854/SHIELD was never there.

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SHIELD was never there.
Date of Scene: 29 March 2020
Location: Secret North Korean missile launch site
Synopsis: Mission Accomplished!
Cast of Characters: Daniel Hastings, Clint Barton, Daisy Johnson, Natasha Romanoff, Melinda May, Samuel Morgan




Daniel Hastings has posed:
March in North Korea and there's still snow on the ground. It's a light dusting but it gives the pine forests of the upper lattitudes an eerie sort of glow at night as starlight filters through the trees. SHIELD had done their best to balance urgency with the lunar cycle and so moonlight is minimal with a crescent phase and a lightly clouded sky. Lightly as anything heavier would have made a HALO drop unsafe. Now, the woods are still but for the occasional hoot of a native owl. In the distance, there's a glow of light polution. The presence of man in the form of a facility of war.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint slept most of the way to the drop, waking, as was his custom with enough time to check his kit and go over Nat's as well if she needed the second set of eyes. He always asked for the double check, just to be sure.

Though when it's go time, Clint's eyes are bright with excitement through the lense jump helmet, complete with air mask. << See you guys down there >> he says brightly over comms then, walks backwards and does a flip off the ramp to fall away into the night.

The ride down was quick, tucking his arms and legs in to point downwards and fall like a rock towards the Hermit Kingdom, his mask's HUD giving him a running count of his altitude until it pinged and he pulled his chute and is decent came to a sudden halt, as he was yanked upwards as the fabric caught air. A short time later he was landing by a withered rice paddy, and checking the GPS. Not bad. Only a half-mile away from the rendezvous point.

There were patrols, a jeep, and a couple guys and a dog, but none of them saw the archer as he slipped on by. Appearing at the hill at the appointed time, barely out of breath, weapon ready, crouched low by a tree, until the others arrived.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Black infiltration uniform. Check.
Focusing gauntlets for her powers. Check.
Parachute? Double-check!

Daisy is ready to go. A glance is given to the other operatives in this mission while they are still high-up on the plane, her features set in concentration and they get ready for the drop. A nod is given to them, one of recognition while they are waiting. <<Be safe, everyone>>r
When the sign is given there she goes, giving a thumbs up to the rest, a few steps forward until she dives out onto the night, certainly without no backflips! And there she goes, falling down as a pointed arrow to the ground. At the proximity alert she gets the parachute working to start going at a slower pace to the ground, just a little adjustment through the use of her gauntlets as she focuses her powers through them, making her fall smoother, in the middle of the woods.

And then it's time to get her stealth game on. But it's dark enough that she makes her way across to the hill, dodging patrols until she begins on her way up to the hill.

<< Quake arriving on site >>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Nat... may well have been asleep, but the fact that her eyes snapped wide open and alert the second they were within a certain change implies otherwise despite the absolute stillness that came before. Likewise she went over both her kit and Clint's, giving him a nod of recognition when she saw him do the same, and gave a once over of everyone's gear without comment unless prompted.
    As they prepare to jump, her helmet remains unused, and she instead fixes an oddly fancy looking pair of goggles to her head whose eight red cylinders briefly glow red before muting back down. She touches the side and it suddenly extends to encompass her entire head, like a balaclava with a stylized red visor, thus making her completely enclosed in black thanks to her infiltration suit.
    Clint's encouragement is only vaguely backed up when Natasha looks over her shoulder at the rest of them and nods almost invisibly, before the back of the plane opens, and she leaps out without hesitating.
    She's either fearless, or she's a firm believer in ripping off the proverbial bandaid
    <<Black Widow, arriving on site.>> When the appointed time comes, Natasha arrives at the rendezvous point, rotating her shoulder as if to work a kink out after her landing. <<Everyone make it all right?>> She asks, almost rhetorically, as the mission's still the same as long as everyone can walk. Her voice comes out asthough filtered through a speaker, though still as quietly as she means to be.

