DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: "Has he lost his mind? - Can he write or is he blind? - Is it conceit or is it gall; That Marvel and Paramount owns it all? - Or if he's sued that will he fall? - Is he alive or is he dead? - Has he trademarked thoughts in his head? - We'll just leave this here: No money was made; So he's in the clear!"
PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "You cannot organize civilization around the core of militarism and at the same time expect reason to control human destinies." revenge." (10/26/1938 Radio Address) – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – American politician and statesmen. 32nd President of the United States – 1882-1945
LAST UPDATED ON: 03-30-2020
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CHAPTER NINE – THE AVARICE EYE
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OUTBOUND FROM SHKIN, PAKTIKA PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN, OCTOBER 16th, 2010 – MORNING
As the two armored forms flew through the skies of Afghanistan, their wake was greater than the contrails left behind them. All around the world, important people were being woken up or alerted to the on-going situation as they became aware of it. Whether given a concise briefing with what was known and what wasn't or garbled rumors and wild theories, these powerful people all had a similar thought; Stark Industries had the Holy Grail and they wanted it.
OoOoO
In Washington D.C., SHIELD Director Donald Pierce quietly leaves a charity event after taking a call from his tactical director Nick Fury. At the same party, Industrialists Justin Hammer and Sebastian Shaw do likewise.
In a lab in Birnin Zana, a young Wakandan princess breaks from her studies to eagerly review the data attached to the alert to her father King T'Chaka.
In Tokyo, an aged Ichirō Yashida calls for Kenuichio Harada. Orders are given and soon Harada and a team from the Black Lotus clan are on a plane flying eastward towards America.
In an underground facility in the Wundagore mountains of Sokovia, the blind Irene Adler makes her way to the library where Magneto is playing chess with Emma Frost. She simply tells the pair, "It has begun."
At the officer's club in Ft. Irwin, BG Thaddeus Ross curses as he cancels the call before throwing back his drink and storming out followed by his aide and driver.
In Moscow, Colonel General Georgi Luckov places a call on a special red phone. When it picks up, he begins to give orders. On the other end, the ageless Madame B barely lifts an eyebrow at her orders. As she hangs up, she wonders if there was any way to leak information which would bring the Black Widow to the target. That way she could accomplish her mission and finally put an end to her greatest failure.
In a remote mountain base in Cambodia, the Mandarin gestures for the still burning corpse of the messenger to be taken away. When alone, the Stark name is cursed and vengeance is sworn.
In a dilapidated apartment in Khabarovsk, a tattooed man breaks from feeding his ailing father to check on the urgent alert on his laptop. After scanning the screen, the man curses before turning to his father to snarl, "The Stark thieves and butchers are at it again!"
On a plane crossing the Atlantic to Sicily, Luchino Nefaria watches the information being sent to him via satellite. He finally picks up his phone, "Tesoro? Yes, it is your father. The situation has begun to accelerate. It is even more important to ingratiate yourself further with Riri Williams."
In an underground lab under a warehouse in the outskirts of Newark, Donald Pierce tells Dr. Emrys Killbrew that he doesn't want excuses, but results. A flinty look on the face of Killbrew's assistant causes Pierce to snarl, "You've got something to say, Francis? No? Then I suggest you get some super-slaves prepped!"
OoOoO
"I'm starting to get some pings from an AWAC," STARC reported. "I think we need to go to ground. Besides, those two F-22's aren't what you'd call ground attack planes. It may be better to stay on the ground even if it limits our mobility."
Riri looked at the various displays in her HUD. It was a good thing she was used to using two to three screens along with a holo-projector back at her lab. Otherwise it would be hard to fly the armor and track all the info. Without tacit help from JARVIS, Riri knew the armor would be a lot less useful. Which, in a way, was a good thing. It meant without AI help, anyone who manage to steal one of the future Iron Legion suits would be hard-pressed to do anything remotely what they were currently doing. It was just another ace-in-the-hole for Riri and Stark Industries to keep this tech from falling into the wrong hands.
After a moment Riri made a decision. "There is an ANA convoy not far from here. Looks like they're taking a break in place. Minimal allied vehicles with them. Probably personnel from an embedded training team. That's good for us. ETT's are almost all National Guard troops. They're here to train the ANA so they'll be less inclined to shoot at us."
"Seems reasonable. Records show they are the last Task Force Phoenix deployment and they are weeks away from rotating home. I doubt they want any hassles right before they go home," STARC replied.
