Outpost 77 - Mission Report Archives

[Deleted]

While deleting old files from his computer, Cain stumbled across a file, buried deep in his hard drive, that brought a flood of vivid memories that were painful and long repressed.  Knowing that he could not delete the file, Cain opened it and read a text quite familiar to him. 

Mission Report Archives-
Mission - Outpost 77, Status Confirmation and Reclamation.
Sent briefing: Team RavenStorm of The Unkindness Initiative is being deployed to Northern Canada.  Outpost 77 has ceased contact for many months. Outside access to the Outpost's computers is impossible, and the outpost has been classified as AWOL.  Locate the Outpost, record and report status of the outpost, obtain and report status log, and search for any surviving S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents.
Objectives Completed: Located Outpost 77
Confirmed Casualties: 2
Unknown Status: 1 
Final Check In: 1  
Notes: Team RavenStorm disbanded. Unkindness Initiative terminated

-6 Standard Months Ago-
-Northern Canadian Forest-
-Just Outside Outpost 77-

Cain and his team approached the great steel door, their assault rifles trained on its ajar, rusted disarray.  Plant life had claimed the Outpost's secondary entrance, and this was the only other option for entering the mysteriously AWOL facility.

His team was known as RavenStorm.  Under the Unkindness Initiative, RavenStorm functioned as a team of four field agents specializing in Combat, Tactics, Hacking, and Stealth.

The rest of the team was comprised of Agents: Cis O'Konner, Drake Jennings, and Mason Sage.  They were Cain's closest friends among the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. and they were about to walk into the horror of their lives.

[Deleted]

Cain tagged his com-link headset with his hand and said quietly, "Fighting Raven to Home Nest. We are at the main entrance. Commencing mission."

"Copy that, Cain. Carry on."

With a quick nod to his fellow agents, Cain nodded and waved them to move forward into the facility behind him. Cain put his hands back onto his gun and activated the flashlight mounted just below the barrel. As quietly as he could, Cain stepped through the ajar steel door.  Dank silence met him, as he searched the walls for an electrical switch.  When he found what looked like a standard main switch on the wall nearby the door, Cain saw that it was powered off.  "Hmm... That might help." he said.  "Shield your eyes, Ravens." he said before throwing the switch and turning on the power to most of the outpost. 

What they saw shocked them.  This outpost may have been AWOL longer than thought.  What had been left here? Why was this outpost so long abandoned?

[Deleted]

Mason saw a number of computers in the center of the room and said, "Cis, cover me. I might be able to find the information we need from this consol."
Cis nodded in reply and followed Mason toward the dust-covered panel of monitors and keyboards, her flashlight scanning about the darker areas of the room they had entered. "You'd think these lights would have lit a bit more than this."

Mason let his gun fall from his hands on its shoulder sling as he searched around for a switch to turn the long de-activated computers. After a few moments of brushing away cob-webs, Mason had the array of computers up and running. His fingers flew across the keys and began pulling up data logs. "Well, well, well.... HYDRA's been getting a little sloppy."

"What was that?" Cain asked.

Mason smiled smugly and unhooked a transceiver from his belt. "This database has been ravaged by searching bugs already. Signature patterns of common HYDRA bugs making all sorts of disarray so that certain files are nigh-impossible to access. Thankfully for us, I know exactly where to find what we need."

Cain and Drake had split off to investigate an off-shooting hallway. Drake covered the entrance to the hall while Cain went ahead.

"Mmmm... good." Cain mumbled as he kicked open the ajar doorway of an interior hallway. Cain took one step forward into the hall and immediately drew his foot back. Cain growled in pain as he pulled his foot up so that he could see it. "Careful stepping, guys. Caltrops." Cain pulled the knot of spikes from his foot and scanned the floor in front of him with his flashlight. "Tons of caltrops.... and mines near the sides of the walls." Cain pulled a small gun-like tool from one of his belt holsters and stuck it into the hole in his boot. He squeezed the trigger and released a light green foam into the wound. The pain went away almost immediately and he felt a rush of adrenalin. Suddenly something occurred to him. On the last few missions where HYDRA was involved, they used trip-wires and far more mines... never caltrops.
Cain shouted, "Mason! Do not plug that transceiver in!! This was not the work of HYDRA!" He looked back toward Drake, but could not see his fellow agent.

