#the menace (plot)

Alastor sat at the front of the Zodiac, strapped to a rung on the outer edge of the boat as he finished loading the drone. Somewhere, far behind them the WASP sank slowly bellow the waves, preparing to take on a holding pattern till it was time to exfil. In front of them the shoreline grew closer.  “LZ is clear,” Alastor called over comms, the rushing air and crashing waves keeping conversation impossible without them.

His eyes continued to scan the shore and he held a hand up, nudging a finger left. “Orient about three port, there are rocks in the shallows ahead.” Putting his attention back to the drone he slid the backup power pack into place, made sure it was secure, and sealed the casing. A few moments later the drone lifted up, caught air and was immediately falling behind, but airborne. 

Just as a heads up, and to cut the rumor mill short, we are currently hosting guests, and yes, they are from another galaxy.  Yes, they have a spaceship, and yes, he is a Jedi.  In the past they have been in contact with agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., such as Mr. Zingari, and there was some kind of agreement for him to visit and do research.  With the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., he sought out another group that could assist in his work, and that group is us.

Right now, we are keeping him under wraps in the overhaul bay on the far side of the island.  He also brought with him several former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  While here, they are confined to that bay, and no further.  If any of them are found outside of the bay, you are to, gently, restrain them and guide them back to it.

That said, if you wish to go and observe or talk with them during your down time, you may do so only if you take a partner with you as backup.  We don't believe the Jedi or the Agents will do anything crazy, but it the world is a little crazier of late, so let's not take chances.

A six member supply detail will be arranged to resupply them.  Volunteers are welcome.

We also have four other visitors, friends of Mr. Zingari.  Please extend to them all professional courtesy as you would anyone else in the company.

That is all.  Regular operations and jobs continue as normal.

"Lead" Out

The sun rose on Bella la Cava the next day and plans were in motion. Motion however didn’t mean completion. Mike, Bryce, and ACE needed to be brought up to speed, given crash courses in DEM’s operating style, and shown how to handle some of DEMs specialized equipment. Other assets needed to be called in. The C-130 needed to be allowed to return from it’s current missions, one of the Box Cars needed to be fitted with its Gunship kit, just in case, and a shipment of weapons needed to be called in in order to keep up the act they would put on.

So while plans were in motion, the wheels were for the moment merely spinning, and that meant more time for research. The more Alastor and in turn DEM and the Recon team knew, the better. But Alastor had a feeling they could learn more about another problem, the Hulkbuster. So, Alastor stepped off the trolly into the early sunlight of day breaking through the trees near the enclosed beach where Oriole was residing, a bag of files and a laptop over his shoulder.

Stepping off into the walk way he looked up at the birds soaring over head and could smell the salt air from the sea a few miles further south of the lake. He had to admit, part of him did enjoy this part of living at Bella la Cava, but in the end he found much more comfort in the cold metal of her inner workings.

continued from here.

After an unceremonious collapse and necessary rest Alastor got to go over Oriole's report and focused on the names. He didn't know them, not personally, not professionally. That could be a problem, because the less you knew about a target the less you could use against him. But Alastor had a large list of contacts, people he knew were more, social, in their time at SHIELD.

Leaning back in his chair away from his desk terminal he pulled out his mobile, connected to a secure data connection and fired off a text.

Oriole woke up to a soft touch on her cheek. She cracked an eyelid and saw a small black hand waving in front of her face. "George?" she said, and rolled over to check the time. She hadn't even slept for an hour. "George, what is it?"

He lifted three tendrils in the air at once. Danger. She hadn't brought any of his communication tools with her. How would she have explained a set of finger paints and sleigh bells to a mercenary group? Oriole grabbed her laptop instead and sat cross-legged on the bed, still trying to wake up.

Once she had a word processor open and her hands poised over the keyboard, George slid into position and pushed her fingers down on the keys.

alien on island

"What?" Oriole said, staring at the screen.

alien on island arrived just

here now

"An alien. You're sure."

always sure

"What kind of alien?"

do not know the english for????

"Can you tell me where?"

we donot know place

"Fuck!" She snatched the phone and dialed Zingari. Or tried to. The screen informed her that he was unavailable. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

[Text: Zingari]: CALL BACK ASAP

[The following takes place after The Menace: We Seek Information and before The Menace: Come the Calvary]

Alastor still had time, before he had to leave for the Main Island and pick up his Calvary. Time enough to have a conversation with Dustine, while Josie slept. Stepping back through the elevator into the Hub Alastor put his hands behind his back. “Need to talk with you.”

She took note of his posture, and quirked her head slightly in curiosity.  "Alright, what about?"

