Chapter 3: Lock and Load!

Location: ISS (International Space Station)

Jinu stepped into the capsule, he was in space he had never imagined within all the years that he had lived that he would ever be in where he was now. They had flown him here on a modified A.R.A.U.R.A. They docked with the space station and a space capsule was attached to an airlock port. It was believed that this would be the only successful insertion method as Snake's crew still had radar and other detection devices, not to mention a few AD towers. So it was decided that the orbital insertion method was the best option. Jinu nodded to the astronaut as he sealed the hatch and closed the airlock. The pod's internal display's came online although the landing would be preformed by ground control where Rose was. He still had monitors and emergency override controls in case of an emergency, but if there was that bad of an emergency, he was not going to be able to fly a glide path for the small ship and it would burn up or bounce up on reentry.

He tried not to think of this as the beautiful view of the Earth could be seen as it curved out of sight and the stars could be seen. He remembered an old phrase he had heard once, "There but for the grace of God go I." The ship jammed from the space station and he was no longer weightless, this in and of itself almost made him loose the lunch he had mere hours ago. He felt him fall towards the Earth as RCS jets came online guiding him into an orbital trajectory. He could feel the heat of the friction as the pod gained speed quickly.

It came to a swift stop above the pad and he heard the stealth field generator come online as the lasers powered, cutting through the bay doors. He fell through as a small chunk of plating fell from the ceiling temporarily then as though moved by an invisible hand, the plate rose back up and was welded back into place. Thankfully, no one was in the launch bay and the craft was set down out of the way of everything in a corner.

Jinu stepped out of the capsule and looked around the empty bay. Empty or not, he was too exposed so he quickly moved to the door on the opposite side of the bay after unloading all the weapons and items from the craft and equipping them to himself. He opened the door and snuck though it.

He quickly ducked behind a crate as he saw Otocon and Snake in the hallway. He listened to Otocon speak. "Snake, there was one more thing I need to speak to you about. One of the tech's thought he saw something on the radar but then it disappeared."

Snake frowned, "could it just be a glitch in the system?"

Otocon shook his head, "Yeah that's what I thought too but, then the intrusion alarm went off for the bunker door to the outside. I ran to the MG's control room but found nothing wrong so I'm not sure we can dismiss it all too easily. I mean, one error in either of those systems? Yeah, maybe. But, both at the same time? I don't know, Snake."

Snake shook his head, "Yeah, alright. I'll upgrade security around the Metal gear just in case." Otocon nodded and went off in one direction while Snake went in another.

Jinu received a codec call. He kneeled and put his hand to his ear a screen came up on the holographic display on his arm of someone he didn't recognize.

"Report." The man yelled.

Jinu frowned, "Who are you?"

The man scowled, "I'm the boss. I'll be checking in on you from time to time. I will also be monitoring all your codec conversations and events in the real world if your nano-machines stop transmitting your family dies. If you betray us your family dies."

Jinu grinded his teeth, "You don't need to remind me. I'm in but my insertion aroused suspicion. But I haven't been discovered."

The man simply nodded and turned off the codec just as Rose's face appeared. "Rose? Are you alright?"

Rose nodded, "Yes Jack, um Jinu. Sorry, I'm going to be running your mission operations, also saving your field data like on the big shell, okay? Now I believe you already know Tai Roopentaru?"

Tai's upbeat face appeared, "Hi! Did you read the paper I gave you?"

Jinu nodded, "Yeah, but it didn't make much sense what did it mean?"

Tai smiled. "Oh, you'll understand later, just don't lose it. It'll be very important later on!"

Jinu cringed, "Uh, Tai? I… Kind of, um… Lost it already."

Tai slapped her hand to her head. "Doh'," could be heard from the codec. "You're hopeless, you know? Well I hope you have it memorized! Anyway, I'll be your tech and weapons specialist. I also have the most information on the metal gear. So if you got any questions just ask, okay?"

With that Roses face reappeared,. "Jack, your mission objectives are as follows: 1) Destroy Metal Gear Arial. 2) Destroy the underground base and, 3) Kill Solid Snake and Otocon. Jack, I've been given pretty much autonomous control here and other than being monitored, I can help you accomplish your missions in any way possible so long as we make forward progress towards their goals. Jack… What was it like?"

Jinu looked confused. "What was what like?"

Rose looked hesitant and then said, "Space? What was it like? I've always wanted to go there and have dreamed of it from childhood."

Jinu smiled, "Tell you what. I'll tell you all about space when were home safe and over this crisis, okay Rose?" She nodded then signed off.

He stood and began to walk down a corridor, sticking to a wall. The corridors looked much like the ones at the Big Shell. Jinu decided to follow the direction Otocon took when he left. He still had his marker from when the two were still in the hallway. He passed a room labeled 'Weapons Locker #1.' He tried to open it, but it required a pan card. He smiled, seeing a guard coming towards him. He ducked behind the corner, drawing his sword. He readied to behead the man and did so, as he came out around the corner. The man dropped to the floor shortly before his head. Jinu searched the body and found the vaunted PAN (Personal Area Network) card.

He walked by the door again but it still wouldn't open. He tapped his call switch and contacted Tai. "What's up, Jinu?"

"I have a pan card but it wont work. It's the proper level for the door but no go." Jinu said.

He could see her frown on the screen. "Alright, let me link up to your suit and check things out." After a few moments, Tai said something Jinu didn't recognize. "Clever bastards. Each PAN card is written to the solders personal data, meaning it wont work for you. The solder actually has to be holding the card for it to work. Ah ha! I can rewrite the card's subroutines to accept you as the primary user. Hold on." After a few seconds he felt a slight jolt in his right hand and Tai spoke again, "There we go try it now." The door emitted a beeping sound and the light on the panel turned a bright green. Jinu nodded and Tai signed off.

