Hi, guys!
School is kind of light right now, so I decided to take a break from my Super Smash Bros. fanfic and write a "novelization" of one of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's trailers…specifically the trailer involving the puppy called D.D., mostly because I have a huge weakness toward canines.
Please enjoy! Kudos if you catch the Metal Gear Solid reference towards the end.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
It was Wednesday in 1984. The time was 10:21 AM.
The helicopter approached one of the helipads of the massive, offshore plant called Mother Base. Expertly managing the controls, the pilot brought the aircraft to a gentle landing. The helicopter's wheels lightly bumped several times against the surface of the helipad before coming to a complete stop. The pilot let out a sigh of relief, grateful to have seen no harm come to either the helicopter or the passenger who sat at the very back of the aircraft.
"Okay, Boss."
Snake—or Boss, as the Diamond Dog soldiers preferred to call him—nodded. He left his seat and grasped the handle of the door. When his prosthetic left hand made contact with the metal door, it made a sharp clanking sound.
Snake frowned. He was still not quite accustomed to his artificial limb. True, he liked what it was capable of and what it allowed him to do, but it just seemed so…out of place.
And the reason it was there was all thanks to the incident that caused him to drift into a nine-year coma…
"Boss…?" the pilot asked uneasily.
The soldier shook his head, clearing his mind of thoughts of the past. "…It's nothing." He threw the door open and hopped out of the helicopter and onto the helipad. He then saw a gray-haired man, dressed in his usual cowboy-esque clothing and wearing a belt that had a single holster with a revolver—a Colt Single Action Army, to be exact—already waiting for him.
Ocelot raised a hand in greeting, to which Snake returned with a single nod.
He was a strange man, that Ocelot. Two decades ago, he had vowed that he would be the one to kill Snake. But instead, he had quickly come to revere the man whose life he had sworn to take. After a series of betrayals and other odd events, there came a day when Ocelot rescued Snake from the latter's would-be captors. Now the man was a member of the mercenary unit that Snake created. The ocelot had become a dog—a Diamond Dog.
Yes, Ocelot was a strange man, indeed.
All of a sudden, the welcoming grin on the man's face vanished. The next moment, he was chasing after a bundle of gray and white fur.
"D.D., come back!"
"Arf! Arf!"
Snake stopped in his tracks when a puppy, hardly any longer than the length of his lower arm, tottled up to him, barking all the way. It stood on its hind legs and pawed at Snake's ankles, its tail wagging so hard that it was an amazement that it hadn't knocked itself off balance yet. "Arf!" it yapped again.
Snake glanced at the puppy before looking questioningly at Ocelot, who had just caught up with the tiny canine. "This is…?" His voice trailed away, encouraging Ocelot to answer.
"It's the dog you brought back," explained the man. "We named him D.D. You might know what that stands for." He made a face and added, "Bit of a troublemaker…"
Snake heard the weariness in Ocelot's voice and teased, "Too energetic for you?"
Ocelot just smirked in reply.
"Any idea about the breed?" Snake then asked.
"I'm not sure about that. Maybe a mix."
"Wolfdog, then?"
"Probably."
Snake knelt on one knee and noticed an old scar that sealed the puppy's right eye shut. Poor guy, he thought. He's just like me. He suddenly became more aware of his own right eye, blinded by Ocelot twenty years ago. He started toward D.D. to pick him up, but before he could, the puppy had already bounced into his hands. As the soldier stood up again, D.D. leaned closer to his face—and licked his bearded chin.
Ocelot attempted keep a straight face, but he failed and let out a snort. "Pfffft."
Snake blinked, slightly taken aback by the young canine's unexpected action, gave the him an annoyed look, which only caused him to whine affectionately and give the soldier another wet kiss.
Ocelot couldn't help but laugh at Snake's expression of surprise at how much D.D. loved him. "Having fun, Boss?" he teased.
Snake rolled his eyes at the man's remark. "He'll get bigger?"
"Oh, yeah. Like this, probably." Ocelot held out his arms, indicating that D.D. would likely grow to a length of at least three feet. Snake grunted as the canine continued to lick his chin and whine lovingly.
A thought suddenly occurred to Ocelot. "You know, I can look after him," he offered, pointing at the puppy in Snake's hands. "He's still a pup, so he doesn't listen."
Snake recalled how D.D. had all but ignored Ocelot's command of "come back!" and chuckled. Ocelot, knowing exactly what the soldier was thinking, raised a brow before continuing. "Anyway…I feel like someday he'll be useful. I suspect you found a real diamond in the rough. A little polish…"
He tapped the black armband strapped around his upper right arm. It was emblazoned with an image of a cut diamond with the head of a snarling hound positioned in the foreground. The yellow banner underneath displayed two words.
"…and I'd say we got a true Diamond Dog on our hands."
D.D. barked proudly. Snake lifted him high in the air, allowing the morning sunlight to shine upon the canine and bathe him in a golden, almost magical light.
