the fore of the plane, awaiting the chance to get out, and get in to the action.
- Damian Wayne has posed:
In response to an emergency beacon lighting up across his comms, Damian diverts his aerial patrol over Gotham and rockets out into the countryside.
"Robin inbound," he signals. "ETA, thirty minutes. Syncing tactical readouts... now. Send me the building plans when you have them."
A silent wing of shadow slices through the sky, banking to one side and diving straight through a wide, dark cloud. The vehicle emerges from the other side in a flurry of disrupted wisps, drawing futile fire from the facility's defensive armaments.
The bottom of the cloud erupts downward as a smaller, brightly-colored shape plummets to the ground.
A yellow cape spreads outward and snaps rigid to slow the skydiver's descent until he rolls into a smooth, practiced landing behind a rise a hundred meters out. A ripple passes over the distinctive red and yellow and green outfit to veil the materials in a moonlit bluish grey-- a perfect match for the concrete pad around the silo's entrance. Robin reaches behind his shoulders to draw a matched pair of katanas.
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Silent. Unsettling. Bright white bits around his wet looking black body. Venom is in the Quinjet, a single tendril extending from between his shoulders to the ceiling. He's only here because he was originally down -there- when the call went out. They needed people and someone, for some reason, put Venom on SHIELD's radar. He showed up and was handed an earpiece, which he inserted after the symbiote bared his human ear, then covered it back up.
<< We are Venom. >> the symbiote speaks without any sort of mouth moving. An eerily disembodied voice, rumbling from within an emotionless face. This one has no need for an equipment check, because he IS the equipment. And he's there.
- Jane Foster has posed:
Certain branches of SHIELD get the nod for extraction elements, starting with the mainline agents trained for infiltration into the hardest-to-reach corners of distant empires or nearby boardrooms. Who isn't getting tapped in the first round? The scientist squirrelled away down in an R&D lab salivating over the crystalline structure of a promising new mineral substance. A communications specialist in the small diplomatic corps required to keep smiling faces turned to various government entities, as they are now so they don't see what the right and left hands are doing behind the curtain. And, most often, W.A.N.D. -- buncha spooky folks among spooks with the best defended coffee machine in the Triskelion.
After-the-fact messages slide across screens, including one MIA deputy commander Jane Foster, notifying assets in various places about the problem, the coordinates, the needed solutions. No one is especially close-by or in a position to make the leap to a Quinjet.
Mostly.
The silo gains a little atmosphere ahead of October, the faintest trailing shimmer of condensation as the air cools slightly. Tongues of mist breathe out from the earth, coiled in a lazy churn despite the ammunition expended all around.
See, dull terrain with an unremarkable hint of fog. Nothing to entirely see there, except the etch of a few feathers, a trail of dust that winks out nearly as fast as it appears among the light fog, all to mark the passing of a very much lost agent of SHIELD across the plane of battle.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the Quinjet goes down close to the ground and the team goes to jump off the exit ramps, they're skimming so close as to have some deployed Hydra troopers topground actually turning around to take shots at the Quinjet with small arms fire, bullets plinking off the hull, tearing off bits of the stealth coating. The pilot doesn't have enough room for a controlled landing, instead waiting for all the team to jump off and then going to simply smash it down onto the ground, letting the reinforced hull act as a battering ram before it would smash into an anti-air battery as the repulsor wings would be crushed and fold off. Definitely not flying out in it.
The team is lucky as the silo doors hda retracted to let Hydra deploy ground troopers and heavy weapons, a series of long ramps and elevators leading down the underground facility. Dozens and dozens of troopers would be scurrying up and down them readying weapons. The intent clearly being to catch anyone jumping down in a very, very brutal crossfire.
That, in it's own way, is rather reassuring. Decidedly normal for Hydra tactics. But it was regardless a rather effective one.
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Comm unit collected, and a camera attached to her jacket, Crush listened to the sitrep, laughed openly at the use of the military jargon, then settled her eyes on Venom for the remainder of the ride.
"I don't do stealth," she stated plainly as she stood up, hearing the gun shots from the ground and even the bullets as they whizzed toward the Quinjet. "I also don't go down with the ship, anyone need a ride down?"
If someone wants to take her up on the offer, she'll just take hold of them and jump out, making sure to keep herself between the shooting and whomever she might be carrying. Ensuring that when she landed they had a place to prepare for their attack in.
If no one wants a ride, well that's another matter entirely. One bullet proof alien with a sentient chain going down! Landing /on/ a Hydra agent and letting Obelus have some fun wrapping herself around him. "Hey, assholes! Ignore the Quinejet, ignore the others, /I'M THE REAL THREAT/!" she bellows, attempting to draw all the attention, fire and panic in her direction.
- Stefani Houston has posed:
While waiting for the deployment, Stefani stood by the door, her left hand gripping the polished metal rail, the black leather fingerless glove she wears making a quiet creaking noise, as she held on while the jet shook from the approach toward their target zone. Her green eyes fell upon the form of Venom, and with a curious stare, she watched him. He was knew, and certainly an interesting addition to the Agent lineup. She didn't linger her stare for any overly awkward measure of time, however, as she let her eyes move across the others assigned to this extraction team, but when the ramp began to open, it was time to face the music, and the battle beyond the door.
She didn't hesitate one bit, either.
A streak of black crossed Agent Houston's eyes, as her facial expression shifted from calm contemplation, in to serious determination.
Her body began to fade away, from head to toe, she shifted from solid form, in to a black mist, that rapidly spiraled out the back of the Quinjet, and in to the rushing winds of the world beyond it.
There was no sign of where she was headed, or where she was intending to go at all, until members of the HYDRA team, as they fired upon the crashing Quinjet, began to get cut down by return fire from a high velocity rifle.
Stefani was in the weeds, so to speak, her eye peering through the scope of her sniper weapon, and her right trigger finger squeezing shots off. She was not using LTL rounds either, as the mists of blood, and severed body parts would soon clearly detail to any watching the victims of her large caliber rounds could attest to.
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's eyes dart between the screens, fingers still flying across the keyboard as she integrates the newly acquired silo schematics with the security footage she's hacked into. The blueprint of the underground facility overlays itself on the live feeds, giving her a detailed, real-time map of the base's interior. Every camera angle, every corridor is now within her control, and she's already setting up alerts to ping her whenever there's movement near the team's objectives.
"Okay, time to put all that genius to work," she whispers to herself, a determined look crossing her face as she hears the Quinjet's pilot radio in, sounding strained.
Alarms begin to blare on one of her screens, pulling her attention. The Quinjet is coming in too low, too fast, and Hydra's small arms fire is already targeting the craft.
"Uh-uh, no way are you taking my drone with you!" she mutters, quickly typing in the command to launch the drone before the Quinjet hits the ground. The drone shoots out of its bay, wings unfolding smoothly as it begins tracking the team members' movements from above.
She leans forward, her voice coming over the comms with a mix of urgency and concern.