Melinda May has posed:
HALO drops have never been something May enjoys, but she's more than practiced enough at them to be competent and able to monitor the others that she feels might not be. Namely Hastings, Johnson, and Morgan. Of course, with a night time HALO drop it's nearly impossible, but that's what comms are for. And she's inwardly VERY glad that Barton opted to NOT carry on like an adrenaline-junkie teenager. This time.

Her own chute opens perhaps just a moment earlier than perfect, but that extra moment is enough for her to recover a bit from the VERY uncomfortable jolt of dropping that much momentum so abruptly. God she hates HALO drops, and they're getting more difficult to deal with every year. But, she's touched down in a clear spot between the forest and a creek bed so she's not about to complain.

Switching her comms to both monitor local radio chatter and hear their team channel, she reports in to the others as she heads for their meeting point as quickly as stealth allows. << On my way. >>

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    Daniel has done this all of twice. Once in a simulator. Once when he soiled his pants. For his third attempt, he will be over enemy territory. But hey, the last time he lept from a plane they'd only just 'perfected' the silk chute and they've had decades to perfect them.. right? Guns, check. Gear, check. Parachute.. deep breath.. check. He settles the helmet and mask over his head and checks the seal. This he's more familiar with. <<Check check>> He gives a thumbs up to the group and watches them all leap out of a perfectly good airplane. In the end.. he does the same with a running leap.

    That's where his journey takes a twist. Once he has his HUD green telling him he's on target.. he focuses his attention on the far distance and.. appears above the trees pulling his cord quickly. His landing was a little hard thanks to the fact that his momentum hadn't quite built up enough to fully open the chute but then he hadn't built up enough speed to hurt himself either. Then it was a look to his compass and a scan to identify the rendezvous site. It would figure that Clint arrived first. He chuckled and..

Appeared next to the archer but not close enough to get shanked out of reflex, "Barton." He whispers as he takes off his helmet and breathing gear. A hand activates his throat mic, <<On site>>.

Melinda May has posed:
Once everyone's gathered, May looks at the others, speaking very quietly over the comms instead of loudly enough to be heard normally. You know, just in case. << Romanoff, the fuel depot. Barton, the launch gantry. Johnson, the missile itself. Hastings, overwatch and exfil. Morgan, you and I are on the guidance system. Go straight to the exfil point when your task is done. Do NOT wait for anyone else. >> She's already decided that she's not following her own last order, because that's her job. And if she has to wipe out that entire barracks facility to do it, she will. It would be a complete disaster, but if it can't be helped, it can't be helped. No one gets left behind, mission parameters be damned.

<< Mission time limit, two hours. Go. >> She waits for the others to all disappear before leading Morgan to the main processing building. Crossing the road between them and the buildings is her first concern but by no means her last.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint keeps an eye on folks as they filter in, making sure nobody's got a tail they didn't notice. So far so good. When Hastings arrives, he claps a hand on the man's shoulder, "Hey you surivived, good stuff," he teases, c'mon got to razz the guy on his first real jump. Nods and waves are given to the others as they arrive.

When the orders are given out, he nods to May before looking over to Quake. "Looks like we're headed for the same neighbourhood. Cover each other's backs?" he asks the other agent.

Though before they go nods to Nat. "Stay alive, alright?" he says and then he's off towards the base.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
As the agents start to converge Daisy gives them a smile, first to Clint and Daniel as they are already there when she arrives, busying herself in getting out of her helmet and taking in a deep breath almost as if she hadn't felt fresh air after a long while. << You were fast, Hastings. >> she recognizes. She expected Clint to be around already, but not exactly Daniel!

But then it's go time as Melinda starts giving out their orders. A sharp nod and then a thumbs up at Melinda's indications. << See you soon >>, her tone softening when she addresses May.

