Snake wakes up after he should have died. But it can't be that easy, right?
A Weapon to Surpass...(Metal Gear Solid/Battletech)
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Lost
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
"..ake…"
Pain encompassed his body, a burning sensation that suffused his body with agony. Consciousness was a curse, not a blessing, as the only thing he could even be aware of was the fire in his blood, in his cells, as writhes in pain. Worse than the accumulations of old age, worse than FOXDIE, worse even than the microwaves that nearly cooked him alive, David could do nothing but clench his jaw and scream as something changed him.
"...ase wake up, Sn…"
And slowly, the pain began to recede. Starting with the tips of his extremities, the fiery suffering in his blood crept back and in its place was a blissful lack of sensation. With relief came strength, as his mind began to clear and his body under his control, he opened his eyes and was blinded by the bright lights above him. He lifted his hand to shade his eyes and slowly tried to rise, only to be met with the frantic hands of a man he never thought he would see again.
"Snake, you're alive!"
"Otacon…?" He grumbled as he waved him off. Taking a moment to adjust to the light, David glanced around, before taking in his friend. Hal looked rough. His hair was unkempt and his eyes were sunken, with dark circles around them. The scientist looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, but most notably of all, he was crying tears of joy.
"Otacon, what's going on? Where are we? How did I get here? Last thing I remember, I was…" Snake trailed off. The last thing he remembered was sitting on the porch of his old master in Alaska. Master Miller had left it to him, in his will. It was a place remote enough that he wouldn't endanger anybody else with the weapon in his blood. He was smoking one last cigarette, staring off at the sunset as he drifted off…
And now he was here.
Otacon, who up until now had looked so hopeful, looked more crestfallen than David could ever recall seeing him. The man sniffed and turned away to wipe his eyes, before looking back at the soldier.
"I... We were at the cabin, in Alaska. Sunny and I, we wanted to be there with you when you..." Hal took a deep breath before he began to dig into his pocket. "One moment I'm comforting you on your deathbed, the next I'm in this bunker, with you twisting in pain. I found what looked like a medbay and dragged you here, but… it's better for you to judge for yourself."
Hal pulled out a phone, and turned on the camera, before turning and showing the soldier the screen. And as the man looked at the image, he gasped. Instead of the aging visage that he'd had for years, the only thing he could see was his own face, young and hale. He looked at his hands and noticed they no longer shook, and his joints no longer hurt.
"I'm… young again? How…?"
"That's just it, Snake, I have no idea. Teleportation and reversed aging are impossible by my understanding of science, but clearly occurred because otherwise how did any of this happen? There's got to be some kind of scientific explanation but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you. As for where we are… or more precisely… WHEN we are…" Otacon turned to a computer screen on the wall and pulled up some sort of software.
"I took the liberty of attempting to hack into these systems. They're incredibly advanced but I have my ways of making computers talk. According to this facility's database, the bunker we're in belongs to a group called the Star League Defence Force, and the current year, give or take a few dozen, is somewhere around… 2960 A.D."
"2960 A.D.!?" He exclaimed as he jumped to his feet, momentary weakness be damned. He couldn't believe it. This was far beyond the scope of anything he had experienced before, and he itched for a smoke. "Star League… are you saying we're in space? In the future?"
"Well technically no, Snake. We're on a planet, so we're not really in space. And it's definitely the future, but from what I can tell this facility has lost power intermittently over the last few centuries for unknown amounts of time, and the clocks on these could be anywhere from a few months out of date to a few dozen years or of date."
Snake grunted at Otacon's lecture, having experienced enough of them to know that the man was just getting to his point. Hal had the wherewithal to notice Snake getting impatient, so he cleared his throat before he continued.
"A-anyway, it's now accurate to say we're on an alien planet in the future, though this base seems to be made by other humans, and we must have left Sunny behind." Hal bit his lip and looked at the door, before he turned back to the soldier. "I haven't explored it, though, I just dragged you to the room that said medbay."
The soldier hummed as he tapped his foot, following along with the scientist's explanation easily enough. He gave it some thought, and nodded decisively.
"She'll be fine, she's a smart girl. But that means I'll need to explore this compound and make sure not to get caught. Just like old times. Right, Otacon?"
The smile that spread across the scientist's face brightened the whole room.
"I'm with you all the way, Snake!"
"Glad to hear it. Does your codec still work?"
In response, David heard his own codec call going off, and when he answered, was greeted by his partner's voice.
"You better believe it. It's too convenient not to have, when nearly everybody has one nowadays. The tech made it into the private sector shortly after you took your sabbatical."
Snake nodded and responded through his own codec, the subvocal implant allowing him to respond to his friend silently.
"Good, we'll stay in touch. You keep digging up any information about this base and this planet, and I'll explore and make sure there's nothing sneaking around."
"Got it. Good luck, Snake. It's great to see you again. I'll let you know if I find anything."
Pain encompassed his body, a burning sensation that suffused his body with agony. Consciousness was a curse, not a blessing, as the only thing he could even be aware of was the fire in his blood, in his cells, as writhes in pain. Worse than the accumulations of old age, worse than FOXDIE, worse even than the microwaves that nearly cooked him alive, David could do nothing but clench his jaw and scream as something changed him.
"...ase wake up, Sn…"
And slowly, the pain began to recede. Starting with the tips of his extremities, the fiery suffering in his blood crept back and in its place was a blissful lack of sensation. With relief came strength, as his mind began to clear and his body under his control, he opened his eyes and was blinded by the bright lights above him. He lifted his hand to shade his eyes and slowly tried to rise, only to be met with the frantic hands of a man he never thought he would see again.
"Snake, you're alive!"
"Otacon…?" He grumbled as he waved him off. Taking a moment to adjust to the light, David glanced around, before taking in his friend. Hal looked rough. His hair was unkempt and his eyes were sunken, with dark circles around them. The scientist looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, but most notably of all, he was crying tears of joy.
"Otacon, what's going on? Where are we? How did I get here? Last thing I remember, I was…" Snake trailed off. The last thing he remembered was sitting on the porch of his old master in Alaska. Master Miller had left it to him, in his will. It was a place remote enough that he wouldn't endanger anybody else with the weapon in his blood. He was smoking one last cigarette, staring off at the sunset as he drifted off…
And now he was here.
Otacon, who up until now had looked so hopeful, looked more crestfallen than David could ever recall seeing him. The man sniffed and turned away to wipe his eyes, before looking back at the soldier.
"I... We were at the cabin, in Alaska. Sunny and I, we wanted to be there with you when you..." Hal took a deep breath before he began to dig into his pocket. "One moment I'm comforting you on your deathbed, the next I'm in this bunker, with you twisting in pain. I found what looked like a medbay and dragged you here, but… it's better for you to judge for yourself."
Hal pulled out a phone, and turned on the camera, before turning and showing the soldier the screen. And as the man looked at the image, he gasped. Instead of the aging visage that he'd had for years, the only thing he could see was his own face, young and hale. He looked at his hands and noticed they no longer shook, and his joints no longer hurt.
"I'm… young again? How…?"
"That's just it, Snake, I have no idea. Teleportation and reversed aging are impossible by my understanding of science, but clearly occurred because otherwise how did any of this happen? There's got to be some kind of scientific explanation but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you. As for where we are… or more precisely… WHEN we are…" Otacon turned to a computer screen on the wall and pulled up some sort of software.
"I took the liberty of attempting to hack into these systems. They're incredibly advanced but I have my ways of making computers talk. According to this facility's database, the bunker we're in belongs to a group called the Star League Defence Force, and the current year, give or take a few dozen, is somewhere around… 2960 A.D."
"2960 A.D.!?" He exclaimed as he jumped to his feet, momentary weakness be damned. He couldn't believe it. This was far beyond the scope of anything he had experienced before, and he itched for a smoke. "Star League… are you saying we're in space? In the future?"
"Well technically no, Snake. We're on a planet, so we're not really in space. And it's definitely the future, but from what I can tell this facility has lost power intermittently over the last few centuries for unknown amounts of time, and the clocks on these could be anywhere from a few months out of date to a few dozen years or of date."
Snake grunted at Otacon's lecture, having experienced enough of them to know that the man was just getting to his point. Hal had the wherewithal to notice Snake getting impatient, so he cleared his throat before he continued.
"A-anyway, it's now accurate to say we're on an alien planet in the future, though this base seems to be made by other humans, and we must have left Sunny behind." Hal bit his lip and looked at the door, before he turned back to the soldier. "I haven't explored it, though, I just dragged you to the room that said medbay."
The soldier hummed as he tapped his foot, following along with the scientist's explanation easily enough. He gave it some thought, and nodded decisively.
"She'll be fine, she's a smart girl. But that means I'll need to explore this compound and make sure not to get caught. Just like old times. Right, Otacon?"
The smile that spread across the scientist's face brightened the whole room.
"I'm with you all the way, Snake!"
"Glad to hear it. Does your codec still work?"
In response, David heard his own codec call going off, and when he answered, was greeted by his partner's voice.
"You better believe it. It's too convenient not to have, when nearly everybody has one nowadays. The tech made it into the private sector shortly after you took your sabbatical."
Snake nodded and responded through his own codec, the subvocal implant allowing him to respond to his friend silently.
"Good, we'll stay in touch. You keep digging up any information about this base and this planet, and I'll explore and make sure there's nothing sneaking around."
"Got it. Good luck, Snake. It's great to see you again. I'll let you know if I find anything."
Last edited:
Credentials
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
"Remember Snake, until you can get to the administration office and give me direct network access, I have very limited control of the facility,but let me know if you need information about the building's layout," Hal's voice spoke to him through his codec.
David crept through the silent halls of the long forgotten outpost, knife in his hands. Crouched low to minimize his profile, he stalked around the nearest corner and examined his own gear with a wince. Stun knife, cigarettes 'Thought I quit those', diazepam. His boots were fine, steel toed with a muffled sole for defense and quiet movement, but he was wearing his civvies, blue jeans and a jacket. Fine for an Alaskan summer, not so fine for tactical espionage action. He'd have to get Hal to recreate the OctoCamo suit.
For all that this base seemed to be abandoned, his instincts were telling him that the whole situation was fishy. Wake up young again, in the future with his best friend and partner, in a centuries old military base on another planet that still has power. It sounded so ridiculous. Maybe this was all a dying fever dream in the mind of a man in the Alaskan wilderness, maybe he had been captured and stuck in a VR pod. Maybe all of this was real; somehow, that was the most distressing part.
He had accepted his death, given up his gun and decided that he would live the rest of his life in peace. And now, bereft of the chains that bound him, he was right back to his old ways. Were his ideals, his dreams of peace really so meaningless?
Once a killer, always a killer…
The dark, ugly side of him that he had accepted for a long time began to rear its head, but this wasn't new to him at all. He just took a deep breath and sighed. The doubts and loathing have stuck with him for years, but he was a professional. The world's greatest soldier.
Solid Snake.
Almost as if by instinct, he pulled out a cigarette, the first since he woke up. The tobacco helped calm his nerves, but made him more detectable. That was fine. He wasn't going to light it, but the act soothed him.
