World Tree MUSH

    Just north of Polyuchyn, Sokovia, is a series of canyons and craggy cliffs known as Khoro's Howl. It just so happens that Khoro's Howl is the location of a secret HYDRA installation. This was discovered fairly recently thanks to the handiwork and insane flying of one Anneka Stojespal and a co-pilot ally of House Stojespal sitting in the back of that wild ride with a camera while Anneka pitted her flying skills against three up and coming aces of the local Feathergrass Airbase.
    As it so turns out, the base entrance, hidden cleverly in one of the many tangling and maze-like crags of the foggy canyons was very well hidden indeed. But not well-hidden enough for keen eyes to find it, and thusly SHIELD discreetly put out a call for some offworld assistance due to a lack of local personnel.
    According to the briefing, HYDRA is an ages old terrorist organization, a holdover of World War II Nazi Germany's occult research division that has remained active to this present day.
    The sleek figure of a single quinjet, the assault team's conveyance, cuts across the evening sky on a course for the hostile base before dipping into the canyons themselves for cover to approach as it comes to a sudden halt at a low plateau hidden by a higher section of canyon where the base entrance is supposed to be.
    Of course no one is here to meet the asault team, with weapons blazing. That would be silly. This is a hidden base after all. HYDRA and its forces are likely hiding deeper within the mountainous canyons, pretending to not be home.

  Despite the bright light of the sunset over the top of the canyons, the Valkyrie, the prototype quinjet Agent Anneka Stojespal is bringing to this party. It's definitely going to be a party. When the photos came back from analysis, there was no doubting that this stuff definitely belongs to HYDRA, and it's right there on the photographs.

  That simplifies things. Now the pilot can pull in support from the rest of her agency, however thin that may be.

  Dust kicks up from the turbines as the Valkyrie comes in for a landing. In spite of being a respectably-sized craft, it's entirely, unsettlingly silent.

  The ramp opens smoothly, and out jogs Agent Anneka Stojespal, waving a hand toward the cockpit as she goes. "Lock it up, Val. Wait for my signal."

  She's still wearing a flight suit, but there's a bulletproof vest over that, and she has her ICER pistol in the holster at her hip. Once she's a short distance away from the quinjet, she glances back, before frowning.

  A hand rises up to slap at the lightweight comm headset she's wearing. "Steve Rogers, do I need to come pick you up? Where the hell are you?"

    As it so happens, some of that 'offworld' assistance is, technically, on-world assistance. The 'seer' and adventurer known as Lian Kamoya has been hanging around Polyuchyn recently, helping to solve a particularly tangled murder case. She's left the world on occasion to go settle this or that business, but other than that has made a point of being around and available - so when the call goes out, at least one person is already here to answer it.

    For most of the trip out to the HYDRA base, the older Jedi is content to simply sit quietly, almost meditating. It might be tempting at first to think that she's dozing, but right before the Quinjet starts to slow down, as if an alarm had gone off, Lian opens her eyes, resting a hand on one of the leather-wrapped cylinders clipped to her belt. "I'll take point, if no one minds." She has the senses to see an ambush or a surprise attack coming better than most, after all. Of course, even as she's saying that, she's already proceeding down the ramp herself.

    The flight through Khoro's Howl has left a certain heiress clinging to the safety straps inside the Quinjet. Rusalka watches as the terrain streaks past the bulbous canopy of the nose of the jet, knowing that Anneka's promise of a safe and stable flight only having applied to the /last/ time they were here.

    This time? It's a wild ride, ducking and swerving through the canyons until the sudden and dusty landing, which gets a sigh of relief from her. Not so much the two men on either side of her, the guards assigned to Rusalka's protection. Even as she's unstrapping, they're already grabbing their equipment and checking rifles, the two Stojespal gunmen following Lian off the plane with Rusalka tagging along behind.

    Normally she wouldn't be on a mission like this, but with the Jedi present as well as the kind of technology they may run into, her presence was practically demanded by the circunmstances. So Rusalka, clad in spare SHIELD-logo'ed equipment, steps off the jet and looks up at the canyon.