But then it's go time, a look towards Clint when he mentions going to the same neighborhood "I will make sure you stay out of trouble." an half-grin and then it's time to go towards the base. She speaks over the comms. << I should be able to get us past the sensors, at least while we are close >>

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    In a heartbeat, Natasha aims her gauntler at Hastings as he suddenly appears, and just as quickly moves it away, putting her arm up, bent at the elbow and making a fist with a bit of a muted sigh.
    Near friendly-fire incident aside, Romanoff listens quietly to the given orders, and merely confirms, <<Roger.>> Her voice still filtered through the mask, which is evidently not coming off for the duration of this mission.
    She looks to Clint, her expression invisible, but that tends to be the case even without it while on the job. <<You too.>> She says softly, a bit of wryness creeping into her voice as she adds: <<I don't want to miss your last one liner.>>
    She also doesn't want to be left alone with an unbalanced ledger, but that's not great for morale.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    When the time came, there was no hesitation. Ten minutes before GO, when the red light illuminated the cabin, Sam dutifully and conscientiously checked his equipment. Mask, oxygen, suit, make sure all zippers are zipped, all the straps are in tight, and bouncing on his toes twice to make sure there is no battle rattle. Then he checks the jump rig of the person in front of him, and has his gear checked in turn by the person behind. Then it's go time. The Green light. The door opens, and the teenager gives a broad grin as he puts on his helmet, closing the catch and rolling his shoulders as he steps up to the line.

    Come his turn, he steps off into the void without fanfare, checks his bearings on the HUD, pulls his his arms, puts his legs together and ... just plummets. On his comm system, just his own, mood music is playing all the way down. AC/DC of course, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.

    He lands with barely a rustle, rolling as he does and pulling in the chute. Within the minute, he's packed up, his gear professionally stowed in the backpack and ready to go. Clearly, this is not his first stealthy entry. <<Techno, successful insert>>

    As the teams begin to move, he stays ahead of Agent May, scanning the horizon, scanning every frequency he can pick up. And for a technopath, that's a lot of frequencies...

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Daniel gives a nod to the group and finds himself a tree to climb. Once he's settled onto a sturdy branch, he starts to sweep the horizon with his gaze. <<Looks like the patrol is coming up from the west.. rounding the depot and gantry.. I count.. eight.. third man has the coms.>> His eyes keep sweeping the grounds but its slow going as he tries to penetrate walls and get good numbers. <<Gantry.. has.. two men looks like. One at the lift.. one walking circles. And.. the depot has.. two that I can tell. I'm still working it out.. lots of buildings there. Both stationary.. guarding what looks to be a bunker door.>>

As the trio of Barton, Romanov and Johnson near the northwest corner they'll hear the sounds of the patrol marching through the snow still some ways off but it's most certainly a full platoon by the sound of it. May and Morgan's approach is going to be a bit hairy as their area is well lit being between the main facility and the barracks. As they pass between the buildings, May's hacked comlink will pick up chatter.. 'something moving near the southeast of the command center. Probably foxes. Too big to be a fox. Not too big for your imagination.' Either way, a flashlight is turned their way.. not bright enough to reach them.. yet.

Melinda May has posed:
Having already tapped into the local comms, when May hears that someone's spotted something along her and Sam's path, she mentally curses and taps Morgan on one arm -- a pre-determined warning that they might have been spotted.

She does her best to hide amongst what shrubs and things there are between her and the approaching flashlight, her eyes on the teenager to make sure he's done the same. There's no one here. Move along.

If only Jedi mind tricks were real, and DAMN her old partner for being such a damned nerd that that is now in her brain.

Clint Barton has posed:
With the approaching patrol, Clint flattens against the ground, trying his best to keep an eye on things. << Might be best if you two circle around to your objectives, I'm going to try to wait these guys out and hit my target. >> he says over comms to his two teammates. He still has his bow in hand and he puts an arrow to the string. "If I need to, I'll cover you." Though that'll mean they're discovered and the whole mission is blown. So obviously that's plan Z.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The problem with being able to follow the comms, at this point in time, is that although Sam is capable of it, he doesn't understand a blessed word being spoken. Even intonation is no help to him here, not without the body language of the speaker. Agitation might simply be inflection... is Korean even a tonal language? Why didn't he check that before he came? Luckily he has someone with him who's perfectly fluent, and it's likely that which saves them both from being easily spotted.