His first goal was to find the admin office and see if Otacon could print out an ID card. A facility like this should have impressive security, and impressive security means that people need security credentials. He saw that most doors had a keycard panel, noticed cameras along the ceiling that were, thankfully, nonfunctional, and even what he assumed were wall hatches for security turrets.
Following the signs, Snake made his way across the facility, making mental notes about other interesting rooms to check out. Medbay, cafeteria, barracks, security, armory, HR, hangar bay-
Administration.
Grinning to himself, he crept to the door and examined it. Biometric and keycard lock, nice, but why go through when you can go around? Eying a vent on the far wall, he activated his codec.
"Otacon, I'm at the admin office. There's a ventilation shaft nearby, but I need you to feed me directions."
"I'm on it Snake. Okay, let's see… if you're at the administration office, talking about a vent… I think I found where you are. If you enter through that vent… You'll need to crawl about twenty-five meters, take the next two right turns at each intersection, crawl another forty meters ignoring all other turns, and then there should be a grate you can climb through to get inside the office. You got all that?"
"Got it, thanks. I'll contact you again when I'm inside, then maybe we can get some answers."
Using the knife to pry the vent open, he slipped inside almost silently. Following Otacon's directions, he made his way through the maze of ventilation and came to his destination, a grate leading into the office. As he maneuvered his right arm in front of him, he thrust his fist against the vent cover.
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Crash!
The vent cover flew off the wall, landing with a horribly loud clatter that made Snake grimace.
"So much for stealth…"
Quickly climbing out of the vent and climbing to his feet, he took a moment to observe his surroundings. Terminals lined the walls, screens dark. He was no scientist, but he kept up with technology and computers. He had to, to keep up with the changing state of warfare. Passing through a door that seemed to be a commander's office, inside lay a circular desk, with a large computer taking up the whole wall behind it. Powering up the device, Snake was greeted by a lopsided eight pointed star and a single word: Password
"Otacon, I'm in the Base commander's office and I've turned on the computer. Now what?"
"Alright Snake, you're going to need to force boot it into safe mode and run a system diagnostic to bypass the user password. You should be able to do that by pressing the power button and holding down a flashing red and solid green button and waiting a few seconds. Then we need to try granting the two of us access to the base at large. You were a Sergeant in the U.S. military, right? See if you can use that to your advantage."
"Worth a shot. Thanks Otacon."
Snake examined the computer panel s spying both buttons that the scientist mentioned and holding them down while he pressed the power button. Just as suddenly as the computer came to life, it flickered off, before blue text began to stream up from the bottom.
Snake read the diagnostic messages as they came up, his brow furrowed as he read. He didn't understand what a Hyperpulse Generator was, but he could understand that this base was way past due for a tune up. The last line made him frown. He didn't know what the rank structure of this 'Star League' was, so he did the only thing he could do.
"Huh. That was convenient," Snake said mildly as he watched the text scroll by.
"Otacon, I'm in. The base is ours."
David crept through the silent halls of the long forgotten outpost, knife in his hands. Crouched low to minimize his profile, he stalked around the nearest corner and examined his own gear with a wince. Stun knife, cigarettes 'Thought I quit those', diazepam. His boots were fine, steel toed with a muffled sole for defense and quiet movement, but he was wearing his civvies, blue jeans and a jacket. Fine for an Alaskan summer, not so fine for tactical espionage action. He'd have to get Hal to recreate the OctoCamo suit.
For all that this base seemed to be abandoned, his instincts were telling him that the whole situation was fishy. Wake up young again, in the future with his best friend and partner, in a centuries old military base on another planet that still has power. It sounded so ridiculous. Maybe this was all a dying fever dream in the mind of a man in the Alaskan wilderness, maybe he had been captured and stuck in a VR pod. Maybe all of this was real; somehow, that was the most distressing part.
He had accepted his death, given up his gun and decided that he would live the rest of his life in peace. And now, bereft of the chains that bound him, he was right back to his old ways. Were his ideals, his dreams of peace really so meaningless?
Once a killer, always a killer…
The dark, ugly side of him that he had accepted for a long time began to rear its head, but this wasn't new to him at all. He just took a deep breath and sighed. The doubts and loathing have stuck with him for years, but he was a professional. The world's greatest soldier.
Solid Snake.
Almost as if by instinct, he pulled out a cigarette, the first since he woke up. The tobacco helped calm his nerves, but made him more detectable. That was fine. He wasn't going to light it, but the act soothed him.
His first goal was to find the admin office and see if Otacon could print out an ID card. A facility like this should have impressive security, and impressive security means that people need security credentials. He saw that most doors had a keycard panel, noticed cameras along the ceiling that were, thankfully, nonfunctional, and even what he assumed were wall hatches for security turrets.
Following the signs, Snake made his way across the facility, making mental notes about other interesting rooms to check out. Medbay, cafeteria, barracks, security, armory, HR, hangar bay-
Administration.
Grinning to himself, he crept to the door and examined it. Biometric and keycard lock, nice, but why go through when you can go around? Eying a vent on the far wall, he activated his codec.
"Otacon, I'm at the admin office. There's a ventilation shaft nearby, but I need you to feed me directions."
"I'm on it Snake. Okay, let's see… if you're at the administration office, talking about a vent… I think I found where you are. If you enter through that vent… You'll need to crawl about twenty-five meters, take the next two right turns at each intersection, crawl another forty meters ignoring all other turns, and then there should be a grate you can climb through to get inside the office. You got all that?"
"Got it, thanks. I'll contact you again when I'm inside, then maybe we can get some answers."
Using the knife to pry the vent open, he slipped inside almost silently. Following Otacon's directions, he made his way through the maze of ventilation and came to his destination, a grate leading into the office. As he maneuvered his right arm in front of him, he thrust his fist against the vent cover.
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Crash!
The vent cover flew off the wall, landing with a horribly loud clatter that made Snake grimace.
"So much for stealth…"
Quickly climbing out of the vent and climbing to his feet, he took a moment to observe his surroundings. Terminals lined the walls, screens dark. He was no scientist, but he kept up with technology and computers. He had to, to keep up with the changing state of warfare. Passing through a door that seemed to be a commander's office, inside lay a circular desk, with a large computer taking up the whole wall behind it. Powering up the device, Snake was greeted by a lopsided eight pointed star and a single word: Password
"Otacon, I'm in the Base commander's office and I've turned on the computer. Now what?"
"Alright Snake, you're going to need to force boot it into safe mode and run a system diagnostic to bypass the user password. You should be able to do that by pressing the power button and holding down a flashing red and solid green button and waiting a few seconds. Then we need to try granting the two of us access to the base at large. You were a Sergeant in the U.S. military, right? See if you can use that to your advantage."
"Worth a shot. Thanks Otacon."
Snake examined the computer panel s spying both buttons that the scientist mentioned and holding them down while he pressed the power button. Just as suddenly as the computer came to life, it flickered off, before blue text began to stream up from the bottom.
Snake read the diagnostic messages as they came up, his brow furrowed as he read. He didn't understand what a Hyperpulse Generator was, but he could understand that this base was way past due for a tune up. The last line made him frown. He didn't know what the rank structure of this 'Star League' was, so he did the only thing he could do.
"Huh. That was convenient," Snake said mildly as he watched the text scroll by.
"Otacon, I'm in. The base is ours."
Jackpot
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Snake watched as the computer slowly ran itself through more diagnostic routines while he waited on his keycard. The network had enough power to print out a new security badge and add his biometrics to the database, which meant that as soon as he got that key, he and Otacon would have full access. After he was recognized as Base Commander, he had immediately designated Hal as Chief Scientist so he had access to the damaged facilities as well, and as soon as he did so, he activated his codec.
"Otacon, I've got you listed as Chief Scientist. It should be safe, computer apparently can scan for lifesigns and we're alone. Meet me over here, pronto."
"You got it Snake, I'm on my way right now!"
Snake hung up his codec just in time for the aged machine to spit out his new ID. Taking a quick glance, it didn't look that much more different than any other ID he's ever seen.
"Even in the future, huh. The more things change…" He grumbled to himself as he pinned the badge to his chest. He could hear Hal's footsteps approaching the door, so he went ahead and opened it, preemptively. The scruffy looking scientist rushed through the open doorway past you, before he slowed to a stop and bent over to catch his breath..
"Sn-hah… Snake… I ran as fast as I could," he gasped, struggling to speak. Snake grunted, Hal has started to let himself go. Shaking his head at the thought, he looked up at the man.
"I've designated you as Chief Scientist of this facility, so you should have just about the same permissions. We need to arm up and find out as much information as we can. If this base is abandoned, we might be stranded on this planet. And I don't particularly feel like spending the rest of my life in this base after I've only just got it back."
"Hoo… Right… I'm on it, Snake… just gimme a second…" he straightened back up and began to look around. Still panting, he walked over to the main computer in the commander's office and began to examine it. "I got this from here, you can go explore the facility. I'll let you know what I learn."
With that, David nodded and turned away. Stalking through the halls, he made his way through to the cafeteria first. He was starving, and didn't even have a single ration.
Entering the dining hall, he was impressed. Even though it'd been over 200 years since there'd been any maintenance, the place was still remarkably clean and intact. Even the plumbing still worked, he found as he sipped from a nearby water fountain. Snake wandered his way into the kitchen, searching for any supplies that he and his partner could use.
The first thing he checked were the coolers, the contents of which, as expected, had long since spoiled. Wrinkling a nose at the smell, his next choice were the freezers. The food looked more or less okay, but he wasn't confident. It was the dry storage that was most fruitful. Instead of more scraps of moldy food, Snake laid his eyes on something he never realized could be so beautiful:
Industrial pallets of emergency rations.
As he rushed over, he began opening the boxes on top and searching through them.
"Otacon, can you hear me? It looks like we hit the jackpot."
"The jackpot? Oh right, you were heading to the armory. What did you find, Snake?"
"Nah, I stopped by the mess instead, and found the motherlode! There's at least two years worth of rations here, freeze-dried and preserved, and look at the choices! Orange chicken, fried rice, beef and broccoli, they've even got Swedish meatballs and beef ravioli! We're eating good tonight, Otacon!"
"I had totally forgotten about our food supply, way to go Snake! While you're there, you mind checking to see if they have the chicken fettuccini? That one is my favorite. Oh, and some coffee too, that's almost as important as the rations."
"Oh come on, the chicken fettuccini? What's wrong with you? Fine, I'll check… sorry Otacon. I don't see any in this box, but there's like 8 pallets of these things so there are definitely more flavors."
"Hey, I don't judge you for what you like!
*sigh* That's okay Snake, I'll eat just about anything."
"By the way, have you discovered anything interesting?"
" Yeah, I found out that these people brute forced their way into space. Can you believe that these computers only have megabytes of RAM? It's like looking at the future through the view of someone from the 1980s, they hardly even have semiconductors! It's mostly vacuum tubes and analog computing! Which explains how it lasted this long, but still, my phone has more computing power than this whole facility."
"Vacuum tubes? Can you work around it?"
"It might take a while, but once I get a handle on the local technology I should be able to redevelop some gadgets that you should enjoy."
"Hrmmm, gadgets?"
