2019-09-01 - To Weed Out An Informant

Summary:

A raid on an AIM facility goes pearshaped.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Sun Sep 1 06:44:24 2019
Location: Quinnjet

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

melinda-mayjemma-simmonssteve-rogersjeriah-london

SHIELD left on a mission about three hours ago, they've been enroute in a Quinnjet since then. The target, an AIM facility on some remote island in the Pacific Ocean, said to be producing the bio-weapon or part of it.

The briefing on the facility had been held until they were in the air and Jemma is just wrapping that up as they near the island. This is a total change of operations from previous - normally, the briefing would have been given on the ground. Why the change? No one is saying.

"Mister London, Agents May and Rogers and myself will be using the North Entrance. TAC Teams 3 and 4 will enter and exit via the South. Data will be extracted by Agent Kilmore. Any questions?" beat "Agent May, how long to our destination?"


Jeriah quirks a brow that he's not doing the data extraction. That's a significant departure from the previous missions. It's another oddity in a list of oddities that is getting a bit lengthy at this point. "What's the tactical estimate on the resistance we're going to face?"

There ARE reasons that Jeriah might not be tasked with data extraction. Between himself and his hounds he's one of the most significant combat assets on this team, if possibly not THE most. That might be Agent Rogers, but still. If there were going to be major resistance that would make sense.

Of course this is why Jeriah's preference would be to pacify the facility FIRST, and THEN extract the data. But SHIELD does as it does in these regards.


"Figure anybody shooting at us isn't on our team, so no questions from me."

This comes from where Steve sits in one of the Quinjet's seats, freed of his cross-body seatbelting. He glances up from fussing with one of the straps around his forearm, this length of sturdy fabric connected to the famous spangled shield. In his navy-blue matte stealth-suit, centrally marked with a silver star and spanned outwards across his chest by stripes, he's not yet wearing his helmet. He'll do a comm check once they're close enough to jump.

No Barnes this time to tell him to wear a parachute.


"Entering island airspace in one minute. Landing in three," May replies. Why the distinction? Well, anyone who's done this sort of mission before likely already knows. Anyone else, she's not going to waste time explaining. They'll figure it out.

"Rogers. Message from Barnes. Wear a parachute." She delivers this particularly dryly, as if she was doing so only because she'd been ordered by a superior or similar.


Jeriah hasn't been given any information on this Operation. Normally he and Jemma, along with the team, would go over it with a fine tooth comb. But not this time. Well may he frown.

"Intelligence reports that it's just beekeepers and the standard sort of weapons." Jemma answers, seeing that look. "Standard numbers for a facility this size, regular sweeps. We're to provide the distraction this time."

As the Quinnjet enters a hover and May opens the back, TAC Teams 3 and 4 suit up and exit. They'll be in position in a moment.

"Alright then, let's go…." Jemma stands, adjusting her armour and giving Jeriah a look. Is he going to make any sarky comments about staying on the plane?

The facility is a fairly dismal from the outside. Concrete walls rise from the ground. There's only a few windows on each side and they're well fortified. "Over to you Agent May."

//This is TAC Teams 3 and 4, we're in position and holding."


"I need to charge you more for this crap." Jeriah sighs as he checks his weapons. He does not like being a mushroom but he's quite used to it. One of the supposed benefits of going private, though, is that happens a lot less. Though clearly not 'not at all.'

There's no comment to Jemma about staying on the plane though she gets a look that says she should. Then he's out and firing. His dogs spread out and launch sonic bolts and electro-plasma spheres into the walls. They're hardened against attack but the high energy assault should create a breach shortly.

"Getting a targetting feed of this place…" This is the fourth drone online that he's sending up now and that means he's going to have such a headache when this is done.


Once the TAC teams are out, May maneuvers the quinjet around so the remaining people can approach the base from a different direction and settles the bird with an only barely perceptible bump. With the ease of much practice, she hits buttons and flips toggle switches in the 'jet's control panel before shedding her own flight harness and turning to stand and join the others. Her own attire looks perhaps a bit distressingly minimal compared to the others, especially considering she doesn't appear to be carrying a weapon. Not even an ICER. "We want them to think we're the ones going in after intel, but don't bother being quiet about it."