    When the tap on his arm is given, Sam lets his knees collapse under him and rolls into the shrub, avoiding any sudden large lateral movements, ending on his side so his backpack doesn't create a sudden, unnatural bump in the terrain. Somewhere during that roll he helped himself to a blade, and the dark ceramic blade obstinately refuses to create any kind of reflection. It's the best remedy he knows for nosy guards, so he hopes for that guard's sake that he's going to decide to be nice and lazy...

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With the guards approach Daisy also lowers herself down to the ground, frowning as she eyes the group from afar. Though she nods at Clint's indication to circle away, which makes her do just that, <<Good luck, guys >> this said to both Clint and Nat, a brief inclination of her head and then off she goes. Which means she will go with her plan B, stepping away from the group a good ways to a more clear spot, enough that she isn't hearing any sounds of the guards.

And she then takes up to the air, gauntlets focusing her vibration powers, not exactly perfect flight but enough she hopes to at least bring her above the lights and the grounds to attempt and land atop the building where the missile supposedly is.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha wordlessly gives Clint a little two-fingered salute of acknowledgement and begins to crawl forward as quickly as she feasibly can without being spotted until the patrol pass, before rising to a crouched stride; a sleek shadow as always. She'd prefer not to start a world war or anything, so she's taking her time with this, even if getting into a big fire fight with Clint when they're supposed to be doing their jobs WOULD be oddly nostalgic.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Daniel's attention is focused on the west where the roaming patrol and the trio are about the face off. His attention is very much watching for signs that they might have been spotted. When Daisy takes flight, he whinces as one of the soldiers tilts his head and looks up.. but the tree cover means he doesn't see anything and so the fellow goes back to marching along. It's cold. It's dark. Fog blows from their breaths in the subzero temperatures. Nobody on this patrol is happy to be here and most of them think it's pointless.. except maybe their squad leader who drank the kool aid and is a party man. Moments pass. Tense ones. And the soldiers eventually pass the skulking duo.

Meanwhile, the alerted guard by the barracks starts to trudge towards the slinking shadows.. it's out there somewhere.. he's sure of it. His flashlight sweeps back and forth in a carefully practiced pattern until.. it flicks off. He curses in Korean and taps the thing a few times. It turns on and off intermittently and then.. nothing. More muttering and he turns back for the barracks.. most likely to get fresh batteries.

Melinda May has posed:
Thank the powers that be for poorly manufactured batteries. May quickly taps at Sam twice -- move -- so that they can use the cover of the guard's muttering and walking away to get to their insertion point. There's no way to know if the flashlight failure was Morgan's doing or not but no way in hell is she going to question it.

She's already taken a glance at that fence and while going over is more than easy enough it's also noisy and obvious. She's brought the tools to make an opening in the bottom of the fence and then close it again well enough to fool anyone passing by. It's getting to the corner of the fence that's not going as well as planned. They're losing time.

Clint Barton has posed:
It would be /very/ nostalgic to get into a firefight just now; Nat and him against legions of enemies. Then of course there's the whole bit with Daisy flying. He glances to Nat, "Forgot she could do that." Then he's off after the patrol has passed and slipping down towards the launch gantry, he takes his time, not wanting to start a war either.

He keeps his eyes on the gantry, watching for the positions of the guards, while he gets to an optimum vantage point.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
<< Two guards on the west side of the building, near the main entrance May >> Daisy warns while in flight, her eyes taking in the zone from above briefly and then she starts making her approach towards the rooftop near the southside. She turns off her flight while still a couple of meters above, dropping down and immediately onto her belly, on the lookout for noises about her, letting her senses expand for signs of vibrations.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    <<Welcome to the future, Agent.>> Natasha replies softly even as she moves, voice slightly distracted, <<Early retirement may come from obsoletion instead of a bullet for once. Buck up.>> She is, of course, angling in on her target, and approaches as soon as the coast is clear.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The clock... is something that Sam is also very much aware of. He can't /not/ be, given that the GPS and mission clock are literally strapped to his left arm, and that's close enough that he can't tune out the information. As soon as the guard turns back, as he hoped he would when those batteries mysteriously died, the former assassin stands and moves off, staying in the guard's shadow because that's literally the last place people look.

