Battle on the Iliad

"The ship's already lost. And if we want S.H.I.E.L.D. to survive..." "We need to push on. We're running out of time."

- Robert Gonzales and Bobbi Morse

The Battle on the Iliad was HYDRA's attempt to take control of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s aircraft carrier Iliad at the beginning of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War.

Background
In 2014, after being exposed and defeated by Captain America and his allies in the Battle at the Triskelion, the high command of HYDRA ordered all of their sleeper agents to purge all S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalists or non-HYDRA agents and capture all S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities for assuring their survival. After having received the message for showing up to S.H.I.E.L.D., the Lead HYDRA Agent and his subordinates began to kill and capture all crew members who are loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and take control of the aircraft carrier Iliad to convert it as one of many HYDRA secret bases.

Battle
HYDRA attempted to take control of the aircraft carrier Iliad, and the cargo it housed. Initially, HYDRA managed to gain some early victories on many parts of the ship thanks to the element of surprise. They managed to capture many members of the ship's crew, including the ship's chief-engineer Alphonso Mackenzie. HYDRA also attempted to kill the ship's commander Robert Gonzales, but they only managed to injure his leg before Gonzales managed to kill his attackers.

Bobbi Morse and Isabelle Hartley boarded the ship under orders from Nick Fury to start protocol ASTA06 and destroy the ship, in order to prevent the ship's cargo, consisting of the Monolith, from falling into HYDRA's hands. When the Lead HYDRA Agent executed a hostage, and threatened to kill more if chief-engineer Mackenzie did not give him the ship's schematics, Morse and Hartley effortlessly killed the HYDRA guards along with the officer, and liberated the agents, using a cellphone as a distraction. Morse and Hartley encouraged the former hostages to arm themselves, and helped them in their mission to save Gonzales, and blow the ship up.

When the group found Gonzales with his leg injured, they nursed him and provided him a leg cane in order to walk. They tried to convince him to evacuate the ship, but he insisted to help them destroy the ship. Morse informed the group that in order to destroy the ship, she would need to put a hard drive inside a computer in the command room. Mackenzie also informed Morse that if they destroyed the Iliad, everyone on the ship would die, including the one that inserted the hard drive. Despite that, Morse insisted that it was very vital that HYDRA did not retrieve the ship's cargo.

While the group fought their way to the command room, killing many HYDRA operatives along the way, many loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on other parts of the ship began to fight back in a more organized manner, and even retaking parts of the ship.

When the group arrived at the command room, Mackenzie insisted that they should not follow Fury's order, as that would mean that every loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on the ship would die, making all their efforts to retake the ship meaningless. Initially, Morse and Gonzales still insisted that the risk of the cargo falling into HYDRA hands was too big, but after more convincing from Mackenzie, Morse and eventually Gonzales relented, with Morse destroying the hard drive.

HYDRA tried to launch an attack on the command room in order to capture it, but Gonzales' group managed to repel their attack. Eventually, HYDRA lost the battle.

Aftermath
After the battle, the S.H.I.E.L.D. survivors on the ship decided to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D., with Gonzales as one of its leaders. They were joined by Anne Weaver and Tomas Calderon, along with the rest of the survivors of the Battle at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.