After a 12 hour flight they landed on the deck of a navy aircraft carrier with Bucky at the controls. There was a sizeable crowd watching him hover over the flat surface as the landing signals operator waved his wands directing him to a specific part of the deck. Once Bucky made contact the LSO gave the all clear and the quinjet was locked into place. Bucky lowered the ramp while he and Clint completed the landing checklist. The other members of the team already had their go bags then he grabbed his and joined Sam who was waiting at the bottom of the ramp.
"Nice landing!" yelled someone from the observation deck.
He looked up and could hear several people say his name, seemingly surprised that he was rated on this extremely advanced aircraft. Sam grinned.
"You're famous," he said loudly then he waved when he heard someone call his name.
"So are you," replied Bucky. "Don't make it weird."
Sam laughed and clapped Bucky on the back as they were ushered into the carrier's interior. As they and the rest of the team headed to a briefing room they noticed sailors parting before them, watching them pass by. In the briefing room they were assigned shared cabins and sailors were designated to guide them to their berths. Once they were in their cabin and the door was closed Bucky turned to Sam.
"Of all the nerve," he said. "He set me up. Made such a big deal of me being able to stay for my honeymoon then manipulated Julia into letting me go. This has Chennai written all over it, Sam."
"If you weren't on your honeymoon you would be the first one on the quinjet," responded Sam. "Admit it. If it's HYDRA, you're in. You will never allow yourself to miss a mission if it involves HYDRA."
Bucky sat on the bunk, somewhat deflated. As angry as he was Sam was right. He would always be the first one to volunteer for a HYDRA mission. Wiping them off the face of the Earth was his primary mission in life. He ran his hands down his face and looked at his friend.
"He could have at least said it was them," he countered.
"And risk scaring Julia?" replied Sam. "That would have been worse. I'm not excusing him keeping us in the dark but the word scares the families and you know it. It's better they don't know. He was right about one thing; your presence will make a difference. No one knows HYDRA as much as you do except for Zemo. At least he's not on this mission."
Bucky smirked. Sam always had a way of making him see both sides of the equation. He had about 15 minutes before they could go to the mess and get some food. Their briefing would be right after. If he wanted to call Julia it would have to be now. He told Sam he was calling her and his friend left, giving him some privacy. When her face appeared on his cellphone she smiled broadly at him.
"I was wondering when I would hear from you," she said. "Thank you for the flowers. They were beautiful."
"It was the least I could do," he replied, "after abandoning you. It was a long flight as well and I was piloting the second half. It's been a while since I landed on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Good thing I haven't lost my touch."
"Bucky, don't blame yourself," she said. "I'm the one who said it was okay. I got the IUD removed already. When you get back we can start making babies."
"I like that," he smiled. "I'll start the minute I'm in the door."
She laughed and he felt a surge in his groin. It was incredible how she could turn him on even over a video call.
"I'm guessing you didn't have a chance to talk to Bob," she said.
"No, to be honest I didn't even see him. We geared up as soon as we arrived at the compound and were in the air within minutes," he replied. "It's a bigger mission than even Rhodes knew but we don't get briefed for a little while yet."
"Promise me you'll be safe," she said, with an edge to her voice. "Promise me you'll come home to me."
"I'll always come home to you, Julia," he said firmly. "You're my girl. I love you so much."
"I love you, too, Bucky," she said, trying to keep a brave face. "I've asked for some cold case files so I'll try to keep busy while you're gone. Bye, my love."
"Goodbye, sweetheart," said Bucky, then he broke the connection and swore.
He headed to the mess and picked up a tray, piling it high with food. Sam and several others were already seated and he sat with them. Torres, Hill, and Belova were there, having arrived on the first quinjet, and he nodded at them.
"Surprised to see you here," said Maria Hill. "Aren't you supposed to be on your honeymoon?"
"Yes, I am," replied Bucky. "But seeing as how we were honeymooning at home and Rhodes admitted he wanted me on the mission my wife pulled rank and told me to go."