    Hearing Daisy's report, Sam glances over his shoulder for a moment and makes a circular motion with his right hand, indicating that he recommends going East... and literally going in through the door.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
For all that Daisy's flight requires a steady hum of vibration, the Agent's luck is holding. The patrol passed her off as a gust of wind and the rooftop appeared to lack motion sensors. No doubt the Koreans figured any approach from the sky would be obvious. Naturally, there's a slew of air conditioning units and also heavy motors to assist in the opening of the bay doors. This also means there's a door for roof access. It has an electronic key card swipe.

Natasha manages to get through the fence no problem and slink along the out buildings until she sees the bunker where the two guards are. There's flammable caution signs on the side of it and what appears to be a hose hookup for pumping fuel. The two guards look bored beyond belief and are presently sitting on empty barrels turned on their sides with a crate serving as a table for cards.

Clint can see the roaming guard circling the gantry complex and the one stationary guard by the personnel elevator. There's also a ladder running up the side of the gantry.

Now that they're inside, May and Morgan can see the stairs and doors that face the barracks have no guards and the door is protected by an electronic key swipe and a flickering fluorescent area lamp.

Clint Barton has posed:
Ladders are for chumps and people who want to get caught. Crouched in a snow, in his winter cammo, he reaches for the device strapped to his quiver. He swings it out watching the guards, particularly the one doing the circuit. As he does he digs into a pouch and pulls out the first of his round. A clear sphere the size of a bouncy ball, filled with some sort of viscous liquid.

When the guard doing the circuit has his back turned he lifts his device, a slingshot, the high powered ones your Mom always takes away from you before you hurt someone. He slots the first ball into the sling and fires. Reloading before the first shot hits, then firing again, the balls aimed for key joints in the gantry, the balls exploding on impact releasing a super-cooling agent developed by FitzSimmons for his freeze arrows, freezing the metal cold enough to make it brittle, but leaving no evidence behind.

Keeping an eye on the guards, he fires when their attention is elsewhere he fires until he's hit all twelve points identified or, he gets the order to withdraw.

Melinda May has posed:
May knows exactly how she'd get past that door with the electronic lock, and it's not exactly the most subtle. Knowing why Morgan is going by the callsign 'Techno', she opts to let him deal with that. She instead keeps one ear on the comm chatter while looking right and left for anyone within eyeshot of their current position.

It's that fluorescent lamp that she's most perturbed by, but there's not a whole lot she can do about it without being noisy or obvious. So, she's also now looking for a window. Because those are usually easier for her to get past. Ugh. This is why she's not usually a stealth operative like Romanoff. She'd likely do something epic like just saunter on past any guards when they were looking elsewhere.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    No guards. Honestly, it's as if they want this place to be broken into...

    When he was initially being debriefed, and Sam was still known to SHIELD as Scorpio, he was asked the question how he had routinely managed to defeat even the most sophisticated security measures. His answer was then, and remained during the subsequent two days of insistence, that the technique was personal, and couldn't be taught. Either one was capable of it, or not. Eventually, the question was dropped. Until now, Agent Morgan had never answered it.

    Glancing around for anyone that might be observing, Sam breaks cover, bold as brass, and walks up to the door. The flickering light lengthens its interval, until there's a nice long period of no illumination that someone could conceivably use to walk through the door, but not enough to break out the equipment to defeat that electronic lock.

    Which Sam doesn't.

    At his approach, the fluorescent light switches off, as if through sheer lucky timing, and the teenager simply opens the door. The indicator on the card swipe doesn't change. The device doesn't beep. The lock just... disengages, and he holds the door open for Agent May like the courteous young man that he is...

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Staying low and out of sight, Natasha moves to the fuel pumps, producing a small probe - little more than a needle to all appearances - capable of taking a number of samples, as well as injecting a destabalizing agent; and inserts it under the gasket seal of the hose.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
On the rooftop, Quake has made entry and is making her way along the support beams towards the rocket with nefarious plans in mind. Nefarious, I tell you.

Clint's ingenius plan with Fitz' help goes off without a hitch and a number of key stress points on the gantry have been weakened.

