Industrious: Engineering Marvels - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

The Hydra base was such a stereotype that it hurt.

Thankfully, it wasn't an actual castle, but the previous base had already ticked that box and I had no doubt that we'd end up running into at least one more once we got to Germany proper. As it was, the massive concrete edifice was positioned on a tall hill that I wouldn't quite call a mountain. That said, it was within spitting distance of the real-life Mt. Olympus, so I gave them half-credit for the attempt. In all other respects, though, it looked like a classically-appointed evil-overlord base.

“So, here's the problem,” Steve stated lowly as we gathered around a hooded lantern with a map underneath the limited glow and a large tree between us and the base in addition to the thick forest that ended abruptly a few hundred feet in that direction.

“They've got a killzone,” Logan stated abruptly, reaching out and tapping the map. Once again, I picked out the curious white scars between his knuckles that no one seemed to comment on. “Between here and the base. Have it lit up like high noon.”

Steve nodded, reaching out to trace the rough crescent. “There's two roads that approach. One from the north and one from the south following the ridgeline of the hill. It's not a complete drop-off, but it's a pretty steep slope and extremely rocky to boot. We can't take heavy equipment up that kind of climb so we either have to divide up and take both roads at the same time in the hopes of confusing them or try a creeping assault over the open ground between sweeps of the perimeter lights.”

“How steep a slope are we talking?” I asked, looking briefly towards the base.

Morita hummed. “Not vertical, but close to it. I'd say... seventy degrees?”

He and Steve exchanged a glance, then nodded in sync. “About that, yeah.”

“I could make that,” I stated, confident in my assertion.

Steve's eyebrows climbed towards his hairline. “You sure? It's kind of a jagged mess. I think we could do it in full daylight if we took our time, but going in the dark, at good speed, without even decent moonlight? That's asking for someone to fall on something and take a sharp rock through the gut.”

“I have excellent night vision and you saw how I was able to move in the exploding factory,” I pointed out.

Steve frowned, pursing his lips, then Bucky leaned forward. “You think you could get in there and take out the power, Ray? That would make an assault much easier.”

“If the kid's going, I'll go too,” Victor growled, popping his neck. “You in, Logan?”

“Now wait a min-” Dum-Dum started.

Logan huffed a laugh. “Sure, just like that time in Colorado.”

I looked the two over, then shrugged. “If you have experience free-climbing, then sure.” My lips twitched. “Just don't slow me down.”

Logan snorted and Victor grinned as they exchanged a glance. The dark-haired man rumbled, “Don't worry kid, we'll bring your body back when you slip and fall.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes even as Victor chuckled.

“You really going to let them try this wild goose chase, Cap?” Dougan asked, looking at our leader.

Steve rubbed his chin for a moment, grimacing, then nodded as he looked us over. “If they say they can do it, I believe them. Alright, we'll give you two hours to blow the power. After that, we'll be taking the pincer attack and blowing through the gates whether or not the power is off. Normally I'd favor trying to get in stealthily, but we can't wait that long if you guys have the head-start needed to take out the generator.”

The subtext was clear.

“Won't let you down, Cap,” I stated with a serious nod.

Dum-Dum snorted. “Don't forget naptime and your blankee before you head off, kid.”

A few chuckles were had and, once again, I was confronted with the fact that I really did look a bit too young to be in uniform. It was an old irritant, though. Even in my first life, I'd been burdened with a 'baby face' and been carded for alcohol well into my thirties. Still, I decided a line needed to be drawn here and now.

I jerked my chin and looked over Dougan's shoulder even as I flushed my system with adrenaline and coiled muscles for a powerful jump. “Hey Dum-Dum, what's that?”

He blinked and turned, several others moving their heads with him. As soon as his eyes left mine, I leaped into the air, caught a branch, and smoothly levered myself into position without a single broken twig, rustled leaf, or displaced rock from my jump. Logan and Victor, though, shifted as though they'd heard something. Maybe even smelled it, given their senses.