The others looked at him with sympathy then Yelena Belova spoke. "Sounds like she knew marrying the man included marrying the job," she said without rancour. "You chose well, Yakov. I look forward to meeting her one day."
That was all that was said about it and no one brought it up for the rest of the mission. After eating they were advised to assemble in the briefing room immediately. Rhodes was already there along with the Captain of the elite task force mission that Bucky and Sam were pulled from months earlier. Both Sam and Bucky looked at each other and rolled their eyes, already feeling a dreaded sense of déjà vu. When everyone from the Avengers and the task force were inside the briefing room the door was locked and Rhodes addressed the group.
"From this moment on everything you hear in this briefing is classified," he said. "Nothing is to be repeated outside of this room. Captain Piper?"
The task force captain cleared his throat and looked out over everyone, his eyes resting an extra moment on Bucky and Sam. "Originally this was considered to be a simple act of piracy," he said. "Thirteen armed individuals boarded a cargo ship carrying medical supplies bound for a refugee camp in Bangladesh after a flood disaster. The ship's captain was able to send video footage of the individuals before he was taken prisoner. Three of them have been identified as known HYDRA operatives, the rest as mercenaries formerly associated with Georges Batroc, who is deceased. After an examination of the ship's manifest it was determined by analysts that there is a distinct probability that supplies on the ship can be used to create a biological weapon. There has still been no communication from the ship, no ransom demands, no statement of any kind. We are operating blind. Colonel."
Rhodes took over the podium. "There will be two teams, both led by Avengers members," said Rhodes. "The first team, led by Sergeant Barnes will go after the HYDRA operatives. There is no one on this ship that knows HYDRA better than Barnes. His decisions are to be followed to the letter and are not to be questioned. On his team are the following people: Falcon, Hawkeye, Belova, and from the task force, Corporals Madsen, Suzuki, and Chambers. The second team is under the command of Cap, with Avengers Hill, Shang-Chi, Ant Man, Wasp, and Thor, with task force members Logan, Grant, and Vale. They are to focus on the mercenaries and releasing the hostages. Captain Piper and I will remain on board here, monitoring all feeds. We are available to join either team upon request if you feel you need the extra manpower. Immediately after this briefing myself and Captain Piper will be meeting with Barnes and Cap to determine a plan of action. Everyone else is to use the time to gear up and prepare to leave immediately."
As the others left both Bucky and Sam moved closer to the front. As soon as the last person left Captain Piper looked at Bucky.
"First of all I'm sorry about not taking you seriously before," he said. "That was my first mission as commander of the unit and I was pretty full of myself. I've been on several missions since then and have learned I know exactly nothing. You're the HYDRA expert. Do you concur they are probably making a bio weapon?"
"I wouldn't be surprised," replied Bucky, nodding to accept the apology. "Chaos is their game and they'll use any means possible to create it. It doesn't even have to be a successful weapon...if it makes people nervous enough to make mistakes they've achieved their objective. Do we have intel from inside the ship on where they are?"
"No, once they realized the captain had sent the video footage they shut down the internal cameras," replied Rhodes. "I would like Falcon and Cap to send in their Red Wing units to do some surveillance before we go charging in there. We also need to locate where the remaining crew is being held. Batroc's people will have no qualms about using them as human shields."
"If the assessment of making a bio weapon is correct then the HYDRA people should be in the sick bay," said Bucky. "Do we have a layout of the ship from its owners?"
"Yes," said Piper, pulling up a schematic on an iPad. "It's located on the third deck, midship. It's quite a large facility as apparently they pull double duty as a treatment facility during natural disasters."
Bucky enlarged the layout and noticed a station in the floor plan. "This station, it's marked telemedicine," he said. "Does that mean they have the ability to send out a broadcast? You know, if someone needs a type of surgery but the medic on board hasn't done it before ... they can get a doctor to coach them through the process."
"I think you're right," said Piper. "Do you think we can hack into it?"
