Chapter Text
The mines of Misery were buzzing with excitement. They had just discovered an enormous vein rich with element zero, eezo as it was commonly nicknamed, and was the reason Cerberus had created the "mining colony" here. "This is incredible," Director Christopher Moore whispered in awe as he stared at the glowing holographic readout, showing a vein 10km long and 25km deep. "This might be one of the largest eezo deposits in known space, Dr. Lawson." Moore walked across the large mining command center, holographic displays showing the various readouts about the newly discovered vein of eezo: purity, composition, estimates of time required for each section, and more.
The holocomm showed a middle aged man wearing a lab coat, Dr. Henry Lawson, Cerberus' head researcher and lead economic advisor to the unknown head of Cerberus. Lawson studied the transmitted reports one final time before speaking, "Do you believe the estimates for extraction are correct? 2 months for initial harvesting?" Lawson's stare, even through the holographic camera, was as merciless as a wolf looking at their dinner.
Moore swallowed hard before responding, knowing his answer would determine if the Cerberus leader would be willing to be merciful if they missed their deadline. "I think 2 and a half months is a realistic estimate for the first shipments of eezo to be ready for export to refineries." Moore looked up to see Lawson's response, but the man was completely unreadable.
"Director Moore, that should be…" Lawson began, as Moore's hands began trembling, "… satisfactory." Lawson finished, and Moore breathed a massive sigh of relief and began reviewing the work crew assignments as Lawson's face winked out on the holocomm.
"Good god, that man is terrifying," muttered Moore under his breath, before grabbing the master keycard and swiping it to login to his terminal. Just as he did, the base was rocked by a small tremor, nothing new for the mining base. Moore ignored the tremor, continuing on with reviewing the various timelines, materials needed, and quotas to make the estimate he had just given Lawson. Damn these Cerberus bastards, Moore thought as he reached for his glass of water, before hearing a high pitched hum from the glass. What… the hell?
Suddenly the glass exploded, sending glass shards flying everywhere. The windows in the office began erupting, transparent aluminum shards spraying in every direction, Moore getting scratched several times by the flying debris. Moore ran out of the command center as the displays detonated in a shower of sparks and bursting metal. What Moore emerged to was an apocalyptic scene; buildings were shattering around him, sinking into the ground, with huge spikes of green-grey rock bursting from the ground. As Moore began sprinting for one of the few relatively unscathed buildings, a man in Cerberus armor marked with a giant blue star spray painted across it ran to him, screaming, "Get to the seismic shelter!". Giant blasts of blue flame began jetting from the fissures that had opened up around the base. Moore had almost reached the still standing building, as a geyser of blue flame burst out in front of him, sending him flying into a stone pillar, and into darkness.
*****
- 33 Hours Earlier
The portal began to crackle with unknown blue energy before a figure burst through the event horizon. Daisy Johnson tried to get her bearings as she crashed down into what appeared to be a cave of translucent cerulean rock, over shoulder tac bag and her bug out duffel smashing to the ground. Where the fuck am I? Daisy pulled the tablet from her vest, activating the optical scanner and analyzing her surroundings. Okay, greenschist, cobalt, and something that Jemma labeled Neutronium. Now, I just wish someone smart could tell me what the hell any of that means… Daisy returned the tablet to its sheath, before slowly moving forward towards what sounded like a jackhammer. Using her powers to silence her footsteps, she approached the cacophony, seeing a pair of two story mech-suits hammering at the rock. Attempting to duck behind a rock formation, Daisy suddenly felt an energy field surrounding her, ceasing her her movement in an instant. "Identify yourself!" came a shout from behind her. Well, shit.
"Agent Ji-yi Aygin, here for a security inspection, soldier. So far, I'm not impressed!" Daisy barked back, bringing all the authority she could muster to bear considering she was temporarily trapped, but unearned authority was something she could fake better than most. Better wait and see what's the deal with these guys. No idea how my powers will interact with this STUFF. The energy field released as the man behind her clasped a pair of handcuffs on Daisy. She looked down at the manacles on her wrists, seeing transparent orange forms surrounding her wrists. Okay, this seems like Coulson's shield but more confiny-er. Is that a word? Focus! She looked up at the burned man, "I need to speak with your supervisor now, soldier," she continued as she examined his rank insignia, appearing to be ranked as a lieutenant. The soldier grabbed her roughly and began dragging her towards a small building about 40 meters from the mining mechs.
