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FIVE WORLDS AT WAR
Know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories. — Sun Tzu
SEATTLE
WASHINGTON
A young boy of maybe four with dark hair and dark features is running along the shag carpet down the hallway of his family's home. In his hands, two army soldiers he smashes together with delight as his laughs echo through the home.
In the living room, Jim Johnson is catatonic in his arm chair with one hand gripping the armrest with all of his might and the other held up to his blonde beard in anguish. This is the moment he has been fearing since he met his wife nearly 15 years ago and, in truth, for a great deal of time before that.
Sally enters from the kitchen, her apron as perfect as her blonde curls and blue eyes. "Honey, what's wrong?" she asks as her gaze trails from him to the television.
"They're here," Jim replies ominously.
NATO HEADQUARTERS
ROCQUENCOURT
FRANCE
T'Challa, King of Wakanda, leans back in his chair and looks up at the ceiling with at least irritation and at most disgust. This secret meeting of Heads of State is going nowhere. They are supposed to be discussing a unified front against invasion from extra terrestrial forces. Pakistan is using this time to twist the dagger against India and Finland is barking something fierce about Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia being held in the USSR against their will. Perhaps NATO was not the best place to invite these people, but it made sense at the time to the powers that be.
All true statements. All important. But this is not the time for such discussions. T'Challa now fully understands his father's previous policy on isolation for his great nation.
As he slips out a side door, he nods to some SHIELD agents who have been asked to come as security. The place is crawling with them, and for good reason. T'Challa stretches his back out a bit as he stares outside the floor to ceiling windows and into the French forest that begins about 200 yards into the distance.
Something doesn't seem right.
The horizon seems to shudder and there is a low rumbling in the distance. As it gets closer, trees begin to fall before, out of the blue, 5 armored transports of some sort, hovering over the ground, emerge from the woodlands and convene upon the old office complex. T'Challa looks to the SHIELD agents and nothing really needs to be said. Dignitaries from all over the planet have converged together in order to plan on defeating the enemy. Just as the Skrulls seem to have wanted.
One of T'Challa's aids emerges from the conference room with a thick briefcase and the King takes no extra time to reach for it with one hand and loosen his tie with the other.
STALINGRAD, USSR
Even the bright sunshine can't seem to brighten Captain America's mood. The Act-F, both American and Soviet versions, have been practicing joint maneuvers all morning and it is not going as well as he had hoped.
Language is one problem, unfamiliarity another, but what really seems to bother Rogers is the lack of trust between the two groups. A dozen Soviet soldiers seem to be extremely wary of Steve and the rest of the Americans, and the feeling is mutual. It's a long cry from when they used to fight together back in World War II.
"Take five," he says before he realizes the Soviets have no idea what he's talking about. "Vremya otdykha," he adds, having no idea if that made any sense.
*
Crystal has been doing her best to act as translator when she can. She speaks enough Russian to get by, and at least she's used to a certain measure of diplomacy. The problem is, she also brought along her cousin Maximus. The Genetic Council of Attilan ousted the former King, but they also decreed that the royal family should get out of Attilan and work on learning about the rest of the world. Which doesn't mean she trusts Maximus even half as far as she can throw him.
So she brought Maximus to Act-F. Sure, they're affiliated with the Fantastic Four, so they're not short on inventors, but if anyone is going to be able to keep up with and keep an eye on her cousin, it would be the members of this team. And worst case scenario, she could always just let him talk to some Kree. Maybe they'd shoot him.
Regardless, it means she's wrangling him as much as she's helping to translate or even participating in the maneuvers, and when Steve calls for a break, she sighs heavily, looking back toward her cousin. It's may be USSR/USA break time. That just means it's time for another talk with Maximus.
*
Tigra is still a little unsure about even being here at all. Muggers and occasional demons in New York is one thing. Alien invasions are something else, and here she is now, in Russia. With Captain. America. But she's got abilities others don't, and that's why she started down this path in the first place. When the break gets called, she sighs softly and begins a series of stretching exercises to keep herself limber and warmed up.
*
Maximus has been having a good time. He is a well that never seems to run dry of absolute brilliant technical knowledge, but his delivery is catty and arrogant. He is very much 'that guy' that you ask for help fixing the computer…who SIGHS and just gets you to move so he can do it without ever explaining it. And then he's also crazy. But, with Crystal's help, he has been slightly more helpful than annoying, and Steve Rogers showing up now and then seems to cause some sort of odd quieting effect within the madman. He pulls off his headphones and swivels in his chair, a screwdriver in one hand, a couple of screws in his mouth, to look at Crystal and the others. "Hmmm?" He pulls the screws out of his mouth. "Break time?" He looks at the Russian who he's working with and then makes a Royal dismissing gesture, while seeming exactly like he's just going to continue working on /whatever it is/.
*
Sucking on the inside of her cheek, Sue drops her hands back to her sides and casts Steve a sidelong glance that holds longer than she intends. Moments later, her cheeks puff out, she straightens and presses a hand to her forehead. She shoots the Soviets a forced smile, and casts one to the rest of the team. "I think everyone is entitled to a break," there's a level of warmth in her voice typically reserved for those in her family, but mothering comes all-too-easily for some.