"Yeah, you know, like the Solid Eye, optical camo, or Metal Gear Mk.III."
"Well, I'll be looking forward to it, Otacon.
As he hung up his codec, Snake glanced over the rations before he swiped a couple of them, one for now and one for later. It was freeze-dried Chicken and rice, a good choice. He could rehydrate it and eat it normally, but…
Munch, munch
Crunch, crunch
Gulp!
He shoved the empty package into his back pocket and moved on. No time to waste on cooking rations, these things were perfectly edible with no prep. He pushed his way out of the mess hall and continued to travel towards the armory. Fancy base, Snake thought, but so far, nothing blew his mind. As much as everything had the veneer of being futuristic, some stuff seemed to be less advanced than one thousand years ago.
"A thousand years…"
Snake shook the thoughts from his head as he drew forward towards the armory. He swiped his card across the keypad and the sealed doors began to open, depressurizing with a hiss that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Slowly grinding open, the multiple layers of blast doors parted, allowing Snake to enter. Slowly, the spy crept forward, knife at the ready. As he entered the room proper, the lights began to turn on in stages, revealing a massive room full of arms and armor the likes of which he hasn't seen in his whole life.
Snake practically gaped at the beauty before him.
"Otacon, I'm in heaven."
"Otacon, I've got you listed as Chief Scientist. It should be safe, computer apparently can scan for lifesigns and we're alone. Meet me over here, pronto."
"You got it Snake, I'm on my way right now!"
Snake hung up his codec just in time for the aged machine to spit out his new ID. Taking a quick glance, it didn't look that much more different than any other ID he's ever seen.
"Even in the future, huh. The more things change…" He grumbled to himself as he pinned the badge to his chest. He could hear Hal's footsteps approaching the door, so he went ahead and opened it, preemptively. The scruffy looking scientist rushed through the open doorway past you, before he slowed to a stop and bent over to catch his breath..
"Sn-hah… Snake… I ran as fast as I could," he gasped, struggling to speak. Snake grunted, Hal has started to let himself go. Shaking his head at the thought, he looked up at the man.
"I've designated you as Chief Scientist of this facility, so you should have just about the same permissions. We need to arm up and find out as much information as we can. If this base is abandoned, we might be stranded on this planet. And I don't particularly feel like spending the rest of my life in this base after I've only just got it back."
"Hoo… Right… I'm on it, Snake… just gimme a second…" he straightened back up and began to look around. Still panting, he walked over to the main computer in the commander's office and began to examine it. "I got this from here, you can go explore the facility. I'll let you know what I learn."
With that, David nodded and turned away. Stalking through the halls, he made his way through to the cafeteria first. He was starving, and didn't even have a single ration.
Entering the dining hall, he was impressed. Even though it'd been over 200 years since there'd been any maintenance, the place was still remarkably clean and intact. Even the plumbing still worked, he found as he sipped from a nearby water fountain. Snake wandered his way into the kitchen, searching for any supplies that he and his partner could use.
The first thing he checked were the coolers, the contents of which, as expected, had long since spoiled. Wrinkling a nose at the smell, his next choice were the freezers. The food looked more or less okay, but he wasn't confident. It was the dry storage that was most fruitful. Instead of more scraps of moldy food, Snake laid his eyes on something he never realized could be so beautiful:
Industrial pallets of emergency rations.
As he rushed over, he began opening the boxes on top and searching through them.
"Otacon, can you hear me? It looks like we hit the jackpot."
"The jackpot? Oh right, you were heading to the armory. What did you find, Snake?"
"Nah, I stopped by the mess instead, and found the motherlode! There's at least two years worth of rations here, freeze-dried and preserved, and look at the choices! Orange chicken, fried rice, beef and broccoli, they've even got Swedish meatballs and beef ravioli! We're eating good tonight, Otacon!"
"I had totally forgotten about our food supply, way to go Snake! While you're there, you mind checking to see if they have the chicken fettuccini? That one is my favorite. Oh, and some coffee too, that's almost as important as the rations."
"Oh come on, the chicken fettuccini? What's wrong with you? Fine, I'll check… sorry Otacon. I don't see any in this box, but there's like 8 pallets of these things so there are definitely more flavors."
"Hey, I don't judge you for what you like!
*sigh* That's okay Snake, I'll eat just about anything."
"By the way, have you discovered anything interesting?"
" Yeah, I found out that these people brute forced their way into space. Can you believe that these computers only have megabytes of RAM? It's like looking at the future through the view of someone from the 1980s, they hardly even have semiconductors! It's mostly vacuum tubes and analog computing! Which explains how it lasted this long, but still, my phone has more computing power than this whole facility."
"Vacuum tubes? Can you work around it?"
"It might take a while, but once I get a handle on the local technology I should be able to redevelop some gadgets that you should enjoy."
"Hrmmm, gadgets?"
"Yeah, you know, like the Solid Eye, optical camo, or Metal Gear Mk.III."
"Well, I'll be looking forward to it, Otacon.
As he hung up his codec, Snake glanced over the rations before he swiped a couple of them, one for now and one for later. It was freeze-dried Chicken and rice, a good choice. He could rehydrate it and eat it normally, but…
Munch, munch
Crunch, crunch
Gulp!
He shoved the empty package into his back pocket and moved on. No time to waste on cooking rations, these things were perfectly edible with no prep. He pushed his way out of the mess hall and continued to travel towards the armory. Fancy base, Snake thought, but so far, nothing blew his mind. As much as everything had the veneer of being futuristic, some stuff seemed to be less advanced than one thousand years ago.
"A thousand years…"
Snake shook the thoughts from his head as he drew forward towards the armory. He swiped his card across the keypad and the sealed doors began to open, depressurizing with a hiss that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Slowly grinding open, the multiple layers of blast doors parted, allowing Snake to enter. Slowly, the spy crept forward, knife at the ready. As he entered the room proper, the lights began to turn on in stages, revealing a massive room full of arms and armor the likes of which he hasn't seen in his whole life.
Snake practically gaped at the beauty before him.
"Otacon, I'm in heaven."
Gear
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Snake wandered through the aisles of shelves and gun racks, carefully examining the make, model, and features of the weapons around him. Most of them were of the same model, a Mauser 960 Assault System. He took one off the rack and examined it carefully, before the man walked to a nearby table and began to take it apart.
Bit by bit the firearm was broken down and disassembled, until Snake had the whole thing in pieces on the table in front of him. Laid out in order, the weapon was much less complex than he had initially assumed. Disregarding the somewhat complex series of electronics, mirrors and lenses that Snake determined was the emitter, he noted that the rest of it seemed simple, rugged even. It combined a robust and adaptable firing platform with an under-barrel grenade launcher, adjustable sights, and an adaptor for additional power sources.
Then, he began to put it back together, his mind more than sharp enough to have memorized every step of disassembly and then reverse it. Hefting the reassembled rifle up to his chest, he aimed down the sights just to get a feel for the weapon. He swapped ball and forth between main hands, practiced swapping the power pack a couple times, then grinned to himself.
"Gotta find a range around here, check its performance pretty soon."
Placing the laser on the table, Sanke resumed his search. Pistols, rifles, carbines, mostly lasers but there were a few that were more conventional firearms, filled the room.. If Snake had any doubts that this facility was built to house at least a battalion of people, they were put to rest. In addition to guns, he found spare power packs and ammunition, grenades, plastic explosives, radios, spare armor plates, helmets, even spare uniforms. He was incredibly impressed.
He was so impressed, in fact, that he almost didn't find the secret door that opened up after he passed his badge across an almost conspicuously inconspicuous section of wall.
Almost.
Snake nearly walked right on past, but after a quick double take he noticed the details right away. The lack of shelves and supplies in front of it, the small but noticeable marks in the false wall where the hidden door met the rest of the structure, and even the key reader disguised as a wall junction, all of them he noticed straight away. So when the secret door opened up into a dark corridor, to reveal a single set of stairs that descended into the bowels of the earth, he did the first thing he could think of.
He grabbed a gun.
"Otacon, I found a secret passage in the armory, possibly some sort of hidden storage room. I'm checking it out," Snake said into his codec as he performed a weapons check on the Mauser he had just pulled off the wall. Holding it at the ready, the spy crept into the dark stairway and began his descent.
"You got it, Snake! Good luck down there, I've almost completed a full system scan and started working on repairing the base network, so by the time you get back we should have more answers about this place."
Snake let the codec all go silent as he slowly made his way down the steps. The floor and walls had indicator lights that illuminated the way, but he still stepped carefully. No point getting a second lot in life only to break his neck falling down the stairs.
Quietly, carefully he stalked through the darkened tunnel, wary for any rogue security systems that may or may not be active. But as he reached the bottom of the stairs and the tunnel leveled out, he entered into a wider chamber. In the middle of the room, in front of a raised upper platform holding a number of large cylinders, lay a skeleton wearing some sort of combat suit. The armor plating on the front was shattered, and the fabric tattered with age and decay. Flesh was long gone, leaving nothing but bones grasping a practically ancient data tablet, and a gun.
If you're reading this, you probably already know that bastard Amaris betrayed us. Damn him, and damn Richard Cameron! That rat bastard murdered the whole rest of the 71st, with SLDF weapons! Gunned down our ships over Vulture's Nest. Too bad for him, he won't get this outpost. I disconnected the HPG and wiped all prior authorized personnel from the network. Sealed all the doors, stored my mech in the secret hanger, and locked myself in here to die
I'm the last of my regiment, as far as I know, and I'm not lasting too much longer. Bastards shot me and now it's infected, could have gotten it fixed but… I had shit to do, and I don't wanna live without my squad.
if you're reading this, then as far as I'm concerned, this whole place is yours. Mechs, vehicles, ships, all of it. You couldn't possibly do worse with it than Star League.
Good luck, whoever you are.
Signing off,
Master Sergeant Cole Delanoix, SLDF 71st SOG
Snake stared down at the corpse of a man who died lifetimes ago, alone and in pain, abandoned by his government and betrayed. And in a moment of strange emotion, snapped to attention, and saluted the fallen warrior. Even across time and space, across cultures and languages, a soldier recognizes a soldier.
"Rest easy, Sergeant. Your vigil is over. I won't let you be forgotten."
Snake moved past the body, up the stairs and onto the raised platform. Four large cylinders stood in a row, their contents safely sealed inside. He strode forward to the first pod, examined it closely, and began looking for the release mechanism. A small panel on the side was exactly what he was looking for, with a button that made the pod his as it depressurised. He stepped back as it slid open with a hiss, light pouring out to reveal…
Nothing.
With an annoyed grunt, Snake walked over to the other three and intentionally opened up the rest of them. Fortunately, two of them actually had contents to reveal.
The first was clearly a Sneaking Suit, he didn't even have to think about it. Despite the difference in design, he's worn enough Sneaking Suits to know what they look like. A sleek, stealthy looking suit with a variety of pouches and pockets, electronic devices, and a night vision filter helmet? It wasn't even a question.
The other was a lot more interesting.
Almost seven feet tall, the large form did not gleam in the light. Matte olive drab armor plates covered its form, protective and stealthy. A wide visor with tinted, polarized glass for the helmet, and a built in jetpack, Snake was speechless. Reading off the diagnostic computer in front of him, Snake couldn't help but to keep being surprised by the future.