Daisy and the scarred soldier entered the security shack, weapons covering one wall, and what looked like security monitors and terminals covering the other, with a drab interrogation table in the center of the room. The security officer shoved her in one of the four chairs at the table, before walking over to the terminals. Pressing a button, the lieutenant barked, "Command, we have an unknown at dig site PB-1, claims to be security inspector, name Ji-yi Aygin, I require a counter intel agent ASAP for interrogation. Will begin initial interrogation until arrival." Hearing an acknowledgement, Daisy got into her reverse interrogation mindset, before she screwed a very Jemma Simmons "innocent as a lamb" smile on her face. The soldier sat across from her, and Daisy finally goy a better look at her would be captor and interrogator. The man, even with horrific burn scarring, was ruggedly handsome, with black hair and brown eyes. While his voice was trying to be firm and commanding, Daisy could tell this was something that he was unused to. "So 'Agent Aygin', according to our head of security, there was no scheduled inspection for the next 12 months."
"Well, Lieutenant, a surprise inspection is just that, a surprise. And frankly my clearance wouldn't allow you to see that I have a file without me granting your permission. You know how the organization works."
"True enough, why now then, Agent Aygin? Surely there have been more sensitive times that would require Cerberus to need inspectors."
Cerberus, huh? Good to know. "Cerberus Special Projects Security Unit; we come in on projects that are of the utmost priority to command. I don't question what makes you guys so special. If you let me see your computer, I can give you access to my file." Can't hurt to take the gamble.
"Hmm… alright, limited access. Let's see what your file says," the lieutenant said as he eyed her, some of the suspicion dissipating as a slight grin appeared. The soldier walked over, deactivating the hard light restraints. Before sitting down, he passed her a small armband, Daisy put it around her wrist, trying to keep the surprise off her face as it activated. Okay, hard light computers, gonna have to get used to that. Daisy opened up a terminal in the background of the tool's system, trying to quickly analyze the file system. Okay, so we've got a more advanced version of C# and a Python hybrid. Daisy began, as she slaved her tablet to the hard light computer. Alright, hopefully this exploit will work on more advanced file systems.
"One second, I have to do some quick redactions, Lieutenant. If it makes you feel any better, so far, you were the only one to notice me on four infiltrations, so I will be noting that in my report," Daisy replied with a wry smile, seeing the soldier's nerves settling slightly. She checked the date and did a quick automated rewrite on one of her stored cover IDs, inserting redactions for the equivalent US military rank. She pulled up the files before asking, "Do you have a larger screen I can show this on?" The Lieutenant gestured to his right, towards a blank wall. and Daisy flicked the file window towards the wall. It showed Agent Ji-yi Aygin, security audit agent and Cerberus specialist, as her preliminary ID. As the soldier examined the file on screen, Daisy subtly began activating a trojan horse to push to all the devices on site, trying to get backdoor database access. She prepared a worm for remote activation if she wanted, and as the lieutenant began to finish up, she heard the door behind her open and she closed the hard light computer. "The head of security, I presume?"
"You'd be correct. And I've never heard of snap inspections in Cerberus. So who are you really?" the man who sat across from her asked, staring at her like a wolf with a fresh kill. Oh, I don't like that look at all. The agent across from her was shorter by a significant margin than the lieutenant that had restrained her, but his dark green eyes contained none of the light or humor of the junior Cerberus officer. It was as if his mere presence darkened the room. Whitehall, Malick, eat your heart out.
"Well, I would say that means you are not as well informed as you'd like to believe, Captain Harker," Daisy replied coldly, looking at her shoes as if bored by the conversation, "My name is Agent Ji-yi Aygin, Jai to my friends. At least that's the only name I've been authorized to give to you by Cerberus Command. And we're definitely not friends." Daisy fixed him with a hard stare, as if his very presence was contemptible. Not that hard to fake honestly…
"Here's the problem, Agent. I am friends with Agent Aygin, and well, you aren't HIM." Oh shit. Jig's up. "So, until I get confirmation from Cerberus Command that you were here operating under another agent’s ID for a surprise inspection, your restraints will continue and you will be confined to the brig. Lieutenant, escort our guest there immediately," Harker responded, a sneer barely contained on his face. Moving before the junior security officer could move to grab her, Daisy spun out of the seat in a blur, enhanced by the Centipede serum, pulling the Lieutenant's pistol from his holster, restraining him with peerless efficiency, his arm behind his back.
"You don't mind if I pass on that, right? Jeez, so much for intra-agency cooperation…" Daisy groused before throwing the dazed lieutenant into the table, aiming his pistol, and shooting the lights out. Damn, I like the power on this thing. Using her powers to silence her footsteps in the confusion, she sped out of the security shack. Okay, probably hostile. Daisy contemplated where to next before remembering something she had tried in training a handful of times. Well, if it's ever going to work, now is NOT the place to test it. Daisy ran to the corner of the wall, avoiding the view of the mechs, before finding a corner of cerulean rock. Harker and a team of 5 armored figures approached the wall, what looked like longarms at the ready. She popped the only remaining grapnel from the mission that had brought her here and shot to the ceiling, mere centimeters from the roof. They scanned over the area, flashlights criss-crossing over the walls, but crucially not the ceiling. Harker grimaced before signaling the soldiers to retreat, with Daisy breathing a sigh of relief. She quickly moved to carve a small hidey hole with her powers, big enough to stretch out in, before climbing in to wait it out.