Natasha has collected her sample of fuel while the guards nearby curse each other for cheating at cards. Naturally, they won't complain to their superiors because then they'd both get in trouble.

Meanwhile, May and Morgan are treated to an interior of the main building with red auxilliary lights and a number of cameras aiming down hallways. An elevator is straight ahead of them.. with the building otherwise appearing empty.

Melinda May has posed:
Morgan's gentlemanly holding of the door earns him a mildly amused nod of thanks, but she doesn't move much beyond the doorway as those little red lights all along the hallway indicate the presence of cameras. Okay, technowizkid, still your party here. She's pretty much just the muscle. She looks to Sam then flicks her eyes toward the cameras, as she's not been given any formal briefing on the kid's power set.

Though... just walking past electronic locks? She would remember mention of that in Samuel's file, because that's concerning at the least. This is exactly why she was tasked to shadow him on this mission.

Clint Barton has posed:
Twelve shots, twelve hits. Clint pushes up from where he kneels and starts falling back towards the exfil point. << Gantry handled, pulling out. Good luck guys >>. Clint moves off, looking back towards the base ready to provide fire support if needed.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Her job done, Natasha retrieves the probe, silently bids the guards well in their future endeavors, and leaves the site; switching her goggles back to night vision on her goggles when she leaves the less well lit portion of the base and heads back to the rendezvous point.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    And this... this is a poser. For several seconds, Sam gives a professional and calm glance around the corridor. He can see the cables disappear into the wall. He can sense the data cables inside and behind that wall... but they run too far. However, it does mean that there is data capacity inside the camera system, the signal isn't going out analog. Excellent.

    Kneeling down, he unzips a thigh pocket and retrieves that rugged tablet he'd used during the briefing. Now, Agent May can see something that should be impossible. After a few moments, the screen of his tablet is showing the same view of the camera as the security operator in the control room must be getting, the data feed somehow copied. The teenager looks up towards his supervising agent and gives an apologetic smile, subvocalising 'This is going to take a few moments. Stay close.'

    He hits record on the tablet, capturing thirty seconds of the camera feed, long enough that he might be able to work with it, short enough that it's not immediately apparent when he implements his fix. With a deep exhale, he streams the recorded data to the first camera, and quickly double-times it along the corridor, staying in the field of view of the first camera which is now getting thirty seconds of Empty Corridor, the re-run. Just a matter of doing the same to the other camera before time runs out...

    Mutants... no wonder some people don't like 'em.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
The roaming patrol has made it around the north side of the facility by now. Everything appears normal. Boring. Cold. Only another four hours to go before they're relieved. Don't they get a break for cold prepacked rice cakes yet? The sound of trudging boots are ignored by all save Agent Hastings who's been watching the patrol like a hawk.

Inside, things appear to be going normally save that Agent Johnson has loosened a maintenance hatch on the missile and left a subtle surprise inside before closing it back up again.

And pretty soon, the pair of May and Morgan have circumvented the cameras leaving the elevator to the control room easy pickings.

Clint and Natasha are free to go on overwatch in case something goes south.

Melinda May has posed:
May nods in acknowledgement of Sam's silent admonition to stay close and does precisely that. Not only because he said so, though. She's now also very alertly watching everything he does because it's increasingly concerning. She's already dreading the report she's going to have to write about this.

Elevators. Deathtraps in her mind. But, they've encountered zero resistance thus far so why the hell not? Still keeping one ear on the comms chatter in Korean and what's going on with the rest of their team, she's gathered that they're the ones holding up the whole party and indicates as much to Sam by tapping her wrist. We need to move faster.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    There is a nod when the wrist is tapped. Yes, he knows very well that they're holding up the show, but then these things can't be hurried. They are literally walking into the control center of a heavily guarded facility in a secret missile base in one of the most isolated and secretive countries in the world. It's like strolling in through the front gate at Baikonour Cosmodrome in the mid sixties.

