Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
December 1943
"Welcome to France" came Howard Stark's voice from the front of the truck that Steve was riding in with a group of SSR troops and technicians. Steve got up and looked out the back of the transport vehicle, it was raining heavily and the dirt road that they were driving on was starting to flood. Most of the men involved in with the SSR were new recruits now since the government wanted the SSR to as self-sufficient as they could be. They were traveling to the new French HQ where they would be coordinating their efforts to defeat Hydra.
"We are coming to a stop up ahead to get the lay of the land from some French resistance fighters" said Philips looking into the back, "Rogers you and Peggy are coming with me. Stark is going to take the others to our base of operations in order to get things set up for us."
Steve nodded and smiled hearing that Peggy would be joining them. The truck came to a stop and Steve jumped out and saw Philips and Peggy jump out of the front seats. The three of them approached the sidewalk and were met by a group men who led them to a house where Steve assumed they made their battle plans.
The leader was a young man named Dupree, he had learned English while he was at school in Britain and was chosen to be the leader to talk strategy with American forces. "Hydra is operational all over the country" he said as his men pulled out a map of France. "We are just on the dividing line between German occupied territory and our Vichy territory. Hydra is active throughout but we have scouted a large facility located just over the dividing line. The base is a castle and it is heavily armed with enough fire power to level Paris."
Philips nodded, "This could be the Hydra base we have been looking for" he said as another resistance fighter brought him a stack of pictures they had taken. The pictures showed various weapons that Philips had never seen before. Steve looked them over and pulled out one of the pictures that had a picture of a man on it.
"That's the Red Skull" said Dupree noticing Steve's interest. Philips grabbed the picture from Steve and looked at it intently. "He has been at the base since the end of the summer. Our spies within the facility say that he is working with Arnim Zola on a secret project" informed Dupree handing another picture with Zola on it to Philips.
"Can your spies get to Skull?" asked Philips seeing an opportunity to take care of Hydra by taking out the Red Skull.
Dupree shook his head, "No, he is very reclusive and only allows certain people to be near him."
"How hard would it be to get to him?" asked Peggy leaning forward.
"I could throw every man I have at that place and I wouldn't get past the front gate" explained Dupree with a sigh. "If you want to hit the Red Skull our best chance would be to try and lure him out into the open."
"Do your spies know what kind of experiments the Red Skull and Zola are performing? If we get an idea on their capabilities we can get an idea for a strategy" remarked Peggy as she looked over the various pictures.
"The only thing we know is that prisoners are brought in from all over the world by the Hydra forces fighting in the war. These are the men being tested on and our spies say that once they go up into Zola's tower, they don't come back" explained Dupree. "My men have been in contact with several prisoners who have trying to plan some kind of escape."
Steve looked up, "Are they injured?"
"Not yet but it is only a matter of time before they are used in Zola's experiments" replied Dupree.
"Are they all American?" asked Philips.
"No, one of them is our former commander, there is a British man, two Canadians, and then four Americans" explained Dupree.
"Do you know their names? We can cross check them with the missing in action list" said Peggy grabbing a pencil and paper knowing that Stark had the list with him.
Dupree searched for the last communication from his spies remembering that they had taken the names of the captives in case someone came searching for them, "Their names are Jim Morita, Timothy Dugan, Gabriel Jones, and a James Barnes."
Steve's heart dropped, the world went silent as Bucky's name reverberated through his skull. He looked around the room and saw them all talking about various things. He looked down at the map "Where is this castle exactly?" Dupree pointed to the spot on the map and Steve turned and left the room. Peggy turned and followed him out of the room as Philips and the others watched with confused looks. Steve walked outside and found himself breathing heavily.
"Steve, what's wrong?" Peggy asked. Steve was hyperventilating and was walking around erratically.
Steve bent over and looked at Peggy, "James Barnes" Peggy had a confused look on her face, "He's my best friend, the only person who has stood by me my whole life. We have to save him."
Philips was already walking back to their headquarters when Steve and Peggy caught up to him, "Sir, Steve knows one of the captive soldiers" Peggy explained as Steve was talking so fast that he couldn't be understood.
"I'm sorry to hear that hopefully we can lure and eliminate the Red Skull before Zola gets his hands on him" said Philips as he entered their new headquarters. Peggy and Steve followed him in but their pleas were falling on deaf ears as Philips was getting information from various people as he descended a set of stairs into the bomb shelter that they had converted into a lab for Stark to use. "I understand that you want to save your friend Steve but Dupree said himself that there is too much firepower for an assault. The best chance we have is too lure the Skull into the open and take him out that way."