    Evie had taken the job, but had kept to herself most of the ride out, introducing herself simply by her first name, explaining she was a tactical specialist where she was from, and paying attention to those around her. 

    She gives a slight smile, light catching against her freckled cheeks as she makes an 'after-you' sign to Lian, tapping her cane lightly against her own waist as she makes sure her hood is pulled forward. She stretches her gloved hands, making sure everything on her is tip-top shape, and proceeds after Lian and Rusalka. 

    After all, these Hydra fellows seemed to be the sort of friends her enemies might have -- would do to look into it.

    Piera Forta da Forli, Assassin, and clad in white robes, sits mostly silent on the flight in. These flying contraptions that Da Vinci envisioned are still strange and honestly terrifying to the Renaissance-era woman. Once it lands, she's making to debark quickly.

    Oddly, following closely behind is the foot-tall figure of a Shinki. White-painted and wearing white-plated armour with red accents, a Raptias-model with grey hair, and sharp majenta eyes.

  "By all means." Anneka side-steps to let Lian pass in front of her, shrugging expansively as the other woman does. She's not particularly squishy and she's not a frontline soldier, so somebody else to absorb the ammunition would be wonderful.

  A scornful look is shot back at Rusalka's sigh. "Oh, shut up. I couldn't help it. The wind is a bitch, today." Somewhere, the real Khoro is giggling. "And keep an eye out for trouble. I won't be able to watch you at all times, this time, inzhya. Irja Grigorievna will kill me and wear my skin as a cloak if anything happens to you."

  She grins, mussing Rusalka's hair and drawing her ICER, she falls into place at the rear.

  "This base may not be large, but probably it will be defended well," Anneka explains, pitched loud enough to reach the whole group and not much more. "These bastards are lunatics, and they are not going to listen to reason, so if you have to shoot... I will not stop you. We are after information. I want you to grab anything you can from this place. Disable or kill the guards, I do not care. Just do not leave them standing."

  "Oh... and look for hostages," she adds, glancing back over her left shoulder. "I spoke with Irja Grigorievna. There are a number of cadets missing from Polyuchyn's flight academy. Considering Valentina Maximova was murdered, I would like to see if they are involved in this, and save any of them we can."

  The pilot heaves a sigh, holstering her ICER and shaking out both hands.

  "Great God, I hate field operations," she mutters, and it doesn't take a Jedi to sense the jagged edges of her nerves.

  "Good luck, everyone."

    As she steps past Evie, Lian gives a pleasant nod. There's a more amused look for Rusalka, but other than that, the Jedi is all business. She hasn't got her saber active, but she does have it in hand, and though her cloak is billowing, she's shifted it just enough that it's not in the way of her movements. Her attention is as much on the flow of the Force as it is the base in front of her, but she has the presence of mind to respond to Anneka directly. "I may be able to find hostages. General direction, at the very least." She can sense emotion, after all.

    With the quinjet landed and the party disembarked, Anneka gives a good explanation of the mission... Leave no guard standing, steal or destroy any vital intel, and rescue anyone that might have been kidnapped by HYDRA from the local airbase. It shouldn't be TOO hard, depending on how much resistance the local lunatics put up.
    That's about when Anneka will get a radio transmission back.
    "Taking the scenic route! Don't wait up for me!"
    For the most part it looks to be like the party has landed on a small platform of rock jutting out from the canyon wall, but there's something odd about the stone walls here...
    Lian will likely sense the ambush well before it happens. The way the stone slides open on a hidden rail system allowing for a squad of men in black with automatic weapons to come out.
    These guys are easy to handle to say the least, so they can be breezed right past and into the very open base doors, leading into the complex deep beneath the canyons. No sooner than the party makes their way in alarms begin to sound and armed men come rushing out to meet them.
    A man in a black uniform stands atop a scaffold overhead, overlooking the entrance.
    "Ah, agents of SHIELD and allies, so you have finally found us... Well unfortunately for you we were prepared for this eventuality. Even if you chase us out of here today, I will remind you... Cut off one head. Another two shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!" He declares as he presses a button on a panel by his side, causing an announcement system to pipe up.

