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Phase 8: Prometheus

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Part 3

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Explosion in Fort Bragg's armory! Two missing, presumed dead!

USA Today

FBI and local Law Enforcement agencies raid three locations believed to hold domestic terrorists planning on attacking the Prometheus reactor. FBI spokesman reported fourteen arrests and the seizure of a significant number of automatic weapons and homemade explosives.

New York Times

Commissioner Shepard announces even stronger security measures for the rest of the week. NYPD will be all hands on deck, he vows!

New York Times

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, announced a partnership with Stark Industries on the research and development of bleeding edge Ion and Repulsor propulsion methods!

US Air Force Magazine

In partnership with Stark Industries, NASA is developing a next-generation space plane! The engine makes this different from all concepts currently seeking funding or under development. NASA scientists partner with Stark Industries in developing practical Ion engines and Stark's Repulsor technology for propulsion, abandoning rocket engines!

Spaceport Magazine

Naval contractors are in talks with Stark Industries about exploring the feasibility of implementing experimental particle weaponry in point defense role, eventually replacing existing close-in defense weaponry.Magazine of the U.S. NavyThe future is now! After Stark Industries successfully tested a man-portable energy weapon's prototype late last year, the US Army and Marines will officially sign contracts for the further development of the technology early in February!

Army magazine

An expanded military research and development budget will be part of the new government budget!

C-SPAN

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War Dogs safe house
Norfolk, Virginia

Erik Stevens was a fool. Admittedly, he was a useful fool - one with a cause. However, that merely made him a useful tool, like so many young men and women worldwide.

Then again, as far as his Wakandian handlers were concerned, Dmitri Borodin was also a fool. The Russian knew very well why he was technically in charge of the operation. He was meant to take the blame and point the hounds at Russia. Others among the team were meant to muddy the waters further. He had Sokovian soldiers, who officially went rogue months ago; Mujaheddin, who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq against NATO forces; even Ten Rings fighters who bloodied themselves in China's border provinces.

With the sole exception of Stevens, no one had any links with Wakanda. After all, why a poor little African country would mastermind and back this piece of insanity?

Well, officially, they didn't. Steven's participation would be the last nail in the coffin of those who backed his father's views, or so the thinking of people smarter than Dmitri went, he guessed. Unofficially, for those few Hydra assets who knew what Wakanda actually was, it all made perfect sense.

Just like facilitating Wakandian operations to strike at rivals or simply keep a global atmosphere of tension and fear ongoing was a perfectly logical course of action. This time around, the Hydra asset's mission was a bit different. He still needed to find out if this operation was supposed to succeed or merely get too close to comfort while causing a lot of damage and fear. What Dmitri knew was that the higher-ups in Hydra had ideological differences.

From his experience as a part of the KGB in the Soviet Union and Hydra at the same time, that was the kind of stuff you had to be very wary about. Otherwise, it could get you purged. Sadly, there were mere rumors to work with this time around, and Dmitri wasn't sure which head of Hydra to back when the time came. More importantly, for his continued well-being, he wasn't sure who might end up on top. Much less if that hypothetical victor would approve or disapprove of this operation succeeding.

That did make his life more interesting. When he was younger, Dmitri would have said he did live for the thrill of a job well done, for the danger and the adrenaline. However, as of late, his age was beginning to catch up with him. He had to think about retirement from fieldwork and either a comfortable desk job or an outright exit strategy that didn't end up with an unmarked grave.

He glanced at the lead-lined container containing nuclear material smuggled from one of Russia's nuclear power plants operated by engineers loyal to Hydra. In theory, the plan was simple. Get a strike team in a position to cause an explosion that would spread the material and contaminate the facility. The truth wouldn't matter. Investigations, fear, and political grandstanding would slow the implementation of fusion power worldwide. Wakanda would be thrilled, not that Dmitri cared. Some of Hydra's benefactors would be very happy as well.

Tony Stark would want blood, and if the rumors Dmitri heard about the man as of late were true, he might get it. It was a marvelous and dangerous age to live in. Who would have thought that an American playboy like Stark could end up with an alien warlord in his head? A friendly one at that?

That, of course, was an opportunity. After all, if there was one thing Dmitri knew for sure about Hydra was that Stark was working with one of its heads. The only question was whether it would be more prudent to make an enemy of that group.

So, the choice was simple – going through with the mission and damn the consequences was option one. Option two was contacting Stark and selling out to his Hydra head.

Either way, the supporting operations Hydra and all kinds of unaffiliated people were already running in New York had to go through. Causing more fear and chaos was something Hydra did thrive on. In that regard, throwing a few more patsies to American law enforcement might be prudent. That would either create a false sense of security or increase the impact of the blow when more genuine terrorists and operatives execute their operations in the coming day.