And, at least London's taking the 'don't bother to be quiet' part to heart.


"…damnit, Barnes," comes the mutter, sotto-voce, accompanied by a wry little wrinkle of Steve's nose. Shaking his head, he pats himself down to make certain all buckles and belts are engaged on his body before he rises to his feet. A grip of an overhead handle keeps his balance pristine as he glances between Jemma and Jeriah. "Let's go distract 'em."

He's on Jeriah's six as they exit the Quinjet with helmet now on his head. Talk about a distraction, the weaponry fired from the dogs. The Captain's dubiously impressed. Get 'em, Fido, indeed. He's ready to dart into the nearest breach once it occurs, shield upraised, the ultimate flag-suited distraction.


Jemma keeps to the back of the group as they storm the facility. "It's ok, Agent Rogers, we won't tell him if you don't use one." Not they need parachutes - at the moment.

Jeriah's dogs sonic attacks start to weaken the structure, the team can see the walls cracking and crumbling.

A door slides open letting a team of beekeepers become visible. This team isn't playing around, it's an area of attack sonic blast that they launch followed up, for the moment with ballistic weapons, each targetting Jeriah, May and Steve as they fire.

"TAC teams 3 and 4, we're starting our run."


"Leave it to SHIELD to use the best information warfare specialist in a thousand miles as a distraction." Jeriah mutters to May. He can make that claim because, well, it's an island and he's probably the ONLY information warfare specialist in a thousand miles. That said, he is quite GOOD so his point more or less stands in general.

Jeriah takes that sonic blast in his power fields and moves for cover. The ballistic weaponry shouldn't be a threat, not at that size, but it's AIM and they always have weird kinds of weapons. So. Cover it is. The door becomes the target of all of his drones weapons though. They move with military precision. Two of them covering, while Jeriah and another shift locations. When they get a clear shot that plasma grenade launcher goes full auto but it doesn't target the door. Instead it targets the wall above and immediately to the sides, forcing the bee keepers to duck and cover or get fried by the energy wash as Steve and May make their approaches.

Jeriah himself makes a dead sprint for the wall and when he gets up to it… he PUNCHES. Sonic fields aren't just for armor, after all.


"I appreciate your tact, Doctor Simmons," replies the Captain over the comms as he begins his approach. Jeriah's dogs are blurs of mechanical, uncanny silver ahead of them. He's quick across the distance between their landing and the breach, shield upraised.

The ballistic ammunition resounds from the vibranium buckler in an atonal cacophony. Steve learned long ago to rush in low to avoid bullets strafing his legs. He winces behind the shield at the initial sonic blast, but continues bulling through it.

CLANG CLANG WHAM CLANG — that's the super-soldier slamming into remaining ambulatory AIM agents. Yellow suits go flying in different directions.

Unfortunately, one AIM agent has better aim than most and a solid grip around his sonic gun. As Steve opens up his chest to counterbalance a swing of his shield, he might as well be a star-spangled target. The shot hits him square in the collarbones. Back he tumbles a good number of feet until he sprawls out on his stomach, knocked cold, ears bleeding.


May's tactic is to stay behind cover until London's drones have done the job of getting the beekeepers to stop firing. Then, she sprints after Jeriah toward said wall, ducking against it hopefully out of the direct line of sight of those damned beekeepers. She waits for the man with the sonic fields to bust an opening through the wall, but has to turn when one yellow-suited AIM flunkie rushes toward them. She rushes back out and catches the person before they can get anywhere close to raising his weapon, taking away said weapon and using it like a bludgeon. Surprisingly effective.

"Rogers, status." She's mostly speaking up because he's no longer in her direct line of sight, and that's a bad thing.


Jeriah, Steve and May clear the way, AIM beekeepers falling like … bee's. They can find their way into the facility and down the corridor.