"True that," Riri said as she banked towards the convoy, bleeding speed and altitude as she did. STARC mirrored her movements and soon the convoy was in sight.
"Ms. Potts reports she and Happy are in a secure location. As per your orders, Stark Industries has enacted lock-down protocols per Ms. Potts' recommendation. Ms. Walters is currently in telephonic contact with President Karzai. She and her personal party are on a hot-pad status on the flight line. Satellite imagery shows military units moving towards their position, but Stark personnel should easily be gone before they arrive. All of the Iron Men equipment is already in the air," JARVIS informed them.
"Fuck! It's like clock-work. Dangle something that can rack up a serious body count and they send in the dogs to police it up!" Riri snarled.
"I'd bet you they'll try to seize our tech under some national security mumbo-jumbo, but I figure you're too smart to take that bet. Of course they may just try to take it and then make up some story we were terrorists all along," STARC said.
As they both activated their repulsors to slow for their landing, Riri deadpanned, "Let them try. They won't find anything but empty files if they do. I'll give the Starks credit for one thing; they've certainly had plans against anyone trying to take their tech going back to Howard."
As the convoy came into sight, Riri said, "STARC, hold up a bit before we land. Let them see us. Wave and then land. No need to give them more reasons to panic and shoot at us."
"Sounds like a plan," STARC agreed.
They flew in, hovered briefly then cut power and landed with a measured crash onto one knee. They rose to find the soldiers covering them with their weapons, but they mostly seemed too shocked to do much other than stare.
"Give me vocal mixing in Pashtu, JARVIS," Riri ordered. She raised an arm in greeting, "Sorry to drop in on you unexpectedly like this. We're from Stark Industries and we're on a mission sanctioned by President Karzai to destroy stolen weapons from our company. We're just waiting for our ride home. May I ask who is in charge here?" Looking at the at the group of Allied troops, Riri repeated it in English. The vocal mixing effect was such that it would be difficult for any listener to tell if she was male or female.
An ANA captain stepped forward along with a British and American lieutenant. Riri could see that while the bulk of the ETT's were American, a third were British. The ANA captain spoke first, "I am Captain Hamid. What are you doing here?"
"Not the brightest bulb on the branch, is he?" STARC quipped.
"Shut it!" Riri said on their dedicated line. "We are a special ops unit with Stark Industries. When our late CEO was captured, it was discovered that a great deal of high-tech weaponry from our company had made it into insurgent hands. We have just come from Gulmira and Shkin where we hopefully destroyed most of that material and terminated many insurgents. We also hit a major Ten-Rings supply convoy. Our work here is done now and we are just waiting for extraction."
The US Army lieutenant looked slightly green and spoke up, "Excuse me, but...well, you see we just got orders that all units in theater are to detain you and take you back Bagram."
Riri turned to the Afghan captain, "Did your government give you similar orders?" She said this in English given the captain's English was good if accented.
The captain shook his head, "No, no they did not!" It was clear he was intimidated. But then again, they had just flown in without a vehicle.
"The Party Bus is being delayed by having to slow to keep its stealth intact around the increased air traffic," JARVIS said quietly as if behind her ear.
Riri turn backed to the US lieutenant. His name plate said Miller. She looked at his patch and thought of a way to stall and hopefully divert their attention from their orders. "So Lieutenant Miller, you're from the Macon Volunteers, huh? I thought your supposed to be wearing the broken TV division patch."
"Uhm...wait, what?" The LT stammered. A few muted snickers could be heard from both the UK and US troops.
"You're wearing the 48th Brigade patch. I thought you all were supposed to be wearing the 3rd ID patch now," Riri said. She figured the more she could keep them talking about other things, the less they'd think about trying to take them in...which would end poorly for them.
A Staff Sergeant spoke up, "We are, but well...we're in-country and we want people to know it's us and not be associated with the Active Army guys. How'd you know?"
Riri made a 'what can I say' sort of gesture with both hands, "My dad was into patches and I just absorbed it from him. Got sucked in after learning about the Ghost Army and all those fake patches back in WW II. My favorite was the 135th Airborne because I like spiders. I just sort of kept at it as I got older."
"Wait! Wait! Wait a minute!" Lieutenant Miller said as he waved his arms, "Let's focus here! We have orders to detain you! So please, exit your...uh...armor and please come quietly."
"I don't mean to be threatening, but how do you expect to make us comply?" Riri asked.
