The Skirmish at Catedral de Santo Ramos was an attempted theft orchestrated by SERPENT to take adamantium from Celestial Island.
Background[]
In 2027, the new President of the United States, Thaddeus Ross sent a team of scientists to investigate the corpse of the Celestial Tiamut the Communicator, which was referred to as the Celestial Island, where they discovered that his body was made of a brand new, never seen before metallic element, dubbed as adamantium, the newly strongest metal on Earth.
With this new knowledge, Thaddeus concluded that a new arms race would begin between allied and hostile countries on the planet to get their hands on it for various purposes, including advanced weapons and defenses. Private companies from other countries like Japan, India, France, and many others have already sent a team of scientists and learn about adamantium. To avoid a Cold-War arms race, Thaddeus hired a Japanese company to take a sample and refine it, so he could present it to the world leaders and propose a treaty to govern adamantium's mining and distribution.
However, the refined adamantium sample was stolen by Sidewinder and his team of SERPENT units while enroute to Japan. They were hired by Leader to ruin Thaddeus' reputation and legacy he was going to create with the treaty. After using some of the adamantium to forge their weapons, SERPENT were tasked with rendezvousing at Catedral de Santo Ramos in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they would wait to meet up with the buyer. SERPENT took the inhabitants inside the cathedral hostage and demanded to know where the buyer was.
Thaddeus learns of the thief and realized that the refined adamantium must be recovered at all cost if he wanted to get the treaty to ratify, so he sends Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, and Joaquín Torres, the new Falcon, along with SEAL Team 6 led by Dennis Dunphy, to recover the adamantium.[1]
Skirmish[]
- "I heard your rib go. You need a minute?"
"Nope Nope. Let's get this over with. I got shit to do today." - ―Copperhead and Captain America[src]
Sam Wilson, designated as Eagle One, suits up in his Captain America suit designed from the Wakandan Design Group. The suit is made of entirely Vibranium with the new uniform had many noticeable differences from previous versions. Sam flies at the speed of Mach 10 through the skies of Mexico to get to the cathedral. Joaquin was closely monitoring the cathedral from a AC-130 gunship to provide support. His commanding officer notifies Sam of the covert entry points, much to his annoyance as he assumes to be new to the operation.
Sam Wilson flies in and dives down, putting more throttle to his wingsuit powerful enough to create a sonic boom. Sam descends into the open courtyard of the cathedral, facing about eight to twelve SERPENT foot soldiers. When Sam Wilson recovered, the soldiers notice his presences and prepares to fire on him. However, before they could, the sonic boom comes crashing down in the middle. The sonic boom was so powerful that it disoriented the soldiers briefly before Captain America engages them in close combat.
He throws his Shield at one of the soldiers to knock him out before kicking back against another. One soldier recovers quickly and tries to fire at Captain America, but he grabs his gun and diverts it into another soldier's way, killing him, before Captain America knocks him out. Sam flies to the an opening where soldiers fire at him. Thanks to his new vibranium wings, the kinetic energy was being absorbed, allowing Captain America to send a powerful shockwave that blasted away the soldiers in the open.
Once the courtyard was cleared, Sam sends his personal drone assistant, Redwing, to scan the building for the refined adamantium. However, Sam finds out that SERPENT has taken hostages inside the cathedral, and notifies the AC-130 observation plane, but the commanding officer refuses to save them, citing that the package is their top priority. Sam dismisses the concern and moves inside to save the hostages before ordering the SEAL Team to keep tracking the package. Redwing sent a visual scan of the building to the AC-130, where Joaquin and the commanding officer realize that the SERPENTS head commander, Sidewinder, was in the building too. They was confused because Sidewinder never comes into the open unless he has a good reason.
Inside, Sidewinder was cleaning one of his adamantium blades, losing patience because not only that the buyer didn't show up at their location, but he noticed the priest praying, so he approached him and told the priest that he was not leaving until he was given what was owed to him. Sidewinder tortures the priest and sliced his face with one his knives and taunted him, before asking where the buyer was. The nuns and the priest doesn't know, so Sidewinder plans to execute them all one at the time. Before they could, Sidewinder was interrupted when Captain America arrived to recover the adamantium, so he ordered that the adamantium be taken away from their location.
As Sidewinder escapes, several of his soldiers takes the hostages deeper into the cathedral while some covers the door. Captain America breaches through the doors and throws his shield to knock some of them out before entering to engage in hand-to-hand combat. At first, Captain America struggles due to the SERPENT soldiers outnumbering him, but he defeated all of them before moving in to save the hostages. Captain America confronts the SERPENT soldiers holding the hostages at gunpoint, threatening to kill them if he does not cease.
While Captain America distracts the mercenaries, Red Wing flanks through the windows and zaps them to incapacitate the soldiers, thus saving the hostages. However, Sidewinder was fleeing through the chapel and the remaining SERPENT soldiers flee with the refined adamantium to cross over the Guatemalan–Mexican border. With both Sidewinder and the adamantium getting away in different directions, Captain America deploys Falcon to chase after the mercenaries escaping with the adamantium while he pursues Sidewinder. In the chapel, Captain America throws his shield at Sidewinder, but he dodges the throw and confronts Captain America. Despite the buyer now showing up, Sidewinder vows to find the person who wasted his time before Copperhead ambushes Captain America with adamantium brass knuckle-knives. With Captain America and Copperhead fighting each other, Sidewinder escapes the chapel.
During the fight, Copperhead expresses disappointment because he wanted to kill the original Captain America: Steve Rogers, but Sam was happy to make the disappointment and the two engage in hand-to-hand combat. Despite his acrobatic agility, Captain America was outclassed by Copperhead's bigger form and brute strength, and in addition, the adamantium brass knuckle-knives tore through his vibranium suit. Nonetheless, Captain America manages to outperform Copperhead by incapacitating him, fracturing his right arm, and defeating him.
Meanwhile, Joaquin suits up in the EXO-7 Falcon and drops out of the AC-130 to pursue the remaining SERPENT soldiers fleeing with the refined adamantium. On ground, the three soldiers escaping on the motorcycles notice the Falcon ahead of them and tries to shoot at him, but the Falcon maneuvers away to avoid getting shot by them. The Falcon turns around and chases after them. He uses his gauntlets to fire projectiles that disables all three of the motorcycles. The Falcon lands, and one of the SERPENT soldier recovers to get his gun and shoot at Falcon; however, the Falcon shoots a projectile without looking behind to kill him. The Falcon moves in and recovers the refined adamantium. [1]
Aftermath[]
- "You think SERPENT got played?"
"What are they saying?"
"Same thing. Contract was anonymous. Fifty mil to steal the canister en route to Japan. Show up here and meet the buyer." - ―Dennis Dunphy and Captain America[src]
With the hostages safe and the adamantium secured, Dennis Dunphy and SEAL Team 6 arrives on the scene to secure the package. The remaining SERPENTS were apprehended by the SEAL Team and the Mexican Special Forces.
Captain America and Dennis have secured the perimeter, but they both find it very odd that the SERPENTS would choose the cathedral for the location of the buy since the location is open and remote, and the perimeter was very weak.
Meanwhile, Thaddeus was notified of the mission success, and invites Captain America and Falcon to the White House for the upcoming Adamantium Summit with the world leaders.[1]