<< "Team, this is Overwatch. I've got you on drone cam and security feeds. That was a bumpy landing. If anyone's hurt, I need you to radio in. Stat." >>
As she waits for the team's responses, Felicity's fingers don't stop moving. She's already cross-referencing the schematics with the live footage, noting where Hydra forces are moving and setting up ambush points. The facility is a labyrinth of corridors and heavy steel doors, but her overlays show the most direct routes and potential choke points.
She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose, narrowing her eyes at a set of blinking indicators on her screen. "Come on, show me where you're keeping him..."
After a few tense seconds, she spots it: a heavily fortified area deep in the facility, near the lowest levels where the launch control room would typically be located in a nuclear silo. Hydra's movements around that section are more concentrated, almost like they're guarding something -- or someone.
Felicity keys her comms again, her voice steady but urgent.
<< "Heads up, team. Based on the layout and Hydra's positioning, the most likely location they'd be keeping Counterpunch is in the lowest levels -- around the launch control room. That's where you'll want to head, but expect heavy resistance. And... you might want to avoid taking the obvious route. I'm seeing a lot of Hydra troopers ready to catch you in a crossfire. I'll keep you updated with alternate paths as you move. Stay sharp." >>
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Robin advances toward the silo with a balletic flow of precise maneuvers. The swords are applied to full effect, parrying goon weapons aside or slicing them right apart; slashing at the site's defenders; running a couple through in carefully targeted, not-immediately-fatal locations. Enough to take them out of the fight at least.
Upon spotting the open bay doors he smirks. << Fire in the hole. >>
Robin sheaths one sword to grab a device from his belt, thumbing the switch and lobbing it toward the opening.
The gadget isn't a grenade, exactly: it spirals down the silo, strobing ultra-bright flashes to blind the HYDRA personnel inside while, at the same time, trailing gouts of smoke to rapidly flood the interior and cut off the opfor's sight.
<< Acknowledged, >> he replies to Felicity's signal. While the smoke is still fresh and thick, Robin switches his lenses to ultrasound and dives right in.
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom extends one of his arms to the back of the Quinjet, slinging himself around to stand on top of the thing, where the bullets aren't hitting. He's only there for a moment though, jumping off with a flip as the Quinjet continues to 'land'. The symbiote grows sails in the space between its wrists and sides, and between his legs as well, forming an improvised wingsuit to slow his landing. When Venom decides he's good on touching down, the wingsuit bits retract, and Venom lands on two feet, loudly.
Of course, a crash of that kind draws attention, and the alien warrior is immediately surrounded by HYDRA soldiers running out from a pair of sliding doors. << We are in. >> he comms, indifferent to the fact he's being heard clearly by those about to shoot him.
- Jane Foster has posed:
Hardened walls meant to withstand a missile counterattack don't do much to slow an unseen astrophysicist. Jane moves past the rank and file defenders on foot, leaving next to no trace. Any suggestion of the air growing colder is likely lost in the humid summer conditions, body armour notwithstanding.
Soldiers swarm right past her to fill the gaps in the hole, just in time to get blinded by clever flashbangs and light bursts. They aren't an issue, and so she moves on at a disarmingly fast clip unrestrained by issues like gravity or winnowing through masses of heavily-armed combatants.
She moves on, deeper, seeking access to a lower hallway. Troops waiting on the joy of sacrificing their ammunition, blood and potentially lives in HYDRA's name certainly don't get the thrill and excitement of an unleashed Venom or brutally efficient alien warrior in their midst.
She taps a fingernail on a pad mounted to a wall, making a very light *ting!* The sound comes from behind several troops -- rather the point. Invisibility falls away to reveal an unarmed young woman in jeans behind most of the mass ready to run above-ground to fight the good - bad? - fight. "Engineering really hasn't held up the way it used to, has it?" Just a civilian briefly stepping out near the inner wall of a chamber that would normally be adjacent to the void. The question hangs in the air as she darts off down the furthest corridor.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The group is met over with fire coming up in every direction as they go to smash. Crush, helpfully, goes to be met by at least a platoon's worth of firepower as the troopers take her at her word. It's a massive barrage of conventional weaponry that's among the finest that Earth has to offer - the most effetive, the most brutal, and the type that would slaughter nearly anything on the entire planet. It may be enough to stagger her. Or it might purely be irritating.
What the massive array of gunfire going in every direction in the brutal crossfire, the smoke from all the weapons and rockets, the flaring sirens and screams.. Is making it ivrtually impossible for the Hydra troops to coordinate with one another beyond screaming or the occasional comm array. There is no level of coordination beyond troops within yelling range, no sharing of information, and no real orders.
Stefanie does an excellent job as she drops of quickly picking off officers or anyone that seems to have an idea of what they're doing as she goes quickly down. The troopers aren't even aware as leaders are being picked off and dropping. No one at all has actually noticed her - not in the chaos, not in the smoke, not in the fire. It's a brutal close quarters battlefield.
Venom lands hard and is immediately met by a squad of troopers who stare at him for a tenth of a second before opening fire on him with automatic weapons, intent on pumping the symbiote full of hundreds of bullets while screaming at the monster that's come out of nowhere. They're fanatics, having not the slightest whim of self preservation. There's no fear, no breaking, no hesitation as they go to try and blast him from all sides!
Damian's dive is completely unnoticed in everything depending on how far he wants to go down. There's a massive amount of shooting upwards - the only ones firing are those too far down for thier weapons to be able to pick out anything through the chaos. What he is picking up is heavy equipment being setup at the lower levels as the upper ones try to stall them. Tanks, turrets, and several heavy machine guns that should normally be put on Humvees that soldiers are currently setting up behind sandbags like it was the First World War.
THe troops all turn in the direction where that ting comes from, somehow audible over the rest of the battlefield. They don't know what it was, just that they -heard- it. They all respond the way troops do to anything unfamiliar. For those that have seen the Predator movie? Essentially blasting heavy weapons fire in every single direction around them.
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's fingers dance over the keyboard as she pulls up more detailed schematics of the silo, her mind racing as the situation unfolds on her screens. The team needs clear direction, and she's going to give it to them. Her voice comes over the comms, firm and focused, but still carrying that unmistakable Felicity flair.
<< "Alright, team, listen up! I'm guiding you in. The main entryway is too hot -- Hydra's got it locked down with enough firepower to make the Fourth of July look like a sparkler show. We need to get you to the lower levels fast, but without turning you into Swiss cheese. Here's the plan." >>
She pulls up the silo's structural data, her eyes darting over the possible routes. Most of the obvious paths are crawling with Hydra agents, and the team is already in the thick of it. She notices something -- a service shaft designed for maintenance, running parallel to the main elevator shaft.
