Days passed quickly on Mother Base, for a change. Snake had provided her a little library that expanded every time a platoon got back from deployment, and between the books, the music and the random mission here and there, Quiet found herself almost enjoying her cell. It wasn't the grand hotel, but at least she was alone. She had little to no privacy, but hey, could be worse.
There was still the issue of the guards insulting her, but as the novelty gradually died down, at least they stopped spitting in her cell. She could always turn on the volume of the stereo up, if she felt the need to smother the insults.
Until one day, a small group of barely overage recruits off duty gathered at the rail around her cell and decided that taunting her would be a good way to pass a merry time together. She ignored them, but they persevered, gradually raising the bar of their offences and insults each time the opened their mouths. They had even brought a pen to scribble insults on the signs around the cell, the idiots.
A few had her raising an inquisitive eyebrow, some made her startle as she tried to go forth with her book, a couple hit her where it hurt most but she couldn't be bothered with showing them any type of reaction. Only one made her raise her head to scorn them, the desire to phase of the the cell and beat the shit out of them hard to keep in check, but in the end, it turned out there was no such need, as Big Boss made his appearance in the scene. His towering height projected a long shadow over the mesh ceiling of the cell, and she could recognize the sweet scent of his cigar among thousands of other scents.
The moment the recruits spotted him, they suddenly shut up, terrified. One of them got caught mid-spit and in the vain attempt to stop it, he found himself with a significant amount of thick saliva mixed with phlegm hanging from his scruffy chin.
"What's this all about?" he asked. None answered. So Snake repeated the question, again no answer, until someone's brain decided to start working again and snapped in the rigid salute position, quickly followed by the rest of the group.
"I said, what's this all about? Don't you have anything better to do than trouble her?"
He sounded calm, if a little irritated, until he noticed the scribbles on the signs. Quiet had no idea what they had written on them, but whatever it was, it pissed him off very bad. He walked up to them, one of the signs held up in his left hand and asked, again, what the hell was going on.
And again, for course, the recruits didn't reply. And he ran out of patience and damn the reprimand he gave them… she'd never want to be in their place. It only lacked a corporal punishment, like all those pushups from that movie that came out a couple of years before, that one with the cute actor…
Ah, damn… one time I get time off and go to the movies, I completely forget the title! She mused as the recruits ran away.
"And if I see more insults on the signs, I swear you're going to clean all the toilets of Mother Base until your hair is white!"
Quiet had to cover her mouth to stifle a sudden burst of laughter. She had regained some composure by the time Snake peeked from the stairs. "Up for a walk in Africa? We've got a client, some soldiers gone rogue to kill, or something like that. Ocelot wasn't specific. Wanna join or should I take DD?"
Immediately, she snuck her boots on and phased out of the cell to appear right beside him. He smiled and walked back up, where he signalled Pequod to come down with the helicopter. "This one should be easy enough. Five soldiers are being held prisoners at a mine in the north of the region, another seemingly defected and now works for the Buta tribe. We have a picture only of this one," he explained as they waited. "And I'll be honest with you, I'm not really sure I want to eliminate them. I mean, we just expanded the dormitories… we could use the help, don't you think?"
She shrugged. As long as they don't turn out to be fucking llamas…
"I'll be sure they stop bother you. If I catch any of them again I swear I'll throw them overboard."
His sweet, well hid inner side was growing on her. The distances he was walking to make sure she felt at least comfortable in her constant state of arrest were touching. She nodded, in thanks.
"Good. Now, tranquilizing darts for this mission. The clients wants them dead but… I'll see there, if it's worth it or not. I have already given order to the Armory guys to put your stuff in the helicopter. Along with some new books. Or you want to pick something from downstairs?"
She shook her head. New book for that deployment.
"Alright. It's going to take a while to get there, and if we're lucky, we should be back in two days. The forecasts say it's going to rain quite a lot while we're there, you should be alright. I hope you don't mind the mud though." She shook her head again. "Just perfect. Oh, here's Pequod."
The flight was long and uneventful. Snake even fell asleep, so deeply he snored.
He woke up about an hour before Pequod lowered the helicopter over the landing zone and let them down. The sun was going down behind the mountains and a very light breeze moved the tall grass around them. They had been forced to land very far from their destination, in order to avoid the increasing presence of soldiers around the area.
"Looks like I'll have to walk all the way there…" he mused as he observed the map from the iDroid. "Wish I had asked for a jeep or something…"
You can always steal one! She thought as she inspected the area around them.
With a sigh, he closed the map and put the iDroid back in his pocket. "Walking will have to do, unless I'm lucky enough to find a vehicle on the way there. Now, Quiet…" She turned towards him. "All set? No one dies unless I say so, got it?" She nodded. "I don't care what the client wants. A good soldier is a good soldier, and if we can convince them to work for us, it will be better for everyone. You think you have enough bullets?" Another nod. "Perfect. Go ahead to the village and take a good look around. And be careful where you set your feet, the scouts have reported the presence of minefields around that place."
With a quirky smile, she winked at him and speeded off to her destination.
When she saw the place, she let out a disappointed breath. Boring…
It was just another boring village that had been occupied by rebel forces. All the legitimate inhabitants had been driven away, forced away from their homes and their plantations of… bananas, she thought, and the usurpers had now taken residence there, destroying everything the villagers had built.
Assholes.
She counted sixteen guards scattered all around the area, but only half of them looked on duty. About half of them looked smashed drunk in the main hut. Nice soldiers Snake wanted to recruit. She checked her own iDroid and marked all the enemies for Snake. And the position of the landmines she had noticed. The "minefield" Snake had spoken of was actually a couple of mines placed in two narrow passages beside the main road. She even found a special mark to signal the target.