“Privately.” He nodded off to the side of the Hub. “If you don’t mind.”

A thin eyebrow raised, but she nodded and she moved over to a tucked away alcove where those on overwatch could fix up a pot of coffee or tea for the long nights.  When he entered, she pulled a curtain over and closed them off from the rest of the Hub area, giving them privacy and some good sound absorption.  "Ok, I admit you have my curiosity."  She commented softly, leaning against the counter, arms crossed.

“First, some admittance. You and Josie need to remember someone on your crew now has some exceptionally good hearing. Might want to keep your agenda conversations under a private comm channel.” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms as well. “I know the two of you have an agenda, but I also trust the two of you to not question it. But I did hear about you guys talking about Darrow Industries some months back, and the ‘various items on your list you want him to develop’. Cybernetics, I’m going to guess, considering who Darrow is.”

Dustine's face fell into neutrality at his comments, and didn't speak for a fair amount of time before finally giving a curt nod.  "It is.  His company is probably the best there is in the field."

“Yeah but still not my point.” He tilted his head to the side. “Has anything in your list been developed, or prototyped that can deliver a localized EMP, as well as a viral payload via a high powered wireless transmission?”

She thought about it, her eyes seeming to lose focus as she considered what he was requesting before coming back to herself and shaking her head.  "Not that we're aware of.  You can make an EMP bomb easily enough, and on the cheap, but there hasn't been an attempt to really focus on creating something that can deliver a regular yield of EMP to a target.  And as for a viral payload, definitely not.  The technology doesn't exist that will deliver such a payload.  You'd need to build in a hacking algorithim, and that's typically a very custom job.  Even Stuxnet required a hard connection to infect its target.  If anyone might be thinking about making such a device, it might be the Chinese or DARPA."

“Or SHIELD.” He crossed his arm, “SHIELD was, theorizing a weapon that could do that. But, it hadn’t gotten past a theoretical stage. It was, intended to counter my division, or Stark, or Hammer, or anybody really who built exo suits. The way suits operate is very wireless. Because of this they have very powerful anti-malware capabilities. A localized EMP though, could in theory short out the system, and wireless systems reboot faster than security suites. I would rather override that Hulkbuster, than fight it.”

Dustine brought up a hand to hold her chin, eyes narrowed in thought.  "Josie's capable of generating a localized EMP, but right now there aren't any devices that are mass produced for that purpose.  We could probably rig something up.  Problem is, most hardware, especially those made for combat, are hardened against EMP.  I would be shocked if Stark didn't have that as part of his suit designs.  So the yield would have to be pretty strong to short out a suit like that."

“About twice or more the yield of one of our standardized EMP Grenades. It’ll never shut the suit down but it will cause a system reset or sputter. Like how our hardened implants still get static from EMP. It’s because of how the suits operate, they can resist EMP but because they need to be able to absorb solar energy, or other forms for power, as well as wireless transmissions EM surges can happen.”

She continued to hold her chin, finger moving slowly back and forth as her mind calculated yields, capabilities, equipment.  "We could probably get something built and mass produced with that kind of yield.  A crank to build up the charge, an activation stud, and then an impact sensor to set it off.  But that would take time we don't have.  We'll have to jury rig something...something that can build up a charge..." 

She snapped her fingers, looking up at him.  "We could use the emergency flashlights, the ones made to build up a charge as you shake them."

“Sounds suitably Macgyver like, I like it.”  He closed his eyes and thought for a few minutes, “I can get close enough if necessary, or Josie. Both of us have the reaction speed and reseliance to do that, her more so than me by miles tho. But if that thing is Active, we will need an anti-ExoSuit weapon, which is small and not going to weigh us down. And those are, well, theories and this. The smallest thing we do have, is the Mark II’s canno, the Mark IX’s Bunker Buster, and an ARC with FSDS DU round. And well… I liberated my ARC, but only one of those rounds.”

"I can work up a virus that could take down a suit, or at least put it into a lockdown mode.  It's getting it transmitted that's the tricky part."  She rubbed her chin once again before sighing.  "A wireless signal could be jammed, or simply disabled.  It's not reliable.  You'd be better off having physical contact with the target and transmitting it via an electrical pulse.  If the EMP shorts it out, that will buy time to close the distance and grab hold.  The systems will be rebooting, but as you pointed out, the on-board firewalls will probably still be starting up.  Can your suits transmit by an electrical pulse?"

“Yeah. So can the ISIS armor, its arms can emit an EMP and Electronic Pulses to override computer systems. Since I’ll be taking the ISIS it might be best to do whatever you plan to do with it.” He shook his head, “Maybe we can up the yield too, of its EMP, if our device fails me and Josie can double tap it… worse case scenario.”

