Chapter 16

"Otacon I'm going to meet with Raiden and Emma in Strut E." Snake said while running a few steps behind Olga who was going at an incredible speed through the connecting bridge that led to Strut E. Snake however had a PSG-1 occupying both his hands.

"Alright I'll stay put." Otacon responded and signed off.

The connecting bridge was deserted, but as they arrived at the door of Strut E Olga stopped abruptly. "There are a few soldiers inside." Olga knew that there were a few sentries posted there by her own hand.

"I suppose you can't talk to them?" Snake said knowing that the men all over Big Shell were a part of her private army.

"I've betrayed them all...unfortunately there's nothing I can do."

"Then we don't have time to waste." Snake knew that they had things to do. "You go in and distract them until I get to the oil fence access way." Snake said fully understanding that Olga would probably have to hurt some of the guards.

"Alright." Olga nodded with the heavy burden of betrayal slowly getting bigger.

The Strut E door opened up and both ran in. Almost immediately a guard to the left saw them.

"What the…"

Olga was quick enough to punch the soldier in the gut. Two other soldiers stood in the back of the room.

Olga pushed the button she had previously pushed to clear her visor, now however it rendered her face invisible. "I'll divert their attention for a while." Olga said, with a mechanical voice, and jumped on the conveyor belts heading towards the guards.

Snake looked to the left part of the room where some stairs led down. He began running there as gunfire broke out from the back of the room.

Through all the fire Snake still heard his headphones coming on.

"Snake, are you close?" Raiden sounded nervous."

"Keep it together…we're almost there. Just hang on until then." Snake replied in avertedly using the word 'we'.

"Snake?"

"We're having some problems." Snake gave a quick glance at Olga who seemed to be doing fine. He then turned his attention to the stairs in front of him and Raiden on the radio. "You're going to have to deal by yourself for a while. Take good care of Emma, all right?" Snake signed off and ran down the stairs. A level 5 door to the right led to the oil fence. Good. He opened the door and saw a massive hole surrounded by a protective fence. A hatched door stood by the left. He quickly opened it and noticed a trap door on the floor. After opening the trap door he made its way to the oil fence while the noise of gunfire still roared above.

Olga kept fending off bullets from the guard's weapons.

"What is it?" One of the guards shouted out.

"I don't know…" The other was interrupted by a well placed kick by Olga.

"You'll die!!" The other shouted while firing his gun.

Olga deflected a few bullets as others missed her completely. The guard was shaking beyond belief. Most of his bullets were incongruent attempts to kill Olga.

As soon as the guard's weapon was empty Olga knocked the guard out, she then turned her head and saw the room was empty. Snake had already gone to help Raiden and Emma. She sighed, and somehow felt like a little a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Someone was helping her, someone who had somehow experienced the same that she did. The battle, the deception and the inability to fight for change. She placed her sword in her back and waited. Snake…

Snake's descent to the oil fence was quick. As soon as he saw the light from the sun he realized he was out in the open. A small platform stood just beneath him. This is it! He quickly reached for the radio. "This is Snake. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Nice and clear." Raiden responded.

"I've reached my sniping point on Strut E. I'll provide support fire from here."

"Right. Do me a favor and take out whatever I miss." Raiden replied.

As Raiden signed off Snake sprawled over the floor in the classic sniping position and placed his PSG-1 accordingly. "All right…" He muttered and glanced over at the scene. Strut E was connected to a pillar which was connected to another pillar that in turn was connected to Strut L, where Raiden was located. The setting sun gave the site an eerily feel. Snake placed his eye on the scope of the PSG-1 and immediately noticed that Emma was in the second pillar.

Even from the distance Snake could discern that Emma was quite beautiful. "Hmm…not bad at all…" Snake muttered again.

Suddenly two ciphers entered Snake's field of vision. He quickly pointed to them and took one out while the other was blown up by Raiden. A guard also came into view from a platform on the second pillar. He was aiming at Emma, but Snake was faster and with no trouble disposed of the enemy, Emma of course seemed oblivious to all the shooting that was going on.

"Phew." Snake said to himself.

Emma's journey continued without a hitch, she was nearing Snake quite fast. He saw her more closely and realized that she indeed looked very attractive. She seemed to be wearing some kind of swimsuit, with a two tone red and black tee-shirt and black shorts. The red frame glasses and the two chopsticks holding her hair gave her a kind of nerdy sweetness.

"Do I need to clear things with Otacon before I ask her out…?" Snake jested to himself as he saw her coming closer. As the sun went down everything seemed to be going alright, however, like the calm before the storm, something happened. Suddenly a figure dropped right in front of Emma. Snake took away his eye from the scope and looked at it. Vamp!!

Vamp landed on water like it was a hard surface and after a split second he propelled himself, into the oil fence, behind Emma and using his left hand grabbed her, pushing her towards him. In his right hand he held his knife high.

