East Africa - Treehouse S.H.I.E.L.D. Base (December 2017)

[Hollywood Heidi]

Treehouse

The Treehouse was SHIELD's East African HQ before events of Winter Soldier and still houses archives. It is based not far from Wakanda. Since Winter Solider, the base was occupied by U.S. military. It is largely abandoned with a small group of soldiers still guarding it.

Events taking place in December 2017.

[wesleybucks]

DECEMBER 24TH 2017
23:12 local time

The full moon illuminated the mountainside and lit up the night sky, full of glistening stars as the soldier stepped out onto the balcony. The soldier took a few moments to light his cigarette, breathing it in deep before blowing smoke into the warm evening air. He leant over the edge of the Treehouse base's balcony that overlooked a sweeping valley of rocks and lush green trees. Several birds soared upwards and sang to each other in the distance, catching the soldier's attention. He drew the cigarette back to his mouth as the walkie talkie attached to his shoulder crackled into life.

"Security office to watch point 4. Clear skies?"

The soldier blew out smoke and answered with a short reply.

"Clear skies. Nothing to report."

He'd had nothing to report for the five months he'd been stationed at the Treehouse. It had once been a SHIELD archive and scientific research centre. After the rise of HYDRA, SHIELD had abandoned the base and concealed the classified intel. The American military had been allowed to assume control of the base by the UN but neither HYDRA or SHIELD had attempted to break in. It was possibly the most boring post in Africa. He took another deep breath of smoke, wishing for some sort of excitement. The hand grabbed his shirt before he'd even finished breathing out. The soldier was hauled over the edge of the balcony. He didn't feel the hook latch around his leg as he plummeted down, but it caught him in mid-fall, leaving him hanging upside down. A short burst of electricity was fired down the cable, blasting him into unconsciousness.

Black Widow climbed onto the balcony holding the walkie talkie she'd grabbed off the soldier. She waved upwards to the stealth quinjet hovering some way above the balcony and the gangplank drew down allowing three figures to drop down. Ant-Man and Falcon landed onto the balcony and moved quickly forwards whilst Widow started to take apart the walkie, removing the sim card and sliding it into a small opening on her belt. Captain America landed on the balcony as Ant-Man and Falcon stopped either side of the closed doorway leading into the base. Widow nodded to Cap.

"I've patched us in to their comms. They only have a skeleton crew. Should be a quick in and out."

Cap gave her a nod back and addressed the team.

"You all know what to do. We keep it quick and we keep it quiet. Nat you've got the security office. Scott and Sam, grab the equipment. I've got the archive covered."

This wasn't the first time the team had done something like this in the past few months. They worked well together, under the radar. Scott especially was always anxious of being caught for his daughter's sake. Cap had promised them all he would keep them safe and had no intention of leading his team back behind bars. Cap reached the door and placed a small disc onto the keypad. The disc hacked into the complex and only took a few seconds to enter the code to allow the door to open. The team entered and split up. 

Cap made his way down a flight of stairs and reached the door to the archive. Two soldiers were sat playing cards and didn't even notice him until he was within arms reach. They leapt to their feet but were too slow. Steve's boot collided into one of their jaws as he span around and landed on the ground. Launching forwards, he knocked the other soldier's rifle aside and with a swift uppercut, sent him sprawling back over his chair, a full deck of cards softly floating to the ground.

"I'm sorry boys. Thank you for your service."

With that, Steve ran into the archive. They wouldn't have long and it was critical he would find what he needed. The Raft prison was almost impossible to find without a SHIELD locator device. Those had all been either destroyed, lost or taken by the military. All except the one that had been left in the Treehouse archive. This was their best chance to find the Raft or at least that had been Fury's plan. Steve needed this mission to be a success. He owed it to an old friend to be able to get the locator, find the prison and free his old ally. In a way, this was a mission for redemption.

[wesleybucks]

DECEMBER 24 2017
23:20 local time

The lights of the archive flickered on automatically as he entered. The room was a gigantic hanger like chamber with seemingly endless rows of shelves piled high with boxes of paperwork. A musty smell filled the air. It was clear that the archive hadn't been used for quite some time. Cap scanned the signs hanging above the aisles checking for the letter R. AA-AB was the closest aisle. He sighed to himself and started running. As he ran, his finger pressed the small radio in his ear.

"Report in."

"Hello Captain America. Hawk and me are at the armory. We're waiting for the go ahead that the cameras are down before approaching."

"For the last time tic-tac, I'm called Falcon. Hawkeye is a totally different guy."

"Right yes sorry about that. Easy mistake to make. Very similar birds."

Steve rolled his eyes as he kept running through the room.

"Short and sweet Scott. Keep radio chatter short and sweet. You don't have to keep using my full title. Nat?"

"One second!"

Natasha had shouted down the radio. This was followed by a series of grunts and sounds of smashing. Something caught Steve's attention and he almost stopped running. It was the CA-CE section. There was an entire box labelled Carter, Margaret. The urge to grab it and find out about Peggy's time at the SSR and SHIELD was almost too much. It was Nat's voice, now much calmer, coming through the radio that kept him going. 

