Industrious: Engineering Marvels - Chapter 27

“Shoot them! Shoot the intruders!”

At this point, I'd learned enough German in order to communicate with Erik that I was able to understand the simple orders being yelled out by a man in a Hydra's officer uniform. Even if I hadn't, the tone of his voice and the way he was pointing his sidearm at us and unloading the entire clip would have been a dead giveaway as to what he was trying to convey to the men around him.

At least, before he took an over-sized round to the chest and collapsed in a pool of his own blood.

Then we all had to duck at the volley of fire that was sent our way.

“Well, that's one down!” Bucky laughed as we all nestled against the far edge of the gantry. “Someone else got a bright idea to get us out of being pinned down?!”

The sounds of bullets ricocheting on the steel and concrete around us was nearly deafening.

Logan and Victor cursed heavily behind us.

Instead of answering verbally, I reached back and pulled out an arrow, replicating my trick from the castle we'd raided weeks prior. It was nearly impossible to shoot in a cramped position under fire like this, so I didn't even bother. Instead, I put my feet on the bow and pulled back on the string and notched arrows with my hands.

“Ray?” Steve asked, crying the word out.

“Smoke bomb!” I yelled back, releasing the trio of arrows to impact the ceiling and explode in a cloud of smoke.

“I'm going after the gem,” Taskmaster stated, latching a rope onto the side of the gantry and jumping off as soon as the smoke obscured us.

“No, wait! We can-” Steve shouted.

Then she jumped and was gone, repelling down into the fray.

“-coordinate.” Captain America's quieter finish was almost lost in the mess of noise, though Bucky was evidently close enough to hear him as he laughed and clapped Steve on the shoulder.

“How about we go down that way and Ray takes Vic and Logan down that way?” Bucky asked, pointing to the left and then right of the gantry.

A quick nod was exchanged and we parted, Steve firming back up as his 'mission-face' set in under the mask.

I just turned and plugged a standard broad-head into the hydra agent climbing up the stairs.

“Alright gang, let's split up!” I grinned behind my mask, tilting my head at the mutant brothers.

“Fer some reason, I think yur yankin' our chain,” Victor growled, clambering to his feet and hurrying after me.

“Would I do that?” I asked, laughing as I took a flying leap down the stairs, impacting the next enemy climbing up with both feet and surfing him down the rest of the way as I knocked an entire column down.

“Yes!” I heard two gruff Canadian voices call out in unison and restrained further laughter as, ten feet before the end of the stairs, I jumped over the side to avoid some clever boots that had decided to set up a defensive line.

I shot an arrow mid-leap into the man who looked like he was leading the squad, the head sinking directly into the man's eye and shooting through his skull to impact the man behind him in the shoulder. Between my own native strength in a body that I was just beginning to train to a degree I was comfortable with, the more exotic tricks in my arsenal, and Howard Stark's superb expertise with modern material sciences and physics, well...

The bow I was wielding, at this range, could over-penetrate to a dangerous degree.

I used the momentary surprise and horror at the loss of two men to arrows to pull out a pair of perfectly ordinary grenades.

Why waste my specialty ammunition on mooks, right?

Pulling the pins in a deft motion, I raised my voice to be heard over the awful din. “Victor, Logan – Goose!”

Victor roared in acknowledgment even as Logan flipped his emptied rifle to slam the butt of the weapon against a man's temple like a baseball bat. A moment later, they'd both disengaged from their opponents, Victor's claw-like hands trailing a stream of blood from the man's throat even as the two Canadians threw themselves behind some cargo containers.

Why did I yell goose?

Well, it comes after duck-duck, of course!

More seriously, it was a code phrase that could be used to alert allies to incoming ordinance while enemies would be struck with a moment of confusion.

Often, a particularly fatal moment of confusion.

I wished I could claim credit for that fit of absurdity, but it was actually Nick who'd come up with it.

Barely five seconds later, the grenades I'd sent skating across the cement like hockey pucks, ricocheting off walls and debris to find themselves behind the cover the enemy squads were huddling for safety...

They did what grenades do and exploded.

I blinked, turning to look-

A secondary explosion cooked off as one of the damaged crates of... whatever the fuck Hydra made giant robots out of cooked off in the wake of the grenades.

I ducked back behind my cover as shrapnel flashed by, fragments of metal and bone both.

Sheltering in place for a few more moments, I tilted my head as I listened for the warning signs of something else about to explode...

“No more geese, kid!” Logan yelled out.

“Yeah, kinda figured that out myself, thanks!” I shouted back.

“There they are! Hiding behind those crates!” One of the Hydra commanders spoke up in a commanding voice. “Now! Open fire! We must stop them before they prevent us from finishing the Great Work!”

I rolled my eyes.

Fucking Nazis.