    "WARNING: Installation self destruct system is active. Please evacuate immeditely."

    "My partner can access the Com-pyuu-tuh..." Piera glances at Aquila, who nods. "Systems here. I am more suited to less mystical forms of information retrieval. Hopefully they have books, or parchment with useful information." The white-class assassin seems rather miserable in the cold. The problem with growing up in a hot country.

    The ambush is a welcome distraction, the white-clad woman easily scaling up to stab one of the emerging guards with something Evie would very easily be able to tell.

    And then they come to the 'gloating boss man'. Unfortunately for the group, Piera is too slow on the draw with her throwing knife, but she does throw it anyway, hoping to score the guy between the eyes. "Seems we have a time limit. I will attempt to locate a library to retrieve information." announces the Brotherhood Assassin, turning to go... uh, that way.

    "That's what we are here for," laughs one of the two bodyguards. Anneka's fears are unfounded; she won't be to blame for any injury that comes to the Sokovian girl. The two bodyguards on the other hand, well, it's their responsibility to keep her safe. Vadim and Sergei know how much trouble there will be if Rusalka comes back with even a scratch...

    "Fanatics. They believe in their own superiority above all else," she adds to Anneka's words. "My family has fought them before, and we are absolutely dedicated to seeing them destroyed." This for the others; the history of the Stojespal family has intertwined with Hydra before.

    Missing cadets? Normally such things would simply be reported as AWOL and turned loose from the program...but if Hydra is head-hunting junior pilots, maybe there's something to it. Rusalka nods in agreement. And with that she's following the others up the side of the canyon to the entrance.

    The ambush is almost expected, and her guards assist the others in having it well in hand - as well as keeping Rusalka down and covered, unarmed as she is. The second group of Hydra troopers inside make their speech, and Rusalka skitters off to one side to take cover behind computer equipment while her bodyguards open fire.

    Now if she can see what kind of data is on this thing...

    Piera had Evie's curiosity on the flight over -- doesn't take a scholar to recognize one of her own from the past, but it might not be a good idea on the flight over -- but she would be keen to follow up another time. Like Piera, she had scaled up some of the scaffolding with ease to take out a few of the guards. 

    At least her brother wasn't on this trip. No sense of decorum, that one. 

    It was when the man in the black uniform begins to pipe up that she mutters something. 

    "... Good Lord. So dramatic -- are they *all* like that?" she questions, tilting her head over to Rusalka in questioning before she gives a nod, and begins the grim work of making sure there's less targets for her allies to strike; squared shoulders, pulled hood, and the flash of a cane sword.

    At least one of the ambushers probably finds himself yanked forward the instant the hidden panel opens. Even without her gift for the Force, Lian is the kind of person to act quickly. With it, she can counterattack someone before they even attack. And that poor ambusher is likely to end this encounter with one less arm than he started it.

    The monologuing officer draws little more than an arched eyebrow from Lian... until he smacks the button, and the Force screams a warning at her even before the self-destruct is announced. She looks up. She looks at the group. And without another word, the Jedi turns and starts running - following her senses towards where she can feel the most alarm, panic, fear. The place the hostages are likely to be.

  "Oh. That. Yes. I keep forgetting you can do that," Anneka mutters, stalking along and kicking up the dry Sokovian dust. The breeze snatches it immediately; tugs at the pilot's long red hair. "Great God, I could use a cigarette," she grouses under her breath. She doesn't, though, because it would give them away. "If you feel anything, Lian Kamoya, let me know."

  "Damn it, Steve Rogers, move your ass," the pilot growls into her earpiece. "We do not have time for the scenic route!"

  No sooner does she finish than it's into the belly of the beast. The ambush is over quickly enough. In the complex hidden beneath the canyons of Khoro's Howl the party goes, and predictably, the alarms start as soon as they waltz on in.

  Anneka checks her pistol and--tilts her head ninety degrees, listening to the announcement system making a very inconvenient announcement.

  The pilot heaves a sigh and growls. "Because why not?"

  That doesn't stop her from winging a shot at the man in the black uniform who spoke, though.