*
GREYMALKIN, NEAR EARTH ORBIT
Crackling panic shatters Cable's meditation and brings him crashing all of three feet to cold, gleaming floor of a workship. An Asgardian dagger clatters a couple feet forward from him, a faint but slowly budding psionic link between the two shattered in an instant.
And all of the broadcasts are in French.
Frowning, he picks himself up and paces hastily towards a doorway while ordering, "Prof: translate incoming broadcasts, cross-reference them with local landmarks, and give me potential entry points while I go freshen up."
"Certainly, Nathan," the ship replies. Several doors down, a room full of terrible, fantastic technology is illuminated as Cable crosses the threshold and commences strapping an assortment of pouches and holsters to his person.
*
SEATTLE
WASHINGTON
Sally holds a hand up to her mouth in shock. "Oh my goodness?! What do you think these terrible creatures want?"
The words seem to pain Jim and he closes his eyes for a moment. "They want to control." A sense of resignation comes over him as he looks to his wife, their adopted son, and the life they built together. "Earth is…" He sighs and shakes his head.
"Earth is really important to what they want. They think it'll help them—"
The conversation is stopped by a loud, rough wrapping upon their door.
SECRET SHIELD PRISON
SOMEWHERE IN NEW YORK
Classical music serenades Bruce Banner as he lies in his prison cell, clad in white upon a white bed that sits on the white floor, surrounded by three white walls and a glass pane that separates him from the rest of the prison. He loves Bach and loves Air the best. And after a meal of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and after that SHIELD guard slipped him a glass of chianti he struggles to think of a time that could be more perfect. Surrounding him is all sorts of art and pictures, made for him, his home, by Betty. He closes his eyes and rests his hands over his stomach as he listens to the radio.
Which is rudely interrupted by a bulletin.
"This just in to WFCU studios: Reports from Europe are that both France and the Soviet Union have come under attack by extra-terrestrial forces. Details are sketchy to this point, but it appears the aliens have attacked Supreme Allied Headquarters, in Rocquencourt, near Paris, and that a closed city in the Soviet Union known as Snezhinsk has also come under attack. Military officials have not yet commented on the matter…"
ROCQUENCOURT
FRANCE
Gamora will see not only the large forces that come from the side where T'Challa is looking, but an equally massive force coming from the opposite side. Whether you're from Earth or from the Stars, it's a classic ambush and the Skrulls are setting up a kill zone with the world's leaders right in the middle!!!
Just after Bobbi gives the comments, she's joined by a black clad man with white lenses over his mask. If she is up on her research, she'll know that Black Panther also serves as the King of Wakanda. Either way he nods to her, and with a thick African accent, "I am the Black Panther. I shall help you in any way that I can."
Outside, the five transports that they can see, stop abruptly. A drawbridge lowers out the front and platoons of Skrulls begin to run out, firing energy cannons towards the building. The glass in front of them explodes and T'Challa attempts to tackle Bobbi and Wanda out of the way!
STALINGRAD
USSR
At a makeshift tent that the Act-Fers are using for their break, Steve is trying to stomach Russian meat and potatoes. It ain't like it used to be, that's for sure.
"You should have met my drill sergeant," Steve says to Sue with a grin. "Maybe you could have rubbed off on him a bit. That guy was torture."
Suddenly a man in a military suit is approaching in a small jeep. Steve stands as he arrives.
"We have just gotten word that one of our most important military installations has come under attack. We need to move out right away." Steve looks to Sue and frowns. "Well, ready or not it looks like we're going into war." As Steve sets the tray aside, somewhat thankful he won't need to suffer through any more of that food, he wishes they'd had more time.
Steve looks towards Crystal and that large dog that always seems to accompany her. He has an idea.
Within a few moments Soviet the Act-F agents approach the perimeter of hell on Earth. Out in front of them are four large spaceships that, while blackish purple, in color, appear like cracked peanut shells with sharp angles jutting out in odd, senseless directions.
"Why here?" Rogers asks Commander Stoichkov.
"This is our nerve center for our nuclear weaponry," the older man with white hair says as he looks out the cockpit window. "Only the highest echelon of our leadership realize this Snezhinsk is everything"
*
to us."
Out in front of the team it appears as if the Skrulls have carpet bombed the hell out of the place. Fire and destruction are everywhere below and, intermittently, a green energy blast drops from one of the four enemy spaceship, resulting in a huge explosion below.
"Sir, MiG support will be here in 20 seconds," one of the assistants says to Stoichkov.
"Can you put us on top of one of those ships?" Steve asks Crystal.
"
*
"Maximus. Do try to be…respectful," Crystal sighs to her cousin, giving his current project a moment of suspicious attention. "But yes. We're going to be taking a break for a minute." She pushes a hand through her hair, looking around at the group of gathered fighters. Before she can make any further observations, though, there's news. Bad news.