"It's worth a try," said Bucky then he looked at Rhodes. "Did you send an IT guy with the first group?"
"Bob Johnson," replied the Colonel. "I'll get him right on that. Now the rest of the ship is mostly crew quarters and facilities, and several separate holds for the medical supplies. They don't use a single large hold to reduce the chance of contamination between different types of medicines. We're hoping they've either locked the crew in their quarters or have gathered them in either the mess hall, or the gym. The second team can be split up between the mess hall and gym, seeing as how they are in different locations. If the crew aren't there then chances are they've been locked in their quarters and they'll have to break them out individually."
No one said anything for a couple of minutes as they looked at the screenshots of the pirates then Bucky looked at Rhodes and Piper. "Let's get that surveillance done," he said. "Then Sam and I will come up with a game plan."
Rhodes and Piper nodded their assent and the other two left to brief their squads. Torres already had his suit on and sent his Red Wing unit out right away, separating it into its three components, concentrating on the areas Bucky told him. Sam activated his unit before even putting his suit on and had them following the Falcon's units to the supply ship, separating them to the areas he needed to see. Both Bucky and Sam went to the monitor's consoles, which duplicated what Rhodes and Piper would see. They both watched carefully, as the drones were ordered to enter the ship in stealth mode. Neither said anything at first as the drones entered the different decks, going forward if the space was clear, hiding behind infrastructure if it wasn't. The door to the sick bay was closed and no amount of searching found an entry point.
"I'm going to see if Bob was able to hack that telemedicine station," said Bucky, who then went to the command centre. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the reduced light but he located Bob in front of a station and came up behind him. "How's it going?"
Bob looked back and nodded. "I'm just about through," he said. "Who thought of hacking this?"
"I did," replied Bucky. "Saw a thing on TV about a woman stationed in Antarctica who found a lump in her breast. They set up a two way computer feed so the doctor in the States could guide the medic through the biopsy."
"Okay, I'm through," said Bob as the inside of the sick bay came up. "It looks like it's an actual cam, so I can move it and scan the area."
They watched the image change as Bob panned the camera from one side of the room to the other. There were three gowned and masked individuals working at a table but they couldn't get a visual on what was on the table. Then Bucky saw something and asked if Bob could zoom in on it. He looked at the item and swore. It was a small canister and it was glowing blue.
"Is that serum?" asked Bob.
"I'm pretty sure it is," said Bucky. "They're not making a biological weapon. They're using the ship's facilities to make serum. They don't have a memory machine to turn anyone so they likely have people already in mind to inject with the serum." He was quiet for a moment. "The mercenaries. They must be planning to turn the mercenaries. Can you locate any other serum canisters?"
Bob did another pan, with both of them looking for the tell tale blue colour. They found four more. With ten mercenaries it meant they had little time left to hit the ship. Once those mercenaries received the dose and adjusted to the serum they would be almost unbeatable. Bucky turned and left the command centre, searching out Piper and Rhodes first, then giving them the update. Both men swore and told him to do what was necessary. As he ran down the passageway then yelled "Make a hole!" to people coming up the stairwells he could feel the dread inside him. He finally reached the two teams.
"Slight change of plans," he said loudly. "They're not making a biological weapon in the sick bay. They're recreating the super soldier serum. My guess is they're going to use it on the mercenaries. Those guys are killers already and with the extra strength and power they get from the serum they'll be almost unstoppable. Only Thor, Shaun and myself would have a chance with them once they've received it. So we have to neutralize those mercenaries first. Do we have locations for them from the drones?"
With both teams huddled around Sam pointed out where the mercenaries were located. "We still board as two teams but my team will concentrate on the mercs in the bow of the ship while Buck's team will go after those in the stern," he said. "Once they are neutralized we go back to our original plan. My team will locate and release the hostages, while Buck's team goes after the HYDRA agents in the sick bay."
"What about the serum?" asked Corporal Chambers. "Do we recover it?"