"Otacon is gonna love this," he muttered, for the first time taking in the view of the Nighthawk Mk. XXI.
Bit by bit the firearm was broken down and disassembled, until Snake had the whole thing in pieces on the table in front of him. Laid out in order, the weapon was much less complex than he had initially assumed. Disregarding the somewhat complex series of electronics, mirrors and lenses that Snake determined was the emitter, he noted that the rest of it seemed simple, rugged even. It combined a robust and adaptable firing platform with an under-barrel grenade launcher, adjustable sights, and an adaptor for additional power sources.
Then, he began to put it back together, his mind more than sharp enough to have memorized every step of disassembly and then reverse it. Hefting the reassembled rifle up to his chest, he aimed down the sights just to get a feel for the weapon. He swapped ball and forth between main hands, practiced swapping the power pack a couple times, then grinned to himself.
"Gotta find a range around here, check its performance pretty soon."
Placing the laser on the table, Sanke resumed his search. Pistols, rifles, carbines, mostly lasers but there were a few that were more conventional firearms, filled the room.. If Snake had any doubts that this facility was built to house at least a battalion of people, they were put to rest. In addition to guns, he found spare power packs and ammunition, grenades, plastic explosives, radios, spare armor plates, helmets, even spare uniforms. He was incredibly impressed.
He was so impressed, in fact, that he almost didn't find the secret door that opened up after he passed his badge across an almost conspicuously inconspicuous section of wall.
Almost.
Snake nearly walked right on past, but after a quick double take he noticed the details right away. The lack of shelves and supplies in front of it, the small but noticeable marks in the false wall where the hidden door met the rest of the structure, and even the key reader disguised as a wall junction, all of them he noticed straight away. So when the secret door opened up into a dark corridor, to reveal a single set of stairs that descended into the bowels of the earth, he did the first thing he could think of.
He grabbed a gun.
"Otacon, I found a secret passage in the armory, possibly some sort of hidden storage room. I'm checking it out," Snake said into his codec as he performed a weapons check on the Mauser he had just pulled off the wall. Holding it at the ready, the spy crept into the dark stairway and began his descent.
"You got it, Snake! Good luck down there, I've almost completed a full system scan and started working on repairing the base network, so by the time you get back we should have more answers about this place."
Snake let the codec all go silent as he slowly made his way down the steps. The floor and walls had indicator lights that illuminated the way, but he still stepped carefully. No point getting a second lot in life only to break his neck falling down the stairs.
Quietly, carefully he stalked through the darkened tunnel, wary for any rogue security systems that may or may not be active. But as he reached the bottom of the stairs and the tunnel leveled out, he entered into a wider chamber. In the middle of the room, in front of a raised upper platform holding a number of large cylinders, lay a skeleton wearing some sort of combat suit. The armor plating on the front was shattered, and the fabric tattered with age and decay. Flesh was long gone, leaving nothing but bones grasping a practically ancient data tablet, and a gun.
If you're reading this, you probably already know that bastard Amaris betrayed us. Damn him, and damn Richard Cameron! That rat bastard murdered the whole rest of the 71st, with SLDF weapons! Gunned down our ships over Vulture's Nest. Too bad for him, he won't get this outpost. I disconnected the HPG and wiped all prior authorized personnel from the network. Sealed all the doors, stored my mech in the secret hanger, and locked myself in here to die
I'm the last of my regiment, as far as I know, and I'm not lasting too much longer. Bastards shot me and now it's infected, could have gotten it fixed but… I had shit to do, and I don't wanna live without my squad.
if you're reading this, then as far as I'm concerned, this whole place is yours. Mechs, vehicles, ships, all of it. You couldn't possibly do worse with it than Star League.
Good luck, whoever you are.
Signing off,
Master Sergeant Cole Delanoix, SLDF 71st SOG
Snake stared down at the corpse of a man who died lifetimes ago, alone and in pain, abandoned by his government and betrayed. And in a moment of strange emotion, snapped to attention, and saluted the fallen warrior. Even across time and space, across cultures and languages, a soldier recognizes a soldier.
"Rest easy, Sergeant. Your vigil is over. I won't let you be forgotten."
Snake moved past the body, up the stairs and onto the raised platform. Four large cylinders stood in a row, their contents safely sealed inside. He strode forward to the first pod, examined it closely, and began looking for the release mechanism. A small panel on the side was exactly what he was looking for, with a button that made the pod his as it depressurised. He stepped back as it slid open with a hiss, light pouring out to reveal…
Nothing.
With an annoyed grunt, Snake walked over to the other three and intentionally opened up the rest of them. Fortunately, two of them actually had contents to reveal.
The first was clearly a Sneaking Suit, he didn't even have to think about it. Despite the difference in design, he's worn enough Sneaking Suits to know what they look like. A sleek, stealthy looking suit with a variety of pouches and pockets, electronic devices, and a night vision filter helmet? It wasn't even a question.
The other was a lot more interesting.
Almost seven feet tall, the large form did not gleam in the light. Matte olive drab armor plates covered its form, protective and stealthy. A wide visor with tinted, polarized glass for the helmet, and a built in jetpack, Snake was speechless. Reading off the diagnostic computer in front of him, Snake couldn't help but to keep being surprised by the future.
"Otacon is gonna love this," he muttered, for the first time taking in the view of the Nighthawk Mk. XXI.
Conflict
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
"Snake, we have a big problem!"
"Talk to me," Snake responded as he adjusted his new armor. Putting on the Sneaking Suit was like coming home, even the unfamiliar technology more thrilling than disconcerting. The suit was every bit as good as any of his old ones, though it didn't enhance his strength at all like his last one. Damn microwaves… he grumbled internally.
"Well, I was repairing the base's computer network, and I got external sensors back online. I've intercepted some communications, and, well… I'll just patch it through to your Codec, you can see for yourself."
"-lling me you're afraid to go in there? THIS IS MY FUCKING PLANET! YOU SHOULD BE MORE AFRAID OF ME! *Bang!*"
"Jeez, boss…"
"Anybody else have doubts? We get this thing open, and we're made for life! The Oberans and Lyrans won't be able to touch us! I'll use these mechs to carve out my own kingdom, and if you serve me loyally, I'll keep you by my side. But first, I need you to GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GET INTO THAT BASE, NOW!!!"
"Otacon, are those… Space pirates?"
"Seems like it. I took a look at the inventory manifests, and there should be enough firepower in this base to give the U.S. Army a hard time. We can't let them get their hands on these weapons, Snake!"
"Have a little faith in me, Otacon. I've been taking down ambitious warlords since I got out of basic."
"Fair enough. There's some sort of ship, about 10 kilometers out, a transport of some kind, and they've sent some kind of armored vehicles. The fidelity of these external sensors aren't the greatest, so I can't tell exactly what they are, but I'm reading six large radar presences… Snake, I think these people are piloting mechs!"
"Piloting mechs… you mean like Metal Gear?"
"Maybe… I can't be certain, Snake, but I have a gut feeling that these are dangerous in a different way. Metal Gear REX was, essentially, a mobile railgun platform, and was intended for stealth deployment. It was relatively under-armed for close range engagements, which is why we developed the Street Fighter program. These guys look like they're armed to the teeth!"
"I see. So it would be really bad if they saw me. Unless…"
"Unless you had a mech of your own!"
Snake looked down at the body that still rested there, the empty sockets in the skull of Sergeant Delanoix gazing through him. The man fought and died as a soldier, and passed everything on to whatever stranger found his body. And yet, he did it willingly. He gave his life for a cause, and was betrayed by the people that he served, but he never shied away from his duty.
… stored my mech in the secret hanger…
"I won't let you down, Sergeant," he whispered, as he glanced past the armor pods at the single unopened door at the back of the room. "Otacon, I need you to feed me their locations, I have an idea…"
-----
Julie was excited.
Sure, the boss killed James for being a coward, but he deserved it! A Star League outpost is exactly what their crew needed to establish a real kingdom instead of just knocking over dirt huts to intimidate peasants.
She used to be a Solaris gladiator, but she had to run after she killed a few too many people outside the arena. Suited her just fine, the boss let her kill way more people in way more fun ways. That one guy she threw into the sky, the screams as he flew away…
She shook her head as much as she could while in the confines of her neurohelmet. Now was not the time to reminisce, she had a base to break into. She urged her precious Phoenix Hawk forward up the path towards the hangar gate, and upon reaching it, contacted the boss.
"Hey Boss, I'm at the Hangar bay, I'm about to start breaching."
"Aft. Go ahead, Billy is 3 minutes behind you so he should catch up before you're in. And don't break anything!"
Chuckling at the thought of the Urbanmech pilot that she left in her dust, she lifted the Phoenix Hawk's left arm and spun up the Rock Cutter she had replaced the hand with. Not as effective in battle, but it was exactly the kind of flashy thing that Solaris audiences loved, and it made it a breeze to break into places she shouldn't be.
The whine of the blade spinning up was nothing compared to the cacophony that came when she began to cut through the seam on the hanger doors, diamond tipped saw blade meeting the aged metal and grinding it away with a blaze of sparks. Julie kept an eye on her sensors, giving another grin at the struggling Urbie only just within visual range. Billy was a joke, the only person she respected in this crew was her boss, and he deserved it for the power he had. Nobody wanted to fight an Awesome, and they all knew it.
But the boss liked to have other people do shit for him, so instead of getting her head blown off like James, she got to cutting. The hangar doors shouldn't take too long, maybe ten minutes as long as she allowed for some time for heat dissipation. Only had the one rock cutter, after all.
Ten minutes later, she was right, as usual. The blade was nearly red hot after cutting through the protective doors, but that was fine. She didn't need it anymore.
"Billy, let the boss know the door's unlocked, I'm gonna go ahead and open it."
"Are you sure we shouldn't wait for the rest? What about the defenses…?"
"Quit being a little bitch, Billy. If the anti-air and external defenses aren't working, what makes you think that the interior ones do? Just watch my back, coward."
Dumb fuck, she thought as she shoved both arms into the crack between the doors and began to pull. It began to give, just a little at first, but then Julie got the leverage to really give her mech dome power and she threw the doors open, stumbling inside just a little.
Unfortunately for her, that's when she noticed the PPC aimed at her cockpit at point blank range.
"Fu-"
"Talk to me," Snake responded as he adjusted his new armor. Putting on the Sneaking Suit was like coming home, even the unfamiliar technology more thrilling than disconcerting. The suit was every bit as good as any of his old ones, though it didn't enhance his strength at all like his last one. Damn microwaves… he grumbled internally.
"Well, I was repairing the base's computer network, and I got external sensors back online. I've intercepted some communications, and, well… I'll just patch it through to your Codec, you can see for yourself."
"-lling me you're afraid to go in there? THIS IS MY FUCKING PLANET! YOU SHOULD BE MORE AFRAID OF ME! *Bang!*"
"Jeez, boss…"
"Anybody else have doubts? We get this thing open, and we're made for life! The Oberans and Lyrans won't be able to touch us! I'll use these mechs to carve out my own kingdom, and if you serve me loyally, I'll keep you by my side. But first, I need you to GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GET INTO THAT BASE, NOW!!!"
