Yeah... I'll vote for it should we get an extra action to do so...
I'm not expecting an Adult Chico at all to present to her. So our assistance might be our last gift to her if she doesn't happen to sign on with us. For an old friend.
Though it looks like that would have been pretty cool if Chico was still around.
Looks like he'd fit with the Survive world honestly.
Yeah... I'll vote for it should we get an extra action to do so...
I'm not expecting an Adult Chico at all to present to her. So our assistance might be our last gift to her if she doesn't happen to sign on with us. For an old friend.
Though it looks like that would have been pretty cool if Chico was still around.
Given the stealth thematic I'm getting from that, he might still be alive. And, after hearing about us going for denuclearization, might be trynna join the Diamond Dogs in the Wannabe Heroes OP.
Given the stealth thematic I'm getting from that, he might still be alive. And, after hearing about us going for denuclearization, might be trynna join the Diamond Dogs in the Wannabe Heroes OP.
That'd be pretty damn sweet huh? Top that off with the Interview and knowledge about Diamond Dogs and its actions and news of us will be far reaching.
Edit: If he was lost and looking for us he'll know it's us for sure!
He looks like he'd fit in with my impression of how the survive world is.
Let all who read this be made aware, that this is the Last Will and Testament, of Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. Doctorate and Pioneer of Rocket Science, Designer of the rocket that sent the first human being into outer space, unwilling Chief Designer of the Secret Weapons Research Office for the Soviet Union, and the man who, in his foolishness, designed the nuclear weapon delivery vehicle known as The Shagohod.
These are my final 'free' hours. The extraction attempt by the american operative, who I will not name here out of respect for their efforts, has failed. Freedom was so close, I was finally to be reunited with my beloved wife and daughter in The West after two horrific years apart, while my greatest creation and mistake would never have been completed with my absence. Sadly it seems like fate had different plans.
The operatives defeat by The Boss is understandable though no less shocking. To think that the Mother Of Special Forces, the Voyevoda, would defect to the Soviet Union and side with Volgin of all people disturbs and shocks me to my core. It can be no one else, that face is one known all over the world, the skill she showed for the brief moments the battle lasted was like comparing the abilities of my KGB 'guards' to the pathetic flailing of children, and the nuclear missiles she gifted to that madman make her allegiances clear to see.
She has delivered me into Volgin's hands, even now I sit within the halls of Groznyj Grad, and I can see my greatest sin looming large in front of me. I only have time to write this final testament due to the fact that I am not to commence my work until the Colonel arrives to 'speak' to me personally. My heart races and my hands shake at the thought. Volgin's brutality, sadism, and love of torture is legendary within the Union. I have no doubts as to how he will seek to 'persuade' me into finishing this weapon of mass destruction, and I know that my body and my will, for all of my disgust, will not be able to defy him for long.
Looking at what will be, without a doubt, my most well known legacy fills me with shame. I will not be remembered for the advances I made in rocket science, nor will I be remembered as the man who sent the first human being into space, instead I will be known as the man who started a new breed of nuclear warfare. I never desired to be a maker of weapons. I wished aid in creating a brighter, better, future for all of mankind. I wished to aid our species in reaching the stars, I wished to do what the american's have done, and allow human feet to walk upon the moon. I wanted to help humanity, not damn it in nuclear fire, but that black fate is one that will only draw closer with the completion of The Shagohod.
Enough with the off tangent discussion and grim thoughts. Now as to the actual contents of my Will they are as follows:
To my beloved wife and daughter: I leave to them, almost all of my worldly possessions, with the singular exception that will be stated at the end of this document. My dear Galina I am sorry for the life you have been forced to live. Were it not for me, you could have lived a peaceful life, unnoticed by the vicious eyes of the East and West. You would not have been forced to flee to America with our daughter, you would not have been forced to live a life hiding who you are and where you came from, hunted by a heartless superpower. I can never apologize enough for what I have forced you to suffer, and yet in-spite of it all, you have remained with me all these years. Know that, though I will never leave this fortress alive, you will have my love and gratitude for the rest of eternity.
