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 13 – Burn Out / The Perfect-Soldier Nullified
1057 Hours, February 5, 1995
The Refinery
Snake parried Pyra's fiery blade, only to sustain a boot to his face in retaliation. Dazed, he dodged her knife's second advance, staggering back against a scrap chute brimming with iron filings. He leapt atop the chute to avoid another blow, Pyra's fist ringing the hot iron, and yet she did not flinch.
Snake dropped to the ground, rolling behind his adversary and tackling her into the bucket of slag. "Arrrgh!" She tossed her head back, almost breaking the agent's nose. Snake staggered back, dodging swipe after swipe while he desperately recovered from the pain. He tasted blood on his lips as he redoubled his attack, forcing Pyra back.
She dug her hand into the iron filings, tossing them into Snake's eyes.
The dust hit Snake's eyes like needles. Snake swore, rubbing furiously at his eyes, desperate for his vision to return.
"Don't worry, I don't kick a Foxhound when he's down. I just needed time to retrieve a few things from my suit."
Snake forced his eyes open to the sight of an empty room. He turned, behind him stood Pyre Trooper, A bottle gripped tightly in her hand. She took a swig from the bottle, bringing her knife, still flaming, to her lips. Gasoline, ignited by the knife, shot toward the agent, settling on his BDU jacket. Snake ripped the jacket off, throwing the burning coat to the ground.
Pyra laughed, bringing the bottle up for another round of fire. Snake un-holstered his Beretta, taking aim at the Archangel's fuel source. His bullet hit its mark, and while it failed to set the gas alight, the round exited through his adversary's hand on the way out. Red mist mingled with aerosolized gas as Pyra let out an agonized scream, the remnants of her fuel dripping from her bloodied hand to the floor.
She doubled over, cradling the injured hand tight against her abdomen, red hair draping her face as she rose and fell in pained, angry sobs. "That was my hand, Bastard!" Snake hesitated, his gun wavering in a slight pang of guilt.
Then he heard a maddened cackle break through the sobs. At first he attributed it to her depleted mental state, but then Snake saw the glint of something hidden under her arms in her fetal crouch. Snake said to the Archangel, "I see through those crocodile tears."
"Ha ha ha ha!" She rose, clutching not knives, but a nine-tail steel tipped whip, the blood of her palm dripping down the handle. "You're smarter than you look, soldier. Why fight like this? What's the Commander's agenda to you? Catajé extended an invitation to you. You don't look like a family man, so why not say yes? After all-" She whipped the nine-tails to the ground, cracking in a pool of her fuel tank's runoff. Another crack sparked the fuel to life, burning the barbs at the tail's ends.
In the blink of an eye the whip cracked across the floor, clawing through Snake's combat boot, wrapping around his heel. Pyre trooper tugged, ripping Snake's feet out from under him. Landing on his back, Snake rolled without a moment to spare, the whip's steel teeth scratching down the concrete.
As Pyre Trooper brought down the whip once again Snake lunged, coming in too close for her weapon to be effective. He came down low, elbowing the Archangel in the stomach before striking her across the face, knocking her back. In her daze she dropped the whip, staggering against the railway just above a vat of molten metal. She gazed at her whip, but when she leaned as if considering its retrieval, Snake raised his pistol.
"Do it!" Pyra spat, "Put me out of my misery! Send me to those burning demons whose company I so much deserve… You don't know how I've hoped for this day, Foxhound. My heart is black, charred to carbon in the same fires that burned my victims to satisfy a lust for vengeance… Perhaps if fate is kind to me… I can rest in peace…"
Snake replaced his Beretta, his gruff voice the only sound besides the hissing steam of heated pipes and the roar of the fire below, "There is no redemption in death. You want to make good for your sins, you've got to see to it that Metal Gear's existence doesn't last. That the Archangel's legacy does not come to pass."
