Chapter 11

"Did I get him?" Snake asked Otacon while looking over the opened door of the Kasatka. He opened his eyes wide as he saw Solidus unscathed on top of a Harrier 2. The noise of its engines clouded all other noise. "Otacon, we're in trouble! It's the Harrier!" Snake shouted.

Solidus stood on top of the Harrier almost godlike. He let his suit relax its artificial muscles, let go of the face protection and made way to cockpit where non other than Vamp was piloting. The Kasatka circled and stood by one of the sides of the connecting bridge, on the other stood the awesome machine that was the Harrier 2.

"The world needs only one Big Boss!" Solidus shouted again as he was about to enter the cockpit.

"Snake what now?" Otacon asked from the cockpit sounding seriously nervous.

"Otacon move!" Snake replied by shouting.

A missile shot off from under the Harrier's right wing and made its way towards the Kamov. Due to Otacon's piloting and a great amount of luck the missile didn't hit the Kasatka. Instead it completely destroyed the entrance to Strut D Sediment Pool. A cloud of smoke and flames engulfed the entire entrance. The way is was now completely shut. Suddenly the Harrier started to move, its jet engines at full speed.

He's going to attack us! Snake was unsure of what to do. He took a quick look over the cargo room and saw two boxes. What is this? The boxes were partially covered by a cloth and he hadn't seen that the key of having a small wining chance against the Harrier was right by his side.

"Otacon get me close to Raiden!" Snake said as he took the cloth from the boxes and grabbed one.

"Alright! What are you going to do?" Otacon asked as he turned the Kasatka back to the bridge.

"Raiden, this is the Stinger missile launcher!" Snake shouted over at Raiden who was looking up. He then threw the box over to the bridge. "The Kasatka can't stand up to the Harrier!" He shouted again and threw down another box, an extra missile. "You have to shoot the Harrier down!"

A shadow loomed just over Strut H. The Harrier was coming for the Kasatka.

"Snake, we've got company!" Otacon shouted as he saw the Harrier.

"I'm counting on you!" Snake looked down at Raiden and nodded. He was in a better position to shoot down the Harrier and for Snake it was also the worst way of finding if Raiden was an experienced soldier or not.

Snake saw Raiden picking the Stinger immediately. "Otacon stay near Raiden!" Snake shouted.

"Are you crazy?" Otacon replied.

"No! If we're lucky this might work!" Snake said as Raiden got one of the missiles ready. The Harrier would soon be over him.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Solidus laughter was heard from the Harrier's speakers. "I'll let you go down in style!"

Snake saw Raiden getting ready to fire. C'mon kid.

The Stinger missile was sent off through the air into the belly of the Harrier.

"Ahhh!" Solidus screamed as the Harrier was hit directly. "Damn you!"

The Harrier started to fly away.

"What is he doing?" Snake asked himself as he saw the Harrier going out of eyesight.

Suddenly a few ticking noises could be heard from the Kasatka's cockpit.

"Snake, missiles!"

"What!"

Just few seconds later two missiles hit the connecting bridge but, without causing structural failure, Raiden was obviously shaken up.

"I hope he holds it!" Snake turned his head to the cockpit. "Where's it?"

"It's coming again!"

The Harrier had circled around the bridge and was now coming for another pass. However before it got near the bridge it launched some cluster bombs up into the air.

Damn!

"Snake, Raiden won't make it if he stays in that upper level of the connecting bridge." Otacon shouted. "Warn him!"

As Snake reached for the radio the cluster bombs hit the entire first level of the connecting bridge, destroying partially the way to Strut G.

Smoke clouded everything for a second, but Snake knew that Raiden couldn't have made it in the lower level.

"He was our best shot!" Snake sighed heavily and although he sounded cold he was not happy to have lost someone who had Solid Snake in such high regard.

"He's still alive!" Otacon said.

Snake immediately looked over to the bridge and saw Raiden hanging on the rails. Afterwards he hoisted himself and looked around the bridge as if looking for something.

"What is he doing?"

Snake's spotted with his two very good eyes that the box with the other stinger missiles was in the lower level, probably thrown there by the explosion. It was fortunate that it didn't blow off to sea.

"Burn baby!" Solidus voice reverberated across the entire scene.

"Damn I almost forgot about him!" Snake said as his eyes turned to the Harrier.

It was coming down to the connecting bridge. Its engines were ready to burn everything on top of the structure.

"This is it Otacon get us near the Harrier!" Snake placed a grenade inside his M4 and the Kasatka moved swiftly towards the Harrier. "C'mon Raiden move!" Snake shouted, but obviously Raiden wouldn't hear it, the gigantic noise of the Harrier jet overshadowed every other sound.