"We can," she answers Steve, though there's cautious note in her voice as well. "I can't guarantee Lockjaw will be able to get us back down, but I think between Sue and I we can catch anyone who starts to go down."
So long as Steve assents, she'll guide everyone to put a hand on the oversized bulldog, ready to teleport them to the ships above.
*
Mar-Vell arrives from RP Nexus.
*
Mar-Vell has arrived.
*
The saying is "No time like the present," but in this case, Tigra wishes that the present was a little more in the future, after some more training.
*
"Communications, but no weapons, I hope?" Tigra asks the older man with white hair. "Just want to make sure there's nothing we have to be especially…cautious around." Holy cats. Russian nerve center. Oh, Bill, if you could see your Greer now…
*
She gives Lockjaw a quick ruffle and scritching before settling her hand on the canine. "Fortunately, I land on my feet."
*
Maximus has been working on stuff the entire time they've been moving, teleporting, carrying a satchel full of little bits and pieces. He darts steel eyes along the ships, thoughtful, then murmurs, "Skrulls. Difficult to kill. Not impossible. Ahh…Skrull Skrull Skrull. Terrible name. Cousin, you won't need much help with these. You don't mind if I give this to one of the others, do you?" But of course he's not asking, really. He hands it to her. Its a palm-sized puck with a big, annoying, green button along the edge. Max has drawn an arrow the opposite direction. "Will you give it to ahhh, the Captain? It should…stun…in the immediate vicinity around him." Then he hums softly. "And I made something for meeeeeeee." He laughs in a disconcerting way, fondling a cylindrical object with a host of buttons. His feet are bare and he wears a long white lab coat, and an outfit underneath that is tight white with black zigzags.
*
A vague glance is given to the meat and potatoes, but even with that glance, Sue's face pales considerably. "I'm sure your drill sergeant wouldn't have liked me much," Sue's eyes sparkle with unbridled mischief. "I've always been of the opinion that sometimes encouragement pushes success more than yelling," her nose wrinkles.
The presence of the man in the military suit causes her to straighten, but the news causes that light in her eyes to drain slightly. Her lips purse, and resolutely, she nods towards Crystal. "Between us, we can do this."
Maximus, however, earns a sharp lift of Sue's eyebrows and a pointed glance towards Crystal, silently indicating that he is her responsibility. Mom-duty means delegating, right?
*
Russian begins filtering into the broadcasts cocooning Greymalkin's armory. Cable doesn't pay it much mind at first, too occupied with making sure that the two enormous weapons crossing his back are balanced just so; he trusts Prof to sort through the chaos unfolding below.
"Nathan," the ship interjects into the din, concern tinting his digital voice. "I've stopped building the list that you requested and am currently locking onto advanced communications signals from a military installation above the Soviet Union." The cyborg pauses to squint at the ceiling.
"Bodyslide by one," he says a beat later while drawing a massive thing not entirely unlike a rifle from his back. "Right over one of the ships."
SNEZHINSK, USSR
Golden light explodes above one of the Skrull vessels, crackling and blooming and expanding rapidly over several seconds— until it disgorges a man with platinum hair, a gleaming arm, and an impossible weapon, after which it winks out of existence.
"VIPR:," the falling Cable bellows as cybernetics and targetting sensors link up and sweep the vessel below for potential weaknesses, "beam!" A pulled trigger punctuates the command and sends a tendril of blue plasma crackling from the gun's barrel to paint an angry, amber line across blackish-purple angles. Bubbling hull drips and hisses from the ship like rain amidst the hail of bizarrely jutting geometry, unceasing until the radiant serpent has turned a horrific energy weapon into yet more debris.
It isn't nearly enough, but it's a start.
Maybe twenty feet out from a messy impact, Cable is wrapped in amber energy and his fall slows to the point where he's able to tuck and roll across the surface of the ship for a short ways before grabbing hold of a strangely placed spine to stop himself.
"Prof, send a message to the military forces in the area," he says while taking aim at the hull a few feet in front of him. "Tell them not to shoot at the ship at my coordinates. I'm gonna try and tilt this— soon as I can find my way to the bridge."
*
SEATTLE
WASHINGTON
"Zlorg, it's time you come with us. You know what is about to happen."
Two men wearing black sunglasses, black suits, and black ties are standing at Jim Johnson's door while Sally Johnson is asking what the hell a Zlorg is.
"Fine. Just give me a couple of minutes."
"Very well," says the other MiB. "We will wait for you in the vehicle."
Jim turns back towards Sally and walks back into the house, shutting the door. "Honey, I want you to listen very carefully. Whatever happens next I want you to know how much I love you and will always love you. When I leave I want you to get into the bomb shelter over at the school."
"Jim, you're not making any se—"
"Stan," he calls to his son. "Stan, grab me that locket from the dresser." Dutifully, his young son grabs his daddy's necklace, opened with a picture of his mother and himself.
ROCQUENCOURT
FRANCE
Once Gamora strikes, the transport starts making sputtering noises and its front left side slams down into the ground. The ship begins to spin in slow circles, out of commission. However the aliens planned to escape they are now down one transport.
