"Okay," Tony said, his fingers already flying as he integrated the new data into the orbital command sequence. "A Stark tech magnetic bottle, lined with a Wakandan harmonic dampening field. It's the most high energy orbital maneuver ever attempted in human history, and we're going to pull it off flawlessly in the next two hours."
He looked around the room. "No one has ever caught a rainbow before. This is going to be fun."
Aryan's gaze shifted from the holographic map to the operational commanders in the room.
"Pietro," Aryan began. "Your mission is priority one."
"I want you in New Mexico, on site in an hour. Your objective is to observe the arrival of the prince, Thor. You will monitor him from a distance. Report his actions, his state of mind, his apparent power level… if any. Your job is to gather intelligence. You are not to engage unless I give the direct order. Do you understand?"
Pietro understood the gravity of being the tip of the spear in their first contact with a being from another world.
"You want me to stand still and watch?" he said, a flicker of his usual humor returning. "That's the hardest mission you've ever given me."
He then gave a nod. "But I understand. He won't even know I'm in the same state."
Pietro was there one moment, and the next he was gone.
A powerful gust of wind that ruffled the papers on the table and made the intricate holograms flicker for a second. Then, he was already thousands of miles away.
Aryan immediately turned to the two soldiers in the room. "Bucky, Sharon."
"Your teams will establish the perimeter," he commanded. "But this is a quarantine, not a hard lockdown. We need to control the area without drawing suspicion."
He looked to the Leader.
Aryan continued, "The official story should be an unexpected outbreak of a contagious fungal spore, supposedly discovered by a geological survey team in a local cave system."
"Sharon, your EDF contingent will form the outer cordon. You'll set up checkpoints on every road, enforce the quarantine. Your job is to coordinate with the local Federation authorities, manage the media blackout, and ensure no one gets in from the outside."
Sharon nodded. "Understood."
"Bucky," Aryan said. "You will command the covert element."
He looked at the Leader and the council. "I'm authorizing the deployment of a detachment of the SEF for this operation. Specifically, an ERO team."
The name itself carried an immense weight in the room. The Enhanced Response Operators, the 950 super soldiers of the Strategic Enhanced Forces, were the ultimate expression of the planet's military power.
Aryan's gaze returned to Bucky. "Your ERO detachment will operate inside the quarantine zone. Your job is the inner perimeter. Your primary mission is containment and denial. You will ensure nothing local… stumbles upon our guest."
Bucky gave a nod. "We'll be invisible."
The two of them turned, their voices low and urgent as they began speaking into their secure comms before they had even left the room, mobilizing teams and resources across the continent.
Tony watched the deployment with a look of immense satisfaction.
"See?" he said to T'Challa. "This is how it's supposed to work. No running around with our hair on fire. Just a clear threat assessment and an overwhelming application of superior force and intelligence."
He grinned. "I love this job."
"There's another element," T'Challa added. "My vision also showed an object of great power arriving separately. A hammer."
"So we get to it first," Tony said. "If we can secure it, analyze it... maybe we can understand the power we're dealing with before we have to fight its brother."
He looked at T'Challa. "We'll set up a mobile lab on site, be in and out."
"A sound strategy," T'Challa agreed.
"And what about Thor" Wanda asked.