  "Crap."

  "Do that," she confirms, to Piera. "Let me know if you need help."

  With a grunt, she looks left, then right; barking into her comm headset. "Steve Rogers! If you find any research material, tell me. I will look for research material. Probably they have some; it is only a question of where. Whatever I can lay hands on will be useful."

  Turning, she springs down the nearest corridor, drawing her ICER and slowing to a jog she can still aim through. She beelines for the nearest thing that looks like an office.

  Also, she's trailing growled curses all the way, and the further she goes, the more virulent they get. By the time she kicks open a door and starts rifling through desk drawers she's just plain growling.

    In an instant everything goes right to hell.
    Though Piera's throwing knife embeds in the HYDRA officer's shoulder, earning a curse of pain as he retreats through a door higher on the scaffold, the assassin and her shinki partner dart away amid the fracas, her True Sight soon pointing out a specific door... That seems the way to go as it leads right into a server room, with a very important looking terminal inside it.
    While Rusalka's bodyguards join the battle against the forces of HYDRA, the Stojespal heiress is able to access the base's self destruct systems. She can't stop it entirely from this point, but she IS able to add precious time to the ticking clock. Time the others will most definitely need as Lian rushes off.
    Down into the deeper levels of the facility where the smell and sense of fear are at their keenest, several flight cadets can be found in cells, banging on the doors calling out in a panic for freedom, not wanting to go up in flames with the rest of the base that has clearly forgotten them.
    "Your best bet to find their research would be the uh... Server room." The voice in Anneka's radio replies. "What exactly is a server in this context?"
    Computers weren't exactly much of a thing back in the era of World War II. But it's not a big deal at the moment as Evie leaps into combar, sword cane flashing and dropping HYDRA guards left and right, the assassin's expert martial arts skills outshining their basic moon training.
    "So about that scenic route."
    This is when a hangar door busts open and a motorcycle comes BLAZING IN down the ramp, a round shield decorated in red, white, and blue with a single star is flung... And slams a HYDRA soldier in the face, dropping him before it rebounds to hit another man-- and then boomerangs back into the hands of the man on the motorcycle that skids to a halt.
    "Sorry I'm late. Did I miss the dance?"

    With swift steps and the guiding hand of the Force, Lian Kamoya finds her way down to the holding cells. And the sheer sound of cadets in panic is enough to give her the precise location. "I'll get you all free. Stay calm, and stand back from your cell doors." There's no time to look for a key, or an automatic release, or anything of the sort. Not when she has a much more simple solution.

    Sky-blue light fills the corridor between cells as the Jedi Battlemaster ignites her blade. Freeing the cadets is a simple matter; she'll just cut through the doors one by one, as quickly as she's able.

    Piera's sword flashes across some guards that get in the way, her eyes limming golden as she approaches the door that has so many handprints all over it. A lot of traffic usually means highly important... or a break room.

    Luckily it seems to be the former, as row upon row of esoteric machinery(To the Renaissance woman at least) line all the walls... and a terminal blinks in front of her, awaiting input. "I think we found something... Aquila let the others know."

    Aquila nods, and lifts a hand to her helmet, pressing in the radio button on the side of her visor. "Talon-Two to Valkyrie-Actual, come in. We've located a server room, I'm going to begin accessing and attempting to download now. Pinging our location." The shinki then lands on the terminal, and pulls a wire from her hip and inserts it into one of the input sockets. "This will take some time, cover me."

    Evie's question gets a nod. "Fanatics," Rusalka repeats, shaking her head. Meanwhile she's hard at work on the computer system, trying to isolate the self-destruct and shut it down from going off. Fingers fly over the keys as she glances back and forth across the display. Folders and programs open and close rapidly, Rusalka expecting the destruct program to be masquerading as something else.

    It'd be completely Hydra-like to hide their self-destruct abort code in an innocuous Powerpoint presentation, because it's such a strange place to look. An organization fanatical about secrecy can make some truly bizarre decisions...

