Author's Note: Author's Notes are the worst part of most pieces of fiction, but in some instances, a necessary evil.
Thanks go out again for the support in regards to updates, and I do try to take my self-imposed schedule seriously, if only for that if I don't come serious minded to the work, it falls apart. I'm hoping to make Monday a 4k or 5k-word update, and for frame of reference, the standard update is between 1k and 2,500k words. I really need to catch up to where I'd like to be, and start the process of moving Part One towards its conclusion.
As always, I love the feedback, and thanks for public and private comments. The more negative ones especially.
A final comment: I finished Tomb Raider 2013 last weekend. Good lord, she kills a lot of bloody people.
The hike through the forest was exhausting in its impossible humidity.
Trees with fronds as large as her torso surrounded them at times, other times they traversed down corridors of tree-trunks that had only the periodic branch obscuring their view. The path, if it could be called that, was as varied likewise, with the initial outset being primarily one of grass and moss atop pliable soil, so rich in its nutrients that the forest carpet made a slight squelching sound as they trampled it with their boots. As the tree density increased, so too did the difficulty of their path, with the floor becoming obscured by thick, knotted roots like massive ropes that had been laid as rebar for the cyclopean trees' construction.
Earlier in the day, after everyone had awoken, they had made short work of breakfast, a small but workable oddend the two volunteers had provided. After that, they set out almost immediately. Lara thought she sensed surprise from Snake when she took the lead and laid out the ground rules for everyone, firmly but not commanding. They should stay within visual radius of the person in front of them, and call out if they needed to stop for any reason. Single file seemed obvious, and there were no objections.
For a time, Lara thought it would be through dry land, and they might be capable of making a straight shot to the downed plane, but after a few miles, this illusion was shattered by an expanse of wetland that had engulfed the fullness of their path, and they would have no choice but to go around.
"Normally, I'd be all for staying dry," Otacon said, "but I know we can't waste time. If you guys wanted to try and cut straight through the water—"
Lara smiled. She thought it endearing he would put aside his comfort. But it was Vines shook his head, and it was Ellie who interrupted him. "Not a chance. Aside from the leeches, there's alligators, even in the shallow waters." Their line of travel had come to a stop, and all save Snake moved in for the brief palaver.
"Alligators?" Lara asked. "How? This can't be a very conducive habitat for them."
"They've started moving out of the Pampas. There's a lot of tourist activity there, and it's changed the ecosystem in a way nobody in the area's studied yet."
Lara continued walking, looking at the reeds and overgrowth that the water housed. It was hardly clear, but still mostly transparent, primarily green with aquatic schrubs obscuring the view a bit. "There's not a chance—"
"No, this marsh is probably free of them. Too few fish, too much growth. But snakes love enclosed water sources like this. I don't want to have to treat any more snake bites." Vines said. He pointed to the water, where some of the reeds drifted of their own accord. Lara could feel no breeze, and she saw nothing in the water but its ripples.
After that, there was no more discussion of it.
Later, they paused, stopping for a break to exchange water. They sat on logs and on the ground, in a loose circle, and just as Ellie and Vines began to stop, Lara put her hand up.
"Actually," she said, "if you two don't mind, I'd like to have a word with my partners for a moment about finances. You know, their hazard pay, that sort of thing." She did her best to look sheepish. It worked, and with understanding, they camped a few feet away for the duration.
"We're your flunkees now, huh?" Snake was lighting a cigarette, and Lara thanked him for being downwind.
"I'm insulted," Otacon smiled, and she felt his peaceable demeanor distract her from the heat.
"Oh, you two don't give me grief over being in the boys club, would you?" She heard Snake snicker a laugh as she began to tighten her boots. "I've a few questions, if that's alright."
"Sure," Snake said. "Shoot."
"Actually, I meant for Hal."
Snake grumbled, and Otacon laughed.
"We were talking earlier when you were asleep, Hal, and I've been thinking about all this business of the nature of… well, superweapons, I suppose is the term? What we're going to do, once we have the supplies, and what would this mean for the other parts of South America. Brazil, Paraguay and so on."
Snake's lip lifted, his eyes scowled. "Bolivia and Paraguay coming to blows… that's an idea that'll keep me up at night."
"Well," Otacon began by adjusting his glasses. "There's a lot of reason to be concerned. Even if it is only publicized, and nothing comes to fruition, Metal Gear is still destabalising because it might affect Bolivian trade, which is almost entirely exports of minerals and gasses. Prices could be unpredictable, which might not seem very important in the long run, but Bolivia's got a fragile economy, and most of their imports/exports are also from and to the US. If trade relations break down, Bolivia'd really take a beating. There's also a bad history of military concerns like Snake said."
Snake picked up the thread. "Apparently a lot of revolutionary fighters have passed through the country from other nations, holdovers from ideologues around the seventies. It's America's backyard Vietnam, at least in as much there's a lot of people with guns who don't like talking out their problems."
"There's a bigger concern then either of those, I'm afraid." Lara said. "Bolivia's got a lot of rural poor. If a would-be coup goes under, or aggression flares…"
Otacon nodded. "Yeah, it'd create a power vacuum that would end up with the locals suffering, regardless of who they back."
"The locals always suffer," Snake said.
"Right," Lara said. "So I take it we get in, destroy it without incident, and perhaps have a bit of fun in the process. And what of the name?"
"Well," Otacon started, "Nothing too trigger happy. I'd like to get evidence once the thing's down. Those didn't look like my locomotion plans at all."
"What?" Snake said, "In the legs?"
"Yeah. I'd built REX with a very specific sort of locomotive design theory in mind, so I don't know how or why they'd modify it so efficiently. It's almost impossible to tell from here, but that thing looks almost like it would have predated my design somehow. All this Peace Walker stuff, though, that's beyond me"
"An alpha REX, so to speak, Hal?" Lara said
"Yeah. I suppose Alpha's as good a classification as any, for the time being anyway. But check that out. You can tell along the knee joint, since I used a traditional biped movement, these legs look like they wouldn't have enough stability for extended periods." Otacon paused mid-lecture. "We're probably not going to get to go public with this one. There's too many factors. I'm sorry."
"Hal, we can't let these people just build one of your—" She caught herself, but not fast enough to avoid hurting him. Otacon winced at her language, so she thought it best to try and correct and keep forward. "—one of these things. Aside from trashing the bloody thing, is there anything else we could do?"
Snake stood, and Lara thought later perhaps he'd caught on to Otacon's instinctual recoil at her word choice. "If we can bring a piece of the damn thing back, maybe there's some use we could get out of it. If they've got engineers on site, they have to have blueprints. And if they have blueprints—"
Otacon brightened, as it dawned on him. His shoulders raised, eyes grew wide "Then maybe we could study where they got the plans."
"Trace it back to the source? You lads can't be serious. That'd be phenomenal."
"Wait a second," Snake said. "Nobody get ahead of themselves. Let's give it a shot, but nobody get their hopes up. We still don't even know what this thing's capable of yet, or what it's going to be like getting in. I don't have any experience with rainforest infiltration—"
"Is there such a thing?" Lara asked.
"—And they don't exactly seem friendly. We have to recognize we don't have the luck of being stuck under the umbrella of a group with a hell of a lot of resources." Snake let out a wisp of smoke. It disappeared into the slight breeze that was casting through the forest.
"Alright, you're right." Lara sighed, and stood with Snake. His cigarette was finished, and she felt a little less overheated. "Let's go."