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: After such a long time It's very refreshing to pump out two chapters in a week. Like you, I assume anyway, I was too anxious to see how this would pan out to put it off for a week. I've settled into a comfortable process of planning a scene, beginning the writing, scrapping the plan and getting an even better result than the plan. I did not intend the Shotmaker fight to end the way it does at the start, but I doubt anyone will be able to get what I really mean by that until I explain it… eventually. Mwahahahad!
Chapter Six – The Buckshot Warrior
0822 Hours, February 5
Gray Fox was anxious to find his machete, the one thing in his life which held any sentimental value. He knew it was childish, like the young children he has often seen who carry their favorite toy around wherever they go, only Frank Jaeger was in his forties, and his security blanket was often the only reason he had made it out of some very sticky situations.
He was relieved to see his gear with the machete still sheathed, but he was not satisfied with its condition until his close scrutiny was concluded. Besides the blood that those Outer Heaven soldiers had inconsiderately left on the blade, there wasn't a mark on it. Fox sheathed the blade, it sung as it slid back into its scabbard, as if it knew its master had returned.
After David, No… Snake had checked his pack, destroying a tracking device that had been planted by those soldiers, the duo left the equipment room. Fox knew that Snake had no knowledge of his true lineage, and he doubted that Snake knew about the Big Boss's old codename either. After all, his codename had only officially been 'Naked Snake' for the duration of that one mission with his old mentor, at least, that's what Big Boss had told Fox. After that they changed it to Big Boss, only Boss wasn't so keen on taking his old mentor's title and only recently became accustomed to it. Fox wondered what kind of significance it must have had for Big Boss to pass it down to Snake
On a whim Fox removed his machete, cleaning the leftover gore on the blade from his earlier attempted escape from the base on the guard he had incapacitated earlier. Spinning and flipping the machete in his fingers before sheathing it once more, Gray Fox listened as Snake said, "Now we've got to go and find Madnar and his daughter."
Gray Fox corrected, "You've got to go find Madnar and his daughter. This is your mission now, Snake, and I have no doubt that you'll accomplish it, either." Though he was sure Snake didn't quite believe him, Fox meant every word, "I failed, I'm just here to help. What do you need me to do?"
Snake looked as if he'd been rendered speechless. After a moment, though, he did have an idea, "There are some soldiers who need an escort out of the compound. One is the brother of a very influential PARC member. I need you to retrieve them and get them out safely. They're on the second floor."
Fox remembered the soldiers Snake was talking about. The first one had been Fox's cellmate for a short while before he had been moved to the high security cell. The others were a pair of bumbling soldiers, one very tall, the other very short, who had tried and failed to help Fox in his escape. "Consider it done." Fox assured.
From behind, the click of a loaded shotgun warned that the two agents were not alone, "I'm not going to make as easy as you hope, Foxhounders." Though it was nearly imperceptible, Fox thought he detected a light Russian accent in the shotgun-wielder's speech.
They turned to face a soldier, by the looks of his uniform he was a member of the Archangels. He wore deep green BDU's, with a black bandana wrapped around his forehead. He wore black kneepads and crimson shoulder armor, a winged skull imprinted on his shoulder pads, the words "Outer Heaven Archangels" written below. He was armed with two sawed-off shotguns in his hands, a combat knife slipped inside its hilt around his forearm, and a chain of shotgun rounds wrapped around his shoulder.
"Heh, look who thinks he's Rambo." Gray Fox chuckled.
"I am The Shotmaker. By my comrades in the Spetznaz I was known as Odinvystrel, 'One-Shot'. My kills were legendary among my men. I've taken down a hundred enemies with these riot shotguns. Surrender, and maybe our boss will give you a swift and painless death."
Gray Fox was quiet, but he was also confident. "I don't think you realize who you're talking to."
Snake looked calm enough, taking in the surroundings for tactical purposes to gain any possible upper-hand against their opponent. Their room was small, filled with crates and shelves, a very cluttered room for a firefight. They had a narrow pathway for combat, boxed in by shelves on both sides.
Fox drew his machete, an excited ring coming from the blade, thrilled to face a worthy opponent, one who would not simply fall beneath its edge.
"Didn't your teacher ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?"