The huge bunker where the giant robot lay was a chaotic battlefield at this point. Between the constant noise of gunfire, shouting soldiers and scientists, the cries of the wounded, the still-settling smokescreen I'd deployed, and the entirely mundane assortment of crates and machines all around the space...

Splitting up might not have been the best call.

It was a belated realization, sadly.

The Howling Commandos were a team that worked best in small, well-coordinated units with significant planning aforethought. We tried to prepare as best we could, especially since we'd been blindsided by the strange and weird bullshit science experiments Hydra kept in their basement.

I snorted, a moment of humor in an otherwise violent pit as an honest-to-god Wilhelm Scream rang out, a Hydra soldier having been thrown bodily across the room.

Tracking the person-projectile back from whence it came, I could guess where Nina was.

Granted, Steve and Bucky could entirely throw someone if they put their mind to it, but they seldom did. It just wasn't their style. They hadn't really had time to acclimate sufficiently to superhuman combat tiers, so they didn't fully understand how their own capabilities could be properly leveraged against more mundane combatants. I was trying to fix that, but our sparring sessions often to a backseat to more pragmatic and time-sensitive matters.

I shook myself, this was no time to be woolgathering...

Most impactful course of action I can take?

I thought for another moment, then nodded to myself and quick-fired another smokescreen arrow towards where the Hydra forces were marshaling against us. Then, while it was still in flight, I collapsed my bow and went for my swords.

Shouts of alarm and curses in German echoed as the smoke began spreading.

I breathed in through my nose, thankful for my balaclava as I centered myself.

Coughing and choking started, the gunfire becoming intermittent as they struggled to keep eyes on target.

I moved.

Normally, I would have been more circumspect, choosing a route that took me around them to strike at their flanks or rear. But they already knew I was here, were already on-guard, and were actively shooting at me anyway. Even with the decreased visibility, there was a strong chance that the more time I took to get in their midst, the greater likelihood I'd pick up a random bullet from someone spraying and praying.

So I just ran straight at them instead.

It wasn't the perfect tactic, admittedly.

But it had the advantage of catching them off-guard. Few soldiers expected an enemy that wasn't hard-pinned to abandon cover and charge in a situation like this. Regular troops, after all, didn't have reflexes that allowed them to dodge rifle fire by reading the aim of the shooter.

“-coming!” One of the men cried, still hacking from the smoke as he finally caught site of me.

By then, of course, it was too late.

The other advantage of this strategy was that fucking no one in this day and age expected someone on the front lines of a modern war to pull out a pair of swords and start stabbing people. Granted, there were good reasons for that most of the time. Melee weapons had been largely phased out beyond a bayonet and a trench knife for obvious reasons and, even if soldiers possessed the weapons, they largely wouldn't be trained in their use. Or, at the very least, possess a level of skill equal to the average conscript.

My full blade sliced a man's head off.

My short sword stabbed through another's heart.

From there I was a whirling dervish of death, sweeping through the Hydra soldiers and cutting down scientists and engineers as I came upon them. For what it was worth, I tried to take as little satisfaction in the act as I could. Some of them, particularly those that were working as skilled labor, might have been coerced or simply too afraid to speak out.

But this was 1944.

What little sympathy I had for the people I cut down was tempered in the knowledge that they'd performed or been aparty to the incredible evils of not just the Nazi regime in general, but the Red Skull's plans for global devastation in specific.

There was simply a point where you consigned yourself to the same fate as your masters.

Whether you were willing to admit that consciously or not.

So I killed.

After the initial rush, I noticed Logan and Victor falling into step behind me, joining the hurricane of violence as their enhanced strength, endurance, and senses allowed them to fight through the heavy fog of smoke. Putting truth to my earlier thoughts, I watched Victor grab a masked Hydra soldiers and bodily swing him into a heavy metal rack while Logan suddenly deployed his bone claws and lifted another soldier up to shield himself from a clutch of men attempting to reform their unit's cohesion.

As they were shooting, I attacked from the side and cut into them again.

For the moment, that was my purpose.

Slash.

Stab.

Cut.

Pierce.

Then, all of a sudden, something with the weight and power of titan moved.

Logan, Victor, and I stilled.

The whine of servos and energy began to pick up, the charge of immense power in the air around us filling with promise of danger and-

One of the arms of the prone mech shifted.

“Fuck,” I spat, slashing the blood off my swords and reaching for my stash of explosive seals. “Cover me!”

I'd made the wrong call.

It was a stupid oversight on my part, but one that I could perhaps fix now. As Logan and Victor charged into the remaining troops and their fresh reinforcements that were streaming in from parts unknown, I pulled out the stack of explosive notes I'd been slowly building and, after a bare instant of hesitation-

A noise like thunder rolled through the room as the giant humanoid robot began to move further.

Then I just took the entire pack and stuffed it into the ankle joint.

I did, however, have to set an extended timer.