    Vadim and Sergei, meanwhile, happily trade fire with the Hydra guards. One of them throws a grenade from a pocket, and the explosion just outside her door gets a visible jump from Rusalka. "Can you two just...not right now?!" The gunfire is bad enough on her nerves!

    And then the powerpoint application changes, showing a countdown timer. It's enough to leave Rusalka blinking hard at the computer screen in disbelief, even to the point of ignoring the gunfire outside. She can't believe it...they really did hide the self-destruct in a presentation about human resources.

    Well then. Time to get resourceful, the Sokovian heiress thinks, as she begins attacking the hidden program. Not this time...it's delayed, but now how to shut it down completely?

  Of course it goes to hell, because why not?

  "Explain later," Anneka throws hastily into her comm headset. "Too long. Think of it like--like--like Rolodex," she stutters, searching for the right word.

  There may be miscellaneous sounds of things being shoved, thrown, and generally manhandled around while she digs through the office. Sort of literally. Nothing here, so she leaves the same way she came in, slinking around the corner and down deeper into the facility--

  A motorcycle goes blazing past.

  Anneka stares.

  "OH FOR GOD'S SAKE."

  Points for those guys hit in the face with a vibranium shield, though.

  "You're just in time, Steve Rogers." She grins, as she slinks down towards the nearest room that looks industrial. A few guards are shot at along the way when they get too inconveniently close.

  Her earpiece might be transmitting the cursing and snarling she does with every last HYDRA footman subjected to her ICER. Is this woman crazy? Or does she just take personal satisfaction in kicking the hornet's nest that is HYDRA in any way she possibly can?

  Lian can probably feel the rage even from the underground.

  **Valkyrie to Talon-Two. Acknowledged. Coordinates received and transmitted to Captain Stojespal.**

  Yep the quinjet still talks.

  "Got that. Thanks," Anneka throws into her comm headset, to Aquila, abruptly turning and heading for the server room.

  Once there, she sidles up to the nearest terminal, fingers flying over the keys. Next to the computer cabinet, there's an old filing cabinet, and it's that she falls to her knees beside, giving it a sharp rap with her fist to open it. It's locked. So she does the natural thing, which is 'snarl and hit it again.'

  Must get lucky. The drawer slides open with a metallic crunch.

  "I think I found something," Anneka comments, distracted, as she thumbs through papers as quickly as she can.

    Fanatics are always such an issue. Lacking technology (since computers were much, much... much more primative in the Victorian era), Evie relies far mroe on her more physical skills, ducking behind corners. Relying on the leather and metal strips of her armored coat. She breathes in and out, ducking between rooms and making sure that no hostages were in her path, either -- a path of disabled, unconcious and unfortunate HYDRA agents left in her wake as she methodically goes through. 

    Unfortunately she misses Steve's Fantastic Entrance, though there is a HYDRA agent that gives a rather willheim-like yell as he gets tilted over a catwalk, pulled via dart from her bracer.

    Soon enough Anneka finds her way into the server room with Piera and Aquila, the little shinki is probably soaking up data like a sponge. There's a lot of it to steal and a lot to go through. Weapons research, energy research, machine research, there's plenty to steal and collate while Anneka busts open a file cabinet.
    Hoo boy the files in there are juicy, too.
    Meanwhile outside though, the firefight gets intense as the HYDRA grunts turn their attention on the man stepping off the motorcycle. Guns raise- they open fire, a deluge and wall of bullets headed his way as he hunkers behind that shield of his-- bullets spanging and ricocheting off the highly vibration resistant plate of armor that soaks every single shot intended to take him down.
    A man goes sailing off the catwalk screaming thanks to Evie, though more turn their attention on the English Assassin, opening fire.
    Down in the lover levels, Lian sets to the task of cutting the cell doors open with her fancy light sword.
    "Are we done?" Steve asks mildly as the HYDRA soldiers take a moment to reload their weapons.
    "Okay, my turn."
    Unslinging an M4A1 assault rifle from his back he takes aim and begins to return fire, several soldiers go down while others duck for cover.

    Piera herself sets up next to the door, stabbing anyone that comes in looking for trouble/intruders while her Shinki and Anneka do their work. The upside of melee weapons is they don't need to be reloaded.

