4428/Snakes in the Desert

Snakes in the Desert
Date of Scene:	17 December 2020
Location:	Mojave Desert, CA
Synopsis:	Peggy leads a team of agents, including Jessica Drew and Lara Croft, into the Mojave Desert to locate a new time anomaly. They encounter unexpected resistance.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Peggy Carter, Jessica Drew, Lara Croft
Tinyplot:	Times That Bind

---

Melinda May has posed:
For two days after the anomaly at the old Roxxon Oil site in New York disappeared, SHIELD satelites scanned the planet looking for any trace of another one opening. Finally, there was a hit: In the Mojave Desert at the site of nuclear tests back in the 40's. Nuclear tests... and the discovery of a rift to the Dark Dimension.

That rift, of course, was closed 70 years ago. But, it is really a surprise that it should factor into events now? Perhaps not.

A single quinjet lands at the site, a small team of SHIELD agents on board. It is piloted by a Level 6 specialist named Sarah Collingwood, but she's not the agent in charge, here. No, that job has been given to Agent Peggy Carter, instead...

Peggy Carter has posed:
As the news of where the next anomaly was came through, Peggy could nearly tell them the longitude and latitude down to exact numbers. She knows this place. She was, of course, here the first time it collapsed. She was one of the people who struggled to force it to collapse. That day is burned in her brain. Still, she's got the files out on her tablet, scanning through all the old reports and scans she did at the time.

"We...flooded this area with gamma rays using a... I know this sounds ridiculous, gamma cannon. It worked and seemed to collapse the rift. But, maybe we've left cracks in...Reality? I don't know. Both of these are sites which the SSR actively imploded or collapsed.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Anomalies around nuclear reactions, nuclear physics and medicine have long been a part of Jessica's inner life thanks to her parents. She leans against the straps snugging her into her jump seat as the plane banks over the desert, considering her link to physics and listening to Peggy's description of what happened here. A wrinkled grey brown landscape unrolls beneath them resolving into sparse solitary shrubs, each vying for their share of water.

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood sets the plane down and kills the flight systems. The scanners, however, remain online, as do other similar subsystems. Also on the plane are a couple of techs assigned to be Fitz' eyes and ears in the field and a second field agent -- Mark McLaren, Collingwood's usual field partner. Thus, there are four of them out here in the desert. Collingwood lowers the back ramp.

"The anomaly is about 200 yards to the north," Collingwood tells them, moving into the back compartment with the rest of them. She looks at Peggy, "Mark and I can start setting up a perimeter, if you'd like."

Then, there's a beeping sound from the cockpit. She frowns and turns back towards it. "We have incoming," she announces, her tone going from casual to sharp and business like. "Two bogies. IFF does not recognize the singatures."

Which means incoming probably means trouble's coming.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Yes. Absolutely, set and *keep* that perimeter. We're going to try to ID these bogies... Drew. Go with McLaren to get the perimeter out and ready for on the ground combat. Collingwood, I want you to keep this ship mobile, in case we need to encounter them in the air. Get ready to intercept the obgies and see if we can get a better read on them. Protect our team while they're setting up this perimeter." Peggy's not been in command in a long time, but her mind falls right back into the line of duty, not readying to roll out the back quite yet. Instead, she's standing and coming up behind Collingwood so she can see the readings as they come in.

Jessica Drew has posed:
The word 'incoming' hastens Jessica unbuckling. Standing, she double checks the holstered guns she carries, an ICER and a standard SHIELD issue Walther. Shouldering the backpack carrying water, rations and other basic survival supplies for the desert, she acknowledges Carter's orders with a terce, "Copy that. Going to unpack a little extra for perimeter protection and we're on it."

She catches McLaren's eyes, "I'll meet you out there in less than five."

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood nods, and glances to the techs. "I suggest you guys find cover until we get the situation secured," she tells them, sliding into her seat again and bringing the flight systems back online while the other agents disembark.

