12560/Big Trouble on Little Hala: Part 2

Big Trouble on Little Hala: Part 2
Date of Scene:	16 December 2020
Location:	Space. The Final Frontier. Unless you count Schenectady.
Synopsis:	That's no donut, that's a donut-shaped space station!
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Wild Rose, Winter Soldier, Phantasm (Drago)

---

Iron Man has posed:
The view from the viewscreen mostly just looks like turbulence. This is to be expected, as the Avenjet propels itself at very high velocity through the Exosphere of the alien planet upon which the Avengers (and Special Guests) have just had their latest adventure. Most of those gathered today within the Avenjet's main cabin would probably not call getting attacked by wave after wave of Brood soldiers an 'adventure', but it technically counts, so it gets counted.

Sitting in a chair, with the faceplate of his helmet raised up to let in the sweet sweet Avenjet Main Cabin air, Iron Man looks mostly immobilized. Slumped backward in a semireclining position, arms sprawled out to his sides, there's a strange juxtaposition between the energetic, slightly frantic look on the man's face, and the very lethargic look of the armor that encases him.

"Dummy, how we coming on that recharge?"

"Mwoop!" The Armor's Co-Pilot responds energetically.

"Eleven percent? Dammit, I knew I should have replaced this Arc Reactor with a Quantum Singularity Inversion Converter."

"MWOOP!"

"Yeah, I know that doesn't exist yet, Dummy, but I can probably make one!"

The Avenjet breaks atmosphere, flying itself as quickly as possible toward a glistening, vaguely donut-shaped space station that's out past the planet's orbit and barely visible on the ship's screens without magnification.

The viewscreen has all kinds of interesting data, for anybody who could use a good panic attack. For example, it has the rough estimate of how many minutes are left before the Nega-Bomb on the space station explodes, destroying the Avenjet, Kree Outpost 33904187921, the planet full of innocent alien civilians, and... pretty much the entire solar system with its thirteen total inhabited planets.

So, this would be a good time to focus.

"Alright everyone, run your final equipment checks and head back to the Drop Bay. I didn't think we'd get a chance to use the drop vehicle I stored back there, so I'm actually kind of excited. Bummed out that I'm stuck here recharding, obviously, but you guys will be great!"

Tony sounds like he believes it.

The small, donut-shaped dot on the screen keeps getting bigger and bigger, as the Avenjet zooms toward it as fast as its ionic thrusters can handle.

Wild Rose has posed:
     Never in a million years would Riana have ever figured she'd be out in space, let alone among the company she now seemed to be keeping. Yet here she was on not her first, but now her second foray into the Final Frontier (R). Final equipment check? Check. Sort of. Air seemed to be contained where it belonged, with none coming out of where it shouldn't. There were no cracks where they shouldn't be

     "Damn it, Tony, I'm a fighter, not a pilot!"

     Titian brows lofted over sage green eyes as she glances over at Nick and Bucky. "I hope to hell one of you is a pilot, because I'm clueless."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    En route to an insertion into hostile territory, a mission with a tight timer and certain death if things don't go right. So far, so normal. Fine, so this is a multi-million dollar spacecraft rather than a tin can strapped between two hastily assembled engines built by the lowest bidder and piloted by a crew fueled entirely by adrenaline, bad coffee and forlorn hope, but it's all one to Bucky. He's checking the equipment alright, field stripping his pistol and rifles (plural), loading every magazine afresh, checking the closure of every pouch and the tightness of every belt. Knives are sharpened... there is a distinct impression his boots would have been unlaced and laced back up if they had any laces, so instead he checks the seals on his suit. It's a series of clicks, quick dextrous motions and enough prestidigitation to make him an honorary member of the Magic Circle. It's effortless. It's terrifying to watch.

    "Pilot? Don't look at me. If it has wheels I'll drive it. If it has tracks, I'll get it moving. Wings? That's what the air force is for, they have to be good for something."

    He doesn't as much stand as unfold upwards, checking the positioning of his gear one last time before trudging towards the drop bay. "Besides, sounds like it's a drop ship. It's not meant to fly, it drops." Like the gliders on D-day, wasn't that hoot? Airborne infantry, poor luckless bastards... "Hope you've got an idea to dismantle that bomb, Stark, because the only solution I can offer is blowing up that station. Call that plan C, or promote to plan B?"

