Summary:A.I.M has a bioweapon that needs shutting down. SHIELD responds and the results are … interesting. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
    |
It hadn't taken long to arrange the hit on A.I.M facility where the bioweapon that Jemma had been tracking was supposedly located. The small team that's been assembled is enroute on a Quinn Jet. It's been a bit of a flight but they're nearing their destination.
There's two squads of SHIELD TAC. The members sitting towards the back of the Jet, quietly checking their gear and preparing themselves mentally. The Mission leader Agent Gregory Phillips is standing to the front, addressing the group. "We're three minutes out, you've all got the blueprints of the building. We can't guarantee their current or accurate but it's what we have to work with. Agent Harper you and Doctor Dehaven will be with the Alpha team. You're going through the East Entry. You're job is to disable to the facility, the computers and whatever else you find. Agent Turner and Doctor Simmons are with Beta Team, going through the back. They're going to disable the weapon and recover it."
"Any questions?"
"No questions." Koa Turner is not here for his expertise in ancient artifacts. He's not here for his faculty in dealing with runaway spirits. He is not here to translate long dead languages. No, Koa turner is here as muscle.
This happens from time to time, honestly. WAND is one of the largest concentrations of powered people in SHIELD, since there literally ARE no normal people working for it. So WAND agents to get tagged out when available to serve as 'Fire Eaters' in SHIELD's parlance. Powered people capable of dealing with other powered people.
So. That's why Koa is settling the serpent bracer on his left arm as Agent Phillips speaks, and wrapping a small, fine chain with a glowy blue stone around his right fist.
The black undersuit is settled over Arsenal - a couple of SHIELD patches are a recent upgrade. Red armor covers his vital areas as he listens to the briefing, and then nods his head firmly. "You wanted to know if we worked well together, Kelly." he says with a smirk as he closes his eyes, before reaching up to settle his goggles into place.
Now that he has the info, he shakes his head. "Nope. We're golden here." comes the response about questions on the briefing. With his quiver between his legs, he works on adjusting a few of the arrowheads on their shafts to make sure they're ready.
He didn't tell Kelly whether or not there's a boxing glove arrow in there.
Kelly Dehaven has never been decked out in SHIELD field attire and she keeps… tugging at it. That's totally the only reason she's doing it. Really.
Maybe it's her distraction that causes the map that they were given earlier to pop up in Roy's head with a little red line moving through on their expected path as Kelly's nervous thoughts spill over into his. The redhead looks up as Phillips asks if there's questions but she presses her mouth closed when Koa and Roy says they're good. But she can think of so many questions!
Kelly shoots Roy a nervous look and then forces a big, toothy smile. Everything is good here! Really!
"You'll do fine, Kelly." That's Jemma from her own seat in the Jet. "Stick with Agent Harper and the others and they'll make sure you'll get out. They're used to working with me."
Rumour has it, Jemma is a bit of trouble magnet.
The biochem is herself in SHIELD field kit, a pistol in the holster of her gunbelt. An ICER next to it.
The Quinn Jet goes into a hover, cloaked so it's not visible. This is the tricky part. They have to jump to the ground and make the facility.
The first challenge for Alpha Team is to get through the door. Roys got the answer for that - though it's likely to announce their presence. The members of Alpha Team close around Kelly when they hit the ground. They'll provide a human shield wall at least for the moment.
Beta Team has a similar challenge though some carefully applied C4 to the doors fixes that.
Inside, the alarms are blaring and lights strobing. They know they're under attack. No responders meet either team though the sound of bootfalls getting closer can be heard.
Koa looks right at Roy and gives him a tight smile. "Good luck." He doesn't say that to Kelly. Kelly shouldn't need the luck and besides, Jemma is already encouraging her.
Once the building Koa… does something. Something Jemma has likely not seen before, where glowing motes of light fly into him. Then a shield springs into being on his right arm and a glowing aura surrounds his left. He nods to the people with him to head down a particular passageway. As the resident bullet sponge, he gets to take point. They should be making contact shortly.
"Thanks, you too." Roy responds as he moves to the exit of the Quinjet to move out with the rest of the team. When they arrive at the door, he doesn't consider the whole idea that Kelly could have /hacked/ the door. It's been a while since he's shot anything. So yes, we're going to be shooting a door. His explosion is timed with Koa's as the two teams enter the building.