The Black Panther gets up and begins brushing glass off of his suit, hoping that Wanda and Bobbi are alright. He does not know this Coulson, but he nods. He takes the comment as an invitation to attack, and attack he does. He runs far faster than normal humans are supposed to be able to and, after dodging a pair of energy bolts in quick succession, he leaps in the air to give a double clothesline to two of the Skrulls who are too close together. He's up to his feet, slashing another across the face. The unfortunate alien screams in pain before his chest is struck with five claws and he's thrown!
Bobbi is able to get downstairs without any significant issue. She takes a side exit and all seems to be quiet on that end. It allows her to easily get in flanking position, unlike Black Panther who seems to have just gone and attacked straight on.
But when Wanda arrives, the Skrulls start to catch on to the flanking. Two energy shots come their way, only to be blocked by the Scarlet Witch's powerful shielding—no match for the mutant.
SNEZHINSK
USSR
Things seemed to have zipped by at lightning place. One moment they were hundreds of miles away, the next they are in front of absolute carnage, and the next, the team is up above one of the ships being set down by Lockjaw.
"Crystal and Sue may want to take on the other ones using their flight. As for Tigra and me we can't do much in the air."
The wind is merciless, but Steve gets to work right away, slamming a hole into the hull of the ship and sliding inside. He reaches up to help Tigra in.
Leaning low, Steve looks back at Tigra. "I'm thinking we take control and use this thing to crash into the others. If we can figure out how to fly it." He shrugs his shoulders.
It's up to Crystal, Sue, and Mad Max if they follow Cap into the ship, but the three of them do notice that on one of the other alien crafts a man with white hair totally is thinking the same thing and gains entrance.
Inside, Cable's breach has the misfortune of being spotted. Almost immediately he comes under intense weapon fire, forcing him to stay under the cover of a hallway cover. From his knowledge the bridge isn't far.
*
Crystal takes the disc from Maximus with a blank look, giving the device a cursory inspection of her own first. Not that she expects to understand what she finds, but at least she's going to look. "Limited collateral damage, Maximus," she warns her cousin, though she does offer the disc over to Steve with a look. "Point the arrow toward the problem. If you have to."
She meets Sue's look with a faint grimace and the slightest roll of her eyes. Family. What can you do about them?
Once they're on the ship and Steve is jumping inside, she looks to Sue and the other ships. "I'm going to take another ship," she decides. "Maximus, stay with the Captain. Figure out if there's a better way to bring this down than getting Blackagar to shout at it." She doesn't wait after that, rising on a column of air to fly over to another ship.
Far beneath them, the earth itself starts to rumble.
*
Tigra accepts the offered help and slips inside the alien craft, reaching back to pull her tail clear of the edges of Cap's custom entryway. "It's probably a lot easier to crash it than fly it, so we've got that going for us," she tells him brightly.
Trusting to her senses even on this strange ship, she takes the lead, moving towards the front of the ship. She hears skruls running for a door before she reaches it, pauses and lets the first one charge out before grabbing the following skrull and slamming him against the far bulkhead. She bounces back from it with her leg snapped out and catches the first one in the throat, dropping him also.
*
The last week has been Mar-Vell's first experience with what humans call the 'holiday rush'. As Dr. Walter Lawson, his hours at the Goddard Space Studies Lab at Columbia dwindled as staff and students went home for the Christmas break. But as Captain Marvel, his schedule had increased exponentially since early last week when he detected scans of Earth from near-space. Skrull detection scans, one of which found his secreted Kree shuttle. Mar-Vell managed to get to the craft and pilot it away from the planet just before a Skrull scout ship dropped down to its former location.
Thus began a cat-and-mouse game with the Kree warrior trying to determine how large a Skrull force was massing, while remaining hidden or just out of range of their ships. Three times he had been detected, but managed to evade and lose his pursuers. He's maintained radio silence with his Kree forces, not such an unusual event that they would send anyone to investigate yet. Which is what Mar-Vell wants. Earth in the middle of a major Kree-Skrull battle isn't in this world's best interest, nor its inhabitants.
Maintaining low Earth orbit in his shuttle, Mar-Vell detects the arrival of the Skrull forces at their insertion points around the globe. The nearest one is over the USSR, and the Kree warrior activates energy shield, powers unibeam weapons, and noses his shuttle toward that battlefield. His arrival coincides with the arrival of an unusual gorup tethered to a very large canine, settled astride the Skrull ship he had in his sights moments before. Captain Marvel pulls up, comes alongside the Skrull craft and announces over external speaker, "I am Mar-Vell of the Kree Star Empire. Some of you know me by the name the Terrans have given me, Captain Marvel. Can I be of assistance with your 'guests'?"
*
Maximus will be fiiiiiine. He's got tough, Inhuman skin, decent strength, and the survival instincts of a lizard. "I can fly it." He opins, without any actual spaceship flying experience. Just arrogance and that technical mind of his. "Yes, I agree with you, dear. Crashing should be fine. Its always," his eyes squint, "/landing/ that is tricky, anyway." He follows after the Captain, but there's plenty of room for the spangled man and Tigra to be first to the fray. "She didn't leave you any, Cap-i-taaan." He clucks his tongue. "There's a ship out there. /Kree/." Steel eyes spark oddly to the commentary to Rogers and whoever else is just inside the hole the shield made.