The lieutenant's face took on an incredulous look, "What are you stupid? We've got guns and you don't!" The LT waved at the numerous .50cal vehicle mounted machine guns that were still pointed at them.
STARC's repulsors powered up with a whine which made both LT's and the ANA captain to take a step back. STARC turned to where there was a burned-out wreck of some civilian vehicle which had been pushed off the road. Given Afghanistan had been in some form of conflict for the past 30 years, the wreck might have happened last year or been destroyed by the Soviets back in the 80's. A blast of STARC's repulsors blew it into chunks which flew into the air into an empty field further off the road. One large piece of debris hit the ground and caused an explosion.
STARC turned back, "Guns? We don't need no stinking guns! Oh and I found a minefield so you're welcome."
Riri couldn't help but roll her eyes at that last bit given the field was clearly marked by UN guidelines that it contained either mines or unexplored ordinance. Dealing with such was a task that they'd already had a specialized Iron Legion suit worked up. There were too many places around the world which had old minefields which needed removal. Riri felt it was a perfect avenue for Stark Industries shift from weapons to more humanitarian projects.
But that was in the future, for now she turned back to Lieutenant Miller who had gone quite pale. She also noticed that the men manning the crew served weapons all pointedly had taken their hands off them and were leaning away from them as well. It was nice to see that the grunts weren't on board with following their new orders.
"Look Lieutenant; I know you have your orders but the truth is that for the first part, you don't have the fire-power to take us in. Second, we're sanctioned by the Afghan government and last time I checked; this was their country. Furthermore, your job here is to help train the ANA. Not to try and arrest US contractors working with permission of the Afghan government. So, why don't you continue you your mission and we'll do the same?" Riri asked.
Miller's face went from white to red but before he could speak, the staff sergeant cut him off, "You know, LT. The general told us back at Camp Shelby that our mission wasn't to die for our country. It was to help train the Afghans so they could make some other miserable bastard die for theirs. Not sure if that applies to the Taliban, but I do know that none of us signed up to fight sci-fi flying armored knights with laser hands."
The red of Miller's face went from rage to more from embarrassment as quite a few of the men cried out variants of "Damn straight!", "Fuck yeah!" and "Hooah!" at the sergeants words. Even some of the Brits had chimed in.
STARC turned towards the north-east, "We've got company coming. Multiple fighters inbound. Looks like that AWAC did track us here. Given what I know about Air Force pilots...well they don't have the best record when distinguishing friend from foe." It didn't surprise her that he detected the inbound first. The Iron Man suit had more capabilities built into it given it didn't have an actual physical operator.
The British LT swore, "Bloody hell right about that! My cousin almost got killed by those bloody air pirates in Desert Storm." He turned to Lieutenant Miller, "And that's why we bloody well have those Union Jacks on the top of our vehicles and why we won't take them off, orders or no orders!"
Riri looked at the Afghan captain, "Well I was hoping to hang out with you folks for a while, but I don't want any of you to become friendly fire deaths."
The Afghan smirked. "No fire is friendly," the weathered veteran wisely said.
Riri nodded and looked at the American lieutenant, "Word of advice; if anyone gives you shit about this, call your Congress critters. Chances are they'd rather keep in Stark Industries good graces so if you guys take heat for this, you have my word we'll have your back."
LT Miller just nodded. Riri turned to STARC, "Looks like we'll just have to play some aerial keep-away for a bit."
STARC gave a thumbs up, "I look forward to unlocking a few achievement badges!"
Riri checked her HUD status, saw power levels were where they needed to be, "Let's rock!"
OoOoO
Major General William Gabriel was not having a good day. All around him various USAF personnel in the tactical control room in Bagram Air Force base were trying to make sense of what their pilots, drones and satellites were telling them. Compounding this was more requests pouring in from almost everywhere for more info. Info that MG Gabriel had little of and he was already tired from having senior officers and Congress types berating him for not having detailed information about a rapidly changing situation which literally had only started over an hour ago.
At least COL Rhodes at Edwards had pegged the anomaly as being coming from Stark Industries. Gabriel had to frown as he surveyed the organized chaos around him. For all the successes the Air Force had had during the Gulf War, it was rapidly becoming apparent after the Balkans, warfare was changing and manned fighters might be following the tank into being too expensive and without a mission.