    Aquila is absorbing info, and transmitting a bunch of it off to Valkyrie for storage and collation. Her onboard harddrive isn't /that/ big, after all. The Shinki does glance over at Anneka. "Make sure to check the other drawers too. I can let you borrow a couple of my wingblades if you need a lockpick."

    Vadim and Sergei have fallen back to the doorway to the room Rusalka is in, trading fire with Hydra guards. The bullets are more to keep heads down than kill, each side trying to pin the other down and move in for the kill. Each side is also determined to prevent that from happening, leaving the Stojespal gunmen in a stalemate just outside.

    Another grenade gets a startled, dirty glare from Rusalka, but it appears to have worked; the gunfire from the Hydra side seems to lighten up a little. She grumbles a quiet curse, then sets herself back to her task.

    Okay, she thinks, the countdown is part of the presentation. Deleting some objects from it seems to have uncovered part of the self-destruct system. What affects the countdown seems to still be random, as Rusalka continues trying to strip the extraneous parts of the program away.

    "I have found the destruct controls. Hurry, I am having trouble doing much to it." This to the others; whatever they intend to do, they had better do it soon. "You have..." She gives an uncomfortably short amount of time, though, meaning the others had better get a move on if they want to escape.

    Ah hah. Rewrite the title of this page, and check the timer...good. It's still a battle, but the timer is fighting itself now...she hopes.

    Evie runs along the catwalk, narrowly avoiding being shot in anything too sensitive -- the weaponry they have these days is more than a little ridiculous! -- and she takes a running leap, vaulting from one catwalk above the group, turning in the air and then coming down, the thick blades from her bracer and in her other hand coming down to quickly subdue those who were shooting at her, before moving on, ducking into another hallway. 

    "Well. This is a *fine* situation to be in." she murmurs to herself with a soft huff of breath.

  Papers are sifted through at a rapid rate as Anneka rummages through the broken file cabinet. Her eye skims rapidly over text; sheaves are quickly sorted into a few different piles on top of the cabinet. Oh, this is lovely. The pilot is still growling as she goes, but now it sounds satisfied. Oh, this is useful.

  "Steve Rogers. I have what I am after." She pauses, glancing over to Piera and Aquila, watching them do arcane computer things. She might be useful with a computer, but that kind of information extraction is beyond her. "

  Piera offers a lockpick, and the scarred pilot grins. "Splendid. I could try to shoot them, but a pick is faster." Anneka holds out a hand to accept it. "Just long enough to see what is in this second drawer. It may be important," she murmurs, flipping the papers she's got under her arm to pin them against her ribs with her elbow. Precious cargo. She can't afford to lose any of those.

    Things are getting hairy to say the least. The HYDRA soldiers don't seem all that deterred by the fact that sooner or later the base is going to come down all around them. They really are fanatics, down to the last man, willing to stay and sacrifice their lives just to ensure that the invading team doesn't get out with theirs.
    Good thing Anneka and Piera have Steve and Evie outside handling the bulk of the forces. Though the occasional soldier blunders into ther server room, Piera's blade is more than enough for them.
    "I don't know about you." Captain America idly comments to Evie. "But I've been through worse scrapes than just a few HYDRA goons shooting at me."
    Speaking of; he doesn't bother to reload his assault rifle, simply tugging a Colt 1911 from the holster at his hip to pepper a few more of the HYDRA men before they get into range.
    It's like water crashing against the rocks as they rush Captain America and the English Assassin, the level of skill is so pathetically disparate when it comes to melee.
    Cap and Evie has this handled essentially.
    MEANWHILE, the amount of men Serge and Vadim have to deal with starts to thin down, HYDRA only has so many soldiers and this should give Rusalka plenty of time to tangle with that self destruct system.

    Aquila summons a pair of her Wing Blades, and offers the curved, thin-bladed steak-knife weapons to Anneka. They should serve well enough as a bobby pin along with the tension wrench that Piera produces from a pouch. The Assassin remains by the door to keep any strays from interfering.