Bucky's eyes blazed. "No one touches the serum, do I make myself clear?" he asked, his voice leaving no doubt. "Only I will recover the serum and I will dispose of it."
"But Sarge," said Chambers. "That stuff is like gold. We could have more super soldiers. Imagine the good we could do."
Bucky's face was grim. "Do you know why John Walker is dangerous?" he asked. "He believed the ends justified the means and when he secretly took the serum it amplified that belief in him. He doesn't think the pain he inflicts or the people he slaughters matter, as long as he completes his mission. The serum is too dangerous to be given out to just anyone. No one touches the serum."
He could see the doubt in the eyes of the task force members but he didn't care. There was no way he was handing over the serum to anyone. Once he got all of it he would destroy it. As he strapped his gear on Hawkeye came up to him.
"They're not happy about it," he said in a low voice. "Once you get the canisters, if you throw them out over the ocean I can destroy them with an explosive arrow. It's the only way to make sure."
Bucky nodded. It felt good for someone to have his back. He finished gearing up and asked for a status check on his team. Everyone stood up and indicated they were ready. Giving the order they went out the hatch and into the zodiac, except for Torres who would fly. Sam had just verified his team's ready status as they waited to board the second larger zodiac boat. As they left the side of the carrier behind them Sam flew ahead with Torres. Both were waiting when the zodiacs arrived at the medical ship and they each blew a hole in a side hatch. Bucky held his machine gun at the ready, covering his squad as they came on board behind him. Using military sign language he assigned Yelena and Chambers to the point as the rest of the them followed closely behind. The hatch they entered was on the first deck and when they arrived at the first stairwell he nodded when Chambers looked at him for permission to go up it. Carefully he ascended then just before he got to the top he looked out and signalled back down that it was clear. Bucky motioned to the others to go on up while he covered their six. When he made it to the second deck the others were spread out, covering the three corridors that radiated from it. Pointing at Yelena and Chambers he motioned them to go down the one corridor, then Hawkeye and Madsen down the next. He and Suzuki took the third. They alternated going forward until they came to a cross corridor. Bucky looked and ducked his head back. He indicated two armed men then stepped forward and shot both in the knees. Running forward he hit both of them, knocking them out. With Suzuki covering his back he pulled zip ties out of a pocket on his pants and tied their hands and feet up. Then he crushed the trigger mechanism on their firearms rendering them unusable. He pressed his comms earpiece.
"Two taken down on deck two stern area," he noted. "Report Barnes squad."
"One taken down," reported Hawkeye.
"One taken down," reported Yelena. "Chambers is headed to the sick bay."
"Fuck," swore Bucky and he looked at Suzuki as a thought entered his mind. "Do you guys have standing orders?"
Suzuki looked away for a moment then nodded his head. "Once they found out it was HYDRA the order came from above Piper that we recover serum if we find it. Just so you know, he wasn't happy about it either. He thinks there are some HYDRA operatives still in the military. He read the report of your Chennai mission."
"Barnes squad, continue searching for mercenaries," he said. "Belova, I'm sending you Suzuki. What's your twenty?"
"Corridor 2B Stern," she reported.
"Go," he said to Suzuki. "There's a reason we destroy the serum and if we get through this I'll explain it to you."
Suzuki nodded and left Bucky. He pressed another button on his comms that put him directly to Rhodes.
"Did you hear all that?" he asked.
"I did," said Rhodes. "You have permission to implement Omega Protocol, on my orders."
"Roger that," replied Bucky then he pulled his comms out, slung his machine gun and pulled out both pistols.
He went up the stairwell to the third deck and quietly but quickly made his way to the sick bay. The door had been shot open and he quickly looked inside, seeing Chambers bent over the bodies of the three HYDRA operatives. He had a case that was almost full of serum canisters. He was searching the bodies for any others. Bucky leaned in and shot Chambers in the knees, sending him down onto the floor. He dropped the case and struggled to pull his sidearm out. Running in Bucky kicked Chambers in the hand forcing him to drop his gun. Then he stood over him pressing into one of Chamber's knees with his foot while aiming a pistol at his head.
