- "This wasn't an act of terrorism. It was a distraction and a cover-up."
"Sponsored by HYDRA."
"Malick's firing up the Watchdogs, feeding them intel." - ―Phil Coulson and Daisy Johnson[src]
The Attack on the ATCU Storage Facility was a successful heist by HYDRA to steal a nuclear warhead. The facility was later imploded by the Watchdogs with the pretense of making their presence known, although in reality it was to prevent discovery of what was stolen.
Background[]
- "What are you doing, Blake?"
"I'm trying to make the world a safer place." - ―Phil Coulson and Felix Blake[src]
In 2014, Felix Blake was hospitalized after a fierce encounter with the cyborg known as Deathlok resulted in his spine being broken. Now rendered paraplegic, the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative spent several months recovering from his extensive injuries.[3]
It wasn't until after his release that Blake learned about the HYDRA Uprising, an event that resulted in S.H.I.E.L.D. being disavowed by the international community and labeled a terrorist organization.
The following year, Blake discovered a large group of individuals who formed negative opinions of the Inhumans and posted them on the Internet. Through unknown means, Blake assembled and radicalized these individuals, turning them into a group bent on exterminating the Inhumans.
Sometime later, Blake was approached by R. Giyera, a representative of high-ranking HYDRA operative Gideon Malick who promised to provide the Watchdogs with advanced weaponry on the condition that they steal a nuclear warhead from an Indiana facility operated by the Advanced Threat Containment Unit.
Blake agreed and supplied his men with a modified form of the volatile chemical compound Nitramene before sending Watchdog Alpha and a small unit to Indiana.[1]
Attack[]
The destruction gets caught on camera
Watchdog Alpha and his unit recorded a message to be sent to WZTM News in South Bend upon their arrivar at the ATCU Storage Facility. In the message, Watchdog Alpha called out the federal government for keeping the Inhumans' existence a secret, using the Battle of Sokovia and the Inhuman Outbreak to justify his current actions.
Watchdog Alpha proceeded to demand the government release any information regarding the whereabouts of potential Inhumans before taking out a Nitramene-filled rifle and firing it at the facility. Moments after he and his fellow Watchdogs evacuated the premises, the Nitramene detonated, causing the facility to be destroyed by the blast and decimated in the subsequent implosion.[1]
Aftermath[]
- "If he can create some short of shock wave, then Hive could potentially infect a significant percentage of the human race, turning them all into the swayed Primitive Inhumans that Daisy described."
"If and only if he finds a way to disperse it high enough in the atmosphere."
"Yeah. He has a way. That thing he stole from the ATCU in Indiana. It was a warhead." - ―Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons and Glenn Talbot[src]
The attack on the ATCU facility marked the first open violent act from the Watchdogs, which resulted on S.H.I.E.L.D. paying more attention to their activities. Director Phil Coulson sent agents Alphonso Mackenzie, Daisy Johnson and Leo Fitz to investigate how the bulding imploded the way it did. Fitz realized the Watchdogs used Nitramene, a component created by Howard Stark in the 40s.
WHiH updates ATCU's investigation on the Watchdogs
Meanwhile, Johnson, an Inhuman who was disgusted by the Watchdogs' ideology and actions against her kind, decided to take action on the matter by herself. She found out the identity of one of the Watchdogs, Dallas Wyatt, and next to Fitz, she forced him into disclosing the location of the group which led to the Raid on Easterling Farms.[1] About a month after the attack, WHiH World News reported that ATCU was still investigating into the Watchdogs.[2]
Appearances[]
In chronological order: