Battlefield ★ Bucky Barnes

XXXVII. Don't Hold Back

"Copy that," Skye replied.

Trip stopped and looked at Skye before looking at Connie, pure confusion on his face. He looked Connie up and down, much to her disapproval, and looked back at Skye. "What the hell?"

"Is something wrong?" Connie asked him, slight annoyance in her tone.

"For a minute I just thought she was you and you were her, but nevermind," Trip answered her.

"Not only do we share a similar personality, but we also share a resemblance," Connie chuckled dryly. "How hilarious."

"Yeah, you two could be sisters in some strange, other worldly dimension," Trip joked.

Skye snorted. "No wonder Phil likes us both so much."

"Phil seriously has some attachment issues," Connie added with a quiet laugh.

"He also has issues with his team members not paying attention to his orders, so I suggest both of you heading to the briefing room before you have to deal with an annoyed Phil Coulson," Trip told the two of them before taking off for the briefing room.

Connie only rolled her eyes at him and followed after him, Skye following shortly after. It wasn't that she didn't necessarily like Agent Trip, but he hadn't exactly made the greatest first impression on her. Sure, he seemed like a nice person, but it would take a little bit for Connie to warm up to him, not that she really cared whether or not that would happen. She doubted she would even be around long enough for it to happen.

Connie soon arrived in the briefing room with Trip and Skye, attracting the attention of those inside, including Steve. She moved to stand at his side, and she delivered a small smile his way before turning her attention to Phil, who was now pleased to have his entire team—and Steve and Connie—with him.

"Right, now that everyone's here, let's get started," Phil chimed, clapping his hands together happily. "I've separated the entire ground team into three separate teams; Jemma and Skye will remain on board the Bus working on assisting us remotely, Agent Trip and Agent Fitz will take one wing, Agent May and Agent Jones will take another, and I'll be with Captain Rogers."

Connie pressed her lips into a tight line to prevent herself from laughing out loud. Phil's obsession with Steve was becoming too much, but he could exactly blame him at the moment. It had been two years since he'd been able to see the Captain, so she was going to let him enjoy himself rather than speaking up about her peculiar necessity to be Steve's mission partner. Personally, she didn't care who her partner was; all she cared about was bringing Bucky back.

"Why exactly am I on the ground team, sir?" Fitz asked Coulson.

"Because you're the only one on the ground team besides Connie capable of handling complex technology, but she'll be in the fight, so if Skye or Jemma need you to tamper with or alter anything they can't do remotely from the plane, I'm counting on you to do it," Phil explained to him.

"Copy that."

"Skye, brief us on the layout of the base," Phil instructed her.

Skye stepped forward and began tapping away on the interactive table in the middle of the room, and before long a three-dimensional, holographic blueprint of the base was lighting up the room. Connie studied it intently, as did the rest of the team.

"The base has three stories—a main level, a secondary level, and a level below the surface of the Earth," Skye informed the team. "I'm theorizing that they're keeping Barnes below the surface, as it is the most difficult to reach and doesn't require a lot of personnel security."

"So, May and I will take that level," Connie spoke up before Skye could continue.

"And what if he isn't there?" May replied.

"She's right," Skye spoke again. "I haven't taken the other levels out of the question just yet. The top level of the facility appears to hold several small rooms or containment chambers, which could also be used to hold Barnes. My data also tells me that human activity at the facility has grown substantially within the last several hours. I'm guessing other Hydra personnel are heading in to either keep watch on Barnes or provide extra security. I'm sure they know we're coming, or at least they know someone's coming."

"The facility has security cameras inside and around the perimeter outside, right?" Steve asked her. "Is there any way for you to tell us what's going on inside and outside of the facility to make things less complicated for our arrival?"

"Well, I've been working on hacking into the surveillance system so I could do just that, but this Hydra facility's older than most, so the surveillance equipment is old as well. Because of that, it'll take a little bit longer for me to get into surveillance than it normally would, but I'll have an image up for everyone by the time we land tomorrow morning," Skye told him.

"Great," Steve said with a nod.

"Hydra's taken so much from so many people," Phil began. "That's a problem, and it's about time we start working on correcting that problem. This world won't be safe until Hydra is a thing of the past, and it's our job to help make that happen. Hydra needs to be destroyed once and for all, and this mission right here is only the first step."

"So," Connie said with a smirk on her face. "What do you want us to do, Director?"

"That's simple. . .don't hold back."