3745/Old Secrets

Old Secrets
Date of Scene:	26 January 2018
Location:	Siberia
Synopsis:	Black Widow and Captain America chase down a lead on an old Hydra base in Siberia. They discover a former experiment (Svetlana) still in cryogenic suspension and bring her back to base for thawing.
Cast of Characters:	Black Widow (Romanoff), Captain America, Svetlana Kuznetsov

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Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Siberia. Winter.
    To say it's cold would be an understatement. Thus far, there has been a whole lot of nothing for them to see as the Quinjet cruised through the sky. The permissions to be there had been obtained through Natasha directly. A few favors called in from old allies and they were given the authorization to be in Russian airspace without getting shot down. She was seated at the pilot's controls. They had dropped altitude just moments ago, bringing them to just a few hundred feet above the ground. They were skimming along at a good clip as she checked the latitude and longitude.
    The Hydra base was abandoned according to the records they had obtained through the stolan files SHIELD had been able to obtain. There had been minimal power, same as several other sites. They had been a lower priority target than the active bases which SHIELD had raided. Several had been checked thus far. All had been abandoned long ago with only the most minor of systems still active. It was likely the same with this base but with Hydra, they could never be sure without going inside and checking.
    "Thirty seconds to target." The craft began to slow in preparation for a verticle landing once they reached their destination.

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers is enjoying the ride. The Quinjet is fairly cool, to be honest, and he sits with his feet up on the console, looking over as Nat pilots. His shield is next to him, and he's in something akin to the uniform worn in Winter Soldier. "So..." he says. "Just so that I get this straight. My first field mission in a while and you thought I know what would make Cap happy, a trip to the coldest place on the planet. Cause if there's one thing in his life he hasn't seen enough of, it's ice and snow. Maybe after this we can fly out into space and see if we can find Hoth." He pauses before adding, "That's right...I'm catching up on movies I've missed. Made it to Empire Strikes Back."

He smiles though and gets up, adjusting his mask and pulling down his goggles. Why? Because in temperatures this cold your eye lashes can freeze and that, my friends, is not fun. "You do realize that the slang term for this mission is Operation Campbell's Soup since we have to open up this tin can..."

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
    The base is *truly* in the middle of nowhere. Without accurate coordinates or a scan of power signatures, the entrance would be easy to fly over without even noticing. Even with all the correct information it's hard to find a landing site. Especially after 60+ years.

    There's a small flat spot on the leeward side of an ice ridge, big enough for a medium-sized helicopter. Plenty of room for a Quinjet to touch down. And as the bird descends, they can see an overhang of the ice ridge that wasn't visible from directly above. An overhang the obscures a large, metal door.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    Snow swirls up into the air as the craft lands atop that spot. The engines are shut down to minimal power. They are not shut off. No reason to chance them freezing up before they get back. Then where would they be?
    Stepping toward the rear, Natasha breaks out her own winter gear. Here, even her insulated costume wouldn't be enough to keep her warm. She needs something for the trip indoors, particularly if the interior has no heat. The pants and jacket are slipped on over her costume although she takes a moment to remove her Glocks and set them aside. Once suitably covered, she puts the Glocks into her pcokets on either side. Gloves are next. Then the goggles go into place and she pulls up the hood of the jacket.
    "If you want, you can stay here and I'll go inside by myself. Wouldn't want you to fall on the ice and break a hip."
    With that she walks to the rear of the craft and pushes the button to lower the ramp. Cold air swirls into the confined space.

Captain America has posed:
He hops out as well, shield in his hand, and he holds it up against any wind or snow, as best he can, picking the direction it -most- seems to be coming from. "No, someone had to help you in case the instructions are all in Russian. You know how you are with languages," he says with a chuckle and as he eyes the entrance to the door, the sort of cave-like look, the break in the ice, he looks to Nat. "Is it me, or does that actually look hungry? Like it's going to eat us...." he says and as he starts to walk there's a little bit of a crunch of his boots in the ice and snow but they're soled properly for this kind of weather.

Still, he walks forward but makes sure to be ready, taking a flashlight out from his belt before looking in, hopefully finding a door or some sort of console. If he needs to use his shield to chip away at any ice he will, though he imagines Natasha will be more eager to burn it away if it covers a console so that big and strong over there doesn's actually break anything. "You realize after this I'm pretty sure even my kids are going to be born cold..."

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
    It's a pair of steel doors, meant for loading and passing through cargo of some kind. There's a smaller, pedestrian doorway off to one side. All look to be quite solid and out of use for some time. As they walk, the ground feels more solid even beneath the ice if that's possible. Concrete landing pad.

