Venom Coursing
Disclaimers: I do not own Metal Gear though I do lay claim to Michael Hansen.
Author's Notes: This is my own Metal Gear to my own character Michael 'Venom' Hansen.
Prologue – The Mission
March 15th 2010
Michael went up to the office of General Carter Drake knocked on the door and an "Enter!" came out from the door, he entered and saw General Drake, a muscular man in his late fifties; his hair and beard were grey, and he had sharp brown eyes. Drake was a highly distinguished officer, a great soldier he was an extremly capable man.
"At ease Major." Said Drake "Okay, here's your mission." With a snap of his fingers his assistant turned off the lights and activated the projector.
"This is a satellite photo of an abandoned facility in Russia, it was formerly used by the Red Army, but we never found out what it was used for. However, we have noticed some strange activity recently and we believe that it's no longer abandoned."
"What kind of activity?" asked Michael noticing that the pictures were somewhat vague.
"We have reason to believe that a Metal Gear is being developed there." Drake replied.
"Metal Gear? But what-"
"That's a need to know basis and you don't need to know." Drake cut him off smoothly "Anyway your unit will drop near the facility. If there is a Metal Gear your orders are to secure it and if you are unable to secure it…destroy it."
"Yes sir." Michael replied keeping his reply even.
"Any questions?" asked Drake.
"No sir." Michael replied although actually he had quite a few which would VERY likely be answered with 'need to know basis and you don't need to know.'
"Good, your unit departs in two days. Dismissed."
Michael saluted and made his way out of Drake's office and made his way to the parking lot.
Michael arrived back home, it was a fairly nice house that he shared with his fiancé Maria Asagiri who was a computer programmer and Maria was there at home.
"Hi Michael!" called Maria, a beautiful young woman in her mid twenties, of Russian-Japanese descent with short brown hair and deep brown eyes.
"Hi Maria!" Michael said warmly as he kissed her deeply then looked at her and said "Listen I have to go in two days."
"Another mission?" asked Maria.
Michael simply nodded, he could never hide anything from her as he spied a book on the couch. Maria smiled "Do you remember the day we met?"
"How can I forget?" Michael replied with a smile "We met in the library…"
"Yeah we were looking for the same book 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' wasn't it?"
Michael nodded "And you were looking for it under 'The Moonlight Princess' if I remember correctly."
Michael remembered that day well they did indeed find under 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' they read it together and they became friends who shared an interest in literature and it eventually became something more…now they were engaged as of two months ago.
"So how long are you going to be gone on this one?" asked Maria.
"I'm afraid I have no idea." Michael shrugged.
"That's all right. Anyway I've just been called back to the office. I'll see you later." Maria hugged Michael.
"Okay see you later." Michael kissing Maria as she picked up her coat.
March 19th 2010
Aboard a military transport, Michael briefed his unit on the upcoming mission.
"Okay guys we're here to investigate possible nuclear weapons development at a supposedly abandoned facility; it was formerly a Research and Development facility for the Red Army back in the days of the Soviet Union. However, we have received intelligence reports that there has been some activity and if you look at these photo's taken by satellite, they show unusual activity that appear to be from possible nuclear weapons development, plus there is also other strange activity as these photos show."
"Good lord Major!" Lieutenant Harrington exclaimed as he looked at the satellite images, "Do you really think there's a Metal Gear being developed there?"
"Don't know, but the brass seems to think so. Our mission objectives are to secure it, and if we can't secure it, our orders are to destroy it."
"Um Major Hansen?" Sergeant Bill Mitchell, a tall muscular man with blond hair in a crewcut raised his hand. "How do we know that there are nuclear weapons?"
"I was told it was on a 'need to know' basis." Major Michael Hansen replied. "Any more questions?"
"What kind of security can we expect from the facility?" asked Sergeant Simpson a short stocky man in his early thirties.