So while Gabriel had been impressed with Stark's Jericho missile system, it was just another nail in the coffin in his service if things kept going the way they were. If the Army had a missile system with such seek and destroy capability, it would already cut in USAF's traditional mission. This was on top of successes by the Army and Marines to use drones for better artillery targeting. With the failure of USAF to curtail Serbian warlords and in that failure managing to wreck most of the infrastructure of that area, MG Gabriel knew that only the big contractors like Boeing and Lockheed-Martin were keeping fundamental questions about the future of USAF from being asked in Congress during budget talks.
Gabriel's frowned deepened. Most Americans didn't realize that the US hadn't lost a plane to enemy fighter action since the Korean War. The threat just wasn't there anymore and with more and more of combat being in an insurgency sort of operation, unmanned drones were going to be seen as more and more viable. So instead of his heady day of fighter combat ops, the Air Force was going to be relegated to logistical flights and pasty operators flying drones from State-side.
As the reports trickled in, it seemed that even that might be in danger. The Air Force had always had a contentious relationship with the Army even when it was still the Army Air Corps. With more accurate artillery, their own drones, would there be any need for a separate Air Force if the Army suddenly had flying armored suits?
So it was vital to the continued existence of his service that Gabriel secure whatever Stark had invented so they could remain relevant in these days of 21st century warfare.
OoOoO
"Okay we've got two F-22's inbound with another two F-15E Strike Eagles not too far behind them. The closer we are to the ground, the harder it will be for the planes," STARC said as they flew away from the convoy.
"But we'll still have to make altitude to rendezvous with the Party Bus. So crunch the numbers, STARC. Do we go for the higher security of being closer to the ground but have a longer time to get into position? Or stay roughly where we need for intercept and see how well these suits stand up to fighters? We've a lot more maneuverable," Riri pointed out.
"Well by the numbers, I'd suggest hugging the ground. But they don't have any reason to shoot at us. Even if they try to force us to ground, that just eats up time and puts us back to the first option which is good for us but not as good for them," STARC replied.
"Okay well then let's get to a good sweet spot, altitude and speed-wise, and cruise like we've got nothing to hide. Of course we should set a course away from the F-15's," Riri decided.
"Agreed, sending course and speed," STARC said.
Riri's Ironheart suit matched speed and course with the Iron-Man suit. Riri watched the various dots on her HUD. Long range plots showed more planes being vectored in. However, depending on what the F-22 pilots did, they'd link up with the Party Bus before even the F-15's were in range.
After a few tense minutes, JARVIS announced, "We are being hailed under the military common frequency."
"Hit me," Riri said.
"...yourself. Failure to do so will result in you being tagged as hostile. Repeat. Unknown drone vehicle operators: this is Whiplash-1, if you are receiving, identify yourself." Riri felt the pilot sounded like he was from somewhere in New England.
"STARC, keep us out of their gun and missile arcs while I try to stall," Riri ordered.
"Copy that," STARC replied. It was easier for Riri to let JARVIS (via STARC's info) fly her suit while she concentrated on BS'ing them some time.
"Whiplash-1, this is India-Hotel-1. Be advised; we are sanctioned Stark Industry security personnel currently exfiltrating from an approved mission by the Afghan government targeting stolen SI tech. We will be out of your air space presently."
"Heh-heh; you said 'exfiltrating'!" STARC quipped over their dedicated line.
Riri rolled her eyes at the AI's Beeves & Butthead impression, "You know the deal; they always get flustered when you can sling their slang back at them."
Almost a full minute went by before a response came, "India-Hotel-1, this is Whiplash-1. You are ordered to divert to Gardez to be detained until your status can be confirmed. We will guide you in."
"Whiplash-1, that is a big negative. We are private contractors working under orders from the Afghan government. You don't have jurisdiction or the authority given we are still in Afghan air space," Riri replied calmly.
"They've gone to targeting mode!" STARC warned even as red alerts pop-ups blazed in Riri's HUD.
"Whiplash-1; be advised, any aggressive actions will be countered. Stand down. We are under orders approved by President Karzai himself. Say again; stand down!" Riri said. To STARC, she snarled, "Shit they went aggressive way to fast! I know the zoomies can be territorial but this is ridiculous!" A quick check showed the Party Bus still minutes away. She was about to ask STARC his opinion of the odds of it dropping out of stealth and moving with best speed before her Ironheart suit made a sudden dive to her left even as the Iron Man suit dove to the right.
As she cursed, she was very much aware of bullets flying were they'd just been moments before.