"I would rather you both tackling the thing."  Dustine admitted.  "I can rig the virus to install faster if it detects more than one source is pushing it.  Like a Bittorrent or sorts.  It's the best I can come up with.  BP will have to walk our armorer here through modifying the ISIS, I'll be busy working up the malware."  She gave him a small smile.  "Preferably so it doesn't get the idea of turing around and coming back at you."

“I doubt it could get past the anti-intrusion algorithms Alice installed before she left but it would probably be a good idea for it to not do that.” He stepped off from the wall, “I think that takes care of that though. And next time, be a bit quieter with the talk, or just include me in the conversation. Been around long enough.”

"That time is coming, but we'll talk about that later."  Was all Dustine said on the matter as she pulled the curtain back and headed for an available holotable, the glow brightening as she approached.

[text to Dustine and Alastor]: New report in file drop. No evidence of processed vibranium; potential armored vehicles and locations of interest included. Will be offline for two hours but call if urgent questions.

Dropped to DEM's fileshare network:

Refined Vibranium

The refinement process has two major outputs: extreme heat and the industrial waste material tenira [see attached report]. From current documents, little evidence of machinery or environmental factors that would suggest large-scale refinement of vibranium ore on Bougainville. Small scale work with vibranium for quality control and testing purposes is possible.

Supply Requests

SHIELD supply requests during the civil war included seven X-361 armored vehicles—excessive in comparison to armament guidelines for a peacekeeping mission of this kind. Three of the X-361s were returned to SHIELD after the end of the conflict, while the remaining four were reported destroyed in combat. The destructive force required to disable an X-361 and the low level of firepower recorded in the civil war itself suggest that up to four X-361s remain in HYDRA custody. Additionally, raw materials were provided for “road maintenance”; however, the materials requested are indexed as suited for a marine installation. Some sort of dock may have been constructed for the transport of vibranium and gold.

Potential Locations of Mine and Transport Facilities

As noted in previous reports, the isotope N27 is only found in soil that has come into contact with vibranium. N27 was found in soil samples near the BCL Mine prior to the civil war. According to reports from environmental watchdog group SeaNow, N27 was also found in the Empress Augusta Bay following severe flooding in West Bougainville in 2004. Rainwater and flooding from the BCL mine does not wash down into Empress Augusta Bay, suggesting that an additional mine, processing site, or storage site may be located along one of the tributaries of the river that feeds the bay.

Specifically, the area between [coordinates] and [coordinates] is a likely location for vibranium storage or transfer. While many new roads for the transport of combatants and goods appeared during the civil war, most of them lapsed back into the rainforest after the peace treaty in 1998. However, satellite imagery reveals three unpaved roads wide enough for X-361 vehicles that appeared after said vehicles were delivered to Bougainville, and which remain clear today. Additionally, the river that runs through the area is deep enough to accommodate medium-sized vessels, and would provide a more discreet loading area for cargo than

HYDRA Agents, known and suspected:

Known:

 Jennifer Anguine

Suspected:

Harold Danton—approved excessive supply requests with no inquiry or follow-up.

Louise Tasho—Joined the environmental sciences lab group in 1996; CO of two environmental scientists who resigned from SHIELD after performing soil panels revealing presence of N27; both scientists died of apparently natural causes less than a year after their resignations. Tasho herself performed all subsequent lab work related to soil, water, and air chemistry on Bougainville, none of which revealed N27. Prior to her arrival, N27 appeared regularly, if in small quantities, in the region.

Personnel files are attached for all agents stationed on Bougainville during the fall of SHIELD, or with substantial involvement on Bougainville before the fall. If any DEM personnel have experience with profiling, I would recommend that they examine these records.

Known Hazards:

Mission logs contain records of injuries from giant centipede stings, scorpion stings, and coral snake bites. Coral snakes are the only potentially animal threat on Bougainville; however, centipede and scorpion stings are painful enough to disable fully grown adults, and may cause death in small children. The Bougainville team submitted a request to formulate an antidote to the poisonous sap of a previously unknown tree species in the early 1980’s [see attached report]. The sap induces temporary downstream numbness and paralysis on contact; all nerve cells downstream of the contact site cease to return sensation to the brain or respond to voluntary motor cues. Recorded incidents indicate that these effects fade in ten minutes to an hour, depending on the amount of skin exposed to the sap. The antidote has been included as standard equipment for all Bougainville missions. Synthesizing the antidote is a 48-hour process, so the antidote may not be available by the time we have agents on the ground, but they should be aware of its existence and potential for use as a weapon.