"Otacon, are those… Space pirates?"
"Seems like it. I took a look at the inventory manifests, and there should be enough firepower in this base to give the U.S. Army a hard time. We can't let them get their hands on these weapons, Snake!"
"Have a little faith in me, Otacon. I've been taking down ambitious warlords since I got out of basic."
"Fair enough. There's some sort of ship, about 10 kilometers out, a transport of some kind, and they've sent some kind of armored vehicles. The fidelity of these external sensors aren't the greatest, so I can't tell exactly what they are, but I'm reading six large radar presences… Snake, I think these people are piloting mechs!"
"Piloting mechs… you mean like Metal Gear?"
"Maybe… I can't be certain, Snake, but I have a gut feeling that these are dangerous in a different way. Metal Gear REX was, essentially, a mobile railgun platform, and was intended for stealth deployment. It was relatively under-armed for close range engagements, which is why we developed the Street Fighter program. These guys look like they're armed to the teeth!"
"I see. So it would be really bad if they saw me. Unless…"
"Unless you had a mech of your own!"
Snake looked down at the body that still rested there, the empty sockets in the skull of Sergeant Delanoix gazing through him. The man fought and died as a soldier, and passed everything on to whatever stranger found his body. And yet, he did it willingly. He gave his life for a cause, and was betrayed by the people that he served, but he never shied away from his duty.
… stored my mech in the secret hanger…
"I won't let you down, Sergeant," he whispered, as he glanced past the armor pods at the single unopened door at the back of the room. "Otacon, I need you to feed me their locations, I have an idea…"
-----
Julie was excited.
Sure, the boss killed James for being a coward, but he deserved it! A Star League outpost is exactly what their crew needed to establish a real kingdom instead of just knocking over dirt huts to intimidate peasants.
She used to be a Solaris gladiator, but she had to run after she killed a few too many people outside the arena. Suited her just fine, the boss let her kill way more people in way more fun ways. That one guy she threw into the sky, the screams as he flew away…
She shook her head as much as she could while in the confines of her neurohelmet. Now was not the time to reminisce, she had a base to break into. She urged her precious Phoenix Hawk forward up the path towards the hangar gate, and upon reaching it, contacted the boss.
"Hey Boss, I'm at the Hangar bay, I'm about to start breaching."
"Aft. Go ahead, Billy is 3 minutes behind you so he should catch up before you're in. And don't break anything!"
Chuckling at the thought of the Urbanmech pilot that she left in her dust, she lifted the Phoenix Hawk's left arm and spun up the Rock Cutter she had replaced the hand with. Not as effective in battle, but it was exactly the kind of flashy thing that Solaris audiences loved, and it made it a breeze to break into places she shouldn't be.
The whine of the blade spinning up was nothing compared to the cacophony that came when she began to cut through the seam on the hanger doors, diamond tipped saw blade meeting the aged metal and grinding it away with a blaze of sparks. Julie kept an eye on her sensors, giving another grin at the struggling Urbie only just within visual range. Billy was a joke, the only person she respected in this crew was her boss, and he deserved it for the power he had. Nobody wanted to fight an Awesome, and they all knew it.
But the boss liked to have other people do shit for him, so instead of getting her head blown off like James, she got to cutting. The hangar doors shouldn't take too long, maybe ten minutes as long as she allowed for some time for heat dissipation. Only had the one rock cutter, after all.
Ten minutes later, she was right, as usual. The blade was nearly red hot after cutting through the protective doors, but that was fine. She didn't need it anymore.
"Billy, let the boss know the door's unlocked, I'm gonna go ahead and open it."
"Are you sure we shouldn't wait for the rest? What about the defenses…?"
"Quit being a little bitch, Billy. If the anti-air and external defenses aren't working, what makes you think that the interior ones do? Just watch my back, coward."
Dumb fuck, she thought as she shoved both arms into the crack between the doors and began to pull. It began to give, just a little at first, but then Julie got the leverage to really give her mech dome power and she threw the doors open, stumbling inside just a little.
Unfortunately for her, that's when she noticed the PPC aimed at her cockpit at point blank range.
"Fu-"
So anyway, I started blasting...
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Contrary to what most of the people in his crew thought, William "Billy" Stone was not a coward. He wasn't afraid of death, and had gotten pretty good with his Granpappy's Urbie over the last few years of 'service' under Captain Amaris. Crazy bastard had delusions of grandeur and didn't care how many people he had to kill, hostages he had to take, or mechs he had to steal to achieve them. Claimed to be a descendent of the man who destroyed the last Star League, and wasn't that a shocker.
And now, here he was, press-ganged into a pirate crew with his family under threat, watching the first mate get cored with one shot. Julie never even had time to react, opening the door only for her cockpit to disintegrate and the rest of her ammo to cook off, causing the mech to go up in a fireball. Immediately he brought up the firing system and let off a stream of rounds from his AC/10 at the open doorway and strafing to avoid counter attack.
He held fire only for nothing to happen. The rounds pinged off metal, but there was no return. Letting off the stream of bullets, Billy waited for the smoke to clear, and his scanner reported back as the interference from Julie's reactor explosion cleared.
An empty, savaged Marauder stood in the doorway. The explosion blasted off its armor and destroyed its weapons, but the damn thing had no pilot.
"What the hell?" He muttered to himself as he messaged his captain.
"I need backup, Julie got smoked instantly! I don't see the enemy, holding position."
"Are you fucking daft? Find who fucking did it! Jerome and Miller are on their way, so you better not try to run, you fuck. I don't care what you have to do, I WILL HAVE THIS BASE!"
Billy grimaced as his 'boss' screamed at him. The lunatic saw all of them as completely expendable, but he couldn't even run if he wanted his wife and son to live. He just hoped he didn't turn out like Julie. His Urbanmech moved forward, aiming at both of the downed machines as he slowly approached the entrance. All he had to do was-
His sensors screamed at him just in time for him to swivel, causing the inferno missile that was aimed for his engine to explode against the small laser instead. His mech shook with the force, alerts blaring through his cockpit as half of the weapons on his mech became useless and his machine caught fire. Starting to panic, he blasted his autocannon blindly, looking for any sign of his enemy.
It's like fighting a ghost, he thought to himself as sweat dripped from his brow. He stopped firing the AC briefly to reposition, only for another Inferno to impact his remaining weapon. Immediately alarms sounded off, alerting him to an imminent ammo detonation. Unwillingly, the automated systems in his mech set off the ejection charges, launching his cockpit away from the chassis before it went off in a fireball. He had just enough time to think about how he failed his family before his cockpit hit the ground and he lost consciousness.
---
Snake hid amidst the rocks and debris, chameleon camo blending in with the dirt as he waited silently. Blocks of C8 were strewn across the battlefield, along the hangar entrance, and hidden in the wrecks of the different machines. He had two more shots with the rocket launcher before he ran out of ammo, and he had a bandolier of grenades hidden in his pack.
"Alright, that's two down! Only four more to go! These guys weren't prepared for us, were they, Snake?"
"These guys are about a thousand years too young to take me down. You got eyes on the rest of them?"
"As soon as we took out the first one with the rigged mech, all four of the others began to converge on your position. They were spread out across the compound, but you've got one approaching from the north, ETA 45 seconds, they're hopping along the walls and ridges so be careful that they don't spot you. The rest are all more than three minutes out, so you have to hurry, Snake!"
"Three minutes, huh? Got it. This is gonna be tough…"
"Don't worry, Snake, I'm with you all the way!"
David cut the codec call as he loaded another missile into the launcher. He had to admit, these things were WAY stronger than the Nikita, a fact he was very grateful for. The tension began to rise as the seconds passed, and eventually he heard it.
This time, the machine didn't just walk right up to the front door. It landed on a nearby ridge, opting to scan for nearby enemies. It looked more like the first one he destroyed than the second, with hands and a humanoid shape. Snake counted the seconds down in his head, he had less than two minutes before the other mechs got there, but this guy seemed to be taking his sweet time surveying the area instead of walking into an ambush. Unfortunate.
As it turned away from his position, Snake took a piece of metal off the ground and tossed it towards the fallen machines. If he could just lure it over there…
Instead of taking the bait, the unknown machine unloaded on the source of the noise, blasting the downed robot with missiles before firing off a few laser beams around the area. He gasped as a fragment of metal whizzed by his face, but otherwise didn't move. He just had to pick his opportunity…
The machine hopped down from its position on the ridge, guns on a swivel as it slowly approached the entrance. Staying silent, Snake waited while the mech passed him by, turning its back to him in what was the biggest mistake of the pilots career.
Popping up with the launcher already drawn, the mech's fate had already been sealed. The missile left the tube with a blast, and before the pilot could react the incendiary explosives impacted with the machine's own missile launcher, setting off a chain reaction and blowing the left half of the mech to pieces. Interestingly, this mech, too, ejected its cockpit before the whole thing went up in flames. A safety feature? Either way, that was the third mech taken down. He only had one shot left, but that was fine. He'd take the rest of them out with grenades if he had to.
He really hoped he didn't have to. Twice was already too much.
And now, here he was, press-ganged into a pirate crew with his family under threat, watching the first mate get cored with one shot. Julie never even had time to react, opening the door only for her cockpit to disintegrate and the rest of her ammo to cook off, causing the mech to go up in a fireball. Immediately he brought up the firing system and let off a stream of rounds from his AC/10 at the open doorway and strafing to avoid counter attack.
He held fire only for nothing to happen. The rounds pinged off metal, but there was no return. Letting off the stream of bullets, Billy waited for the smoke to clear, and his scanner reported back as the interference from Julie's reactor explosion cleared.
An empty, savaged Marauder stood in the doorway. The explosion blasted off its armor and destroyed its weapons, but the damn thing had no pilot.
"What the hell?" He muttered to himself as he messaged his captain.
"I need backup, Julie got smoked instantly! I don't see the enemy, holding position."
"Are you fucking daft? Find who fucking did it! Jerome and Miller are on their way, so you better not try to run, you fuck. I don't care what you have to do, I WILL HAVE THIS BASE!"
Billy grimaced as his 'boss' screamed at him. The lunatic saw all of them as completely expendable, but he couldn't even run if he wanted his wife and son to live. He just hoped he didn't turn out like Julie. His Urbanmech moved forward, aiming at both of the downed machines as he slowly approached the entrance. All he had to do was-
His sensors screamed at him just in time for him to swivel, causing the inferno missile that was aimed for his engine to explode against the small laser instead. His mech shook with the force, alerts blaring through his cockpit as half of the weapons on his mech became useless and his machine caught fire. Starting to panic, he blasted his autocannon blindly, looking for any sign of his enemy.
It's like fighting a ghost, he thought to himself as sweat dripped from his brow. He stopped firing the AC briefly to reposition, only for another Inferno to impact his remaining weapon. Immediately alarms sounded off, alerting him to an imminent ammo detonation. Unwillingly, the automated systems in his mech set off the ejection charges, launching his cockpit away from the chassis before it went off in a fireball. He had just enough time to think about how he failed his family before his cockpit hit the ground and he lost consciousness.