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick is special. The intro says it so it must be true. Although there are different types so its not necessarily a good type of special. Once back inside the ship, he dropped back to his more human mode. Not a trace of blood from the Brood he's cut down. He's incredibly quiet on the trip. Sitting upright in the seat but eyes closed. Breathing deliberately slow and despite the posture, the hands loose as they rest on the arm re- IS HE NAPPING?!

Well. Sort of. His eyes do open when Tony addresses them. Eyes open, blinking as he looks in the direction of Tony's voice. Seeming. Oddly relaxed as he looks to his suit. Yep. Still on. Honestly. What is he supposed to check?

He looks over to Riana as she makes her statement and shakes his head. "Sorry. I'm a musician, not a pilot." He looks over to Bucky in the hopes he has better news for Riana. He KIND of does. "Ok so we don't need a pilot. We'll be crashing instead."

Iron Man has posed:
"Drop? Come on, Jimmy... you gotta give me a little more credit than that. It doesn't DROP out of the ship, it just sort of... falls. With style."

The door to the Avenjet's rear section whooshes open, revealing a bay that's actually substantially larger than the nose section's Main Cabin. A semicircular ramp surrounds the sides of the Drop Bay, leading down to something that looks very much like...

A big, futuristic, red and gold... van.

The gleaming vehicle has six wheels rather than the customary four, each roughly the size of monster truck tires. But the slightly wedge-shaped, mostly squarish body looks more like a Winnebago than it does a tank. Still, it's got two gun turrets on the top, and a couple of robotic cannons on the sides.

"Lady and gentlemens... get a load of the Iron Van. That'll get you to the Nega-Bomb in one piece, but unfortunately you're going to have to disarm the bomb on your own."

The space station is rapidly approaching, and the holographic image of Commander Ro-Norr suddenly appears in the cabin.

"Iron Man... what is the meaning of this? Turn your feeble craft around immediately, or my fighters will be given the order to blow you out of the solar system!"

The Kree Fighters are visible to the front, getting in formation already and preparing to attack.

Iron Man just kind of... gives the rest of the team the signal to shoo. It's not as effective when he's lying almost vertically, but he kind of, slowly waves his hands at them in the direction of the door.

"You know what, Ro-Norr? I wasn't going to say this, but you're kind of a douche canoe."

Wild Rose has posed:
     Riana grumbles, a few Gaelic oaths questioning Ro-Norr's parentage, bathing habits, and bedroom preferences dropping from her lips. "And this jackass really expects us to just bug out of here with what, how many inhabited worlds in the balance?" A woman she might be, but at times, a lady she was not.

     Gesturing towards the drop craft, she smiles grimly. "Sounds like it's go time... shall we, gentlemen?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Sure. Not a drop. Gravity assisted rapid descent." Bucky allows and grins, on his way to the drop vehicle. And oh my...

    There is a moment when he stands there, admiring the thing. It has all the classic lines of his era's science fiction. Large tires. Wedge shaped front. Gun turrets! The Winter Soldier glances over towards his team, an unexpected smile on his features.

    "I'm driving."

    So he gets into the vehicle, first stowing his gear and then climbing up the step to what he will persist in calling the cockpit, even if it's just a glorified driver's seat. He pauses only to look at Ro-Norr, glaring. "If I see you, you die. You get in my way, you die. If you make us go through with this then you, personally, will die. You have my solemn promise on that. So final chance, fucker..."

    He closes the hatch and seals it, starting the engine and gripping the control yoke. "I'm coming for your ass."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As the group makes their way into the bay, Nick looks to the van-like thing. "Stealthy- it is not." He murmurs, "Uh, If that thing has a steering wheel, I'm just going to be upfront and say that "I don't drive either. So... still not -."

As Bucky claims driving priviledges, the musican looks over to him and nods. "Go for it."

He looks to the guns as he climbs in taking his seat, away from said weapons. "...I also don't know much about guns."

God Nick. What good ARE you?

Iron Man has posed:
The Avenjet's autopilot is surprisingly good. Good enough to dodge a few Kree Starfighters and return fire, at least. Good thing the rest of The Team aren't watching the viewscreen anymore, because it's going all kinds of topsy-turvy as the Avenjet spins and slices its way past the enemy ships and their turbolaser batteries.