It's dim, the security lights flashing and alarms sounding. They might think they're free and clear for how far they get into the building, the data centre is just another hallway away. Another squad of beekeepers round the corner and spread out across the hallway. More sonic blasts hit the SHIELD pair.

"This is Agent Simmons, Agent Rogers is down, I'm covering him and arranging exfil." They can hear the sounds of weapons fires in the background of that comms. "We're taking fire though…"

"TAC Teams 3 and 4, we're nearly to the data centre."


"Moving up for cover." Comes Jeriah's terse report. Two of his dogs are now looking basically down the second corridor and firing down it. That corridor shortly becomes unlivable for anyone in a yellow suit. Jeriah and the other hound - the one with the launcher - have torn a hole in the wall to the side of the main action and are now firing further into the complex to prevent reinforcements from reaching this area. The priority now is getting Rogers out and continuing with the mission.

"I'm getting RF interference on my observation drone. They might be trying to jam our eye in the sky."

Which means they're probably about to try something they don't want him to see.


Ducking back around a corner, May looks at Jeriah and peeks toward the most recent batch of beekeepers trying to block their path. She's kept a hold of the weapon she'd taken off of a beekeeper, and now she puts it to good use, kneeling down and shooting toward the group cutting them off from closer to the floor — both to avoid the possibility of hitting London or his four-legged metallic companions and to make it harder for the AIM troops to shoot back at her.

"TAC teams. Status." As soon as they say that the target intel has been secured, she's getting them all the hell out of here. She can already anticipate the extremely displeased stare that Barnes is going to give ALL of them.


Jeriah's drone is certainly getting interference. He's getting a patchy feed of Simmons standing over Rogers with her weapon drawn. She's alone and without cover, the TAC teams engaged in the infiltration on the other side of the building. It was just the four of them that had been going in this way, right?

A black clad figure strides towards to the pair and raises a gun, the muzzle flares just as Jeriah's feed dies.

Inside, yellow suits drop left and right thanks to May and London. The dog with the launcher is targetting the next group that's nearly upon on them. The data centre is just there, the door visible through the hole in the wall but there's little to no chance that May or London will make it.

"TAC teams 3 and 4, Kilmores in and starting the data grab now. We're providing cover."

"Oh my god … it's triggered a failsafe…" That's Kilmore and they can hear the doors slide shut and lock in the centre. "…. I can't breat——" He's coughing and choking and unable to talk.


"Team 3. Team 3 report! What's Kilmore's status?!" He's got other problems. "Agent May we've got trouble behind us. I'm sending two drones. It's Simmons and Rogers." Two of the canines peel off and run back, weapons tracking. Jeriah's last hound starts suppressing fire down the corridor. Full automatic.

"I'm getting into the system. Your tech team has triggered something. Let me see if I can disable it."

He has to stop fighting to focus on this. Getting into hardened systems wirelessly like this shouldn't be possible but AIM isn't using a secure-information air gap protocol. Because those are less efficient. Having the data at your fingertips are more efficient.

"Come on, come on…"


Biting back some LOVELY curses in Cambodian, May steps out from behind her cover and joins the remaining hound in firing at the remaining beekeepers with every bit of prejudice she'd been keeping in restraint. It was her call that's now put Kilmore and the two TAC teams in this situation, and she'll be damned if she doesn't get every last one of them back out in one piece.

Putting herself between Jeriah and the beekeepers down the hall, she keeps firing the pilfered weapon with one hand while pulling something from inside her jacket. She presses on the object, then bowling-throws it along the floor toward their enemies.

Let's see them fire through a smoke cloud.


"Kilmores locked in the centre. The doors won't open and none of our overrides are working." Comes the report.