“What's what you-” Dum-Dum began, turning back and blinking as he took in the space where I'd been sitting. “The fuck?! Where'd that little shit go?”

Murmurs from the rest of the group rose up as they turned this way and that, Bucky and Steve sharing an exasperated look as neither pinned my location after a few moments. Pressing my lips together, I let out a bird-like chirp of a whistle as I leaned over the branch. Instantly, more than two dozen pairs of eyes snapped up to see me crouched on top of a tree branch in the near-complete black of a dark forest.

My eyes caught the light against the black of my mask and hood as I met Dougan's and, even if I couldn't properly mold chakra, there was a metaphysical weight to my existence that made the man pale and go still as he opened his mouth to level another insult.

“Thanks for the tip, Dougan, here's one for you: bring some spare underwear. Never know when you might shit yourself,” I stated lowly.

…

Which was how Logan, Victor, and I ended up climbing up a steep and treacherous rocky outcropping pretending to be a hill in the dead of a moonless night. Well, alright, they climbed. Admittedly, they climbed more like some unholy combination of apes and mountain goats, jumping heavily between stable sections apparently based purely on instinct rather than any calculated judgment.

While I would have liked to simply go all out and have the entire ascent finished in a few minutes, I still wasn't anywhere close to being able to perform at my best.

Admittedly, I'd figured out a few interesting ways to cheat given my situation, but those were very much for emergencies.

“Even with that show at the camp I thought we'd be dragging the kid's weight,” Victor grunted, moving up another ten feet with the kind of animal grace that tickled my hindbrain. With stunts like that, it wasn't hard to see why some people were scared of his kind.

“Tell me about it,” Logan bit out, nearly leaping up the side of a particularly large boulder in a movement I could almost describe as a pounce.

“You know I can hear you, right?” I asked, waiting patiently for the two at a rocky outcropping two dozen feet above them.

I chuckled when I received a pair of curses in response and looked upwards again. Part of what made the terrain here so treacherous was the clear indication that the Nazis hadn't so much built on top of the hill as they'd built into the hill, then built on top of it. The debris they'd carved out had been dumped down the side we were now climbing up. Outside of that fact, though, their decision actually made it much easier on us, because while there wasn't easy access on this side, there were windows and a vent system for the generators that powered the place. There were power lines as well, of course, but those were so easily sabotaged or damaged by natural occurrences that the generators were apparently operated more than the normal lines.

Where Logan and Victor climbed in an animalistic style, though, I simply danced my way up the next several dozen feet, my mind calculating trajectories and angles absently as I bounced off flat planes of otherwise jagged rocks before latching onto the bottom-most window of the facility. One hand clung to the outer sill, fingers hidden by the housing of the glass. Slowly pulling myself up, I chanced a quick glance into the room.

It wasn't completely dark, one naked bulb hanging over a mass of silent machinery.

It was empty, though.

Backup generator.

Pressing my ear to the concrete wall, I confirmed the hum of machinery working to my right. Likely some fifty or sixty feet away. Listening more closely, I picked out a few voices over the next minute, occasionally raised in response to something the other said I couldn't make out. It was clear that they were yelling over the noise of the generator simply to be heard.

It was startling to think how military technology and tactics would change between the time period I now called home and my original life. Even if a long-range bomber couldn't be tasked with a place like this in the future, it would be child's play to equip a team with man-portable weaponry and shoot something explosive into a room like this from long-range.

Even if such an explosion wouldn't damage the base itself from the immense thickness of steel-reinforced concrete, it would still cripple the infrastructure.

I shook away the intrusive thought and looked down to my two teammates who had finally managed to catch up with me. Unwilling to raise my voice, I jerked a thumb towards the room and ran through a few hand signs to indicate an absence of enemy personnel.

Logan raised a thumb and nodded.

I tapped my chest with my fist and gestured to the window, then pointed down at them and gestured to the window again.