"D.D.…right?"
D.D. yipped again and wagged his tail.
Ocelot cleared his throat. "Well? What do you think?"
"An ocelot raising hounds…" Snake snickered and set D.D. back on the ground. The puppy ran around in a couple circles before looking up to the soldier, his tail just a gray blur. "Sure, why not?"
"Arf!"
-ooo-
Time passed.
-ooo-
It was another Saturday in 1984. The time was 12:14 PM.
Snake emerged from the confinements of Mother Base and onto one of its many struts. The noontime sun and the light breeze were signs of a day with perfect weather and satisfactory mission conditions.
They're also signs of a day when Mother Base's population grows, Snake thought with a sardonic smile, subconsciously patting a pouch on his side that was filled with deflated Fulton Recovery balloons.
Rather than his usual jungle fatigues, Snake was wearing a specially made suit that the Diamond Dogs R&D Team had finished designing and developing around last week. The suit was made of high-strength aramid fibers, which provided exceptional strength and excellent thermal stability. The R&D Team had also created a pair of sound-absorbing boots—perfect for the stealth-based missions that Snake frequently undertook. For this feature, it had been named the Sneaking Suit.
He had no idea why, but he had a strong feeling that his Sneaking Suit—or at least something similar to it—would be used by someone some time in the future. Someone who would be so similar to him that they could mistake that someone for him…
What the hell am I thinking? Snake scolded himself, erasing these thoughts from his mind.
A helicopter was already waiting for him on the helipad. The door was open and beckoned the soldier to enter. Its rotors spun at full speed, ringing louder and louder in Snake's ears as he marched toward the aircraft.
Two barks and a sharp, reprimanding voice cut through the din.
"Woof! Woof!"
"D.D., stay!"
Snake half expected the canine to come bounding toward him and paw at his legs just like last time. But when he turned around, he saw a mature D.D. standing obediently next Ocelot. The wolfdog was panting slightly. Ocelot had his hands on his hips and a triumphant smirk on his face.
Snake blinked several times before hesitatingly murmuring, "D.D.…?"
"Fully trained and ready for action." Ocelot gestured toward the fully grown wolfdog. "The rest is up to you."
The rest is up to you. Snake remembered how the man had said something like that not too long ago…
"You're a legend in the eyes of those who live on the battlefield." The gray-haired man faced Snake, his eyes filled with some emotion that the soldier could not identify. "That's why you have to handle this mission yourself. That's how Kaz would want it." Ocelot looked away and gazed at the desert and its rugged terrain. "Afghanistan is a big place. I expect you to become quite familiar with those binoculars as you plan your next move. How and where you make it…"
He glanced back at Snake and nodded once.
"Well, that's up to you."
"D.D., go!"
Ocelot's voice snapped Snake back to reality, and the soldier watched as the wolfdog growled and leaped forward. As D.D. went up to the helicopter and jumped inside, Snake caught a fleeting glimpse of a black object placed over the wolfdog's right eye. He looked exasperatedly toward the gray-haired man behind him. "…Really, Ocelot…"
Ocelot just shrugged. "The eyepatch looks much nicer than that nasty star, don't you think?"
Snake decided not to reply. He reached through the doorway and scratched D.D.'s chin, making the canine wag his tail harder than before.
"He's going with you," Ocelot spoke up suddenly. Snake looked over his shoulder and at the man, who nodded. "Take good care of him."
The battlefield was a dangerous place. One wrong move could result in instant death. On the battlefield, one never knew what was next.
And yet…
Snake sighed reluctantly. "Huh… Fine." He boarded the helicopter, much to D.D.'s delight. The wolfdog sat behind the pilot's seat, and the pilot craned his neck to get a good view of the Diamond Dogs' popular mascot. Snake, in the meantime, took his usual seat at the back of the helicopter.
"You ready?" he said to D.D.
The wolfdog barked a confirmation.
Snake looked through the open doorway and at Ocelot, and nodded to him. In response, the man lifted his right hand—an action vaguely similar to his signature move that was accompanied by that infamous quote.
"You're pretty good…"
Snake grabbed the handle of the door and slammed the door shut; the moment he did, the pilot maneuvered the helicopter into the air. The aircraft's rotors blasted wind downward and onto the helipad, sending up clouds of dust-filled air that enveloped Ocelot. The man ignored the dust and waved at the helicopter to see it off. The aircraft hovered in midair and slowly turned around before moving forward and away from the helipad.
"Woof!"
Snake turned to the wolfdog. The canine sat on his haunches with his ears pricked and alert. Then he looked at Snake, his single yellow eye shining intelligently. The corners of his mouth were curved upward as if he were grinning.
Snake smiled back at his new companion.
"D.D., I'm counting on you."
The helicopter soared over the vast blue ocean and toward the first of Snake and D.D.'s missions together.
Fun fact: This story has exactly 1,984 words. 1984 is looking to be an important number in TPP…
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