- 27 Hours
Daisy was roused from dozing by a beep… from somewhere. The tablet wasn't beeping. Oh, right. This holo thing. She looked at her wrist and suddenly the screen popped up again, still displaying her fake Cerberus agent file. Daisy finally noticed the date; 160 years from where I started, nothing new there. Daisy minimized it before seeing what the notification was, a small frown at the name. The hard light computer showed her trojan having gained basic access to the local database, giving her free reign to the on site codex available. Whoever the hell Cerberus was. Immediately upon reviewing the first few entries about the mission of Cerberus and their organizational structure, Daisy began to feel an all too familiar sick feeling. This feels like Hydra; cells upon cells, earmarks for projects that don't 'exist'… Let's see about digging a little deeper. Daisy reviewed the credentials that she had managed to get in her initial trojan sweep. Private Lucas, Ensign Gregory, Assistant Dir. Moore… that's the one! She quickly logged in with Norris' credentials and began crafting a private message to the senior leadership, before beginning to code a more refined trojan horse.
After about 3 hours, the trojan was finished and Daisy grinned as she sent the message, waiting to see who was dumb enough to open it. She also followed up with another email to Asst. Director Moore, trying to get the director to log into the classified codex.
Nervously balancing a pen lengthwise on her upper lip while she waited, Daisy stopped after about 2 minutes and pulled up this universe's version of the internet, trying to research as much as possible, a small grin flashing as she achieved easy access. Keyword: "Cerberus"; let's see what we can find about THIS Greek mythology inspired evil organization. The holodisplay showed articles showing Cerberus suspected involvement in funding human experimentation scandals, in assassination attempts against political candidates running against a party named Terra Firma, and suspected of supplying weapons to a group called Homo Extremis. Everything she read… Great, I'm in a space Nazi base. It always comes back to the FUCKING Nazis.
What was obvious is most of the aliens she was aware of from her galaxy — the Kree, the Skrulls, Asgardians, Chitauri, Kronans, Chronicoms, Centaurians — they appeared to be either either extinct (Asgardians and the Chitauri) or absorbed into bigger powers, these Council races she kept reading about. These races all seem to be contradictions but to be fair, nothing new about that. The Asari, the diplomats for this council, but also supplying the Council's special forces with specialized commandos. The Turians, providing both the navy and army for this Council, spiritual in belief and honor focused on their warfare, but still capable of holding a grudge with humanity from their first contact with each other. The Salarians were the scientists of the Council but somehow also the intelligence network for them as well. And like most spies, they SUCK with the whole morality thing. The Salarians had some of best of new SHIELD's triumphs and worst of both old AND new SHIELD's sins on their blood soaked resume, if the rumors she was reading were true. What Daisy was sure of was that humans were new players on the galactic stage, her grimace as she reviewed the galactic history since her time period. God… I was really hoping it was just a time jump, parallel dimensions suck so much.
Daisy looked over an additional folder tucked away in the personnel section that she had almost missed, labeled "Motivation." Daisy frowned; the file appeared to contain dossiers on what was mostly civilians, some military personnel, but highly focused on routines and their places of work. Daisy looked over the names before realizing. Oh, heavens, this is the families and loved ones of base personnel. It's to keep them in line.
Daisy saw a notification pop up, confirming she now had access to the restricted section of the database. "Paramilitary, sketchy government backing maybe-ish, and a supremacist view point, almost EXACTLY like Hydra… Well, time to show them what I do to Hydra."
- 24 Hours Earlier
The vibration amplifiers were in place, but Daisy quickly realized that there were not enough to disrupt the mining operations. Prior to placing the last field modified amplifier, she tested it with a quick burst of her powers; the end of the amplifier that attached to the neutronium or as they people here called it, element zero, flashed for a moment as a powerful electric current burst through it. Perfect; looks like those field engineering lessons from Mack paid off. She attached the amplifier to the wall, before finding the vein of titanium she carved a hideaway in the wall. She was ready to begin raiding stores, and talk to the staff who were part of Cerberus' "motivation" program. Yeah, definitely feeling like Hydra. Let's see what we can do about that.
- 4 Hours Earlier
The Lieutenant walked into the guards barracks feeling like he had been hit by a bus. The search for the intruder had been grueling, and Harker had punished him for the escape by putting him on the next shift after having just finished a double. That rat bastard is a goddamn slavedriver. The lieutenant was about to sit on his bunk and pull off his helmet, when he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched, but the barracks appeared empty. The lieutenant looked up at the empty doorway, and saw the smallest hint of movement. "What do you want, 'Agent Aygin'? Cause I doubt you're here for fun." The lieutenant made sure to emphasize "agent" with airquotes as he pulled his NEW sidearm.