---
Snake hid amidst the rocks and debris, chameleon camo blending in with the dirt as he waited silently. Blocks of C8 were strewn across the battlefield, along the hangar entrance, and hidden in the wrecks of the different machines. He had two more shots with the rocket launcher before he ran out of ammo, and he had a bandolier of grenades hidden in his pack.
"Alright, that's two down! Only four more to go! These guys weren't prepared for us, were they, Snake?"
"These guys are about a thousand years too young to take me down. You got eyes on the rest of them?"
"As soon as we took out the first one with the rigged mech, all four of the others began to converge on your position. They were spread out across the compound, but you've got one approaching from the north, ETA 45 seconds, they're hopping along the walls and ridges so be careful that they don't spot you. The rest are all more than three minutes out, so you have to hurry, Snake!"
"Three minutes, huh? Got it. This is gonna be tough…"
"Don't worry, Snake, I'm with you all the way!"
David cut the codec call as he loaded another missile into the launcher. He had to admit, these things were WAY stronger than the Nikita, a fact he was very grateful for. The tension began to rise as the seconds passed, and eventually he heard it.
This time, the machine didn't just walk right up to the front door. It landed on a nearby ridge, opting to scan for nearby enemies. It looked more like the first one he destroyed than the second, with hands and a humanoid shape. Snake counted the seconds down in his head, he had less than two minutes before the other mechs got there, but this guy seemed to be taking his sweet time surveying the area instead of walking into an ambush. Unfortunate.
As it turned away from his position, Snake took a piece of metal off the ground and tossed it towards the fallen machines. If he could just lure it over there…
Instead of taking the bait, the unknown machine unloaded on the source of the noise, blasting the downed robot with missiles before firing off a few laser beams around the area. He gasped as a fragment of metal whizzed by his face, but otherwise didn't move. He just had to pick his opportunity…
The machine hopped down from its position on the ridge, guns on a swivel as it slowly approached the entrance. Staying silent, Snake waited while the mech passed him by, turning its back to him in what was the biggest mistake of the pilots career.
Popping up with the launcher already drawn, the mech's fate had already been sealed. The missile left the tube with a blast, and before the pilot could react the incendiary explosives impacted with the machine's own missile launcher, setting off a chain reaction and blowing the left half of the mech to pieces. Interestingly, this mech, too, ejected its cockpit before the whole thing went up in flames. A safety feature? Either way, that was the third mech taken down. He only had one shot left, but that was fine. He'd take the rest of them out with grenades if he had to.
He really hoped he didn't have to. Twice was already too much.
Shots Fired
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Snake let out a low breath as he changed his position. It was about to get too hot to stay around the front of the hanger, so instead he sprinted. He had about a minute before the last three mechs converged on his position, and couldn't waste any time. Loading the last missile into the launcher, he climbed up the ridge the humanoid mech had perched on, and then ran along it until he was up against the wall of the compound. The facility was in the mountains, and was built into said mountains, so there were plenty of nooks and crannies to hide.
"Snake, you're not gonna like this."
"Lay it on me, Otacon."
"All three of incoming mechs are nearly on you, but I intercepted their transmissions and the captain is coming down himself."
"Hrm, the captain? Great. Hope this guy's a challenge."
"You don't have much time, Snake. Be careful."
Snake could hear the stomping of the multi-ton machines as they approached his position. From his vantage point, it was two strange armless mechs, similar to REX but much less impressive, and another, much larger humanoid mech that looked bulky and better armored, but moved with much more speed than the ones he'd taken out before. That one was dangerous, he knew how deadly a multi-ton machine could be in CQC.
With his first target in mind, he quietly pulled a satchel charge from his back. Eight blocks of C8 were spread across the battlefield and hidden in the wrecks (Some of which were probably destroyed by that last volley of missiles), but he kept four on him for this reason specifically. Bound together and attached to one detonator, he was sure that it would be able to take out any mech provided he placed it on them, but he wasn't feeling eager to get up close.
The mechs crept closer to the hangar, and Snake was incredibly glad he was wearing this suit. The ECM stealth measures hid his radar presence, and he almost wished he had this back when he was hiding from Gekko units.
Not finding anything, the mechs slowly stalked closer to the entrance. He quietly inhaled as he watched the large one walk on top of a hidden block of C8, and he took the opportunity. Six explosions rang through the air, as the humanoid machine flew over, a large chunk of its left leg missing. The other two, smaller mechs only took glancing blows, damaging armor but leaving them both fully functional.
He had to strike while they were reeling. The spy lifted the missile launcher and launched his last shot at one of the smaller scout types, and immediately he armed the satchel charge and bailed on his position. Diving away, Snake rolled along the ground and hid behind a rock as the explosive hit, just in time to watch the last machine land at his last location with a crash.
"Not today, buddy," he said as he set off the last bomb. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't far enough away to avoid the shockwave. The Satchel charge, and the mech whose reactor was immediately, catastrophically breached went up in a fireball that physically picked up and threw the man through the air.
"**! ***** ** ** ** ***"
Launched off the ridge, he rolled back down to the devastated battleground, ears ringing. Mech corpses littered the ground, and the last survivor was crippled, but still a danger, and now stealth was blown. Climbing to his feet clutching his ribs, he ran to avoid the laser beams aimed at him by the crippled mech. He was out of stealth, injured, and outgunned. Activating his codec, he sent off a message.
"Otacon, I'm gonna need some help…"
"*****!"
Dodging laser fire and drawing two grenades, he began making his way closer to the machine. His only hope was to take it out before the captain showed up, and pray that Hal pulled through for him.
-----
"Captain" "Ameris" clenched his teeth in barely restrained fury. His whole squad of mechs, gone because of some fuck who thought he could fuck with him. His people were either dead or incapacitated, with the last of his people screaming about a Star League ghost. He pushed his Awesome to its max speed of fifty-four kilometers, and it most definitely wasn't fast enough for his taste.
These fucks couldn't do anything right, and they got HIS mechs destroyed. Even if they lived he'd kill 'em all, they didn't deserve to live after their failures to him. He'd claim this damn base, take this backwater planet, forge his own kingdom, and he'd live like a goddamn emperor.
As he approached, he heard the sound of small explosions going off, and the crack of lasers as Juan's Charger fired off its whole arsenal trying to kill one man. He wouldn't stop screaming that he was getting closer, and the spook, ballsy fucker was dodging laser beams and throwing grenades.
If he hadn't made the mistake of fucking with Captain Ameris, the pirate might have extended a recruitement offer. As it is, the captain would give him the opportunity to see his killer before he died.
He didn't give that courtesy to Juan though. The captain charged up his Awesome's PPC and let off a burst of plasma into the cockpit of the failure's mech. The blast caused the fucker's mech to go up in a fireball that couldn't help but make the Captain sneer. The spook rolled along the ground after the explosion and landed right in front of the open hanger. Heh, unlucky bastard. Too bad, the captain thought, but this was his base now. As he walked up to the man who even now was climbing to his feet, the captain opened up his mech cockpit to gloat while he aimed his Awesome's small laser.
"You gave my boys a run, but you couldn't beat me, and now you're gonna die. Any last words, pal?"
"Hey buddy, get away from my friend!"
"What the-?" Is that artillery!?
*BOOM*
If the would-be warlord hadn't bothered to open his cockpit and gloat to a deaf man, he might have survived the shot. As it was, he barely had time to regret his decision before the Sniper Artillery Cannon attached to an HEP-3X Helepolis blew the cockpit out the back of his mech's head.
No great loss.
"Snake, you're not gonna like this."
"Lay it on me, Otacon."
"All three of incoming mechs are nearly on you, but I intercepted their transmissions and the captain is coming down himself."
"Hrm, the captain? Great. Hope this guy's a challenge."
"You don't have much time, Snake. Be careful."
Snake could hear the stomping of the multi-ton machines as they approached his position. From his vantage point, it was two strange armless mechs, similar to REX but much less impressive, and another, much larger humanoid mech that looked bulky and better armored, but moved with much more speed than the ones he'd taken out before. That one was dangerous, he knew how deadly a multi-ton machine could be in CQC.
With his first target in mind, he quietly pulled a satchel charge from his back. Eight blocks of C8 were spread across the battlefield and hidden in the wrecks (Some of which were probably destroyed by that last volley of missiles), but he kept four on him for this reason specifically. Bound together and attached to one detonator, he was sure that it would be able to take out any mech provided he placed it on them, but he wasn't feeling eager to get up close.
The mechs crept closer to the hangar, and Snake was incredibly glad he was wearing this suit. The ECM stealth measures hid his radar presence, and he almost wished he had this back when he was hiding from Gekko units.
Not finding anything, the mechs slowly stalked closer to the entrance. He quietly inhaled as he watched the large one walk on top of a hidden block of C8, and he took the opportunity. Six explosions rang through the air, as the humanoid machine flew over, a large chunk of its left leg missing. The other two, smaller mechs only took glancing blows, damaging armor but leaving them both fully functional.
He had to strike while they were reeling. The spy lifted the missile launcher and launched his last shot at one of the smaller scout types, and immediately he armed the satchel charge and bailed on his position. Diving away, Snake rolled along the ground and hid behind a rock as the explosive hit, just in time to watch the last machine land at his last location with a crash.
"Not today, buddy," he said as he set off the last bomb. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't far enough away to avoid the shockwave. The Satchel charge, and the mech whose reactor was immediately, catastrophically breached went up in a fireball that physically picked up and threw the man through the air.
"**! ***** ** ** ** ***"
Launched off the ridge, he rolled back down to the devastated battleground, ears ringing. Mech corpses littered the ground, and the last survivor was crippled, but still a danger, and now stealth was blown. Climbing to his feet clutching his ribs, he ran to avoid the laser beams aimed at him by the crippled mech. He was out of stealth, injured, and outgunned. Activating his codec, he sent off a message.
"Otacon, I'm gonna need some help…"
"*****!"
Dodging laser fire and drawing two grenades, he began making his way closer to the machine. His only hope was to take it out before the captain showed up, and pray that Hal pulled through for him.
-----
"Captain" "Ameris" clenched his teeth in barely restrained fury. His whole squad of mechs, gone because of some fuck who thought he could fuck with him. His people were either dead or incapacitated, with the last of his people screaming about a Star League ghost. He pushed his Awesome to its max speed of fifty-four kilometers, and it most definitely wasn't fast enough for his taste.
These fucks couldn't do anything right, and they got HIS mechs destroyed. Even if they lived he'd kill 'em all, they didn't deserve to live after their failures to him. He'd claim this damn base, take this backwater planet, forge his own kingdom, and he'd live like a goddamn emperor.
As he approached, he heard the sound of small explosions going off, and the crack of lasers as Juan's Charger fired off its whole arsenal trying to kill one man. He wouldn't stop screaming that he was getting closer, and the spook, ballsy fucker was dodging laser beams and throwing grenades.
If he hadn't made the mistake of fucking with Captain Ameris, the pirate might have extended a recruitement offer. As it is, the captain would give him the opportunity to see his killer before he died.
