The Road to Outer Heaven
Chapter 7: The Right Stuff
By, Frank Hunter

Slowly, carefully navigating the jungle, the soldiers moved through the night like shadows on a wall. They kept out of sight, making hardly an audible sound, and avoiding more than one jungle patrolman. Before long they could make out the faint glow of electric light through the trees, and the vague silhouette of the building that was their target.

The foliage began to thin away, and the bunker was there in a small clearing. The structure stood only one story tall, with a single guard tower posted in the southeast corner of the near wall. Snake suspected that the majority of the building was located underground, but they would worry about that once they were inside.

Fox stopped again, kneeling down and pointing through the trees. Snake could immediately see what had drawn his attention. A two man patrol was standing guard at the border of the clearing. They weren't patrolling and it looked as though their only orders were to ensure nothing unexpected came out of the jungle.

Snake made the hand motion that indicated they should go around and his mentor, seemingly expecting this, just smiled and shook his head. Confused, Snake tried again, figuring Fox had just misunderstood the gesture, but again the superior indicated that he had no intention of going around. He gestured at Snake to kneel down with him and covered his mouth, so that his whispered voice would not carry.

"They'll be placed at intervals surrounding the entire base. There is no going around."

Snake mimicked the gesture with his own hand. "What's the plan then?"

"We need a hole through the outer defenses to get onto the base. We need them neutralized."

"How? We're unarmed."

Fox's smile grew even wider in response. "You tell me."

"What?!"

"This is your field exam, Snake. You need to prove your worth. I know what I can do. Your first assignment is to take out those two guards…and make sure they don't alert the base to our presence. Unless you aren't up to it?"

Snake was at a loss for words. The feat was dangerous and unnecessary, considering Fox was supposed to be here for support. But, at the same time, he knew that more often than not, FOX-HOUND missions were solo. Next time he would not have support, and it was very likely he would face a situation like this on his own. He also knew that this really was not a request. After a bit of whispered stuttering, he shut his mouth and managed a curt nod of his head.

"Good," Fox replied. "I'll keep an extra eye on things for you, just in case. Let's see what you can do." With that, Fox unsheathed his combat knife and quickly scaled the nearest tree, passing out of sight.

He treats war like a game, Snake thought as he moved stealthily closer to the pair of soldiers, who were BSing with each other about some nonsense or other. He was sure this sort of trivial mentality came with the security of being as excellent a soldier as Fox was, but even so this bordered on arrogant. It was like he thought nothing of war, as though it was as much a part of him as his body and his blood, that he could be so confident everything would turn out right.

Snake on the other hand, was not so confident. He came as close as he comfortably could to the end of the jungle. Since the soldiers had been standing next to the electrically lit base, he knew their night vision would not be as good as his own, and moved even a bit closer than his first impression told him was practical, taking cover behind a large tree. Surveying their gear, he saw that they were equipped with R4 assault rifles; a little bulky for Snake's taste but packing one would make him infinitely more comfortable. Holstered at their belts were Z88 pistols, similar enough to a Beretta, and a supply of Green Pineapples.

If he pulled this off right, he would not only match Fox's expectations and cut a hole through the enemy defenses, but the two could probably arm themselves sufficiently to deal with anything else that might come up. He thought for a second, watching their mannerisms and getting a feel for how they might behave when suspicious. It was unlikely he could smoothly take out both men unarmed without a single problem, and he knew that. He needed to keep under cover behind the trees. And, he needed one of those weapons…

Deciding on a course of action, Snake picked out a second tree a short distance away. He was positioned so that his hiding place, the second tree, and the patrol group made almost a perfect triangle. Certain that this was what he wanted to do, he felt around the ground for a rock. Finding one about the size and weight of a billiard ball, he decided it would do nicely. If these men followed standard military investigative procedure this plan just might work.

As soon as there was a lull in the soldiers' conversation, Snake took the rock and threw it with as much force as he could against the second tree. It made a loud, echoed CLAP before rolling off into the tall grass behind it. Sure enough, the sound drew both soldiers' attention and in an instant two flashlights were trained on the spot.

Shooting off a couple of rapid fire hand gestures, one soldier took the point and proceeded out of the clearing and toward the suspicious tree, R4 raised and ready to fire. The second did exactly what Snake had anticipated: he kept at a safe distance, weapon ready and covering the point man, and circled ever closer to Snake's hiding place in an effort to keep his comrade in perfect line of sight.

"Come out, chum," the point man said to the tall grass. "You're not allowed to be out here." The safety man kept getting closer…

The point man knelt down in the grass, scanning the area with his light. The adrenaline began pumping in Snake's veins. Opportunity would present itself in 3…2…1…

The safety man was right in front of Snake, with his back to him. Stepping quietly as close as he could, Snake took hold of the Z88 on the man's belt and in one quick motion unholstered it, and saw to his great delight that there was already a suppressor affixed to the barrel.