Pyra's ghostly burns flashed across her skin before she answered calmly, "Very well." From her back pocket she pulled two cards, dropping them at her feet and saying to the agent, "A key to the basement and another for my armory. I warn you, however, you will require a second key to enter the basement. My Special Operations team possesses the other key. They also have Drago Madnar, and they've been ordered to shoot him upon first sight of an intruder. It will not be easy, but if you're lucky you can make it through and find your allies. TX-11 and TX-22 are waiting at the basement's entrance… I suggest you use the Nikita."
She sat atop the railing above the molten metal, her hand enclosing a chain that lead into the viscous alloy, "Good luck, Foxhound."
"Don't do it!"
Her foot left the platform and she tumbled into the fires below. Snake reached the railing only to see the bubbles as she sunk beneath the burning liquid.
Snake ran dirty fingers through sweaty hair, staring at the spot where the last bubbles had surfaced. He wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his black uniform tee, tapping a cigarette from his beaten pack of Lucky Strikes. The cig was bent, but otherwise no worse for the wear as far as the agent was concerned. As he exhaled his first drag he watched from the corner of his eye as Diane cautiously stepped out from the darkness, "She just… jumped?"
"Snake grunted, "She's endured wars, watching men get killed, eventually killing them herself. That much death does something to you. It crushes spirits…" He gestured to the molten metal, "Warps minds. It scars far more grievously than a bullet or a broken bone."
"How long have you fought in wars? Have you been scarred yourself, Snake?"
He was quiet for a moment, staring into the glowing abyss. He pulled out his Beretta, checking the chamber and loading a new magazine. He walked over to the cards, swiping them up and slipping them into his pack. Snake took one last glance at his smoldering uniform before dismissing it. "C'mon," he said, "We've got to get out of here. Stevie needs your help, and I still have a job to do."
Snake saw Diane bite her lip. She knew he was right, and so she decided not to push the issue any further as they negotiated their way to a freight elevator on the other side of the refinery.
A Half-hour before…
Null's emotionless voice reverberated through the black nothingness of Fox's consciousness, "Why won't you die….. What do you hope to accomplish by living?"
Fox's answer was slow to come, but concise, "…To end the senseless killing."
Null continued, "I used to get dreams about my comrades. They'd come save me with strong arms and laughing voices. When I woke up, I had nothing. No joy, no sorrow, no hatred, no memory. When I wake up from the darkness, all I see are the bodies of men I've killed lying in front of me… My memory is riddled with corpses… What do you hope to accomplish by living?"
"To see that I've redeemed myself for the lives I've taken and the lives I've ruined."
And yet Null continued, "Everybody dies. Crime, disease, accidents, war; no matter how noble a person you are, no matter how good a soldier, there are no exceptions. Even if I don't kill them, they die… This world is full of death, and yet you won't be killed. Why? Why do you still live? What do you hope to accomplish by living?"
"I've got to live… for Naomi." … Frank was on a mission for RENAMO's intelligence unit that night. It was a clouded, dark night in the Rhodesian countryside when Fox was charged with rendezvousing with a former Soviet scientist and his daughter and escorting him to the US embassy.
The plan had gone off without a hitch. Frank had met up with the doctor and they'd even made it past the barracks of their development facility. But all Hell broke loose when one of the guards recognized Fox as not one of their own. Null took full control. It was a miracle Fox didn't kill his objective, but in his frenzied carnage he'd struck down two scientists leading a young child –maybe five or six years old- out of the building.
She screamed as her parents were cut down, a scream like ice-water, shocking Fox out of his Perfect-Soldier state of mind and back to humanity. She pushed Fox away and ran for her life into the foliage outside the facility. Fox couldn't bear the thought of leaving her to die in the wilderness.
Fox tracked the little girl for days through the Rhodesian jungle to find her half-starved at the foot of the Zambezi river. He removed his disguise and prayed she would not recognize him. He came to her silently sobbing beside the river and swept her up like a kind stranger.
