Search for Strucker's Vault

"That vault is said to have HYDRA's greatest power. Why don't you and I put it to good use?"

- Grant Ward to Gideon Malick

The Search for Strucker's Vault was an initiative led by Grant Ward in order to locate a vault belonging to fallen HYDRA leader Wolfgang von Strucker. Ward hoped to find a mysterious power which would help him to rebuild HYDRA in the shape he desired, but ended up allying with Gideon Malick, who controlled the vault and revealed to him the history of Hive and the Monolith.

Background
"HYDRA's fractured, in pieces. We're gonna rebuild it. The right way."

- Grant Ward to Werner von Strucker

Having revealed his allegiance to HYDRA during the HYDRA Uprising and lost his mentor John Garrett in the aftermath of the Battle at Cybertek, Grant Ward resolved to rebuild the organization by himself, as it had experienced major setbacks because of multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. intervents. Ward chose not to rely on any of the remaining HYDRA leaders still at large such as Gideon Malick, and instead elected to recruit new members, including Kebo and Werner von Strucker, son of Wolfgang von Strucker. Indeed, Ward knew that the fallen HYDRA leader owned several vaults and planned on finding the source of an incredible power in one of them.

Search
"Strucker has many vaults. I know them all. Just didn't know Zepkow was the one I needed."

- Grant Ward

Having been contacted by Gideon Malick, Grant Ward got to meet him for a dinner as he wanted to ask him about Wolfgang von Strucker's vault he was looking for, suspecting Malick of wanting to keep whatever was inside for himself. The dinner turned out to be an ambush as Malick explained that he refused to let Ward intefering in his long-running schemes pertaining to HYDRA's real purpose. Therefore, Malick left the room, letting several HYDRA operatives to come in and attack Ward, who claimed that he would find the vault nonetheless. Using his tremendous skills, Ward was able to single-handedly defeat them, killing some while incapacitating three others enemies. Ward then proceeded to torture and interrogate his captives, threatening to burn them with a torch if they did not disclose the location and the way of accessing the vault. Although the one he was torturing did not speak a single word, another one of his prisoners admitted that he knew little about the vault itself, only that it was located in Zepkow, Germany. Amused, Ward executed the traitor, admitting that he knew that von Strucker had several vaults and only needed confirmation that Zepkow's was the one he was looking for. He then congratulated the operative he was interrogating and offered him to join his ranks.

With this new piece of information, Ward took a place meant to fly to Moscow, as it was the fastest way for him to go to Zepkow. He briefly flirted with a flight attendant before whispering in her ears that he intended to open the door of the plane right in the middle of the flight. Strapping himself to a parachute, Ward instructed the other passengers to remain seated with their belts fastened and explained that they would freeze to death. He then gave them HYDRA's regards before blasting the plane's door, being sucked outside and causing the plane to eventually crash. Ward landed near Zepkow and managed to access the vault, in which Malick already awaited him, praising him for how fast Ward had been able to arrive. Malick then offered Ward to act as his second-in-command in a unified HYDRA and disclosed the real origin of the organization: that it had been founded to enable an incredibly powerful Inhuman, Hive, to return from the Maveth where it had been banished. He then produced the weapon Ward had been looking for all along: a piece of the Monolith, which could be activated to open a portal to said planet. To that end, Malick wanted to ally with Ward so that they could learn from S.H.I.E.L.D. how they had managed to bring back someone from the planet. In return, Malick promised that he would help Ward to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D.

Aftermath
"You know, everyone had this place wrong. It isn't death. It's a new beginning. Malick was right. This is all meant to be."

- Grant Ward to Phil Coulson

The alliance between the two HYDRA factions enabled the organization to focus on Gideon Malick's primary objective of bringing Hive back to Earth. It also provided Malick with a ruthless and highly-skilled second-in-command, and despite some disagreements, his association with Grant Ward notably led to the Assassination of Rosalind Price, who had discovered Malick's involvement with HYDRA. He also kidnapped S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons on Malick's order to know how Simmons had returned from Maveth. Eventually, HYDRA was successful in opening a portal to Maveth to bring back Hive.

Although he was initially dubious about Malick's motivations as he did not fully understand them, Ward eventually found plain satisfaction in his association with Malick, as he felt that it had given him a true purpose. However, this also caused Ward to meet his demise as he would be killed by Phil Coulson during his expedition on Maveth.