CHAPTER 12:
FOUR AGAINST DOOMSDAY(1)
The problem with Raven was that he was able to shake off any spell very swiftly. Harry wondered whether the giant man actually had any Giant blood in him, like Hagrid. He personally doubted it. Raven simply seemed to be resistant to magic, shaking off Body-Binds and Stunner spells with contemptuous ease. The best Harry managed to be was a distraction, while Wolf and Snake took potshots at the massive shaman. But the man simply used his gun and the ammo barrel as shields
Deciding to try a different tack, Harry got Snake and Wolf onto the broomstick, and brought them on top of the shipping containers. His reasoning was moderately sound: human eyesight is more attuned to horizontal perception than vertical. It was partly because threats were more likely to come from all around, in two dimensions, rather than in three dimensions.
However, Raven soon cottoned on, claiming his friends, the ravens, had spotted them, and shooting at the containers, causing them to collapse and send his adversaries crashing to the ground. Harry formulated one last desperate plan, and got close to the door, ready to go through it with his PAN card when he needed to. He didn't want to resort to this, especially against Raven, who might be persuaded to change sides. But needs must. Opening the doors, Snake and Wolf dashing through it, Harry levelled his wand at Raven, who emerged from behind a shipping container. "RAVEN!" Harry bellowed. "SURRENDER! OR I WILL USE FIENDFYRE!"
Raven looked at Harry as if he was mad. In a way, Harry was. "You would not dare, Harry Potter."
"Won't I? It'll be confined to this room only. All I have to do is run out of the doors."
Suddenly, the ravens flew at Harry. No, not at, past him, fleeing the room. Raven looked at Harry. "Your resolve seems strong. But I don't think it's strong enough, though my friends disagree."
As Raven hefted his minigun, ready to mow down Harry, Harry proved him wrong. "FIENDFYRE!" he roared.
Diabolical flame burst from his wand, heading straight for Raven, who dodged to the side, his eyes widening. As the flames writhed and grew, flying around the room, Harry leapt out of the room, and shut the doors. "What the hell was that?" Snake demanded.
"Fiendfyre. The magical equivalent of napalm, only alive and ravenous," Harry said grimly. "And barely controllable. I've just unleashed Hell inside that room, and…"
Suddenly, interrupting Harry, the doors slid open, and Raven leapt through with an alacrity Harry was surprised that the large man possessed, though it helped that he had ditched the minigun and ammo barrel. The door was shut as quickly as it was opened, though not before Snake and Wolf got a glimpse into Hell, the refrigerated warehouse being consumed by flames. Even as the doors shut, they heard what sounded like bestial roaring, that only died down after a few minutes.
Raven stared at the door in considerable shock. "Fiendfyre…I have not seen its like for years. I had hoped never to see it ever again," he finally said.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Raven," Harry said. "D'you think Liquid will really create an Outer Heaven that Big Boss would have been proud of?"
After a time, Raven got to his feet. "No. I merely played along, hoping that he would succeed in what Big Boss failed to achieve. Or that General Ivan would keep him on that path."
"General Ivan?" Snake asked.
"He means Ocelot," Harry said.
"And I wished to test myself against the legendary Solid Snake," Raven said, folding his massive arms.
"Liquid has turned his back on Saladin and his ideals, Raven," Sniper Wolf said. "He didn't care whether I lived or died. Saladin would not have viewed his soldiers as that disposable."
"And you wish me to join your side?" Raven asked.
"We can use all the help we can get. Leaving aside Emmerich, and maybe Ocelot, it's only the three of us so far against doomsday. Maybe four against doomsday might be better," Harry said. "Big Boss wanted a world where soldiers had their place, not one consumed by perpetual warfare. The Boss had the same dream, albeit different to Big Boss. When we stop Liquid, we can revive their dream, the way it was meant to be. Not as Outer Heaven, or the Diamond Dogs, or Militaires Sans Frontières." Harry shook his head. "One thing at a time. We need to stop the Malfoy with pecs from activating the walking nuclear-equipped deathmobile first."