Raiden began moving to the lower level while the Harrier closed in fast.

"Get us closer Otacon!" Snake pointed his gun to the Harrier.

"We're getting right beside it! If we go any closer he'll destroy us." Otacon's words fell upon Snake's deaf ears.

The Kasatka moved a few feet closer to the Harrier, Snake could almost see the writing on the jet.

This is it! Snake pressed the trigger and the grenade blasted off. The impact was in the right wing and immediately the Harrier flew off again. It even shook up the Kasatka and Snake.

"We made it!" Otacon said sounding deeply surprised.

"We're not the only ones." Snake said while he noticed that Raiden was still breathing. He was coming up the stairs that connected the two levels with the Stinger Missile Launcher ready in his hands.

"We have one more chance!" Snake shouted.

"He's coming again!" Otacon said.

The Harrier flew underneath the connecting bridge and placed itself facing Raiden.

"Get us near it fast!" Snake shouted again.

"I'll shred you to pieces!" Solidus sounded obviously upset.

A massive fire of machine gun spread across the bridge causing massive holes on everything. Raiden jumped behind cover as the bullets sprayed across.

The Kasatka was now over the Harrier and Snake placed his last grenade on the M4.

"I'll give you an opening Raiden!" Snake said to himself as he pointed the M4 carefully at the top of the Harrier near the cockpit.

Now! As soon as the grenade hit the Harrier, it tilted. The nose rose a bit upwards leaving Raiden free of the machine gun fire. He promptly dashed out of cover and shot the stinger missile directly into one of the engines.

The explosion damaged the Harrier immensely. Smoke was coming from several places and it sounded like it was in desperate need of a check up.

We did it. Snake was right about Raiden, he was no rookie.

The Harrier flew off stuttering.

"What is he doing now?" Otacon asked as he saw the Harrier coming back.

"He's out of control!" Snake said as he noticed that the Harrier was coming too fast and at a weird angle.

"Get us back Otacon!"

The Harrier was plummeting into the connecting bridge. Raiden dove into a roll to escape the undoubted impact. The impact sent the Harrier's right wing flying off into the sea. The rest of the plane fell over too as trails of smoke indicated its demise.

Snake watched silently as the plane free fell into the water, but then he saw something, a shadow, the water beginning to rise.

"There's something coming up!" Snake grabbed his M4 and pointed.

From under the deep sea some kind of enormous beast rose and grabbed the Harrier in its massive mouth. It elevated itself at about the same height as the Kasatka. Metal Gear Ray!

The water was deeply disturbed as the Ray fell into it causing huge ripples and waves.

Otacon was circling around the bridge when the Ray released numerous pursuit-type missiles. The missiles detonated on the bridge, Struts G and Strut F and exploded with awesome power. One of them detonated too close to the Kasatka sending Snake to the back of the cargo room. "Damn!" He shouted as Otacon tried to level it.

"We're in trouble!" Otacon shouted as the Kasatka propeller sounded weird and several noises came from the cockpit.

"Can it get us to Strut E heliport?" Snake asked while he placed himself by the door again.

"Yeah, I hope so." Otacon began piloting the Kasatka slowly towards the heliport. "I think we gonna be okay."

"Good." Snake replied as he saw the Kasatka just over the heliport. He glanced outside and saw Raiden dangling on the rail. The bridge was damaged beyond recognition. He was able to get up and so Snake redirected his eyes to the Ray. It was going underwater probably towards Arsenal Gear. Everything started to make sense and that meant things were worse for everybody.

"Hey, what's that?" Otacon asked from the cockpit.

Snake saw it too. "It's running on water...!" Vamp had come off the Harrier and was running towards Strut L. As he reached the pillar that supported the Strut he began running up the wall of the pillar.

"That's weird!" Otacon spoke while Vamp escaped from view. "Well I better get started and find out what's wrong with this thing." Otacon left the pilot seat and exited the Kasatka.

"What do you think it is?" Snake asked as he jumped out the side door into the heliport steady floor.

"I don't know yet, I'll check everything out." Otacon got near the panel beneath the propeller and opened it.

Snake on the other hand reached for his radio. "Raiden, are you all right?"

"Yeah. How about you guys?"

"Barely managed, but we're all right."

"We need some time for repairs." Snake looked over at Otacon and saw him fiddling with several wires.

"Oh..." Raiden sounded slightly disappointed.

"The President's all yours."

"OK... Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Are you THE Snake?"

" ..." Snake kept silent as Otacon looked at him.

"They said you were dead..." Raiden continued.

"No, not me. There are still too many things I need to do." Everything he had seen about Arsenal, GW and Solidus we more than enough reasons for him to carry on.