Well, for the most part. They get dinged a few times, but you try designing an autopilot system that's capable of going head to head with highly-trained Kree Starfighter Corps pilots and then come back and tell us all how perfectly it went.

Still in tense negotiations with Ro-Norr up in the cabin, Tony is keeping a close eye on the recharge rate of his Arc Reactor. Looks like it'll be at twelve percent soon, which is nowhere near enough for him to make a difference anytime in the near future.

The Avenjet gets close enough to the giant ring-shaped space station, and suddenly the Drop Bay Airlock is open, and the Iron Van is in the middle of a gravity-assisted rapid descent, right onto the exterior of a positively enormous expanse of steel.

Good thing the Iron Van comes with Space GPS, showing them the direction toward the Nega-Bomb...

Wild Rose has posed:
     It took a will of iron for a 'gifted' adolescent to learn to rein in those gifts completely on her own, with no support system whatsoever. However, that will of iron did not necessarily extend to Riana's stomach as the Iron Van begins its test of the laws of gravity, with its passengers secured inside. -Someone- had to take over the guns, so she did her best to study the controls on the way down. Simple enough. Basic point-and-click.

     Which was a good thing, as her concentration was more focused on keeping her stomach from lurching during the drop.

     Green was definitely only good as far as her eyes went.

     Sparing a wary glance towards Bucky, she attempts a wry smile. "Hey, don't go hogging all the fun. I'll want to talk to that jackass when this is all done, too." However, just how much 'talking' would be done remained to be seen.

     Nick gets a short, sharp laugh by way of response. "Neither do I. It's called baptism by fire. -Someone's- got to take over the guns."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    It's funny how you get used to the feeling of the craft you're in starting a sudden, uncontrolled, gravity assisted descent. Bucky has lost count of how many planes had been shot out from under him, although usually he has Steve around to blame. It's oddly not that much different in space. And this descent, as the space donut grows alarmingly large in what we must perforce call the windscreen alarmingly quickly, the Winter Soldier sits impassively at the controls. "Plenty of jack-ass to go around. We can share." Speed, good. Trajectory, nominal. Balance, perfect. Impact in three, two...

    *THUD* The shudder runs through the vehicle, and in the same instant Bucky throws the thing in gear and floors it. Fine, so it doesn't roar like he would have liked. But he's accelerating towards top speed from the moment the tires touched down, just like the hot drop in '68. He'd been waiting for a chance to do that again. So much more impressive with a space truck than a glider tank.

    "For what it's worth..." he starts, aiming the truck towards the indicated GPS coordinates with a mixture of concentration and naked delight "... I don't know anything about these guns either. But Stark built them, so they'll be idiot proof. Couldn't use them himself otherwise."

    Ro-norr, my friend... this is not going to be your finest hour.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As the van DROPS. Nick's brows raise as the foreign sensation hits him. Normally when he's flying or falling he's Phantasmed and he has no sense of touch at that point. But right now he can feel the restraints as his descent starts a little later than the vehicle's. It's really new.

But the visual he's perfectly fine with. As the rid- err drop starts to slow, there's a slight quirk of a smile.

He turns his head looking to Riana and then glimpses out of one of the Winnespacego windows, watching. "Have at it." He replies, doing a final check of his helmet and what was indicated to be his air supply. Why he's making sure it's ready right this moment, only he knows.

Being there's still one turret unoccupied he squirms over to that one. Might as well. Eh, worse that happens is he misses like crazy, right?

Iron Man has posed:
The Avenjet provides cover from above, doing its best to not only keep the Starfighter Pilots busy, but rapidly reduce their numbers. Fortunately, there are so many of them that no matter where the Avenjet shoots its practically guaranteed to hit one.

Actually, that's not all that fortunate.

With the location already locked into the Iron Van's navigation system, all that really remains is for The Team to drive over there, blasting anything that gets in its way.

And there are a lot of things in their way... the exterior of the space station is covered in cannons, for starters, and there's a whole bunch of fighter craft up above taking occasional pot shots down at them. It's probably a good time to serpentine.

The holographic image of Tony Stark's Head suddenly pops up inside the part of the Iron Van that Bucky has taken to calling 'the cockpit'. Looks like he learned a trick from old Commander Ro-Norr, maybe. Either way, his partially-translucent head is with them now.