Guess they don't want the residents of Zamdela hearing gunfire in the night…

The original plan was to take the safety man hostage and persuade the point man to drop his weapon before springing into action. The suppressor made the plan infinitely easier though, and Snake made a split second decision as he removed the weapon from its holster. He cocked it, took quick aim, and fired a single shot. If he had confidence in anything, it was in his accuracy with a pistol, and sure enough the shot connected with the point man's head, taking him out of the equation.

The safety man whipped around, taking only a moment to realize what happened, and made an attempt to get his assailant into the sights of his R4. Snake dropped the Z88, prepared for this next battle. He took full advantage of the other man's momentum and his close range, grabbed hold of his arm, ducked under the rifle and slammed his wrist at speed into the tree. The shock forced the man to drop his rifle and Snake took advantage. Grabbing the back of his neck in a CQC maneuver, he twisted the man to take his balance and slammed him skull first into the rough forest floor, resulting in a muffled shout and knocking him out cold.

The combat high ebbed away as peace and quiet returned to the jungle. Snake collapsed, his back against the tree, genuinely amazed and impressed with himself for pulling off this stunt. He could hardly believe the whole thing worked, but only got a minute to pat himself on the back. Before long, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Fox dropping out of the decoy tree and striding over to where he sat. "Not bad rookie," he complimented in a hushed voice, that wide smile still across his face. "Wasn't sure you'd pull it together."

"Piece of cake," snake replied, trying to keep a cool attitude while still collecting himself.

Looking down at the unconscious man, though, Fox's entire expression changed into a scowl. "…you didn't kill this one."

Snake got to his feet, uncertain of the problem. "I didn't need to. Big Boss told us to keep the casualties to a minimum."

Fox looked amused for a second, nodding slowly, before throwing the fist which still held his knife into a quick backhand. It connected with the man's throat, and made a deep laceration; a killing wound.

Snake wanted to shout out, to protest this atrocity, but catching himself before doing something he'd regret he muffled it into a concerned grunt. He glared at Fox with deep resentment over the unnecessary death, coming up with the only argument he could at the moment.

"But Big Boss told us…"

"This man saw your face," Fox interrupted him. "The boss wants us to keep the bodies to a minimum and we will. We will not engage anyone that doesn't need to be engaged. But understand Snake, anyone who sees us needs to be taken out. Accept that fact, or you risk both of our lives."

The profile of Gray Fox in Snake's mind continued to grow. Excellent soldier, devout follower, slightly arrogant and ruthless combatant had been descriptors so far. Now "questionable morals" made it onto the list. Snake nodded at his superior, if only for the reason that he needed Fox's approval to pass this field exam. But, he still didn't buy the man's mentality toward taking unnecessary lives, and he was sure Fox would be aware of that. For now, he let it go.

The two searched the bodies and took weapons, ammunition and equipment. Snake strapped an R4 to his back, set the Z88 he'd fired into a holster at his side and stocked up on Green Pineapples. Fox took only a sidearm and two grenades.

"Why are you leaving the rifle?" Snake asked him, honestly.

"It's too heavy," he answered. "I don't need something like that weighing me down. Take the extra ammunition for yourself."

Snake didn't need to be prompted twice and stocked up on R4 ammo until his pouch almost burst. Between the two bodies they also found a pair of binoculars (which Snake also took) and split two combat rations. Dragging and hiding the bodies in the tall grass, the two moved into hiding behind the trees once more.

"Take out those specs you just got," Fox said, pointing to the binoculars, "Tell me if you see anything useful."

Snake raised them to his eyes and peeked out at the base. Through magnified vision he could see that the building was shaped like a big "U," with the ends pointed at them. The guard tower was at the right tip, as was a small service door that looked like their best chance to get into the base. At the center was a helipad."

Snake related all of this to Fox as he saw it. As he got to the helipad, though, he saw something that was a bit more interesting.

There was a big, built, blonde man in a heavily decorated military jacket, crossing the helipad. At his side was a small, thin African girl, skin black as night. She couldn't be any older than 16, and was dressed in commoners' clothing, with a head shaved almost bald.

"Sounds like you found the base commander," Fox told him. "The girl…your guess is as good as mine, but it's not unheard of for military groups in Africa to take in locals for training. Child soldiers and whatnot. She's probably dangerous. What are they doing?"

The man was talking to a squad of six soldiers, each of them wearing matching camo and black armbands. At the end of the brief, the men all saluted him, and marched off, moving through the base's main entrance. The commander himself took the African girl with him and followed behind the soldiers, moving out of sight.

Fox rustled into the tall grass, taking a look at the corpses the two had deposited there. There were no black armbands on these two.

"The commander will know where our blueprints are," Fox told Snake. "And the men with the black armbands are probably his personal detachment."

"So they'll know where to find the commander," Snake caught on.

"You've got it. See the plan?"

Snake nodded, smiling himself for the first time since setting down in South Africa. It was all clear.

"Good. First thing's first. We need to get inside."