From the second Fox unsheathed his blade, his mind had taken on a machine-like efficiency. All his concentration devoted to combat. Nothing else mattered, not smell nor taste, not even minor pain. His mind was blocking out all distraction. His sight, his hearing, and feeling were intensified, the result of years of experimentation to achieve a 'Perfect Soldier'. He had become nothing less than a wraith. Null. His body tensed, and he assumed his battle stance without even thinking, muscle memory doing all the work.
Shotmaker raised one of his shotguns, depressing the trigger. Before the gun went off, Fox slammed the dull side of his blade into the barrel, the buckshot tearing a hole in the wood shelving. With Snake behind, ready with his Beretta raised, Fox leapt overhead, using Shotmaker's shoulders as leverage to land on the otherside. He brought his blade down to slice at Shotmaker's back, but the mercenary had anticipated it, bringing his shotgun barrels down to take the brunt of the strike without a mark.
"Hah! I was hoping I'd find out how good my shotguns are. Good thing I invested top-dollar on these babies. They weren't lying when they said these were indestructible."
Snake saw that familiar look in Fox's face. He wore a scowl he only used in combat. He hoped never to cross paths with Fox as a foe, because Fox would win no matter the cost to himself. Snake could see that in his eyes. He raised his Beretta, firing twice into Shotmaker's back while he struggled with Snake's ally. The bullets ripped through the uniform to reveal a bulletproof vest. The mercenary laughed again, his gun clattering once again with Fox's machete.
"They're this way!" Snake heard the rallying call of an Outer Heaven soldier, the echoes of footsteps reverberating to their room from a door at the far corner. Several soldiers, eight in total, flooded into the room.
"FOX! WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"
"TAKE 'EM SNAKE!" Fox answered, swiping the blade vertically, slicing through Shotmaker's uniform to the armor underneath.
Taking cover behind a set of crates, Snake opened fire on the entering soldiers, two tumbling to the floor, bullets in their guts. The others hid behind whatever was available, though one did not make a very wise choice. This one chose a cardboard box, not exactly the most bulletproof of substances, as his cover, which Snake took to full advantage. Snake pulled the trigger twice, blood spurting from behind the box onto the wall behind, followed by a cry of pain.
The five remaining soldiers peppered Snake's position, when one of the soldiers suddenly stood, a shotgun round gouged through his belly. He fell over dead, and the Shotmaker's voice rang loud, "CEASE FIRE, YOU NEANDERTHALS! This is my BATTLE! I shall take them MYSELF!"
With his concentration freed from the soldiers, Snake returned to the conflict at hand.
Fox had rarely faced a soldier of this caliber, he relished the skill he was forced to harness in this fight. Their was something familiar about Shotmaker's style. He could dimly recall the last opponent who had challenged him like this; the only man who had ever beaten him in a fight, Big Boss. Gray Fox spun, sparks flying when Shotmaker brought his bayonet to retaliate.
Shotmaker backed off, raising the gun to take another shot. This time Gray Fox ducked, swiping his foot across the floor and knocking his enemy into the shelves. The buckshot disappearing into the ceiling.
The Archangel recovered as Snake attacked from behind, jumping for a high kick at the mercenary's skull. Shotmaker ducked, avoiding the blow, and pressed a third trigger on his sawed-off shotguns, a three-edged eight inch bayonet detracting from the ends of both. He lunged at Snake, who grabbed a cardboard box from the shelves and shoved it in the way, the narrowest tip of the bayonets poking out on the other side.
Snake forced the box to the ground just in time, the cardboard eviscerated by buckshot through the thin paper.
Fast as lightning, Shotmaker snapped open his shotguns, inserting a round from his belt into each barrel as he exclaimed, "Congratulations! Never before have I had to resort to reloading my shotguns. Quite an accomplishment, I assure you." Snake lunged, but Shotmaker landed a fist under his jaw, followed by a kick which sent him staggering against the shelves.
The mercenary turned to face Fox again, meeting Fox's machete with one of his bayonets, using the other to lung at the sly soldier, forcing Fox to jump, one foot on each shelf to avoid the shank. When Shotmaker jabbed again, the agent jumped as well, landing the heel of his foot onto the shotgun's blade and slamming it to the ground. It shattered on contact. "Damn it! That was my favorite! You'll pay!"
Enraged, he pointed two barrels at Snake, pulling the trigger as quickly as humanly possible. Two rounds of buckshot exploded from the gun, grazing Snake's arm, the lead burning through his flesh. "Argh!"