"Sir that kind of operation will take too long, all of those men will be experimented on before we could possibly pull him into the open. The best chance we have to remove Hydra from the area is to infiltrate the base before Hydra even has a clue that we are in the area" explained Steve hoping that talking about the strategic aspect he could convince Philips to authorize the operation.
"I said no Rogers" Philips said looking into Steve's eyes.
"No to what?" asked Stark setting up various machines in the large basement.
"There are captives inside the Hydra base and one of them is Steve's best friend" explained Peggy without even looking at Stark.
"Ahhh I see… so are we saving them tonight or tomorrow?" asked Stark assuming that a rescue mission was in the works.
"The base is impregnable and we are not going to risk our whole operation here to save a handful of men when our own mission is far more important. Stark prep the lab area, tomorrow we are going on a scout mission with the resistance we will then pick our first target in order to lure the Red Skull out of hiding. Am I understood?" ordered Philips stomping off to his room.
Howard watched him leave, "So where is this base located and how fast can we get there?"
Steve turned to look at him with a look of shock, "You are willing to disobey an order for a person you haven't met?"
Stark smiled, "I don't follow orders very well." Peggy stepped forward and produced a rough map on a piece of paper and Stark looked it over, "An air drop disguised as a French air attack could get you into the complex."
"What about me? My body wouldn't be able to withstand that kind of force" said Peggy.
Steve looked at her, "You're not coming with me."
"Of course I am. You lack the necessary experience to pull off this kind of mission" she replied.
"You can't survive the air drop and one person is easier to hide than two. I get in, get Bucky and the other prisoners out. If I can get to the Red Skull, I will but the prisoners are my number one priority" explained Steve. "So what do you have for me Stark?" prompting a smile from Howard who gleefully motioned for Steve to follow him.
Stark led Steve to a table and started pulling various things up, "Okay first things first" he pulled out a small box and handed it to Steve. "That is a radio that I have been working on." Steve pulled it out of the box and looked at the small device. "It fits into your ear so we can maintain contact without having to lug around a giant radio."
"These would certainly help our troops out here" remarked Steve putting the radio back into the box.
"The army isn't interested in tech like this, they want things that go boom and little else from me" explained Stark reaching underneath the table and pulling out a silver shield, "This is my pride and joy, this shield is made of pure vibranium, which allows it to absorb force like no other object on this earth."
Steve took the shield noticing that it was lighter than air. Steve looked up and Howard shot the shield several times with no effect. "Wow" muttered Steve examining the shield.
"We can paint if you want" Steve nodded and put the shield down on the table, "Any ideas?"
"I'm sure I will think of something" he replied wanting to get under way as soon as possible.
Howard pulled up a suit bag. "This is your uniform."
Steve took the bag, "What's special about it?"
Stark looked at him, "Nothing just a uniform with a little United States flare for yours truly." Steve pulled it out and saw that it was blue leather uniform that came with a cap that acted like a mask, it had a white star on the chest along with while lines that broke up the blue chunks on the suit.
Steve got an idea "Could you paint the shield like this?" Howard smiled, nodded, and handed the shield to one of his technicians who was going to paint it for him. "When do we get started?"
"Nightfall that's the best chance we have of getting our hands on a plane without Philips stopping us. The paint job shouldn't take long if you want to relax a little bit before you go and rescue your best friend from certain death" said Stark running off to make sure the paint job didn't get screwed up.
Steve went outside and stood next to a picket fence and stared off into the distance. Peggy was watching him from the house wondering if Steve could pull the job off by himself without ground support. Steve had done nothing but surprise her but this was something that she could not believe that he was even thinking about attempting. She was struggling with whether to go out and try to talk him out of doing but she knew that she wouldn't be able to convince him not to do it. She sat down and sighed in defeat, she was going to have to let him do it regardless of how she felt about his chances of succeeding.
Steve watched the sun set in the distance, he sighed time seemed to slow to a crawl as he waited for night to arrive. His mind raced with memories of growing up with Bucky and how he had always been there to protect him, no matter how big the bully was or how many friends he had with him, Bucky was always there to stand up for him. The sun finally fell beneath the horizon, and Steve turned to the house to change, he was going to save Bucky no matter what it took.