He wiped the tears from her eyes and though she could not speak from shock, she thanked him with a tearful smile. His guilt was unbearable as he looked into her eyes, but he vowed to himself and to her parents he would see to it that she had a chance at a normal life...
"Why do you still live?"
"To protect her. To make up for… what I did to her."
"Crime… Accidents… Everybody dies… Even if I don't kill them… No matter how good… I had nothing…"
"I have something… Not much, but something to live for. I'd die for it too."
"...Noble…"
…
Reality came slowly at first. The vibration of the bed Frank lied upon was first. Then came the rumble that accompanied it. Fox's eyes shot open.
He was in a helicopter with two men in FOXHOUND uniforms in the pilot cabin.
Gray Fox bolted up, tearing away his restraints and seizing his machete from the seat opposite him. By now the soldiers had noticed him. They watched as he shoved open the door, taking a moment to survey the land as the copter sped just above the tree line. From his vantage point Fox could see Outer Heaven's outskirts a few miles away. He had no time to lose. He heard one of the soldiers ask in shock, "Hey! What're you do-" and he jumped out of the hovercraft.
The tree branches tore at his clothing in a dull and familiar pain. He landed with his usual grace onto Outer Heaven soil. He needed to contact FOXHOUND HQ. They had to know about Big Boss' defection. There must be something they can do.
He dialed into the receiver *120.99* A familiar voice, that of his old comrade Roy Campbell, answered on the other side, "Who is this? Present your codename and Identification Number!"
"This is agent Gray Fox, Colonel. ID number 000."
*120.99* "Fox? We'd thought you were dead…"
"I'll explain later. Right now we have a situation. Big Boss has-"
*120.99* "Defected. We know. I've been placed in charge to salvage what's left. We lost contact with Big Boss hours ago, and we haven't been able to reach Solid Snake. They've got some sort of signal scrambler deployed against long range transmissions."
"Send in some back-up. Snake is still in there and we've still got a Metal Gear to take care of."
*120.99* "I'm… I'm sorry Frank… It's out of my hands…"
"What? What are they going to do about TX-55?"
*120.99* "The Secretary of Defense feels it would be prudent to cut our losses and ensure that that machine is destroyed thoroughly."
"What are you suggesting?"
*120.99* "An air raid will be there in a few hours…"
"They're going to fish out a walking nuclear silo with bombs? Do they realize Outer Heaven isn't just another military base? There are civilians! Thousands will die!"
*120.99* "Collateral damage… I don't like it either."
"… You're no better than The Archangels…" Frank finished in disgust, "Colonel… In light of recent events I'd like to formally offer my notice of resignation. Gray Fox, over and out."
*120.99* "Wait! Fox-" Campbell's protest was cut off when Fox cut the battery to his intercom. He threw his FOXHOUND dog-tags to the ground, crushing them into the dirt beneath his boot for good measure before sprinting through the brush back to Outer Heaven.
Author's note: Another chapter down on that long road to completion. I hope you guys enjoyed the end to Snake's bout with Pyre Trooper, and that you found my account of Fox's finding of Naomi adequate. I didn't want it to dominate the chapter but I wanted to sneak it in as a clue into the motivations behind Fox's more moral decisions. Fox's decision to leave FOXHOUND will ultimately lead to his position in my sequel to this story, and it offers a bit of insight into his true loyalties. If it's not apparent yet, don't worry, it'll be clear by the end of the story. I want to thank Antoine, , Felix, One of Your Fans, and Son of Big Boss for commenting on my story in my month and a half absence. Please keep the comments coming! I love to hear what you guys think of the story as it unfolds. To tell you the truth, the twists and changes I make to the story are almost always on impulse. Very few of the details that I've put into this story are planned out, so to see all of it come together so cohesively baffles me and fills me with excitement for the conclusion. At this point I am 40,000 words into the story and I've still got a ways to go to the end of the game. THX for reading!