Category:Rebuilding SHIELD Intelligence

Rebuilding SHIELD Intelligence
Intelligence Folder
Name Description
Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Alisande Morales From: Commander Hill To Morales, from Hill.

I'm not interested in your apologies, because I don't require one from you. You did exactly what I instructed. When it came down to asset retrieval or survival of your team, you did the right thing. Everyone came home. That alone makes it a success.

Yes, I know exactly what we lost. To be clear, I know better than you do. But SHIELD isn't our assets. A warehouse full of weapons alone won't stop a single threat.

SHIELD isn't Fury's fancy secrets, either, despite how much it feels like we're chasing them. I'm starting to think the old man compartmentalized more out of habit and inclination than security.

SHIELD is us. SHIELD is the team, each and every one of us. And today we are undiminished, thanks to your fast thinking. In the end, we don't need any of those things to get back on our feet. Look at us. We're already standing.

Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Director Fury From: Commander Hill (2) It's over. There's no way SHIELD survives the year in any recognizable form. If A-Day and our association with the Avengers don't drag us under, D.C. will do the rest. Every political enemy we have smells blood in the water, and they're already talking about redistributing budget and assets.

I'm sorry, sir. I know I don't have to tell you, but despite my reservations, I did everything I could, and I don't regret a minute of it. If you'll allow me to be trite, it's been an honor.

So, we play it as planned. I'll remain as Acting Director as we shut off the lights. We can't save everything, but we can play the shell game like no one else in this town. After that, I'll take the first transfer I can to some safe agency, lay low at a desk for a year or two, and we'll see which way the storm clouds blow.

And you and Clint do what you do best.

Till we meet again, Sir.

Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Director Fury From: Commander Hill (3) You coddled us, Nick. I know you thought you were protecting us by keeping your secrets. But now that we're following in your footsteps trying to read your tea leaves, I know you kept something important from me.

I put out the signal, but not many came back. I don't know if it's going to be enough. SHIELD was an organization of specialists, with a breadth of knowledge stretching across hundreds of disciplines. But that was before, when we were thousands strong.

We're only a fraction of that now, and it leaves great holes in our ability to mount any resistance to AIM. We have one of the world's finest combat pilots but no planes. I have a combat engineer with no ordinance. We're not a coherent fighting force, we're barely a bucket brigade. But damn if it doesn't feel good to be a back together again. You'd love it.

You're a hell of an act to follow, but I'm doing my best.

I don't recall the last time you replied to this address. Sooner or later I'll just have to break the habit.

Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Dugan, Morales, 36+ From: Commander Hill It's difficult to predict the nightmare scenario that would force us to publicly gut our own agency, commit several billion dollars of theft from the government, and attempt to hide the assets in a series rotating black sites, all while trying to rebuild an unfunded and highly illegal shadow version of SHIELD in total secrecy. But Fury knew it was a possibility, so we planned for it.

Thanks to Dugan's last retrieval, we're about ready to enter administrative hibernation. When the time comes to emerge, we'll have a nest ready. It won't be much, but it will be enough to support us.

So now we disappear, and wait for my signal. I don't know when it will come, or what changes the next few years will bring, but we'll be ready. Because we have to be.

This is not the end. I'll have the honor of serving with you each again, someday soon.

Stay safe.

Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Encrypted From: Commander Hill I know you're eager to get started, and you know I am too, but it is not time yet. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. We can't afford a single mistake at this stage, or the results would be catastrophic.

We knew we would be rebuilding SHIELD in secret, under the nose of a hostile entity. But while we got away with 2 or 3% of SHIELD's assets, tools, and weapons, AIM has the other 97%. There is no margin of error. Which is why my answer is also no.

Far too few of us came in when I sent the signal. We're still tracking in the other threads, but it looks like this may be the extent of our team for now. I don't blame anyone for staying underground, but that makes my job a lot harder. I'm responsible for all of them, even if they don't want to come back yet.

We go slow. Like molasses. Erase your footprints, turn off the lights behind you. From here on out, every day, we have to be perfect.

Email Intelligence Icon.png To: Tony Stark From: Commander Hill What can I tell you, things change. If we're going to fight AIM, we're going to need every asset. That means we need every Avenger, and every agent we can get.

I'm starting to realize some things standing in Fury's shoes. The man had a sense for the future that borders on the uncanny. A partnership between the Avengers and SHIELD made no sense to me in peacetime, but Fury was making sure our relationship was strong before we ever needed to test it. He saw all the ways the future might break, and he planned for them.

We can skip the boring, macho posturing and preening, because it does not interest me. You need us as much as we need you. The Avengers need a support network. You need SHIELD. We can be each other's safety nets. Because there is no way we survive this without each other. And I plan to survive.