Author's notes: Okay people here it is, my first Metal Gear fanfic. This story immediately follows the storyline of Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater. I understand they were trying to explain the past of the storyline and answer certain questions. But that ending was so dissatisfying, particularly for me, I was so ticked off at Eva, working for the Red Chinese! Pardon my French but I FREAKIN HATE MAO ZEDONG, or Mao the Pig as I have come to call him, and if any of you have read the book "The Red Scarf Girl," by Ji Li Jiang, I am sure you would agree with me. And just a side not if any of you reading this are communists and are offended by me insulting a well known communist leader, I'm sorry but that's just to damn bad, go read a different story. Any way all that off my chest, I have resolved that the story needs some straitening out. The story to come will be set mainly in Red China, following Big Boss on another daring thrilling and action packed espionage operation to stop China's nuclear weapons development program. For fellow history buffs, don't worry, I'll be historically accurate. Enjoy and please review.
Chinese Airspace, 1964, three months after Operation Snake Eater, 10,000 feet above Desert of Northern China. 4:55am
Jack puffed smoke from his cigar into air. It had been the second cigar of the trip and was now burnt halfway down. "Put it out Jack," came the familiar British accent of Major Zero. Jack puffed again as if he did not hear. "Must I repeat myself every time Jack? Don't force me to pull rank on you," the Major's voice came as smooth as ever into Jack's earpiece. Reluctantly Jack dropped his cigar to the floor and stepped on the burning tip.
"What good is the title 'Big Boss' if you still have to take orders?" Jack asked himself out loud, not expecting an answer from the air crewman standing only a few yards away from him at the control switch of the jump door of the C-130. The crewman was dressed from head to toe in the USAF aircrew jump suit, olive green with a long zipper up the front (just like the one he was wearing), his face was entirely covered by his helmet, eyeshades and air mask. The crewman had known better than to attempt conversation. He had the insignia of an air force technical sergeant on his right shoulder, one of the middle enlisted ranks of the navy, he had apparently been through enough High altitude jumps to tell that when your delivering a man on a HALO jump, their minds are way to busy to talk.
"Thirty seconds, get your helmet on!" the crewman shouted and pointed to his own head. Jack did not waste any time, he strapped his helmet on and attached his eyeshades and air mask (which were set on the bench beside him) within ten seconds. The next twenty seconds went by in a blur, but sure enough the jump door of the plane slowly declined to reveal the blinding sunlight of sunrise, or rather the would be blinding sunlight if it were not for the eyeshades Jack wore over his eyes. Jack ran his finger along the rip cord of the parachute strapped to his body along with his gear pack, he did so out of instinct by now, this jump was to be a little bit more intense than his last one, instead of pulling the rip cord half a mile before impact he had been ordered to pull the no more than ten seconds from impact. This time they had to be extra careful so as to avoid detection. The light bulb above the door that had been glowing red turned green, and right on cue Jack ran and leaped out into the clear morning sky and dived towards the orange desert sand below. As he fell Jack tried not to think too much about where he was, about China, about the communists about the test lab, about the soldiers guarding it, about the Chinese intelligence troops who would be there, about one in particular who could be there…He kept counting down the seconds as he was instructed. The sand dunes of the desert kept growing bigger and bigger, but still he did not pull the cord. Only when it seemed from his point of view that the sand was about to touch his face did he pull the ripcord and out burst his parachute a strong upward thrust nearly broke his shoulders or felt like it. And several seconds later his feet touched the ground with more force than he had felt before in his life. He tumbled to the ground on his belly an instant after. Jack laid there for a moment, enveloped in the stings of his parachute, pulling his mind back into focus, his legs felt like they would splinter into a million fragments if he tried to stand up. But he fought the feeling and rose to his feet and ripped his way through the his parachute before unbuckling it and tossing it aside, his first instinct was to think of a way to hid the parachute but shook it off, remembering that he was in a desert and a dust storm would eventually bury it. He turned his head to the west, opposite the sunrise and knelt down on one knee. He then removed his helmet exposing his dark brown hair (which did not even glitter on the sunlight behind it. He pressed his earpiece in his ear opposite his patched right eye and dialed his radio to it's set frequency. A charging sound was heard followed by silence.