<< "There's a maintenance shaft inside on your left, just past the blast doors. It's narrow, but it should be clear of hostiles. I can get it open remotely, but you'll need to drop down a few levels. Good news? It's a straight shot to the lower levels. Bad news? You'll be dropping about five stories, so try not to break anything on the way down, okay? Crush, I'm looking at you." >>
Felicity's fingers fly across the keyboard as she overrides the controls for the shaft. The screen blinks as she gains access, and a small window shows the interior -- a dimly lit, narrow vertical tunnel lined with ladders and emergency lighting.
<< "I've got the shaft open. It's going to be tight, but it's your best bet. Slide down the cables if you're in a hurry -- or just jump if you're feeling particularly invincible today. Once you're at the bottom, take the service corridor to your right. It's unguarded right now. Everyone's on their way to cover the blast doors, and it'll lead you straight to the launch control room." >>
Felicity's voice softens slightly as she shifts focus back to the main group.
<< "I'm seeing heavy equipment being set up on the lower levels -- tanks, turrets, you name it. They're preparing for you. Get in there before they finish setting up. If you can disable some of that gear, it'll make things a lot easier for everyone." >>
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian Wayne deploys his cape at the last moment to slow his descent, causing a swirl of smoke where he lands. But he doesn't waste time holding a dramatic pose. Instead he leaps into action cutting his way through the enemy troops and tossing small sticky charges at the equipment being deployed.
<< Confirmed, numerous heavy armaments, >> he warns.
After planting a few of the tiny devices he ducks behind a wide metal pillar and mashes a trigger. With an ominous rising series of beeps the things finally go off-- not with a fiery blast, but instead an explosion of rapidly-expanding and solidifying foam, clogging gears, stifling mechanisms, and gluing personnel in place.
Now Venom doesn't even have to chase them.
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
So many bullets, so much wasted metal. They flip and fling off her body as they would off Superman's, with maybe one or two some how managing to break the skin and draw blood. The wounds only last for a moment, maybe two, before they are gone without a trace, but the fact that they happened at all set Obelus off.
As Crush is approaching the platoon, intent on bashing a few heads together, the chain releases the soldier she squeezed into permanent silence and slithers across the ground like a snake on uppers, sugar and caffeine. Just as Crush reaches the first of those who will be getting up close and person with each other, Obelus explodes off the ground of her own volition to start whipping at the legs of the men standing there with guns. With the strength to hold down Lobo, Obelus easily starts breaking some legs with one end, while the other starts breaking guns.
<"No breakin buildin's, just people, got it Overlady,"> she responds, then its into action.
Those that don't fall down from broken legs are grabbed, one in each hand, and slammed together like the cymbals of a marching band percussionist who waited hours for that one moment when they got to do something.<"Told you I was trouble!"> she bellowed out, watching as Venom made his way to the ground... definitely need to try and talk to them later, but for now she would content herself with slamming soldiers together until they stopped moving and were no longer a threat. <"Don't make me start punchin... ya really don't want that! Drop the guns an run while ya can!">
- Stefani Houston has posed:
Damian wouldn't know it, but he fell beneath the sniper scope of Agent Houston's rifle. She wasn't sure who he was, and she spent a few moments watching him fight to gain his intention, and his allegiance in this fight. When she became confident that he was not fighting for the forces that were occupying this silo, her entire form vanished in to a puff of smoke again.
Even if she has not been spotted yet, there is always counter snipers out there, and the more she fired, the more her gun would kick up dust to alert her enemies as to where she was located.
As such, the enigmatic Agent swept across the field in a rolling cloud of black smoke, gaining meters between her previous position, before rematerializing once more, behind a newly chosen bit of cover.
She heard Felicity's voice over the team comm, she heard the woman's rundown of what the situation was inside, but in the moment, she kept her position out on the perimeter, to ensure that the team outside could transition in to the baes proper.
With another line of HYDRA reinforcements rushing toward her team, toward Damian and Venom, their cover support once more began to open fire, with precise shots to exposed bodies, dropping them with lethal precision.
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom meets the oncoming fire by crouching. For cover? Maybe. Being pumped full of lead is fun for a minute, but as Venom darts back to his feet, not only do all the fired rounds simply pop out of the symbiote to harmlessly fall to the ground, a whole bushel of tendrils shoot outwards from him, taking out several HYDRA soldiers and causing others to duck into their own cover.
Yet others are already coming out of cover, paying for their eagerness to serve by getting stuck in some sort of foam that's suddenly there. << Thank you for your gift, Robin >> Venom comms in return. He retracts the thin tendrils and shoots bigger ones out from his arms, grabbing the soldiers that got stuck and propelling them hard against the wall behind them, neatly piling them up beside the door they all came from. When his initial attack is over, Venom enters the building. << We are inside. Direct us. >> he comms to Overwatch.
- Jane Foster has posed:
All kinds of shrapnel and firepower rain around the corridor where Jane runs onward, trusting that the structure hasn't been overly augmented or compromised in the last few years since occupation by HYDRA forces began. Leading any spooked troops on a merry goose chase through the silo requires a blend of trickery and sudden appearances. After all, a single agent breaking cover against overwhelming odds better seem terrified. Which she might just be if they catch sight of her face.
Jane technically lacks the comms device that accompanies other agents, and until one of SHIELD's assets reaches close again, any advantage she holds in sensory acuity is completely overrun by how damn loud and situationally compromised the environment happens to be.
Felicity's live feed into the interior of the building might just be throwing errors, or at least appear to. The astrophysicist ducks some kind of ammo fired at her, and she loses her substance, fading out of sight long enough to round a corner. Though it's useful for Jane not go straight into a cannon or a filing cabinet knocked over for cover by HYDRA assets. Active sounds and noise above are excellent for her to gauge if SHIELD might be descending. So HYDRA doesn't get ideas about shooting up the hollow core of the missile silo, she turns up the contrast between herself and the background and remanifests. "Wait!" Her hands go up, completely, utterly out of her depth. Duck, duck... goose! On the second beat, she runs. Again.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
What Felicity has quickly setup for them is a number of alternate routes that they could take to get in if they needed them while almost all the firepower was going up and in the air and across the walkways. THe crossfire was just as deadly to the troopers as it was the heroes - if not even moreso as the Hydra troopers weren't showing any level of trigger discipline. Fantacism made them all too willing ot die to slow down their enemy and show no restraint. IT also meant that in a free-fire environment they held no qualms on shooting at anything which might be a target - including their own comrades. They were taking nearly as many losses from their own as they were the heroes.
Damian dropping down quickly has him disabling several of the heavy weapons before they can get fully setup and deployed. Several troopers in turn get a general idea of where he is as sticky bombs and other things go off, and go to try and shoot at him. Of course, by the time they do he's well since moved. Their shots are wide and ricocheting all over the area. But they're also quickly reassessing him as he went mobile and their shots would be after him several seconds later. But still not nearly fast enough to keep up with him as he moved along.
Crush and Obelus move to smash their way through everything in their way, as firepower blasts over her. Anti-armor weapons blast off her, flamethrowers, grenade,s small arms, rockets.. There's likely nothing within their arsenal that can stop her or even slow her as within short order everyone on the upper level is focusing fire on her. It's likely not hurting but even as she's taking them down all the weapons pinging off her might make it disorienting. Or not at all.