*
Once atop the vessel, Doctor Storm issues one command, "Everyone, do what you can to take them down." And with the thought spoken, she disappears from view. A burst of psionic energy underneath The Invisible Woman has her soaring towards a different vessel. Beneath her, the forcefield gains momentum, and it becomes dense, like an invisible vessel all its own.
Sue clamps her eyes shut, and with all of the force she can mentally muster, while still riding atop the burst of energy, she stands upon rams hard into the ship in question.
The force of the shield hits hard against the vessel, punting it hard from its orbit. The exterior wall of the ship buckles, leaving an imprint of the force upon it. The vessel veers from its course — not permanently, but enough to know something is amiss.
Sue's arms lift, creating a sense of stability for herself as she returns to view — it's hard to focus on invisibility and destruction at the same time.
*
Cracking the outer shell isn't so bad, in the end, but it's loud. Cable is forced to duck behind a corner in the space of a heartbeat.
"You'd be advised to surrender," he calls to the warriors already trying to blow him apart. A quick peek around the corner earns him a head count and searing lines along his shoulder and biceps.
"Hhngh— " A sidearm is unholstered and bent around the corner to send high-caliber slugs screaming into a Skrull's chest, then yanked away before he's shot again. It drops so that he can unclip a bandolier full of grenades; a sweep of his cybernetic eye arms each of them in turn. "— but you won't, and I wouldn't either, in your position. So:"
The next time his arm whips around the corner, the Skrulls are greeted by a blinking, beeping bandolier that sets several of them scattering out of self-preservation.
"You get a time-out while I take this ship," he concludes after the exploding bandolier fills the corridor with paralyzing electricity. He then sprints around the corner, pumping slugs into the backs of the Skrulls who had the sense to flee— and ducking into a doorway, briefly, when one fires back on him.
That Skrull meets a metal fist when he turns 'round to close in on the cyborg, and then he's seized by the scruff of the neck and hauled over Cable's shoulder to be carried the rest of the way to the bridge— which his captive makes a touch easier to find, given a little mental probing.
Upon charging - or blasting his way into, as the case may be - the bridge, the mutant dumps his captive, points his rifle at whoever has the fanciest uniform, and demands, "Hands up— everyone, now! I'm commandeering this ship; you can either watch me do it, or not. Your call."
*
FRANCE
Gamora's calls are heard by the agents and the latter are put on alert. Unfortunately her call leads to one Skrull in particular peeling back and taking a pair of shots at the alien woman!!!
Coulson's pot shots blow the brains out of a Skrull closest to him. That's the good news. The other good news is that the explosion seems to have caused the Skrulls some fear. The SHIELD agents can begin to see it in their eyes.
BLAMBLAMBLAM
Bobbi fires upon Skrull after Skrull emptying her clips without even batting an eye lash. It does not seem as though this alien species is quite as formidable with firearms as the SHIELD trained humans. Their aim is not quite as good. Blackish green blood goes flying every which way as Skrull after Skrull is dropped.
Unfortunately, T'Challa is now surrounded by a force of angry Skrulls. He's unsure whether or not his suit can take one of these energy blasts, but resigns himself to believing that it would be an honorable death.
But before any of them fire, they're cleared out by a massive blast from the Scarlet Witch that clears the entire foreground in front of the Wakandan king. He turns to her, and the Panther gives a solemn nod of thanks.
USSR
"Well, I happen to be an expert at crashing airborne vehicles," Steve says as Tigra shoots past him in order to start laying the smack down on aliens. Just above her head the shield bounces off a bulkhead and cuts downward, taking out three aliens before returns towards Captain America.
"I bet it's this way. Assuming they follow the same sort of visual cues we do they'll probably want to face forward, right?" It's that sort of airtight logic that makes Steve Rogers a hero to many.
Inside, Steve can hear the loudspeaker and Mar-Vell's muffled voice. Hopefully whatever that is that came upon them is friendly. Then, back to Max. "What's a Kree?"
_ _
Sue hits ramming speed on the Skrull ship and hits it hard. Really hard. In the bridge, the Skrulls seems scattered and afraid. They begin muttering in words that are unintelligible to humans, but it's clear that they did not expect this much resistance. One of them even asks the Captain Skrull if they should abort.
_ _
A hallway full of Skrulls seem to debate the benefits and drawbacks of Cable's offer. Chatter from the other ship has been clear. They were hit by something invisible. Perhaps these humans have some sort of unknown tech. That could not be, could it? And who is this white haired fellow? He wasn't on any of their intelligence reports.
They raise their hands and surrender.
*
Crystal raises her arms, floating just a few feet above the hull of her chosen ship, and the rumbling of the ground beneath it intensifies. As it does, she remembers that there are things there that should probably not be shaken up. Which means she needs to focus.