Dmitri was busy coordinating three supporting operations that would serve as distractions for local law enforcement. A faction of the green movements would execute one. That group had been busy decrying terror tactics as of late and even sold a group of their compatriots these past few days as camouflage. A group of Sokovian special forces who were officially dead or missing in action planned a distraction heist that was supposed to go to hell and tie up police response. The third prong of the distraction attack was four "lone wolves" from Afghanistan, smuggled into the US courtesy of Hydra and trained for months on how to blend in. All those maniacs had to do was reach a crowded space and blow themselves up, tying up all loose ends as far as they were concerned.

While distraction was all good and vital, it would do little to get the strike team in. In that regard, Dmitri was instructed to divide his forces in two. One group would blend in with the protesters and use them as a cover to try and breach the facility. There were operatives from dozens of groups with barely any affiliation between them besides hatred for fusion tech, Stark. Well, either that or because they were paid to cause trouble, ready to go over the coming days. The NYPD being corrupt enough helped in that regard. Otherwise, Dmitri knew that there would be at least an order of magnitude more arrests by now.

Good old-fashioned incompetence might be at fault there.

Now, for the hard part. It was getting Stevens and his strike team inside. That would scream an inside job, which was why Dmitri officially coordinated the operation. He was sure his Wakandian handlers would try to kill him as soon as the operation either succeeded or failed miserably.

Under Hydra's guidance, his contacts in the government ensured that Stevens and his group would be a part of the increased security provided by the government for the event on Saturday. There was supposed to be a trail leading to rivals in the government, ensuring the operation would leave no loose ends.

That, of course, put Dmitri in a bind. He would officially die and get a new identity. He had died twice that way already and had to get his face changed afterward. That was never fun. His handlers in Hydra might not be particularly sad to see the Wakandians tie up the loose end he represented. In that regard, it would be up to him to get away clean first. Then he would have to worry about the Hydra heads he would offend no matter the mission's outcome, which put him in a bind.

"If you're done measuring your dicks, get back here. We'll be rehearsing your damned cover identities until you know them better than your real life!" Dmitri snapped aloud, letting a hint of his Russian accent show. This bunch didn't need to know he could speak the language like a native of Missouri.

"Stevens, you're in charge of this bunch. Ideally, you're going to be the only one doing any speaking. However, we can't risk the operation on something as foolish as that! We'll insert you with the rest of the increased security in the coming days! You need to be able to both blend in and make some small talk as a plausible cover, at the very least!"

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Part 4

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Prometheus facility

New York

Early in the morning, Eric wondered if his team would make it in time to the facility for their shift. They still had an hour left to get in place, yet despite leaving with ample time to spare, the prospects weren't good. There were already crowds of protesters gathering in places throughout the city. The police was out in strength with increasing presence the closer they got to the facility. Eric could see groups of riot police forming, with uniforms and insignias from all over the state. Rumor had it that at least a regiment of the National Guard was active and nearby, ready for deployment.

They had to pass through two check points as they got close to the facility. It was only thanks to the advanced Wakandian technology that no one detected the concealed gear they carried, including the radioactive cargo. The infiltration team got close to the parking lot with only fifteen minutes to spare to find two police SWAT vehicles surrounded by fully geared up cops. The FBI local branch wasn't far behind – the security briefing had their own SWAT units for New York ready and waiting in nearby building to act as quick responders.

Then there was the government security provided for all the delegates expected to descent upon the place for the reactor ignition in a few hours – a small army worth from the State Department and the Secret Service. Homeland security was supposed to coordinate the circus. To top it all, Stark had a small private army as well, who provided the regular security for the site. It was them, with Homeland who spent the whole night checking the whole facility for unpleasant surprises. That inevitable inspection was why Eric's team had to do things the hard way. It would have been easy and simple if just planting a bomb or something in that vein ahead of time was feasible. As things stood, all the operation really needed was to appear successful. That it wouldn't pass the smell test in the long term it wouldn't matter. The purpose was to slow down the spread of fusion power, not to stop it cold. For the latter, a lot more effort would be needed.

Then again, that wouldn't be Eric's problem. After all, after he succeeded today, he would finally be heading home. The War Dogs and Stark's rivals would have to do the rest.

=IS=

It was almost noon and the circus was in a full swing. Three large protests were busy mutating in all-out riots, and slowly fighting their way to the city's industrial zone. Solid blocks of riot police and outright roadblocks created chokepoints, ensuring that things wouldn't get especially ugly. There were at least thirty high ranked politicians and diplomats in the facility, and we expected representatives from at least a hundred more countries to arrive to either witness the ignition itself, or the reactor in action afterwards.

SHIELD alone had a company worth of strike teams awaiting a signal to intervene. Drones buzzed above the whole area, giving real-time data to the security center, where a circus of Alphabetical agencies did their best to coordinate the mess outside.