QUiet is able to shoot and fire before counter-snipers can go after her and she relocates. Fire hits where the general shot she did came from, which would reveal the position of the shooters if she went to snipe back at them. Officers along the ground were starting to deploy riot shields as shots went down, intent on protecting themselves from ricochets and trying to coordinate the troopers on the ground.
Quiet is the first to make out someone important. A dark haired woman wearing a green bodysuit. Green hair. Green lipstick. Green eyes. Green nails. She looked very important. She had no fear as weapons went off all around her. Damian would be darting past her nearby as well. OPhelia Sarkinson.
Aka Lady Viper, aka Madame Hydra. One of the most wanted criminals on the planet.
Venom quickly gets into the secondary system that Overwatch has opened, as wlel as anyone else that has taken that route. All the benefit of the noise is making it that everyone is rushing to the primary entranceway to provide fire support, and all sensors within are disabled and any doors that route are open. The way is in for those that are taking that to quickly jump down to the bottom.
Jane's making her way in pretty handily, darting along as ethereally as a ghost, shots going past her even as they would zing and ricochet off the walls, plinking and letting her immediately vanish. Then at this point she feels something unusual. A powerful psychic mind is trying to probe at her. Not somethingw tihin Hydra's normal MO. But it is trying to fix down her location and -probe- at her.
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's hands fly over the controls as she watches the chaotic battle unfold on her screens. The team is making progress, but they're still surrounded by Hydra troops, and the situation is escalating quickly. Her eyes narrow as she assesses the best route forward, determined to get everyone into the silo's lower levels as fast as possible.
<< "Alright, team, listen up! The primary entrance is still a deathtrap, but I've got a secondary route open. Venom, you're already in -- good. For the rest of you, there's an alternate shaft I've unlocked. It's narrow, but it bypasses most of the heavy firepower and will drop you right down to the lower levels." >>
She zooms in on the schematics, cross-referencing with live footage and the signals she's picking up from inside the facility. Damian's foam charges are already wreaking havoc on Hydra's equipment, giving the team a brief window to advance.
<< "Robin, great work on disabling those heavy weapons. It's causing a lot of confusion down there, and you've just opened up our opportunity. Phantom, keep up the pressure from your position; you're making it easier for the team to move without getting pinned down." >>
Felicity glances back at the schematics, her mind racing as she tries to anticipate Hydra's next move -- but then the readouts start fritzing out. The 'rid blips' are moving around. Some are disappearing, like they're caught in static or some sort of lag. Her connection to the security system temporarily shows as 'OFFLINE.'
<< "Um... having some minor technical difficulties on my side. Some sort of interference. Everyone, push to the lower levels as quickly as you can. I've got sensors disabled and doors open along the secondary route... I think. If you're not already inside, get there now. We're running out of time." >>
She takes a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest as she watches the team make their moves.
<< "Remember, we've got one shot at this. If they don't already have off-site reinforcements incoming, they will soon." >>
- Stefani Houston has posed:
For Agent Houston, aka 'Quiet', she was electing to stay outside to provide the team with support for when they needed to retreat. Of course, this was going to get tricky, since once the team was inside, she would have to reduce fire, save giving up her position even more quickly. Thus, when she saw things progressing in that direction, her sniper fire ceased. She began to sweep her scope around, until it fell upon that notorious figure. The entire aesthetic of Madam Hydra had been detailed in a series of documents that had been included in Quiet's mission dossier. She'd read it thoroughly on the way in for the mission, but beyond that... this woman was a notorious 'merc hit' across the world, and one that could fetch a very high dollar value.
Stefani's finger itched to twitch.
Her pink lips pursed, as she felt the wind calmly rolling across her prone positioned body in the tall grass, and though she wore a black military cap, her tendrils of dark hair creeping out from beneath it were gently tickling her cheeks, as she pondered. Kill, or not to kill.
She decided to kill.
Stefani's finger squeezed on the trigger, right as a growl came from behind her.
Agent Houston instantly abandoned her rifle, her body blurring, and disappearing in to a state of invisibility, right as a massive attack dog rushed from behind a bush, and lunged toward where she had been mere seconds before. Out of the same underbrush, three HYDRA soldiers advanced on the sniper's position, holding their rifles aloft, as they aimed down sights for the enemy who'd cut down a number of their friends...
The attack canine rushed toward the tall grass, out ahead of the men, its tail vanishing behind the waving blades. The trio of men, their boots crunching on the natural detritus covering the ground, scanned their rifles down toward where Quiet's gear was still resting. Her camo covered sniper rifle, adorned in glittering Butterfly stickers, resting abandoned on its bipod stand. A little green haired Troll Doll standing beside it, wearing a pair of camo BDUs, and a black eyepatch over its left eye. The soldiers crept up on the rifle, before one kicked it aside, knocking it over along with the one-eyed troll doll.
In the tall grass, there came the sound of a dog's high-pitched yelping, the sound of pain, or fear, leading to all three of the men sweeping their rifles around to the south. They began to move forward again, whispering in German to one another as they closed in on what they assumed was one of the SHIELD agents, and the enemy sniper.
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian Wayne remains concealed behind the pillar while the tactical display in his lenses updates the situation. Some of the heavy equipment disabled; not all of it, but enough of an opening for the blue team's own big guns to advance. Part of his suit's stealth layer took damage from the altercation, causing flickering and stuttering along the arm of the suit.
But he re-engages anyway and moves forward in the wake of Venom's very distracting presence. He parkours against a wall to traverse some toppled equipment and finds himself dashing down a corridor next to someone who's *definitely* not a Hydra mook.
After a few seconds his lenses isolate Lady Viper's face and flash important bits of her file, including a scroll... a very long scroll... of her open warrants.
He stands where he is, swords at the ready, while he alerts the others on the channel. << Contact. Computer flags her as a 'Lady Viper'; wanted in multiple jurisdictions. >>
Damian shifts into a combat-ready stance, one katana aimed at the opponent while the other blade loiters out to the side. "Batman would expect me to offer you an opportunity to surrender," he tells her. "So that was it."
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Okay now it was getting annoying. Bullets were one thing, but anti-tank and grenades? That was just going too far, and it was slowing her down. Every time a missile went off, or a grenade exploded, she had to wait for the dust to settle to find the next target to grab. She was still making some progress as she went, and she felt useful to the team as a whole by drawing all the fire her way, but still...
Then the worse possible thing that could happen... happened.
<"You Nazi fuckers, this was my favorite outfit!"> she bellows as a flamethrower sets her clothing on fire. Never mind the number of lives Hydra had taken, never mind the chaos, pain, and agony they had caused. It was all part of the reason that Crush was there in the first place, but the reason she went from controlled to red Czarnian rage... that her clothing was burning away and she'd be naked.
