METAL GEAR SOLID 6: THE INFERNAL CONFLICT

CHAPTER 2 (DEBRIEFING)— "THE SNAKE SOUL EATER"

Snake lie restrained to a hospital bed made of the same alloy as his cybernetic endoskeleton and combat chassis as he saw and heard the others around him through the white noise and blurring static of his senses.

"…is this the only way to save him?" said Meryl.

"I'm afraid so," said an odd yet somewhat familiar female voice.

"I'm against it," said Raiden. "He wouldn't approve of what his mind being used for. It'd turn him into the very thing he helped us fight against."

"…what do you think, Otacon?" said Naomi.

"I'm not sure. I don't want to lose him, but… this whole thing just feels wrong."

"I see. Do you really think Snake, if brought back to life, could help stop the war economy, and bring peace to the world once again?" Naomi said to someone other than Otacon.

"I don't think. I know," said the female voice.

"…are you sure Snake would want this, Meryl?" said Johnny.

"…I don't know. I really don't." said Meryl.

"…Snake may not want to be brought back, but he's always believed in preserving the good of humanity, no matter how much it hurts him in the process. And right now, the world needs him." said Colonel. "Your heart is in the right place, Meryl. Do whatever it tells you to do."

"…all right. Bring him back."

Then Snake remembered the horrors he experienced in Hong Kong; his friends had betrayed him. And as he lay in that hospital bed, he could see them in their new terrifying mechanical bodies, standing around him, laughing at him, taunting him.

Dante walked toward him. "Tell me Snake, how does it feel to be a computer program trapped inside a body that isn't yours? How does it feel to know you're dead but also believe you're alive at the same time, in a hell you've always feared more than anything else? The hell in your head is here to stay, Snake. And it's going to save everything and everyone… by consuming them all."

And Snake watched and screamed in horror as his friends began to tear his cybernetic body apart right in front of his eyes.

"NO!" Snake screamed, as he woke up, breathing heavily. He was in the same hospital bed. He looked around, but Dante and the others were gone. Several cybernetic surgeons and nurses were standing around him. Otacon and Sunny came running in the door.

"Is he alive?" Otacon said to the head surgeon.

"He barely made it. If you got him here any later, he might not have, though."

"Thank god," said Otacon. "Snake, can you hear me?"

"Otacon," Snake coughed, "what's going on? Where am I?"

"You're safe, Snake. For now. We're in a cyber-care clinic in Geneva run by a set of several PMCs that NATO is allied with. All of them are also rivals of Drakovich's PMCs."

"You brought me here?"

"If it weren't for Sunny's puppeteering of the Metal Gear Mk. VI, then I don't think you'd have made it out of Hong Kong. They said your body is healed; it's fully functional and good to go once more."

"Hong Kong… Otacon, what happened back there? With all those civilians fighting each other, they… I thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was fighting to survive, but it seemed like I was just trying to kill as many of them as I could before one of them killed me."

"We don't know, Snake, but we know Drakovich had something to do with it," Otacon said.

"Why did all of our former friends become allies with him?"

"I don't know. I can't believe they'd do such a thing."

"Dante must have done something to their minds," said Snake.

"Speaking of Dante…" said Otacon, "…it sounds like you're about to be tasked with killing him."

"Why me?" said Snake.

Their conversation was interrupted as a holographic television came on in the hospital room, and none other than the current US President, Hannah Brady, appeared on it as a 3-D hologram.

"Snake," said President Hannah Brady, "or is it Cyber Snake now? Which one of you am I addressing?"

"Snake is fine, Madam President," said Snake.

"Apologies to present you with such dire information right after you nearly died. But after the attack in Hong Kong, we believe the future of the free world is at stake. Given I've been informed that your former colleagues have formed an alliance with the person who organized this attack—one Daniil Drakovich—it falls to you to rectify this situation."

"What about you, though?" said Snake. "Can't the US Government condemn Drakovich? Make the free world turn against him?"

"We would if the US government had any power left. After the Patriots collapsed, we're now more of a relic of the old world than anything else. The real factions that are fighting the war for control of the world aren't nations or their governments, but the PMCs they hire. And in this case, Drakovich's PMCs are bigger, tougher, and more numerous than any other government, conglomerate, or institution in the world. Put simply, we're outgunned, outnumbered, and outclassed in the war against him.

"Not to mention that he has a lot of followers and sympathizers worldwide due to his radical beliefs in saving the world from climate change through a combination of terraforming and transhumanism to reduce resource consumption and pollution and recreate the world's resources instead."

"Right, so you're having me assassinate him instead."

"Yes. If we strike the head of the serpent, all we have to do is let its body collapse under its own weight," said the POTUS.

"A fitting metaphor," said Snake, looking away.

"In more ways than one, it's not just a metaphor," said President Brady. "We've given your mission to assassinate Drakovich and stop his plans the codename 'Operation Snake Soul Eater.' It's modeled after Big Boss's second mission in the Cold War, Snake Eater."

Snake said, "Again with Big Boss's references. Why do we have to keep bringing him up anyway?"