Outside, they can hear concussive and sonic weapons fire. That's where Jemma and Steve are, isn't it? Whatever is happening, Jeriah can't tell what's going on until his two hounds get there but when they do …

All he can see is Jemma holding Steves shield in front of her and the down agent, one edge on the ground. He can't see either of the Agents though, just that shield and the black clad figure - that looks a lot like one of those robo-archers. It's not - but it's so, so, very similar. At least it's not firing plasma arrows, just pounding the shield with sonic blasts.

The hounds blast at it and knock it back, slowing the rate of fire at least.

Jeriah can get a connection to the system. It's another neural network that actually fights him and he might wonder if he can get through. All he has to do is disable the security on the data centre though, right? Then the other TAC teams can get Kilmore out.

May finds herself peppered with fire, taking out one beekeeper, then another. The grenade rolls along the floor and explodes - a lovely sonic blast that sends most of the yellow clad figures smashing against the wall. Just … one more who takes aim at the Agent and … fires.


"Why was your tech in the center alone and why the HELL haven't you thermite-ed the door yet?!" Jeriah snaps at the Tac soldier on the other end. "It's not like you care if it works when we're finished here! You've got grenades, USE THEM!"

May might or might not be surprised at the way the hacker-soldier snaps at the agents over the comms. "I can't get into the main system fast enough. They've got another learning network that's trying to lock me out. There's got to be something lower priority that I can… wait. I've got their emergency system. I'm going to simulate a fire. That should open all the doors. It's gonna get loud in here…"

It's already loud in here. The fire alarms blare and instantly Jeriah has his weapon and is shooting again, using the electro-plasma bolts his weapon shots to fire through the walls and into the beekeepers without exposing himself.

Jeriah's hounds leap into action near Jemma. One opens fire with it's turret weapon. The other boosts up to maximum speed and goes for a full on jet assisted shoulder check.

Take that, Johnny 5.


All but one. Damnit. She's getting slow in her old age. That one beekeeper aims at her, and she can't just MOVE, because then London will take the hit.

It's a snap decision, and she can only hope it doesn't end badly, but rather than just dodge when that one beekeeper inevitably fires, she fires back while turning to shove Jeriah out of the way. She's still risking taking the hit, but if she—

OW, DAMNIT.

With a fresh bullet stripe across her shoulderblades, May looks a death glare toward the yellow-suited person that just shot her and other enemies be damned, she charges at him with every intention of snapping his hood-concealed neck.


"We're trying." the TAC team responds. "We were holding the door against infiltration." There's a scuffling sound and then "… fire in the hole …"

The grenades go off just as the fire alarms sound "Doors open… we're getting Kilmore and getting out…"

Mays mad dash shocks the beekeeper she's aiming for, his next shot going wide and blasting a hole in the wall. He goes down as the slight agent barrels into him. His neck snapping as she does.

Jeriah and his hound finish the rest off beekeepers. If anything, it's kept the focus from the other teams. That's something isn't it?

"We've got him … exiting now …"

Outside, Jeriah's hounds are working overtime. The robo-droid stumbles with the jet-assisted shoulder check, the turrent weapon tearing a hole its chest. It twitches and falls … and twitches again but it's not trying to get up.

There's radio silence from Jemma and Steve.

"TAC Teams 3 and 4 are exfiling." It's time to get out and see what damage has been done.


Jeriah would like to pull this place's data while they leave but he doesn't have the access for that and he doesn't have the time get it. He checks his Hounds feeds.

"Simmons and Rogers need medical attention I think. We need to-"

She. May charged. Jeriah's weapon changes from carbine to shotgun as he moves to support her and sends his remaining hound in after her. He can feel the migraine coming on already, his systems stressed past their safe limit. He's going to very much need a lie down when this is all finished.

For now, though, he just shoots anything that gets in his way.


May takes down every last yellow-suited person she sees, with her hands. When she registers that the TAC teams have Kilmore and are pulling out, she turns to London and his remaining hound. "Let's go."

Heaven help anyone that gets between her and where they left Simmons and Rogers.

Getting there seems quick enough, and then May's moving to check on the biochem and the downed super soldier. They're on a time limit, though. The TAC teams will need to be picked up in under five minutes.


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