"Oh, nice! Thanks Quiet!" he said through the radio as he noticed the markings. "Sorry it took me so long. How's the situation?"
She spotted him at the entrance of the small valley that housed the village. Boring as fuck, that's the situation. She had learned to know his methods and ways, she had gauged his abilities in the past month they had been working together, she knew he would sneak in and out with his chosen victim and they'd simply move on to the next objective.
"Quiet, keep an open eye on these guys, the night is still young, I wouldn't want to raise the alarm so early."
And right on cue, it didn't take long for Snake to accomplish the first part of his mission. The reduced security helped him a lot, and that was left for her to do was just wait for instructions, bored out of her mind as he sneaked all the way through the village with the unconscious guy on his shoulders and exited on the other side from where he had entered.
In the end, Snake attached a Fulton balloon to the guy and let Support Unit do their job.
"Quiet, the guy said the rest of the soldiers are kept in a cave in the back of the mine, just past the main dig site. Would you mind scouting ahead while I get there? I saw a path, I bet it leads straight to the mine, it shouldn't take me long to get there."
Nodding, she mumbled an affirmative sound in the open mic and moved through the trees to get to the other side of the small hill that separated the village and the mine. When she reached the edge of the small, sparse wood, she took a moment to examine the mine from higher ground. The place was big, the diamond mine was basically a large open excavation site with muddy slopes and precariously built paths that led to the prefabs scattered all around that, in normal circumstances, would house the miners, but in this case, gave shelter to the soldiers.
As she examined the area with a her scopes, she felt the first drops of rain hit her on her skin. Cool, for once the weatherman was right. She quipped. I really hope Snake doesn't take long getting here. I don't mind the mud but… this place is already a swamp as it is!
She found a decent sniping nest that gave her a clear view of pretty much every nook and corner of the mine and set up her camp. She lay some large leaves from a nearby tree on the ground, so she wouldn't need to lay straight on the muddy rocks and took some more that she used as camouflage, placing them over her body. As much as the rain was a welcome event, she wouldn't want to risk soaking up in water. Even with rain water, too much would have suffocated her.
And then, she waited. And as her mind wandered, she started "singing" that tune that got stuck in her head so long before that she couldn't really identify it.
"Oh, so you're ready!" said Snake through the radio. "Good, I'm coming."
How does he know I'm ready?
"You know, when you're idling around you mumble that tune. Like you're bored or something. I like it, but it's a bit repetitive… if you could expand the melody, I'd appreciate it a lot."
Oh now you make demands about me singing?
"I really like your voice…"
That struck her, like a rock aimed at her head. How could he like her voice if she had never spoken a word to him? Or to anyone on Mother Base, to be fair. She grunted. Snake, you're an idiot. Stick to your cassettes.
"Or I could simply stick with the latest hits. Damn, I'm dead to the world for nine years and suddenly they revolution the way they make music. All those strange sounds… Is David Bowie still around?"
She mumbled an affirmative reply. You should hear the song he made with Queen. Or the other way around. Anyway… awesome!
"I'll ask Ocelot to find some tapes or vinyls. Whatever. Oh, speak of the devil…" Through the radio she heard a faint melody in the distance, followed the mechanical noises of a tape recorder being operated. "Uh, Spandau Ballet. Hell this guy's handwriting sucks! Anyway… does it meet your tastes?"
I prefer Duran Duran.
"I'll take it as a yes."
He came out of the barracks and she spotted him when he poked his head around the corner. The rain was now falling steadily and they were both soaked to the bone. He nimbly dodged a couple of guards and took care of another one when he had decided to take a leak in the least favorable moment.
"Fuck, ages ago I shot a guy in the dick with a tranq rifle. I have no idea if he fell unconscious for the dart or for the pain," he commented as he hid the unconscious guy in a trash container.
The pain. Seriously, those darts sting a lot.
Then he fell. He slipped on the mud, his boots lost their grip on a slippery slope and he slid two or three meters ahead on his ass. "Oh for fuck's sake…" he snapped as he stood again. "Don't tell Miller."
Quiet laughed, loud. Me? Tell him? Even if I talked, that guy would never want to be in the same room with me, how could I tell him!
Through the scope on her gun, she observed as he tried to wipe away some of the mud from his fatigues and weapons. "Let's get this over with."
He finally found the cave. Rifle in hand, he ventured inside and disappeared from her view. She kept her eyes focused on the entrance of said cave.
It seemed like a normal exploration of a closed area, but it turned out to be so much more.
"Kaz, what the hell did the client tell you?" came through the earpiece of her radio. He had patched her through the channel that kept only him connected with Mother Base.
Miller sounded flustered when he replied. "What? What's going on?"
"Kids, Kaz, that's what's going on! The client wants me to kill children!"
Child soldiers? She thought.
"Boss, I had no idea!"
"Well, what do I do? I can't leave them here, they'll kill them one way or another!" snapped Snake.
"I don't know Boss… the client wants them dead but… they're just kids!" Miller sounded exasperated. "You can't leave them there, but where could they go?"
Mother Base! Quiet wanted to scream, yell and shout until her voice was hoarse. There's room at Mother Base, they can be safe there! Despite her training as a ruthless assassin, she had always drawn the line on innocent women and children. They would never enter her scope, she would never accept jobs that required to kill children and unharmed women. Now this...
"We have no options," growled Snake. "Outer Heaven it is…"
Then, through the radio, she heard the deafening burst of an automatic rifle being unloaded. Then, complete silence.
Beneath her leafy, makeshift ghillie suit, Quiet shuddered in horror and shock. You bastard son of a bitch!
I have always wondered, ever since I played this mission, what were Quiet's thoughts as the cutscene rolled on and she couldn't see what was going on, only hear what Snake and Kaz could say. Here's my take on her POV. Hope you liked it!