"Intelligence has not been very straight with me, but the fences are barbed wire fences with security cameras at the gates. But since we'll be going in via a mountain we may yet see some guards. We could probably expect some laser guard systems but otherwise we could face some guards. Any more questions?"
There were none coming.
"Good let's go…"
Michael was standing inside the hallway of the largest building in the facility with a strange feeling of apprehension in the back of his mind. The infiltration had been too easy and there was something he didn't like about it. They had encountered no security systems and no guards. He had just sent Harrington, Simpson and Mitchell to check out the rest of the facility by squads.
Michael then turned as soon as he heard one of the men approaching.
"Sir! You better get a load of this!" exclaimed Corporal Reyes and Michael followed him into a room. It was a security room and on the floor were the bodies of 4 men; three of them had their throats slashed with their hands still on their sidearms and the fourth one had his head smashed against the wall; his neck was broken.
Michael decided it was time to check in on the others "Harrington, what's your status? Find anything unusual?"
There was no response.
"Harrington do you read me? Report your situation!"
Again there was no response and Michael did not like this one bit. He then switched to the next squad's frequency.
"Simpson, you read me?"
"Loud and clear" Simpson answered.
"What's your situation?"
"We've finished our sweep. Major we've found the bodies of some technicians; they've all been cut to ribbons and there's something weird about their bodies too."
"Okay, have you heard anything from Harrington?"
"No sir."
"You're not far away from where we last heard from him, so I want you to check up on him. It's probably just garbled communications though I very much doubt it."
"Roger that sir, we'll check it out."
Michael sighed; this was highly unlike Harrington. (I better check up on Mitchell and see how his sweep of the bay is going.) "Mitchell do you read me?"
"Yes Major."
"How's your sweep going?"
"We've finished sir…"
Luke Simpson sighed as he made his sweep through where Harrington and his squad should be so far all they've found are bodies and he was wondering who did this.
"Hey Sarge! Its Forester." Said Corporal Rivers as he pointed to one of the bodies.
"Hey Forester! What-" Simpson cut himself off in mid sentence when Forester's head tilted back revealing his lifeless eyes, Simpson took a closer look and saw blood that was still coming from a slashed throat. Then Simpson looked around and found Dyer's body and saw blood pouring from his nose; he was clearly dead. Then he found Harrington's body…it was savagely beaten with blood all over his face and there were two empty, bloody holes where his eyes used to be.
Simpson looked out through a broken window and looked down and saw Danforth's body lying on the grass not moving.
Then suddenly he turned around and he saw something whiz by him and then felt a strange sensation in his throat. When he touched it, he saw blood on his fingers and gurgling sounds came from his mouth and the last thing he ever saw was a man in a black trenchcoat and hat, carrying a bloodstained chakram in his hand, smiling over him…
Michael looked over every computer the hard drives have been formatted and his troops couldn't find any disks. Not any that were intact anyway. This was proving to be a waste of time since all they had found so far were a lot of dead bodies. There was no one alive who was going to be talking.
"This was a big fat waste of time!" Cassidy complained. "We should just pull out of here."
"I'm beginning to agree." Michael muttered and sighed. There had been no status report from Simpson or Harrington and Mitchell's unit had not found anything.
"All squads check in." Michael ordered.
"Right here sir." Mitchell replied.
But there was no reply from either Harrington or Simpson's squads.
Michael was flustered; no one was responding at all to him, something just was not right. First Harrington disappeared, and then Simpson, but he had to check up on Mitchell's squad.
"Mitchell do you copy?"
"What's the problem Major?" Mitchell asked.
"We've just lost contact with 2nd and 3rd squads, heard anything?"
"Nope, not a thing."
"Okay keep your eyes open we're pulling out of here in fifteen minutes."
"But sir what about-"
Michael cut off calmly "We'll look for them but if we don't find them within that time we'll have to pull out. There's something wrong definitely wrong here stay alert."
"Understood sir!"