My dear Irina, much of what I said to your mother, I now say again to you. I am sorry you were cursed to have a father such as myself. Had you been born to a different man, you could have lived a life of peace, but like your mother you will now be forced to hide for the rest of your days. From the bottom of my heart, I beg for your forgiveness, even if I do not deserve it. This was not the life I wished for you to have.
However, as my present circumstances show, the world so very rarely cares about the kind of lives that mere humans want to have. My final words of advice for you are: Be Strong, Be Compassionate, and Be Happy. Do not allow yourself to be bowed by the weight and whims of the world, stand strong against it, and do not let it push you aside. Do not allow your strength to overcome your sense of morals, be kind to your fellow man, for the world is so very cruel....it needs all the compassion it can get. Do not allow the cruelties of reality, the harshness in some of your fellow man, to take away your brilliant smile. This world needs more smiles, more happiness, then it needs anything else. Be happy, my dear daughter, and I will be at peace in the afterlife.
To my dear friend Zero: I give my most sincere gratitude and forgiveness. Hah, I bet you weren't expecting that, were you you old fox? In all seriousness, I do not blame you for my failure to reach The West with my family. It was my own physical weakness that resulted in my exhaustion and commitment to a Berlin hospital. Nor do I blame you for your governments choice to hand me back to The Union in exchange for their removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba.
You did all that you could to help me escape, you did manage to successfully bring about my family's escape, and just a short time ago you fulfilled the promise you made to me at the border of the Iron Curtain two years ago. You are a good man Zero, a better one then your government deserves in my opinion, but know that in my final days I do not hold any ill will towards you. May you live a long and happy life, my friend, one away from the horror of war, and the heartlessness of government conspiracies. May you find a woman to love, or a child to raise, and may they bring you as much happiness as my own family has brought me. Goodbye Zero. May I not see you again for many many years.
To the American operative who tried to set me free: I do not know if you managed to survive, your fight with The Boss was brutal, and the fall from the bridge to the river below was significant. If you did manage to survive, and make your way home, then I give you my thanks as well. I do not hold your defeat at the hands of the Voyevoda against you, for there is no man or woman alive who could hope to best her in battle, and it was thanks to your actions that I learned that my old friend Zero truly did manage to keep his word to me. I admit, both to you and to Zero, that I feared I had been abandoned in my greatest lows. To know that my old friend did not turn his back on me, it was a relief I can hardly describe, and it removed a weight that would otherwise have been a burden on my soul when my time in this world is finished. You have my thanks and I hope your future is kind to you.
Finally I have one last request to make, to you Zero, and to my family. In my message to my wife and daughter, I stated that I had one exception for what I wished left to them, which I will bring up here. I know that you've set up my family as well as you could Zero, and I could never be more grateful to you for doing so, but even so I will regretfully ask even more from you. I would ask Zero, if you are willing and able, and my dear Galina, if you would allow him, to invest a portion of our families wealth in whatever manner he deems most profitable, as a gift for the far future.
It is a gift, but not one for my family, for I have faith that you will be able to live happy lives. It is a gift, but not one for my friend, for I know that for all of your countries faults, it values and respects the efforts of it's servicemen. It is a gift for the future, a gift for the day that will, that must one day come. A gift for a future without the threat of nuclear annihilation destroying everything on this beautiful world of ours. A gift for a future where nuclear deterrence is cast away for the chance of discussion and compromise, a gift for a future where my wife and my daughter, and my grandchildren or great grandchildren, will not need to live a life of quiet terror with the threat of nuclear war hanging over their heads.
One day, it will not be Nuclear Power that shapes the future of the world, but the honest hopes and dreams and efforts of men and women that wish for a world of peace. One day, it will not be guns or tanks or bombs that decide the destiny of humankind, but the heartfelt efforts of fearless men and woman, those of outstanding moral character, who will look at the state of the world, and take a stand. 'No more' they will say, 'We can be better' they will cry out for all who would listen, and for all that the powers that may be will try to silence them, their message will spread. One voice may be silenced, a hero or heroine cast down into a unmarked grave by those in power, but there will be others. A second paragon will stand up, echoing the message of the first, crying out for change, and even if they are rendered mute, a third will rise. Then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh and more.