Howling in rage as her eyes go red, their was no longer a safe soldier on the ground. If any had appeared to back off, or like they weren't going to engage her, she had let them be, but now they were all targets. Punches, kicks, grabbing Obelus and flinging her into the throng so the chain could take out more, all of these things are what happened as she raged, <"You are all going to pay for what you've done to this world, and my favorite outfit!">
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom makes his way to the elevator shafts ahead of Robin, causing havoc and mayhem on his way there. Soldiers are trying to get in position, but as Venom is speeding himself up by using large tendrils extending out of his back as legs and grabbing arms, he's jabbing the top two 'tentacles' into these soldiers with enough force to decommission them. << Is anyone near our position? We are clearing a path in area.. >> Venom glances for an indicator, finding one painted on a wall. << ..5B. Moving towards the elevator shaft, encountering light resistance. >>
Arriving at the elevator, he notices that the carriage is at his floor. It's likely the unconscious battalion outside came up with it. Regardless, Venom tears the doors off it, and then punches a large hole in the elevator carriage floor. Carelessly throwing the debris behind him, the last he hears as he jumps down the shaft is <"You Nazi fuckers..">. Uh oh.
- Jane Foster has posed:
The presumed-dead lead of the oft-maligned Wizardry, Alchemy, and Necromancy Department puts the N in WAND. Rather effective for a ghostly woman to phase out of detection for all but the most uncanny perception, attuned more to energy or different planes of existence than actual flesh, blood or symbiotic tendrils.
Though something does detect her roaming through the guts of the missile silo, projecting her voice to throw off casual defenses and tantalize the curious out into the open. Deciphering the nature of the psionic energy takes her away from the unpredictable zigzagging between HYDRA snipers and heavy troops stationed in the subterranean levels close to their guarded asset. She ceases to dart between combatants readying themselves for hellfire, high-calibre ammunition, and bodies falling from on high like an awful sort of SHIELD Christmas pageant, rather instead slowly executing a circle to orient on the source.
Splinters of psychic energy coalesce into a doublet strobing beam back, and once a revolution completes, the mental shields woven from pure willpower knit together, flung outward to defend her from harder attempts to break through her defenses. But as with the flesh, so the mind; it's better not to be caught, slippery as an eel. See the evidence above, literally and figuratively.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the group gets closer to the ground, the tighter the defense gets. These are Hydra troopers that at least have some idea of waht they're doing, being lead by Hydra officers. Fanatics being lead by fanatics. As they go in deeper, security is getting trickier to penetrate as Felicity is finding out. The troopers are in many cases falling back to corridors and throwing up improvised blockades and firing lines. Throwing up sandbags, equipment, and in some cases bodies of their brethren to slow down the attackers. They're doing it deeper and deeper through the depths to which the primary target is. Even going through side corridors will be hard now as the troopers seem to be getting coordinated more effectively.
Outside, Quiet goes to pick off several snipers and other targets. As they go down and anyone drops about her, further troopers topside are starting to fall back to more standard counter-sniper tactics combined with having no particular regards for their comrades lives. In this case, it's a few troopers that are falling back and intent on purely blanketing the area with mortar fire and dropping bombs about the area whether or not there are signals of anyone alive there. Wherever they might pick up shots of the unfamiliar rifle, they would simply go to try and blanket the area with high explosive. Topside, even downside the vulnerability would be increasing.
As Damian goes to face off with Viper, he's updated on her long list of crimes - which are atually scrolling off his HUD. Primary among them war crimes, tried in absentia at the Hague, sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity, etc. Viper goes to glance down at Damian, "I don't have time for you little child. Begone." A pair of heavy attack robots charge towards him, even as Viper reaches down to her side to take out of all things a whip. A whip of crackling electricity about it. Damian would recognize it as a nanowhip - a few molecules thick like razorwire that could slash thorugh almos anything cleanly like a hot knife through butter.
Crush smash. That was the simplest way to put ti as she's simply smashing and bashing everything around her. Within a few moments there's nothing about her but pulp - maybe it's human, maybe it's equipement, but essentially she's leveled the entire area around her and cleared the location over on her own. And Nazis. No one would mourn Nazis. No one would mind if she crippled them.
Venom hears it. Nazis. Fucking Nazis. They would get what they deserve. Several were falling back to defensive positions. But up ahead through a corridor Venom can make something out through doors - it's a barely conscious looking man that's face had a series of razorwires hooked up to it, tufts of skin being yanked off as if someone was taking a scalpel to it. In it a woman with flaming red hair and bright red body armor was whistling a tune in German - which Venom and Eddie may or may not recognize.
But it was an SS marching one.
As Jane goes to make her mental charge down, she makes out something.. Mechnical? Cybernetically enhanced psionics? It's artificial. She can pick up a.. Pure robotic body? Digital screen on torso? A.. Blinking LCD face?
A german accent blasting into her mind with power. <<I can feel you now, Fraulein.>>
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
The deeper the team pushes into the silo, the more complex and coordinated Hydra's defenses become. The security systems are harder to penetrate, and the Hydra troopers are using every dirty trick in the book to slow the team down. Felicity glances at her screens, noting the positions of the Hydra officers digging in, and it's only going to get nastier from here.
<< "Venom, I'm picking up a cluster of heat signatures just ahead of you. Looks like you've got some friends waiting around the corner. Prepare for close quarters -- don't let them bottleneck you. Crush, keep smashing through; you're drawing their fire and making it easier for the others to move. Just, uh, try to keep some of the infrastructure intact. We might need it later." >>
She watches the feeds, her heart pounding as the team pushes forward. Then something catches her eye -- a figure on one of the screens. She zooms in, recognizing Lady Viper, one of Hydra's most notorious leaders. And it looks like she's facing off with Robin.
<< "Robin, heads up. Intel says Lady Viper's got a nanowhip, and it's no joke. That thing can slice through almost anything, so don't get cocky." >>
Felicity's focus shifts back to the team's progress, her fingers flying as she tries to keep up with the ever-changing battlefield.
<< "Everyone else, stay focused. Hydra's throwing everything they've got at us, but we're almost there. Keep moving, and remember, I've got your backs. Overwatch out." >>
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom stares at the man being harvested for skin for a moment, needing inner voice Eddie Brock's reminder to keep going, they're on the clock, people are counting on them. << Eddie.. we have not fed in some time. >> the symbiote protests, though when they notice the German tune, they pause. << NAZI'S! >> Venom shouts, leaping at the lady in the red armor like a hungry predator, his form changing in mid-air. The symbiote grows, becoming much more bulked up. His fingers grow sharp claws, and his face spawns a mouth from ear to ear, with razor sharp teeth forming around a freakishly long tongue.
Venom's arm closes around the lady's head as he jumps over Red Woman, and he throws her at the wall, landing himself in a crouch. << We have found your man. Five floors down from 5B. >> he comms, noticing the woman starting to get back to her feet. << We are not alone. >>
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian grins. Not a cheery nice-to-meet you kind of grin; it's the grin of an assassin who rather enjoys his work. "You'll find your schedule clear enough, old timer," he replies to Lady Viper. "Your round of shuffleboard and the three-pm dinner buffet will have to wait a little longer."