"Major?" Jack said into the speaker of his radio.
"It's Colonel now Big Boss, or did you forget that you were not the only promoted?" came Colonel Zero's British accent into Jack's earpiece.
"Sorry, reflex," replied Jack. "Just try not to name yourself after anything from a movie this time."
"Dueling noted," said the Colonel. "Now lets have one last rundown of your mission Big Boss. You are to proceed due west to the research facility, and destroy the Chinese's proto-type atomic bomb. You must also find away to gain access to the building and steal the plans and blue prints of the proto-type bomb, and also you must silence the scientists as well. This is they only facility where research files of atomic testing have been stored according to our intelligence. To lose them hear would be to cripple their production of nuclear weapons for years. But remember this is a sneaking mission, behind enemy lines, you know what the stakes are here."
"Yeah, yeah I got it, destroy the nuke, save the free world and don't get caught, we went over the whole thing twenty times back in South Korea," said Jack almost growling. He had no doubt in his duties but hearing the same thing every time he went out on a mission got really old fast.
"And its five o'clock now, the testing is set to begin in one hour so you'd better get going, you have only one shot at this. You have been given a .45 cal. Pistol with two extra silencers, your listening microphone, motion sensor, a magnifying telescope and for emergencies only, an LAW rocket launcher; if you have to shoot a plane down, the one with the nuke in it to be exact, do not hesitate, they will not have armed the bomb until they reach 10,000 ft, needless to say if you must shoot down a plane shoot it down as it takes off. You only have two rockets so make good use of them.
"Good stuff," said Jack with a grin. "So what's on the menu?" he asked.
"Oh bloody hell Big Boss!" exclaimed Colonel Zero. "You only have an hour you won't be there long enough to need any bloody food. Just destroy the target and we'll pick you up by balloon at the evac point at noon." He finished.
"Yeah…but what if something goes wrong, what if I get stuck out here in the desert for days?" asked Jack in a calm but agitated tone.
"Well then I'm afraid your on your own Big Boss. And Para-Medic is not with us at the moment so if the worst should happen you'll just have to cope.
"What? Para-Medic isn't up there with you?" asked Jack.
"No, unfortunately, she was called away on um…urgent business, so use stealth and get out of their quick, we cannot afford any complications. And I don't know if you've been shown the photos yet but…well lets just say that, the Chinese don't take very kindly to spies," finished the Colonel.
"If they're anything like the Japanese I think I get the picture," replied Jack.
"I trust you are also familiar with the Chinese language and writing?" asked the Colonel.
"Yeah, no thanks to professors you threw at me a month ago, I swear if I never see a random splattering of ink again it will be too soon!" growled Jack.
Colonel Zero chuckled faintly over the radio. "Well you'll thank them for it later, believe me. Anyway, you have less than an hour so apply the necessary camouflage and get moving. My frequency is 110.12"
"Sure but one more thing Colonel," said Jack
"Yes Big Boss?" asked Colonel Zero.
"Couldn't you just call me Snake, like always?" asked Jack. "Wouldn't that be easier?"
There was a moment of silence over the radio. "Errr…I'm not to sure about that Big Boss," Zero's voice finally returned. "After operation Snake Eater, two years back, Eva would surely have told her superiors everything, including our code names. We best keep to the plan and maintain our current code names. Anyway, get going Big Boss, good luck and Godspeed."
