Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Proof and Questions
"Of course he has a chip on his shoulder against me, otherwise I wouldn't be Tony Stark. He knows who has the best suit. Besides shouldn't we be asking you that same question. They are obviously your soldiers, just look at the markings on their uniforms. It clearly shows UNSC and what does that stand for?"
"United Nations Security Council... but don't we work directly for the Council? What would they need such advanced military equipment and personnel for, they have SHIELD already? Plus wasn't the acronym changed to WSC for several years now? That was the original name before being changed to the World Security Council, they felt the United Nations Security Council was too inclusive and didn't portray enough strength so changed it to the World Security Council." Sharon Carter, aka Agent 13 voiced out. Sharon was the niece of Peggy Carter, Steve's old lover and one of the founders of SHIELD. Sharon had begun to follow in her aunt Carter's footsteps so she knew much more about the higher political echelons in the intelligence community.
"I don't know Tony, I think this SPARTAN has you beat. The light saber alone even without his armor still probably has you beat." Natasha smiled at Tony trying to lighten the mood, after all many were still processing everything they witnessed.
"He's clearly an American, a rather giant one it seems, due to his references and fluency in english. Anyway we can find out who he was communicating with over comms?" Steve Rogers asked the group, he was still new to all this technology. To him World War 2 was still happening just recently, he went down into the arctic sea after crashing Red Skulls bomber that was heading to bomb his hometown of New York and was frozen. He had not been thawed out and awoken till recently, he had found himself back home but not at the same time.
Tony shook his head and answered, "It wasn't someone Cap'sicle, it was an AI for sure. If I didn't have Jarvis this suit would barely work, there are a lot of various systems that go into a suit. Without at least a decent AI to run and assist in various systems functions, the suit would be basically a large paper weight. What the real question we should be asking is what was that energy shield?" Tony continued to play back the video, watching the suit move faster than the camera could capture and watching the energy shield deflecting damage. He wanted one for his suit, along with a few other things.
"Alright everyone listen up. Now I will ask the Council about this attack force, but they aren't the reason for me calling everyone here." Nick Fury finally gathered himself as he prayed to mama Fury that if this SPARTAN was a team mate he wouldn't have to work with him. His dealings with Deadpool gave him PTSD so now he tries to avoid any involvement with similar personalities.
Tony Stark just barely was acceptable due to the fact that he did offer better solutions to problems, but Fury still limited his interactions with Tony as much as possible. After pausing briefly to ensure he had everyone's full attention Fury continued.
"What we are truly here about is who this base is confirmed to be run by with a suspected four others. Apparently these boys went trigger happy in the final location." Fury stated as Jarvis displayed holographic 3d displays of the other locations.
"It's like they lost all their tactical precision at the end, they couldn't have tired from the previous attack, so did they meet a heavier resistance? Was there something different about that facility than the rest?" Maria Hill commented then asked as she studied the information along with the others..
Steve spoke up to answer, "Yea, it was the last. It's basic protocol on any exfiltration by air or sea, any tanks or heavy weaponry expend all their ammo before boarding. The weight of large caliber munitions cost more fuel and speed. It's cheaper to buy more ammo than to lug unneeded munitions. I even knew soldiers who fired every round they had on them before boarding to go for leave or home and such. They felt it got them home quicker." Everyone nodded their head in agreement after giving it some thought, it did make sense due to the team being large in size and a very heavy armored transport truck. Though the thought of even expending small munitions was a bit much but soldiers were like that. Especially ones who have seen a lot of action and in the thick of battle.
"This is a HYDRA base." Nick Fury stated clearly as he got out in front of everyone. This one sentence stopped each member in the room from wondering on the identity of the attackers, everyone in the room had either directly fought against the group while others were indirectly involved with them or indirectly affected by them.
"Now that I have everyone's undivided attention, over half the dead out there have this tattoo." Fury brought up a scan of the tattoo. "Once brought into the fold, they mark the sign of the beast upon themselves. So if there's five bases..." Phil Coulson finished his line, "There's more."
"Yes, these bases were newly built and besides the recently damaged areas these bases have clearly been maintained for extended periods of time."
Bruce Banner was the first to ask, "Aaand you're implying what exactly? That some country or individual(s) are aiding this ancient cult from World War 2?"
Tony scoffed, "I doubt it's just one country, hell I'm sure Encino Man over there will agree HYDRA doesn't just infiltrate one place."
"No they don't, they even infiltrated our own side back when I became Captain America. You have a problem with me Stark?" Steve asked curiously since he was sensing a little hostility from his friend Howard's son. "They killed the man who made the formula while trying to steal the serum, Doctor Erskin was a good man." Steve said with a flash of melancholy as he remembered the man who changed his life, gave him the strength to fight bullies.
Nick Fury continued, "Now, as I said this base is confirmed to be a HYDRA base, where are we on the scan of the other facilities, anything found matching what we are looking for?" Fury asked as he looked at Tony, who hadn't raised his visor since learning who the base belonged to.