Pepper was in her elements, making sure all the VIPs were as happy as they could be under the circumstances. After all, I approved buidling this place with security in mind, not luxury. In hindsight, it perhaps should have occurred to me that an army of VIPs might want to see history in the making and good publicity.

Fortunately, there was place for very few visitors in the control center, which meant that I could finally get some relative peace and quiet after helping Pepper with the invading politicians for the past few hours. Here we only had the Secretary of Energy, a representative of the EU, as well as the ambassadors of India, China and Japan…. Needless to say, the Secretary had a great time trying to keep those three civil.

The rest of the invading politicians and diplomats were in Peper's tender care in large conference room, complete with comfortable chairs, refreshments, and live-feed from the reactor and control room.

I was frankly surprised that so far there were no unexpected surprises. For the past week, the LEOs and assorted intelligence services kept taking out cells of terrorists, mercenaries and activists who planned to derail the ignition, or even directly attack the facility. Good luck with that, right now, this place was one of the best protected places in the country. It also had a protective shell of synthecrete and permex, making it tough enough to resist orbital strikes.

So a direct attack was out. Infiltration and sabotage was a concern with all the agencies involved, and the relatively open nature of the event. I knew for sure that as of eight in the morning when the last inspection round ended everything looked all right. So far, there were no indications for issues from inside the complex.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin," I announced. It was almost noon and I was eager to get it over with before Murphy could throw a wrench in my plans.

"The facility is now sealed. Security teams are fully deployed," Mr. Agent announced. He was playing being a Homeland Security Agent again, and was technically in charge of the whole circus.

"Everything is in the green. The last battery of diagnostics came in clear a minute ago. We're ready!" Dr. Jeannie Lopes, the facility's director announced in a loud and clear voice.

Behind us, the politicians finally shut up and stopped snipping at each other so they could pay attention.

"Ignition is now authorized. Begin," I ordered happily and submerged myself in the Force, looking for any hint of trouble.

"Fuel system is green. Inserting hydrogen pellet!"

"Capacitors are green. Connection with the power grid is one hundred percent. Batteries are ready for charging."

"Electromagnets online. Generating containment field. Field charging,"

"Start the laser power up sequence."

The largest screen in the room showed a schematic of the reactor, complete with helpful descriptions. A blue transparent field surrounded it indicating that the magnetic containment field was up and steadily charging.

"Magnetic field at eighty percent and rising!"

"Commence ignition," The Director ordered.

By the time we had a stable reaction, the field would be at a hundred percent. Besides, as a safety precaution, it was over-engineered to hell and closer to what a full scale reactor would need. Even at seventy-five percent, it should be able to contain the reaction of Prometheus at full output.

"We have ignition! Laser output is stable. Fuel system is stable and providing steady input!"

"Containment field is holding. One thousand degrees, stable burn!"

"Steadily increase fuel input!" The Director's steely voice cut through the excited reports.

"Increasing fuel input. We have sustained burn. Two thousand degrees. Three thousand… Temperature is raising exponentially! We have fusion!"

"Containment is holding!"

"Do we have a positive reaction?" I asked, doing my best to sound calm and collected.

"Reactor output twenty five percent of theoretical maximum… Power generation… We are generating 300 MW of energy. Input for laser ignition, fuel system and containment remain steady at 400 MW."

"Increase output to fifty percent," I ordered with a smile. This right here was better than any experimental reactor in existence.

Compared to the best competing epxerimental design, Prometheus already required less power to maintain operation, and barring a disaster could actually produce an economically relevant amount of power.

"Increasing fuel flow. Plasma density is increasing!"

"Containment holding. Reactor chamber surface temperature within expected limits!"

Everyone watched with baited breath how more fuel flowed into the reactor chamber. The temperature and plasma density inside skyrocketed. Thirty percent. Thirty-five percent. Forty.

"We have a positive reaction!" Lopez exclaimed. "Reactor holding steady at fifty percent! Power input four hundred megawats. Generated power six hundred megawatts!"

"Bring it up to seventy-five. If there are no issues, then slowly go to full power," I ordered and turned to look at the politicians. "Ladies and gentlemen, Prometheus is working as promised. At hundred percent this limited scale prototype should be producing eight hundred megawatts per hour of clean energy and can easily pay for itself during its service life! We just made history today!"

I really shouldn't have been surprised that the other shoe dropped at that precise moment.

"Sir, I'm afraid that we have a security breach," Jarvis gravely announced. "The cameras in the corridor leading to the reactor chamber are on loop and have been that way for at least the past few minutes."

"Director, prepare for emergency shutdown in case of sabotage!" I snapped. "Woods, you and your people are with me. We've got a rat to catch!"