With that the radio went silent. Jack switched off his radio and dug into his backpack, which was colored in desert camouflage, and brought out a suit of desert camouflage; it was made of the same fabric as his olive green jump suit but was colored to help blend in to a desert surrounding. It was mostly tan, with blotches of dark brown and white dots here and there, pretty conspicuous in jungle or urban environments, but perfect for traveling unseen through a desert. Jack quickly changed into his desert camos and then flipped out a small face paint kit from one of the pockets of his camos. He then rubbed most of his face down with a mixed coating of dark and light brown face paint to help him blend into the environment even better. Between the desert camos, and his desert face paint, from a distance and as long as he kept low to the ground, he was practically invisible. The only one thing that stood out slightly about him was his black eye-patch. But that would not make much of a difference, unless someone who knew what he was looking for was watching. After a HALO jump from over 10,000 ft and not popping chute until the last second, there was no way anyone knew he was there. Jack stood up and began walking to the west, away from the sunrise. He knew he would not half to keep low for a while, not till he was more than half way to the research center, unless he heard a vehicle engine. He had been walking for not even thirty seconds when he realized he had forgotten something and stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh yeah, that's right!" Jack thought out loud. He then reached into the right pocket of his camos and pulled out a cigar and lighter. They weren't exactly standard issue, but they did come in hand in some situations, beyond that they just made Jack feel better. Jack hated it when people told him they were bad for his health. "That's cigarettes not cigars!" he had always told them. The difference between a cigar and a cigarette is that you don't inhale the smoke with a cigar, you just let it burn and you chew and suck on the end of it for flavor, kind of like gum, except with a burning tip. Jack lit the cigar and put the lighter back in his pocket. Jack smiled with relief that Para-Medic would not be there to fuss at him about smoking and his health, or his eating or…Jacks mind trailed off as he remembered that she wasn't with him on this mission. She had been a lot more help to him in Operation Snake Eater than he had given her credit for. She had loved to talk about movies, which although he acted annoyed about several times; it actually helped him along with the mission. When your alone in jungle, trying to keep hidden and avoid detection, the mind is exposed to a tremendous amount of stress, he never told her about it but Para-Medic's movies gave him something to think about as he journeyed through the jungles and the mountains. And her step-by-step instructions on how to treat injuries saved his life dozens of times. He suddenly felt a strange feeling of loss, like something was missing. But he quickly shook it off and continued walking. The desert was wide open in all directions, with rolling sand dunes. The sun was still rising so it was easy for Jack to continue going west, without even having to pull out his map and compass. After about half an hour of walking he could see the research center on the horizon. He then began to run to save time. When he was about 200 yards away from the research center he ducked down and crawled for another 100 yards, when he reached 100 yards he had a full view of the research center; It was a large rectangular structure about fifty yards long and six stories high, it was colored tan for camouflage and right next to it was a hanger colored the same, just as tall and a little bit longer. Just outside the hanger was a thin airstrip, which stretched out to the west, only big enough for a fighter jet. The entire area was closed off by a chain link fence, which spanned all the way around the research center, the hangar and the airstrip in a massive rectangle with a guard tower at each corner, which he had known about from the briefing where he was shown spy plane photos. There was one entrance/exit to the facility to the south (one of the two long sides of the rectangle, also where the guardhouse was located); with a dirt road that stretched out south, into the desert, there was a guardhouse at the entrance with armed guards. Jack could also see through his telescope that there were several armed soldiers patrolling along the fence on the inside. Peoples Liberation Army Special Forces, they wore tan uniforms with a red star implanted on the center of their caps. They were all armed with AK-47 assault rifles; soviet made. All of them fanatically loyal to Chairman Mao, all of them willing to lay down their lives for the state. This was not going to be easy.
Jack threw away his burnt down cigar, switched his radio on and dialed the Colonel's frequency. "Colonel?" Jack said into the speaker attached to the collar of his shirt.
"I read you Big Boss," Colonel Zero replied over the radio.
"I've made it to the research facility, there is a lot of troop activity," said Jack.
"Have you made it inside yet?" asked Colonel Zero.
"No, not yet," replied Jack.
"Well why the bloody hell haven't you?" demanded the Colonel. "Did you crawl all the bloody way there?"
"No, only 100 yards of it, I walked most of it. Its damn hot out here!" exclaimed Jack. "I'm not much use to the operation exhausted am I?"
"That may be true but you have less than half an hour to get in there and stop the prototype bomb from taking off in one of their MIGs," stated the Colonel. "And then you still have to destroy their research and get the hell out of there alive!"
"I know," replied Jack. "I'll take care of the plane and bomb first. Then I'll go for the research. Come to think of it, the research will probably be the tougher part."
"How do you figure that?" asked Colonel Zero.
"I'll be going into a building full of Chinese scientists and soldiers wearing a camouflage suit and make up that dose not even hide the fact that I am a Caucasian," explained Jack. "Even if I were in a crowd of Chinese people without the damn camos, I'd stick out like a sore thumb!"