"Okay guys let's go!" Michael said as they left the computer room…
Bill Mitchell and his squad were in the bay, they'd be pulling out soon, that's what the Major had said, yet he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Harrington and Simpson's squad Its just as the Major had said, there was something wrong here.
(Where the fuck are those guys?) Mitchell wondered as he looked behind him. (They were supposed to have been here by now!) And then he suddenly noticed a tall man in a dark trenchcoat with scars covering the right side of his face, approaching.
Mitchell raised his M-4 and fired but the man quickly rolled out of the way and threw something at him then suddenly Mitchell screamed in agony as the chakram took out his right eye. With his remaining eye, Mitchell saw the man approaching and desperately tried to reload his M-4.
He had just reloaded when the man had reached him…
Michael's squad had spent the past seven minutes scouring over and it was on the second floor did their search finally bear fruit…there were bodies everywhere, including those of Simpson and Harrington. All of them had either been beaten to death or slashed with some kind of edged weapon…
Michael then turned around and barely had time to duck as a chakram flew towards them killing his squad in one arc.
(A Chakram? The Killer Ring? Whoever's using it is either a psycho…or a pro.) Then a head was tossed at him; it was Mitchell's!
Suddenly there was an explosion and Michael was thrown out of the window and onto the hard concrete. As he got up, he saw that the building was on fire. Michael clutched his head in his hands as he realized that everyone in his unit were all dead.
Michael painfully got up and headed for the extraction zone…
March 26th 2010
Michael sat on the sofa, reading one of his favourite books 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'; he loved literature. It had been three days since his unit was all but destroyed it will take him a while before he could recruit a new unit. Michael felt torn up inside because he was the commander of the men who had been killed and they were his responsibility. Never had Michael felt like such a failure.
"Michael are you alright?" asked Maria concerned for her fiancé.
"No, I'm not." Michael said, putting his book down on the coffee table "I'd drummed out for something that wasn't my fault and yet…"
"What is it?" asked Maria putting her hand on his shoulder.
"I was their commander… they trusted me with their lives and yet part of me feels like I let them down…at the same time I want to say that I did the best I could yet I can't." Michael said downcast.
"Michael didn't you tell me once that there is always that question 'could I have done more?'" said Maria.
"Yeah I did." Michael replied.
"Maybe you should listen to your own words." Maria offered.
"I'm trying to Maria. I really am." Michael said as he got up.
"I know." Maria replied as she threw her arms around Michael as he too returned the warm embrace as they parted "I'll be going to bed I've got work tomorrow."
"Okay." Michael said with a smile "I'll be with you in a minute."
As Maria left the room Michael sighed, (She's right, maybe I should start listening to my own words.) Then his thoughts came back to the man in black that had slaughtered his unit.
As soon as he had gotten back to the base, Michael had done some research on the man and learned that the man was an assassin known simply as Shade. But aside from the reports of the many people killed by him, Shade himself remained a mystery. Aside from a few photos taken, there was no substantial information on the man at all.
Michael shook his head and made his way to the back door and saw something move in the shadows. Suddenly a tall figure in black seemed to materialize out of the shadows. Michael instantly recognized the man as the assassin known as Shade, the man who had killed his unit.
"You!" Michael said assuming a fighting stance.
"Yes, I hate seeing a job undone. I've come to finish it." Shade replied with a smirk.
Michael quickly threw a punch at Shade, which he promptly evaded and then Shade countered by spinning his hand causing something to strike Michael sending him to the floor. Michael immediately got up but not before Shade attacked again; this time with a brutal back kick. Shade then spun his body, performing a rising spin kick then sent Michael crashing into the wall, cracking the plaster. But before Michael could react Shade deposited a descended drop kick that sent him crashing to the floor.
Michael tried to get up but couldn't, Shade stood above him and sneered "You know I expected a lot more from someone who's studied Martial arts and was a student of Heidern assassination techniques. Oh well…"
"Michael!" came a shout from the kitchen door, both men looked in that direction; Michael's jaw dropped it was Maria!