"Fight or flight?" STARC asked in a voice that was oddly calm given the situation. Then again, STARC wasn't in danger of death like she was.
"Flight! We can spoof missiles; we can't spoof bullets!" Riri shouted. Even before she was finished speaking, both suits trimmed and then went to supersonic.
OoOoO
"Eagle Nest, this is Whiplash-1; targets have evaded and gone supersonic!"
MG Gabriel cursed. How could something that small be able to go so fast? Luckily the audio they had piped in from the fighters showed that they were trying to hide under Afghan authority. That meant they probably wouldn't leave Afghan airspace which did box them in somewhat. Of course if they traveled into Iranian air space, it would allow more options in terms of a later arrest and seizure of assets.
"Whiplash flight, this is Eagle Nest Actual. Pursue and force them down. You are cleared to use all measures," Gabriel said as he keyed the mike on his collar. He ignored all the covert stares by many around him. Let them look. The Air Force had accidentally lost atomic bombs in the past. Shooting possible fantastic "UFO's" in a combat zone was easily covered up compared to that."
"Eagle Nest Actual, this is Whiskey Mike Zero One! Be advised that you are probably targeting Stark Industries actual!"
MG Gabriel scowled. Easily covered up if it wasn't for COL Rhodes. "I'm well aware of that Whiskey-Mike Zero One. The orders stand."
OoOoO
They've gone to supersonic; starting to get missile guidance radars. How do you want to play this?" STARC asked.
Riri thought for a moment. "We can alter our speed and direction easier than they. Let's use that. The longer we move at this speed, the longer it will take to link up with the Party Bus."
"At some point we may just want to have the Bus just meet us. It has the speed." STARC pointed out.
"And no defenses and limited mobility. Once we link up, we can hypersonic out of here and they can kiss our contrails," Riri responded. "JARVIS, I want to slow down as fast as safely possible and change heading towards the Party Bus. Those Raptors will have to take a long time to slow down to vector to our new heading."
A loud alarm cut Riri off, "Missiles inbound!" STARC said with a bit more emotion than he'd previously shown.
"Flares and hit the ceiling!" Riri commanded.
Both suits began to disgorge thermal flares and banked skyward. Riri grunted as the g-force rose. As bad as it was, no aircraft could go from horizontal flight to vertical in the time and space their suits could. The missiles simply didn't have enough time to adjust before being distracted by the flares.
Unfortunately this also gave the Raptors time to close. As both suits began to bleed off speed to reorient, they soon had to take evasive actions as both planes opened up again with guns.
Riri cursed as she took a glancing blow to her thigh, "Fuck this noise!" she snarled. "Ironheart has control!"
"Riri wait!" STARC cried out in alarm. However Riri had designed her suit that while nominal control was shared between the satellite uplink and the on-board, stripped down copy of JARVIS, if Riri took control, there was little either the main JARVIS or STARC could do.
"JARVIS, intercept to contact," Riri ordered as she continued to jink to avoid the on-coming bullets. In what seemed to be a fraction of a second, she'd closed with the Raptor that her breaking speed barely kept her ahead of the lead Raptor.
Close enough that she could see the pilot through the canopy but not enough for her to see his expression as she fired a repulsor through first the left and then the right wing flaps.
OoOoO
"Mayday! Mayday! This is Whiplash-1! I've been hit by some type of energy weapon! Both wing flaps are bent. This is turning into a knife fight in a phone booth! Whiplash-1 is on the bug!"
MG Gabriel wasn't the only one in the TacCon room to curse. He watched as Whiplash-1 maneuvered away with his wing-man moving to cover him. Yet neither of the Stark suits pursued which was good given how fast they had gone from supersonic to moving to contact.
Their plot did make Gabriel smile. They were closing on the two F-15's. There still was a chance to get them grounded.
OoOoO
"Pepper; you're not listening to me!" Rhodes nearly screamed. "There are fighters shooting at Tony and Happy RIGHT NOW!"
"TONY IS DEAD!" Pepper's voice roared out of Rhodes' headset. "And Happy is in the other room getting me some coffee! You are interfering with a sanctioned operation between Stark Industries and the Afghan government. If our test pilots die because of this, I swear to God, Rhodey, I will stand up in front of Congress and crucify the lot of you!"