"Yes, I was afraid of that," said Colonel Zero. "Well to be honest with you on that note Big Boss, we simply did not have any Chinese masks to give you and…"
"It's not just that," Jack butted in. "It's a problem with size ratios. The tallest of these guys is like 5.1, even if I did have a mask, wouldn't an unfamiliar giant be a tad bit conspicuous?"
There was a pause in the conversation for a moment. "Yes, now that you mentioned it I see the point," the Colonel finally responded. "Well regardless of how well you were equipped, you have what you have and you'll just have to improvise."
Jack sneered Zero's answer. "Improvising," he growled. "What good is state of the art equipment if you don't have the type you really need."
"And just what do you suggest we do about your little size problem Jack?" the Colonel exploded. "Equip you with a shrinking machine, or perhaps spray the air in the area with a gas that causes people to grow so you won't stand out as much?"
"Errr?" Jack tried to think of a way to defend his griping but was unsuccessful; he knew when he was beaten.
"We're professionals but we're not perfect Big Boss!" the Colonel said sternly. Sometimes we slip up. "Besides which I thought I had made it clear to you by now that a true spy must be able to cope with his equipment at hand. Surly you don't want me to start talking about my experiences in the SAS."
"Hell, no!" shrieked Jack, knowing that if he had to listen to another of the Colonel's lectures about "back in his day," he would scalp himself.
"Then I suggest you continue on with your mission and complete it by any means necessary," thundered Col. Zero. "And also for future preferences I suggest you mind your tone when you address me and your other superiors," he said, seeming to calm down.
"Yes sir, sorry sir," said Jack with a strongly suppressed sense of reluctance. He then switched off the radio and refocused his eyes on his target. Jack brought his telescope back up and peered around at the fence for a moment. He found a window of opportunity after a few moments, the side of the hanger was only a few meters away from the east fence, a single Chinese soldier was walking a patrol in a would be half circle around the side of the hanger (he simply kept walking the same way back and forth, another soldier did the same on the other side of the hanger, the two of them would both walk in opposite semi circles and meet up at the other side of the hanger). And better yet there was a hole in the fence, not a very big one but big enough for Jack to squeeze through quickly with his equipment. This was his chance; with the bright sunlight it would be hard for the soldier to see Jack, even relatively close. Jack began to crawl in the direction of the hole in the fence, as he came closer he could see that the guard was not even looking out into the desert, he was concentrating more on what was in front of him as he walked. Jack came closer and closer, crawling slower as he came. When he was only a few meters from the hole in the fence he stopped and lay flat in the sand, lucky for him he was well camouflaged by the his suit and the sunlight. The Chinese soldier walked strait past the hole without even looking out into the desert beyond the fence and continued north to the other end of the hanger. Jack quickly but carefully crawled up to the hole, removed his backpack and squeezed through hole, dragging his backpack through quickly after. He replaced his backpack and looked to the north, the Chinese soldier had just walked around to the other side of the hanger. Jack got up and ran for the other end of the hanger. When he reached the other end he flattened himself against the wall and glanced to the other side, it was clear. He quickly ran around to the front of the hanger which was wide open and inside was a MIG 29 fighter lined up to move out onto the runway. There were three other MIGs that were lined up in parallel lines behind the head MIG. The only difference between the MIG lined up for the runway and the ones behind it was that this one's had an oval shaped device attached to the bottom of it with the radiation insignia imprinted on it, the bomb. It had only been a few months since Operation Snake Eater, but the intelligence the Chinese had received from it had served them well. Jack quickly ducked inside the hanger and drew his pistol and knife in a fluent upward motion before moving into his CQC stance. He swept the hanger and saw that no one was there. The interior of the hanger was typical, welded steel walls, concert floor, and luckily the back entrance was closed off at the moment. Just to the right of the MIG carrying the bomb was a cluster of crates, most likely ammo and rockets. Jack remembered the guards and ducked behind them just in time for the two guards to meet and the center of the opening to the hanger, only a few feet in front of the nose of the front MIG. Jack carefully peeked around the side of the crates at the guards as they met. The two guards then turned and walked in opposite directions again. Jack sighed with relief, then as if on cue from his sigh a loudspeaker in the ceiling crackled on, as did another loudspeaker outside the hanger. A Chinese voice broke in and began talking, Jack listened to each word the voice said. After about twenty seconds of talking, which to most Americans would sound like gibberish, the loudspeaker cracked again and went silent. Jack shut his eyes and shook his head. "Why me?" he asked, to no one in particular. He holstered his knife and gun, then dialed the Colonel's frequency into his radio and pressed in his earpiece. "Colonel!" Jack said into his speaker.
