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
Chapter Ten – Double Tap Out
1008 Hours, February 5, 1995
"Where The Kid failed we won't," The first member of Double Tap hollered over the patter of the now rotating rotorcraft blades, piloted by his twin.
"Like I haven't heard that one before," Snake retorted.
"Go ahead and chuckle now, 'cause we'll have the last laugh when you've been shot through like a target at an archery contest," the twin threatened.
The Hind-D buzzed off its helipad, circling around and speeding back toward Snake as the first member of Double Tap pulled the trigger of his single round pump-action grenade launcher, Snake springing aside to avoid the explosive, imploding in a ball of fire and shrapnel shards, followed by a peppering of lead from the Hind's guns which barely missed the Foxhound agent in his attempt to avoid the grenade.
Tap ripped away his lab coat disguise, revealing a skintight camouflaged suit, almost skeletal, stiff plates arranged like ribs over his chest with an ammo vest laden with several grenade rounds.
The wild wind of the copter whipped around the fighters, Snake rushing toward the soldier, who threw his fists out in defense. Snake threw all his weight into a leaping kick, ringing Double Tap's temple with his heel hard enough to send the mercenary down, his limbs flailing as he rolled across the floor.
Snake was disappointed to see the grenade launcher still in the hands of his adversary, tethered to Tap's arm by a strip of leather. As the helicopter rounded for a second volley, Snake knew his only chance of avoiding the fire for sure was to stay in close proximity with the pilot's partner. As Tap rose to his feet the agent rushed again, drawing his survival knife from its ankle sheath.
Snake slashed left and right, Tap deflecting the short blade with the barrel of his grenade launcher. Despite being so close to Tap the Pilot fired anyway, the grappling warriors forced to split to avoid the hot lead. As bullets pounded the concrete Tap primed his grenade launcher, leveling it again at Snake, setting the gun off with a 'Ploonk.' Snake ducked, the round passing harmlessly above, feeling the concussion from the ordnance's eruption several feet behind.
"Damn it!" Tap cursed, "Quite squirming!" He pulled a bowie knife from behind his back, fastening it to the end of his grenade launcher as Snake rushed back. He brandished the bowie at the agent's gut, bashing Snake in the face with the cold hard iron of the barrel when the Foxhound recoiled. Snake recovered, smearing the blood from his mouth onto the sleeve of his BDU's, spitting the leftover onto the roof tar.
The Hind-D was closing in for another barrage when Snake decided to return the favor, slicing across the ground to trip the mercenary off of his feet. Tap fell backward, his skull colliding with a resounding crack against the cement. Snake kneeled on the Archangel, digging his knee into the soldier's gut and slamming his fist into the man's jaw.
Tap jammed the butt of his grenade launcher into Snake's belly, knocking the agent aside and throwing himself aside just as dust pillars sprouted from the ground from the impact of the helicopter's machineguns bullets.
Tap went on the offensive, shouldering his grenade launcher and detracting four knives from his belt, launching them in quick succession at the agent, who dipped and weaved through the razors. "C'mon! Take it like a man!" Tap demanded.
"Throw 'em like one, then," Snake retorted. Enraged, Tap seized the moment to reload his M79 launcher, failing to anticipate the Foxhound barreling at him in a full tackle, knocking him to the ground.
The patter of helicopter blades was getting dangerously close, signaling the Hind's return. Snake needed to make it count. He dug his knife into the Archangel's leg, who swore in agony at the blade's entry. The agent nailed his combatant twice across the face, lifting his head by the hair and finishing with a head-butt for good measure.
The Hind's guns blared, Snake scrambling off his adversary just before the lead peppered the ground. Tap desperately rolled, but he was not fast enough to avoid the lead, repeatedly piercing his body, blood misted from his body from the impacts. At one point a bullet must have pierced the grenade rounds placed in the Archangel's vest; his body was engulfed in a deluge of fire and shrapnel, several hot flecks of which grazed Snake's face.
Anguished cries came from the helicopter, "Son Of A Bitch! I'll Get You For That Foxhound! If You Think You're Gonna Have An Open Casket You've Got Another Thing Comin'!"
Snake searched the roof hurriedly, spotting the grenade launcher which had skidded to the other end of the roof in the blast. Ratta-tatta-tatta-tatta. Snake narrowly avoided another of the Pilot Tap's volleys, now strafing in the copter so that he could pummel the agent with as much ammunition as possible. The Foxhound sprinted, snatching up the M97, disheartened to see the barrel empty of rounds as he avoided the lead following closely at his heels.