The efforts of a single paragon will ripple out, a solitary human being becoming a rallying call, and every person with true moral character that hears them will rally behind them! The muttering of a single voice will become the cry of hundreds, from the cry of hundreds to a roar of thousands, and onward into the millions, into the billions! Their message, their hope, their dream, for a world of peace, without the divides of East and West, will shake the very bones of this earth! I have seen it myself, in the photos Neil Armstrong took on the moon, which spread across the world. No East, No West, simply The Earth.
One day The World Will Be Healed, I know that as surely as the sun rises and sets, that the grass is green, and the sky is blue. When that glorious days begins to dawn, the world powers will seek to crush the one that dared to show a glimpse of a better future, and so that is when I wish for them to receive my gift. Even if, by miracles of miracles, that day were to come in my lifetime, I know I would not live to see it. I will die here, in Groznyj Grad, a brutal fortress ruled by a power hungry, sadistic, warmongering monster. In a nation I despise, with the final days of my life spent building a weapon that will make that destined day be pushed even farther into the future, and which will become my great 'legacy' to the world at large.
But my true legacy, my last great work, is the desperate and selfish request that I burden you with now. Please, my friend, my love, invest the wealth we have been given wisely, and lock it away, so that none may ever touch it. Then when that fateful day finally dawns, to shatter the cold night that nuclear power and mutually assured destruction has forced upon us, give whatever wealth has accumulated to the person responsible. They will surely need it when the world seeks to crush them for daring to hope for a better tomorrow.
This, is my final request to you both, and I beg that you complete it. It is what will truly let my spirit rest easily, knowing that for all of my sins, and the crimes my creation will commit, that I will play atleast some small part in fixing it.
Sincerely, with love and fond farewells, Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov.
AN: Voyevoda = Warlord in Russian. A canon title The Boss had, and one I think Sokolov would use more often, after seeing her ruthlessness and prowess in person.
Let all who read this be made aware, that this is the Last Will and Testament, of Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. Doctorate and Pioneer of Rocket Science, Designer of the rocket that sent the first human being into outer space, unwilling Chief Designer of the Secret Weapons Research Office for the Soviet Union, and the man who, in his foolishness, designed the nuclear weapon delivery vehicle known as The Shagohod.
These are my final 'free' hours. The extraction attempt by the american operative, who I will not name here out of respect for their efforts, has failed. Freedom was so close, I was finally to be reunited with my beloved wife and daughter in The West after two horrific years apart, while my greatest creation and mistake would never have been completed with my absence. Sadly it seems like fate had different plans.
The operatives defeat by The Boss is understandable though no less shocking. To think that the Mother Of Special Forces, the Voyevoda, would defect to the Soviet Union and side with Volgin of all people disturbs and shocks me to my core. It can be no one else, that face is one known all over the world, the skill she showed for the brief moments the battle lasted was like comparing the abilities of my KGB 'guards' to the pathetic flailing of children, and the nuclear missiles she gifted to that madman make her allegiances clear to see.
She has delivered me into Volgin's hands, even now I sit within the halls of Groznyj Grad, and I can see my greatest sin looming large in front of me. I only have time to write this final testament due to the fact that I am not to commence my work until the Colonel arrives to 'speak' to me personally. My heart races and my hands shake at the thought. Volgin's brutality, sadism, and love of torture is legendary within the Union. I have no doubts as to how he will seek to 'persuade' me into finishing this weapon of mass destruction, and I know that my body and my will, for all of my disgust, will not be able to defy him for long.
Looking at what will be, without a doubt, my most well known legacy fills me with shame. I will not be remembered for the advances I made in rocket science, nor will I be remembered as the man who sent the first human being into space, instead I will be known as the man who started a new breed of nuclear warfare. I never desired to be a maker of weapons. I wished aid in creating a brighter, better, future for all of mankind. I wished to aid our species in reaching the stars, I wished to do what the american's have done, and allow human feet to walk upon the moon. I wanted to help humanity, not damn it in nuclear fire, but that black fate is one that will only draw closer with the completion of The Shagohod.