Thus, the techs disembark to do just that... not that there's a lot of cover in the desert. A few scrub bushes maybe, if they're lucky. The remnants of old movie sets from the 40's. This was Stark land, once.

McLaren snaps a casual but sincere salute Peggy's way. "Copy that," he says, grabbing weaponry and a bag of daisy-chained ground explosives. "We'll give you about 50 yards." It's not a huge margin, but it'll have to do. They may not have time enough for more. As he heads down the ramp, he gives Drew a thumbs up, then moving at a trot to get out there and put defenses around that shimmer of energy.

High above, the bogies push in faster, revealing themselves to be a variation on the quinjet -- faster, sleeker... with a strange compas-and-star symbol on their wings.

Leviathan.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Oh hell. I forgot. This is where Stark was trying to recreat the wild west, until Spain made a better American west than the American west did. If they're lucky, there are still some store front flats up to get cover behind. I know he had a few buildings erected... The collapse didn't destroy everything." But Peggy certainly forced the man to clear set and NOT return to this particular shooting location after it happened.

Then Peggy's looking at the symbol on the wings of the sleek, remarkably fast crafts, and her eyes go wide. "...That... should not be possible. Collingwood, open fire. Keep them off the site at all costs. They cannot have access to what is happening here. They...shouldn't even exist here." Peggy's staring in open shock, considering if they've already screwed the timestream up or not. Over the comms, she voices, "These are enemy agents from the HYDRA-sympathetic organization known as Leviathan. Do not let them have access to the anomaly."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jessica, loaded with a missile launcher, stands at the top of ramp still within earshot of Carter's description of the area. When Leviathan is mentioned she pops her head out to look at the manic approach the jets are on then sprints downward not waiting for further orders.

One hand pressed to her ear, she comms McLaren, breathlessly, "We have to set up now. No time for spread. They are fixing a firing solution on the incoming. Leviathan!"

Lara Croft has posed:
The mysterious site that they've been brought to has been a point of interest for Lara, as she's all too eager to see-- and learn --more about these strange anomalies. She'd been quiet throughout most of the flight though, as she was focused on her gear. A selection of items she's quite comfortable with, mixed in with a selection of items she's still gaining experience with. Lara didn't have access to tech quite this 'high' until joining SHIELD, and her continued excellence in the Field had started to garner her a lot more access to nicer 'toys'.

With a spread of high tech arrows in a rather impressive quiver laid across her lap, Lara is gearing up when they land, and ready to go. The calls to alert, certainly perk her up even more as she proceeds down the ramp with the techs who are setting up for defense from their newly arrived enemies.

With her keeping watch over these techs, Lara reaches for her bow, depressing a button and snapping the limbs in to place! The compound bowstrings all got taught and tight, ready for use as Lara reaches for the quiver over her shoulder, her half-gloved hand stroking over the arrow fletching until she feels the right one.

An EMP arrow. She draws it and readies it.

"This should be interesting..." She mutters to those around her.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren crouches down and raises an rifle to his shoulder, taking aim at the first of the incoming craft. It comes in low and fast. As it nears the anomaly, however, its back ramp lowers and men jump down from the back, using flight suits to maneuver the distances from the plane to the ground safely. They are equipped with rifles and side arms and blades, much like any other paratrooper, though their armour is black and red and reminiscent of old Hydra designs from the 60's. McLaren opens suppressive fire to slow them down.

The second plane follows suit, dropping another half dozen men off the groups flank. This gives Collingwood enough time to see the last of the SHIELD agents disembark before she pulls up her own ramp and fires up the VTOL systems. "Weapons are hot," she says into coms. "I'm going to try to draw the air support away." And with that, even while she's still rising, she's spinning the jet around to loose a volley of fire at their tails. When she's high enough, she hits the afterburners and gives chase.