Of course he hears Kelly in his head - he doesn't have to turn around to look at her, he doesn't want her to see him blushing. "…I know. Premature firing off is a real problem, though." he says dryly as he notches a fresh arrow to start to move forward around the blasted door and forward. "I promise you can unlock the next one!"
No one said they had to jump out of a perfectly good plane!! Kelly assumed it would *land* and then they'd just… rush out or something. She stands at the edge for a moment, screwing up her face to gather her courage and then jumps out. She lands a lot more roughly than the others, but the other Alpha Team folks help keep her from falling. It does put her a bit behind Roy, which might be part of why he's just going arrows-a-blazin'. "« Really? You just like to make things go boom, don't you? »"
It's a weird change for Kelly, not to wear her gloves when she's outside her condo. She stays in the middle of the group as Roy leads the way and tries to keep her 'mental' voice mostly quiet.
Of course no one said anything about jumping out of a perfectly good plane. Who would sign up for a mission if they did?
Alpha team follows the corridor they're in, the booted footfalls drawing closer. They make their first checkpoint, there's a door to get through. It's got a computerised lock on it and exploding it isn't an option.
"Doctor Dehaven." The squad leader makes way as Kelly ushered forward.
It's then the sonic blast is felt - strong enough to knock on of the agents back against the wall. He's stunned but he'll recovered. That's followed by the arrival of four yellow suited soldiers, all armed with futuristic rifles. Another sonic blast buffets the hallway - the TAC team needs to hold long enough for Kelly to get through the door.
Beta team is met with resistance early. Las-rifles fire as Koa moves them forward, the TAC team providing what covering fire they can, but it's Koa that's going to have to get them through. There's only three at the moment - easy right?
The aim here was to split the attention of the responders. The teams will meet up in just a minute.
This is what Koa was brought for. He takes several laser blasts on his shield and then runs forward. Fast. Too fast. Then he flips up the wall and lands among the three shooters. They should be more spread out but AIM security is rarely very tactically minded, relying more on their weapons than anything else. In short order Koa is tossing them around like ragdolls and like ragdolls… they don't last very long.
By the time the other team has the lock open, he's finished with them and motioning Jemma forward.
"We're clear and waiting for you Alpha. Status?"
When the sonic blast goes off, Roy is blown backwards against the wall. There's a wince of pain as he tries to shake off that ringing in his ears. "«Kelly?!»" his mind immediately snaps, reaching out to her to make sure she's fine before his attention snaps back to the yellow suit. "..wow, could they have made themselves any easier targets?" he asks noone in paticular. Of course, he sort of /yelled/ that, since his ears are still ringing like mad, but surely someone heard the quip, right?
Doesn't matter - the first arrow is fired, a taser arrow that was queued up to send after the first one to step around the corner. Then a seocnd one is pulled, fired, and when this one strikes, it explodes in a vibrant blast of colors and sound - hopefully to blind the yellow suits as he prepares the next one.
When Koa asks for a status, Roy grunts and triggers the radio in his arm. "Peachy keen, just waiting for Kelly to put in the Konami code to get us through the door!"
Kelly Dehaven runshuffles her way up (how do people move with all these extra layers??) and looks at the lock for a few moments before the fingers of one hand meld together and then taper to a point, giving her something to wedge beneath the faceplate and pop that off to get to the electronics inside. From solid to liquid to solid and back to liquid, the psisteel flows over the system until Kelly finds something to connect to. "I'm in." She updates the group, the silver striations in her irises blooming as she probes the system. She's not a technopath, she can't just make a system do what she wants. She just has the upside that the access she uses is unusual and so aren't usually protected.
As the sonic blast barrels down the corridor, Kelly's ripped away from the panel and hits the door with an *unf* as the wind is knocked out of her. But she's still 'wirelessly' connected and even though she's working on sucking air back into her lungs, the door opens behind her. "« Good! I'm good! »" She doesn't try to talk, just gives a thumbs-up though it might be a bit shaky. She stretches a hand out towards the lock, her arm extending like some tentacle to merge with the psisteel left behind, gathering all back up and then it turns back into a hand.