She drops to the hull of the ship, going down on one knee, and just as she falls, a massive piece of bedrock bursts from the ground below the size of a bus, leaving the ground around it undisturbed.
With the stone under her control, she straightens once more, floating away from the ship. The tip of the rock starts to glow, red-hot, and the moment Crystal is clear, she throws forward a hand, launching the bus-sized stone deep into the heart of the ship…only to explode it there in molten stone shrapnel.
*
"Pretty hard to see what they're doing otherwise," Tigra agrees. A flick of her tail at the sound the shield makes bouncing about, enjoying the sound of a material she's never heard before. She dashes forward, low to the ground, not quite on all fours but using her hands alternatingly to keep low and out of obvious lines of fire. And shields. A quartet of skrulls present a firing line as she comes around a turn and they open fire. She leaps to a wall, jumps off it to land behind them and then leaps backwards into their midst to send half of them sprawling. On the ground she's as fast and twisty as, well, a wildcat, legs scissoring past an energy bolt, then twisting to grab onto a neck. She pulls herself up and headbutts the alien, backflipping off him as he staggers against the wall.
A rifle of another is grabbed and yanked, the skrull coming along with it. Her other hand grabs him behind the neck, slamming him against his friend. Again she drops flat, energy bolts criss-crosing over her as the other two take each other out. "I think we're close."
*
The unibeam blasters of the Kree shuttle are not heavy armament, though the powerplant of the ship is designed for limited hyperjumps. Mar-Vell took advantage of this in modifying the weaponry so that, as long as jumps weren't on one's tacitcal plan, the unibeams could draw sufficient power to carry a very nasty punch, even against larger class vessels. Vessels just like the Skrull ones here. And while he hates tripping up the battle strategy laid down by another, as the Terrans begin pressing their own attacks, the Kree Captain puts some of his own resources into the fray, hoping the effort will help.
Mar-Vell changes frequency settings in time to hear the Skrull forces starting to panic, seeking answers from their commanders as they find resistance much more formidable than they expected. He brings his unibeam blasters to bear on the ship that, he believes, Dr. Storm may be battering using her metahuman abilities. "Skrull vessel, this is the Kree Shuttlecraft Gardar. You are in an area outside the registered boundaries of the Skrull Empire. Surrender, or be fired upon," Mar-Vell broadcasts on the Skrull band, and then fires a double unibeam blast at the engineering center of the Skrull ship Sue's engaging. the Skrull engine flares nicely, a brilliant yellow as sparks fly and travel the conduits, freezing systems all over the vessel. "Too late. Surrender faster next time." Mar-Vell delivers the blow and watches the big ship list as he punches his own engines to catch up to the fifth Skrull ship.
*
Maximus is following with the others, behind Captain America, running along at a pace when he cuts his eyes to a hallway they don't need to go down. He seems suspicious of it. So he hangs back a moment. And he's rewarded with the appearance of some Skrulls headed his way. He just stands there, staring. He doesn't DO anything. They see him, for he's painfully obvious, speaking softly in Skrull and then raise their weapons to fire at him. But they don't fire. Instead the tightly clad aliens raise their weapons slowly at each other. And then fire. So there's a sudden sound of gunfire behind the group. If they look, though, Max is fine, and he hurries after them. "The Kree are an alien race that has tried to fiddle with earth before, /long/ ago. They are blue." He looks at the walls and weird stuff like that, and babbles, "It looks like they have a 4th recipricating protocol for the steerage….fascinating. yes, we're close." Maximus agrees. "If not because of the alien ferocity, due to the convergeance of altitude relays." Blah blah, he might be making it up. He bends to some dead aliens that were victims of Cap and Tigra, fishing out whatever looks like key cards or anything else useful for having their way with this ship, making their passage to the bridge faster.
*
The vessel that now has its systems frozen, experiences a sharp vibration from its exterior. Its crash is inevitable thanks to Mar-vell's efforts, but the location and utter nature of that crash is in question. The ship's descent actually finds sharp momentum as another large forcefield comes against it. Sue slams the vessel from above to force it into the remaining ship.
Invisible psionic energy rains down hard on the metal of the vessel, and inside, the activity turns to total bedlam as the Skrulls desperately attempt to find some brakes. Madly, the aliens run different types of tests, diagnostics, and systems scans in an effort to gain some control, but undeniably, they're on a collision course with one of the other vessels.
The force of metal slamming into metal clangs loudly and draws fire across the systems effected on each as the two vessels, much like two cars travelling at impossibly fast speeds, hit one another bouncing back and force thanks to force, momentum, and one ship's utter loss of control, until both meet the earth with a splay of dirt, flames, and smoke.
*
After taking a couple of beats to look his alien foes in the eye and check for signs of imminent treachery, Cable strides towards and helps himself to the captain's chair. The rifle remains by his right side, barrel resting against the ground. His left hand, meanwhile, splays across the console as his fingertips open to let a multitude of wires extend outwards. They pop keys, break through gauges, and wriggle through the corners of displays— whatever it takes to work their way into the machine's guts.