"Talk to us Jarvis, what have we got?" Tony asked before getting an immediate reply from Jarvis which put the group on edge.
"Preliminary results can confirm the tattoos are present on many bodies found at each site, although not as pronounced as this location but that may be because unlike this location, bodies weren't moved so there is possibly more than can be detected currently, once the four suits I sent arrive and begin further investigation we will have more information."
"So we have an unknown force who is clearly targeting our foe, I want answers Fury. I also want in on that team, HYDRA has taken everything from me. Erskin, Bucky and even caused me to miss an important date. I may not know the world as it is now, but I do know HYDRA intimately. I want in on that team that's going after HYDRA." Steve spoke with a hard and serious reply to Fury, he was angered that the foe he fought for years was actually back and not defeated as he was told.
"Everyone needs to calm down. I will talk to the Security Council regarding this team, even if they aren't part of the council they are part of the United Nations at the very least which we have people in. I will work on that, I want each of you on site at the other locations. Look for security recorders and make sure we get everything off them. These bases were mainly supply depots, see if we can find clues to lead us to the bases they supplied or who were supplying them, could give us clues." Fury then began to issue orders to each member present.
"We will be remaining under Crisis Protocols until further notice. Nothing goes beyond the people in this room. Nothing. HYDRA can be anywhere, although they are probably scrambling after losing five bases in a single night, a cornered HYDRA is more dangerous than a sleeping one." Fury reiterated his thoughts, he didn't want to scare off HYDRA more than they already probably were.
Fury then looked to Bruce Banner, "I want you and Stark on going thru the networks of these sites. Although the servers are gone we may find something they missed, they left in a hurry so we have high chances of our luck being good like it was here. Also I want you two watching for encrypted chatter across the internet and satellites as best as possible. HYDRA will need to coordinate a response to these attacks so we may get lucky and they slip up." Fury then continued to break them up into teams to do a thorough investigation. He planned to hide the knowledge of HYDRA with the council and put the focus on this team.
Fury's gut was telling him the Council wouldn't give him anything, if they really had a team like that at their disposal what would they cry to him about so often for. They didn't like something, send in that SPARTAN, no more issues. But he did have a feeling that HYDRA was in the Council at the very least, it would be the only way they could remain hidden after so much time.
"We have the proof we need people, unfortunately this only brings us even more questions. We don't even know if these UNSC soldiers truly are our friends or our foe, the enemy of my enemy isn't always a friend. So trust no one outside this room. Everyone is on this until further notice. I have to go get some answers from our friends on the Council." Fury confidently walked out the room, his eyes burning with determination and vigilance as his trench coat billowed behind him.
As the newly formed team of Fury's most trusted individuals split up to do what was needed, back in Washington DC, Alexander Pierce was within a secured HYDRA safe house to have a meeting with the other high level HYDRA leaders.
Alexander Pierce was not only the North American Commander of HYDRA, he was also the Commander of SHIELD and the leading head of the World Security Council for the American government. After the war HYDRA was split up and used the allies own tactics against them. After Operation: Paperclip was executed, HYDRA was easily able to infiltrate and hide in every allied countries intelligence communities and stayed under the radar so they could recover.
After Red Skull was defeated the new leaders of HYDRA decided to change tactics, instead of outright dominance thru war, they decided to work behind the scenes to create fear across the globe. If they did it right they can get the world to willingly submit to them, thus taking over the world without having to fight it themselves. They would instigate conflicts between countries making the world turn on itself, then they can swoop in promising peace and security and gain it all.
Alexander Pierce was not enjoying this meeting one bit, like the Avengers, when they watched the footage of all five attacks all the other leaders put it on him thinking they were his own people since he was on the Security Council.
"This is not the Council's team. SHIELD is the Council's forces. This is something else, but I will find out. I should have more details within a few hours. Fury is already over there along with the Black Widow to investigate. Unfortunately this will cause us some issues, we are being brought into the light before Project Insight is ready. So stop all recruiting for now, we need to tighten security and lay low. With Fury and now Captain America back from the dead they will definitely be on the Hunt for us." Alexander explained as much as he could in a calm manner, even though he was not happy at all.
It was too soon to be found out, all those years of successfully staying hidden were gone. He knew both Fury and Captain America had it in for HYDRA and that they could be considered archenemies of each other.
"Keep communication minimal, it's the first thing Fury will check. He expects us to respond immediately, but we will wait till I find out more on who exactly attacked us. I will send you word once I have learned where this team is, then we can show them what happens to those that attack HYDRA. We will be able to get our hands on some good tech that can speed up Project: Insight so we will hide in our holes for now. Once we deal with this team we can worry about Captain America and the others later." Alexander explained to the others and answered any questions, after a short time he received the summons for an Emergency World Security Council meeting.
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