METAL GEAR SOLID: THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

by Rookie's Eyes (based off of Metal Gear)

Disclaimer: the Metal Gear series and their characters are property of Kojima Productions and Konami

Author's Note – The "Boss" intro scene in my previous chapter was primarily influenced by the scene in act 1 of MGS4 when the B&B corp revealed themselves to Snake. I just thought It would be a nice way to make the readers anticipate the upcoming fights. And it actually worked out a lot better than I had planned.

Chapter Two – Operation N313

Mahalruit Outskirts

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice broke through Snake's stupor, "Look, I think he's comin' to."

Something slapped Snake's face, further rousing him from his coma. A sharp pain in the back of his head striking like a knife as he bolted upright, drawing his hidden blade.

Two men stood in front of him, both in combat fatigues, one thinly built with dark brown skin and a bandanna wrapped around his shaved head. The other was a white man, well built with a thick mullet of blonde hair. He wore a flak jacket and combat boots, a medical bag wrapped around his shoulder. The men had evidently been expecting Snake's reaction, standing several feet away while the first of the two spoke, "Whoa! There'll be no need for that, man. Relax, we're friendlies, sir. FOXHOUND."

"Names?" Snake asked, reluctantly lowering his knife, but only slightly.

The second soldier addressed his partner, then himself, "Kodiak Bear and Bengal Tiger, sir."

"No, your names."

" Nicholas Myer and Jonathan Turner, sir."

"Good. Ugh," he groaned, his head suddenly growing worse with the abating adrenaline. " How long was I out?" He brought his hand to the back of his head, discerning no matted hair, nor blood on his hand, so the injury was in no way detrimental.

"Not long. An hour or so, sir. We found you among some of the PARC's dead. Apparently the Archangels aren't in the habit of checking their work."

"I'll remember to thank them for that later. You can cut the sir crap. We're not on base anymore, so Snake will do just fine. I don't want any respect I haven't earned."

"Yes sir, er, Snake."

*Call* Snake heard a beeping in his ear, "Just a moment," He turned the knob on his codec to 'RECEIVE' ,"Kept you waitin', Huh?"

*140.85* "Ah, Snake! When the transmission cut I was afraid you were captured."

"Captured?"

*140.85* "The insurgents who weren't killed were taken prisoners. They're threatening the PARC leader with her soldier's deaths if she tries to incite anymore violence among the locals, it's all over the South African news. They're calling it the Mahalruit Massacre. They could've just as easily apprehended you. Lucky that Kodiak and Tiger were nearby to pick you up. We might be able to use this unfortunate situation to our advantage."

"Sir?"

*140.85* "I want you to rescue as many prisoners as possible, Snake. We maybe able to elicit PARC's assistance in this matter if we protect their soldiers. They've got several agents in their employ on the inside of the Outer Heaven compound."

"So we've got men on the inside?"

*140.85* "Several agents, by point of fact. Diane Simetra is the first of three. She's been inside the compound for weeks mapping out the facility for our infiltration operation. It was her work that got Fox in earlier. She was the one who knew the location of the Metal Gear weapon. Her current frequency is *140.12*."

Snake opened his Codec memory, entering the code swiftly and asking, "Do the other contacts have Codec access?"

*140.85* "They do, but they change their frequencies daily. Diane is the only one who stays in constant contact. There is a second agent by the name of Kyle Schneider, a saboteur placed inside Outer Heaven's Special Forces Unit. He's a very skilled fighter adept in most forms of hand-to-hand combat, as well as skilled in the use of various weapons. He would be a most valuable addition to our cause. Once they've deemed you worthy to assist, he may serve as a second field agent. You'll have to find his frequency from one of his fellow soldiers. The other contact is a woman by the name of Jennifer Alejandra Libre. I am told she is fairly high up in PARC command. She is very knowledgeable of Outer Heaven weapons storage, and may be of some use if you are low in supplies... Snake?"

"Yes sir?"

*140.85* "I don't mean to put more pressure on you… but if you don't succeed in your mission…"

"The world as we know it will cease to exist."

*140.85* "Precisely… I have the utmost faith in you, Snake."

Breaking formality, Snake promised, "I won't screw up, sir."

*140.85* "I hope not... As I said before, If I weren't completely confident in you, I would not have sent you. Good luck." The ensuing static informed Snake of the ceased transmission, and he closed his Codec, I can't have another mistake like in Mahalruit, not if I'm going to succeed. Snake addressed his fellow FOXHOUND allies. "So what's the plan for entry?"

"We've been posing as environmentalists for the last week, taking samples of the Usango river periodically. You and I will dive to take samples, and you can 'get lost' up river to the stronghold."

"Sounds like a plan."

Snake sat in the small, aged vessel that was their research boat, rusted and sputtering down the Usango, Snake was confident no one would expect a United States espionage agent to infiltrate their defenses using such a piece of junk. John barely had to raise his voice over the engine's pitiful whimpers, "You'll be entering the water about two kilometers from the compound. They've got round the clock patrols but stay close to the bottom and the sewage in the river should be adequate to conceal you."

"Sewage?"

"Yeah, sewage." Nick turned the boat sharply to follow the river's curve. John turned around, pulling out a backpack and tossing it to Snake. Snake unzipped the package, revealing a scuba suit, a silenced pistol and several magazines of ammo. Snake stripped down to put on the suit while John filled him in on the circumstances of his insertion. "You'll need to be careful once you've gotten past the patrols. There are no boats, but they patrol along the edge of the river. They've threatened to shoot us on sight when we last came down here. They have several nets running through that river." Snake zipped up the skin tight suit, flexing his arms and legs to loosen the suit for proper movement, packing his uniform, Codec, and knife inside the waterproof rucksack.

