5832/Two-Fold Extraction: Part 2

Two-Fold Extraction: Part 2
Date of Scene:	02 April 2021
Location:	Moscow, Russia (Underground)
Synopsis:	X-51 and Agent 13 finally make it to the underground tunnels that lead to the safehouse. Worse for wear.
Cast of Characters:	Aaron Stack, Sharon Carter

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Aaron Stack has posed:
The extraction isn't going as smoothly as planned, but when does anything? Aaron has arrived at their rendesvous point, connecting himself to dormant computers that have been awaiting his touch for years, powering them up. It's a haphazard thing, since hes' only been able to come in occasionally to do maintenance, not wanting to draw attention to the place in case he was outted.

An alert on the frequencies let's him know that Sharon's departure is somehow even messier. He hacks into the CCTV system, computerized mind rapidly scanning the nearby streets. He contacts her on their encrypted channel.

"Two blocks north, there's a Chevy Trailblazer. I've hacked the computer and started the engine, you just have to hop in. If you have both legs by the time you get there."

Sharon Carter has posed:
There was a lot of shouting from Sharon's position, she could hear the men in the SUV's congregate around the jeep. Thankfully, with the time the explosion bought, she was able to crawl through the darkness, belly down upon the ground. It was messy, and she was hurt, but she was able to still feel her legs and toes, yet if the light were out it would reveal a slightly severe burn and shrapnel embedded in her side.

Hearing Aaron on comms, she turns slightly in that direction, rolling flat upon her back as she hears the SUV's engines roar, taking those few breaths before she slowly turns again once she hears the wheels squeal into the opposite direction.

Good. She wasn't ready for that sort of smoke, or death.

Once she's crawled to a decent distance, she finally rises, hoofing it through the field whilst holding her side, and dragging her sore leg behind her to the car that was left waiting for her to steal.

Aaron Stack has posed:
Recognizing that she was still in danger, X-51 realizes that he may have to do more than just watch from a cool and comfortable distance. Does he care about Sharon? Well, that's a complicated question and, frankly, more than he wants to think about right now. Generally speaking, he loathes fleshies with all their pesky drama and feelings and internal organs. But for a meatbag, Sharon was mostly okay and her features had a symmetry he could appreciate. She had mathematically desirable features.

So he opens up a small bin and dumps out a series of drones. Cheap things he bought on the internet at twenty bucks a pop, rebuilt black market crap. Little suicide bombs, as he put a grenade in each of them and installed a simple device to make it pop the pin and drop them on whatever he liked. Bomber drones. Suck on that, Mr. President.

"I've got back up incoming, but you've got to get to that car. I can only blow some of them up."

Sharon Carter has posed:
"I.. am almost.. there!" She could already see the smoke of the car from the distance, pushing herself to the maximum with fists clenched and arm motions to propel her forward. "Just .. make sure they're not behind me!"

She did hear the cars drive off, but she didn't dare look back, X-51 had eyes on her the entire time. He could have said.

She pulls the door open and carefully climbs into the drivers seat, foregoing the usual standard protocols of driver safety. She peels off onto the main road, keeping her headlights off in attempts to remain incognito.

"Tell me there's NO one following me, Aaron. I'm down to three left in the clip and probably five pints of O neg."

Aaron Stack has posed:
He could have said that, but reassuring Sharon didn't really enter his mind. Sometimes he was deliberately mean, but often he just didn't consider that humans felt vulnerable or afraid or...anything really.

The drones buzz in and start dropping grenades in her wake, liquidating at least one of the enemy agents and creating cover and chaos for Sharon's escape.

"Looks clear. I've got blood bags here to replenish you, but we'll have to do it quick. We've got to drive this cart through the tunnel to another station and disembark there to get to a safehouse with our new identities.

Sharon Carter has posed:
With each grenade dropped, Sharon had to bob and weave just to make sure her new vehicle didn't get caught in the blow back. Her head remained down to avoid any shots taken, but Aaron was efficent enough that she didn't have to. "Two clicks out." She announces, which he could probably hear in the distance, the roar of the engine and the drag of tires with treads upon the concrete and dirt.

Arriving to the stash house, she leaves the car idling, hopping out and dragging herself along to the door without assistance. She was used to doing anything and everything alone, so requesting for help with minor tasks almost seemed foreign.

The slam of the door was loud, as well as the shuffling gait that Sharon took on. "This was the nastiest extraction I've done to date.." She says, scolding herself outloud. "What the fuck has gotten into me?"

Aaron Stack has posed:
Aaron Stack is sipping on a Russian beer when she arrives, his internal processors having been reprogrammed to appreciate a frothy alcoholic beverage.

"I would guess you're just a messy bitch, but I haven't known you that long," he admits. "Collateral damage is probably a little more than SHIELD would usually prefer, but they didn't exactly leave us much in terms of resources either. I half suspect our existence has been forgotten entirely. The company is good at espionage, but very bad at keeping decent records or maintaining continuity of management."

