Owner	Pose
Natasha Romanova	There's a holographic display over in the midst of the Hellicarrier deck and a few different agents of varying types settled over it in various degrees of relaxation. Along the display is showing a series of different styles of aircraft - some more exotic, others more Down to Earth. Natasha is settled in there working over the display.
Sybil Tan	Kestrel swoops in through one of the large openings leading to the elevators, doing a complete spin for the sheer hell of it before pulling up to a hover near the display. Cutting the flight engines, she settles to the deck, the adamantium claws on the suit's feet retracting upwards so that she can walk normally. At the same time, the helmet splits and retracts into the collar of the armor.     Walking the rest of the way over to the display area, she nods to a few people she knows, then moves over to stand near the displays, looking them over and waiting to see how serious things are. To judge by the relaxed agents, it's probably not too bad.
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would glance over at Sybil and give a low nod over at her while settling in. "FOrward observers have seen some Hydra pilots doing test runs with what looks like a mobile troop transport." It looks over like a Quinjet but where the VTOL engines have been replaced with rocket boosters used for BUFF's to use for takeoff that somehow have been securely attached over to the frame and extremely bulky looking airbrakes on the front. And heavy, heavy wedged armor upon it.
Sybil Tan	Sybil studies the holos of the transport, noting a few likely stress points and flaws. "It looks like the thing would be fairly clumsy to maneuver. Using rocket boosters and armor like that make me think they would probably be used for a fairly straight path to where they are headed. The armor then would be there because the trajectory is pretty easy to discern and shoot at."     She looks over to Natasha, asking "Any intel on what the things are going to be used for, or did we just find out about them? We should be able to deal with them pretty easily though."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake arrives on the helicarrier deck a little late for the briefing. She's wearing a full flight suit, complete with her vintage Blackhawk Squadron jacket and cap. The blonde has smiles for everyone and greets several pilots by their first names. Zinda gives Nat a nod and offers a hand to Sybil. "Hey there, I'm Zinda. Sorry I'm late, but I had to top off my tank first." She turns her attention to the holo display, then. "Somebody goin' to a demolition derby? Cause I ain't never seen rockets on planes work real well for very long."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod over, "A.. Forward observer saw a trio of them in flight tests. They were going through landings. At Mach two point seven and having about a hundred and fifty meter landing zone." A video would show the bulky transport the size of a small airliner smashing into the ground at afterburner level speeds, airbreaks kicking in as it would smash down and -something- with the rockets rotating to fire backwards to take it down to a solid stop. Then a ramp opening, and well over a platoon of troops jogging out of it. And jogging out rather than looking like they were all concussed and had broken bones.     She would continue, "Likely high speed troop insertion. It's fast enough to evade most surface to air systems and fighter interceptions."
Sybil Tan	Sybil hmms while watching the landings. "They have to have the timing exactly right or else the only thing coming out would be dripping off the walls. Not something I'd care to gamble on, but then HYDRA is not known for caring about their cannon fodder. Best way to handle the things would be finding their staging area and sabotaging them on the ground."     Watching the footage again, she nods. "I could probably deal with them as they come in, depending on how many are sent at once and if I'm close enough to their target to get in front of them. Otherwise we better have a good number of people where these things land."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake shifts her weight from one foot to the other, leaning in a little closer to the image. "Frankly, I'm surprised nothin' blew up." she declares. "They're fast, I'll give 'em that, but those rockets put out one helluva heat signature for missiles to find." The blonde ace taps her chin, then. "And fast as they are, a point-blank missile shot is a hard thing to run away from." Zinda looks at Sybil, then. "But you're right. If we're gonna have any chance of takin' these down, we gotta anticipate an' know where they're goin'. But that's probably the point."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod, "There's three of them that did several landings. So apparently they have some sort of system that works. They probably don't havea long range. Probably only a few hundred kilometers. But, being able to land a couple hundred troops if they cram them in tight as they can and land three or four of those in the same area.." She would nod over to Sybil.     "And any sort of damage to the control features will give an entire load of dead troopers."
Sybil Tan	"Probably all we would need to do to sabotage them is to disable the motor that raises the air brakes. At that point, they're going to be hitting the ground hard. And it's better than completely disabling them because they won't know until it's too late." She examines the holos of the craft again. "Yes, that would be the best way, I think. Anything else would probably be noticed before they left the ground."     She looks back to Natasha, "I would strongly suggest assigning a high priority to finding their base, but no doubt you already have a number of agents working on it." She points at the holo, adding "The rotation mounts for the rockets are also a weak point, but more likely to be noticed and fixed before the assault happens."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake folds her arms and nods to Sybil. "Gotta agree with you there. We ain't gonna take these birds down with brute force. We gotta know where they take off from or know where they're goin'. No matter how fast the plane, she's gotta take off an' land sometime. That's the real big weakness."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod over at Zinda, "Fortunately they probably have a rather.. Sizable footprint they need to operate out of." They would still need the logistical facilities to fuel them, launch things that big, apply the JATO's and modifications.. And with only a rather limited range to oeprate from they could only be based out of so many places. Even Hydra wouldn't use transports that big as one offs to be disposed after a single use.     "So keep possible launch areas under satellite observation.. What are your thoughts on the modifications? Extremely involved, field jury rigged.."
