Ch 1

2011

A HMUV ground its way through a freezing cold arctic snowstorm as wind whistled around it.

Two SHIELD men got out and they could barely see because of all the snow flying everywhere.

The search team leader saw them, offering his hand.

"You the guys from Washington?"

"That's some flight." one of the agents replied.

"How long have you been on the sight?" the SHIELD tech asked.

"Since this morning." the leader said. "A Russian oil team called it in about 18 hours ago."

"How come nobody spotted it before?" the agent asked.

"Ice melts. Storms blow in." the leader replied as he looked around with a worried expression. "Landscape changes all the time. You mind if I ask what this thing is, exactly?"

"Would you believe us if we said it was a weather balloon?" the agent asked.

"No." the leader said.

Then they went to the site and saw a massive wingtip emerging from the ice, the size of a towering skyscraper.

A skull and tentacle logo was just visible under the fiercely moving snow with German words.

The men went inside and the beams of their flashlights illuminated the shattered control screens and the dark room.

"This has gotta be World War II." the agent noted. "But the Luftwaffe didn't have anything nearly this advanced. Or this big."

Then the tech saw something underneath an ice floe.

"Base, get me a line to the colonel." he said with a hint of awe at what he discovered. "I don't care what time it is. This one's worth waking up for."

After he chipped away the last of the ice with his axe, the men saw a red, white, and blue shiny shield that resembled a brightly glowing star in the night sky.