Chapter One – The Phantom's End

Snake stared at the broken glass on the floor. It was as if the glass was piercing his heart. He couldn't contain his anger but at the same time, didn't dare look at his face again. It wasn't his face. His eyes were drawn to the loaded pistol on the table. He wasn't a soldier anymore. He was tricked, manipulated, moulded into it by his supposed friends. Big Boss' friends, not his. He looked up and stared at the fragmented mirror, the mirror that revealed his true self to him. Who even was he? Not Snake, not Big Boss, not David. A soldier. That's all he really was. The Soldier reached for the pistol, he had killed hundreds upon hundreds of people with this weapon and it was only right he ended his life with it. Squeezing the trigger, his hands shaking wildly, he lifted the gun towards his head. Once again staring into the mirror he saw this… this phantom, this fake man, this lie. Time to end the myth.

"Boss?" a familiar voice emanated from the idroid and Snake dropped the gun in surprise. He wasn't usually this sloppy with weapons. "I suppose 'Boss' isn't really what I should call you anymore, huh?". "What is it Kaz?" said Snake. "Meet me on the Command Platform Deck, me and Ocelot have something to talk to you about" Snake reloaded the weapon and holstered it, composing himself for the meeting. He walked out of the room, along a corridor before quickly stepping up a flight of stairs and emerged into the blinding daylight of the Seychelles.

Mother Base didn't look like much. A large, winding sequence of oil drilling platforms that was always seemingly under construction. Everything was painted in an official grey colour and the scaffold along the buildings was embroidered by sheets of wood with warning posters slapped on top. However this was the home to one of largest and most dangerous PFs to ever walk the Earth. The Diamond Dogs. A few squads of soldiers were dotted around on each platform, ready to fight at any time (as is the way of the Diamond Dogs) but the central platform was currently mobbed by soldiers all fighting each other into queues, the commanding officers struggling to keep them in line and shouting obscenities at each other. "Hey! I was in front first!" "Shove off; I was here way before you". Snake walked towards the central platform from his quarters to see the rabble of men there and was interrupted by a loud shout "Look! The Boss is coming". Heads turned and almost immediately, the chaos that had been occurring transformed into five, organised rows of quiet soldiers stood, hands by their sides looking dead straight and not even daring to blink. A helicopter landed at the Helipad they were stood in front of. The door slid open and out came Ocelot who tried to help Kaz only to be greeted with a sneer and a light push, signalling him to move.

Revolver 'Shalashaska' Ocelot or Adam (ska) was a mysterious man. He stood at around 6ft with grey hair dressed up in a Wild West inspired outfit. At his belt was his current weapon of choice, the Tornado-6 and around his shoulder was a belt with large shells for this powerful revolver. Ocelot was a rival to Naked Snake back in Tselinoyarsk during Operation Snake Eater but of course Venom already knew this from his hypnotherapy. Ocelot was a former GRU Colonel in command of his own squad when he had defected to the Soviet Union. Now of course no-one really knows who he's working for, but Adam is one person you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of. Benedict 'Kazuhira' Miller was around the same height as Adam with blonde, messy hair. He wore a black Beret emblazoned with the Diamond Dogs logo and a long beige trench coat disguising his missing limbs. A single crutch helped him to hobble along on his left leg and he stared down at his missing right arm. A wince of pain appeared on his face as presumably flashed back to being ambushed by the parasite unit. Miller had everything taken away from him, only leaving his passion for revenge which sometimes led him to make rash decisions, Quiets possible murder being one of them. Luckily Ocelot keeps him in check during these moments and vice versa. Adam and Kaz didn't like each other much, in fact they pretty much hated each other and they knew they would take different sides in the future but for now Big Boss was the only person keeping them together. Although with the realisation of Big Boss' true identity, he may not be able to keep them together for much longer.

Snake arrived at the helipad to meet with his comrades. "Snake, we've been contacted by Zero-" Ocelot began. "Zero? Tell him thanks but no thanks." Snake began to turn away but Kaz thrust his crutch into Snake's side, he may have been missing limbs but he was still strong. Snake grunted as the crutch was pushed into his stomach. He turned around and looked at Kaz. He limped over to Snake and stared into his only eye, Miller squinted and sneered at him. "I should've known you weren't the real Big Boss… A long time ago" He lowered the crutch down and walked back over to Ocelot. "Miller!" said Ocelot. He sighed and carried on. "Anyway Snake, the job is a big one. Zero wants us to take over the entire Angola-Zaire border in 48 hours for a pay-out of 2 billion GMP" "Is it possible?" quipped Snake. "Definitely, you'll have the full force of Diamond Dogs with you the way through" The squads of soldiers saluted and returned to at-ease. "Give me the run-down" said Snake. Miller snapped out of his angry state and started to explain, "You'll be dropped in at a landing zone east of Bwala Ya Masa, working your way through each outpost clockwise. You will go into each outpost and be followed by a clean-up crew, who will wait on the outpost in tactical positions for 10 minutes. An XOF squad, now led by Zero in its entirety will take over and the clean-up crew will move to your new position. This will happen for every outpost until you eventually reach the end point at Nova Braga Airport. We received Intel last night from an undercover team in Nova Braga that there are over 100 soldiers there. Rogue Coyote know something's about to happen and they're prepared." Miller turned to Ocelot "You will take charge of your own squad, like being in the KGB again; you'll go anti-clockwise to Snake and meet each over in Lufwa valley, where 4 helicopters will pick up Snake, you and your squad and snake's clean-up crew. While the helicopter takes you all over to the airport, we'll commence sequential bombing runs on it to weaken their defences. We predicted it should knock out at least 25% of their forces but you'll have to take on the rest while XOF send a squad from the north in a surprise attack. The minute that XOF squad radios in their status report, the funds will be transferred to our account. Kill them." Snake and Ocelot both turned to Kaz. "Those bastards took everything from us. Its only right we take their best men from them after the job is done." "Now hold on Miller" exclaimed Adam "How is killing one squad going to impact Cipher? We'd need to systematically take out every squad they left in Africa…" Miller had begun to smile. A vengeful smirk. "The clean-up crews will plant hidden C4 in each outpost, undetectable to XOF forces, just like how their identities were hidden to us at the nuclear inspection 9 years ago. Our perfect revenge." Snake and Ocelot stared at each other. They both knew there was no way to quench Millers thirst for revenge so they said nothing. Kaz continued. "Venom, you'll have the help of both Quiet and DD in the field. That should be sufficient. I'll be flying overhead in a support helicopter so we can keep you informed of any incoming forces and a backup squad will be on standby, should you… Anyway, is there anything else you need to know?" Snake looked up and said "When do we leave?" "Right now" replied Kaz.