Peggy Carter has posed:
While the tension in Peggy's shoulders says she *wants* to be in the fight, she knows that command from air position is probably more helpful. She sinks into the seat next to Collingwood, drawing up the largest array of sensor readings she can get from the Quin Jet. She's recording every last fluctuation from the anomaly as the fight starts, and they are flanking around it. She's then looking back to the woman next to her, her comms just open at this point, coordinating as best she can from the air. "We must keep their agents from getting access to the anomaly. I'd love to take a few in for questioning, but taking them out of the fight is priority."

"Drew, you're in charge on the groud right now. If you need another body out there, say, and I'll join you. Otherwise, I'm keeping eyes in the sky and trying to figure out how Leviathan is in the here and now considering they should have been dead as an organization for over 50 years."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Supporting McLauren, the Spider-Woman sets herself up to crossfire from her position from behind what looks like a watering trough. As she fits the rocket launcher to her shoulder, "Copy that, Agent Carter. Another hand would do. They look like they are unloading about a dozen." She thumbs off the safety, "Going to try to reduce that right now."

There is a high pitched whine as the high tech targeting system locks on to where Jessica directs it. A -plomph- deep and felt bone deep and the mini-missile hits the ramp of the second plane unloading troops.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara, on the ground, kneels down near a lovely desert shrub as she listens to the Quinjet teaking to the sky again, and hears the orders come over the comm system. A breath is taken in before her eyes go over to where she sees Jessica reading that rather intimidating looking launcher.

At least they came well armed, right?

That launcher will either do the trick, or likely make them a pretty valuable target to take out on the ground if it makes them a big enough threat to these enemies, so Lara bides her time on seeing what Jessica's shot does for now...

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood nods to Peggy's decision. "We can call in support from Edward, if we need," she tells the Brit. Edwards Airforce Base, that is. "AWAC could give us eyes in the sky and a pair of F-18s can't hurt." But they may not want to rely on an outside 'agency', so to speak, to handle this. So, it's Carter's call.

The Leviathan planes split and Collingwood shears off to follow one of them. "Going to cloak," she says, flipping a switch. Almost instantly, the plane fades from visual and radar. While Leviathan doesn't seem to have the same capability, since they don't engage it, they certainly don't asume she's gone. Immediately as she fades, the plane before them begins to jink in an evasive maneuver and his wingman, still spilling its troopers, circles back towards him. That wingman, however, is forced to take evasive action when Jessica's missile hits his ramp and blows it clear off. It's not enough to destroy the plane, mind. But it does make him hit those afterburners hard. Collingwood spins the plane almost 180 degrees, on a virtual dime and rakes fire down the wingman's flank as he streaks by.

McLaren's shots take out two of the nearest Leviathan troopers, though the others begin to return fire. He flattens himself against the ground to avoid having his head shot off. About half of the troopers from the second plane make it to the ground safely. At least two of the others bounce like debris across the hard rock of the desert.

The remaining troopers concentrate their fire, as expected, on taking out Jessica and her missile launcher.

Peggy Carter has posed:
With the news that they really do need another set of boots on the ground, Peggy sets the sensors to keep active scanning of the anomaly on every frequency possible. It's pulling a lot of power from the Quin Jet and Collingwood might need to kill the processes but, for now, Peggy wants as much data as possible.

"I'm on my way. Keep fighting. Sarah, the Quinjet is yours. You know your orders." With that, Peggy stands up and reaches to the locker and pulls out a short range parachute, so she can actually leap out the back of the plane and still make it safely to the ground. It'll make her a big target but it'll also give her a good view for some ariel shots.

Then Peggy's opening the ramp. She's running as fast as she can go, ICER rifle in hand. The ramp slowly opens and she's dashing the last few feet off of it before she pulls the chute in a few seconds, this a very short range jump, and swings the rifle arond to take two good shots at two of the enemy agents.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Wood splinters explode from the trough at the impact of hardened bullets. Jessica ducks. It got the desired results, momentarily giving the other two on the ground time to lay down suppressive fire. The remains of three troopers lay at the bottom of the ruined ramp.