“FUCKING RUN!” I shouted, pulling out a flare arrow and simply throwing it instead of bothering with my bow.

Harsh actinic green light flared into existence as the arrow arced towards the ceiling and over the shifting form of the robot.

“I thought we said no more geese!?” Logan shouted as he turned to cut and run with me towards literally any door.

All that mattered now was getting the hell out of here.

“It's either geese or that fucking robot stands up and kills us all when the ceiling drops anyway!” I yelled in reply.

“If you can shout you can run faster, dipshits!” Victor called back, slamming his foot into a door and sending it flying with clear inhuman strength.

“What about Cap?” Logan shouted.

“Bucky will drag his ass out of here when he sees the signal flare!” I replied, diving into the corridor. “C'mon! We've only got three minutes!”

Less, now.

We kept running, one of the brothers tanking shots from a few panicked Hydra soldiers as we pushed through a few half-backed ambushes.

“Here!” I shouted, seeing a loading bay and running towards it.

“How long do we have?!” Logan roared, plugging a few shots into the men who were stationed at the giant rolling doors.

“Minute and a half!” I shouted back.

Then the shaking began in earnest.

“I thought you said we had more time!” Victor argued, grabbing a Hydra energy gun and beginning to unload at a few unlucky vehicles.

“That wasn't my shit!” I replied, ducking into an enemy jeep and grabbing a fistful as the brothers swept the perimeter.

“The fuck does that mean!?” Victor spat.

“It's standing up!” I replied, relief flooding me as the engine roared to life. “Get in the damn car!”

As I said that, the earth behind us heaved and moved, the sound of an artificial earthquake rolling through the land.

“Fuck-fuck-fuck!” I spat, desperately working the gears as I floored the gas.

“Shit!” Logan cursed as I watched him lean out the backside of the covered cargo area, staring as the earth and concrete were upended.

Then a massive explosion from within the hill rocked the earth so hard I felt the jeep bounce.

“THE FUCK WAS THAT?!” Victor shouted.

“Okay, that one was me!” I cackled maniacally as the earth continued to buckle and roil for a long moment, the weight of the Hydra base's reinforcement having confined the bulk of the explosion within the bunker.

“Hey, it's Steve! Ray, turn right!” Logan spoke up, slapping the barrier between the driver's cab for emphasis.

I pulled a hard right, slowing down now that the very ground beneath the vehicle was no longer rumbling. Victor leaned out of the window on the passenger side of the cab and waved as guns started to come up from the bedraggled crew. Giving a quick headcount, I noted all accounted for, though more than a few had injuries. Dougan's left arm was hanging limp by his side with the sleeve torn off and bound to stop the bleeding. Nick was limping, behind helped around by Frenchie. Steve and Bucky, thankfully, seemed to be fine, though a few other men cradled ribs gently or obviously favored one side.

“Need a ride, Cap?” I asked jauntily.

“Ray, you crazy motherfucker...” Bucky sighed, then blinked. “I thought you couldn't drive stick?”

I shrugged. “We keep stealing Hydra shit so I thought I'd learn. It wasn't too hard.”

“Ray, for God's sake... next time a little more warning?” Steve asked, slumping tiredly against the truck.

“The ceiling was coming down either way,” I told my superior officer candidly, my voice loud enough to carry as I noticed a few disgruntled looks in my direction as the injured were carried into the back of the jeep. “Once they started getting that thing working, it was going to sit up and tear through the concrete roof, bringing it all down on us either way.”

Steve and Bucky stopped for a moment, realization crossing their faces as looks were exchanged between the various members of the squad, their expressions softening.

“When the kid's right, he's right,” Dougan spoke up, dropping himself into the rear tiredly.

Steve grimaced, then nodded. “Alright, that's... more than fair. I don't think any of us realized that was going to be a problem.”

I jerked my head over to where Nina was carrying an unconscious Taskmaster on her back. “What happened there?”

Bucky sighed, rubbing his head. “Overeager bitch tried to storm the high-security area where they were keeping that stone she wanted. There was some kind of mutant playing defense. After it took her out, Steve and I ended up tied down fighting it and they managed to get the crystal into the robot.”

“Well, at least this clusterfuck is over, right?” Morita asked, waving towards the lump of sunken and jagged ground. “Base is destroyed, right? Even with the giant fucking robot, our job's done, we can go home.”

A few tired voices spoke up, relief and agreement in their words.

I opened my mouth to reply-

-when the earth shook.

For a long moment, no one spoke, eyes slowly widening.

In mutual silence and dread, all of our heads turned towards the former Hydra base.

The earth shook again, harder this time.

“So... anyone got any ideas?” Steve asked slowly, his hand going to clutch at his shield.

“We run?” Victor proposed unhelpfully.

“Running's not a plan. Running's what you do when a plan fails,” I stated firmly, the wisdom of a nineties B-movie on my lips. “Hence what we just did.”

