Red Room

RR69 The Descent

The sharp, biting cold sent waves of fear straight into the heart of Darcy Lewis as the scream of wind blasted passed her ears. Never had she jumped from a plane before, although SHIELD had prepared her as best they could. Her only comfort was knowing that Natasha was down there somewhere beneath the mountain, as well as the fact that she was tandem strapped to Maria Hill, who had no doubt done this dozens of times. The wind was fierce at this altitude as they plummeted from 18,000 feet in a freefall until the parachute caught them. She had thought the freefall was bad, but she was in for a surprise when she discovered that they would be at the mercy of the wind gusts throwing them around with an open chute. How Hill knew when to pull the cord with near zero visibility of the snowy mountain was a mystery to her. And how she knew where to navigate for a landing was equally just as baffling.

She had lost sight of Bobbi Morse and Ksenia Romanoff the second they had jumped, right after her. They were all dressed head to toe in white winter gear; everything blending in with the icy surroundings. Even the chutes were white. After a not so graceful landing at the base of the mountain, Darcy discovered that Bobbi had made it first, and found them soon after they had landed with Ksenia right behind them. They carefully discarded the gear they didn't need and started the trek towards the entrance they were to take into the dangerous mountain looming above them.

"I can't see a damn thing," Darcy whispered, the wind taking the words away from her teammates so that they didn't hear her. She quickly caught up to them, and then cringed when Hill looked back at her with a warning.

"Move slow," Bobbi reminded her after catching the look between Hill and Darcy.

Slow, Darcy, she reminded herself. It wasn't that she could walk right off a cliff, it was because they were warned of several sniper nests being in the area. Even in their camouflage winter gear and blinding snowy gusts, moving too fast would draw attention to themselves. After a hard 30-minute walk and climb up, they were where they needed to be; but there was a problem.

"Three of them, flanking the highwall," Ksenia whispered through her balaclava as they ducked behind a rocky, snow-covered shelf. It wasn't like they could hear them from downwind, but they were so close to where they needed to be that they didn't want to leave anything to chance.

Darcy peered from behind her cover and strained to see what Ksenia had. Just barely, she made out the sniper nests armed with two-man teams.

Bobbi caught her eye, and then pulled down her balaclava as they huddled together. "Okay," Bobbi began, "we should split into three groups and hit them at the same time. Two-man groups tell us what, Darcy?"

"A shooter and a spotter," she replied quickly, recalling this lesson months ago inside the tower...from Natasha.

Bobbi grinned and then looked at Ksenia who was itching to go before continuing. "We need to time this perfectly. If a single shot goes off..."

"...We're screwed," Hill finished.

Bobbi sighed and then pulled her bo staff halves from their positions on her back, twirling them for dramatic effect and feeling more like herself than she had in months. "Then let's do this...boss?" she asked, looking to Hill to make the final plan.

"Ksenia, take the one on the left, at the base of the highwall. Bobbi, Darcy, the one on the right. Eyes on me though, I've got a small climb to get that bitch up the ledge. I need you guys to distract while I get up there, but don't draw attention to yourselves either. When my guys go down, tidy up yours."

The plan went off without a hitch and all three snipers' nests were taken out in a matter of minutes. They met up at the base of the highwall, and entered the mountain unseen, shedding their winter clothing right inside and hiding it within a vent right inside. Now in their signature black, they could blend into the shadows infecting the depths of the mountain.