Jinu stepped inside and grabbed a few flashbang and smoke grenades along with a USP and ammo. He then, dragged the body of the man into the room and closed the door behind him. Jinu picked his M9 tranquilizer gun and moved along the walls of the hallway.

He didn't like to kill people if he didn't have to and he saw that these people were Americans. They all had special-forces patches on, Seals, Green Beret, Rangers, and some he didn't recognize. He moved down the hall and looked to see two rooms to the left. One was a storage room full of boxes, nothing useful there and the other one seemed to be a computer room of some sort.

He moved inside and sat at one of the computer terminals. Just as he was beginning to wonder how it worked a codec call came over the radio. "Hey Jinu, I forgot to tell you about another function of your suit it's a external neural network. This means you can link up with any computer wirelessly and all information you receive will be downloaded directly to me through an uplink with a mill-star satellite. Thankfully, those weren't hit in the EMP blast. To do this, just point your left hand to the computer you want to interface with and it will automatically link up and transfer all data to me and I'll give you the relevent data." Tai again signed out.

Jinu did as he was told and soon, he saw a message on his holographic display "Data Transfer in Progress Please Wait." Soon after, it beeped and flashed the word 'Done' and went blank except for his solition radar, which now registered 4 people coming his way.

He looked around and found a locker and quickly hid in it. The blips entered the room. They were four scientists and techs and there was one guard with them.

Jinu stormed out of the locker M9 raised and shot a knockout dart into the man's head as he collapsed the scientists and technicians were trying to run for the door, which Jinu shot for effect. "Alright, I want answers now! How do you destroy this place? Where is the Metal Gear?" The men were stumbling over themselves. One of them stuttered in fear, "I… I don't know."

Jinu frowned and drew his EMP gun and fired at the computers, the 2 blade like objects split open and lightning arched down the space. Then a large wave of what looked like lightning flew from the gun and hit the computers. Lightning jumped from station to station and all of the screens exploded. "Now, I'll ask you again! Where is the metal gear and how do you destroy this place?"

The Scientists cowered in fear, "The…The Metal Gear is that way but I don't know how to destroy this place I swear!"

Jinu shook his head and shot a tranquilizer dart each of them, "don't worry you'll just sleep for a while."

After searching their body's for anything useful, and finding nothing he moved on. He saw several solders go past him and followed them until they entered a room labeled 'Computer Core.' Jinu smiled with an idea. He took out his EMP gun and fired it at the radios of both the men. They never knew anything happened and he then threw a stun grenade. After it went off he came up behind one of the men with the card around his neck and stole it with a deft hand while they were dazed ducking around a corner. He watched the two guards look around and noticing nothing different they continued on.

"Idiots," he whispered as he ran the card over the reader. He snuck into the room and ran into the last person he hoped he wouldn't run into until later, Ottocon. He snuck up on the man and put the .45 to his head, "Ottocon, don't make me shoot you!"

Ottocon bowed his head, "Jack, I knew one way or another you'd be here sooner or later, mind explaining why your holding a gun to my head?"

Jinu shook his head, "I m asking the questions here. Why are you doing this? The EMP will kill many people, why did you steal a Metal Gear? I thought you were out to destroy them, not kill them. Theft is beneath you."

Ottocon laughed, "yeah and last time I checked you didn't work for the Patriots and you weren't holding a gun to my head. So can we sit down and talk. I know your reasonable and we can work this out I'm sure of it."

Jinu remembered what he was told, if he told them about what had happened and why he was doing this, they would kill Rose and the children. He had to find a way to tell Ottocon.

Whatever their reasons, he hated the Patriots as much as they did. He finally spoke again. "I'll ask you one more time, Ottocon. What are you doing? Why steal a metal gear? Why blank out half of the world? I know it can't be your idea but what can Snake be thinking?"

Ottocon sighed and sat down ignoring the gun to his temple, his hands still raised. "So that's their response." He sighed and looked down.

Jinu was getting frustrated by this half talk and riddles. "TELL ME!"

Ottocon sighed again, "Alright, Jack ill tell you… About 5 months back, right after we rescued Olga's child, Snake became impatient. He said he was tired of being on the losing side of the war and that he was tired of always playing into the Patriots hands and he was tired of seeing all his work turned to dust by the wave of the patriots hands. So we decided to steal the Metal Gear in hopes that we could run things for once. You see Metal Gear Arial was constructed in space it was the very first object to be completely assembled in space. The crew for the project was put on the ISS by the crew of STS 225. You see the public was told that it was a replacement crew but they were lied to as always. The exchange did take place but there were 7 other people especailly trained to make Metal Gear Arial. You see the Patriots were tired of trying to hide new Metal Gear's, so they hid it in plain sight up in space. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. Anyway, I got wind of it over the net and Snake made the call to steal it. We sent him up on a special rocket designed somewhat like the early Apollo rockets. Except this was designed to reach a geo-synch orbit and dock with the ISS well the rest is pretty boring. If that's all I do have to continue my work. Good-bye, Jack."

Jinu's finger shook over the trigger, he knew that this was one of his objectives but trading one life for another. Ottocon was his friend and he didn't think… Suddenly he received a swift strike to the back of the head, with surprise he turned around to see none other than the legendary mercenary Solid Snake with a .50 AE pointed at him.

"Your getting better Jinu but not good enough…"

Jinu said only one word before he hit the floor unconscious, "Ro…se" and then he knew no more.