OoOoO
MAJ Simmons was having a bad day. For that matter, he'd been having a bad deployment. To make matters worse, Simmons hated contractors. Those greedy parasites that strutted around Bagram like they owned the place. His Army buddies lamented how a KBR cook made four times the pay the average soldier made. They made money off the military's misery. And now two of those types from Stark Industries had just attacked and damaged a fellow pilot's plane!
He wasn't going to stand for it. This whole deployment had been a shit show from the beginning. His wife had left him even before his deployment orders were dry. Said she wanted a husband who was present for more than 3 months at a time. Then he'd been passed over for promotion due to concerns about 'over-aggressive' attacks and 'poor situational awareness' when making targeting decisions during ground attacks. It's not like he shot up some civilians like those jarheads in the 201st RCAG region did. The ANP he'd hit were probably on the take; most of the Afghan cops were.
So he was going in fangs out, "Barnburner, were going in with two waves of AMRAMS and then Sidewinders. Then we're going to do a quick burst on afterburners to close and then guns if we have to. We're not going to dick around on this."
"Copy that, Tigershark," Simmons' wingman radioed back.
Moments later the long-range missiles designed to be fired when the target wasn't in visual range roared away from both fighters. A minute later the second salvo was volleyed and both planes went to after-burner to quickly close the range while the targets dealt with the missiles.
OoOoO
"Dammit! These guys are just filled with testosterone!" Riri quipped as her threat display showed the approaching missiles.
"They are fighter pilots. Most are part shark," STARC remarked. "This is going to increase our pucker factor a bit but given we can't use too much speed or we'll miss the Bus, but chest canons are our best options.
"Sounds good," Riri said. One advantage of the suit is the hand repulsors allowed them to modify their aspect even as they kept their forward, linear motion without losing much in the way of speed.
Both suits with a small burst, oriented so that they were facing the oncoming missiles. The drag was rough but by bending their arms and legs, they could still keep most of their forward thrust intact. It was tricky given the whole purpose of the gauntlet and boot repulsors was for propulsion and not as an energy weapon. Doing the latter was a big drain on the suit's power.
"Firing!" STARC said. Both suits sent out powerful beams of energy and then another. Effective but it was going to seriously decrease the amount of flight time in their suits. Riri figured it was better than having to rely on their very finite store of flares. Riri made a mental note to create some form of mini-EMP missile to use in the future if she found herself in a similar situation.
OoOoO
"Shit! Negative joy on missiles. Eagle Nest, this is Tiger flight; bandits have some form of anti-missile system. AMRAMs splashed before detonation. Repeat, missiles not spoofed by chaff. Moving to Sidewinders then guns." Simmons cursed. He'd hoped the missiles would force his targets to at least maneuver and possibly be out of position or formation. Yet the two bandits moved like they were controlled by the same operator. Of course if they were drones, that was possible. More reason to shoot them down given he didn't have to worry about being written up for killing some contractor.
OoOoO
"Crap! This is getting out of hand!" Riri said. Her breath came in gasps as the g-force from the maneuvers were getting to her. The F-15's had closed faster than expected so they had to use flares, maneuvering and with one missile, a dose of repulsors to keep things from getting all explody as STARC had quipped. Now they were in an aerial dance where Riri was worried they'd have to directly attack the jets again to keep the Party Bus from getting slagged.
Worse, other fighters were rapidly approaching from Bagram as well as another group of Navy fighters moving up from the Gulf. That and it showed how committed the Air Force was that the F-22 that hadn't been damaged had turned around and was rapidly closing. That they'd let a damaged fighter, especially an advanced one like the F-22, go on alone was worrisome.
Riri barely registered both STARC and JARVIS yelling a warning before she was knocked sideways by a glancing strike which shot off her mini-gun and wrecked her empty weapons pod.
Instinct took over, "Deploy flaps and jettison the pod!" Riri ordered as she tried to reorient on the battle.
OoOoO
MAJ Simmons' howl of victory turned to a curse as the green and silver suit which he'd finally tagged deployed a series of flaps and rapidly decelerated out of his gun arc. Worse, the suit plowed through the wing of Barnburner whose Strike Eagle rapidly went into a horizontal spin. "Punch out! Punch out!" Simmons ordered.
To his horror, Barnburner didn't reply. With the torque of the planes revolutions as it spiraled downward, Simmons realized that the g-force might be too much for his wingman.
OoOoO
"Shit! It never rains but it pours!" Riri cursed to herself. Her HUD was blinking up a storm but so far, the Ironheart suit was still good to go. Seeing STARC move to cover her, Riri dove after the failing plane. She wasn't going to let the pilot die even if he'd been shooting at them for the last few minutes.
