3

The B1 floor of the complex was filled with soldiers from S-4. Snake had his silenced SOCOM drawn, and one by one, his enemies fell. Above, he could hear the voices of three men.

"Both of you finish moving the crates and get down to the next floor. We're almost done here."

"Yes sir!" Two vioces, both male, were in unison. "Scyth sir... Any other orders, sir?"

"Cut power to all elevators once you get down to the next level. I'm getting the feeling that there are intruders nearby. Go." The voice was deep.

Two of the men left the cargo bay, closing a steel door behing them. Then there was the sound of a gun being loaded.

"Useless peices of shit, can't even understand a simple order! I could finish moving these damn crates within twenty minutes, They can't even do it in an hour!"

Snake was hiding behind a corner, able to see his target easily whenever he peeked around it. Staying hiden, he was ready to fire. "So, did you slaughter those men on the first and second floors?"

"Hm." The man sighed. "No, that was someone else's job. However, I did give the order to have them killed. Satisfied?"

"Why kill needlessly?"

"Those seven men were of no more use to us. So we killed them?"

"Why...and what do you mean by we?"

"You honestly don't get it, do you? 'We' refers to myself anf the other three leaders of S-4. I, however, am its leader. I give all the orders." He spat on the floor. "Who the hell are you, anyway!?"

"You don't need to know." Snake placed a finger on the trigger. "You work for the Patriots, don't you?"

He gave a small laugh. "The Patriots? Ha! Y'know, that's funny! Are you really that stupid, philanthropist? Everybody in America works for them, even you... But no, I don't recieve everything from them personally. You may be against them, but you're still in their employment, as am I." He caught a quick glimpse of Snake. "Are you...him? You must be...the hair, the eyes...and that suit... You are Solid Snake, aren't you!?"

"How?"

"Folly... The way you took out my men, how you hide... Your movement. It's still the same...and now back to this...the Shadow Moses incident." He paused. "I am Scyth, leader of S-4 and head of the SIN project."

Scyth looked to be in his late twenties, with long dark brown hair that was tied at the neck, and deep green eyes. He was wearing a white t-shirt, and green and brown camo cargo pants. His left ear was pierced with a diamond stud. An HK-5 was in its holster, which was strapped to his right thigh.

Snake peered around the corner, revealing himself while targeting the military man who stood on the balcony. "Where is it!?"

Scyth drew his HK-5. "Do you want to know that badly?" Well, let's see if you're good enough to know its location." He loaded his gun with a new cartridge. "If you can manage to land a hit with either of your guns, I'll tell you all that you wish to know. I do think you should know this: I'm not an easy target." Scyth's green eyes met with Snake's. "Shall we?"

A pale moon shone down on the complex. Seven lifeless bodies lay in the middle of Heliport 3 on the east side of the building. Straight ahead from Rayne's position, there were two doors. There were men on the roof, watching for intruders with spotlights.

One after the other, they fell from the roof, a bullet in their throats. Through the unlocked door, another door appeared, only yards away. Through it was Heliport 2.

"Strange..."

There were no guards to be seen, even on the roof. Cautiously, she moved forward, ready to fire at anything that moved. A lightbulb on her left flickered uncontrollably on and off. Thick metal wires on the roof twanged whenever a strong gust of wind blew.

"Something's wrong..." She hid in the shadows.

141.63 to 141.12

"What's up, Rayne?"

"I need you to get a visual of Heliport 2 on the east side of the complex. From what I can see, there aren't any guards posted out here. Heliport 3 was filled with them. Something's wrong with that, don't you think?"

"I'll see what I can do. The cameras at your loaction are currently offline. Look, I'll let you know when I get them back online. Be careful, okay?"

"Right."

-codec off-

Rayne moved as quietly as she could, avoiding alerting any enemy sentries that were possibly hiding. Behind her, an enemy soldier crept up, avoiding detection. Seconds later, her hands were above her head and a gun was pressed to her right temple.

"Who are you? You work for the government?"

"Government my ass!" The gun was being pressed even harded against her head. "I'm freelance, here on my own will."

Another man came up from behind, circling both of them. He was carrying what looked like a SPAS12 or a PA3 shotgun. Now behind them, he stopped.

"I haven't gotten anything from her yet."

"They'll probably manage to get something out of her." The man with the shotgun grunted. "Time to get some sleep, miss."