Nick stopped the engine, the both of them pulling out various tools so that they may remain incognito. "Good luck," John wished. Placing his re-breather in his mouth, Snake leapt in the water. If there was anyone watching, Snake shouldn't be acting like he had something to hide. He swam quickly upriver, the vision in the water turning dark and murky.

0635 Hours, February 5, 1995. Inside Outer Heaven

Slowly, Snake rose out of the water, until he could sufficiently study his surroundings. A boat dock was before him, various ordnances in random stages of unloading. Tanks lined the walls, crates stacked to the ceiling behind them. There were no Outer Heaven personnel in sight, Snake made his way to a ladder, climbing silently onto the platform. He shook the water off of his rucksack, opening it and pulling out the Codec communicator, inserting it into his ear and turning the knob to 'SEND', "This is Snake," he said, slight pride escaping his serious tone, "I've infiltrated Outer Heaven."

*140.85* "Big Boss here." His commanding officer answered, "Well done, Snake. Remember, you've got three objectives. One: retrieve this Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar. Madnar is the Pentagon's priority as a man of his caliber in warfare robotics is difficult to come by, and it would not look good for US operatives to knowingly condemn an innocent man forced into such a situation. Two: locate and free our missing FOXHOUND agent, Gray Fox. We never leave a soldier behind, and he may know something about this machine we cannot anticipate. Three: dismantle their "Metal Gear" weapon by any means necessary. This is crucial Snake, you're our last hope to prevent another World War. We've included an experimental memory card which can hold several gigabytes of memory. It should be sufficient for you to download all of their weapon's specifications. "

"I'm no good with computers."

*140.85* "It's been programmed to hack and perform the download automatically. All you need to do is plug it in and let it do its magic. The process, however, will take several minutes."

"So I'll just be on my guard."

*140.85* "That's the ticket. Keep to the books and this op shouldn't be more than a few hours. Turner and Myer will be waiting with your ride out. Good luck, kid."

"I make my own luck."

*140.85* "Don't get cocky now, Snake… Good luck Soldier. Over and out."

"Commencing Operation N313."

Snake made his way across the deserted dock, passing dozens of open boxes, several of which bore the emblems of various military arms companies. Maul Weapons corp., Armstech, Kurt Industries, among others, were sprawled across the floorboards. Other crates had depressions inside, in the shapes of Uzis, P40's, and M16's.

Snake saw a bright yellow door, paint chipped and rusted, along the wall. He slipped through the door, and into a warehouse area. Crates lining the walls, this time in every direction, with tanks and crates hastily organized within. Snake only spied two guards in the room, both of which idly walked along the rows of boxes, their rifles limp in their hands. Ducking behind the boxes, Snake crept around the soldiers, rolling between rows when the soldiers had their backs turned.

*Clang!* Fearing discovery, Snake bolted, running through a half closed garage door into a dark garage, filled with trucks all dissected in the process of repair. He hid behind the door wall, but no one pursued. Snake took the chance and looked, seeing a mercenary standing over a tank- hatch, yelling to his brothers in arms, "Damn! What is that smell?... Aw shit, that's rank." Evidently his cover had not been blown.

Snake hadn't realized he was holding his breath until he released it in relief. He examined the garage he now stood in. It was dim, with only a few of the overhead lights humming, producing just enough light for comfortable sight. Dozens of trucks, all in differing states of disrepair, were inside the garage. He walked around, examining the contents of the trucks more closely. Climbing inside the closest one, he found a box, containing someone's personal belongings. Snake found a Beretta M92F, as well as a personnel level 1clearance card, both of which Snake pocketed thankfully.

He made his way back out to the warehouse section, looking north to an elevator door. Checking to make sure no soldier would see him, he ducked behind the crates once more, creeping to the elevator, hearing the voices of several guards , Probably the ones supposed to be guarding the elevator door, talking near one of the tanks.

"I'm telling you guys, it smells worse than shit on a hot day in there."

"What're you talkin' about, Hils?"

"Go on, find out for yourself."

"Why do I have ta do it."

"'Cause I'm not the one who did it and I'm not gonna be the one to clean it up, whatever it is."

"Whatever Hils, y'lazy git." Several moments passed, and Snake had passed several rows of tanks on his way to the elevator. Cautiously, he walked to the doors, pressing the button to call the platform as the soldier's yell of surprise echoed through the warehouse, "Holy shit, guys! It's Hayes!"

Snake neither knew nor cared about their problem, stepping into the elevator and calmly pressing the button for the second floor.

Author's Note – Incase you haven't already figured it out, the purpose of the "Smelly tank" was as a distraction for the guards, but that wasn't the hard part to figure. When Gray Fox kills a soldier in the prologue chapter, he stuffs the body in a tank, thus the "Holy shit, guys! It's Hayes!"statement by the other soldiers. This wasn't the most interesting chapter, which is why I thought a little humor would be appropriate. I suppose if I wasn't anxious to put out chapters, I would've waited to post my first and just combined the two, but alas, I do not possess so great a patience.

As before I have but one request for my readers, REVIEW! It has been a great help, as evidenced by the improvement from Resurrection to this fic. Thanx to all my readers, present and future and please enjoy! Up next: Chapter Three: A shocking turn of events.