What Cain did not know was that Mason Sage had indeed plugged the transceiver into the computer console already. Gunshots sounded and echoed in the central hall where Mason, Cis, and Drake were. Cis screamed, heavy footfalls pounded the metal floor panels, the scream turned into a desperate cry that disappeared as more gun-shots rang out.

"CAIN!!!" Drake shouted, more gunshots firing.

Cain ran back toward the central hall and raised his gun. The room was in more disarray than it had been before. Massive amounts of sparks were pouring from the plugged in transceiver, Mason lay on the ground with a smoking hole in his chest, all of the equipment that Cis had been wearing was left, scattered on the ground in a path leading toward the outside door, and Drake was wildly looking around the room, pointing his flashlight and rifle every which direction.

"What is going on???!?" Cain yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!!!" Drake shouted back, his voice cracking in the middle. Cain could see the fear in his eyes.

A can clattered to the ground and slowly began filling the room with a red mist. Drake whined, "What do we do??! What do we do!?"

Cain replied, knowing that the two of them might be about to die. "Stay sharp, Drake. This is the work of The Hand."

[Deleted]

- Present Day -

Cain realized that he had fallen backwards onto his bed in his small chamber at SHIELD HQ. the mission report file of the Outpost 77 mission still sat on his desktop. Not wishing to recall any more, Cain dragged the file back into his storage folders and shook his head. Instead he looked back toward the shelves on the wall by his bed to see the only printed picture of Cis O'Connor he had. Happier memories flooded his mind of the times they shared together, though the mystery of her fate still remained.

After the red fog, laser-guided automatic turrets killed Drake when he backed too far against a wall. Cain was shot twice in one shoulder and once in his thigh on the same side. He had managed to get out with the utility belts of Drake and the discarded belt that Cis had left. Cain had used the grenades from each belt tied together to nearly hollow out the AWOL outpost, a resulting chain-reaction removing any other traps The Hand might have placed inside.
Cain pulled up his locator to find the location of the jeep that had brought them out this far, and noticed that it had moved many miles south of its previous location. He remembered following the tracking beacon all the way to the jeep, only to find it crashed against a wall of rock. There were no signs that Cis had been in the vehicle when it crashed, and no foot-prints or thermal scans could indicate where Cis could have gone. After fruitlessly trying to contact her, Cain recalled making the painful decision to end the mission, file it as a failure, and signal his emergency beacon so that SHIELD could locate and extract him.

Many search parties failed or never returned from searches for the lost agent, and Cain had since never given up hope that Cis was still out there somewhere.

Cain returned to his computer and accessed the SHIELD personnel database, he quickly located Cis's file and found no updates as to her status.

'Had they given up on her?' Cain thought to himself. A moment later, a knock came from the other side of Cain's chamber door. Cain stood up and answered the knock, "Come in."

A senior agent of his stepped onto the room, carrying an electronic tablet. "Cain Edge," he said. "We have gained intel on the status of Cis O'Connor. She's alive, but still at large."

"Where is she?" Cain asked excitedly.

[Deleted]

"We believe that we have located her once in the Detroit area, and once more in Buffalo." the senior agent said. "We believe that she crossed through Canada and is headed toward New York City... one of your last known locations."

Cain became even more interested, at this point. "She's tracking me..." he said, smiling.

"Indeed." the Senior Agent replied. "And so could we from the tracer that she somehow managed to get into the coat you left at the New York City SHIELD base."

Cain looked back toward his closet. "hmm.. dangit... I liked that coat."

"For our safety, we removed the tracker and destroyed it."

"She probably still knows where the New York base is."

"We are concerned about that detail, Cain."

"Well, then book me a flight to New York. ASAP." Cain said.

"It is already done. Your orders are to get to New York City and apprehend her. She knows too much about SHIELD and is not a known ally."

Cain thought for a moment, nodded, and stood up to leave his room.

"Where are you going? I haven't finished. I have other missions for you in New York City" The Senior Agent protested.

"Save 'em and table 'em." Cain responded. "Until then, I'm going to get my coat."


*Enter NYC: A Rough Morning