Chapter 7: The Sardinia Incident
"So wait a second, Snake. That base was just being used to house RAY?" Trowa asked.
"Well...yeah, but also no." Snake tried his best to explain. "We just missed Arsenal, it was there shortly before our arrival."
"Right." Otacon seconded. "Arsenal was there to put a test to its ability to operate with the RAYs. You see, originally RAY was designed to be an anti-Metal Gear REX. As I'm sure you're all aware, Metal Gear REX was widely distributed in the wake of Shadow Moses. This was Ocelot's doing. He escaped with the blueprints and sold them on the black market. As a result, in 191-193 REX designs spread worldwide."
"And RAY was designed to combat these variants." Snake finished. "However, according to the blueprints we found, we noticed a slight change in RAY's purpose."
"That base was being used to develop the new RAY, not Arsenal. You see, Arsenal is a revolution in Metal Gear development." Otacon put the blueprints up on the control room's large monitor using the images they had copied into the computer system. "As you can see, this thing's more like a gigantic floating fortress than a Metal Gear. It is large enough to house a significant defense force; the most prominent of this is a horde of mass-produced RAYs." Otacon said, pointing at various different things. It was like he was a teacher and, besides Snake, the rest of the crew were students. "These RAYs are directly connected to Arsenal's powerful AI system, but the details of the AI remain obscure, even with these blueprints."
"In lieu of this information", Lady Une stated authoritatively, "We will be doing an infiltration of a naval base on the west coast of Sardinia." She said pointing to the map that came up on the screen. "We have good reason to believe that a significant portion of Arsenal's AI system was developed there."
"We'll be leaving shortly." Snake put forth. "It'll be us six. Quatre, you still need to recover from your injury..."
Quatre gave a somber look. He didn't want to be a burden, but at the same time he didn't want to not help out.
"Don't worry, Quatre." Lady Une said with a smile. "I have things for you to do here to help." She had read his mind. "Your mission objective is to get the specs for Arsenal's AI. We will need to understand this system if we are to combat it."
"Gear up and get ready to leave." Snake ordered as he slowly walked out.
"Heero, wait." Relena said as he exited his room.
"What is it?" He asked in his usual monotone, barely turning his head back.
"Heero, please." She said, grabbing his hand.
Slowly, Heero turned to face her. They were locked in a staring contest for a minute or so before Heero finally asked her what she wanted.
"Heero I just wanted to say that...I-"
Heero saw Snake exit his room from the corner of his eye, smoking a cigarette and going over the details of the mission one last time.
"Relena, can it wait? I have to go, Snake is waiting."
She looked down at the floor in sadness. "Sure. It can wait..."
Heero nodded and let go of her hand. "Wait up Snake." He said as he walked away.
Relena teared up again. That was the classic Heero she knew so well. Why had she expected any different? When a mission came up the Perfect Soldier was entirely focused, even more so, she had noticed, now that he was fighting side by side with Solid Snake. She went down to the kitchen, a tear hitting the floor.
"All right guys, you know what to do." Otacon said from the control center as the crew arrived at the Sardinia base, just as it got dark.
"We've got you Otacon. See you in a few." Snake answered. He checked the Codec for a few minutes, gathering up information concerning the layout of the base.
The six of them got out of the helicopter and hid behind a nearby hill. They observed an elevator at the far end that would lead them down into the base. There were routine patrols and search lights, along with a few security cameras.
"If we go as a group we're caught for sure." Zechs put forward.
Snake nodded. "We have to go in one at a time. Once you're inside, find a place to hide and wait for the others to get there."
"I'll go first." Trowa volunteered.
Trowa slowly went forward, keeping as low as he could. Moving up the hill slightly to blend in with the darkness, he took out his scope and searched around, then compared the visual to any movement he could find on the Codec, looking for a pattern. After watching a nearby sentry make his patrol past him, Trowa headed quickly to a staircase. He looked up to find a security camera. Leaning against the wall until it turned away from him, he headed up the stairs. After waiting for the guard patrolling the staircase to pass, Trowa hit the button for the elevator, it came up within seconds. Silently, he headed down and inside, hiding himself behind a wall.
"I'm in." Trowa confirmed. "It shouldn't be too difficult to sneak past the guards, but watch out for the camera by the staircase."