Enough with the off tangent discussion and grim thoughts. Now as to the actual contents of my Will they are as follows:
To my beloved wife and daughter: I leave to them, almost all of my worldly possessions, with the singular exception that will be stated at the end of this document. My dear Galina I am sorry for the life you have been forced to live. Were it not for me, you could have lived a peaceful life, unnoticed by the vicious eyes of the East and West. You would not have been forced to flee to America with our daughter, you would not have been forced to live a life hiding who you are and where you came from, hunted by a heartless superpower. I can never apologize enough for what I have forced you to suffer, and yet in-spite of it all, you have remained with me all these years. Know that, though I will never this fortress alive, you will have my love and gratitude for the rest of eternity.
My dear Irina, much of what I said to your mother, I now say again to you. I am sorry you were cursed to have a father such as myself. Had you been born to a different man, you could have lived a life of peace, but like your mother you will now be forced to hide for the rest of your days. From the bottom of my heart, I beg for your forgiveness, even if I do not deserve it. This was not the life I wished for you to have.
However, as my present circumstances show, the world so very rarely cares about the kind of lives that mere humans want to have. My final words of advice for you are: Be Strong, Be Compassionate, and Be Happy. Do not allow yourself to be bowed by the weight and whims of the world, stand strong against it, and do not let it push you aside. Do not allow your strength to overcome your sense of morals, be kind to your fellow man, for the world is so very cruel....it needs all the compassion it can get. Do not allow the cruelties of reality, the harshness in some of your fellow man, to take away your brilliant smile. This world needs more smiles, more happiness, then it needs anything else. Be happy, my dear daughter, and I will be at peace in the afterlife.
To my dear friend Zero: I give my most sincere gratitude and forgiveness. Hah, I bet you weren't expecting that, were you you old fox? In all seriousness, I do not blame you for my failure to reach The West with my family. It was my own physical weakness that resulted in my exhaustion and commitment to a Berlin hospital. Nor do I blame you for your governments choice to hand me back to The Union in exchange for their removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba.
You did all that you could to help me escape, you did manage to successfully bring about my family's escape, and just a short time ago you fulfilled the promise you made to me at the border of the Iron Curtain two years ago. You are a good man Zero, a better one then your government deserves in my opinion, but know that in my final days I do not hold any ill will towards you. May you live a long and happy life, my friend, one away from the horror of war, and the heartlessness of government conspiracies. May you find a woman to love, or a child to raise, and may they bring you as much happiness as my own family has brought me. Goodbye Zero. May I not see you again for many many years.
To the american operative who tried to set me free: I do not know if you managed to survive, your fight with The Boss was brutal, and the fall from the bridge to the river below was significant. If you did manage to survive, and make your way home, then I give you my thanks as well. I do not hold your defeat at the hands of the Voyevoda against you, for there is no man or woman alive who could hope to best her in battle, and it was thanks to your actions that I learned that my old friend Zero truly did manage to keep his word to me. I admit, both to you and to Zero, that I feared I had been abandoned in my greatest lows. To know that my old friend did not turn his back on me, it was a relief I can hardly describe, and it removed a weight that would otherwise have been a burden on my soul when my time in this world is finished. You have my thanks and I hope your future is kind to you.
Finally I have one last request to make, to you Zero, and to my family. In my message to my wife and daughter, I stated that I had one exception for what I wished left to them, which I will bring up here. I know that you've set up my family as well as you could Zero, and I could never be more grateful to you for doing so, but even so I will regretfully ask even more from you. I would ask Zero, if you are willing and able, and my dear Galina, if you would allow him, to invest a portion of our families wealth in whatever manner he deems most profitable, as a gift for the far future.
It is a gift, but not one for my family, for I have faith that you will be able to live happy lives. It is a gift, but not one for my friend, for I know that for all of your counties faults, it values and respects the efforts of it's servicemen. It is a gift for the future, a gift for the day that will, that must one day come. A gift for a future without the threat of nuclear annihilation destroying everything on this beautiful world of ours. A gift for a future where nuclear deterrence is cast away for the chance of discussion and compromise, a gift for a future where my wife and my daughter, and my grandchildren or great grandchildren, will not need to live a life of quiet terror with the threat of nuclear war hanging over their heads.