Along with Roys arrows - which all hit their marks, the TAC team lays down fire with their own weapons. It clears the way for Beta Team to pick their way through the bodies and join Alpha team.
As Kelly gets that door open she'll notice something interesting. That's not standard computer circuits the system is using. They feel like … human brainwaves … sort of.
The door does open and reveals a laboratory. The computer systems is located against the wall. That's Kelly's target.
Jemma is clearly used to working in the field. She manages to move, albeit slowly, with her armour on. When Koa gestures she follows along, the rest of the TAC team providing a shield. Into the room with Kelly. Her target is the device that's held in the containment room next to the computer. "Doctor Dehaven, I need you to override the room controls and let me in." She says.
That leaves Koa, Roy and the TAC teams to weather the rest of the Yellow Suits that descend on them - from both ends of the corridor.
When the door opens Koa nods to Roy and Kelly. "Nice work you two. This way. Come on."
Despite Roy's cybernetic arm, Koa is probably still the best bullet sponge in that there is a non zero chance of him surviving being blasted by something big. So he takes point again, hunched slightly over to give the archer a clear shot over his shield at the next thing that comes up.
The next thing that comes up is a computer room and Koa quietly points some of the tac members to one exit. Roy he doesn't feel the need to direct. The marksman knows his job and Koa knows that he'll do whatever is best for the team. Whatever gives them the best chance of going home.
There's… liquid nearby. Water based liquid. He can feel it in pipes and pumps.
"Hold 'em." The agent says as puts his ear to one of the walls, nods and then… punches it in to expose a set of piping.
Punches it in. His file says he's human.
That does leave Roy to cover Jemma and Kelly for at least a solid thirty seconds though. And there's a lot of yellow suits to deal with.
Seriously, Roy's wondering. "Starting to get a complex that I may be too normal for SHIELD." he comments to noone in paticular as he feels along his quiver. Finding the arrow he wants, he notches and fires it. Striking a yellow suit, it explodes into a quick-drying goop that glues the man to the wall, holding him fast there. Another arrow is notched, and he fires it.
As it flies, is suddenly splits in two, spinning around wildly as it strikes the suit in the head, wrapping around and the bolo-balls strike him in the faceplate, knocking him out.
And then Koa drops the liquid. "Step back!" he calls to the others as he notches another arrow, and sends it flying. Not at a target, but at the stream of water that Koa releases and electrifies it with the taser arrow.
Kelly Dehaven is left shaking her head a bit as she reorients herself and then she's looking back at the lock with a furrowed brow. "That's ooooh!" And then she's being hustled off in a stumbling shuffle. "But! The!" Grrr. There was SCIENCE back there!
They make it through to their target and Kelly is being shuffled over to the computer systems. The redheaded scientist skips the keyboard and doesn't really pay attention to the monitor. Her hands shift and change and then she's plugging into the I/O ports and diving into the machinemind so she can find her way to where the room controls are located. Her eyes have gone chrome-silver to match her arms as she works.
There was indeed SCIENCE! back there, Kelly's correct. She's rewared though as she enters the computer. There it is again. The circuity resembles brain waves, sort of. Neural pathways. Which might be fascinating, it makes finding the room controls slightly easier. And yet … she can feel a slight buzz against her telepathy. Like something whispering to her.
Jemma is suiting up, in a containment suit. As soon as she hears the door click, she wrenches it open and heads inside, closing the door behind her - leaving Kelly to start downloading and erasing files, while the biochem works to disable the weapon.
Koa finds himself face to face to large yellow suit. A large yellow suit with sonic rifle. There's no hesitation, the rifle is raised and the trigger pulled, the yellow suit slipping in the water as he does.
Roys electrifying arrows hits the water, causing several of the yellow suits to twitch and fall. They're down but not out and there's still ones up an fighting.
Surely the Scientists can't be much longer.
Koa had a plan but no plan survives contact with the enemy. He ducks and backhands the sonic rifleman hard enough to send him over Kelly and Jemma's head and into the opposite wall. He won't be getting back up, hopefully.
"Uwe ka lani, ola ka honua!" The WAND operative lifts both arms, moving them in a crossing, circular pattern as he turns and the water flowing out of the pipes writhes unnaturally at his command. His eyes have gone pure blue and when Roy puts that 'thunder' into the stream of water he grins ferally.