She dove down towards the jet, JARVIS making the adjustments to match course and speed for an intercept when her intent became obvious. The dive was starting to cause more warning lights but she ignored them. Finally she caught up with the spiraling plane. Luckily for her, her angle made the cockpit seem like the eye of the hurricane. She smashed through the canopy and ripped it away. The pilot didn't stir but seemed unharmed.
"We ready JARVIS?" She asked.
"Jump back and to the right, Ms. Williams" JARVIS replied.
She reached down and yanked the yellow ejection handle between the pilot's feet. As soon as she did so, she moved as directed as the ejection seat activated, blasting the pilot to safety. Riri made the mistake of watching as the seats parachute deployed properly when she was hit and only experiencing a moment of pain and motion before blacking out.
OoOoO
STARC released his grip on time. In a matter of microseconds, the physical world around STARC ground to what amounted to a full stop. The Ironheart armor was hit and had gone offline. Whether Riri was alive and wounded or not would not be known for quite some time so STARC began to calculate the fastest intercept.
He sent a pulse to the Party Bus to use its repulsors to give it a burst of speed to get it to a boarding range. Stealth features be damned given the Air Force knew exactly where they were.
STARC turned his attention to the plot before him. A human might imagine a digital version of Tony's lab, with him holding a martini as he inspected the various screens of information in front of him. However this was farcical. STARC and the data were one. It washed through him and as it did so, avenues of action were calculated, simulated and then chosen.
One such action suited his mood; it would not only be a plan of action but also one that contained something that had to happen. A plan which had become inevitable the moment Riri had been hit.
STARC dove back down into something approaching real time. He had a plan: Attack.
OoOoO
MAJ Simmons barely had time to process what was going on. He'd managed to finally tag the green and silver suit dead on this time while it paused to watch Backburner's ejection seat deploy. But as he tried to begin to orient on the red and gold target, time seemed to slow down for him. He watched as his target used one of its arm weapons to blast Backburner's jet away from the other suit even as it began to spin around in a ballet of flaps deploying and retracting along with bursts from the other hand and feet.
The scene felt like it was being narrated by a giant ticking clock. In a matter of three ticks, the red and gold suit had slowed down, reoriented itself and was moving to intercept the other suit. Another tick and Simmons was just starting to wonder how the target could possibly be able to calculate the insane level of factors involved to do this when another tick went by. A tick louder and more ominous.
The next tick had his eyes beginning to widen in panic as the target roared towards him, the suits eyes seemingly boring into him with hate. A final tick registered a bright light from the chest of the suit.
MAJ Simmons was out of ticks of time as the blast from Iron Man's chest cannon blew through the canopy, his head, and most of the tail of the F-15.
OoOoO
Like so many others,Whiplash-2 was having a bad day. His wingman's Raptor had been damaged in a way which would make landing dicey. With holes in his flaps, even if they still could move, Whiplash-1 might still total his bird on landing. Tiger Flight lead was already mort and his wingman could be injured or injured worse on landing if he wasn't conscious. Then there was the fact he might be found by the bad guys before the SAR or the ground-pounders could police him up.
His fun meter was definitely pegged given he'd expected to go in and create a three on two engagement and now it was just him. The only decent thing going for him was it looked like the green and silver suit was out forcing the red and gold suit to fly for both of them.
That was until a bogey literally seem to come out of nowhere. Whiplash-2 ran through his options fast. He settled on overkill and volleyed all his missiles. Hopefully they'd tie up the target long enough for him to engage with guns or reassess the situation and haul ass if needed. They didn't pay him enough to play hero.
His missiles roared away in staggered sequence. At this distance it was difficult to tell what the target was doing. Still, his missiles were tracking with no sign of counter-measures. The new (and very odd looking) aircraft was holding at a steady altitude and speed, the best type of target.
His first wave of missile detonated and then his second volley did as well in a much larger explosion which forced him to jink away from the rapidly expanding fireball.
By the time he'd circled around, there was nothing on his scopes and he wasn't picking up anything with the old Mark I eyeball. Finally he keyed his mike, "Eagle Nest, this is Whiplash-2; targets destroyed."
XxXxX
A/N: DeviantArt artist 666Darks created an Iron Man Green and Silver Ipod Wallpaper which is a good representation of what the Ironheart armor looks like. If there is one thing I can't stand is how female heroes and villains often have to have pink as part of their color scheme. I looked up the current Ironheart armor and it's hideous...and pink as well.