"I've activated the booby traps at the entrance. Get in the cart and we'll take off."

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon wasn't bothered by this, but she was angered. Not at what Aaron said, because it was the truth. Three years deep cover was a long time, so naturally she'd be forgotten. At least until she returns.

"Wait." Sharon states, grabbing the bags of blood after setting down her gun, strapping them to her body just in case she needed it. The lines were wrapped around her arm, needles within her pocket. Cargo pants are useful, especially for women. "Alright, let's hit it." She carefully lowers herself into the cart, then reaches into her top to retrieve the disk drive. "Eat this." She offers up the drive, expecting him to do some robot-y thing. Just in case one of them dies on the way out. The information wouldn't be in the wind.

Aaron Stack has posed:
Aaron Stack gives her a long, non-plussed stare, which is impressive because he isn't particularly good at expression to begin with, but somehow this one is even more blank and empty. He reaches out and takes the drive and a panel opens in his chest, letting him slide it into a slot within.

"'Eat this'," he mutters to himself. He operates the controls and the cart takes to the old, abandoned rail, sending them zipping across Moscow rapidly towards another abandoned station.

"I will be glad to put this assignment behind me. I did not enjoy my time in Russia. I don't even eat food and I could tell it was terrible. Why is everything cold?"

Sharon Carter has posed:
Once the cart was in motion, Sharon finally relaxed. "We're closer to the north pole than we are the equator and way too far from the Prime Meridian to even make a difference in weather. Couple that with the goddamned people.. and the fact that the cops drink on the job.. everything is going to taste -foul-." Sharon begins to feel around her side, noting the metal shrapnel sticking out of her side, decidedly leaving it in until they had gotten to their safehouse. Then she would burn, after a little pinch of fentanyl and morphine.

"I think I lived off salads for three years." And she's goddamned toned. "When we get back to the states, I am going home."

Aaron Stack has posed:
Aaron Stack monitors her vitals to make sure she's not in any danger and determined that, while she was likely in pain, she wouldn't die during their journey or anytime soon. The tunnels were plenty cold, too, damp and underground, without any form of ambient heat. Aaron, of course, felt nothing. He always felt nothing.

"If you have not been sufficiently receiving protein, I'm sure supplements can be provided. That or you can eat a lot of cheeseburgers. Better that than beets." he says. "Do you think the intel we acquired is worth it? Do we have enough to take down the smuggling ring?" he asks.

Sharon Carter has posed:
"Multi-vitamins." Damn, Sharon just realized she was vegan for three years straight. Introducing red meats into her new found diet would wreck havoc on her systems. But burgers? So worth it.

"We have enough to take down all of the criminal empires in Russia if we need to." Sharon says confidently. "We should probably analyze it on the trip home to see what parts to sus out to who." She leans back in the cart now, closing her eyes. Now, it was small talk. Something she has put Aaron through the entire time they were there.. "What are you going to do when we get back?"

Aaron Stack has posed:
Aaron Stack doesn't shrug because shrugging is a useless human gesture, but the tone of his voice conveys the same. "I do not think it will be so very different. I will at least not have to go to that same warehouse every day in my fake job. I will go instead to a helicarrier or SHIELD base for my real job and end up doing some similar minutiae. I hope that I will get a standard field assignment, a chance to do something like you do, but I am not suited for undercover work. I am not passable enough for human."

Sharon Carter has posed:
"You mean to tell me that they've built you with a human face, but did not give you at least a hint of programming that could at least cause you to feign humanity?" Sharon shakes her head, her eyes still closed. "Some sort of mimicry. Anything. Surely you've dated women, right?" She opens her eyes with that, then shakes her head. "Don't answer. But, I think it's about time we upgrade you in some kind of way. Or at least give you a better haircut."

Aaron Stack has posed:
Aaron Stack shrugs, "I gave myself the human face and it's not perfect. It doesn't move right sometimes. I can't seem to get it perfect. People always see through it, if they know me long enough. And yes, I have dated human females. I even had a stepchild, for a short time, many years ago. Then I was trying to be human, yearning desperately to be accepted. I wanted flesh."

"Now I don't give a flying fuck. I am content to be what I am. It does not mean that I don't resent it when fleshy ones act like fleshy ones. You're all so fickle."

Sharon Carter has posed:
"Fickle and problematic." Sharon agrees with that sentiment. At least they both were jealous of what the other represented sometimes. "I'm going to sleep against my better judgement." She finally says. Her blood coagulated enough and began to work against the metal, but infection would set in soon if she wasn't careful. "Wake me when we get to the safehouse. We'll need to contact SHIELD to tell them we're coming home."

Aaron Stack has posed:
"Robot Alarm Clock Man at your service," he says, but it isn't entirely ill-humored. Well, no more than usual from him, anyway.

When she drifts off, he switches to his downloaded material and starts to listen to a podcaster reading the parts catalogue of a small electronics firm in New Jersey under moody music in ASMR tones. He found it soothing and right now he needed to be motherfucking soothed.