Both nodded.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself up further and took one last look around the room before raising a hand with my palm flat against the glass. Muscles convulsed under my skin as I sent a shock through one of the panes, a spider web of cracks erupting across the glass. That done, I flicked it with a single finger and sent the fragments tumbling to the floor in an almost-inaudible rain.

I reached in and unlocked the window before opening it and leveraging myself through, tumbling over the sill and coming to a crouch with a drawn knife.

Nothing.

No one.

The shadow of feet moved past the doorway, unhurried and unknowing. Waiting for another moment to ensure they weren't going to return, I nodded and reached into my pack before removing a rope and tying it off to one of the heavy blocks of machinery in the room and throwing the other end out the window.

A few grunts of exertion later, Logan and Victor were in the room with me.

“Generator's over there, right?” Victor jerked his head, pulling his rifle off his back and checking the cartridge.

I nodded, pulling out a hastily-copied design. It was a copy of the map the local resistance gave Steve. It wasn't complete, but some of their personnel were able to get in on food and fuel deliveries, so, thankfully, we know roughly where most things were.

Logan and Victor leaned over, looking at the diagram. The former spoke first, jabbing a finger at the armory. “Bombs on the generator and the armory. Where else?”

“Fuel storage,” Victor pointed out, tapping another area of the map.

“If we're doing there,” I pointed at the other room, “the armory, and the generator,” I continued, pointing at all three rooms, “then we need to either exfiltrate the way we came in or try to get to the base commander's room in the confusion after the first blast. It's on the other side of the base, so we won't blow ourselves up when the ammo and fuel cook off and we can make our way to the northern entrance to meet up with the squad there if needed.”

Logan frowned, but Victor grinned and spoke. “Commander. Take that sack of shit hostage and distract them, too.”

Logan looked at his brother, then nodded. “That'll do.”

I glanced between the two of them, then shrugged. “Alright. I'll take point? You watch for wandering idiots?” I held up a knife for emphasis when the two looked doubtful. “A reminder that gunshots are loud.”

Logan and Victor snorted, but nodded. Pulling out one of the bombs, I twisted the timer and stuck it on the bottom of the machinery in the room. “Thirty minutes, let's go.”

With the two at my back I cracked the door, intently aware of the soft ticking coming from a few feet away even if I couldn't really hear it with the sound of the running generator now leaking into the room through the hall. Looking around, I didn't see anyone and slid out the door, taking quick steps while trusting Victor and Logan to have my back if needed. Moving towards the door, I slowly tested the lock before looking back and nodding to the brothers.

I opened it, my hand releasing the knob even as it pulled a handful of knives free from their holsters. The first one in my free hand flew before the door had even finished opening, hitting one of the maintenance staff in the neck and sending him crashing to his knees as blood spurted from his new wound. The other two men froze and stared for a half-second, which was their undoing. Knives flashed out, two each sinking into their necks. Another knife hit one of the men directly in the ear, killing him instantly as it sank into him. The final one was left sticking out of the remaining man's chest, directly piercing his heart.

Stepping over to the still-gurgling man who was pawing for his sidearm, I locked eyes with him before shaking my head as I tore the knife embedded in his throat sideways, unleashing a visceral spray and knocking him onto his back. Even as he fell, his blood-slick hand finally managed to grab his gun, but my foot snapped down to break his wrist before he could raise it.

“All clear,” I called back to Logan and Victor, both hanging out of the doorway to keep watch.

“Damn,” Victor commented with a huff. “Might have to get Dougan to stop giving you shit, kid. That's cold.”

Logan grunted, looking over the bodies dispassionately. “Whatever, set the bomb.”

I nodded, reaching over my shoulder to pull out another device and cranking the timer. Setting it on underneath the running generator, I quickly collected my knives and stood, my attention catching on the table the three had been gathered around. Hands of cards were still laid out, a pile of coins in the center...