He didn't give that courtesy to Juan though. The captain charged up his Awesome's PPC and let off a burst of plasma into the cockpit of the failure's mech. The blast caused the fucker's mech to go up in a fireball that couldn't help but make the Captain sneer. The spook rolled along the ground after the explosion and landed right in front of the open hanger. Heh, unlucky bastard. Too bad, the captain thought, but this was his base now. As he walked up to the man who even now was climbing to his feet, the captain opened up his mech cockpit to gloat while he aimed his Awesome's small laser.
"You gave my boys a run, but you couldn't beat me, and now you're gonna die. Any last words, pal?"
"Hey buddy, get away from my friend!"
"What the-?" Is that artillery!?
*BOOM*
If the would-be warlord hadn't bothered to open his cockpit and gloat to a deaf man, he might have survived the shot. As it was, he barely had time to regret his decision before the Sniper Artillery Cannon attached to an HEP-3X Helepolis blew the cockpit out the back of his mech's head.
No great loss.
Captives
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Snake groaned as he began to regain consciousness. The man felt terrible, all his ribs seemed broken and his whole body burned. Electrical damage, concussion, busted eardrums, he hadn't been this bad off since the microwave incident. He tried to sit up, but he was pushed back down. Otacon sat over him, a concerned look on his face, as he began to shine a light into Snake's eyes.
"Snake! Just hold still, you're still badly hurt," Otacon told him, but he sounded like he was underwater. That wasn't going to be annoying, the spy thought, annoyed.
"Otacon, what happened?"
"Well, after you called for help, I ran to the mech hanger and grabbed one with the biggest gun I could find. Some sort of artillery platform on legs. Sound familiar?" He grinned as he moved to the other eye, examining his pupils before he flicked the pen light off and held a stethoscope to Snake's chest. "Deep breath in. You bought some time dodging the Charger, that's the name of the mech you crippled, and when the captain showed up and killed his buddy, he was about to execute you. Exhale."
Snake let out a deep breath that made his lungs sigh in relief as the pressure was released. Damn pirates, breaking his ribs.
"Anyway, it wasn't easy, but I got into a position to blow him away while he gloated like a cartoon villain. Then, once he was dead, I bluffed the rest of his crew into surrendering. Congratulations, Snake. You're now the proud owner of your own pirate crew, ship and all!"
"Otacon, how… you're amazing, buddy."
"Aww, Snake. You're gonna make me blush." The scientist gave the soldier a gentle smile before he clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, you're as healthy as you can be, barring all the injuries. You should be mostly recovered within a month, and be fighting fit within six weeks. Now I'm sure you're ready to get out of bed, you ready to meet our new employees?"
"New employees? Great…"
-----
Billy sat in the mess hall with his wife and child, who had been recovered from the ship after the rest of the crew surrendered. After his cockpit hit the ground, he sat there unconscious until his radio began to go off, demanding the surrender of all pirates within the area or he'd blow them out of the sky. As far as he knew, this place was full of SLDF spooks that could kill them all without hesitating, and so did the rest of the crew. The scientist, scrawny looking fellow, was apparently piloting a Helepolis without a Neurohelmet, which automatically put the man as the best Mechwarrior he'd ever seen.
And despite being nominally a prisoner of war, he was alright with the turn of events. He was no longer a subordinate to a psycho, his wife and kids weren't hostages, and the rest of their captives were more than happy to help police the pirates, given the weapons. A couple people gave him glares, but nobody treated him badly. They knew he hadn't been a willing accessory to their captivity, but some wounds took time to heal.
A shame about his Pappy's Urbie, he'd have to find some other way to support his family. If they ever got out of here. But that was for the future. As for the present, he just held his family close to him. Their host had provided ration packs that, while of dubious age, still seemed somewhat edible. Better than nutrient slop.
The double doors at the end of the mess hall opened, and in walked his saviors. He still didn't think the scientist looked like much, but he probably knew enough to make Billy's life extremely painful so he kept that opinion to himself. The other figure on the other hand, was larger than life. Wearing a high tech suit that had seen far better days, the spook seemed to cast his gaze across the room, his mere presence domineering. A scowl crossed his face as he took in the state of some of the former captives, and the commando leveled a withering glare at the pirates. He drew a momentary glance, but breathed a sigh of relief when the terrifying gaze passed him over. He squeezed his wife's hand and began to pray that they weren't going to get killed.
"You people are a disgrace."
The remark passed through the mess hall, silencing what conversation that hadn't stopped at their entrance. The man's sharp glare seemed to see through them and cut off any protests at the source. Shame filled the eyes of some of them, the ones that hadn't entirely been willing. The ones that were just as crazy as the captain were all tied up and held under guard, and some of the former captives seemed to have great glee at holding them at the end of a rifle.
"You people invade this place, with the intent of taking the resources here to spread war and misery to helpless, innocent people, and now I'm left with the question of what to do with you." The man's eyes lingered on the younger hostages, his son and the children of the other coerced crew members. His own mood fell, trying to think of how he'd provide for this family without his family mech. His wife placed her hand on his and gave him a gentle squeeze. They'd get through this together, as always.
"For the victims, we will provide you with passage back to your homes, just as soon as we get all this sorted out. I'm sure you all have lives to go back to."
"No!"
A young man, one of the teenage hostages, named Michael, shot out of the arms of his mother. Tears flew from his face as he threw himself at the feet of the deadly warrior.
"Please, don't abandon us! All of us, we don't have anything to go back to! Everything we had was taken or destroyed, and if you send us back we're as good as dead. Please…"
The room was silent as everybody processed the young man's words. Michael began to sob as he grasped the man's feet, making him look visibly uncomfortable.
…Billy felt ashamed. He was a coward, letting a child plead for their lives. The part of him that was concerned for his survival told him to just stay put and keep his mouth shut, but the part of him that had been so restrained while he was in service to a pirate screamed at him. To take his future in his two hands, and try for his own redemption. Pulling away from his wife, he stood and approached the increasingly uncomfortable looking spook. Billy knelt before the soldier, eyes up and gaze steady as he spoke.
"Sir, you've saved us all from a fate worse than death. Servitude and obedience to a warlord that abused and killed us on a whim. I've done horrible things to keep my family safe because I couldn't stand up to him, and you just took us out, no problem," Billy spoke, quietly at first, but growing in volume and passion. "If you wanted, you could change so much around here, so please…"
"Let us join you, Boss!"
"Snake! Just hold still, you're still badly hurt," Otacon told him, but he sounded like he was underwater. That wasn't going to be annoying, the spy thought, annoyed.
"Otacon, what happened?"
"Well, after you called for help, I ran to the mech hanger and grabbed one with the biggest gun I could find. Some sort of artillery platform on legs. Sound familiar?" He grinned as he moved to the other eye, examining his pupils before he flicked the pen light off and held a stethoscope to Snake's chest. "Deep breath in. You bought some time dodging the Charger, that's the name of the mech you crippled, and when the captain showed up and killed his buddy, he was about to execute you. Exhale."
Snake let out a deep breath that made his lungs sigh in relief as the pressure was released. Damn pirates, breaking his ribs.
"Anyway, it wasn't easy, but I got into a position to blow him away while he gloated like a cartoon villain. Then, once he was dead, I bluffed the rest of his crew into surrendering. Congratulations, Snake. You're now the proud owner of your own pirate crew, ship and all!"
"Otacon, how… you're amazing, buddy."
"Aww, Snake. You're gonna make me blush." The scientist gave the soldier a gentle smile before he clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, you're as healthy as you can be, barring all the injuries. You should be mostly recovered within a month, and be fighting fit within six weeks. Now I'm sure you're ready to get out of bed, you ready to meet our new employees?"
"New employees? Great…"
-----
Billy sat in the mess hall with his wife and child, who had been recovered from the ship after the rest of the crew surrendered. After his cockpit hit the ground, he sat there unconscious until his radio began to go off, demanding the surrender of all pirates within the area or he'd blow them out of the sky. As far as he knew, this place was full of SLDF spooks that could kill them all without hesitating, and so did the rest of the crew. The scientist, scrawny looking fellow, was apparently piloting a Helepolis without a Neurohelmet, which automatically put the man as the best Mechwarrior he'd ever seen.
And despite being nominally a prisoner of war, he was alright with the turn of events. He was no longer a subordinate to a psycho, his wife and kids weren't hostages, and the rest of their captives were more than happy to help police the pirates, given the weapons. A couple people gave him glares, but nobody treated him badly. They knew he hadn't been a willing accessory to their captivity, but some wounds took time to heal.
A shame about his Pappy's Urbie, he'd have to find some other way to support his family. If they ever got out of here. But that was for the future. As for the present, he just held his family close to him. Their host had provided ration packs that, while of dubious age, still seemed somewhat edible. Better than nutrient slop.
The double doors at the end of the mess hall opened, and in walked his saviors. He still didn't think the scientist looked like much, but he probably knew enough to make Billy's life extremely painful so he kept that opinion to himself. The other figure on the other hand, was larger than life. Wearing a high tech suit that had seen far better days, the spook seemed to cast his gaze across the room, his mere presence domineering. A scowl crossed his face as he took in the state of some of the former captives, and the commando leveled a withering glare at the pirates. He drew a momentary glance, but breathed a sigh of relief when the terrifying gaze passed him over. He squeezed his wife's hand and began to pray that they weren't going to get killed.
"You people are a disgrace."
The remark passed through the mess hall, silencing what conversation that hadn't stopped at their entrance. The man's sharp glare seemed to see through them and cut off any protests at the source. Shame filled the eyes of some of them, the ones that hadn't entirely been willing. The ones that were just as crazy as the captain were all tied up and held under guard, and some of the former captives seemed to have great glee at holding them at the end of a rifle.
"You people invade this place, with the intent of taking the resources here to spread war and misery to helpless, innocent people, and now I'm left with the question of what to do with you." The man's eyes lingered on the younger hostages, his son and the children of the other coerced crew members. His own mood fell, trying to think of how he'd provide for this family without his family mech. His wife placed her hand on his and gave him a gentle squeeze. They'd get through this together, as always.
"For the victims, we will provide you with passage back to your homes, just as soon as we get all this sorted out. I'm sure you all have lives to go back to."
"No!"
A young man, one of the teenage hostages, named Michael, shot out of the arms of his mother. Tears flew from his face as he threw himself at the feet of the deadly warrior.
"Please, don't abandon us! All of us, we don't have anything to go back to! Everything we had was taken or destroyed, and if you send us back we're as good as dead. Please…"
The room was silent as everybody processed the young man's words. Michael began to sob as he grasped the man's feet, making him look visibly uncomfortable.
…Billy felt ashamed. He was a coward, letting a child plead for their lives. The part of him that was concerned for his survival told him to just stay put and keep his mouth shut, but the part of him that had been so restrained while he was in service to a pirate screamed at him. To take his future in his two hands, and try for his own redemption. Pulling away from his wife, he stood and approached the increasingly uncomfortable looking spook. Billy knelt before the soldier, eyes up and gaze steady as he spoke.
"Sir, you've saved us all from a fate worse than death. Servitude and obedience to a warlord that abused and killed us on a whim. I've done horrible things to keep my family safe because I couldn't stand up to him, and you just took us out, no problem," Billy spoke, quietly at first, but growing in volume and passion. "If you wanted, you could change so much around here, so please…"
"Let us join you, Boss!"