"Hey guys! Looking sharp! Real quick, the cannons on the front of the Iron Van fire Anti-Photonic Destructor Grenades. I can't stress how important it is that you only fire those at things that are veeeeeeeeery far away from you. I'm not saying that if you get hit with one of those it'll tear your atoms to pieces and shunt your mass completely out of this version of reality, but that's only because I don't want you to be too panicky about using them. Because... the rest of the guns aren't as good."

The image flickers, before returning suddenly.

"Oh! Also, there's energy drinks in the center console. Should be nice and frosty, but maybe if you're going to have one, make sure you put your helmet back on very quickly. Never know when you're going to need to make a sudden exit, am I right?"

In the background, Dummy makes a chiding sort of noise.

"Mwoooooop..."

Wild Rose has posed:
     "Sìol... NOW he tells us." Because, of course, that just so /happens/ to be the gun Riana's gone and plunked herself down at, right? Right! Right about now, it's not only Ro-Norr's parentage in question. "This thing got any other setting on it besides 'tear reality to pieces in one easy step'?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Thus the dance opens. A few years ago, Bucky saw Star Wars for the first time. That's probably why he's thinking of a certain spherical station being attacked by a certain letter-shaped craft flying through what looked to him a lot like old anti-aircraft turrets repainted and firing lasers. It looks impressive on the big screen. It's looking just as impressive through the windscreen. The Iron Van dodges, weaves, evades and generally looks like it's driven by a speed-drunk lunatic. Some of those adjectives may be accurate.

    "Don't fire the sci-fi howitzers at something six inches away, got it." Not that it'll matter. The Iron Van careens so wildly from moment to moment it's hard to tell when anything is within any kind of range.

    "So, just asking, sounds like now is a good time, but everyone's got their helmet on, right? Good."

    Pause.

    "Light 'em up."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick glances over to Tony's head, jaw dropping slightly, "That, probably should have been mentioned before we got in to this." He looks down to the one he's seated at, taking his hand away from the controls as he takes the time to determine positioning.

The reminder about helmets makes the musician absentmindedly check again. Yep. Still on. Hands resting back on the controls he sighs, frowning as he looks to the vehicles trying to get in to attack. So many. Wooh. He points and shoots.

Nothing is hit.

Nick squints for a moment before he sees the lines. "OH." Making an adjustment he shoots again. As he hits something, he gives a small smile. "Ok figured it out."

Is this what video games are like?

Iron Man has posed:
So far, the Avenjet is taking the brunt of the Starfighter fire, and it's dealing out as much punishment as it can. But although Tony would be completely aghast at the very suggestion: It's only one ship against many, and these Kree pilots are actually really really good.

Good enough to land a few hits on the Avenjet, at least.

"MWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Inside the cabin, Dummy is protesting as the Avenjet gets rocked once again by a direct hit. The shields are depleting faster than the ship can regenerate them. All the fancy flying tricks that were preprogrammed into the computer won't be enough to save them if this dogfight has to go on too much longer.

Up ahead, the bunker-like structure that houses the Nega-Bomb is indicated on the vehicle's windshield display. Looks like there's no obvious entrance from the outside, unless they can find a way to make their own...

Too bad that the interior of the bunker is also full of Kree Soldiers who are more than happy to die for the glory of the Empire.

Wild Rose has posed:
     "Siol..." Riana's left with little time to think. There was no choice but for the little lady to resort to the big guns.

     Helmet on? Check.

     HUD active and trained upon the solid wall still veeeeeeeeeeeery far away from them? Double check.

     "Strap yourselves in and pray, folks!"

     The guns whirred and clicked as they rotated around, locking into place and pointing at that soon-to-be entrance ahead. In 3... 2... 1....

     KA-BOOM!!!!

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Haha! Stark! You built a faster KV-2!" Despite the mortal peril they're in, Bucky looks like he's actually enjoying himself. But then he's driving a modern bunker buster tank with the dance moves of a particularly well tuned Bugatti. Strapped in? He strapped in when he sat down, because every vehicle he drives goes top speed.

    As he watches the wall disintegrate (or, if Tony is to be believed, molecularly shifted into a different set of dimensions altogether), and sees Nick landing hits, he nods in satisfaction. "And I thought you two said you didn't know guns. Look at you, you're naturals. Keep it up."