A curious sound, the snap of fabric opening in the air, raises Jessica's head. Rolled to the side to keep herself out of the barrage of bullets sent her way, she reloads a missile. The metallic clack of the round finding its seat barely discernible under the noise of fire.

Over coms, "We have friendly incoming. Here goes another diversion. Cover her while she lands." A slender black form pops up, the sleek evilness of a rocket launcher held to her right shoulder. The characteristic cough of a missile launch punches the air.

Lara Croft has posed:
Jessica's shot hit it's mark, even if it didn't outright destroy the Leviathon plane. With them lifting off after depositing their troops on the ground, Lara moves to stand up. They've taken their target as Jessica, which gives Lara enough time to set her sights on her boot...

Her body's muscles tense, legs slightly apart, back muscles clenching... she draws the bowstring back, her fingers flexing independently as she lines up her shot on the fleeting troop transport and attack ships...

LOOSE!

An EMP arrow whistles from her bow, headed toward the Jet that let it's troops out last! There's quite a lot of foot soldiers on the ground now, so Lara quickly ducks back behind the desert shrub and rodey-runs toward a sun-bleached rock for cover!

Behind the rock now, Croft draws another arrow, this one a disabling ICER-style arrowhead, which sizzles to life with blue glowing lights across it's silver head.

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood holds the quinjet steady as Peggy launches herself from the aft. She pulls back on the stick and flips a roll to spin the jet in place, creating air cover for the plumetting agent. She's got precious seconds to do so, given that -- between Lara's EMP arrow and the SHIELD jet's guns -- the second Leviathan plane goes down in flames. The first jet circles around. It fires at the quinjet not because it can see it clearly, but because Peggy's jump gave it some place to fixate. Instead of hitting the agent, however, an exceptionally small target to begin with, it discovers exactly where the quinjet is hiding. Its guns rake over the wings and back of the quinjet, sending up sparks as rounds ricochet off shielding capable of withstanding a nuclear blast.

Collingwood spins the jet around, decloaks, and looses a missile at the oncoming Leviathan craft. "Wanna play chicken?" she mutters, resuming forward flight. "Cross *this* road, you bastard." Her finger squeezes her cannon trigger again as the two aircraft scream toward each other.

On the ground, McLaren's voice crackles over coms at Drew's command. "Copy that," he says. He scrambles forward to a dip in the land and begins laying more suppressive fire. The incoming Leviathan agents return fire, one of them getting clipped while two others make it past the initial barage. They fire on Jessica's position, and one tosses a grenade at her. But the missile she fires slams into their fellows from the second plane. There are probably eight or so of them left, combined between the two plane loads.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peg has a lot of good back up and distraction, in the crashing plane overhead and the agents fighting on the ground. It's a fast drop, her body curling a bit and readying to hit the ground at a speed that s slightly too fast for comfort. She goes down and rolls, though, her training from the war somehow still well in tact even decades later. She releases the chute clip the moment she's coming back up to her feet so she can run unincumbered and has her hand back in the rifle in her palms.

"Report! I'm on the ground." Peggy calls over her comms, knowing she's missed a lot in a very little amount of time, but she's already booking it in the direction of the combat. She pauses just a moment to hit her knees and spray some concentrated fire in the direction of a Leviathan agent she's caught mostly open in her sight lines. Once that focused round of shots is taken, she's back up and running to the rest of her crew.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Oh, shit!" Jessica catches an oblong object bouncing out of the corner of her eye. The SHIELD combat suit is highly protective but it doesn't cover her eyes and ears. Spider reflexes snap into play and she bounds into a roll that gets her to the other side of the trough, out of the pan and into the fire. Bullets slap the side of the trough near her head.

Hugging the ground, she answers, "Pinned down to your northeast, Agent Carter. Croft, McLaran give Agent Carter and I a little cover while we get into better positions."

Shrugging the missile launcher back into a place, Jessica rises into a crouch and runs to the remains of a water pump. She sets up for another missile launch, one of the two remaining.