Viciously turning around, she gasped. "Wha..." Stunned, her gun hit the ground before she fell to her knees. Seconds later, she fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Take her to the north and put her in solitary. Confiscate anything that poses a threat and drug her." The first solder who had only a handgun picked her up and hauled her on his shoulder. "Let either Soren or Scar interrogate her when she wakes up. Also, don't let her near that woman."

The man who carried Rayne saluted to his superior, walking off and heading to the north complex.

Raiden had nearly finished his sweep of the second floor. The first floor had been cleared when their infiltration had begun, while most of the second floor had been cleared out by Rayne earlier. Entering into a hall, Raiden had one more room left to clear. However, it was locked, and the blonde haired operative didn't have the key.

141.27 to 141.33

"What's up, Raiden?"

"Damon! Can you unlock electronic numeric locks?"

"Course I can! Why?"

"Well... There's a door leading off from the hall I'm currently in, but it's locked. It has a numeric lock on it, an I have no idea what the code is. I didn't find anything during my sweep that mentioned it, either. Think you can crack it?"

"Give me some time."

-codec off-

Damon stood beside Otacon, checking to make sure his gun was loaded with enough ammo to get him to Raiden's location.

Down the hall and through a few doors, he arrived at a large, empty room. Two doors were on opposite sides of the room. He came to a set of stairs. Once up them, he noticed Raiden, who was pacing back and forth at the end of the hall. The closer he got, the more anticipated the operative seemed to get.

Kneeling down to be eye-level with the lock, Damon began to work on cracking the code.

"5879...no. 6720...nope."

Raiden was getting impatient. "I thought you were going to unlock it from the Control Room, not here."

"6195...hm." He stopped to think. "True, the lock is electronic, but it's a numeric code. I could've unlocked from the Control Room, but it would take longer." He resumed his attempts at solving the sequence. "1471...no."

"I suppose...but..."

140.96 to 141.27

"Jack?"

"Rose!? How do you know my frequency?"

"Dr. Hartman gave it to me before he left on his mission. He said you were going as well. Is everything going okay?"

"1794...yes!"

"Jack, who was that? Who said those numbers?"

"Damon... Look, Rose, I gotta go, ok? I love you, and I'll see you soon. I'll be fine."

"Promise me...!"

"I promise I'll come back to you, alive."

"Bye, Jack..."

-codec off-

Raiden sighed. "You gave her my frequency!? Why?"

Damon breathed deeply. "She's your fiancee... She both loves you and worries about you. I knew she'd want to know how you were, so I gave her...your frequency." He turned to look at Raiden's face. "Upset? Get over it." He glanced at the door that was now open. "Once you finish sweeping this floor, get back to the Control Room. We're still waiting for the three of you to get back. Hurry up?"

Snake was still hiding behind the wall, peeking out and shooting whenevr the rounds from Scyth's HK stopped hitting and denting the steel walls and floor. He was pinned.

Up above on the balcony, Scyth reloaded his gun. "C'mon Snake! I'm getting bored. You keep hiding there much longer, I thing I'm gonna have to come down from here." He laughed. "I was hoping that the legendary eradicator of Metal Gear would put up more of a fight than this."

Snake edged toward the corner, trying to get a glance of the commando. His footsteps grew louder as he got closer to a metal ladder. "Don't you know what a legend is!?" Snake shouted, squezzing the trigger a few times. "A legend is nothing more than a story, a myth. Someone tells it, someone else remembers. Everybody passes it on."

"You deny your reputation, then?"

"It sure as hell ain't my identity!?"

"Who are you to speak of identity!? As far as you can remember, you don't even have one. You have no right to speak of such things as 'identity'."

"Go to hell!"

A communicator buzzed with static. "Sir we have her. She's in solitary. We need you here, sir, ASAP."

Scyth grunted. "Hold your position. I'm on my way." The buzzing stopped. "Well, no information for you, Snake. If you really want to find out anything, come to the north building with everything you've got."

"Hold it1" Snkae left himself completely unguarded, but his lasersight was on the back of Scyth's neck. "Who are you keeping in solitary confinement?"

Opening a door, Scyth laughed. "I think that you know her. After all, she did come in with you, and her fiance. Any ideas yet?"

"Rayne."

Scyth clapped. "Bravo, bravo... With any luck, she should still be unconscious." He placed his HK-5 in the holster strapped to his right thigh. "Good bye for now, Snake. If you feel up to sniping, come to the north building. We'll be waiting for you."