If I'd been more sentimental, I would have pondered at the tableau of death where an average-day scene of life had just been playing out moments before.

My eyes flicked down to the dead men and the insignias on their uniforms.

Instead, I stepped forward and grabbed the collection of German silver dollars in the pot before pocketing them.

“Some of that for me?” Victor asked with a grin.

“You'll get to loot something before the night's out, I'm sure,” I replied casually. “Let's go. Map says fuel depot is closer. Let's try to take the service corridor. Maybe no one'll be there at this time of night.”

Both men nodded.

We were lucky, in the end, only coming across a pair of men. I hadn't even needed to take them down, even. Logan and Victor had jumped them while I stood guard, craning my head around a corner to make sure we weren't disturbed. After that, I'd reprised a tactic from my previous Hydra base raid and found a nearby closet to throw the two in before continuing on. Which meant we were able to get to the fuel depot quickly enough to plant the next set of bombs before moving on towards the armory.

That, unfortunately, was when our luck ran out.

Because people started yelling.

“Hey, you speak kraut, right?” Logan grunted, holding his rifle at the ready.

I nodded. “Enough, at least. Someone found the bodies in the generator room. Shit, should have thrown them out the window. Would have at least slowed down the alarm.”

Victor chuckled darkly. “Live and learn, kid. Live and learn.”

I sighed. “Let's just hurry. They're going to start waking people up. Alert soldiers means passing out weapons.”

We ran, disregarding all pretense of stealth as Logan and Victor took potshots at anyone who stopped to yell when we surprised them. The gunfire doubtless made sure the base knew they were under attack, but we were moving too fast for them to box us in. Finally, we made it down the corridor to the armory and-

“Fuck!” Logan cried, a round tearing a hole through his torso.

Victor roared in response, fully revealing his too-long teeth as he took aim to fire back.

I didn't slow. Instead I leaped. The motion carried me upwards and over the volley of fire as I twisted and drew my blade. I landed feet-first against the opposing wall before bouncing off it and continuing on like a pinball down the hallway for twenty feet before my sword swung and-

I flowed through the motions, taking off a hand and cutting through a rifle before moving on in a fluid swing and removing a leg from someone else. The katana, not the perfect weapon for such close-quarters fighting, was held in a reverse grip against my right forearm as I cycled through a rapid series of thrusts and swings. Gripping the sword as I did effectively cut the length in half, giving me more ability to maneuver the too-long blade in a compact space.

My empty hand lashed out, catching a man who'd dropped his rifle and pulled a knife by the wrist, twisting the limb and jamming it into one of his already-dying comrades before sliding into his guard and smoothly decapitating him.

I kicked out, sending another rifle skittering from the enemy soldier's grip and allowing me to step in further. Even if I wasn't at my absolute best, especially without a short-sword to do dirty work with, something I'd have to fix soon, I was still far better equipped to handle CQC than the Hydra soldiers were.

To drive that point home, I struck out with an open palm and stopped a man's heart before looking around for another opponent and-

The hall was silent, save for the blaring of the base's alarm.

I turned my head this way and that, checking in every direction and absently noting the liquid crimson flying from my form at the motions.

I'm glad I insisted on the balaclava and leather jacket with the hood, blood soaking into cloth would be a pain in the ass. Almost reminds me of-

A memory bubbled to the surface, moving as one with a unit of masked figures, and I pushed it away. Instead, I turned to look at Victor and Logan, intentionally ignoring the ragged hole in the latter's shirt and the bloodstain over clear flesh as well as how wide their eyes were as they stared at me.

“Armory's right there, you two coming?” I asked rhetorically, jerking my head towards the door.

~~~

Here's chapter 11.  As promised, a break from the character drama and philosophy.  Next chapter will finish out the Hydra base and feature an alternate POV.

Until then, I'll be working on another chapter to get out this weekend.  Still not sure what, so this one will be a surprise.

Remember that the vote for Winning Peace is still open as well, for anyone who hasn't participated.