Metal Gear Liquid

Chapter 2: Snake in the grass

The terrain became continuously rockier as snake approached the terrorist complex. The fortress was just that ,a fortified structure made of concrete set directly into the rugged mountains which toward menacingly over it. To the untrained eye it looked impregnable, but snake would not be discouraged. Taking cover behind a huge boulder he crouched and again adjusted the receiver on his radio.

"Snake here. I've arrived on target. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Understood snake," came the colonel's reply, "What's the situation?"

Snake stood and peeked through the binoculars from his hiding spot. He scanned the walls of the fortress from left to right without missing a single detail. He replaced the binoculars and resumed the crouched position.

"Looks like this place is heavily guarded. The guards are carrying AK's and pineapples. I see the main gates, and it appears that there are two guard towers on either side, 30 caliber machine gun nests. There are several guards patrolling the parameter, and two in the checkpoint at the front gate. They are equipped with shotguns. There appears to be an unmarked side entrance as well. Probably locked."

"I read you snake… Looks like you'll need a miracle to breach those walls." Came Commander South's disheartened reply. "Check for maintenance hatches near the walls. There must be someway in."

"Commander these troops are highly organized and armed to the teeth. Are you sure they're just terrorists?"

"I've given you all the Intel reported to me by the superiors. I don't have access to the full file."

"Very well," Came snake's unconvinced reply. "Commencing mission dessert viper." With that snake broke signal and began to round the walls to the left, towards the mountain. He decided that he would seek access where the guard's patrols were the weakest. He took cover behind anything and everything and constantly paused to monitor the guard's movements around the wall. As he approached the left side he immediately noticed a single ventilation shaft that was clearly undergoing maintenance. A single guard stood above it. Snake was in luck. this appeared to be an easy in and what sent a shiver of thrill through his spine was that the guard was asleep on his feet. If only his superiors could see him now, snake laughed inside.

As snake silently approached the sleeping man he took note of the guard's equipment. Resting to the right of the guard's chest was a radio. It no doubt had direct contact to base command. Snake also took note of the man's uniform. It was a desert camouflage jumpsuit complete with dirt brown military boots and a wind mask. Holstered to his leg was a sidearm, and the strap of his AK wove itself around his neck as it rested on his stomach. This was no terrorist. This was an Iraqi military man. It wasn't the equipment or the uniform that led snake to believe this, it was the way the guard was sleeping. Only in the military did troops learn to sleep on their feet.

As snake cleared enough room to the man's back in one liquid motion he grabbed the man around the throat in a choke hold and kicked his legs out from under him. Without so much as blinking snake snapped the man's neck. He gently laid the guard on the ground and began to rummage through the equipment he had overlooked. The first piece of equipment that snake unstrapped from the guard was his leg holstered side arm which turned out to be a Glock .45 caliber pistol. The guard also had many different pockets and pouches of varying sizes. In the largest pocket he found a flashlight, several full magazines for the 45 caliber, a comb, and a military ration. Snake emptied the pouch out. He placed the Glock ammo in this pouch along with the ration. He then strapped the Glock to his leg. In the front pocket of the guard's uniform he found a pack of cigarettes. Snake stuffed them in the pouch and strapped it to his belt. He didn't smoke but he could possibly use them as some form of distraction. You never can tell what you could use in a mission such as this, he thought.

After sorting through the guards possessions he lifted him into a fireman's carry over his shoulders and dropped him behind a nearby boulder. In normal circumstances he would have conserved the energy and just drug the guard there, but he didn't want someone to happen upon the tracks that would have been left. He then went back and picked up the guard's AK-47 and set it down with the body. He had no use for the gun. It would be too loud to fire and too inaccurate to use for a sniper rifle not to mention the bulk would just slow him down, so without a backward glance he walked to the ventilation shaft.

The shaft was a simple rectangle about two by two feet. It was just large enough for him to squeeze into. It appeared to lead into a building that connected directly to the outside wall. He crouched down and peered inside. He could feel cool damp air that blew from within. He had no doubt that this led inside the base. With a quick push from his feet he crawled into the darkness.

The shaft opened up more the further he crawled. As he pushed on through the darkness his eyes began to adjust and revealed a faint glow came from around a bend in the shaft. As he rounded that corner he thought that whoever had designed his suit should be thanked for adding the elbow and knee pads. He could see that the light was a fair distance down the shaft, and as he crawled in the darkness his past crept up on him.

He had grown up in Britain. Passed back and forth between government orphanages he had been alone for most of his life. As he grew so did his lust for knowledge. It was always his ambition to find where he had come from, so he read every piece of literature he could get his hands on. He was never fully accepted wherever he went. Always ridiculed snake would lash out at his tormentors causing chaos in the orphanages. It seemed as though he was always in trouble. At the age of thirteen he began to turn down the path of a criminal. By age of sixteen he was in and out of juvenile detention centers. He had wanted to rebel against the world that had rejected him. It wasn't until he had met a man that spoke of his father that his life had really taken a turn.

The man had stopped him in the a London street one day. He told him that he had known his father. Known what he was. Snake never got the opportunity to allow the man to elaborate because before the man was finished the familiar sound of police sirens filled his ears. The man escaped, but snake wasn't so lucky. The only distinguishing feature he could remember about the stranger was a large scar that ran across his eye.

Set up on a false murder charge snake was sentenced as an adult to 20 years in prison. While he was serving his time in a London penitentiary he had a visitor. The man wore a black suit and told snake that if he was chosen to be part of a secret organization. If he joined he would be released from prison. Of course he had accepted who wouldn't have?

He was educated and trained by the secret English agency MI5. There he became fluent in seven different languages including Spanish, French, Malay, and Arabic. His extremely high IQ led him to rise quickly in the eyes of many secret organizations, and he was finally recruited by the British Information Agency to destroy certain targets. A mere teenager when he entered combat.