Sybil Tan	"You mean modifications to the transports so they can do things other than carry troops? Probably not a lot, honestly. They're not maneuverable enough to put weapons on, unless they did turrets to turn them into instant bunkers when they land. What they might be best for besides troops would be flying bombs, but missiles are much cheaper than those things. If I were using them, I'd go with the bunker concept. Drop them somewhere important like the White House, equip a couple turrets on top and you've got a defensive position. But even that is a waste, because we have heroes who could just blast the things or carry them away. All I can see them used for is troop transport, really."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake considers. "JATO's are a single-barrel shotgun. Once these things land, they're pretty much sittin' ducks. Unless they carry backup rockets, which takes up cargo space an' sorta defeats the purpose of a transport." She shakes her head, then. "I see 'em sorta like the troop gliders used in the War, except these depend on speed instead of stealth. They're fast enough, but only for short bursts. And it's gotta be like flyin' a rocket-powered bus; she goes whatever direction you want, so long as it's straight."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod over at Zinda thoughtfully. "So how intensive is the conversion process to add JATOs onto them and whatever the modifications are to let them land with them? Something that can be done in the field or would it require a full hangar and workshop to perform?"
Sybil Tan	"You mean on top of the rockets they are already using? Well, the JATOs are easy enough to fit, really you just need to make a hardpoint to attach them and run a control line to the cockpit. As Ms. Blake said, they're a one shot item, you use it to get off the ground and then it needs to be replaced. That's probably all you'd do for the landing, except you'd mount them backwards so when they fire they provide braking instead of acceleration."     Looking over to Zinda, she says "It's probably doable in the field as long as they have someone competent to attach the hardpoints to the transport, wouldn't you say? I imagine either one of us could strap JATOs to one of these Quinjets inside a couple hours. Call it maybe a day for people with less advanced and available equipment?"
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake listens to Sybil for a moment. "Yeah, I agree. It's possible with a good ground crew. Makin' the hard points secure wouldn't be tough. The air brakes an' all that armor would be tougher. An' like y'all said, there's no tellin' what sorta flight control changes they made." Zinda considers for a moment, then shakes her head. "I gotta believe if it was -easy-, we would've seen more than jus' three of 'em, though. And they would be makin' more."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would nod thoughtfully. "So these could be prototypeso r proof of concepts?" Possible. Or not. "OR they're just being used for a specific mission." She would think for a few moments then and narrow her eyes. "We can't just simply destroy them and consider the matter resolved. If they can make more of them, destroying the ones they have is just a short term stopgap."
Sybil Tan	Sybil nods, "It seems very likely these are prototypes. Though villains do tend to make expensive devices for a single use more often than we would, these look a bit expensive. Especially because I doubt they got the landing right on their first try. Hopefully it was an unmanned test for the first few."     She looks at the other holos to see where the videos were taken, adding "Track backwards along their trajectory and you will almost certainly find their launch area. The real question is will that be their base or simply a place they transported them to in some manner and then launched."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake tilts her head at Sybil's idea, nodding. "I'm sure we got satellites an' drones already scanning as wide as we can. But as much as I like blowin' things up, we gotta capture one." She pauses for effect. "Then we gotta either fly it out or rig up a pretty big airlift. A C-17 should hold one, if we can manage to borrow one of those big boys." Zinda grins, then. "Oh, and there's probably gonna be folks shootin' at us when we try an' steal their aircraft."
Natasha Romanova	Natasha Romanoff would slowly chuckle, "That seems like a rather.. Aggressive operational plan." She likes it. And goes to shrug over at Zinda. "I'm noticing very much this seems to be your default suggestion." Of course a pilot would want to go ahead and steal a new plane.
Sybil Tan	"A C-17 needs a bit more runway then I imagine they have for these things. We might be able to do it with multiple Quinjets and strong cables depending on what they actually weigh. Depending on the location, we might only have to carry them for a short hop to a large enough open area for a C-17. Thank goodness those monsters don't need an actual paved runway, that should make it easier."     She considers a moment, then nods. "Worst comes to worst, Ms. Blake flies one out while I snip a few control surfaces off the other two."
Zinda Blake	Zinda Blake starts pacing slowly around the holo image, looking thoughtful. "The problem's gonna be not only getting a transport IN, but getting it back out again. Like I said, if we steal one they're gonna want it back. The more I think about it the more I'm in favor of the 'sneak in, fly out' option..." The ideas continue, kicking back and forth with commentary and contingencies.