4: Redemption
Present Day
In his three years of service in the Soviet Army, Zoya 1 had never been more afraid. But that's okay. Posted at a nearby outpost north of Lamar Khaate Palace, the four other guys with him just as scared shitless. If only it didn't entail treason or otherwise carry dire consequences, he and his companions would have bolted long ago, shamelessly abandoning their post.
Zoya 1 clutched his SVG rifle tightly, thinking of his wife with child at home. It was at that moment that so many fears compounded into one, hellish night. There was the fear of not seeing his family again, getting his throat slit by a legendary soldier, or getting a 7.62 bullet lodged in his brain by a merciless sniper. He wasn't ready to die now; he had to hold his firstborn in his arms first.
Though wounded and fresh from a fight with a full-fledged armored regiment, Big Boss and Tixij struck fear in the hearts of the soldiers in that area though none of them would tell their superiors. If the legendary mercenary was able to recruit the vanishing sniper, who then would stop them from taking out the Soviets one by one? Just one of these supersoldiers already presented a grave threat to the Soviet Army, but working together? There was simply no words for it.
Sweat was running down his brow though daybreak hasn't arrived yet. He felt cold in the chilly Afghan night when he realized terror-piss stained his fatigues. He strained to be vigilant in the darkness, seeing specters and phantoms dancing in the shadows. He couldn't take it anymore; he had to talk with his comrades to retain his sanity.
If a scared man could be filled with any more dread, Zoya 1 fit the bill. All four of his companions lied motionless on the ground. They are here, he could feel it. Turns out his fears weren't unfounded after all. In his rising state of panic, it never crossed his mind to contact his superiors.
"Show yourselves!" He yelled in Russian, while frantically searching around him. "Those were my comrades! You'll pay for that!"
Nothing.
"Coward! You're no legendary soldier! Just a man who sneaks in-"
"-just close enough for you to hear me."
Just like that, Zoya 1's rifle was pulled from his grasp and steel bars clamped around his neck, rendering him effectively paralyzed. Apparently, Big Boss or whoever the hell his attacker was could fluently speak Russian.
"Make a noise like that again and it'll be the last thing you do."
"My... my comrades..."
"Are all unconscious. But if you or any of your men come after me, none will be spared. Is that clear?"
"Y... yes."
"The sniper, Tixij, where is she?"
"I... I don't know! All I know is about the battle at Lamar Khaate and how the enemy escaped. An armored regiment's on the manhunt for Tixij and... you."
"Lie to me again and your throat will be worse for wear. I will ask one more time: where is Tixij?"
"I swear I don't know! No one has radioed anything to me yet. We thought all this time she was with you! Please don't kill me, that's all I know. That's all I know."
Satisfied that the poor soldier was telling the truth, he tranq'd him with his Wu pistol, with the man collapsing heavily on the ground. Snake didn't have the strength for another choke hold.
He knew he needed to move quickly, especially with dawn fast approaching. His body felt more like lead with each passing minute, probably because there was a bit of lead in him. He was certain a couple of grunts managed a few lucky shots at his battledress, but he didn't have time to undo the broken ceramic plates and check his injuries. He knew that somewhere out there, she too was bleeding.
But why the hell did she take off like that? Again? As he awoke ten minutes after collapsing, it alarmed him that she was nowhere to be found. Whatever happened, Snake couldn't afford to speculate right now. Right now, there is only the mission and her.
Deja vu sent a chill down his spine. The mission or her? He tore his mind away from the thought and finally radioed Miller.
"Kaz, this is Ahab. Do you read me? Over."
"Sn...ke. Boss where are you? Have you secured the target?"
Good, signal was clearing up, "Negative, I lost consciousness and Quiet was gone by the time I came to. Does the Intel Team have a fix on her location?"
"Negative. Boss, I'm sending an extraction helicopter to pick you up. Coordinates of the LZ are on your iDroid. Let the Diamond Dogs take care of the target. A squad is on its way now." Kaz made no mention of the squad member packing a 7.62 MRS sniper rifle. The Boss didn't need to know that.
"Can't abandon the mission, Kaz. Tell the squad to assist Pequod in search-and-rescue. Nothing more. When they locate Quiet, the coordinates will be sent to me. Tell them to keep an eye out for enemy forces. Ahab out."