Lara Croft has posed:
One of the likely shortcomings Lara has a field agent in this regard, is that she wasn't in any military or apart of any law enforcement team when she joined SHIELD. She's a loner, she's not got a lot of experience working with others, and she tends to go her own way when in combat scenarios like this. She's certainly trying to fix that, but it's been an uphill process.

In this instance, she's doing that yet still, falling back to the outskirts of even her own people because she's trying to stay hidden, covered, and able to strike at their enemies without them able to find her. Being that she has a bow, it makes it somewhat easier, due to the lack of gunfire, as even ICERs are pretty easy to hear where they're shooting from.

"I copy." Lara says over the comms to Jessica's words specifically.

Behind a new rock, the British woman raises up, wielding her bow and tensing up for another shot. This time she releases a disabling stunner arrow, high voltage kind of electrical discharge spread all around it where it'll land, sent directly toward their foes on the ground!

If nothing else, hopefully it provides good cover through distraction when it bursts!

Melinda May has posed:
By the time Peggy lands, Collingwood's missile is exploding against the Leviathan bird's underbelly and her guns are raking its side. Its pilot veers off away from her, but it's trailing enough smoke to make it clear it's lift is failing quickly. The pilot lets out a whoop and executes another roll and spin to bring her back around towards the fight on the ground. She doesn't fire again. Not until she's got a good firing situation handed to her. "Skies are clear," she says calmly into coms now, despite the earlier whoop. "Coming back around."

"Copy that," McLaren says again to Drew. He switches to a fresh mag and continues firing a suppression pattern at those agents farther out. Even as he does, however, Lara's arrow arches through the air and lands in the midst of a quartet of them. Electricity explodes outward and they dance like jitterbugs on a hot plate.

The agent Peggy fires on goes down in an unconsious heap -- her rounds being ICER dendotoxin rounds, instead of live bullets. This means they'll have at least one man to question later. The grenade Jessica flees explodes in a fury of fire and noise, throwing up clods of dirt, some of which hit the anomaly and cause it to crackle ominously. At least she's not likely to get caught in the explosion.

There aren't many Leviathan agents left. Indeed... they're down to about two, both of whom realize they're seriously up shit creek right now.

"<I told you, she'd get us killed,>" the one says to the other.

"<Better by them than her,>" is his companion's response.

The look at one another and at the opposition facing them, drop their weapons, and kneel in the dirt, hands behind their heads. Because SHIELD doesn't kill people who surrender.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Excellent job, Drew." Peggy clips over the comms, pleased and proud of the team that she's got with her. She takes the rest of the reports in, still running, but she swears the last few words of Russian she caught were about a woman. Maybe she's wrong. "Can anyone get what they said?" She asks over the comms.

The surrender isn't something Peggy expected. Especially as she just put one on his face in the dirt. Peggy's dash across the desert (and it's NOT easy to run in sand) slows as she sees the enemy agents going to the ground. She frowns, eyes narrowing a bit deeper, not really trusting what she's seeing but she's got her rifles levelled. "...Stay on your knees, hands up. Drew. Croft. Search them for weapons and cyanide caps, then zip ties and we take them in for proper questioning. McLaren, start rounding up the unconscious..."

Jessica Drew has posed:
The rocket launcher, safety on, returns to Jessica's shoulder. As the soldiers make their tentative way forward to kneel, she stands, head swiveling to reassure herself that these are indeed the last of their adversaries.

Russian is one of her languages, she can thank HYDRA for the ones she speaks, but she is too far from the men to make out everything. Relief and agreement are the only things that she can attest to. In the sight of the men, Jessica unholsters the ICER, takes off the safety, and reinserts it. A tacit warning to them both to behave while she relieves them of any hidden weapons, "Copy that, ma'am."