"Big Boss?" the Colonel responded. "What's going on? Have you found and sabotaged the bomb."
"Well, yes and no," answered Jack.
"Oh bloody hell, what do you mean yes and no?" asked Col. Zero. "Which is it?" he demanded.
Jack sighed. "I've found the bomb. But the loud speaker just came on a moment ago and announced that the project will commence in five minutes! And all personnel are to report to their stations. I figure I have less than two minutes before the pilot and take off crew come storming in here," he said.
"Damn it," growled the Col. "Are you sure there is nothing you can do to disable the plane, and get inside the research center?" he asked
"No, and even if I did try to get inside the labs I'd never make it with so many people running around," replied Jack.
"Oh curse it all, I wish to God we could just blow the entire damn place to kingdom come!" Col. Zero bellowed over the radio.
"Same here, anyway…wait a minute," Jack paused at what the Colonel said a moment ago. "What did you just say Colonel?" he asked.
"I said I wish we could just blow the whole damn place to kingdom come!" the Colonel repeated.
Jack thought about it for a moment, it was insane, it was suicidal almost, but at that point it was the only thing that would work. "Colonel, just curious, this is their only bomb right?" he asked.
"Yes, it's a prototype for their future weapons and all their research is inside the research center," explained the Colonel. "Why do you ask?"
"Colonel I have an idea, just order the pilot of the C-130 to get as far away from here as he can within the next five minutes," Jack explained.
"Why? What do you have in mind?" asked Col. Zero.
"You don't want to know," said Jack with a slight edge of humor. "Just try not to court martial me for this okay, it's our best shot at accomplishing the mission."
"Court Martial…Best shot at…Wait a minute!" said the Colonel as he began to realize what Jack had in mind. "Big Boss your not seriously going to…"
The Colonel was cut off as Jack switched his radio off. "Yes I am," Jack answered out loud as if even though the radio was turned off, the Colonel would hear it. Among the training he had received in the months since Operation Snake Eater, one of them was how to fly a jet plane. Jack ducked below the plane and removed the bricks that had been placed on both sides of the front wheels of the plane then quickly climbed up into the cockpit of the MIG. He glanced at the controls and gages of the cockpit, all of which were labeled in Chinese. Jack silently thanked all the professors that FOX had brought in to teach him the Chinese language and writing. 'Right as usual Colonel,' he thought remembering what Col. Zero had told him after he landed. He read the gages quickly, the plane's fuel tanks were full, and it was by all means ready for take off. He was just about to start up the engine and drive the plane out onto the airstrip when he heard several Chinese voices coming from the other end of the hanger he turned around to see that a smaller door within the massive launch doors at the other end of the hanger had been opened and about a dozen Chinese crewman were coming straight towards the MIG. And among them was a man wearing a flight suit. Jack knew he'd better get the plane moving quickly. He searched frantically for the ignition switch and found it just as the pilot was beginning to climb up the small metal latter to the cockpit. "Oh to hell with this knife and dagger bullshit," Jack muttered to himself as he pulled out his silenced .45. He turned his head to meet the pilot as he came into view and before the pilot had time to wonder who was in his seat, Jack fired his pistol into the pilot's head. The pilot fell backwards to the floor and the crewman all jumped backwards in shock. Jack quickly flipped the ignition switch of the plane and the engines began to moan and come to life. The Chinese crewman began to scream, but the noise from the engine was already becoming so loud that Jack couldn't understand a word of it. Jack chose instead to concentrate on what he was doing. The wheels of the plane began to roll forward out onto the airstrip. Jack guided the wheels to the right out onto the main stretch of the airfield. It did not take the Chinese soldiers very long to figure out something was wrong. Jack watched through the rear view mirror of the plan as the crewman ran out behind him and shouted to the guards who were on patrol, pointing at the MIG in motion has the screamed. Moments latter the about a dozen Chinese soldiers came running from behind the hanger and started firing their AK-47s at the MIG. Several bullets clanged against the side of the plane near the cockpit from behind. Jack ducked low by reflex but kept his eyes on the airstrip. Jack lined the plane up on the runway with bullets still clanging against the hull of the plane. 