    Because this? This is gonna be bad.

    That gap in the wall is wide enough for a wedge-shaped vehicle driven by a madman. Which is exactly what's heading towards those Kree soldiers at /exactly/ full speed. "This is where things get a bit tricky, folks..."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
To the Ka-Boom! from Riana's gun, Nick provides a few Pew pews of his own as he's focused on the ones he can see. The blast from the other weapon causes for him to pause as he glances up to watch the entrance forming.

His form shifts just slightly in anticipation of the breech, combined with Bucky's warning, and a general expectation that the vehicle won't hold up much longer. The musician looks back to pull off a couple more shots. Can't slack off on his end, now can he? He may not be an expert shot, but he can certainly be a nuisance.

And as for those glory seeking Soldiers seeking a glorified death while protecting a bomb that will cause so many more?

Well.

If that's what'll make them happy, that can certainly be arranged.

Iron Man has posed:
"Okay, now, it's really simple. Once you're inside the Nega-Bomb's housing and dealt with all of the guards and any automatic defenses, you'll just need to reposition the Quantum Entanglement Equalizers until their polarity is completely reversed. Sophomore level calculus, really."

"MWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"I'm GETTING TO THAT PART, DUMMY!"

Tony's head fritzes, disappears for a few seconds, and then pops back into view, albeit pixellated and distorted.

Outside, the Kree are pouring down blaster fire on the Iron Van, but the hull has managed to hold up pretty admirably. Fitting, since it's constructed of gold-titanium alloy and good old-fashioned nerd gumption.

However, there's some reverb throughout the cabin as one of the Iron Van's guns gets blown away. The hull's seal is still intact though.

As The Team fires at the troopers, their numbers lessen, and the automatic defenses take a heavy pounding as well. Looks like this is about as good as it's going to get though, as reinforcements are on their way. If they're going to make their move to disarm the Nega-Bomb, it'll have to be soon!

"I'm patched into your helmet cams, so I should be able to tell you which button to push. Odds are, it won't be the giant red one..."

Wild Rose has posed:
     "You know the minute he says that, it's gonna be the giant red button we have to push, right?" Riana lets out a burst of sardonic laughter, shaking her head inside her helmet. "Any of you take calculus at all?" That question did not bode well.

     Nor did the metallic whirring and clicking that heralded her taking aim at a turret which seemed to have the van squarely in its sights. Or, for that matter, the soft little clack of the trigger as Riana squeezes it very, very gently.

     KA-BOOM!!!

     "Right, who wants bomb duty?"

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Enough to get by. Some EOD experience. Nothing that would prepare me to disarm something like this." As the shots ping off the Iron Van and make a mess of the bodywork, Bucky aims for the gap, shoots it (figuratively) and finally hits the brakes, hauling the yoke hard over. The van skids sideways into the room, takes out a swathe of soldiers and ends up slamming against he far wall. Luckily the impact was softened somewhat by all the soldiers that obligingly got between the Iron Van and the wall. Kind of them, really.

    As the Van comes to a sudden and possibly very final stop, the Winter Soldier hits the release on his harness, reaches over top of himself to free his stowed rifle, kicks the hatch open and emerges with his weapon ready. Lead flies as he starts to shoot (literally), with less than two heartbeats between coming to a stop and emerging as an unstoppable herald of sudden death.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"Oh for fu-" Nick starts to bite out in a swear before he shoves himself back, through the seat to his current turret over to where he goes through the seat to the other turret, grabbing on to those controls to start the process all over again. Eyes narrowing "Ok which bastard di-"

There he is.

Guiding it over to aim, he pulls the trigger once more.

Instant gratification.

The feeling lasts for as long as the vehicle is moving but upon it coming to a stop he gets up. "Grab on to an arm guys and don't let go. We're taking the express route!"

Iron Man has posed:
Meanwhile, back in Space...

Tony can see the steaming hole that The Team made on their way into the Nega-Bomb bunker. But he can also see everything that their forward-facing helmet cams can see. It's a bit disorienting watching three different viewpoints all at the same time, but it's even more disorienting to watch those, AND the cameras attached to all of the gunson the Iron Van.

He manages it somehow, as his superpower is basically ADHD. His other superpower is Highly Durable Liver Tissue.