    Aquila stands from her position on the terminal. "That's about all I can mine from this terminal... I've transmitted everything to Valkyrie." she tugs the connection jack free, then lights her jets to lift off the terminal platform.

    "Oh, I've had harder days than this." Evie replies back, only just a little bit winded. She's no Super Soldier, but she's moving well still. She'll feel a couple of the wounds tomorrow when she has to have someone stitch her up. 

    The English Assassin's sword cane flashes, stained red, and she draws her own firearm -- though it's a much, much older model than what Steve is packing. Six cylinders, six deadly shots. 

    Crack. 
        Crack. 
            Crack! 

    The weighted knuckles in her bracer catch one HYDRA agent across his jaw, dislocating it painfully before she viciously brings her cane sword up again, bringing the silver eagle's head down on another, swinging him into the blade at her other hand. 

    "Captain America, I presume?" she gives a wry smile.

    The fighting outside seems to have coalesced into two groups, the one group losing badly to Captain America and Evie outside while Sergei and Vadim slowly whittle down the other. It's all going well until Vadim catches a bullet, the odds finally rolling against him, and the other gunman pulls him back around the corner into safety.

    "Whatever it is you are doing there, do it faster!" This from Sergei to Rusalka, as her fingers fly over the keyboard. She doesn't give more than a grunt of acknowledgement, knowing that time is ticking short and trying desperately to find some sort of shutdown, before it hits her - shut it down. Shut down the whole thing. It's so obvious she can't believe it, but it makes a stupid level of sense.

    "Alright, see how you like it then." With that she terminates the spreadsheet and powers down the computer, crossing her fingers for luck. And then she's turning to help Sergei support Vadim, taking the man's rifle and firing it blindly at whatever Hydra troopers are left. "We need to leave quickly!"

  With as much care as she can manage for a woman without depth perception, Anneka accepts one of the tiny Wing Blades, as well as the tension wrench. Taking both, she drops to a knee in the effort to unlock the lowermost drawer. Tiny sounds of protesting metal are finally cut short with an even tinier metallic click.

  "Bingo," the pilot mutters. "Perfect. Thank you, Aquila." The Wing Blade and tension wrench are carefully handed back.

  Yanking the drawer open, she grabs papers by the fistful and, with a quick look around, seizes a paper sort tray from the computer cart and starts stuffing papers into it. It looks ridiculous, but she can carry more that way. Pausing, she tilts her head, reaching up to press her comm headset more firmly against her ear.

  **Data transfer complete. Valkyrie Unit, standing by.**

  "That's our cue. All right, everyone, absolutely now is a good time to head back to the Valkyrie if we do not all want to die. I, for one, do not." Anneka clutches her reams of papers and starts awkwardly making her way back to the quinjet, along with the others headed that way. "Sally Petrovna, tell Vadim if he dies I am bringing him back just to kill him again. Val," she snaps to her wrist, twisting awkwardly to talk into her glowing wristband, "open the cargo ramp and be ready to run like hell when we get there. I think they might be pissed at us."

  ...A-Anneka, no, that's too much gleeful cackling.

    Soon enough the sounds of fighting begin to die down. Mostly because HYDRA is kind of running out of guys. And those guys that do remain decide that now is the time to book it, their numbers not making up for the sheer skill and tenacity of their aggressors. It would seem even fanatics know when to bow and duck out.
    "Ma'am." Steve replies, head dipping in a respectful nod to Evie. Looks like she has him dead to rights on who he is, as he lowers his shield when the HYDRA men turn to book it.
    Anneka, Piera, and Aquila are just about done in the server room. Having gathered a good bulk of valuable intel ad data, what's left aren't vital files of big importance, so it wouldn't hurt to leave those behind in the fracas, considering the base is still on a timer, counting down with the alarm klaxons blaring.
    By the time the party makes it out of the base with data and hostages in tow the timer runs down...
    00:05...
        00:04...
            00:03...
                00:02...
                    00:01...
    And it uh. ... It stops. It just stops with one second on the timer left. No explosions, no earth-shaking, ground-quaking ka-boom.
    All because Rusalka re-titled the file and the executeable couldn't be found.