What a thrill...
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Snake's face was set into a frown. It would be so easy for him to turn them down, to deny the title "Boss", a cursed name that followed him his whole life. He used to hate his father, a traitor to his country and a madman that threatened the world with nuclear weapons. He committed atrocities, used child soldiers, his actions were the direct cause of all the problems in his life. Even at the end, he blamed Zero. "Big Boss" had no part in the Patriots rise to power and the suffering they caused.
"On your feet soldier! Lift your head right now! Not one of you is to bow to me!" Snake snapped at them, a growl in his voice as he grit his teeth.
Both of them, the captured mech pilot and the young man, climbed to their feet. They shifted nervously, but raised their gaze to meet him. He gave them a once over, before he turned his sight onto the crowd behind them.
Fourteen captured pirates, and about twice that many hostages lingered around the mess hall. The former captives, half of which were kids, from the youngest of five to around sixteen, looked at him with both hope and fear. These people had nothing, and had resigned themselves to death, before Otacon saved them. And wasn't that a surprise? Hal, the guy who peed his pants in fear when they first met, intimidated a pirate crew into giving up.
Snake was never meant for command. Sure, he took the courses, they were a prerequisite for Green Beret training, but he had never led a unit before. He was only ever a lone wolf, a solitary killer. But still…
You are nobody's tool now... No one's toy. You are no longer a prisoner of fate. You are no longer a seed of war.
Even though he was free, even at the end, he didn't feel that way. His body was a prison that grew more constrained the further his condition progressed, and his choices limited by his increasingly imminent death sentence. He had been lost, a soldier with nothing to fight for, no battle to continue. Peace.
David was born a tool, but he would live and die a free man, making his own choices, unburdened by the past. Independent of the shadow of Big Boss.
He wanted it. Secretly, a part of him craved battle. The rush of blood, what a thrill. But really, he yearned for the day that soldiers weren't needed. When understanding and cooperation were what solved conflict, rather than guns and bombs. That day was not today.
His impressions of this universe were very poor. The desperation in the victims' eyes, the cruelty the pirate captain oozed as he murdered his own men, his loyal soldiers. The Sergeant, betrayed by his leaders and left for dead.
He could never claim the title, "Big Boss". The name was tainted, left ruined by the man that, before him, was called the "Legendary Soldier". His ideal, his Outer Heaven was a delusion. The lies of a man who still thought himself a hero. But…
Boss… you were right… It's not about changing the world. It's about doing our best to leave the world... The way it is. It's about respecting the will of others... And believing in your own….
Snake didn't believe in Big Boss's vision. The thought of a nation of soldiers that fought for no cause but their own, it made him sick. However, the catalyst for that vision was worthy of his admiration.
The Boss.
Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain. Solid Snake, no, David Sears knew all about duty. And he couldn't knowingly lay down his gun when the injustices that he's fought so hard to end were thrust in front of him.
"And do the rest of you feel this way? That you want to follow me, to be protected and to protect in turn?" Snake asked the group, looking around at the freed men and women. Inspecting them closer, he could tell that all of them, including the pirates, showed the long term signs of malnutrition. Of injury. It reminded him of the dispossessed in Morocco, begging for food because their homes were destroyed by the war raging in the streets. Of the misery and human suffering perpetuated by The Patriots for the purpose of fueling the war economy. They looked at him with desperate hope, like he swooped in on a white horse and saved them. And in a way, he did, but he was still surprised when every single adult in their group nodded.
A side glance at Otacon showed him that the scientist was taking this just as seriously. Snake could tell that his friend genuinely considered the proposition and implications, and they both had reached the same conclusion.
"We are Philanthropy," Snake began, looking each and every person in the eye. "The origin of the word is Greek, it means 'The love of Mankind'. That is why we fight, and that is why you will fight." He paused to give his words more gravitas. "'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' A dead man wrote those words over a thousand years ago, and never have they been more true."
"You will fight to protect your loved ones. You will fight to defend the innocent. You will fight to uphold an ideal, that nobody deserves to go through the suffering you did. To ensure that your children, and your children's children walk into the future, heads held high. You will fight for freedom from the horrors of war, for the chance to seize your own destiny, unbound by fate!"
Snake stopped pacing and made eye contact with the crowd once again. Victims and pirates, men and women, even the children gazed at him with unrepressed awe.
"If you can't fight, you can help in other ways. If you wish to leave, any of you, we will provide you transport." Not a single person moved. "But if you wish to join me, to work together to bring humanity into a brighter future, then stand, and present yourself."
Everybody, former pirates and freedmen, adults and children, clamored to introduce themselves.
"On your feet soldier! Lift your head right now! Not one of you is to bow to me!" Snake snapped at them, a growl in his voice as he grit his teeth.
Both of them, the captured mech pilot and the young man, climbed to their feet. They shifted nervously, but raised their gaze to meet him. He gave them a once over, before he turned his sight onto the crowd behind them.
Fourteen captured pirates, and about twice that many hostages lingered around the mess hall. The former captives, half of which were kids, from the youngest of five to around sixteen, looked at him with both hope and fear. These people had nothing, and had resigned themselves to death, before Otacon saved them. And wasn't that a surprise? Hal, the guy who peed his pants in fear when they first met, intimidated a pirate crew into giving up.
Snake was never meant for command. Sure, he took the courses, they were a prerequisite for Green Beret training, but he had never led a unit before. He was only ever a lone wolf, a solitary killer. But still…
You are nobody's tool now... No one's toy. You are no longer a prisoner of fate. You are no longer a seed of war.
Even though he was free, even at the end, he didn't feel that way. His body was a prison that grew more constrained the further his condition progressed, and his choices limited by his increasingly imminent death sentence. He had been lost, a soldier with nothing to fight for, no battle to continue. Peace.
David was born a tool, but he would live and die a free man, making his own choices, unburdened by the past. Independent of the shadow of Big Boss.
He wanted it. Secretly, a part of him craved battle. The rush of blood, what a thrill. But really, he yearned for the day that soldiers weren't needed. When understanding and cooperation were what solved conflict, rather than guns and bombs. That day was not today.
His impressions of this universe were very poor. The desperation in the victims' eyes, the cruelty the pirate captain oozed as he murdered his own men, his loyal soldiers. The Sergeant, betrayed by his leaders and left for dead.
He could never claim the title, "Big Boss". The name was tainted, left ruined by the man that, before him, was called the "Legendary Soldier". His ideal, his Outer Heaven was a delusion. The lies of a man who still thought himself a hero. But…
Boss… you were right… It's not about changing the world. It's about doing our best to leave the world... The way it is. It's about respecting the will of others... And believing in your own….
Snake didn't believe in Big Boss's vision. The thought of a nation of soldiers that fought for no cause but their own, it made him sick. However, the catalyst for that vision was worthy of his admiration.
The Boss.
Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain. Solid Snake, no, David Sears knew all about duty. And he couldn't knowingly lay down his gun when the injustices that he's fought so hard to end were thrust in front of him.
"And do the rest of you feel this way? That you want to follow me, to be protected and to protect in turn?" Snake asked the group, looking around at the freed men and women. Inspecting them closer, he could tell that all of them, including the pirates, showed the long term signs of malnutrition. Of injury. It reminded him of the dispossessed in Morocco, begging for food because their homes were destroyed by the war raging in the streets. Of the misery and human suffering perpetuated by The Patriots for the purpose of fueling the war economy. They looked at him with desperate hope, like he swooped in on a white horse and saved them. And in a way, he did, but he was still surprised when every single adult in their group nodded.
A side glance at Otacon showed him that the scientist was taking this just as seriously. Snake could tell that his friend genuinely considered the proposition and implications, and they both had reached the same conclusion.
"We are Philanthropy," Snake began, looking each and every person in the eye. "The origin of the word is Greek, it means 'The love of Mankind'. That is why we fight, and that is why you will fight." He paused to give his words more gravitas. "'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' A dead man wrote those words over a thousand years ago, and never have they been more true."
"You will fight to protect your loved ones. You will fight to defend the innocent. You will fight to uphold an ideal, that nobody deserves to go through the suffering you did. To ensure that your children, and your children's children walk into the future, heads held high. You will fight for freedom from the horrors of war, for the chance to seize your own destiny, unbound by fate!"
Snake stopped pacing and made eye contact with the crowd once again. Victims and pirates, men and women, even the children gazed at him with unrepressed awe.
"If you can't fight, you can help in other ways. If you wish to leave, any of you, we will provide you transport." Not a single person moved. "But if you wish to join me, to work together to bring humanity into a brighter future, then stand, and present yourself."
Everybody, former pirates and freedmen, adults and children, clamored to introduce themselves.
Base Resource list
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Total mechs
Good condition: 2x PLG-3Z Pillagers 3x 3FB Stalkers, 3x HEP-H2 Helepolis, 4x TLN-5V talons, 1 experimental wasp LAM
Needs repairs: 2x HSR-200Db Hussars, 3x A1 Catapults, 2x 1R marauders, 1x 2R maurauder (destroyed), 3x 3Gb Stingers, 2x king crabs, 4x Spectors, 6x TLN-5W Talons, 4x ON-1K Orions, 2x CRB-27 Crabs, 2x CRB-27b Crabs, 1 MON-66 Mongoose
Missing: 1x GLT-3N Guillotine, 4x B2b Royal Excaliburs, 4x 2R Marauders
1 suit nighthawk xxi power armor
1 Sneak Suit
1 scout jumpship
20 aerospace vehicles: 4 SB-27 Sabers, 1 SB-27b Saber, 5 TH-63 Tomahawks, 10 TRN-3T tridents
32 armored vehicles (apcs and tanks) 8 furies, 8 demons, 8 pumas, 8 Pollux ADAs
32 support vehicles. (Ammo carriers and IFVs: 16 Packrats, 8 battlemech recovery Vehicles, 8 Prometheus support vehicles
300 infantryman gear
Good condition: 2x PLG-3Z Pillagers 3x 3FB Stalkers, 3x HEP-H2 Helepolis, 4x TLN-5V talons, 1 experimental wasp LAM
Needs repairs: 2x HSR-200Db Hussars, 3x A1 Catapults, 2x 1R marauders, 1x 2R maurauder (destroyed), 3x 3Gb Stingers, 2x king crabs, 4x Spectors, 6x TLN-5W Talons, 4x ON-1K Orions, 2x CRB-27 Crabs, 2x CRB-27b Crabs, 1 MON-66 Mongoose
Missing: 1x GLT-3N Guillotine, 4x B2b Royal Excaliburs, 4x 2R Marauders
1 suit nighthawk xxi power armor
1 Sneak Suit
1 scout jumpship
20 aerospace vehicles: 4 SB-27 Sabers, 1 SB-27b Saber, 5 TH-63 Tomahawks, 10 TRN-3T tridents
32 armored vehicles (apcs and tanks) 8 furies, 8 demons, 8 pumas, 8 Pollux ADAs
32 support vehicles. (Ammo carriers and IFVs: 16 Packrats, 8 battlemech recovery Vehicles, 8 Prometheus support vehicles
300 infantryman gear