"You just had to get the serum, didn't you?" he snarled. "After I expressly ordered you not to."
"I answer to someone higher," replied Chambers, his face grimacing in pain. "So, what are you waiting for? Finish me."
"I have orders to do so," said Bucky, "but lucky for you I don't kill any more. It does mean that you will likely be killed by the person who gave those orders to keep you from talking. Did you ever stop to think that the person who gave those orders is HYDRA?"
Chambers eyes opened wide. "What do you mean?" he asked. "He's a general, 3 star. How could he be HYDRA? Why would he attack a HYDRA operation?"
"Because they will eat their own and anyone who knows the HYDRA file knows that," replied Bucky. "All that serum can make him a very rich and powerful man and he doesn't care who suffers in the process."
"I don't believe you," insisted Chambers.
"I'm the one who got away," declared Bucky. "I'm an outlier. I fought their treatment of me for 70 years until the code words to trigger me were removed from my mind. Anyone who gets it now has only their own psyche to deal with the feeling of raw power that you get when you've got someone down on the ground, under your boot, quaking in fear, waiting for you to pull the trigger. They have only their own personal morality to stop them from being a pure killer. So, I won't kill you because I made the moral decision not to kill anymore and I live by that every day. Whoever that three star general sends won't be so generous with you."
Bucky pulled out zip ties and tied Chambers up, dragging him to the doorway into sick bay. Then he picked up the case with the canisters in them, located two more and checked the table where the HYDRA operatives had been working. There were all sorts of papers there and he recognized the Cyrillic writing of the formula for making the serum. Gathering all the papers together he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and set them on fire, making sure there was nothing left of them. He found a small bag and put the case of serum in it, tying the bag to his belt. Then he lifted Chambers over his shoulder and carried him down the stairwells to the side hatch where their zodiac still waited. The boat operator looked with surprise at Bucky when he dumped Chambers.
"He's a HYDRA mole," declared Bucky, "although he'll claim otherwise. Keep him under guard until I return and he better be alive when I return or I'll think you're a HYDRA mole as well."
"Yes, Sarge," replied the operator.
Bucky put his comms back in and asked for a status report from his squad. They reported finding one more mercenary so he pressed another button and asked Sam how his squad were doing. The answer was they had their five mercenaries as well. Bucky reported that sick bay was secure and reassigned his squad to freeing the hostages. They all went to the crew quarters and began knocking on doors, identifying themselves. When they found a person they shot the door open and released them. The Captain was one of them and Bucky gave him an update on the damage they had to inflict on the ship to enter it.
"No problem," he said. "We have replacement hatch doors that we can mount. What about the mercenaries?"
"The navy is sending another boat for them, plus we have three bodies in sick bay that will have to be taken back as well," said Bucky. "Tell me something, do you know why they used your ship to make their serum?"
"One of them was bragging," said the Captain. "Said they wanted to prove they could make it anywhere, that no one could stop them. Do you know if they touched our medical supplies?"
Bucky looked at him. "Why would they?" he asked.
"They said something about using our ship to distribute their serum if they could make enough of it," replied the Captain. "I took it to mean they could replace some of our supplies with their serum."
Bucky called his and Sam's squads and told them to get down to the cargo holds immediately. He raced down the corridors and the stairwells followed by the Captain. As he approached the first hold he could see it had been opened. Hawkeye was standing just inside the doorway.
"It looks like some of the cargo has been tampered with," he said. "How do you want to proceed?"
"Let's open a box," said Bucky.
He pulled his knife out its sheath and sliced open a box. Inside it was full of the small cases that he was carrying in the small bag tied to his waist. Looking grimly at Hawkeye he opened a case and saw it was full of serum. Hawkeye moved to another box, opening it and finding the same thing.