Then the water strikes out like a snake. Well, more like a Hydra. It strikes in multiple directions at once, penetrating the armored yellow suits like a spear and delivering a nasty shock when it does.
If that doesn't clean the scientists up and give the two SHIELD geeks the room they need to do their work, he is positive that Roy will take care of the rest.
"You got that one, Agent Turner?" Roy asks over to the agent as the large man with the rifle comes around the corner. Ducking around the corner, he hears the cry of the agent as he releases the blast, there's a lift of both brows beneath the goggles. "Shiiiit." he mutters, surprised utterly at the show of magic.
But Roy can't be outdone. Okay, he totally can. But, rising from his perch where there was still a few guys left, he shouts out. "Mele Kalikimaka-ma-ha!" And he fires the arrow. The tip of it expands and soldifies into a boxing glove. Striking one guard, it's supposed to ricochet and notch into the next one.
"Boxing glove arrow. Awesome, right?"
Kelly Dehaven already has a milspec solid-state drive to download to. She doesn't even need to worry about decrypting any files, the eggheads back at SHIELD can do that at their leisure. She just needs to copy the data over.
The short redhead has a *lot* more ability to control minds and bend it to her will, which makes everything go a bit faster than expected but it also distracts her a bit. She's focused enough on her task that Roy's actions aren't pulling her attention away. He hasn't been hurt or anything so he's more comforting white noise in the back of her head.
While Kelly's got one channel offloading data and wiping drives, another is trying to track back that other mind she's sensing. Trying to clear up that whisper. She totally misses the boxing glove arrow's Grand Entrance.
As Kelly is busy rifling through the computer, that neural circuitry makes it easier. Hello. You look like you're looking for files on Project G4567. I don't think you're authorised to access that.
That's totally in her head, through the link to the computer - just as she experiences a seering pain. Not debilitating but she's going to have to be quick.
The loudspeakers in the room blare Commencing lockdown of biocontainment area
That's the room that Jemma's stepped into. This is not good.
The yellow suits fall one after another. Two taken out by a glove to the face. There's only a couple left now … then collect the SHIELD Science Geeks and get the hell out of there.
Simple right?
Koa uses the water to actually strangle one of the AIM people while Roy and the TAC team mop up the rest. Then he shoves it back into the pipe and sort of sheepishly bends it into a knot. There. Now no one will be getting… damp.
He turns back to the scene, eyes still blazing blue. "Nice work Arsenal. Doctor DeHaven I trust things are under control." One squint. Two sq-
"Where's Doctor Simmons?"
Moist. Moist is the word you're looking for, Koa. Roy has that feeling of Kelly in the back of his head - and when she gets hit with that searing pain - it comes along the line to hit him as well. He lets out a loud pained cry, reaching up to grab at the sides of his head, forgetting to shoot for a moment as he nearly doubles over.
Direct mental assault on him is a new and painful experience for Roy Harper, and he's trying his best to try to bring it under control, and keep from ripping that link to her from his ear.
The searing pain that stabs into Kelly's mind from the system she's linked into spills over her link and into Roy before she starts trying to bring up some internal firewalls to beat it back down. "« What the hell *are* you? »" Kelly's thought echoes through the system before she sees it start trying to lock down the room Jemma's in. "« Oh no you don't! »"
Kelly prioritizes people over things, and so the data extraction is left at where she's got it as she turns all of her attention to the quasi-mind she can feel through the network. The firewalls come down and Roy can feel Kelly do… something with his mind. Thinking is suddenly work as she borrows him like added RAM to try to bend the system to her will. "« Open. OPEN. OPEN!!! »"
The lock on the containment room snap shut.
Kelly's battle with the computer is an epic one. I am the guardian of the system. The voice tells her. And you do not have authorisation. Prepare for sanitisation.
That pain increases as Kelly is assaulted and she slowly looses the battle. That is until she co-opts Roy and gets the added RAM boost. The quasi-mind fights but she's slowly able to push it back.
Poor Roy is on his for the moment.
Kelly still has to work her way through the decoding of the door but she can do it.