Snake didn't have the energy to listen to Miller's protests. He radioed Pequod next.
"Pequod, do you copy? This is Ahab."
"Boss! How the hell are you? Loud and clear. Give me a fix on your position and I'll pick you up."
"I'm fine, but we can't exfiltrate yet. I need you to look for Quiet from your position. I lost consciousness and we got separated."
"Affirmative. What was her last known position?
"We were around... Coordinates sent..."
Whether it was the blood loss, gravity of his injuries or fatigue from fighting practically the whole day, Snake collapsed again. He could barely make out Pequod's voice in his earpiece and the world was blurring around him. Through half-lidded eyes, he thought he could make out Quiet's worried face looking down at him. Was it really her, was he dead, or was it another of his phantoms disguising as the woman he secretly loved? In his current state, Snake did not really care.
She was by his side again, and that was all that mattered.
Onboard a Blackfoot en route to Big Boss' location, Charging Rhino was checking his gear and so were five other Diamond Dogs. Rhino was halfway through his ritual when Commander Miller radioed him through his earpiece.
Not again. Did I really join the Diamond Dogs for this?
"Rhino, you're almost at the LZ. You know the drill. Once you have a visual on the target, you take the shot. That thing won't pull the wool over the Boss' eyes much longer. He's suffered enough. We've suffered enough," said Miller, his voice saturated with venom.
Speaking so as not to be heard by his comrades, Rhino replied, "Commander, still having second thoughts about this. The Boss has a strong bond with her, and I thought-"
"You can tell what you think to Cipher, Dog. She's been fooling the Boss all this time, and so have all of you. Hell, she almost got him killed today. It ends today, Rhino. You are to eliminate the target and the English strain of parasites. If I hear you say anything more about hesitation, you're packing your bags. Got that? You're one of the best crack shots we have. I'd hate to see you go."
"Consider the mission done, Sir. Rhino out."
Boss, forgive me. Can't say I agree with Commander Miller, but she does pose a threat to at least a sixth of the world population. You don't have to do it yourself, Boss. It'll be over before you know it. As for me, I'll await the day of your forgiveness.
They have arrived. One of the men opened the Blackfoot's sliding door while they were still a good 30 feet in the air, and sure enough, Quiet was kneeling beside the Boss. Attending to his injuries. Was this really the woman Miller wanted him to execute?
Rhino said to the pilot, "Falcon, keep us in the air and keep the bird as steady as possible."
"The hell's going on, Rhino?" said one of the Diamond Dogs as Rhino pointed the MRS sniper rifle to Quiet's head.
"My orders are to eliminate the English strain, and its host. Anyone who interferes gets locked up in the brig. The Boss won't be touched."
Before he could hesitate any further or any of the men could throw his aim off, Rhino pulled the crisp four-pound trigger. Four pounds for her life.
He never really lost consciousness, but he wasn't exactly fully awake either. He hadn't felt this close to dying since the '75 crash. Maybe he was dead and just entered heaven. Through dulled senses, he could tell that Quiet was methodically undoing the ceramic plates covering his battledress, and then proceeded with the sneaking suit underneath. Huh, that was weird. Could they still do that in the afterlife?
He looked toward his left, and his unstoic thoughts were immediately brushed aside. A medical kit, undoubtedly from one of the guardposts. So that's why she left.
Mustering the will to think and speak clearly, he began, "Hang on, I'm fine. It's your injuries we should be attending to. What were you thinking, taking a tank shell like that?"
Despite the dangers presented by being in enemy territory, not to mention his injuries, he couldn't help but smile at her piercing glare through tired eyes. How long has it been since he last saw that? Two months?
Hold still, you idiot. I'm almost done cleaning this wound, but I haven't checked the others yet.
"Quiet, I'm serious. Your wounds need medical attention. I've walked away from worse, trust me," he started getting back up, only to be pushed down by her again.
And yours don't? Snake, I don't care if you took a nuke before and lived. Just help me and stay still. Here, I found your iDroid. Thought it was bust, but I managed to send our coordinates. Pequod'll be here and I'll live till he arrives.
Snake took the battered iDroid, "Sent our coordinates huh? Hope you didn't do anything else. Like bankrupt us or sell off Mother Base. Kaz'll really hate you now. But forget what I just said. Thank you, for saving me. Would've bled out from all these holes if it weren't for your gentle hands."