"Stay back!" yelled Michael.
Shade smirked and casually threw his chakram at Maria; Michael watched in horror as the chakram slashed around her abdomen with blood gushing out, she gasped and fell to the floor in a pool of blood.
"Maria…" Michael whispered as he watched Maria's body fall.
"Don't worry, you'll soon be joining her soon enough." Shade responded with a smirk as he pulled out a wine bottle from a small cabinet and poured it over the couch. He then picked up a lighter one of Maria's friends had left behind and set the couch ablaze.
Shade turned and promptly left by the back door while the fire began to spread quickly throughout the house. Michael coughed as the smoke spread through the house. Ignoring the smoke, he crawled to Maria. He was only a few inches from her before he passed out
Michael gasped as he woke up and an unfamiliar ceiling greeted his gaze. As he tried get up, Michael felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Easy." A nurse above him said firmly but gently "You were very lucky there, if Mr. Brockton hadn't gotten you out of the house you probably would have died. You inhaled quite a bit of smoke there."
"How long have I been here?" Michael asked.
"About two days." The nurse replied.
"Two days?" Michael breathed.
"I'll tell the doctor you're awake." Said the nurse as she walked out.
Michael lay back for a few moments while trying to remember what happened. After a few minutes, the memory slowly came back to him. He remembered Shade had shown up at the house and then the brief fight in which the assassin had easily defeated him. Michael was wondering what happened to Maria when the doctor came in.
"Ah! You're awake. I must admit, you're a very lucky young man." The doctor commented.
"Doctor what happened to Maria? Is she alright?" Michael asked, hoping that Maria was alive.
The doctor looked at Michael before closing his eyes and sighing and Michael knew what the doctor was going to say before he spoke.
"I'm really sorry." The doctor said gently and Michael could barely hear the rest, he could barely even breathe…
April 2nd 2010
Michael entered his new home, which was really a room in a filthy, roach infested motel, but it was better then nothing, it had been a few days since he was out of the hospital but for those few days he was barely able to move more from Maria's death then any injury he suffered fighting Shade.
Michael had just come back from a job interview, he was refused for some reason, the reason the interviewer was so, so…pathetic that Michael did not buy it for an instant, he simply just walked out in contempt.
June 1st 2010
Michael once again entered his roach infested apartment, he was having great difficulties finding a job and he was running out of money…
Just then Michael heard a knock at the door, sighing he went to answer wondering who it could be, it was an medium built man in his early-sixties, his hair and beard were grey and he had sharp blue eyes.
"Mr. Hansen?" The man asked in Russian, which was among the languages Michael spoke.
"Yes. What can I do for you?" Michael asked in Russian.
"Well now, I've got a job offer for you. May I come in?" the man asked this time in English.
Michael nodded and gestured for the man to come in and he sat down on a couch opposite an armchair where Michael sat down.
"Permit me to introduce myself, I'm Vladimir Bulgarin. I'm a general in the Russian army and I wish to hire you for a mission."
"What kind of mission?"
"I need you to break into a facility for me that is being held by a rogue faction of the Russian army; I need you to bring back vital data." Explained Bulgarin
"Why not send one of your own men?" asked Michael.
"I can't afford that faction finding out about my involvement in this. Thus, if anything went wrong and it was outsider that was captured we would then have plausible deniability. Do you accept this mission?"
Michael thought hard for a few minutes before coming to a decision. "I accept."
"Good, I have arranged for your transport." Bulgarin said as he took out a plane ticket and handed it to Michael. "I shall have my men meet you at the airport tomorrow."
"Understood." Michael replied as he took the ticket to Moscow.
After Bulgarin had left, Michael sighed. He really wasn't sure of this, but he was running out of options now. He then took out his suitcase and packed what little he had. Afterwards, he made sure to set his alarm so he would arrive at the airport on time; the plane would be leaving in the morning…
TBC