<< Acknowledged, >> he answers Felicity. << You should update your files accordingly: I am never cocky. That's the other Robin. >>
He's not even put off by the appearance of the strange weapon. It's likely not the strangest thing he's trained against. Being Crazy-Prepared is something he gets from both sides of his demented family.
When the robots start coming at him he holds his ground for several beats.
Three.
Two.
One.
Then Damian drops downward, slashing his katanas to either side to cut the bots' locomotion out from under them. Then he's suddenly springing up and back.
In the midst of his backflip he sheathed a sword so he could draw a micro-explosive birdarang and fling it toward Lady Viper...'s head.
Like the song says: wanted (wanteeeed) dead or alive.
- Stefani Houston has posed:
Sounds of screams come from the tall grass, gunshots rining out, lasting for several moments, before falling silent once more.
The tall grass moves aside, a blurry figure stepping from it, her invisibility cloak coming down once more, as Quiet dips down to pick up her heavy rifle, her other hand snagging the green haired troll doll from its tipped over position too.
As she vanishes in a puff of black smoke, the waving grass parts, showing a mess of bloodied bodies laying in a circle around one another, with weapons discarded in haphazard piles. Amongst the bodies, the attack guard dog is laying on the soft earth, his forepaws clutching around a brightly colored bag of Chomp's Meat Sticks. The pointy eared German Shephard is happily scarfing the beef jerky down at a rapid pace, entirely lost in the deliciousness of smokey chicken flavored sticks.
A handful of meters away, the rumble of an engine comes on, as a heavy truck is brought to life, a troop transport truck that rumbles its way across a small road.
Felicity would get a text from Agent Houston, saying that she has acquired an exit vehicle, for when the team is ready to evac.
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Although there was no water to put out the flames, Crush had managed to find another liquid to do the job. Looking around the battle field, she blinked a few times, then outstretched her hand for Obelus to wrap around.
<"That all ya got?! Ya think I won't come in there?!"> she screamed, her rage teetering between taking over again and being locked back up. <"Fe, fi, fo, fum, better get ready cause here I come!">
No building destruction, that's what the Overlady said, so she'd just start an all out run for the open hanger doors. The fact that most of her clothing is gone doesn't seem to have an effect on her, at least externally she doesn't show any. Her goal to remain the focus of attention outside wasn't changed by the elimination of those who were now paste, it just meant that she needed to go inside and continue to rampage... careful rampage, no building destruction.
<"Let me know if there is anything more I can do,"> she says more quietly, just into the comm, and just in case. She was capable of a lot of things, bullet sponge was only one of her talents.
- Jane Foster has posed:
Down in the deeper reaches of the silo, Jane slips between the astral into the physical realm, phasing in and out at the speed of thought.
Which rather makes for an interesting effect when the invisible blast bears down on her. She briefly flickers in and out of phase, fractured starlight reflecting off of her in a distinctly odd warp that doesn't belong there. Faint blue lines cleave along geometric fractures and resolve as she lifts her hand to brush her hair out of her face. An odd gesture in the midst of violence heaving every which way comes with the hardening of her mental defenses, no matter how much it hurts.
To be sure, it does.
"Sadly for you, Herr Doktor, so can I. Zola on the ground floor, how unsurprising."
Words that ring through the room; thoughts made audible.
She is a strange well of calm, orienting, advancing in whatever direction presents itself.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Venom goes to charge in and grab the red woman, going to lift her up and over by the head and moves to slam her over into the wall, down again, and smash. The fact she's getting up again is concerning even as she goes to scream at Eddie in obscenities - definitely German ones, and the likes of which was extremely impressive and fluent as she would be screaming them faster than most could breathe. She would go to snap out a buckle from the side of her belt, and ignite a photon blade. It glowing with plasma energies as it formed a solid light weapon, going to slash it at Venom with a weapon that ionized the molecules going through the air, seeming to make the air itself be ablaze as she would charge right over at him!
Meanwhile, the man under a massive number of full body restraints would still somehow be conscious even with most of his face peeled off, revealing the muscle beneath that made up the face. Several other Hydra Agents who had been about him would scramble away, watching Venom fight with the freakish woman that seemed just as much a monster as he was.
The two explosives thrown by Robin would cut down the two robots next to Viper, each going to explode. Even as they do, Viper goes to whip around with the nanofilament whip, which lives up to it's name as it cleaves right through the birdarang, slicing it exactly down the middle with molecular precision. She slashes it two more times, even as Damian goes to maneuver to face her with his katanas. The blades flicker for just a moment.. Right as they fall off. The razor-wire having simply sliced clean through the blades, leaving the metal falling down to the floor wtih a *CLANG*
Quiet has acquired an extraction vehicle. Which they're definitely going to need wiht the crash of the Quinjet. Since they crashed, the pilot of said Quinjet had been firing small arms over at anyone in the area, and now was currently filling the cockpit over with grenades and setting them off along with the fuel cells and any other ammo in it to make sure there was nothing recoverable, then going to race towards the truck.
At this point for Crush, aboveground Hydra still had plenty of heavy weapons and equipment - she's probably best served by clearing the way for their extraction so they could get out. There were still tanks, artillery, and the occasional flak gun that were still manned. Plus she might have always wanted her own tank to take him and make her very own. But the way out (or at least the way up) was clear beyond the continuing melee on the ground floor.
Zola's consciousness goes to meet Jane's astral form. His skill might not be completely impressive, his power is only moderate.. But he's a living supercomputer that's using each and every calculating byte at his beck and call to cordinate. <<I am smarter than you can ever imagine, Fraulein. My knowledge is infinite. You are but an ant beneath my boot. I shall wipe you from existence>> Even as his frame exerts itself in pain as he tries to bring his mind over her's in a crushing mental grip!
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's eyes dart across the screens as she takes in the rapidly evolving situation. Hydra's defenses are intensifying, but the team is making progress. Then a ping draws her attention to a live feed from Venom's location, and her heart skips a beat.
<< "Team, update! Venom has located Counterpunch. Five floors down from section 5B. He's still alive, but we've got company -- a very angry, very dangerous woman in red armor. Venom's engaging, but it's going to get rough." >>
As she relays the information, another notification pops up on her screen -- a text from Quiet. Felicity quickly reads it and nods, feeling a small wave of relief.
<< "Quiet has secured a vehicle for exfil on the surface. So once you've got Counterpunch, head up and out as fast as you can. The Quinjet's toast, so the extraction truck is our best shot." >>
Her fingers fly over the keyboard, pulling up the map of the surface area. She spots several Hydra units still manning heavy weapons, tanks, and artillery.