    The tablet is put away and now Sam is getting ready for resistance, commanding the elevator to take them to the control room, and flatting himself against the wall to give at least a few extra moments of stealth should they alight on a floor that's full of trigger happy DPRK guards.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    There is, for better or for worse, no one standing around when the doors open. The control room is dark. The computers powered down. No doubt these things are carefully monitored with guards and guns ready to shoot any scientist that acts.. inappropriately. If it weren't for their nightvision, they'd be blind right now. And.. there's a camera in the elevator lobby that no doubt saw the elevator open.. albeit with no one visible inside thanks to forward thinking.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The moment Sam can sense that camera, he's on the tablet again. Hopefully his tense look and sudden gesture will forestall Agent May from leaving the elevator too soon. It's the matter of about thirty seconds to do to the poor camera up here exactly what has been done to the ones downstairs, and once again he makes his way across to the control room at double time. But here is his greatest bane, the one thing he cannot overcome... the entire control room stands idle.

    Time to switch to hardware mode.

    Although the layout seems vaguely familiar, although he does know in theory what he's looking for, there is a simple admission he has to make, after making very sure there are no microphones or other bugs recording them. "I... need your help. I don't speak Korean. Can you help me look for the right console? Should say either 'range officer' or 'missile guidance', depending if they want to disguise this place or just don't bother anymore."

Melinda May has posed:
Again, May follows Sam's lead, making sure she's not visible when the elevator doors open. She's pretty well figured out by this point that the kid doesn't actually need to TOUCH anything to affect the electronics around them. Though the fact that she's heard no voices or movement since the door opened fairly well proves to her there's no one in the immediate area. Still can't take any chances.

Seeing him on his tablet again she waits, letting the elevator doors close on their own again. If no buttons are pressed the car should stay where it is. Should. If it doesn't, she will be disappointed. Unsurprised, and disappointed.

Luck is again with them, and then she's following the kid across the control room, her footsteps almost completely silent. At his question about the labels on the consoles, she nods and starts pointing out the console controls. "Missile guidance is here."

Physically sabotaging hardware she can definitely do, though she usually has to have someone guide her to the correct components to target.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Ah, of course. And it's clearly written down as well, how'd I miss that?" There's a smile on Sam's face as he gets down to work, putting the tablet back and opening the other thigh pocket. It's a standard SHIELD issue field toolkit, straight from the quartermaster's stores. Very straight, it has the inventory tag still on it. The back of that console comes right off...

    And then Sam's smile fades. It, in fact, goes into one of almost pure puzzlement. He's used to working with high tech, the best of the best, or at worst the middle of the road of the relatively new. This mainboard is one he's fairly certain is a knockoff Chinese copy of an AT design that was obsolete in the early eighties, over two decades before he was even born! Is that a riser card? Do they even still exist? Where's the modular power supply? Come to that, where is the actual CPU... is that a daughterboard?! Who wired this? A color blind pasta chef?!

    "I... have seen office printers better built than this." Ouch.

Melinda May has posed:
Okay, finally May rolls her eyes and reaches to take the toolkit out Sam's hands. "Let me guess. IF it's not surface mount you have no idea how to deal with it. Tell me what you want done, I'll do it."

Right off the bat she reaches in to that motherboard past the riser card and plucks a tiny two-wire connection off of the board. Now there's no motherboard piezo speaker to indicate power on self-test failures. Then, while still waiting for the kid to get his brain in gear, she looks over at a nearby trash can and plucks out a silver foil gum wrapper which she uses to make the little 1-amp fuse on the circuit board pointless, and uses the needle nose pliers from the toolkit to move no less than six tiny black jumpers around, even pulling one completely and tossing it into the trash.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    <<Ahh guys... you might want to find a way out of there.>> Daniel suggests over the coms. <<I've got some activity from the barracks and its coming your way. The guys at the door are swiping in as well. You didn't trigger any alarms did you? I don't see anything going crazy out here but there's definitely.. two.. three.. four.. bodies coming from the barracks. Two civilian and two military.>>

    Daisy notes the all clear on her end and has already flown off to join the others leaving Agent May and the Trainee the last two on the site. Unfortunately, their elevator door just closed. May can pick up some com chatter, something about the elevator leaving standby.. nobody was authorized.. checking it now..