One day, it will not be Nuclear Power that shapes the future of the world, but the honest hopes and dreams and efforts of men and women that wish for a world of peace. One day, it will not be guns or tanks or bombs that decide the destiny of humankind, but the heartfelt efforts of fearless men and woman, those of outstanding moral character, who will look at the state of the world, and take a stand. 'No more' they will say, 'We can be better' they will cry out for all who would listen, and for all that the powers that may be will try to silence them, their message will spread. One voice may be silenced, a hero or heroine cast down into a unmarked grave by those in power, but there will be others. A second paragon will stand up, echoing the message of the first, crying out for change, and even if they are rendered mute, a third will rise. Then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh and more.
The efforts of a single paragon will ripple out, a solitary human being becoming a rallying call, and every person with true moral character that hears them will rally behind them! The muttering of a single voice will become the cry of hundreds, from the cry of hundreds to a roar of thousands, and onward into the millions, into the billions! Their message, their hope, their dream, for a world of peace, without the divides of East and West, will shake the very bones of this earth! I have seen it myself, in the photos Neil Armstrong took on the moon, which spread across the world. No East, No West, simply The Earth.
One day The World Will Be Healed, I know that as surely as the sun rises and sets, that the grass is green, and the sky is blue. When that glorious days begins to dawn, the world powers will seek to crush the one that dared to show a glimpse of a better future, and so that is when I wish for them to receive my gift. Even if, by miracles of miracles, that day were to come in my lifetime, I know I would not live to see it. I will die here, in Groznyj Grad, a brutal fortress ruled by a power hungry, sadistic, warmongering monster. In a nation I despise, with the final days of my life spent building a weapon that will make that destined day be pushed even farther into the future, and which will become my great 'legacy' to the world at large.
But my true legacy, my last great work, is the desperate and selfish request that I burden you with now. Please, my friend, my love, invest the wealth we have been given wisely, and lock it away, so that none may ever touch it. Then when that fateful day finally dawns, to shatter the cold night that nuclear power and mutually assured destruction has forced upon us, give whatever wealth has accumulated to the person responsible. They will surely need it when the world seeks to crush them for daring to hope for a better tomorrow.
This, is my final request to you both, and I beg that you complete it. It is what will truly let my spirit rest easily, knowing that for all of my sins, and the crimes my creation will commit, that I will play atleast some small part in fixing it.
Sincerely, with love and fond farewells, Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov.
AN: Voyevoda = Warlord in Russian. A canon title The Boss had, and one I think Sokolov would use more often, after seeing her ruthlessness and prowess in person.
I don't want to bring flaming coffin with us, Naked Snake should clean up that mess. Also pulling that body might also pull child!psycho mantis; which i'm sort of on the fence about.
Honestly I'm proud as fuck right now. I could NOT get Sokolov and his will right, I kept trying to find a way to pad it out like it was an actual will, but I couldn't do it. I spent two days at work thinking about how could I SOMEHOW manage to get this done, but nothing worked, I was coming up empty to matter what angle I came at the problem.
But then I sat down today, opened up SV, and just....started typing. It just flowed out and I'm so freaking happy about how it ended up.
I thought it was Portable Ops Plus that wasn't canon. Not Portable Ops as a whole.
That true? That's kinda weird... It makes a great foundation for the mass kidnap- Recruiting we do in Peace Walker.
I thought it was Portable Ops Plus that wasn't canon. Not Portable Ops as a whole.
That true? That's kinda weird... It makes a great foundation for the mass kidnap- Recruiting we do in Peace Walker.
There is such a thing as getting too greedy. And if we have to leave something behind, then Volgin is definitely one I would regret the least. We aren't actually set up to churn out high-end research, even paranormal research, and that path is scarcely less troublesome than the parasite research. In the worst case Volgin would reawaken and rampage across Mother Base unless Venom Snake is around to make him realize he has the wrong target. Just because there is a limited opportunity to do something does not inherently make that opportunity more valuable than other options. Loss aversion may make it seem otherwise, but the reality is just that Volgin's body is a minor lose end which is why it wasn't even a main mission in TPP.
Then as much as Snake might owe Amanda, he does not owe her to get involved in a bloody civil war where neither side has any particular moral high ground. But taking on the task of repressing an uprising against an authoritarian state will stand in stark contrast to the message that the Diamond Dogs have been presenting to the world. Aiding the Kurds to establish their own state in the face of constant oppression by contrast is more in accord with creating the sort of world that Denuclearization Ops is aimed at.