Snake nodded, before he put a hand to his ear. "Wait a moment, the fake Miller is trying to call me."
As Snake took the Codec call, Raven looked at Harry. "You told him about the impersonation?"
"I was the mole working to help Snake get through. As long as Wolf survived, I didn't really care. Hoped to save you too, though."
"A good thing to be wanted," Raven remarked dryly. "But what about FoxDIE?"
"Ocelot gave Yasmin and I doses of what he claimed to be the vaccine," Harry explained. "If we're lucky, Snake's superiors will give those of us who help him a pardon. Raven, I didn't want to lose Yasmin all because Liquid decided he wanted to do better than the father he has issues about." He looked down the corridor, leading to a waterway just before the Hangar containing Metal Gear REX. "FoxHOUND has been better to me than most. But there's loyalty to a good cause, and there is loyalty to a cause that will set the world aflame. Liquid's like Voldemort, not caring who he hurts. I'll be damned if I allow him to get control over Metal Gear REX."
A few minutes later, Snake finished his Codec call, and turned to Harry and the others. "Miller just exposed Naomi. I revealed I already knew, and that Miller was Liquid in disguise. Campbell seemed shocked and astonished, but Liquid was stupid enough to reveal himself. We've just backed him into a corner."
"Did you say anything about FoxDIE?" Harry asked.
"Liquid did," Snake said bitterly. "And the Colonel noticed that I wasn't surprised, I think. They're going to question Naomi about whether she included me in the FoxDIE listing. I also told him I knew Naomi had a relation to Gray Fox."
They made their way through the waterway area, and into the Metal Gear REX hangar. Snake looked up at the massive mecha in awe, and so did the others. Raven had opted to join them, if only because he couldn't fight Snake to the death as he had wanted. And as Liquid was running roughshod over Big Boss' ideals, not to mention those of the Boss, he decided he wanted no part of Liquid's revolution anymore.
Metal Gear REX looked like Godzilla picked out in angular green metal. A variety of weapons, from machine guns to an electron laser to missile launchers, festooned the beast. It was very much a war machine for the modern age. But oddly, there appeared to be no guards walking along the catwalks running throughout the hangar.
Snake suddenly received a Codec message, from Emmerich. He had started hacking into the files. Emmerich claimed that he had overheard a guard claiming that the PAL codes had already been entered. Harry told Snake otherwise. "They're trying to dupe you into using the emergency key," Harry said. "Ask Emmerich whether they can activate Metal Gear REX without the PAL codes."
Snake nodded, before calling Emmerich. Eventually, he said, "They can. But they won't be able to arm the nuclear warhead."
They began climbing the various catwalks, finding no guard, though they could see Ocelot and Liquid moving around in a control centre. Emmerich called a couple of times. He told Snake that he had confirmed the info about the railgun being used to fire nukes as a stealth system. However, he soon managed to find more info: namely how the emergency key worked. Emmerich called just as they neared the control room. Snake relayed to them quietly that Otacon had learned it was three keys in one.
It was clever, really. The active parts of the card were based on temperature-sensitive shape memory alloy. These active elements changed shape based on temperature. The card had to be entered in a normal room temperature configuration, a cold temperature configuration, and a hot temperature configuration.
Snake handed the key card to Harry, before inching closer to the control centre door. Harry himself could just hear what Liquid and Ocelot were talking about from just below the bulletproof glass, where the three former FoxHOUND agents were hiding. "…still no response from Washington," Liquid was muttering. "We'll have to show them we mean business."
"Do I set it to Chernoton, Russia?" Ocelot asked.
Liquid shook his head. "No. I have decided to choose a new target: Lop Nor in China. I'm sure that Gurlukovich wouldn't want to see a nuke hit his homeland."
Ocelot scoffed. "There's nothing in Lop Nor worth hitting."