“Fuck you too, kid,” Victor growled, showing teeth.

“Focus, people,” Bucky spoke up as the earth rumbled more, longer. “We need ideas. We can't let Hydra get away with having one of these things operational! For all we know, the damn thing could walk across the channel underwater and invade Britain.”

A giant metal hand punched through the ground.

I sighed, rubbing at my head as cries and panic springing up from the troops.

“Okay, first off, all the injured stay in this vehicle,” Steve snapped out an order, cutting through the rising dread. “Anyone able-bodied and ready to fight, come with me. Morita, you good to drive?”

“Long as I don't start hacking up blood,” the Asian man muttered as I popped the door and he began moving gingerly to take my seat.

“Good, drive everyone back to the pickup location. We'll... figure out something,” Steve ordered, grimacing as we watched the arm begin to move around, slowly digging itself out of the hole it was in.

A few moments later, the able-bodied group – myself included – was heading towards the heavily-damaged motorpool.

“So, do we actually have any plans?” Bucky pressed.

I paused as Steve pulled out a handful of wires and got to work hot-wiring this car.

“I'm working on one right now,” Steve promised.

I stared at the slowly-erupting earth thoughtfully, ruthlessly crushing the fear threatening to well up. It was the mind-killer. The little black death. I would not allow it to control me.

“Maybe we can call in a bombing run?”

“Not on short notice like this.”

“What about stealing the gem thing? Isn't that the power source?”

“You wanna get close enough to nick that?”

“If that explosion didn't kill it, what hope do we have of a bombing run doing it?”

There was something in the back of my mind...

I cocked my head as more earth erupted, the robot's head coming into view.

Cow. Unlucky... cow? No, the World's Unluckiest Cow... follow the thought...

Something clicked.

I stalked over to the vehicle and, after a moment, came up with a set of maps. They weren't as detailed as I was used to, but...

Earth shook and steel twisted as I worked, following decades-old memories that I couldn't quite... a ridge line on the map caught my eye and I traced a route to it.

There.

Twenty, maybe thirty minutes, if I had my math right.

“Think we can get it to chase us?” I asked aloud, my head coming up from studying the map.

Conversation ceased around me as the Howling Commandos looked at each other.

“We at least have enough ammo left to piss it off,” Bucky shrugged, trying not to seem nervous as he looked over to the giant machine digging itself out of the hill.

“I... have an idea,” I stated slowly. “One that... might work.”

“That's better than anything we've got so far,” Steve stated leadingly, frowning over my shoulder. “How likely is it to work?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, no clue. I wouldn't suggest it in any other situation, since it's kind of crazy, but... I'm not hearing anything else.”

Bucky grimaced, looking at Steve. “Buddy, the super ninja thinks this is kind of crazy. We have any other options?”

A giant metal arm, now free up to the shoulder, slammed down on the ground as the mech began pulling its other arm out of the earth. I could see a baleful glow within its chest behind a secured plate. A part of me wanted to chance juicing myself with chakra and trying to cut out the power source. A more reasonable part of me knew that I had little chance against something that had just tanked an explosion of the power I'd just unleashed on it.

“Okay, let's do it Ray,” Steve stated, jumping into the driver's seat. “Everybody in! Where we going, navigator?”

I took a deep breath. “The only place where I think there are enough easily-accessible explosives to kill this thing.”

…

Forty minutes later, General Philips felt the earth shake under his feet as cries of alarm rose up in the underground command bunker. After a moment, it passed, leaving everyone looking around in surprise and wariness.

“You! Find out if we're under attack!” The general barked, then turned to the woman beside him. “Carter, why aren't we hearing sirens?”

“That... honestly felt more like an earthquake than a bomb going off,” the captain stated, frowning as she looked around. “I can't remember London ever having one, though. There were a few shakes over in Wales a few years ago...”

Philips paused, frowning, then continued in a more thoughtful tone. “Get me the seismic readings and tell me they didn't originate from wherever Captain Rogers' team is right now.”

Carter snorted before she could stop herself, then cleared her throat as the older man's searing gaze cut into her. “Sir... don't you believe it's a bit... paranoid to suspect that-”

“I'll ask for your opinion when I want it, Carter,” he replied brusquely. “Now get me those readings!”

As she left, he turned to contemplate the map of Europe and its Hydra bases. “I hope you boys are alright, but damn if you don't make a hell of a mess sometimes...”

~~~

Alright! This chapter was a pain in the ass because I wanted to write a bunch of witty dialogue and realized that I needed 3k+ of pure combat.

But I did it! 3.8k of almost pure fucking combat.

I'm sorry this was late, but I've been very firmly reminded of why I don't usually do chapters like this. I do hope everyone enjoys this, though.

Next up is... probably a double-helping of Mind Games, I think.

Hope this finds everyone having a good week.