"Eyes down," she commands in Russian. When she is sure they can see her boots in the Mojave dust, she pats them down. A knife, a comm unit, extra ammunition, a grenade from a belt begin to make a pile to Jessica's left as she searches the pockets and uniform of one of the kneeling men.

Lara Croft has posed:
A surrender was a welcome turn of events. Lara's perimeter had been closing in further and further with the more of them that were taken out, and down. She's there close to them on their southern sides when the last two standing give up and ask to be taken as-is.

Down on one knee, Lara puts her bow away back on to her quiver where it's locked in place by an automatic sensor. Her right hand drops to her thigh where she draws out her own ICER handgun from its holster with a soft rustle of gun drawing across the nylon cased sheath.

With Jessica closing in to fulfill Carter's orders, Lara is right there, coming in from the other side, her ICER ready if needs be. "Kto ona takaya?" Lara asks. She'd heard only the last bit about a woman, so she asks back 'Who is she?' in Russian.

Glancing to Jessica, she nods once to her, before pulling out a flashlight from her tac-vest to search the men. Once she's finished she has one of them zip-tied.

"I think they're afraid of someone, but, perhaps it's just us." Lara says to Peggy then with a faint smirk.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren nods to Peggy as she gives orders. He moves to collect the men that are unconsious and starts ziptying them.

Meanwhile, the two conscious men are actually quite cooperative as they're searched. Yeah, there are cyanide capsules on them, but in pockets and not teeth. So, that's something to know. They're well armed and it might not make sense why they're in such a hurry to lay down arms. But the most reaction either of them gives to the SHIELD agents that address them is to Lara. The first man looks sharply at her as zipties his hands and asks the obvious question. But he doesn't answer.

He doesn't get the chance. A soft 'ffppptt' whispers through the air. His head explodes in a mess of brainmatter and blood that coats the second man. That man screams and pitches forward, covering his head with his unbound arms and curling into a defensive ball. "Nyet! Nyetneyt!"

Peggy Carter has posed:
The moment the man is shot, Peggy's eyes go wide, "Get the prisoners on the Quinjet NOW. Collingswood, we still have an enemy operative in the area. Land as close to us as possible so we can get the prisoners loaded up. Do a body heat scan, can you detect any other presences around?" Peg asks, her body turning to scan the area around as she automatically drops lower, making herself a smaller target if their enemy would decide to start opening fire on SHIELD agents. She's looking for any hint of where someone could be hiding.

"If you can get from the other one who she is, do it. I doubt they are talking about us and we're clearly on a clock here." Peggy speaks into the coms towards her team.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Professional enough to keep the expletive to herself, Jessica wipes a glop of matter from her face as she drops to her knees next to the soldier trying to burrow into the ground. Gun out she pulls him roughly up from the ground by the collar of his uniform.

"Run for your life," she orders fiercely, pushing him behind her, while she moves the gun in a wide arc looking for the source of the sniper fire. Elbowing him toward the jet, she keeps scanning the perimeter while urging him on.

Lara Croft has posed:
Having other people's blood on her isn't exactly a new thing for Lara, but having it splash across her clothing and skin like this is certainly still shocking and certainly still unpleasant! She was /right/ there when the bullet when through the man's head and she gets covered in it, warm and gross...

But there's no time to dwell on it. They were all aware of what happened a second after it happened! Lara ducks instinctively and rushes to try to help get the captive onboard with Jessica.

As they rush, she shouts at him. "Rasskazhite, kogo vy boites'! Eto mozhet byt' vash yedinstvennyy shans otomstit' im!" Croft pleads in his own language, telling him to get his revenge on whomever is trying to kill him now, in case he might not get another chance!

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood swings the quinjet around, having been keeping up a perimeter sweep. At Carter's orders, she reaches over to check the sensors. "There's a hotspot a mile south east of your position," she says over coms. Completely opposite to the direction the Leviathan planes came in from. And there certainly are both sniper rifles and marksmen out there that can handle a 1.5 to 2km distant shot. They're among the elite of the elite, mind, but still... they're out there.