Snake quickly tried to get a shot in, but Emma was struggling to free herself from Vamp's grasp making it impossible for Snake to make the shot. Damn.

A shot broke off from afar, Snake guessed that had come from Raiden, and hit Vamp right in the forehead launching him backwards into the water. "Haaaarch!" Vamp screamed as he fell into the water.

Emma started walking again towards Snake, but something was not right she was fumbling forwards and it was then that Snake saw a stain of blood appearing in her tee-shirt.

"Huh?" Snake muttered.

Emma gave out a deafening scream and fell on top of the oil fence. Snake hastily let go of the PSG-1 and started running towards the oil fence. He went around the platform where he was and stepped down a ladder. As he stepped into the lower part of the platform two cyphers appeared nearing Emma's body. Snake took out his USP and headed towards Emma. Snake's aim was fierce as he hit the cypher's control unit and both fell into the water. He placed the USP back into his equipment and checked Emma's vital signs. Weak pulse. Snake placed Emma on top of him and made its way back to the ladder. He would have to carry her over to Shell 1 Core. Once he got her over the higher part of the platform Snake used his radio to contact both Raiden and Otacon.

"Raiden! Emma's been stabbed!" Snake said while he made its way up Strut E. Emma didn't weight much but going up a ladder with somebody on your back was not desirable.

"That bastard!" Raiden cursed clearly upset.

"How bad is it?" Otacon asked hearing the bad news.

"She's conscious... but the bleeding's bad. I'm bringing her over there right now!"

"I'll be there!" Raiden answered and signed off.

"Otacon get some bandages and get everything ready for Emma." Snake said.

"Do you think she's going to…"

Snake interrupted. "I don't know." He signed off.

Snake reached Strut E and noticed that blood was dripping from Emma's tee-shirt.

"Crap!" Snake started running towards the exit of Strut E. "Olga we need to move!!" He shouted as he cleared the stairs.

Olga appeared before him looking at the bleeding girl. "What happened?" She asked.

"No time to explain." Snake said rushing pass her.

The door in the back of Strut E opened and several guards came thundering in inside.

"Let's go!!" Snake shouted over to Olga.

She complied by following behind him off Strut E.

The few guards that were now inside Strut E were also heading to the exit in pursuit.

"Alright, one of us stays behind in case other intruders come from the oil fence!!" One of them spoke out in a commanding way.

"I'll do it sir." One of the guards replied and stood still.

"Very well, the rest of us follow me. We'll catch the intruders before we board Arsenal." All of the guards except one ran out of Strut E.

Snake and Olga were on top of the connecting bridge that led to Shell 1 Core. "We're almost there." Snake said trying to keep Emma in contact with some kind of voice.

As they were crossing the connecting bridge a noise reverberated through the entire structure.

"What the hell!!" Snake looked down and saw the floor rustling. "Olga, move!!" Snake started running while a few of the blocks that made up the bridge started to collapse, probably due to the weight of three people. Snake ran without looking back at Olga, but he heard several blocks of the bridge collapsing. Once he cleared the bridge he turned and saw that the bridge had several gaps, but Olga was running carefully on top of the protective fence. She reached Snake in no time.

"We were lucky!!" Olga said.

Snake nodded and the saw guards running out of the Strut E door to left. "We need to get moving." He said and turned to the core's door.

"I'll take care of them!!" Olga replied and took out her sword from her back.

"Alright." Snake replied and ran inside. He knew that this was not an easy task for Olga. Attacking men she had once serve with, but it was what had to be done at this time.

Snake rushed past the corridor towards the elevator. Emma was losing blood fast and all that Snake could hear out of her was but a whisper of 'Hal'. She longed for her brother. The elevator doors opened and Snake walked inside quickly pushing the B2 button.

"Just a little more Emma." Snake said looking into Emma's eyes. "Hold on…"

The guards were running towards Olga, who was standing still, near the Shell 1 Core door.

"Surrender!!" One of the guards shouted from the other side of the bridge.

Olga kept silent. I'm sorry father. I'm not worthy to be your daughter, but soon this will end. I'll fight them, like Snake does.

One at the time the soldiers started moving across the rickety bridge over to her as others began firing at her.

Olga took cover behind the Core entrance. She glanced over the corner too see if any of the guards had crossed over. One of them had jumped over the gaps and was about to reach her.

Olga closed her eyes behind her mask. I'm sorry my comrade. She opened her eyes and faced the guard. She did it so the others could see it. With a swift slash the head of the guard jumped off from his body towards the ocean.

"Huh…."

"Noooo…"

The guards shouted at the sight.

"If you don't want to suffer the same fate as he did leave this place." Olga was being torn apart in the inside. She had killed a man she had shared a meal with, she had spoken to him about his family and now he was dead.

The guards were infuriated and instead of running off scared. They all began running up the bridge, some shouting others silent, but all with a feeling of revenge.

Olga stared at the sight and although she admired the men for their attitude she also knew what she had to do. God help me. She held her sword and waited for them to come near her.