'Idiots, there's a nuke on this plane!' he thought as the Chinese soldiers continued to shoot futilely at the MIG. Jack knew they wouldn't be able to do any real damage to the plane. It would take more than AK bullets to down a MIG, he just hopped they didn't have any RPGs, if they had then he'd be in trouble. Jack activated take off flaps and fired up the jet engine, which burst from the rear of the plane and propelled the plane forward at an increasing velocity. Some of the soldiers gave up but a few of them tried to pursue him, firing their weapons as they ran. Jack clutched the control stick with both hands, watching the speedometer for the required speed. He looked up and saw ahead at the other end of the runway was another squad of Chinese soldiers, it was fare away so they seemed pretty small but Jack could tell that some of them hand RPGs. Jack muttered a curse and glanced back at the speedometer. 'Almost there, just a little bit more,' he thought as the arrow came closer and closer to the red line on the speedometer. The troops at the other end of the runway were getting bigger and bigger, the closer he came to them the easier a target he would be for the RPGs. 'Almost…now,' the arrow overlapped the red line and Jack pulled back hard on the control stick, he was less than fifty yards from the Chinese soldiers. Two of them had fired their RPGs but they flew straight past the MIG from underneath. The MIG climbed higher and higher into the sky to the west. Jack leveled off at about a thousand feet and set the detonation setting for the nuke in attached to the belly of the plane. The very thing he had been fighting to avoid was now the only way to prevent it. He was about to do the one thing that everyone else was terrified of doing. Jack was about to nuke a communist nation. After about two minutes he banked to the right and climbed even higher into the sky. He climbed past 10,000 ft and leveled off. The MIG had been equipped with a bomber view scope for the pilot to see the drop point of the bomb marked on the ground. Jack however had a different target in mind. Jack leaned forward over the control stick and looked down through the bomber scope at the ground below he placed his right hand on the control stick and placed his finger over the release button. The research center soon came into view in the bomber scope. Jack pressed the release button and the bomb attached to the plane fell imminently toward the desert below. Jack increased speed as high as he could and gained what little altitude he could manage. Thirty seconds latter…it could be seen and heard from miles away. A tremendous blast shook the desert. A powerful wave of air and energy blasted in all directions from the center of the research center blowing sand and rocks into the air for miles. A gigantic cloud formed out of the center of the fray, it grew thousands of feet high and curled into the shape of a mushroom.
Jack reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out another cigar and the lighter. He took another glance into the rear view mirror and gazed at the mushroom could behind him. There was over a hundred people at that base, a small price to pay for a double threat of nuclear war. He knew no one in China would ever know what really happened. They didn't have enough time to radio in that a plane had been stolen. The upper brass of the Peoples Liberation Army would resolve that it was an accident in the handling of the nuke or something. They would take advantage of this even to announce that they had the bomb now, when really they had "a" bomb and all their research and equipment went up with it. Only the people who needed to know would know that the Chinese were all bluff. Jack stuck his cigar in his mouth and lit it. He checked the fuel gage and saw that he still had plenty of fuel left. He puffed his cigar and switched on his radio again. "Colonel?" he said into the mouthpiece.
"Big Boss?" the Colonels voice returned to his earpiece. "Thank God your alright!"
"Amen to that," Jack replied gruffly.
"Jack did you just…" the Colonel's voice trailed off.
"Nuke China?" Jack finished for the Colonel. "Yes," he answered.
"Oh, dear," the Colonel responded. "The Brass is not going to like this."
"I know," said Jack. "Lets get home first though, then we'll worry about that."
"Right," replied Col. Zero. "You should be able to see us on Radar, just follow us straight home, Jack."
"Roger that Colonel, Big Boss out," said Jack and the radio went dead. Jack looked at the radar and found the C-130 a few miles ahead. He followed after it in the east, toward the NATO base in South Korea, beneath the half risen sun