Nevertheless, the pilot doesn't pursue them because she's trying to set the jet down to collect the prisoners. "Whoever they are," she says, sparing only the briefest glances at the sensors now, hands full of landing protocols, "they're booking it out of here. Probabaly on wheels." So, the chances of them catching the shooter are likely pretty slim.

McLaren scrambles to drag the unconscious men towards the plane. He can't possibly do it alone. There's half a dozen of them, all told."

The Russian man scrambles forward as the women try to help him out. He's in a blind panic, at this point, unable to really process what's being said to him. All he really knows is that the big quinjet is a helluva lot better cover than the flat desert. So, he runs like his life depends on it. He's pretty sure it does, after all.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peggy Carter speaks Russian. It's one of the first languages in which she was fluent, in fact. So when the other agent tells the enemy to run for his life, Peggy looks up and frowns, brows knitted. "Bring him IN." She orders across the comms, wanting to trust that Drew has a plan, but she doesn't know the woman well enough.

With the information over the comms in, she knows getting the shooter is going to be impossible. She sighs. "Eyes up. Keep low and in cover from the south east. Load all the prisoners into the quin jet as quickly as possible and then we stick for readings while securing them. I'd still like to establish a perimeter here, but the readings of the anomaly and the prisoners are priority now." Peggy orders. And then she's on the ground following her own orders. She's got her one downed prisoner she's dragging behind her to get quickly onto the jet. She'll do the hard work as well, it seems.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Copy that, Agent Carter. He's on his way." Once Jessica is assured that the Russian man is headed straight for the ramp of their Quinjet, she goes to McLaran's side trying to drag the deadweight of one of the unconscious men.

"Here, let me." She flips the unconscious soldier over onto his back, then drops into a Ranger's roll across the man's stomach, coming to her feet with the man across her shoulder. "I lift weights," she grunts and moves off toward the quinjet at a lumbering trot.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara doesn't get an answer from the man they were escorting to the Quinjet, but when they get him there, she leaves him for the time being as McLaren and Drew have more bodies to try to get aboard. She rushes back out there to specifically help them do just this, getting on the other side of one to carry them shoulder-to-shoulder back to the Quinjet.

"Come on." Lara mutters as they go.

Once back aboard the jet, Lara takes off some of her extra gear and stows it on the equipment racks before she moves to the men that they're bringing aboard to start to strip them of their weapons and dangerous items as well.

Melinda May has posed:
The fact the other agents let a crazy man stay on her plane without a babysitter is enough to put Agent Collingwood on high alert. He doesn't react well to being confined -- which, one can hope, any good agent would ensure him to be before going back out into the fray. She hears heavy feet pounding and kicking on her deck and she swings out of the cockpit with her ICER drawn. The man doesn't even have time to register her presense before she puts two well-aimed shots right in the middle of his forehead. He drops like a puppet that's lots its strings, sagging against his harness.

Thus, by the time the other agents are dragging the last of the prisoners aboard and securing their equipment, she's sat back down in her flight seat, muttering dark imprecations under her breath.

While the last of those prisoners are being loaded, however, the two techs come running for the ramp, too, so they're not forgotten in the middle of the desert by field agents hopped up on adrenaline.

Peggy Carter has posed:
While Peggy has been focused on the prisoners, she's certainly not going to leave the techs behind. As soon as she gets her prisoner aboard and his slumped body off to the side of the ramp, Peggy slips back down the ramp and keeps her ICER out. She's scanning the horizon for any other threats and watching the last few team member's backs as they come aboard. Collingwood gets a single, curious brow, but she makes no comment about the unconscious enemy.

As soon as the last techs are aboard, she makes a head count of everyone, confirming they've got the whole team before she breathes out, "Not what we expected, but I think we've got a good amount of information. Let's withdraw, organize prisoners, call for a meet up to transfer prisoners back to SHIELD, then return to secure the perimeter. Otherwise...good work. Everyone take a breather and get some water."