<< "Crush, I need you to clear the way topside. Hydra's still got tanks and heavy weapons up there, and we're going to need a clear path for extraction. Take out whatever you can -- just, you know, don't blow up anything we might need to drive out of here!" >>
As she continues to monitor the team, another alert flashes on her screen -- a powerful psychic signal. Felicity's eyes widen as she recognizes the signature. Zola. Of course. His presence in the silo complicates things significantly.
She tries to tap into the facility's systems, attempting to disrupt his control or at least give Jane some backup, but it's like hitting a brick wall. Zola's defenses are solid, and every attempt she makes is met with a cold, calculated counter.
<< "I'm detecting Arnim Zola's presence in the network. He's got some serious defenses up, and he's using a lot of computational power for something right now... I'm trying to break through, but he's blocking me at every turn. I'm going to work on isolating him from the rest of the network. I'm not sure what he's up to, so stay sharp." >>
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom assumes a ready position, his giant tongue licking at his teeth, drool falling uncontrollably out of his maw. You've seen Alien, right? Eddie Brock, inside Venom, is incredulous at the sight of the weapon. "She has a lightsaber?!" he exclaims, though outside of the symbiote his voice is muffled as if he was in another room entirely. "Listen, Venom, don't get hit by that!"
At that advice, the symbiote jerks to the side, pulling himself away on a tendril extending from that part of his body, putting himself between the objective and the woman. << We are taking him, and then we are leaving! >> the boisterous symbiote declares. Sadly, and predictably, the woman disagrees, moving herself between the symbiote and the exit.
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian Wayne looked so satisfied having dealt with the robots and positioned himself for a follow-up. He glances down as the blades fall away from the hilts of his katanas, and looks up at his adversary with a furrowed brow. "My grandfather gave me those," he says with a clenched jaw.
Then his smirk is back. "Do you know him? You look like you could be about his age."
Robin sheathes what's left of the swords and backflips again, this time flinging fistfuls of birdarangs at Lady Viper.
Not the explosive kind, though: this batch are built to suddenly pivot chaotically in mid-air, burying into the walls before letting loose a tremendous electrical burst channeled between the exposed nodes like a net of lightning.
Whether it subdues her or just slows her down is enough. Robin collects the broken bits of blade and makes his way back toward the central shaft of the silo, scattering foam-blast charges behind him and sealing the tunnel. Now, to secure a route for Venom and their objective...
- Stefani Houston has posed:
Quiet parks the truck behind a stone wall along the old dirt road, with its back directly facing the silo station. In the open back of the truck, the SHIELD sniper appears from that tell-tale cloud of black mist. Forming in a crouched position, with one knee down, and the other up to brace her aim, Stefani places her eye up against her rifle's scope once more. She aims directly at one of her favorite people in the agency, the pilot of the Quinjet.
Theodore 'Tadpole' Wilhelm. He is one of her favorite people in all of SHIELD, as he is prone to telling bolsterous stories about his time in the US Navy, that often are extremely lurid, lewd, and raunchy. He's a racey fella, but has a heart of gold; and right now he is under fire from HYDRA, who means to off him.
The enemy soldiers cracking off shots at Tadpole, are suddenly surprised to see one-- no two-- wait, three of their members reduced to masses of blood, sinew, bone shards, and blossoming bags of broken Human meat! Quiet's rifle snaps off several quick shots, right over the head of the fleeing SHIELD pilot, who is hoofing it with all the speed he can manage in his flight gear.
He runs past the side of the heavy transport vehicle, headed for the driver's seat, shouting something of 'thanks' up to Agent Houston, as she stares down the magnification of her scope, bearing down on her next target, drawing that zero in tight.
Her finger squeezes the trigger again, and once more a splash of red across the silo's facade heralds her skill with the weapon of war.
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Oh goody, goody, goody... tanks! The smile that spreads across Crush's face is a mixture of joy and mischief as she scans the area for the heavy artillery.
<"Heard."> Comes her reply as her charge for the doors quite suddenly changes to a charge for the tanks. Blowing them up would be bad, there levels blow could be compromised. Getting line of sight on the big guns, then the tanks, she plots a leaping course from her location to the first tank and lands on it. Bending the turret up toward the sky, she leapt to the next tank even as she flung Obelus toward a group of soldiers with rocket launchers.
<"I'll have the way clear by the time ya ready to extract him... that's the right word, right? Extract? Whatever...."> And she's off to the next tank. Anything that looks like it could make a large explosion or slow the team down was on the plotted course of jumps. Just like Hulk, she aimed herself at things and merely leapt into the air and forward, a practiced move she'd spent time mastering because she couldn't fly.
- Jane Foster has posed:
Mental voltage carves blazing paths through Jane's psyche, the howling rage of a Nazi scientist deprived of a body or any sense of morality.
They share the absent body, though never the complete failure of a moral compass or else a certain hammer might not answer her.
The assault hurts, no denying that, crashing down upon her skull and carving out a plethora of discomforts throughout her being. She silently bears through it, shoulders tense and expression distant, carven of marble rather than flesh. Something close to that, however.
Lines and wires run along the walls and she takes hold of them, tearing them free. It might be something to disrupt Zola's electrical sources, if he has any, but pushing through pain is something all too familiar.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Zola's an ancient man. Nazi researcher, brought to America as part of Operation Paperclip, one of the founders of Hydra. Uploaded his mind as a digital consciousness to escape death and live forever. A crazed madman, a Nazi, and seemingly having only grown more psychotic and sadistic in the decades he had been alive. He wasn't focused on the network about him while he fought with Jane, but actually breaching his rather literal mental firewall was hard. Overwatch might be one of the best hackers on the planet, but Zola was a living digital organism that could think and move bits and bytes as fast as his network could take him.
The psychic bit was weird though. Stupid Nazis.
Venom's fight with the crazed red woman is tricky. The photon blade gave off no actual fire or heat being ionized plasma, but it was still slicing through the air as if it could cleave him down the middle like a samurai chef. The objetive was somehow still conscious, despite all of his face having been cut off - injected needles of adrenaline to make sure he couldn't pass out to blame. He was drooling now, even while struggling against the restraints still he was on, being choked out by one of them around his head. Hands clenching, trying to strain forwards even with what looked like part of him melting off in a smear of blood, muscle, and sinew cut raw.
Lady Viper goes to slash at Damian more with the whip, even as it would snap against the ground and miss him. The fact she could use this sort of thing without cutting herself in multiple pieces was either some sort of extreme training or something built into it to protect her from the most logcial result of bisecting herself. She goes to charge over at him and screams - right as the electrical bursts blindside her and she goes to collapse, Damian blocking off the tunnel from any further reinforcements or penetration. And the way up - the maintenance shaft theyhad come in.. Was still open giving them a full flight up.
Quiet plays a good game. She's one of the best in the business for a reason. Now they have a clear way out and on the upper level as Xiomara goe sto jump up and into the air like Mario on a magic mushroom from tank to tank, they have a way to run clear all the way out. If it wasn't for her current state of attire she should probably totally think about making it into a TikTok video.