Solid Snake couldn't keep avoiding it forever, His heart was pounding and he could feel his legs tiring. It was then that he spotted the steel mechanism that poked out from the fifth floor, just visible from the roof and long enough to reach the Hind, The crane he had seen near the false-Madnar's prison!
Snake dove down the stairway, the pain of the staircase nothing compared to the lead that could've pierced him, following the agent down the stairway. "Hah!" The Hind laughed, "This isn't over yet, Snake!" Against the sheets of plastic Snake spotted the shadow of the Russian gunship, tiny holes puncturing through the plastic with the patter of the gunship's weaponry. The sheets must've been clear enough, because the Archangel was firing too accurately for it to be entirely luck that his bullets were so close to the Foxhound.
The crane finally came into sight, set against the backdrop of Outer Heaven's countryside, much less tranquil under the current circumstances.
Double Tap pulled the trigger relentlessly, doggedly determined to shred his brother's murderer to pieces to his final breath. He could barely discern the Foxhound scum through the rain sheets the construction workers had placed, but he fired none the less with extreme prejudice.
The bullets tore through the sheet, making the Archangel's view of his adversary marginally improved as he could see the agent slide to cover behind one of the construction mechanisms. As he steered the Hind around to get a bead on Snake, Tap narrowly avoided the steel cable of a crane, protruding dangerously from the building, the very same machine the enemy was cowering behind.
Somewhere behind the crane a gun's flash was visible, the Archangel's focus now entirely on that portion of the floor. Dust and shrapnel flew where he concentrated his fire, tearing all beneath the man's gaze to nothingness. He gave a feral howl of satisfaction, certain that his enemy had been obliterated in the barrage. He didn't notice as the crane's hook moved in his peripheral vision, not until it was too late.
Tap screamed, the full gravity of his demise coming upon him as the crane's massive hook line collided with the helicopter's blades, snapping them to pieces against the cable. The hook slammed into the still suspended and now crippled rotorcraft, swinging it into the side of the building. As the ravaged husk of a Hind hurtled toward the fifth floor he cursed his adversary, all thought blotted out upon impact amid the chaotic crash.
The wall of dust and detritus that were flung through the air made the Hind impossible to watch, but the sound of shredded steel and ripping iron squealed through the air like nails on a chalkboard. Snake shook the dust from his Outer Heaven BDU's, his pistol raised from inside the cab of the crane on the off-chance of Double Tap's survival.
Snake was thankful the gas tank had not exploded on impact, a possibility he had been fearful of when he saw that the rotorcraft was hurtling toward the agent's floor. As the smoke cleared Snake spied the wreckage, the now thoroughly trimmed blades spinning aimlessly above the warped metal, barely resembling the gunship it once was.
The Foxhound approached the debris, his gun at the ready position, aimed directly at the pilot's seat where he could make out the crumpled form of his enemy.
The body gave no sign of life; his chest was still and his eyes were frozen. A moment to place his fingers against the soldier's neck confirmed this, and Snake only paused to close the Archangel's green and blue eyes. His present goal was aimless. He had no lead to Madnar and his present threat was taken care of, so when he gave one last fleeting look to the torn Hind, his mind wandered to the crashed copter he had sent for Steve and the other soldiers.
Snake dialed Frank's Codec frequency, *140.27*, "Fox? Fox can you hear me?" The headphone crackled, whining in the agent's ear with no answer to the call. Snake changed frequencies to Diane's, the receiver quickly answering, but not with the voice Snake had been expecting, *120.79* "Hahahaha! I wondered when you'd call!"
Snake quickly recognized the voice, "Shotmaker!"
*120.79* "Thanks to your buddy's aim I've lived to fight another day. We caught your little refugee team, Solid Snake, even Fox."
Snake heard the distressed yelp of a woman, Diane, "Let Diane go, Shotmaker!"
*120.79* "Or what? Haha ha! Listen, Snake. I'm itching for a rematch. Up there in the construction sector you should be able to see the wall separating the desert from the forest. I'll be there waiting at the gate. You have to go through it anyway to get to Madnar… Oh, and I'll even bring the girl."
"And the others?"
*120.79* "No way in Hell. You beat me you get her back, not the rest of them. They've gone to Mallard, and I'm sorry to say his hostages don't often last too long. Can I count on you to be there?"
