This project started when I offered to be a witness. Someone on the outside, to bear witness to a dying man's final days. Someone to pass on his story. Not that I was the only witness. Far from it, there were at least a dozen who had their lives touched and changed by that man, and I was only one of them. But I said I would remember everything he was, and stick with him to the end.
But as the days passed, I realized something. It wasn't enough for me to witness his story, and pass it on to a select few. Eventually, it would be forgotten. Swept away by the tides.
Some say that the greatest honor of a hero is to be forever unseen by history, to have saved the world without anyone even noticing. And I have no doubt that he would agree.
But he would also say that he was not a hero. Never was, and never would be. And in any case, while it may be enough for him to die alone and unremembered, I won't allow his story to be forgotten.
Another thing he would say is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and that it doesn't matter what a simple soldier wants, compared to the rest of the world.
Well then, I know that all of those who have had their lives touched by him would agree with me. They would agree that he was a great man, who doesn't deserve to be forgotten by history.
And he would respond that we were being selfish. That our wishes don't matter, that telling his story would only serve our own wishes.
But...I think it is still necessary. The world needs to know his story, so that the mistakes that so many people made shall never be made again.
Of course, I doubt that this will stop those mistakes from being made in full. But I would like to think that, once in awhile, someone would stop, and think of this story, and how such great evils came from such good intentions. And they would think to themselves, that in fighting monsters, they would need to be careful not to become monsters themselves.
But I digress. In the end, I'm doing this for my own selfish reasons. Nothing I say can change that. But I hope that by at least being honest about it, that my conscience will be clear.
So I shall tell the tale of a man, a legend, a hero, a soldier...and a friend.
I shall tell...of the Legacy of Solid Snake.
-Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich
With the approval of Roy Campbell, Mei Ling, Nastasha Romanenko, Meryl Silverburgh, Johnny Sasaki, Jack 'Raiden'
In memory of Frank Jaeger, Naomi Hunter, McDonnell 'Kazuhira' Miller, Adamska, Richard Ames, Emma Emmerich, Helena Dolph Jackson, Olga Gurlukovich, James Johnson, Peter Stillman, Scott Dolph, 'Big Boss', 'EVA',
And a man who sacrificed entirely too much for us.