The cyborg's breath seizes as his interface attempts to dialogue with alien technology. The entire ship shudders and sloooooowly lists towards one side before righting itself. Sparks leap between Cable's fingers.
Slowly, he exhales and takes control of external speakers:
"Attention Soviet military forces: one of the hostile vessels is about to set a course for orbit, where it'll detonate without any further harm to the region below," booms across the battlefield. "I'd appreciate your compliance in not trying to blow me up while I facilitate this." Engines roar to life and the vessel begins to climb. "Thanks in advance."
Once the ascent has begun, he looks over a shoulder towards the nearest Skrull, tips his chin, and offers, "You can grab your friends in the hall, find an evac, and take your chances with the crew working the rest of your fleet over," while tightening his hand around the oversized gun at his side, "or you can try me."
The bridge floods with red lights, alarms, and self-destruct warnings in several Skrull dialects.
"Invasion's done for you lot either way, though."
*
ROCQUENCOURT,
FRANCE
Once Bobbi commandeers one of the transports, the Skrulls start running. This was not what they bargained for and once one gets past the menacing exterior and the frightful ability to change shape, the Skrulls show their true cowardly colors.
And they begin to run.
Gamora is busy putting Skrull parts to the left and the right as the field out in front of her begins to turn tail and run towards another transport.
Which promptly crashes into the ground as Coulson hits the sweet spot.
Scores of Skrulls run for the forest to desperately try and get aboard whatever ship they came in. This was not what they had intended or what their commanders told them would happen. They had been told, even at the start of the Terran Campaign, that Earthlings would be easily subdued.
And, then, suddenly, the lot of them, as well as the spaceship deeper in the forest are now completely motionless as Wanda has her way with them. One of the Skrulls has just enough moisture and energy to look at his commander in a gaze of shock before he can no longer move.
SNEZHINSK
USSR
KABLAAAAAAM!
The ship that Steve is currently in shakes hard from the massive explosion of one of the other ships. Crystal's maneuver completely obliterates her opponent by driving a piece of molten rock through the hull and into the core, igniting it and sending pieces of shrapnel and Skrull guts down to the valley below.
The Skrull ship that Mar-Vell attacks completely freezes up and stays there, floating, like a giant ugly broken peanut shell painted black in the sky. It already has a biggole dent in the front from where Sue got to it. As it smashes into the other one and comes to the ground that leaves only Tigra/Steve/Maximus' ship and the one Cable has taken..
_
Aboard Cable's ship one of the Skrulls nods and shrugs his shoulders as if to acquiesce to Cable. It's better than getting nuked after all. Likewise, the Russians don't fire on him as he pulls the ship into orbit.
_
Steve opens up a door and immediately it's revealed as the bridge. Without thinking he presses the button on the device he was given from Crystal, made by Maximus. Immediately blue energy reaches out and stuns 6 Skrulls who all slump to the ground immediately.
Steve pushes one off of a control panel and begins to check some of the instruments. "This is not good. I think that device froze the controls." By the way that the ship turns and heads downwards as it begins to fall to the Earth, it looks like they're in a world of hurt. Or about to be.
Steve pulls the shield from his back and looks to Tigra. Get Max and get behind this. It'll keep you safe." Well, as safe as possible.
As Steve tries desperately to get hold of the controls and get them to work in order to pull up,he has flashbacks of World War II. And he thinks of Jack and hopes she won't take the news hard. There won't be an iceberg this time.
"Can anyone hear me?" Steve says into his radio. "This ship is going down. Try and make sure the coast is clear below."
"
*
"Sue, that ship!" Crystal calls, already zipping toward the falling ship where Steve, Tigra, and Maximus have taken the bridge. "It can't hit that facility! I'll take care of our people inside!"
As the ship starts to fall, Crystal picks up speed, bits of shrapnel and bedrock speeding to a point in front of her to punch a hole in the hull ahead of her. "Coming for you, Steve," she warns over the comms, as she and the bevy of raw earthen materials zip toward the team.
"Everyone close," she warns as she comes to them, starting to build a solid shell around them all out of the metal and stone, padding it with air and dirt. "We might get rattled, but hopefully not too badly."
*
"Welp, we did agree it'd be easier to crash this thing than fly it," Tigra says with gallows humor. She takes the shield almost reverentially. She holds it for a moment, then shrugs a little, and turns to offer it to Maximus. "I think I'd rather stand and watch," she says quietly of her decision to not shield herself. But then it sounds like their ticket's not quite ready to get punched. Not yet, Bill.
*
The flight plan of the remaining Skrull ship is off. Not out of control, just not flying in a standard Skrull pattern, owing maybe to how unnerved the crew is, but also possibly because another 'crew' is in charge. Captain Marvel slows his pursuit just as the broadcast, a quite human broadcast of distress, is picked up from one of the Skrull ships under seige behind him. He maneuvers in a tight circle, sees the vessel losing altitude and powers up the tractor beam of his own shuttle. "Hold on,"he broadcasts, "let's see if we can't slow you down."