"Security office is secure. Camera network is offline. We have six minutes before an auto-alert is sent out to the closest station. Then we have another 12 minutes before they get here. Get a move on boys."

"Copy that. Sam, get the equipment and get out. Nat, keep our escape route clear."

It was a couple more minutes of solid running before he reached RA-RI section. His eyes scanned the shelves. Radioactive Man, Rage, Rawhide Kid, Red Ghost, Red Skull, Red Wolf, Retro Girl, Rhino... There was nothing here to do with the Raft. Steve's jaw tightened. The files had been removed. Steve took a breath and prepared to alert the others as to how he'd failed. That was when he saw a box marked Stark-Prison 42. He grabbed hold of it to find it was chained in place. Steve yanked hard on the box and broke it free. Inside were several paper files, a metal briefcase and several sealed metal tubes. Steve broke open a metal tube to reveal a rolled up scroll of paper. He unraveled it to see they were blueprints. Blueprints to something called Prison 42. Steve recognised it even before he saw the prison's code name at the bottom. He'd broken into it once before to free his allies. Prison 42, code name RAFT. The metal briefcase had a lock that he slammed apart in an instant. He flicked it open to see the locator inside. The key to finding the ever moving Raft prison. The key to freeing his friends. Steve stuffed the blueprints into the case, closed it and started to head back towards the exit.

"I have the locator. I'm heading back."

"Roger that Rogers. Me and Bald Eagle have got the equipment and are going back topside."

"Ok bug boy, you're doing it on purpose now."

Steve grinned. That was when the explosion went off. The entire base rocked before returning to it's eerie stillness.

"What was that? Nat do we have visual?"

Radio silence.

"Sam? Scott?"

Nothing. They were being jammed. How could they have gotten here this fast? Steve's pace increased. Before long he was hurtling out of the archive door and ran straight into a squad of five soldiers all with assault rifles trained at the door.

"Put down the case Captain Rogers and put your hands..."

Steve didn't stop running. He tossed the case to the ground beside him and launched forwards. Grabbing hold of the closest rifle with his right hand, he hauled it and the soldier holding it towards him and punched the man out cold with his left fist. The soldier let go of the rifle and fell to the ground unconscious. Steve flung the rifle into a second soldier who fell back against the wall. Steve dipped to the side as a third soldier fired a bullet past him and into the archive. Spinning on the ground, leading with his right leg, Steve kicked out the third soldier's feet letting him fall to the ground. Steve rolled onto his chest and jabbed him hard and fast in the face. The fourth soldier pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and tossed it forwards. Steve back-flipped, kicking the grenade back at him where it detonated and filled the corridor with a thick, dark smog. Steve landed at the second soldier now standing up and elbowed him down. He then grabbed back the case and downed the fifth and final solider with a spinning kick. Steve ran through the smoke and towards the balcony, hoping that the rest of his team had made it

[wesleybucks]

December 24th 2017
23:28 local time

Charging around a corner, Steve turned into another hallway that extended out before him and ending at the open doorway to the balcony. Outside, Steve could see the silhouette of Falcon against the moon with his wings extended, diving down amidst a hail of bullets. The Quinjet's stealth mode was clearly still on or it had flown away. Either way, it wasn't visible. Between Steve and the doorway, Nat was engaged in battle with three different soldiers. Her grapple hook was around one of their necks, holding him fast against her back and using his weight to push up and kick away a soldier. There was a crack as her boot collided with his jaw and he collapsed. The third soldier punched her hard in the stomach. She released the grapple hook and grabbed the third soldier's fist with both hands. Her hands were a blur as they turned sharply and snapped his wrist. Steve joined her as the soldier fell wailing to his knees and they both ran towards the balcony.

"How can they have got here so fast."

"I don't know Steve. We covered all our bases. They had to have known we were going to be there but that means we have a leak on our end."

"Impossible. Not enough people knew about the mission."

They both emerged into the night air as Falcon crash landed onto the balcony, a thin stream of smoke coming from his wings. A black plated helicopter rose from the dark with spotlights hitting them.

"Captain Rogers. This is Colonel Talbot. You are to lay on the ground and surrender immediately or we will be forced to open fire."

Steve could see the side door of the helicopter was open. There was a man crouched with an RPG launcher trained on them. It was times like these he really wished he had a vibranium shield. He could sense Nat was poised by his side ready to move. Sam was now on his hands and knees. He was in a bad way. But where was...

Steve almost didn't see it. Something the size of a coin flew through the air towards the chopper. In a flash of light, it grew hundreds of times bigger to reveal it was a water cooler. Except now, it was the size of a bus. It slammed into the chopper sending it reeling backwards in a burst of water. Ant-Man then appeared next to them.

"It was just sitting there in the hallway. Thought it could be useful."

Steve held Scott's shoulder for a brief moment.