If she weren't focused on meticulously cleaning his wounds, she would have allowed a giggle to escape her. In the long hours of waiting, trekking or driving around the dunes of Afghanistan or red soil of the Angola-Zaire border, his dry wit never failed to diffuse the occasional boredom she felt in the field. For the most part, he rarely talked during deployments. When he did however, she enjoyed listening to his gravelly voice, lamenting all the while not being able to reply in words. As they got to spend more time however, it mattered less and less to her. Theirs was a language that had no use for words, let alone forgettable small talk. The occasional hand on a shoulder, poke to the belly and knowing look that said I've got your back no matter what-that was their common tongue.
After a few moments, Snake spoke again, "Quiet, I hope you didn't have to kill for those medical supplies. Enough blood has been spilled today, and none of those men had to die. If even just one had to die for me to be healed-"
She couldn't put a bloody finger on his lips, so she held his face instead, slowly shaking her head. Snake, stop worrying. I snuck in a guardpost without anyone noticing me and found you here. That's all that happened while I was gone. I know this is all my fault, and I'm sorry for dragging you into this. It's just that... I didn't want to endanger you after you lost so much already. But that's just it. In my fear of endangering your life, I only ended up placing you closer to harm's way.
Fighting back tears, she continued with her doctoring, her enhanced vision allowing her to operate despite the poor visibility in the hours before sunrise. To her surprise, his good hand found her cheek, and something about that gesture freed all the tears she fiercely held back.
Slowly, Snake began, "I can't tell you everything's okay, but don't blame yourself for what happened. That firefight's history now, so don't chain yourself to the past. I realize you meant well, that you didn't want to infect me or my men. You got captured, we had to fight our way out, and now we're here. But I know that if something like that ever happened again, I'd do it all again for you."
More tears welled up at what he just said. Something about what he just said reached a part of her that remained untouched for a long time. I killed a lot of men, Snake. Not just today, but even before I met you. When I was interrogated, they showed me a list of all the men I shot. It never hit me so hard until today.
The Boss seemed to read her mind, "We've both done some terrible things, Quiet, and we're gonna have to live with that. All that's left is to do what we can to redeem ourselves. We can't do that if we're too busy feeling sorry for ourselves, can we? We hold our rifles close to our chests so that others may hold their loved ones instead. We strip this world of nukes so that no one man or nation may order the wicked to perish with the innocent. We battle Cipher so that the world may not know the horrors of wordlessness or proliferated bipedal tanks like we do. That is what we do, so stop crying, soldier," he took her hand in his and brushed away her tears with the other as he said the last words.
She pressed her head to his chest without causing damage. Yes, Boss.
The two operatives rested for a few moments. After around 15 minutes, the whirring of two helicopters was heard in the distance.
"Quiet, is that Pequod? Do you have a visual on our logo?"
She hummed in assent. Two Diamond Dog Blackfoots headed our way. There's our ride, Boss.
"Good, help me up-"
No, we'll get a stretcher and I'll be hearing none of it. Maybe I shouldn't have given you morphine. You're getting all cocky again.
"Alright, Quiet." Snake ceded to that iron stare.
As Pequod and the other Blackfoot approached their position, the former began his descent. The latter stayed in the air at an altitude of around 30 feet and its sliding door opened to reveal the operatives inside. Whether it was the glint of the scope or the outline of the muzzle sticking out of the Blackfoot's profile, Snake detected the gunman zeroing in on Quiet and pushed her at the last millisecond.
Traveling at a steep angle, the bullet tagged her upper back and exited clean through her right lumbar region. Snake's sudden movement panicked the shooter, causing a harder trigger pull and a lower shot. As she soundlessly fell on the sands, Snake got up in a crouch position and instinctively placed himself between her and the shooter, drawing his suppressed .45 ACP handgun.
What happened next would have impressed even The End himself, rest his soul. As his Diamond Dog soldiers cried out not to shoot, Venom Snake found the front sight and fired. Poor visibility, an airborne moving target, fatigue, and a firearm more suited for close quarters did not stop the bullet from hitting home. The handgun bullet tore through the receiver of the shooter's rifle, effectively destroying it. Charging Rhino just lost his "baby," but was otherwise unharmed. His peers could only stare at the rifle, dumbstruck.