Mar-Vell grimaces as he locks onto the Skrull ship and feels his own shuttle -yanked- forward. The Kree warrior drops shields and applies the power to the tractor, and finally feels his own descent starting to slow. But the impact will still be difficult for humans to survive. He slowly cranks up the engines, adding their thrust to the pull of the tractor. There's a light haze of smoke forming across the Kree bridge, and the engine sounds as if someone locked a Hormsnarg hornetnest inside it, but the falling ships slow to a crawl, and at last the Skrull one touches down lightly.
*
The downside to being an insane person is that results tend to come in a circuitous fashion. Maximus makes no apology for the device's effect on the potential to control the vehicle, though he certainly doesn't panic, like any normal person would, to be in a crashing alien ship. "WAIT!" He yells, as soon as Crystal appears, causing all sorts of pressure imbalance, and he start grabbing bits of the tech. And that's…when he's handed THE SHIELD. His pale, oddly angled face gets a flush of shock to it and he holds the famous object with a few blinks. "Oh." And he swallows. He's totally derailed by all this and completely ignores the device he's holding, getting closer and closer to Crystal. "Come near to her, she can protect us!"
*
"On it!!" Sue calls back to Crystal as she soars back towards the vessel. She gains momentum fast — adrenaline courses through her veins and is put to good use as her ability pushes to the brink. She meets the ground in short order, plants her feet firmly upon it, and lifts her hands.
The invisible shield that surrounds the vessel has a spongy quality, and represents a cushion that should be able to encase the metallic ship to help their friends onboard. The momentum of the ship presses down upon Sue well before the ship would touch the ground, but she stands firm.
Her eyes close, her teeth clench, and she slides backwards along the soil. The force of the vessel upon her forcefield presses firmly against her. But Sue's will holds. A trail of blood drips from her nose, but she doesn't relent. She slows the ship considerably, essentially encompassing it in a shield of protective energy.
*
Cable can't understand the countdown filling his ears, but he and his techno-organic interface feel it, which is good enough to figure out how long he's got before the explosion. Once it's clear that the Skrulls are willing to take him up on his offer, he stands to strap the rifle to his back, then detaches and briskly advances on the last of the aliens to flee, closing in just as they're about to step out of the bridge.
"Shhh," he whispers into a pointed ear as metal biceps squeeze around the soldier's throat and drag backwards. "We're gonna have a little chat, you and I— "
The cyborg's teeth grit as thrashing limbs beat against his body in a rhythm that falls to a gradual stop as the alien is crushed into unconsciousness. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.
Outside, atmosphere gives way to void, thrusters screaming to bring the ship into orbit as swiftly as their specs will allow them to. Six. Five.
"Lock in a vector at the installation." Four. Three. Two—
"And bodyslide by—"
One.
There's no sound, just the brilliance of alien engines going critical lingering in Soviet skies for a time. Meanwhile, golden light floods the air maybe a dozen feet behind Sue, expanding for several seconds until it disgorges Cable and Cable's captive, then vanishes.
There's approx. jack shit that he and his arsenal can do about a falling spaceship, but upon seeing Sue ahead - and doing a double-take - he presses fingers to his temple, narrows his eyes upon her, and flings positive thoughts her way.
This mainly consists of an attempt at stoking a modest endorphin rush and a succinctly stated, "Stay strong. You have this," between her ears.
*
ROCQUENCOURT
FRANCE
T'Challa comes running back from the forest line, dodging Skrull statues as he does, his suit covered in green goo. He stops short of the team, watching Gamora who is clearly hurt. He knows first aid, true, but not something as fierce as one of these blast bolts.
The King of Wakanda came here to help the world find answers. Now, there are only more questions. He finds himself thankful that SHIELD and this mysterious green woman were also here. As to the statues, well, another question.
SNEZHINSK
USSR
All around the ship begins to break apart, pulled and pushed on by every force imaginable and by some invisible ones too, like Mar-Vell's tractor beam and Sue's cushioning. They slow it down considerably, but are unable to stop the ship wholeheartedly. Cap pulls in Tigra and even Mad Max as well into a tight huddle. Hopefully Crystal and Cable's efforts, combined with the others will help them.
SMASH!
There's a loud ringing in Captain America's ears, but when he comes to, he's awake enough to notice the ringing and that means he's alive. He can't see anything because of the dust and debris. Everything is strangely quiet.
"Tigra? Are you alright?"
It will take a bit, but after the dust has settled, it seems the entire Act-F team has made it through this first battle of Earth.
But, if this attack is happening here, what could be happening in America, Steve wonders in his mind.
NORAD HEADQUARTERS
OUTSIDE OF COLORADO SPRINGS
COLORADO
The blue sky is dotted with enemy craft as they hover over the central command of NORAD. As United States fighters approach the fleet of almost one hundred ships, they are easily blown out of the sky like slapping a mosquito.
Most of the Skrulls look similar with small changes to the uniform. All except for the one Skrull who wears a locket around his neck, clearly made on Earth.
TO BE CONTINUED.