"Is that room empty?" Snake asked.
"Yeah. It's all clear."
Wufei snuck in next, followed by Duo, then Zechs. Heero snuck in after that, and Snake was the last one in. The crew all gathered in the small room that led to the elevator.
"Good, you're all in." Otacon said to them. "Now, open the door and get to the end of the hall on the other side. There'll be a staircase leading upstairs."
"You mean we snuck down just to go back up?" Duo asked.
"You know how some of these things are." Otacon answered back.
"Right. Let's get a move on." Snake ordered.
Quickly and quietly, the six intruders made their way down the hall, checking the Codec to see if any life forms were patrolling. There weren't.
"There's tons of activity upstairs." Heero observed, checking his Codec.
"Should we split up for a while?" Trowa more stated than asked.
"I think so." Snake answered. "Heero, I want you to do whatever you can to make your way to this base's control center. Go in, establish a connection with Otacon, and rip out any information on Arsenal's AI you can. We'll create several diversions throughout this base to let you do that."
"Snake, are you sure you wouldn't rather do it?" Heero asked in mild surprise.
"You're much more capable with computers than me, kid." Snake answered.
Heero nodded slowly. "Mission accepted."
"Wufei, go up first and throw some flashbangs. Trowa, follow him up and help him combat those guards."
The two of them nodded and proceeded to run up the stairs.
"Duo, Zechs, get ready to move."
They nodded with determined looks on their faces. Once they heard the flashbangs go off, Snake, Duo, and Zechs rushed up the stairs to assist Trowa and Wufei. Around thirty seconds later, the bases' alarm went off.
"So much for secrecy." Heero muttered as he went up the stairs, peering around the corner of the doorway watching his comrades fight.
"Heero." Otacon called him on the Codec.
"What is it?"
"There's some air vents nearby. Take them. You can't keep running around through that base now."
"Understood."
Snake smashed his M4's butt into an opponent's head, sending him down to the ground with a fountain of blood pouring out. Wufei took his opponent down with a leg sweep and pistol-whipped him in the head. Duo covered the doorway, firing three rounds from his .45 into an approaching guard's chest, the silencer making a squeak of death.
Heero snuck into an adjoining room, watching as the guards fled to investigate what was going on. Once inside, he looked around for the air vent, finding it within a few seconds. Yanking the cover off, Heero crawled inside.
"Otacon, do you have any idea where I'm crawling?"
"I'll give you some directions along the way. Just keep going."
"Hn." He responded as he crawled through the vents, checking his Codec.
"We may need to split up a little more." Snake said.
"The more diversions the better." Wufei agreed. "We'll keep splitting the guards up, keep them away from Heero."
"Zechs, come with me." Snake ordered. "The three of you go do your own thing."
And with that, they were all off. Duo, Wufei, and Trowa made their way through corridors, raising as much of a ruckus as they could. The three of them entered what looked to be an armory. They were met with a hail of gunfire that they just barely managed to dodge. The three of them looked at each other and nodded, proceeding to throw a grenade each. Trowa and Wufei than moved into flanking positions while Duo attacked from the front. Trying to kill as little of the guards as possible, the three former pilots began knocking the guards out in close-quarters combat. Trowa did an acrobatic jumping kick to down the last one.
"So being in the circus does have an advantage on the battlefield." Duo remarked with a glint in his eye and a smile.
Trowa gave a slight smile with a "hmph."
"C'mon. We're wasting time." Wufei said matter-of-factly as he ran out of the room. Duo and Trowa quickly followed.
Snake and Zechs walked down a shadowy hallway, keeping alert. The Codec showed the hallway to be clear, but that didn't mean something sudden couldn't happen.
"Otacon, do you have any ideas?" Snake asked.
"No, it's not like the two of you need to do much anyway. Just go looking for trouble." Otacon laughed. "After all this time you tried to sneak around I think it's a welcome change for once."
"Maybe we should make our way to some of the quarters." Zechs suggested.
"The alarm has died off. Maybe there will be normal patrols again." Snake finished his thought. "Fine, we can give it a shot. Let's go."
Zechs smiled. Catching up with Snake, he talked. "Snake, it is an honor to be fighting with you. I'm glad that you will have other memories of me than that small, wailing boy that you saved in the Sanc Kingdom."