Fox kicked the shotgun beneath his foot out of the mercenaries grip, into the air where his own hand could catch it. He fired the gun into the man's face, launching him into the shelves which tumbled like dominos to the floor.
"The Commander!" "Shotmaker!" "They Got Him!" The soldiers exclaimed, trembling in their boots. Gray Fox turned to face them, their soldier mentalities breaking completely under his brutal gaze. One ran for the door, but the others stood there, reluctant to open fire on Gray Fox. His blade flashed sinisterly, still clean of the usual gore of combat. One soldier fainted, the other four finally opened fire on this formidable opponent. Gray Fox's machete flashed and glowed, whirling inhumanly fast to deflect the fire of the Outer Heaven guards.
Two more soldiers fell, the deflected bullets penetrating their bodies. Gray Fox cut swiftly through the last two soldiers, their cries of pain falling upon deaf ears in Null's apathy. He was about to take out the unconscious soldiers when Snake's voice broke him from his trance-like state, "FOX! Snap out of it!"
His machete raised above his head, Frank froze, the Null left inside still managed to ask, "Why?"
"If you attack an enemy who can't defend themselves, you're no better than they are!"
He lowered his weapon, shaking himself out of what was left of the craze. "Yeah…" He agreed, dizzy, "Yeah, you're right. I- I'm not sure what came over me." His blade was crimson with life-sustaining blood. Fox stood, his eyes fixed on the machete a long time before he cleaned it this time on a nearby shelf, sheathing it.
Something was troubling Fox, that much was easy for Snake to see. There was a different look in his eyes now, war ravaged, like he did that a lot after an experience like this. In a desire to steer his ally's mind away from his dark thoughts he asked, "Even in training, I've never seen those moves. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"It was a lifetime ago… I was a different person then. I never liked war, I sure as hell don't now, but then it was just fighting to me. Another chance to challenge myself against an unnamed enemy."
He was silent for a while, interrupting his own quiet when he requested, "Promise me something, Snake… Never lose your humanity. Getting used to it, hell, that's unavoidable, but don't ever think of war as a game. You're taking actual lives with real value. War is our job, but war doesn't have to be synonymous with killing. It took me far too long to realize that, and sometimes…" he gestured toward the disemboweled body of one of the soldiers, "My old self still forgets that."
Snake took it in, sensing the severity in Fox's words. Fox walked off, into the doorway, his old charismatic charm back in his voice, "Don't worry about the hostages, I've got them covered. Just make sure I've got a pick-up ready for me when I get outside. My Codec frequency is *14.27*."
"Consider it done."
Frank Jaeger disappeared into the dark corridors of Outer Heaven. Snake dialed *140.85* into the Codec transceiver, activating the device and contacting his CO. Big Boss' voice answered from the other side, a deep rumbling in the background, *140.85* "Yeah Snake?"
"Gray Fox and I have made it out. Fox is rescuing a prisoner who's safety will be very beneficial to the mission. I need you to send a helicopter for extraction outside of Building One."
Big Boss paused for a moment, *140.85* "Nice job, soldier. Request granted. I can have someone there in fifteen minutes. Big Boss out."
Snake had one more inquiry to be answered before he resumed his mission, however. He dialed Diane's frequency into the Codec, repeating the rest of the process just as before.
*120.33* "Snake? Is Steve okay?"
"Everything is going to be fine, Diane. Another Foxhound agent is escorting him out. He's gonna have two other soldiers to protect him. I've gotten Big Boss' personal assurance that he will be picked up."
*120.33* "Where can I meet him?"
"His frequency is *140.27*. Give him a call for a rendezvous."
*120.33* "Thanks… For everything. Snake, I talked with our jefe, Jennifer. She's agreed to speak with you. She'll call you shortly. Now we're even, right?"
"Even, definitely. Do you know where I can find Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar?"
*120.33* "The Metal Gear Engineer? What do you want with him?"
"He may know a weakness I can use to my advantage against the Metal Gear. Besides, the doctor's being coerced by The Commander. He's holding the doctor against his will and threatening him with his daughter's death."
*120.33* "In that case, the doctor should be on the roof of Building One. Good luck." Diane cut the transmission.
Snake's next objective was to get to the roof. He walked off to find the elevator.
Okay! So that's finished. I don't have much left to comment on this one. I tried to make this a blockbuster worthy fight and I can only hope that you feel the same way. Please Review!