    There is a small sign on one of the big doors that reads, in Russian, the equivalent to 'No Tresspassing'. Apparently there's been a problem with tourists. The big doors as well as the smaller door all have simple, horizontal bar handles that probably once turned readily to open them. And big locks beneath.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    "You are whining like an old grandma. Is that what I should call you from now on? Grammy?" Her voice is muffled thanks to the hood bundled up around her face but that doesn't keep the sarcasm from being heard loud and clear. As they reach the doors, she looks at them closely, a frown hidden behind those layers of clothing. The smaller door is the better bet so she goes to examine the lock. A moment later, she is hunkered down and holding out a small heating unit up by the lock to get any ice out of it first. But she can't move the device away or the melted water within will just freeze again. "Hold this right here. Don't move it please," she asks her companion.
    From somewhere in her jacket come a pair of lockpicks. She inserts them into the lock and leans her head forward, closing her eyes as she works the tumblers expertly. "Been a while since I saw this kind of locks. These are from our days," she admits as she gets that sastifying click and gives a nod to him. "We're good. Age before beauty." She motions to the door.

Captain America has posed:
"I'd prefer not," he says dryly to the question on whether or not he should be called Grammy. Still, he steps to the side to let Natasha do her thing. His gaze on the door, putting his shield on his back to help hold the heating unit. "Speaking of Star Wars by the way, you realize with the fur lining on that coat...you look like an Ewok," he says with a grin as she's all hunkered down and working on the lock but then he can hear the click on what she's been doing, and he looks to the door, handing back the heating unit. "Alright....here we go..."

And making his way tot he door he works on opening it. PUlling it open, turning any wheel or handle, though likely being opened for the first time in decades, there is assuredly the sound of the ice chipping from the edges and falling to both snow and metal. There's likely the scrape of metal, and the rubbing of hinges on the door. As he hears the loud noise echo into the facility, he takes his shield from his back and places it on his arm before adding, "Nothing like the element of surprise. Let's go...."

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
    All three doors open up into a huge, man made tunnel. The floor is concrete and there is easily enough room to drive tanks in two abreast. Perhaps curiously, the emergency lighting is flickering. Just a yellow bulb every twenty meters or so along the walls. A result of the door opening, perhaps?

    The dim lights go a long way back, reaching deeply under the ice ridge. They can see a couple of narrower corridors branching off on either side. And the air is warmer inside as well. Still cold enough to see one's breath, but not cold enough to freeze the eyelashes.

    At the end of the main hallway is another double-wide door with lighting shining under it.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    "What fun would it be if the door didn't announce us to the entire Hydra cell waiting just inside?" Natasha mutters as she follows Cap into the door. The fact there is emergency lighting is a surprise. How it has power after who knew how long was something to consider. It made her more concerned there might be someone inside. Although the dust they were stepping into seemed to argue against. Stil, better safe than sorry. She hadn't lived this long by not being paranoid.
    Opening the snaps holding the hood closed over her face, she slips up her goggles to her forehead. Then she draws a Glock from her pocket, holding it in her left hand as she motions to the lights coming from under the door.
    She looks at Cap and arches a brow before moving to the doorway and placing her right hand on the handle. She mouths the words. Three. Two. One.
    She opens the door quickly so that, should there be someone within, the duo might get the element of surprise.

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers makes his way along, and as they get to the door he nods his head as he slides to the other side, standing out of the way, at least for a moment. As Nat starts to count he tries...well it's a typical comic scene. On 3? 1 2 3 then go? He's trying to clarify but it doesn't matter as that hanlde is turned and Cap steps in quickly shield up, gaze moving around as he clears the room. It's a fairly nifty sort of little somersault he does in, a roll to a crouched position, shield held defensively, gaze moving left then right, first clenched behind the shield as he prepares to launch at anyone or anything that deamnds such attention.

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
    Beyond the door is a large, circular room. It looks like a scene from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein advanced half a century. The emergency lights are higher density in this room, now. There are large, cylindrical pods equally spaced about the room. Each one is burnished metal, roughly two meters in diameter and running all the way to the eight meter ceiling. These draw immediate attention. In the center of the room is a bank of control panels with buttons and dials and toggles. Four of the five pods are quiet. The fifth is humming softly. There are lights flickering on the panel.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    Natasha is a moment behind Cap. He should have drawn fire if there was any so she looks around the doorframe for a quick scan of he room. No one. She steps more fully into the room and glances around, brow furrowing slightly. Walking toward the panel, she pauses to wipe away some of the dust covering the controls and writing. It's all in Russian, as expected. "Power levels, heat which is why this place isn't a complete freezer and only a chiller, pumps..." She pauses and lets out a low whistle of appreciation. "Cryogenic fluid temperature."
    She glances to each of the five pods in turn, ending on the one that is function. "Only one still operational."