"Snake, you're a legend…and that's why I need to ask you this."

"Legend?" Snake said taken a bit aback. "A legend is nothing but fiction. Someone tells it, someone else remembers, everybody passes it on."

"I'm here because I was assigned to this mission, not because I want to. If I could, I'd be out of here in a second." Raiden said clearly upset.

"..." Snake almost shared the same feeling, but he had to this.

"Look. How could you come back to all this? Why keep fighting?"

"There's something my best friend said to me once." Snake remembered Gray Fox's words. "We're not tools of the government or anybody else. Fighting was the only thing I was good at, but - At least I always fought for what I believed in..."

"What about…what about the DNA results from that body?"

Snake grinned, no doubt the people in charge of Raiden's operation dig around and found out about that.

Otacon got close to the radio and replied. "That was Liquid's body. He and Snake are identical on the genetic level."

"Liquid." Raiden said grasping the situation.

"A deception…for our own protection. We stole his frozen body from some organization. Kind of a hassle though..." Otacon replied knowing it was obvious that now if Raiden knew that Snake was alive so would everyone else.

"That's all there is to it." Snake said.

"Are you two really an NGO?"

Otacon answered again. "Insofar as we're a nonprofit organization of civilians advocating a cause, yes. The cause happens to be the eradication of Metal Gear."

Snake replied. "We work on our own. But it's a cause worth fighting for."

"Why would you stick your neck out for something this risky?"

"That's the way I used to look at it, four years ago. I was holed up in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, drinking too much."

"We have a responsibility to the coming generations, to the world." Otacon said remembering the suffering of knowing that he was tricked before, however now he could really make a difference.

"What responsibility?" Raiden asked.

"To keep track of the mistakes we've made as a species." Otacon replied again.

"We need to remember…to spread the word…to fight for change. And that's what keeps me alive." Snake said sure of himself.

"You think you can change the future?" Raiden sounded incredulous.

Snake grinned. "I'm not as arrogant as that."

"What you do isn't grassroots activism. It's more like terrorism." Raiden replied.

"I admit that..." Snake said bluntly.

"But our group, Philanthropy, received some information: A new Metal Gear prototype was being developed here and, terrorists were planning to raid the facility. The info came from a very reliable source." Otacon said as he and Snake exchanged looks.

"So you're here to..."

Raiden was interrupted by Otacon. "We're here to stop all that, but I also have a personnel motive."

"Looks like the terrorists have his sister in the Big Shell. We're here on our own, not under anyone's orders. We have our own battles. Otacon's here for someone - I'm not."

"This is a military mission…" Raiden said before making a new question.

"That's your mission not ours." Snake answered back.

"…Snake…" Raiden's tone of voice changed. "…have you ever heard of Outer Heaven?" He asked.

"Outer Heaven?" Snake replied almost immediately as a eerily feeling passed over him.

"Yeah. Know anything?"

"Uh, no. What about it?" Snake played dumb.

"The terrorist leader mentioned it. Something about being close to reviving Outer Heaven."

Is that right...?" For Snake it seemed that Solidus didn't just want to appear like Big Boss but he actually wanted to revive his dream.

"Well? Do you know anything?"

"No. But whatever their goal is, they're probably up to no good. We've got to stop them..." Snake said putting an end to the subject.

"Yeah... right..." Raiden sounded a it depressed.

"Y'know, I thought I heard of Ames somewhere before..." Snake said as if trying to mend the relationship between the two. So far Raiden had helped Snake, it was time he deserved some trust "DIA would mean we're talking about Nastasha's ex-husband."

"Nastasha? Nastasha Romanenko? Isn't she the one who wrote 'In the Darkness of Shadow Moses'?"

"Yeah. She helped me out during the Shadow Moses incident. She was also actively involved in the Philanthropy organization following the incident."

"Where is she now?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. But she's probably still a heavy smoker..." Snake said while grinning. "Go for the president kid we'll take care of the hostages."

"Alright." Raiden turned off the CODEC.

"He sounds interesting." Otacon said as he moved the wires on the panel around.

"Raiden, he sounds to me like a week, simple-minded, stubborn fool. He got dragged into this without knowing anything." Snake was blunt.

"Ok. So what's next?" Otacon asked.

"We need to find the hostages and then find a way to get inside Arsenal."

"I've done everything I could, but I suspect it'll take at least an hour to cool down." Otacon closed the panel.

"Good." Snake got a hold of his M4. "We need to move."

Otacon got by the pilot seat and grabbed his small device. "I'll be right behind you." He responded while placing the device in his coat pocket and following Snake to the stairs on the heliport.