"Wrong. It's a nuclear testing site. If we hit a major population centre, the game's over. The world will come at us full force, and given how much Snake has decimated our troops and Mantis' death has lessened the conditioning, we will not be able to withstand it. But a nuclear explosion at an existing test site? Easily covered up," Liquid said with a smile. "And President Sears and Washington will doubtless be pissing themselves thinking that the Chinese may retaliate in kind."
You clever bastard, Liquid, Harry thought to himself. It looked like Liquid was finally using his brain.
"So there'd be top secret talks between Sears and the President of China," Ocelot mused. "And during those talks, Sears would be forced to admit the existence of Metal Gear REX and the railgun launch system."
"A nuclear weapon that majorly upsets the status quo. It'll destabilise Sears' reputation, not to mention that of the US."
"And with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, China and India and…" Ocelot's eyes widened in realisation. Harry was sure that Ocelot knew all this, though, and was putting on an act, for the most part.
"You see? Every country who hears about Metal Gear REX will want one of their very own, and will come to us. Washington and Sears will have to break once we threaten to sell the specs to their top secret weapon to the highest bidder."
"Big Boss' DNA, and a billion dollars," Liquid said. "That money will go towards healing the genetic damage in the Genome Soldiers. I've also included the FoxDIE vaccine in our demands. That bastard Griffin must have told Snake about it. Snake didn't seem surprised when I revealed its existence when he exposed me to Campbell."
"Griffin sold us out to save his own hide," Ocelot said. "And that of Wolf's, I'd wager."
"Hmm. I thought them dead after the Hind-D wreckage crashed into them. The way Snake spoke of them over Codec, however, suggests they may both be alive, and both against us. Still, I doubt that Washington would spare them from FoxDIE. What of Gurlukovich? Is your friend from Spetsnaz ready to fully support us yet?"
Ocelot shook his head. "He still has his doubts about Metal Gear REX's capabilities. Even though these ones were based on Granin's designs."
"Prudent man," Liquid remarked sarcastically.
"Prudent and greedy," Ocelot said. "He's just being cautious. He wants Metal Gear so badly, he can taste it. Once he sees it in action, he'll be on board wholeheartedly. In order for Russia to regain its superiority as a superpower, they need to reinforce their nuclear arsenal. And Metal Gear REX, with a warhead that can't be intercepted, would do nicely, making sure they have first strike capability over the rest of the world."
Liquid snorted with disdain. "Their regular army is a mess. Nuclear weapons aren't the sole key to reviving their military might. Gurlukovich is no warrior, Ocelot. He's a politician."
"That politician got us the Hind-D and our heavy firepower," Ocelot protested.
"He also has over a thousand men under his command," Liquid pointed out, before he became thoughtful. "If we joined forces, we could put up quite the resistance here. Mantis' demise means the indoctrination is wearing off, and morale's beginning to sink. An alliance with the Russians could help that. Yes, why not? Let's stay here, and dig in for a long war. We have the most powerful weapon in the world, and we'll have the troops to support it."
"Are you going to fight the whole world?!" Ocelot demanded.
"Why not? We can hit anywhere on this planet with a nuclear weapon that cannot be intercepted. This base is filled with spare warheads to boot. Once the DNA and money are in our hands, the world is our oyster."
"But your promise to Gurlukovich…"
"I have no interest in the revival of that mephitic corpse known as 'Mother Russia'," Liquid sneered. "No, I have another revival in mind, as you very well know. Big Boss' dream…but on my terms. From this day forth, this is no longer Shadow Moses Island." Liquid chuckled, before uttering a proclamation with the solemn conviction of a prophet, and the madness of a raving egomaniac.
"Now, this place will be known as Outer Heaven."
CHAPTER 12 ANNOTATIONS:
Sorry about the wait for the next chapter, guys. Lacking inspiration for it. Hopefully, there might be less wait for new chapters, as this story is entering the endgame, one that is somewhat different to the main game.
No reviews to answer, really.
1. This is a reference to the title of a Doctor Who story called Four to Doomsday. Ironically, it also ranks as one of my least favourite stories in the series.