A small smile made its way across Snake's lips. "C'mon kid. Let's be on our way."
Zechs noticed the smile and followed with a one of his own.
Heero grunted as silently as he could. 'Making your way through air vents is not fun.' Heero thought to himself. "Otacon, am I getting any closer?" Heero asked, his tone hinting at desperation.
"You're almost there, just a little while longer. Make sure you turn to the right when the next fork presents itself."
Heero grunted again. 'Turning in air vents sucks more than going straight.'
Snake and Zechs made their way to the crew quarters, silently peering through opposite ends of the door. Giving each other a nod, they pulled out two flashbangs. They quickly threw them in and stormed in the room, knocking the soldiers out with fists and shots with their M9's. Of course, this caused the alarm to go off once more.
"We should hide for a little while." Zechs said.
Snake nodded and they were off.
Heero heard the alarm sounding. It was more severe in the air vent. He had to stop and cover his ears every few seconds, making his progress that much more painstakingly slow. 'I have to give the others a good kick in the balls for doing this to me.' He thought as he continued to struggle through the vent.
"There." Heero heard Otacon say over the Codec. "Heero, you're getting close. Drop down right over there. See the room ahead?"
"Yeah."
"Push the vent off and drop down in there."
The call was terminated and Heero got to work. Seeing that there were a few guards patrolling around the vent, including one directly underneath it, Heero pulled out his M9. Using the laser sight of the gun, Heero fired a single dart into the back of the head of the guard below him. Heero next took aim at a guard that had come over to investigate why the first had fallen. He was soon hit in the temple and tranquilized. Seeing and hearing that the coast was clear, Heero pushed the vent cover down and jumped into the room. Hiding behind a bulge in the wall, Heero observed a guard approaching to investigate the noise. The guard ran when he saw two unconscious bodies. Heero held his gun to the guard's temple.
"Freeze." He muttered in the trademark Heero voice.
The guard raised his hands in a gasp. Quickly, Heero moved behind him and butted the back of his head with the M9. He fell to the ground, bleeding.
"Heero."
"What, Otacon?"
"The next room over is the base's control center. One of the guards in this room has a keycard to get in. Find it. Do whatever it takes to open that door."
The Codec went silent and Heero immediately got to work, searching the guards he had already knocked out. No such luck. Heero snuggled up to the opposite wall and peered out through the shadows. He saw a guard coming nearby. Moving back to the wall he had previously been up against, he did a slight tap. The nearest guard was startled.
"Who's there?" He said in a voice just above a whisper.
As soon as his head came into view it was hit by a dart and he fell to the ground. Heero checked him, no keycard. Looking at the Codec, Heero saw that the remaning guards were on the other side of the room. Carefully sneaking over to another hiding place, he observed their patterns, their movements. Realizing the best course of action, Heero jumped out, shot one guard in the neck, cocked the slide and shot another in the head. Several guards ran toward him in response, but Heero shot and re-cocked the M9 with the speed of lightning. The last guard received a kick to the stomach and several shots to the jaw. He was knocked out, but Heero put a dart in him for good measure. Searching them all, he finally found the elusive keycard. Heero moved toward the door and slid the keycard into the slot. The door opened and he stepped into the control room. He did not notice a camera overhead, watching him.
"Ok Heero. Excellent work so far." Otacon said over the Codec. "Now, go to that computer and find out its IP adress."
Heero went over to the computer and typed. Apparently, yet strangely, there were no guards in this room.
"IP address 128.3.45.67 confirmed." Heero told Otacon.
"Great. I'm in. Get out of there and reunite with the others. I suggest taking the air vents again."
Damnit! Not the air vents! Heero got up slowly, pondering another miserable crawl. But the air vents were soon the least of his concerns.
The running footsteps made the control room quake as if it was on a fault line. Before Heero knew it, at least 30 guards had surrounded him, assault rifles drawn. The voices were distant in his mind as he ran through the possible scenarios, but he knew what they were telling him and at this point, he had no choice to comply.
Slowly, Heero dropped his weapons and put his hands in the air. He slowly walked out of the control room at the request of a rifle barrel pointed into his back. On the other side of the room was what appeared to be the bases' commanding officer. A pistol flashed in the air and landed with a thud on his temple. Then the world went black.