"Don't you touch her!"
*120.79* "Ha! Too late for that! Pyro's pretty pissed having to chase her through this damn jungle. See you there. Bring firepower, 'cause you know I will. You have an hour. Shotmaker out."
The transmission ceased, static all that was left to answer Snake's angry expletives. There was no way Snake was going to make it through the base and across half of the jungle. His mind raced to think of a solution, when his line of sight happened to return the wreckage of the Hind.
Snake climbed through the pieces of blade, ducking beneath the spinning propellers and searching the cab. When several minutes of searching yielded nothing, the agent decided to check the pilot's body. Snake unbuckled the body of Double Tap, unceremoniously tossing away the cadaver once he had removed the parachute from the corpse. Blood aside, the parachute was entirely intact, a fact which Snake was extremely thankful for. Tap also had several grenades for an M97 which dangled at his side, which Snake quickly removed and pocketed, shouldering the weapon as the fire power Shotmaker had instructed for.
Several deep breaths later, Snake leapt off the roof, the chord releasing the chute which violently caught the air. After the initial take-off the float down was leisurely. The agent steered in a direction off of the main road in a desire not to be spotted.
You know it's a trap, the Foxhound agent lectured himself. This is what happens when there's too many men in a mission. Someone always gets caught. And now Snake was stuck with taking her out of the line of fire. Not that she wasn't worth saving, but had she not insisted on accompanying Steve maybe Snake wouldn't have to divert from his main objective.
Snake saw no clearings within reach of the chute. As his descent became faster and faster he braced himself for impact, his feet first to feel the branches and leaves nipping at his heels. Very soon all around him sticks were tearing at his clothing, the snapping of tree limbs and swishing leaves accompanying their grazing his body.
Then came the painful part; something slammed into the Foxhound's gut, forcing the air out of his lungs in a single gasp and halting his forward progress. Snake slipped off of the branch still clutching his gut. He snapped through several branches before the parachute was caught in the tree, dangling Snake tantalizingly close to the ground.
He took a moment to recover, and seeing no immediate threats alerted to his position Snake unsheathed his survival knife and severed the parachute chords, dropping to the forest floor.
With no time to lose Snake followed the trail to the forest-desert border, careful to avoid entering the road itself. Several times he passed roadside patrols, easily passing them through the brush. Insects bit constantly at Snake's neck and face, who paid little attention to them in his journey.
Very soon Snake spotted the long drawn walls of the border, constructed with tan stone blocks and heavy fortifications. As he came closer he could see the iron doors of the entrance left agape, and between the doors sat the prone form of a young woman, auburn haired with a thin athletic body and a distraught look set on her face.
Snake ran toward Diane, slipping his knife through her restraints. She tore away the duct tape across her mouth exclaiming, "Snake! We have to get out of here!"
"I know. Let's go, we've got to get to Building Two."
Snake lead her through the doors, the other side of the wall was forested as well, though not as thickly as the former side. The trees grew regularly for about two kilometers before giving way to the desert sands.
"Snake, they've got Steve and the o-"Just as they had made it completely through the entrance a boom echoed through the trees, not unlike the explosions which propelled far-off artillery, followed by the whistle of a heavy projectile.
"Get Down!" The explosive slammed against the wrought iron door, denting it shut and sealing off the two's only escape, "Diane, Get To Cover!" The PARC rebel scrambled behind the trees just as an M60A3 Patton tank pulled out onto the road, covered in branch leaves and bushes to camouflage it in the forested region.
Author's Note: A very brief chapter in comparison to the others, mostly because even in the game it pretty much goes straight from the Heli to the tank battle. One thing I did not address in my previous note; Madnar wasn't on the roof in the original game. In the original story (atleast for the MSX) Madnar was supposedly in a courtyard on the first floor which you could only reach by jumping from the roof. This made no sense to me whatsoever, so I made what I feel to be an appropriate change by putting that cell on the roof. This way Snake wouldn't miss the Heli by just going through the courtyard and I could use the parachute as an excuse not to bore you, my amazing readers, with a overview of how Snake sneaks through the base (again) to get to the bottom floor and reach the wall/tank battle.
This must mean my fic's getting fairly popular - I want to thank you guys for another daily reader record: 62 readers total reached march 3rd 2011. thx again
Hope you guys liked my MSX/NES Boss crossover between Hind and Twin Shot. As always all anticipated reviews are appreciated. Up next Chapter 11 – Capture the Frag