by Natalya Romanov » Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:21 am
Natalya let herself into the Danger Room, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She was dressed in an X-Man's uniform.
"Computer, Load Romanov Arctic Mission SHIELD 7."
Per user designation, authorization code is required to load this mission.
This made her pause. Which, she reflected, was what it was supposed to do. "Voice authorization Natalya Romanov, Director of Security."
Acknowledged. Loading.
The program loaded, putting her in the back of a plane with two full SHIELD squads. It put an overlay on her uniform that gave it SHIELD colors and insignia. Unlike the SHIELD squads though, she was not wearing any additional cold weather protection. Without hesitation, she took a leap from the back of the plane, rocketing downward through the winds and the snow with the squads close behind her. She finally opened her parachute, wincing at the sudden jerk of deceleration. She drifted to the ground and looked around for her teams. The wind was blowing snow like crazy, visibility was non-existent. She reached for her radio and then remembered. They were on radio silence, this was AIM they were dealing with and they'd be scanning the frequencies. She got her bearings and started making for the entrance point. That was when the gunfire started to either side of her, but not directed at her. It was abruptly silenced and she was left alone again in the vast whirling whiteness. She ran towards what she felt was where the nearest gunfire had been, dragging ice along with her. In her haste, she literally stumbled over one of the bodies of her team. He'd been killed by some kind of animal, she guessed, and the memory made her pull back. It didn't take her long to find the others.
How she felt the first one coming, she wasn't sure, but she threw up the ice in a wall as some large and exceptionally fast collided with it, howling in pain as the ice wall suddenly sprouted spikes. Other howls answered it and she swore. The monster was huge and shaggy with massive claws and powerful arms and legs. She pulled the ice out of it and flexed the wall to knock it aside, pushing the ice up under her to give her some height to work from. Something came sailing out of the darkness and knocked her off her perch. She had enough presence of mind to use the ice to catch herself before she had a very bad impact. Her assailant was gone almost as soon as he arrived. She could hear growling just out of sight... or was it just the wind? She swore at herself again and a hole opened in the ice and she sank into it, closing it over her head. When the creature came back to look for her, he found Natalya waiting and encased in a huge ice exo-suit. It leaped for her exposed head, but she grabbed it with one of the construct's massive arms, taking a brief moment to look it in the eye before she crushed it. She spent the next eternity, or it seemed like it, hunting down and exterminating the creatures one-by-one before advancing on the base... only to find, there was no base there. She sighed as the program ended, the scenario having run it's course. It was never any different and she wasn't entirely why she put herself through this or any of the others. Maybe because I'm the only one who knows exactly what happened.
The program converted into a standard Arctic landscape and her uniform went back to normal as she sat down. She sighed and watched the sun rise, cold comfort in this part of the world, but at least enough to make her smile for a change.
((Open))