Koa can see Jemma working quickly, trying to wrangle the device into a shielded box. She's working steadily though the tremor in her hands is obvious - she's worried, at the very least about what's happening.
Just before Kelly gets control of the computer again, and just before Jemma can get the device in the box, there's a flash of light from the device … Jemma gets the box shut and collapses.
The door to the containment room opens ….
Koa does not want to go into that room. It said 'Biocontainment.' Fortunately he doesn't have to. When DeHaven gets the door open he throws his left arm out. A literal giant green asp rears up from the Aura around it to grab both Jemma Simmons and the box.
"Eagle Four, we'll need priority extraction. We've got an agent down."
At least one. He turns once he's got Simmons secured (read, thrown over one of his rather large shoulders) to look at the other two.
"Harper? Dehaven?" He uses last names because in all honestly he's probably not on a first name basis with them. And he is nothing if not polite.
"You two okay?" They were clearly NOT okay a minute ago.
Roy's still on his own, and is in a lot of pain. The urge to pull away from Kelly and break the connection is strong, but he has the feeling that she needs him. "She's trying to get Simmons out!" he yells towards Koa. "Stuck. She's stuck." And that seems to be the way it's going to be for Roy for a few moments as his eyes reflect that same silver color of Kelly's, even if not as deep.
Please hurry. His mind is shuddering under the shock of the assault. His eyes press together hard as he tries to find some way to get some control.
And then Kelly shoves everything into his brain. His eyes go completely silver and he screams, dropping to his knees, clutching at the sides of his head. «Oh god, oh god, Kellykellykelly!»
It's not the good calling of her name.
Kelly Dehaven grits her teeth as the pain ramps up, and then she shifts gears a bit and dumps most of the pain over onto poor Roy so she can focus on getting the Guardian to Open. The. Damned. DOOR.
Even as Roy screams, Kelly roars. The door opens and Kelly drops to the floor, breaking her connection to the Guardian. The pain from its attack stops, but that was a lot of psychic energy shoved through a mind that's not used to dealing with it. Even Kelly's got a splitting headache and getting her feet under her might take more coordination than she's got at the moment.
The telepath's mental touch against Roy's mind is *incredibly* gentle. Apology and reassurance. She doesn't try to talk in his mind, afraid his mental channels are too raw for that right now. Instead, she manages to croak out a response to Koa. "Sure. Peachy keen." Oh yeah. She's gonna need some help out of here.
"Agents …" That's Phillips who's gathering the rest of the TAC squads. His face is set in unhappy lines. "… the Quinn Jet will be touching down in three minutes. Go now."
Agents gather around Kelly and Roy, willing to help them out - even though they're not sure what went down here. One Agent picks up Kelly's drive - they might need that data later.
Soon they're all in the jet and taking off.
Jemma hasn't recovered consciousness - the extend of her injuries, if any, isn't known. It's straight to SHIELD med bay for her.
"Mmmmmmnnnn." Koa makes a noncommittal but rather unhappy sound. There's an old chestnut from Star Trek. 'It is possible to commit no errors and still lose'. This is looking like that scenario right now.
"Eagle Four, Simmons, Hardwire and Arsenal are all down or compromised. We have the package. Come get us now. We're going to need some med beds when we get back." And that's going to be a very quick, very bumpy ride.
Since Harper is still down and looks worse off than Kelly, Koa goes to him first and physically picks him up if necessary. He nods to one of the Tac Teams to get the at least conscious DeHaven up and moving.
Koa is grateful for once not to be the one looking or feeling like shit at the end of the operation. But he's incredibly worried all the same.
"Alright everyone. Move it."
While there's no physical injuries, Roy's damn near whimpering in pain. He manages to grit his teeth and push himself up - when he feels Kelly's touch in his mind, his first reaction is a recoil, as if kicked.
It may be a few moments for him to pull himself back together again as he pulls himself up at Koa's urging, but is immediately looking for the techno/telepath to help her.
Feeling Roy recoil, Kelly pulls her mental touch as far back as she can. So he won't feel the guilt that rises up at having hurt him so badly. That he comes over to her anyway gets him a pained, tired smile and she puts her hand in his before nodding slightly to Koa. Damn, even nodding hurts! "Yes, sir."
It definitely isn't pretty, but everyone's making it out alive.
Right?