"Good man. We still need to get out of here. Where's our evac?"

The Quinjet's stealth mode dropped and it was finally visible before them. Maria Hill saluted them from the pilots seat as the gangplank lowered. Steve passed the case to Nat who, with Scott, began to run to the Quinjet with the other boxes of equipment they had liberated. Steve put Sam's arm around him and helped him to run across the balcony. The noise of the US helicopter blades were returning. Nat and Scott made it onto the Quinjet. As they were dumping the equipment, the RPG fired. It blasted into the balcony, sending Steve and Sam sprawling backwards and rocking the Quinjet. With a grunt of effort, Steve was back on his feet. Sam was now unconscious next to him with a thin line of blood running down his forehead.

"STEVE! MOVE!"

Nat was shouting from the Quinjet. Steve locked eyes with Col. Talbot who was standing in the chopper next to the soldier with the missile launcher. Steve couldn't hear Talbot say 'fire' but could see his mouth form the word. There was a burp of smoke as the RPG left the long green launcher and flew forwards. Seconds began to feel like lifetimes. Running on pure instinct, Steve rolled over the body of his friend, wrenching the sub-machine gun from his belt as he went. The roll ended with Steve on his knees, gun extended at eye level. He slammed down the trigger. Bullets cascaded onto the side of the chopper sending Talbot and the soldier diving for cover. They also rattled across the RPG. It was enough. The RPG detonated in mid air. The black chopper was nearly tipped upside down as it was swept away. The Quinjet was rocked badly by the shockwave. Nat grabbed hold of a handrail with one hand and Scott's foot with the other as he was almost tossed out. Steve was thrown past the open doorway and several paces back into the base, hitting the ground hard and winding him.

Gasping for air and with shock, Steve sat up. The balcony was crumbling apart. Sam's body was sliding across it towards the edge and the abyss beyond. Ignoring the ringing in his ears and the pain in his back, Steve was on his feet and running to his friend. He wasn't fast enough. He was at the doorway as Sam fell. With one glance to his left, Steve could see the Quinjet. Nat and Scott looked back at him. Nat's eyes widened as she knew what he was going to do. She turned towards Hill to bark orders at her. Steve extended his arms to his side and dove forwards.

[wesleybucks]

December 24th 2017
23:31 local time

The noise of the balcony with it's explosions and gunshots was left behind. Steve fell through the air face first, tucking his arms in to his chest and keeping his legs together. Like a dart, Steve flew down faster and faster until Sam's unconscious, flailing body came before him. Right before they collided, Steve pulled back to become horizontal with his arms and legs out in a star shape. They fell for a few more moments until Steve gripped hold of Sam's wrist and pulled him in. Steve straddled Sam on his back and wrapped his legs around his waist. Steve ripped the casing of Sam's jetpack off to reveal the circuitry underneath.

The sides of the mountain, only illuminated by the moon, whipped past. Steve knew the Treehouse was high up but they'd reach the ground eventually. Steve reached through the circuits, trying to reactivate the jetpack. He wasn't tech savvy, still not fully understanding how a TV could possibly have a 3D mode, but Sam had shown him his set of wings before and if Steve knew anything, it was weaponry. He ripped several wires from their places and tried to hard-wire connect them together. Coughs of smoke belched out of the jetpack until finally, a pulse of fire roared out. Their descent began to slow but it wasn't enough energy to stop them falling.

The ground was now visible. It was rushing up to meet them. They were moving too fast. Steve knew they would shatter every bone in their body if they hit the ground. It was a movement above him that made him look up to where they had fallen from. The Quinjet was careening down straight at them, engines at full blast. Steve dipped to his left making him and Sam drift closer to below the jet. It soon was level with them, Maria Hill looking out the cockpit wide-eyed. It then moved beyond them so the gangplank was just below. Nat and Scott were both there, arms extended to them, shouting words that were totally lost from the blazing engines. Steve freed his legs from Sam's waist and kicked him down. As Nat and Scott pulled Sam towards them, Steve gripped hold of the Quinjet's roof and clambered onto it, pulling a switch to shut the gangplank, before sliding down onto the cockpit. He punched it twice to get Hill's attention and pointed upwards. Hill wrenched the throttle back. The Quinjet heaved it's nose upwards to soar back into the air as Steve held on for dear life.

The Quinjet blasted it's way upwards until it finally soared past the remains of the balcony and the still hovering chopper. Talbot's eyes bulged from his head as he gaped at their ascent. Steve gave him a classic smile with a two finger salute. Hill popped the cockpit window open and Steve dropped inside as stealth mode was reactivated and the Quinjet drifted away like a ghost.

"You really wanted to test the jet there Cap."

"Sorry Hill. Wasn't much time to discuss. Thanks for the pick up."

"You're welcome. Now if you don't mind, I'm taking you back to Wakanda then I'll need to check back in with Stark Industries. My vacation was due to end two days ago."

Steve thanked her and sat back in his chair to finally catch his breath.

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*** Continued in Cap's Quinjet ***