Zola is alive. The consciousness in front of Jane is very real. Very much a monster. But he always has been. That's nothing that's ever changed. HE's never acted otherwise beyond his own self-preservation. He was one of the founders of Hydra. He is a monster beyond the measure of most men. He and Jane struggle with one another even as Overwatch manages to lock down everything electronic in the area and then Jane goes to blast it all over into Zola. His bodyframe spasms.. Steams.. And then he screams as it overloads, circuits sizzling, frame crumbling, electronics firing off.
Might over microchips.
- Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's eyes are glued to her screens, her fingers moving in a blur as she dives deep into the network, working to shut down Zola's access to the electronics in the area. The usual chatter that fills the comms is eerily absent as she mutters to herself, laser-focused on the task at hand.
"Come on, Zola, where are you hiding?" she whispers, her voice tense as she digs through layer after layer of security protocols. "You've got to be in here somewhere -- oh, you think that little encryption trick is going to stop me? Not a chance."
She types furiously, her frustration mounting as she encounters resistance at every turn. "Okay, okay, so you've locked down the auxiliary power... but did you forget about the backup systems? Seriously, who designs these things? I'm going to shut you down one bit at a time if I have to."
Felicity pauses to adjust her glasses, her brow furrowed in concentration as she hacks into another subsystem. "Gotcha. Now let's see what happens when I cut off your access to the security cameras... and the doors... and, oh look, there's the ventilation system you're using to stay connected. Not anymore."
The room around her is filled with the quiet hum of servers and the soft clacking of her keyboard as she methodically cuts Zola off from every piece of tech he's trying to control. "You might be a living supercomputer, but I've got the home-field advantage. This is my playground, Zola."
Finally, she sees the results of her work. The systems in the silo start to flicker and go offline one by one, and she allows herself a small, victorious smile. "There we go. Not so powerful without your toys, are you?"
With Zola's grip on the electronics loosening, Felicity's attention shifts back to the team. She quickly pulls up the security schematics, preparing to lock down the facility as they make their way out.
<< "Venom, if you can get Counterpunch out of there, I'll cover your exfil. I'm getting ready to slam the security doors behind you as you move. Let's make sure no one's following you." >>
Her fingers hover over the keys, ready to activate the door sequences as soon as the team is on the move. The silence from earlier is replaced with the sound of her steady, determined breath as she prepares to guide them out safely.
<< "Just say the word, and I'll start sealing off the exits. We're almost there, team." >>
- Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian Wayne takes up a defensive position in the central launch shaft, lobbing stun birdarangs and engaging in melee combat with the Hydra goons to keep the area clear.
Once Venom has made his exit with the package in tow, Robin fires a grapple gun up to the top of the facility and launches up. Over the distance he accumulates enough speed to fly clear of the upper opening, then spread his cape and sail out of sight.
- Xiomara Rojas has posed:
With the tanks out, and Obelus taking care of ground artillery, Crush jumps toward the building and lands solid with another look around. Any stragglers left outside get the chain whipped at the head by her hand to knock them down and out.
No matter what is takes, she'll keep the way clear until the team appears with Counter---whatever, the guy they came for.
- Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom gives pause as the swordswoman strikes. << I am not detecting any significant rise in temperature, Eddie. >> "Then.. by all means, go for it, buddy." With that simple encouragement, Venom smashes that lady into the wall with a massive tree trunk-like tendril, which consists of four tendrils wrapping closely around eachother. The woman attempts to strike at the attack, but it's just too much, too fast for her to gain offensive momentum. With another few tendrils, he secures the restrained man, keeping him restrained for now and heads out the door.
Raising himself up on tendrils once more, the hulking symbiote destroys anything that's not secured to the floors or walls, his tentacles simply stabbing ahead of his body. Along the way several soldiers are taken out. When one has the good fortune to dodge the advance tendrils, Venom grabs his head and simply unhinges his jaw like an anaconda, consuming the head and discarding the body. Nobody tell SHIELD. << We are on our way back up. >> the symbiote reports, and moments later they emerge from Area 5B to join the others at their truck.
- Jane Foster has posed:
Zola's shriek resonating in her ears, so to speak, Jane doesn't linger long. Another pathway of electricity is shut off by peeling it away from its source, torn wires and fraying cables reduced to wreckage through the pulsating thunder-beat in her skull.
Every slam of sound trying to force her to her knees breaks down some of the mental defenses, but conditioning longer than she's been alive holds out as the wall cannot hold.
So be it; she utters no sound at all. A thought fired back at the ancient Nazi doctor alone gives a reply as she fades back into the Astral.
<<Death hasn't forgotten the time you stole, Herr Zola. Remember that.>>
- Stefani Houston has posed:
With Tadpole now behind the wheel of the heavy troop transport, he begins to slam it in reverse, taking it right back toward the base, and in the process pick up everyone headed out to garner the offered extraction from this hotzone. With Agent Houston still aimed out the back of the vehicle, providing cover fire, she sees the wrath laid out by Xiomara, and the thinning of HYDRA's forces. It leaves a much less threatening environment of potential targets, but it also means someone could be hiding, and laying in wait for a moment of opportunity.
Stefani continues to be diligent in her monitoring of the vantage points of possible lines of sight upon their truck, but when she hears a bark, it causes her eye to pull up from the rifle.
As she ducks her head outside, she views a German Shepherd running for the truck, and as she sees the pistol of pilot Tadpole extend out the driver's side window, Stefani's hand shoots out to knock his aim up in to the air. Theo lets out a shout of pain, and a curse word at Stefani for slapping his wrist as he was about to fire on the incoming canine, but with Quiet opening the door for the dog, he gets the idea.
"Making friends, wherever you go, huh, Houston?" Tadpole calls back, as he takes this time to replace the magazine in his handgun, loading in the last fresh mag he had in his pouch.
The German Shepherd lunges up in to the troop transport, instantly receiving pets from Agent Houston's right hand. With the dog aboard, and Quiet once more aiming out the back of the vehicle, the escape plan is waiting for those coming to join them... the engine idling, the driver ready to lay on the gas.
- Natasha Romanoff has posed:
What followed was an organized retreat to thier extraction vehicle, and bugging out as Hydra rienforcements arrived and they bugged out and vanished, having accomplished thier mission. They had gotten their man out.
***
Postscript: Some Time Later
In a room covered in bandages on his face sitting on the ground staring at the wall, unmoving, unblinking, said the extracted agent under observation.
Sitting outside the room were two men in suits and ties and a higher level officer. "How is he?" The officer would speak.
One of the men in a suit and tie would sigh, "Not good. Fully disassociative. With.. Proper treatment and time we can probably mostly put him mentally back together. Physically he'll heal."
The officer would speak "And his job?"
the man in the suit would speak. "Never again. I can't fathom him doing anything again. Even if we put him together mostly again.. He'll never be the same and I can't see any circumstances he's going to be cleared for any duties, ever. He might not ever be let out of treatment."
All things come with a risk.
And a price to be paid.