"They needed a super soldier blood sample to make all this. Where did they get that?" speculated Bucky then he turned to the task at hand. "We'll have to open every case. Then we have to destroy it all. "
"Omega Protocol?" confirmed Hawkeye, to which Bucky nodded. "We can use a lifeboat to load it into. I can set several explosives to detonate on a timer at a safe distance. We just have to get it all in the lifeboat and pilot it away from the ships. Depending on how much we find it could be a big explosion."
"Okay, let me talk to the task force," said Bucky. "They had standing orders to locate the serum but only Chambers acted on it. He said a 3 star general gave the order. You get our people started on locating all the serum. Captain, we need one of your regular life boats to load this poison onto. Can you get a boat to one of those blown hatches?"
"Yes, right away," he said, hurrying off.
Bucky pressed his direct comms to Rhodes. "We have a complication in implementing the Omega Protocol," said Bucky. "They made more than we knew and implanted it in the medical supplies. I've got our team on it but I want to put the remaining task force on it as well. I'll have to have a serious talk with them about why we don't recover serum."
"Do it," said Rhodes. "Piper agrees. He knows the 3 star general who gave the command and we've advised the military police to take him into custody. Do what you have to Buck. I'm glad you're here. No one understands this as well as you."
Bucky turned to Suzuki, Madsen, Logan, Grant and Vale. "Come with me," he said and led them to the sick bay where the bodies were still laying. "This is what Chambers did, following the illegal standing orders that were given to you to recover the serum. What do you know about the serum?"
"It gives you super soldier strength," said Madsen. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"Depends," said Bucky. "I was repeatedly injected with it for years. My memory was constantly wiped between missions but I kept having memories of the man I was before. They would punish me for remembering and even though I was so much stronger than them they made sure I never did anything without their say so. Do you not think that if the military got their hands on the serum they would also have a way to keep the super soldier in control, their control? John Walker taunted me once, about having this raw power in my veins, this great power that I could use to vanquish my enemies. He didn't get it then and he still doesn't get it which makes him dangerous to everyone. Because in his mind the ends justify the means and we all know that is wrong, because then you end up hurting or killing a lot of innocent people. When I finally broke with HYDRA I made the decision not to kill and I still haven't killed a human since 2014. I've hurt them and injured them but then I turn them over to face justice because I can't be judge, jury and executioner. That would make me as bad as HYDRA."
"It never sat right with most of us," said Suzuki. "What do you want of us Sarge?"
"Help my team locate all of the serum and load it into a lifeboat," said Bucky. "I'll steer it away from the ships and set the charges to destroy it, all of it. If you're ever sent out on a HYDRA hunt again remember the serum is too dangerous for anyone to have control over. I would give anything not to have it in my system. It's a life sentence for me."
All five of them signalled their agreement and returned to the cargo holds searching for more serum. They found a lot more, enough to fill the lifeboat full. Bucky took command of the lifeboat and steered it away from the medical supply ship and both navy ships. Hawkeye had shown him how to set the timer on the explosives then took Bucky's boots from him so he could swim better.
"How fast can you swim?" he joked before Bucky left.
"Fast enough," replied Bucky. "Don't tell Julia about this."
"Secrets in a marriage are never recommended but sometimes are necessary," said Hawkeye grimly. "Cap will keep an eye on you and direct the rescue boat to you. Good leadership today Buck. I'm glad you came."
Bucky left Hawkeye in charge of the team and started steering the lifeboat away from all the ships. When he reached the distance that was considered safe he slowed down, set the timer, and stepped to the opening, diving into the water. As quickly as he could he swam away from the lifeboat. His one comms piece still worked and he heard Sam's voice telling him how far away he was as he timed the countdown. When he got to a mile Bucky stopped and began treading water. He heard Sam yell "fire in the hole." Even from this distance he could feel the heat of the explosion on his face. Debris rained down but nothing came close to him. Five minutes later the zodiac approached him and he hauled himself on board, laying back as it raced back to the carrier. As he stepped into the lower deck both teams were there to acknowledge him. Rhodes told him to take his time before they began debriefing and Bucky gratefully went to his cabin and had a nice, long shower.