| Data Dump |
| Summary: | Clint gets the much needed intel from Agents Moonstar and Nanali |
| Date: | 2014-10-10 |
| Related: | Mongo stuff |
| NPCs: | Players go below, other chars that deserve mention can be listed here, together (ie, 'Magento, Professor X, and Dr. N'). |
| Scene Runner: | Mirage |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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-==[ Conference Room - S.H.I.E.L.D. HeliCarrier ]==----—-
Stepping through the large oak double doors of the conference room, you see a large rectangular table. It's fairly big, with enough room for 10 people to sit
down and discuss. To the right of the table is a drafting desk, on top of which several maps of New York, London, and America are spread out.
The seats at the table are inscribed on the back with the name of the Agent or officer who should be sitting there. The chair at the head of the table is inscribed
clearly; 'Col. Fury.'. There's a water cooler and an intercom into the room.
The Conference Room fairies have been hard at work once again. Fresh pitchers of water are placed in the middle of the table in three-chair intervals with glasses set upside down on paper place-mats. Off on a wheeled tray, there is a coffee-urn filled with coffee (with no decaf to be seen anywhere!) with sugar, non-sugar-sweetener, a small pitcher of milk and a tray of little plastic-cups of creamer. A basket of bagels are set out with those little pats of butter and squeezy-packets of cream cheese.
Agent Barton has already arrived and has already speared a bagel, laying it thick with at least three packets of cream cheese. In his little area on the table, he's got a napkin to catch (most of) the crumbs, and a cup of coffee. He's dressed a little more warmly, what with the changing of the seasons now. He's got a long-sleeve cotton pull-over shirt on with a SHIELD logo on the left with his jeans and sneakers, and he's sitting backwards in his rolly-chair.
~
There is much of a wait before Agent Moonstar is entering the room, Starkpad in hand as she scans the latest intel on a variety of missions that she has her fingers in. A glance up and around has her making a direct line to the coffee, "Barton." she greets, setting the device in hand on the table so she can have both hands free for coffee making. She is dressed in the usual SHIELD uniform, no surprises there.
~
By the time Agent Moonstar arrives, Barton's got 3/4s of the bagel polished off and he's well on his way on his second cup of coffee. He's got his USB in the laptop that controls the conference room screen, and lit upon is 'Marvin the Martian' of Bugs Bunny claim posing with his martian dog.
Just to set the mood.
"Moon—" Nope. No jokes, though Clint does have that pause before he starts over again, "Moonstar." It's not easy. "When you're set, I'd love to know what you have."
Right back to business.
"'Tash is running late."
~
Like Agent Moonstar, Agent Nanali enters promptly, also dressed in a standard SHIELD field officer uniform, StarkPad in hand as she makes her way to a seat, nodding to the others in the room. "Agent Barton. Agent Moonstar." She sits, tapping along as she reviews the intel provided for the mission to Mongo, and her equipment manifests.
~
Coffee is poured and doctored with cream and sugar and Mirage greets Nanali when she enters as well. "Do you want to wait for Romanoff so there isn't any repeating ourselves or just go ahead and catch her up when she does arrive?" a sip of coffee is taken as she moves to sit with the other two agents.
~
Nanali takes her coffee as black as her own soul (that's a joke, in case anyone was wondering), and she preps a mug of it and re-settles in her seat, attentively. Dani asked the question she would have offered, so for now she keeps her yap shut and waits.
~
Clint finishes off the rest of the over-burdened with cream cheese bagel and does his best to lick his fingers and wipe his mouth with the crumb-infested napkin. Last wipes, and he's good… chew… chew… swallow. Follow it up with a swallow of coffee, and he offers a nod to Nanali in response before, "Agent Nanali," is given in greeting.
Clint spins the chair around to face Dani as she takes her seat, and looks around briefly. (He didn't bring his StarkPad.) Still, he doesn't mind not being one of the 'cool kids', and his response is straight-faced, "Six of one, half dozen the other. You know 'Tash. She could be a few minutes or six months."
~
"True enough." Mirage concedes about the tendancy for Agent Romanoff to disappear without warning, becuase of the nature of her missions. The coffee cup is set down and the starkpad is picked up. A few taps and swipes and the cartoon on screen is replaced with what is being shown on the screen of her device. Currently it is a map of the solar system with arrows pointing to various space bodies, the biggest of which are ones pointing to Earth and the location of Mongo "Our latest intelligence puts the Mondo planetoid," or whatever they are calling it "within our outer solar system" she starts with the stuff that everyone should know already, a review so to speak.