His voice comes over the suit comms, as clear as if he were standing nearby. Which would be pretty handy, right about now, if he hadn't used up all his power slaughtering a Space Whale.

"Alright, see that big, swirly, wobbly... black hole looking thing."

There's a purplish, wobbling energy sphere inside the structure that fits exactly that description. It's... very hard to miss, what with bein several stories tall and suspended in the air like some sort of Evil Thanksgiving Day Parade Float.

On the ground near it, the computer terminals that control the Nega-Bomb are online, with technicians attempting to go ahead and accelerate the countdown.

Commander Ro-Norr's orders.

"We've just got to find some sort of way to cause it to harmlessly implode on itself, or we're all going to die. Probably pretty painlessly though, maybe we shouldn't have even bothered."

Wild Rose has posed:
     "Oh for fu..." Riana closes her eyes and holds her breath, rather conveniently biting back the mother of all oaths.

     Or at least it was known as such, in certain tales of the winter holiday persuasion.

     Mentally, while Nick took them in towards the bomb through the express route, she ran through a dozen different descriptions of him and his gift. Yet somehow, all of them ended with one name--the name to end all names, a true legend among gamers everywhere.

     "LEEROY JENKINS!"

Winter Soldier has posed:
    By the time Nick offers to get them all there via the express route, Bucky is already halfway there. Well... partway there. Occasionally his progress is impeded by the need to take cover from return fire, or swap out magazines. Turns out for the best, eventually, because he runs out of full metal jacket soon enough and has to switch to APIT. Pretty tracers lance out from his position, setting of miniature explosions, causing quite a bit of mess in the confined area.

    Eventually a concentrated burst is fired towards the technicians to dissuade them from carrying out those orders. Ro-norr may have ordered, but the Winter Soldier is right here. Who are they more afraid of right now?

    "Would photonically shifting it into a different dimension help? Or are we going to be reduced to cutting wires? Don't care how painless it is, today is not a good day for millions of innocents to die."

    Pause

    "On the other hand, if you could persuade that alien commander to come down here, a painful death could be arranged just for him."

    Now who is this Leeroy Jenkins? That's going to bug him all day...

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As the pair run through the crowd, Nick gives a curious look to Riana's chosen battle cry but they continue onwards rapidly towards the described bomb.

"On your left!" Nick warns Bucky as they pass by so as not to startle him, or accidentally run through him in particular. Weirding out your allies in battle when not necessary is probably ill-advised.

Iron Man has posed:
"Ha! Using the Anti-Photonic Destructor Grenades on a Nega-Bomb would be a terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible idea."

Over the comms, Tony has a good chuckle about this suggestion for a couple of seconds, with even Dummy joining in with a heartfelt 'Mwoo-hoo-hoo-woop!'

Then there's silence for a couple of seconds.

The Kree soldiers are putting up their best resistance effort, but not all of them were wearing their helmets when the bunker area suddenly depressurized due to the incoming Iron Van, so a lot of their heads popped like grapes. The rest of them are being rapidly cut down by an incoming Winter Soldier and a strange Conjoined Twin Leroy Jenkins.

There are sounds of blaster fire from outside the bunker, which is still losing its oxygen faster than it can replace it. Fortunately, everyone on The Team is wearing their hardsuits, right?

"Actually... if you timed it exactly right, and aimed it in the center of the Nega-Bomb's churning mass..."

The silence sounds a lot like Tony Stark trying to do Quantum Physics in his head. Dummy is no help.

"You'd have about four seconds to back the Iron Van out of the gaping hole in the bunker before all reality around you distorted to the point that you all looked like stretched out Stretch Armstrongs with heads about a mile long."

"Give or take."

They might not be able to see it from in there, but the Avenjet is coming in hot for a pickup, and will be landing in... maybe eight seconds.

Tic toc, A Team.

Wild Rose has posed:
     Riana rolls her eyes, throwing up her hands in semi-disgust. "Outside, inside, let's make up our minds here, folks! We're worse than my derpy, loveable dog!" A few Kree soldiers soon find out about the art of Tang Soo Do as some well-placed roundhouse kicks and punches to what must be the equivalent of their sternums send them flying--and likely with considerable injuries, to boot.

     For her part, she's scrambling for the van and aforementioned B.A.G. (Big-Ass Gun), clambering into the seat.

