Operation Spotlight

"Aliens. I just pine for the day we had to fight bloody aliens. It's just not a fair fight."

- Lance Hunter

Operation Spotlight was started by Phil Coulson to find out the secrets of the Advanced Threat Containment Unit and what their intention was for their captured Inhumans.

Background
Following the capture of many Inhumans, including the Inhuman-killer Lash, S.H.I.E.L.D. started to doubt the Advanced Threat Containment Unit's trust and Director Phil Coulson initiated Operation Spotlight.

Coulson started putting his most trustworthy agents into pairs for the infiltration into Endotex Labs: Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter were assigned to go undercover into Endotex to find out what the ATCU's purpose was for the Inhumans.Alphonso Mackenzie and Daisy Johnson would help with Hunter's mimicking and alarm them for any danger. Lincoln Campbell and Melinda May would be in a Quinjet to rescue Morse and Hunter if needed.

Infiltration at Endotex Labs
Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse arrived iat Endotex Labs undercover as FBI computer-geek Dane and Agent Phillips. They were allowed access into their servers by Steve Wilson with permission from Rosalind Price. Alphonso Mackenzie and Daisy Johnson helped with Hunter's cover while Morse abruptly left to find out the secrets on the Inhumans.

When Luther Banks arrived, he and Wilson blown Hunter's cover, forcing Lance to run away to Morse, who had found the remains of an Inhuman and Nature Max Supplements Fish Oil pills. Soon after, Endotex Labs' head of security Giyera retaliated and dueled against the two. The head of security revealed himself as an Inhuman with the ability of telekinesis. Giyera's two ATCU guards were killed and Hunter knocked out Giyera. Luther Banks was called in by Rosalind Price to come to the aid of Morse and Hunter: Lincoln Campbell and Melinda May rescued them.

HYDRA's Involvement
During the infiltration, Phil Coulson confronted Rosalind Price about the secrets she was hiding and her possible involvement with HYDRA. Although she declined that she wasn't part of HYDRA, Price revealed that she took orders from Gideon Malick. To her surprise, she found out that Malick was behind all the events and that Giyera was a HYDRA operative.

Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons had found that HYDRA had a secret ancient history and that NASA was partly under HYDRA's control with Project Distant Star Return in 2001. The logo for the project bared similarity with the very first logo of HYDRA, which had changed over time into the current logo of the terrorist-organization. Malick shared the same information with Grant Ward and a fraction of the Monolith.