Captain America has posed:
Steve Rogers huhs. "Can't say I was expecting this," he says quietly. He's seen them before though, places like this. He stands up, and walks over towards the one working pod, though briefly he does look inside the others. He checks for signs of...well...anything in there of note, before he looks at the one still working. Rubbing his hand over the outer glass, it liekly doesn't do any good and doesn't reveal anything inside because, well, that's where all the cold is. "I can't really see if there's anything in there. Should we open it?" Poor Steve...naive enough to still think that there has to be a some-one in there...forgetting that with the evil and darkness of past experiements it could be some-thing. "At least if we have to run out of here it's a straight line..."

Captain America has posed:
It is kind of cute that he reminds Natasha how to get out of here, as if she couldn't tell you in 3 or 4 different systems of measurement exactly how many steps or what the distance is back to the exit.

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
There ARE, actually, multiple doors leaving this central room. Most would lead deeper into the compound, of course. And in spite of all the labels referring to cryo fluid and pumps, the room is becoming fairly warm. At least relative to the Siberian winter outside. It only takes a cursory look to figure out how to raise the outer shell of the active pod.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    "Let's see if we can clear that up a bit," Natasha says as she touches a slide control on the pod. It should allow the glass to be cleared enough to see within. Once she opens that outer shielding. She flips the lever to do so.

Svetlana Kuznetsov has posed:
    The mechanism protests, some initial popping sounds as the thing breaks loose. Once it's moving, the outer shell slides smoothly into the ceiling to expose its contents. Cold gas billows out immediately, and there's a smaller diameter glass tube standing vertically inside. It looks like a coffin, if only because there is person inside. She looks like a teenager, and she looks to be either asleep or dead.

Captain America has posed:
"Nat?" He looks at the device, stepping back from the glass a moment and then looking inside, into the pod and he says, "I think we're going to need your jacket. And for you to prep the med bay on the Quinjet. It's a girl...." he says, looking to the tube, tapping it to see if there's any sound or hint of liquid. "Huh....how long has she been in here I wonder," he says and he waits, pondering. "Do you want to make sure the exit's clear and I'll make a dash to the jet so we can hook her up? Or should we....this isn't exactly my forte. Usually this is the spot where the Prince kisses the Princess but I'm not sure that's the scientific fix for something like this."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I don't know enough to be able to open that thing. We can call in a team to come investigate here. Course, with the failure of the others, not sure how much time she might have in there." Natasha checks a few of the controls. "It looks like it is portable. A few switches and it could be unplugged then moved to a different location? Your call." She looks to Steve, waiting for him to decide.
    When he nods, she flicks a few swtiches and pushes a button. "Alright. Just uplug anything holding it in place and we should be good to go. We'll head for the closest SHIELD base and let the scientists get involved here. Put in a call to Fury. Unless you thinking Avengers are a better choice. Not sure how many science types we have there right now."

Captain America has posed:
"That's probably what the manual says...just unplug everything," he says, agreeing to Nat's suggestion but being honest, there really aren't a lot, not if you don't want to end up staying here hoping that opening the door didn't trigger some sort of notification or alarm or that there aren't who knows how many people and troops already on the way here thanks to their entry. So yeah, he goes about, pulling off some ohses and using his strength to loosen a bolt or two before unscrewing whater was attached and then lifting up the case, bending at the knees and sliding it into his arms to then start to carry out, he nods, "Let's get to the jet."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
    Bundling back up, Natasha takes the lead on the way out. At the door, she pushes the button hidden in her glove that opens that ramp on the Quinjet. It is down by the time they reach it, allowing them to enter. The ramp shuts quickly once they are inside, shutting out the cold weather. It's a few moments to get the unit secured so it wouldn't move around during the flight.
    "What makes me nervous is why would Hydra abandon an asset?" she muses as she looks at the figure in the pod. A brief frown then she moves to the pilot's seat.
    Moment's later, they are airborne as she radios in the information about the base needing to be further investigated by SHIELD personnel while they delivered their cargo to a facility that should be able to help.