Snake quickly holstered and examined his sniper's wound, lying ominously still. He felt that his world was falling apart, because indeed she was. The exit wound was near the shrapnel lodged at her side. Applying pressure and pouring water around the broken tissue at the same time, he was counting yet again on The One That Covers to save her life. Pequod was soon beside him, wasting no time in sealing and bandaging the bleeding hole at the side of her gut.
The second Blackfoot touched down, and the operatives started disembarking. Behind Snake, a voice began. "Boss, I alone assume full accountability. My men had nothing to do with it. Commander Miller-"
His words were cut off by a left hook with a bionic fist, and he hit the ground hard. Luckily, or unluckily, the worst-case scenario was a dislocated jaw rather than a brain hemorrhage.
"I need the medic in this squad," Snake's voice was dangerously low.
One of the men raised his hand, not daring to speak. Big Boss beckoned him closer.
"Pequod, how fast can you get us to Mother Base?"
Without taking his attention off of bandaging Quiet, the young pilot replied, "Around ten hours if I punch it, Boss. Nine if the weather's fine."
Snake then turned to the medic, "You're riding with Pequod. Attend to her injuries and keep her stable in the next nine hours. Anything happens to her, I'm holding you, that son of a bitch right there, and Miller responsible. I assure you-you will not like that."
Snake quickly disarmed the medic of all his weapons, and then with Pequod's help, carried Quiet to his personal helicopter on a stretcher. They had to move quickly. The distant rumbling of tank engines was getting clearer and Quiet had little time left.
As soon as the medic was onboard Snake's chopper, the Boss commanded, "Pequod, get to Mother Base's Medical Platform ASAP. I want the medical team ready by the time you hit the helipad. Do not stop for anything, and check on Quiet from time to time."
"Wait, Boss, you're not coming with us?"
The young man received no reply. Snake already slammed the door shut from the outside. Having faith in the Boss' decisions, the young man took off and, true to his word, pushed the bird to its limits like never before. Time to see what a Blackfoot's really made of, Pequod thought. The life of someone he cared about, all because she cordially cared about the man he admired, depended on it.
Now rearmed with various non-lethal grenades, a suppressed UN-ARC chambered for stun rounds, Quiet's "Guilty Butterfly," and an FB MR launcher, Snake spoke to the other Diamond Dogs onboard the second chopper.
"Your new mission is to escort Pequod to Mother Base. This order's coming straight from me: effective immediately, Kazuhira Miller is temporarily suspended from his duties as Mother Base's Executive Officer. You are not to follow any orders from him. Is that clear?"
"Sir, yes Sir," the men said in unison.
"I'll hold off the Soviets to cover your escape for as long as humanly feasible. Once I run out of ammunition, I will proceed to these coordinates and we're getting out of this hellhole. I will radio you ahead of time. Falcon, got that?"
The pilot of the chopper replied, "Clear as day, Boss. It's just that those coordinates you sent are a long way on foot. Can you make it Boss? We can land closer."
"Negative. Any closer and you'll run a higher risk of getting shot down. The hills should also obscure the enemy's vision. If I take more than one hour to get there, carry on with your mission and do not turn back. If you take enemy fire, leave the hot zone immediately and do not wait for me any longer. Now take to the skies."
"Boss wait," it was that voice again, Snake thought in askance.
"Let me stay behind instead. I deserve it. You don't have to do this, Boss. Let me redeem myself," said Charging Rhino, his jaw still badly bruised from the bionic punch.
"You want to redeem yourself? Get all your boys home and never draw a weapon on a comrade again. Understand?"
The door slammed shut before either men could say anything else. As the chopper flew further from Snake, he positioned himself by the roadside, taking cover behind a large boulder. The phantoms lingered in his mind again. There was the fear of Pequod not making it to Mother Base in time, losing her while she suffered all the while, never getting to see her again should he lose his life in the ensuing battle or she lose hers in his helicopter. Snake took a deep breath as he spoke loudly in his mind. Not gonna happen. She will not be taken today.
The glaring headlights of the lead tank illuminated the road ahead, inching closer to Snake. Time to light the fuse.