Aygin walked into the doorway, hands raised. "Whoa, L.T., just here to talk." She emphasized the fact, by gently lowering one hand and tossing the sidearm she had stolen from him. "So how long have you been undercover?"
Shit. "What are you talking about?" he probed, attempting to fix a quizzical look on his face. His grip near imperceptibly tightened on his still holstered sidearm. Somehow, she noticed the movement and stopped in her tracks. Goddamn, who is this woman?
Noticing his apprehension, Aygin put her hands behind her head, and turned so her right side was facing the scarred officer, "Front pocket. Not surprised you guys still use paper for some things."
Moving as cautious as a cat, the lieutenant approached the woman in the strange combat suit, and reached into the vest pocket she indicated. He pulled out a personnel file, one more full than normal. That's my personnel file. "Why do you have my personnel file, Aygin? And why do you think I'm undercover?" he inquired, eying her suspiciously.
"Call me Skye, and call it playing a hunch. Mind letting me sit?" the woman motioned with her eyes towards one of the empty bunks, hands still over her head. The man nodded tightly, and Skye moved with the tiniest movements, until finally sitting on the bunk. "So... like I said, playing a hunch." she replied as she motioned for him to open the file. Opening the file, he was greeted with a list of personnel, all from Misery. Looking at her confused, Skye answered the question already brewing in his head, "Well, when I accessed the base's database..."
"Wait, you got access to the base database?! How did you do that?" the man responded, his mask of indifference gone as he realized the intelligence goldmine Skye had access to. I need to convince her to work with me. "Why shouldn't I take you to Harker right now?"
Skye responded by looking at him with a look that said Are you serious?, "Well, even if you were going to, you would have done it by now." She's got me dead to rights and she knows it. "And second, if you'll turn the page I think I can give you your answer." Turning the page, it showed a photo of an older couple, sitting in a park with the Toronto skyline in the background. Ah, the "motivation" files on "me".
"Are you gonna blackmail me like Cerberus did... Skye?" he interrogated as he looked her over, trying to get a measure of her.
"Well, even if I wanted to... I would have a hard time. The people that Cerberus are trying to blackmail you with don't exist."
His jaw dropped. How does she know that? Those covers were supposed to be bulletproof. "What do you mean?"
Skye gave her best shit eating grin, "Judging by your reaction, you probably thought those cover IDs for Major and Chief Dale were unbreakable to any but ten people in the galaxy, and I'd say they were; I'm the 11th." Seeing the apparent shock on the man's face, she held up a hand, "Do you want me to explain how I figured you out, Capt. Alenko?" Damn, she knows everything, doesn't she? Alenko nodded solemnly, suddenly feeling incredibly vulnerable. "So when I came across the list of personnel that Cerberus was threatening, I began looking at ways of helping them and their families get under cover. Then I came across your profile, Lieutenant Scott Carter."
Alenko looked at her suspiciously as he touched a hand to his chestplate, activating a hidden recorder, "And you found what, exactly?" His tone cautious, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Well, Captain, when I looked through your files, I found your Motivation file and something about it, …bothered me. The surveillance photos, holograms or whatever people use were too… clean. The shots were too perfect so I decided to do a little more digging," Skye said as she pulled up a projection on a nearby wall of the two agents who had been assigned to act as "Lieutenant Carter's" parents. Next to it sat the military intelligence feed of the Systems Alliance. Holy shit, who the hell is this woman? "After I picked up chatter talking about Lieutenant Carter and his assignment, I knew that these people were likely also assets; I don't know about you but most REPUTABLE intelligence agencies don't put civilians in harm's way. At least most of the time."
"And I'm guessing you tracked me back to my dead drop at that point?"Alenko asked, genuinely bewildered at how this woman had figured him out so quickly. Skye gave him a gentle smile.
"Don't worry about it, kid. You're not blown and from what I can tell you've done good work. It's justI've been doing this with tougher agencies, under worse conditions, against better counterinter for longer than you've been in the military and intel combined." Skye said as she gave him a sheepish grin. Kaiden weighed what she said; the woman in front of him looked no older than 40 at most (if he really was being generous) but he honestly thought she was closer to late 20s or early 30s. Half my life? How long has she been working for Alliance Intelligence?
"So what is it you want me to do, Skye? You wouldn't bother telling me this if you didn't want me to do something for you." Alenko pointed out.
"Your file said you were perceptive… The rest of that list is what I need from you. Everyone on it is on the first transport to land. In the meantime, take them to the emergency seismic shelter, have the shield set to maximum once everyone is inside, and have the biotics reinforce the shield at exactly this time." Skye began to walk away, Kaiden looking at her confused.
"Transport? We don't have a transport landing for 2 weeks."
"Nope, you've definitely got one coming in 48 hours. Guaranteed."