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The comms didn't help. At all. Because at the moment Sam knows exactly one way out of here, and that's back the way they came. Which is very clearly not going to be an option very soon. But seeing the gum wrapper, he gets an idea, and starts to communicate it after retrieving the jumper from the trash and pocketing it. No leaving evidence behind.

    There is the short click of a stiletto knife being flicked open... is this the moment the betrayal happens? Without a word, the teenager hands the blade over to May, handle first. "Scrape some insulation from the main power, whichever that is, but don't go down to bare copper. Then do the same to the power supply cable for the main drive and wrap them together so the damaged parts touch. Use some foil or some wire if you have to. Anything that'll burn through at a few amps, enough to short it out when the system starts to hit a moderate work load." Which should be right around the moment of launch.

    It's then that he notices the elevator closing and moving. "Shit."

Melinda May has posed:
<< Pihua, >> May says almost silently. See? Another advantage to old school computers, lots and lots of deadspace. << Quick, climb in. >> Yes, she's pointing to the computer console, and the dustydusty space along the bottom of the console that's likely just barely enough for someone to wiggle into and lie down and hope the solder points on the bottoms of the boards don't scrape their back.

May will push the kid along if he's too slow, then squeeze in after him, pulling the toolkit along and then holding the console panel back in its place by her fingernails in the ventilation slits. It's not perfect, but unless someone looks for the screws that normally would be holding it in place, they shouldn't see anything untoward.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    <<Hang on.. don't move. Or.. where did you go?>> It's as if Daniel sort of knew where they were.. but then did not at all expect them to hide inside the massive computer cabinets. <<Ah. There.. that's.. got to be uncomfortable. Look.. hold very still. I'm going to try something not recommended at home.>> Sam might be familiar with this sensation. As if his insides folded into his outsides and he was about to throw up on his spleen. Then he appears next to Daniel. <<One evac. Hold onto your lunch.>> Then Agent May will feel a hand on her shoulder in that cramped space. Then an instant where the world folds in on itself.. and she feels a delightful sensation of being spread across creation atom by atom until she ends up standing next to Sam on the hill. "Thank you for flying air Hastings.. regretfully air sickness bags are not provided."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    It's not the first time Sam has hidden some place at the same time entirely obvious and yet the last place anyone ever looks. It's his first time hiding inside the guidance control console for a new mid range intercontinental ballistic missile though. On the whole, it's not too uncomfortable. He'd rate it a solid three out of nine on the confusing Morgan scale of uncomfortable hiding places. Luckily he's still got his jump suit on, so the obviously sharp metal edges in here don't bother him too much. As long as he doesn't move. It should be quite comf-

    Who moved the universe?

    Why is there a pot of geraniums falling down to the planet lamenting 'oh no, not again!'?

    He finds himself on the hill where Daniel is keeping overwatch, reaching for his still entirely full canteen of absolutely just water honest to mask the momentary sense of unease. It's, of course, Gatorade.

    "Well, not a bad night. All we need to do is trek across the most isolated country in the world, meet a contact we have no reason to trust, have them drive us to an area we don't know well and then go for a night time swim to dive down to a submarine. When people ask me what I did for Spring Break, I'm going to have to tell such lies..." Because literally nobody would believe the truth.

Melinda May has posed:
May doesn't know what Hastings is talking about, but the sudden hand on her shoulder ALMOST makes her flinch in surprise. Almost. She's worked hard to train that reaction away. Then there's the gut-wrenching sensation of... the hell?

Then she's standing on the hill where they started, and May suddenly and completely irrationally understands WHY Dr. McCoy always hated the transporters so much. She's THIS close to snarling something unkind to Daniel, but she's not entirely sure if she's about to throw up or not, and that's not a sensation she's had to deal with for literal DECADES.

She stands perfectly still and waits for the disorientation and nausea to fade before taking a breath, and then she turns to look at the two young men. "Let's move." She'll help Morgan figure out a Spring Break cover story once they're out of hostile territory.