     Whirrrr.

     Click.

     A second or two is spared for the rest of the team to get into the van and buckle up.

     KA-BOOM!!!

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Advance, withdraw, advance, withdraw, back in the van..." Bucky grumbles to himself, casually shooting a few Kree soldiers on his way back to the van, who had decided to pretend to be dead. Their acting skills are immediately and terminally improved just as they tried to stealthily get back up and shoot the team in the back. "What is this, Hamburger Hill?"

    Nevertheless, he makes excellent time, stowing the rifle and waiting for the last of the team to embark before pulling the hatch shut by main force... he'd dented it just a tad on the way out. Strapping back in, he grabs the yoke, checks the distance, checks the gap, checks his life insurance... That's going to be tight.

    "Easy run. Ready when you are, big guns."

    Things happen so quickly that a bit of license must be taken with the framing of the shot to make it abundantly clear how events unfolded.

    Close up shot of Riana pressing the firing stud of the turret. Cut to outside shot of grenade launched and leaving the barrel, hurtling towards the event horizon of what is soon to become a highly energetic and reality-warping event.

    Cut to close up shot of Bucky's right hand slamming the Iron Van into reverse, followed by cut-in of his foot stepping down so hard on the accelerator that it creaks.

    Obligatory shot of Bucky's eyes swiveling sideways as if to check behind them, head turning in slow motion.

    Outside shot of the Iron Van's wheels coming to life, gripping the ground and hurtling the vehicle backwards the way it came, slewing around.

    Over-vehicle shot of the gap, the Van turning to line up.

    Outside wide-angle shot of the Avenjet coming down for the pick-up.

    Inside shot of Bucky grinning and giving the bomb the universal salute just as the grenade detonates. Sparks as the van's body scrapes the edges of the hole. A bounce...

    Time resumes normal pace with the Van driving backwards at nigh-suicidal speeds, engine redlining, heading straight for the Avenjet.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Phantasm skids to a halt at the mention of heading back to the van. "Oh for fu-" Spinning around they run back towards the van quickly, not bothering with the door as they hop through the van.

As shooting off the other guns might cause problems with the quick escape out, Nick's cut shot is of him...in the van.

Iron Man has posed:
As the Iron Van speeds out through the hole that it also caused, the Avenjet is already backing up to the very same hole, with the ramp to the airlock already open. It gets in place right before the Iron Van connects, and the van slams into the airlock door as the Avenjet begins to ascend as rapidly as it can.

Thank the Maker (Tony) that there are Magno-Lock Clamps inside the airlock, or they'd dump right back out of the Avenjet as it accelerated.

The external ramp closes, and once there's a proper seal, the door to the airlock opens up, and the Iron Van is ferried through into the main Drop Bay area on its rails.

A bit bumpy, but it all still works.

Up in the Avenjet's main cabin, Tony is lying back, with an Officially-Licensed Avengers Energy Drink in one of his gauntleted hands. This one has She-Hulk on the can, appropriate since cans are mostly what she's known for.

"Heeeeey guys! Hurry up and get in here! You're gonna miss the big explosion!"

"MWOOOOP!"

"What? Oh no, sorry, my bad Dummy... You guys are gonna miss the Big, Not As Eventful Implosion!"

Wild Rose has posed:
     Riana lofts her eyebrows at the energy drink in Tony's hand. "Those can't be all that healthy," she remarks, jostling for her place to wotch the demise of the Kree's plans to destroy this system and die a glorious death. "But then again, neither is my cooking."

     The team was intact, there were energy drinks to be shared, and best of all, this was an implosion they could all walk away from. Like any landing, that made it a good one.

     "Let's get out of here."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    "Nowhere near as bad as the Holland Tunnel on a Friday evening." Bucky comments as he shuts the engine down, hitting the release on his harness once again. Making sure he has all his gear, he opens the hatch and steps out, heading forward to the cockpit area.

    "Good thing I got the excess waiver on that thing. Only a few bucks extra, worth it every time."

    And now he can stand there, watching the viewscreen, observing his handiwork.

    And, co-incidentally, watch Ro-Norr be obliterated. All in all, job well done.

    "I love it when a plan comes together."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick watches the explosion quietly on the screen, the expression on his face exhausted. He gives a nod before moving back to his seat, leaning back to go take another nap.