"For starters, the mission is similar to yours in terms of how it's laid out," said Otacon. "Again, you'll go in naked, without clothes or equipment. In addition, for the sake of safety, some of your new endoskeleton's augmentations are disabled to help your mind deal with your current trauma. You nearly lost control of your mind back there. I checked your diagnostics; your BISECT went haywire! The more you manage to work it off, though, the more augmentations you'll manage to re-activate over time. That's why exercising and using your combat and stealth abilities to the fullest is crucial for this mission," said Otacon. "Also… you're not going to like this…"

"I usually never do."

"…but in case you couldn't tell already, your new endoskeleton is even less functional than the prior one. Our NGO has been defunded due to the betrayal of our allies causing lack of trust among investors, so we have to rely on NATO's more primitive endoskeleton models."

"Great," said Snake. "I don't stand a chance at killing Drakovich with a body like this."

"It's not the end of the world," said Otacon. "You can always fix up your endoskeleton by finding spare cyborg parts in the world and re-building your body from the ground up at a crafting station. It's like you're your own Metal Gear, albeit one that's under construction."

"Right," sighed Snake.

"On that note, if it's all right with you, Mr. Emmerich," said the POTUS, "I'd prefer to say this next part to Snake alone."

"Of course, Madam President," said Otacon.

"Snake, I'm connecting to your BISECT's Cybernetic Codec Communicator now," said the President.

Snake watched as President Brady's hologram made an electronic hallucination-esque transition from the screen into his visual cortex.

"There's also someone in the field who should be able to help you fix up your body good as new on the go," said the POTUS. "She's an ally, and a genius in several different fields of expertise, including cybernetics."

"She?"

"Her codename is Ultra Mouse," said the POTUS. "She's currently working as a mole within Daniil's organization, posing as his mistress."

"Ultra Mouse?" said Snake.

"Yes. You are not to let anyone know who she is, for fear of blowing her cover to someone whose mind may not be their own. Not Mr. Emmerich. Not Sunny. Not even yourself."

"Of course, Madam President, I'll keep things hush-hush—wait, hold on a second. How am I supposed to keep her codename a secret from myself?"

Ignoring him, President Brady said, "She told us that whatever happened in Hong Kong was merely a test of a larger attack Drakovich has in mind. Your objectives besides assassinating Drakovich are to find out what this plan of attack is, what sort of weapon of mass destruction is causing it, and stop future attacks from happening by sabotaging the unknown WMD."

"And my friends? What about them?" said Snake.

"If they cannot be convinced to return to our side of the fight, then I'm afraid you'll have to take them out too," said President Brady.

Snake was silent for a moment.

"You are to meet with Ultra Mouse at the terraformed jungle garden of Drakovich's private estate near Bangkok for more information about your mission. She will help you infiltrate a party that Drakovich is throwing for some of his conglomerate's rich clients, and then will help you infiltrate his ranks.

"What does she look like?"

"Unfortunately, it's best you find out for yourself. To help identify her, you will ask her the passphrase 'who are the Apostles?' If it's her, she'll answer, '01310011161'."

"That's the same passphrase as the one I found out in the Limbo stronghold! Are you sure it's safe to use that passphrase?"

"It's the one that she agreed upon, Snake."

"How do you know we can trust her?"

"Unfortunately that information is classified. We know we can trust her, it's just a matter of you needing to as well."

Snake sighed again. "I can't believe I'm being sent on a mission to go after my friends."

"We know this mission isn't going to be easy. But we know you're the one for the job; a lesser man would be crushed by such a burden."

"Right," said Snake.

"All right, that's enough information for now," said Hannah. "My part of the debriefing is over. The world is counting on you, Snake. Good luck."

Snake nodded as the POTUS's hologram disappeared.

Otacon said, "Is your debriefing over, Snake?"

"Yeah, Otacon," said Snake.

"Good. Sunny and I got help with disguising the Nomad III as a commercial airliner. We're going to drop you off in the ocean not far from the coast of Bangkok. You still have jets, so you should be able to make the jump, and given you don't need oxygen, you should be able to make the swim to the beach. After that, I've been told a PMC allied with NATO has a safe house within the city's slums. They've given us its GPS coordinates. A black market arms dealer working with them left you some additional weapons, as well as materials for augmenting your body. Make sure you store them in your endoskeletal vacuum pack for the mission."

"Got it," said Snake. "I'm glad at least you're still on my side, Otacon."

"Don't be glad yet," said Otacon. "We still have a job to do."

Snake frowned, and nodded.

Sunny brought a plate of eggs to Snake. "Are you hungry, S- Snake?"

Snake smiled slightly. "My body isn't designed to be hungry, but I'll eat them anyway. Thanks, Sunny."

Sunny smiled back, and nodded. "Can I ask you a favor, S- Snake?"

Snake said, "Sure."

"If somehow y- you're able to s- save the others from Dante's control… then promise me you'll do it. I don't want t- to lose them too."

Snake frowned, and looked at the plate of eggs for a moment until he became buried in his thoughts.