~
Nanali taps at her own pad, bringing up a mirror of the same images as she nods. She'd still love to know how they're getting what has been referred to as 'near-real-time' effective data on the location and movements of a planet multiple light-minutes away. But they have no reason to doubt the intel they've been given. "Approaching Jupiter's orbital path." she murmurs aloud.
~
They -all- have a tendency to disappear without word, Special Field Agent Barton as well. It just seems that the Black Widow gets the more exotic of locations. (Darn her.) There's a flicker of disappointment as Marvin falls to actual work displays, but it's shortlived. He's got eyes on screen, memorizing every nuance. Within the outer reaches of our solar system, check.
While the others may have had the data, this is exactly why Clint is sitting in this chair, in this room. He's been tasked with setting up an infiltration team, and those personnel files don't read themselves! Now that he's got people lined up and ready, it's the physical intel that he needs.
"I'm assuming the entire damned planet is a hot LZ," comes as he stares at the screen as if it'll magically impart some wisdom above and beyond what is there. "Natives. Friendlies and the not-so-much." Need information.
~
Nanali brings up maps of the surface, with noted cities and installations marked out, as well as a few other points of interest, like where the Guardians' ship 'landed forcefully', where they encountered 'Prince Barin', and a few others. "We seem to have reasonably detailed intel on their disposition of forces, training, technology and weapons." More images pop up peripherally, highlighting bits of these. "And corroboration of some of the Guardians' admittedly haphazard intel with secondary sources and background materials." Much of this from Hawkgirl, as well, and materials provided by the League. "It would be ludicrus to not consider the entire planet a hot LZ until proven otherwise."
~
Here is the meat and potatoes of the mission. How they get there is up to 'them'; it's 'this' team that'll be doing the work that may take weeks or even months for a proper resolution. Clint's got his attention fully on the board, slating to memory the little names, areas, making sure he can recognize buildings, markings and even color-schemes.
"Yeah. Which is what I said. I'm assuming the entire planet is hot."
Clint leans forward to grab his coffee and takes a couple more smaller swallows as he considers that which is in front of him. "Okay, question. 'Haphazard intel', you said. That doesn't fill me with a warm, fuzzy feeling." It could mean next to anything in terms of practicality, ranging from useless to next to useless. (In his untrusting eyes, that is!) "Do they have names for any rogue elements that might be in a good position to step into the power vacuum that's gonna happen? Weapons? Populace? Underground movements that we can exploit?"
~
"Their intel lines up with what was brought in from this other source. There's no mention of how extensive the active underground element is, but apparently this 'Prince Barin' is the only person respected across multiple kingdoms and populations sufficiently that it might be possible to install him in Ming's place. We have detailes on Ming's forces, weapons, dispositions and training. Minimal details on Barin's people at this time, though we do have facial and full-body scans on Barin himself and a few lieutenants." The Guardians may not be professionals like SHIELD, but they weren't totally useless.
"There's no one in the minor kingdoms that are pushing for a little more for themselves? And when you say 'respected'…" Clint's concerned about that term on a planet like Mongo. "Is it because he only eats a couple of babies for breakfast every morning instead of a couple of babies followed by a couple puppies and kittens?"
The now-empty coffee cup is set back onto the table and Clint pushes against the back of the chair in order to gain his feet. "I don't want this to turn into the devil we know being the better choice down the road, and us having to aid Ming's flunkies to help gain power back." Because this -never- happens, no. Not at all. "I want intel on the kingdoms, and who actually runs them. If these kingdoms are backing a potential usurper, I want to know why, other than the fact they're probably getting sucked dry in
taxes and beautiful women to be sent as concubines." Taking a wild stab because, hell, probably what he'd do if he were a power-mad crazy dictator of a planet! "What do they get out of it for sticking their necks out."
~
Mirage listens to the back and forth between the two. Nothing Nanali has brought up contradicts any of the intelligence she has. And there are still way more questions than there are answers. Especially when planning a mission, "As far as I know right now the Guardians are the only ones who have made contact with anyone on planet."
besides perhaps Hawkgirl "And that was this Barin person." there is some amusement from her at Clint's form of questioning, particularly the baby/puppy thing "No," she flips through her information "baby or puppy eating. The respect him because he is a good leader…as far as leaders go."
~
"No offense, Barton. But we're talking about a whole other planet. I think 'thank your lucky stars' comes to a whole new level when it comes to appreciating any intelligence available." the Wakandan agent offers, honestly. "I don't have any intel here saying the man is up for sainthood. But nothing saying he's hiding demonic tendencies, either. We've gone through all of the intel we have. There are dozens of kingdoms out there, mostly each restricted to a particular race of imports from another world Mongo has enslaved and destroyed. Each has their own government and affairs. But all of them bow to Ming. And none of them cooperate. The only exception is this Barin, who seems to have the respect of multiple other factions. He actually has lieutenants of at least four races, present during the meeting with the Guardians."