Afghanistan: I spent a year there and a lot of this chapter has little bits of things I saw there. If you think I come across as a bit biased against the Air Force in this, well you didn't have to find out the real reason you couldn't get air support or a medi-flight to troops in contact wasn't due to the weather (their excuse) but due to a volleyball tournament going on that day at Bagram. (seen firsthand by our general's driver and bodyguard)
The bit with the flags is something both Canadians and Brits have done because USAF is notorious for killing anything that moves and that includes allies as well.
The bit about the general telling them what their mission was is exactly what BG Pritt told us of the 41st eBDE before we left Camp Shelby for Afghanistan for Task Force Phoenix V.
Yes, your average KBR food server did make about four times what I made and that's with my combat pay.
Last chapters plan of Riri's regarding showcasing women was actually something one of our supply drivers told me she did by not wearing all the armor we were required to while on a convoy. She said she wanted all those boys and girls to now she was a female combat soldier.
ANP & RCAG: Afghan National Police (as opposed to the ANA for Afghan National Army) while the country was split into Regional Corps Assistance Groups where different parts of Task Force Phoenix had training jurisdiction.
Dramatis Personae – For those who don't know their comics well enough to catch every character reference.
MG Gabriel: One of the canon USAF generals (and highest-ranking officer) in Afghanistan. You can see him when Tony is showing off the Jericho missile system at the beginning of Iron Man.
Daniel Pierce: Daniel Pierce is the Director of SHIELD and played by Robert Redford as shown in CPT A: Winter Soldier. Is the current Supreme Hydra.
Sebastian Shaw: Mutant and nominal leader of the Hellfire Club as the Black King. Also CEO of Shaw Dynamics. (It's Shaw Industries in the comics but everyone seems to use Industries as part of their name)
Justin Hammer: CEO of Hammer Industries. Based on the Sam Rockwell version of Iron Man 2 rather than the old geezer of canon.
Ichirō Yashida: I've taken the name from the character from the movie The Wolverine. However in my fic, he's simply the head of the Black Lotus clan who owns his own successful company which I haven't researched yet. While not part of HYDRA, Yashida is very much in the vein of Obadiah Stark only with ninjas. Grandfather to Mariko Yashida.
Kenuichio Harada: Again the name from The Wolverine. He's the chief enforcer for Yashida who will become the Silver Samurai. Also, in film, it's the Black Ninja Clan. First Rule of Ninja Club; don't put "Ninja" into your name.
Irene Adler: Precognitive mutant and longtime friend to Raven Darkhölme. Goes by the code-name of Destiny.
Emma Frost: Usually known as the White Queen, but she gave that title up when she left the original incarnation of the Hellfire Club. Don't have a code-name for her so anyone with suggestions, please PM me.
BG Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross: General in charge of the "Hulkbuster" project. Later this would be expanded to dealing with the general meta-human threat. Wants to recreate the Super-Soldier program at all costs. Seen in all of the Hulk films as well as many of the later MCU films and played by William Hurt. Father of Betty Ross.
Colonel General Georgi Luckov: Corrupt general beaten up by the Black Widow in The Avengers.
Madame B: One of the main instructors of The Red Room, the secret project going back to WW II to create super spies and sleeper agents. Her backstory is slightly different than the one seen in Agent Carter. As to why she's still alive (and young[ish]) in 2010...well that's a story for another time.
The Mandarin: Not the guy seen in Iron Man 3. Leader of the Ten Rings cell of HYDRA, so named due to the 10 rings of power worn by the Mandarin.
Luchino Nefaria: Leader of the Maggiore cell of HYDRA. Father of Giulietta Nefaria as seen in Chapter 6.
Donald Pierce: Younger brother to Daniel Pierce and leader of the HYDRA cell The Workshop.
Dr. Emrys Killbrew: Bad guy scientist often associated with both Wolverine and Deadpool. In this story, Dr. Killbrew is part of the Workshop and focuses mostly on cybernetics while his assistant focuses more on mutation type processes pioneered by the White King, Mr. Sinister. The cyborg shown in Chapter 6 was one of his
Francis: Assistant to Dr. Killbrew. Is Ajax from Deadpool. Leads the programs to force mutations and is probably responsible for the strong mutate seen in Chapter 6.
"Tattooed Man": I figure most of you can figure out who this character is!