~
Now on his feet, Hawkeye is slowly moving around the room, though his attention never strays far from the screen. "They didn't tell him anything, or promise him anything, did they? Because if he's not the king, I don't want to have to deal with ruffled feathers." He doesn't want his hand forced. "And, of course, if someone else comes up better, are we going to have issues with this guy. Though," and Clint is thinking out loud now, "A nice civil war would keep them busy for years to come."
Barin, though? Clint isn't about to close any doors. He just wants to know -who- the guy is. "I can't wait to find out their definition of 'good leader'. Hell, on paper, -Stalin- looked like a good leader." And, yes, he was supported. That whole 'devil you know' thing again.
"Would love to see transcripts of the conversations. And if no transcripts, just reports on the jist. Promises that we may not be able to keep and stuff."
Wait, wait, wait… "Okay, Guardians had a sit down with the guy and his lieutenants?"
Shaking his head, Clint's attention moves back to Nanali, his expression deadly serious. All joking is aside, and his tones underscore the sobriety of his words. "I wanna make sure we have the right guy. Each kingdom has their own imports, and I wanna know who and what those are before we go in declaring Barin as God-Emperor."
And the fact there were kingdom lieutenants there means the other kingdoms know about the meetings. Which means… "And I hope to god they didn't promise him anything like that because I'll be pretty annoyed." He takes a step towards the table again. "I get that we're talking about a whole other planet, but there isn't a thing here that differs in terms of every other nation that some country has tried to take over and rebuild from within. I'm on your side, remember. But I also want to be damned sure we got the right guy in place or, frankly, Fury will have our asses."
~
Mirage can understand where Clint is coming from. Assurances need to be met and all that jazz. She swipes through the information that the received recently from the JL. "There was a meeting between the Guardians and Barin." she starts out, "Quite accidental. They had to make an emergency landing after a firefight in space and while exploring ran into Barin's people. So far the only deal that was made with Barin was for his help in fighting Mongo. He would help if the Guardians took his infant son someplace safe. They took the deal and the child." she peruses the info on her screen quickly "We don't know where they took the child, just that the infant is someplace on earth. Jean reported that Barin's people have some type of technology that allows telepathic communication. She hopes to be able to contact him further that way.
~
"No further concessions, arrangements, deals or promises. And if the child is here on Earth, then Barin has all that much greater motivation to keep the kid safe by helping us short-circuit the impending invasion." Nanali offers.
~
"So… Barin offered to help fight to help save Earth…" Barton starts off slowly, catching each little bit as it's offered, mulling it around in his head. He is -so- not the 'nation builder'. He's ever so much happier sitting in a tree or on the roof of a building waiting for the go-ahead for a shot. This, all this, needs better heads, but the one better head that he knows of (other than Fury himself) isn't here. Not right now, so all he can do is ask questions and relay information.
Mind, Clint's not stupid either. Just… this isn't his forte. Not in the least.
"Okay." The fact the kid is on Earth is either a good thing or could be a bad thing. Don't want to dwell on the potential problems… not right now.
Looking at Nanali, Clint's voice is quiet, "We're not just short circuiting an invasion, Agent Nanali. We're setting up a whole new damned government for a planet."
~
"Which should, by definition, short circuit the invasion of Earth." Nanali insists, grimly. "It's another world, full of people we will never know well enough to /really/ manage them or help them manage themselves. If we're lucky, what we'll do will give elements amongst them a chance to build something better that will last. But that's just the idealism talking. All that really matters is that we remove Ming, and make damned sure no one is in the position to immediately assume power and continue his attack on Earth."
~
"Having the child in custody is good. Not knowing who's custody it is, is bad." That would be two in the room that would prefer to be staking out bad guys from some out of sight place. "Not just one planet really. Ming enslaved many planets and races. I'm sure once they are freed from Ming there will be more than one goverment that needs a new leader." she nods to what Nanali has said agreeing with the woman "One problem at a time. If we can't over throw Ming, than the planetary government is a non-issue.
~
"We're not going to leave a power vacuum, Agent Nanali. Do that and we'll be praying for Ming to come back." Barton turns to study the display for a long moment.
"Not just one planet…" is repeated slowly, and Barton turns about, his expression tense but determined. "One problem at a time." Now, he smiles tightly, and the smile just doesn't quite make it to his eyes. "We got this."
As far as Barton is concerned, he now has the intel he needs to move forward. "If there's nothing else, I need to think about this awhile.."
~
"I'll be wrapping up my case in Metropolis. I should be back to the carrier tomorrow evening, if you need anything else." Nanali offers. With that, she gathers her things and heads out, not far behind Dani.