A/N: This is the biggest and most-spoilerific chapter yet. It delves into key elements that would become the heart of the series' lore. Much of it would be left vague as the events of Shadow Moses were yet to unfold, the events in Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots were still faraway.
Disclaimer: Metal Gear is owned by Konami but still belongs to Kojima in my mind. Everything else here belongs to their respective owners.
"These new Patriots are Zero's successors, or put aptly, usurpers. Thanks to Skull Face the Patriots assumed control of Cipher, now there's only them. Now Solidus had known everything there is to be known about Big Boss, the Philosophers, the Les Enfant Terrible, courtesy of his upbringing. He is disturbed by the fact that his life was charted by someone else, someone who calls the shots behind the scenes. And that he was groomed to be a figurehead of the greatest standing. That had shaken and enraged Solidus to the core. After having contacted me and explaining everything to him, he commissioned me to find everything I need to know about the Patriots and how to engineer the perfect heist, his one ticket to freedom. I'm empowered to do everything there is to complete my mission in Shadow Moses." Ocelot slurped his drink.
Elegia began playing, bringing the room into a contemplative mood. Kaz finished his drink. "So besides orchestrating yet another Metal Gear crisis what else are you doing on Solidus' behalf?"
"My job is to observe REX in action and retrieve its blueprints and experimental test data. If the weapon test is successful Solidus will have his deterrent against them. And he was a very small time window in which to work with so he needs it fast before they learn about our little side-scheme."
"Why does Solidus loathe and fear the Patriots so much?"
"The current Patriots are not any cabal of individuals. They are Artificial Intelligences borne out of Strangelove's programs. Zero commissioned Strangelove to create four Artificial Intelligence, codenamed after the presidents on Mt. Rushmore with a fifth AI, code name John Doe to act in a supervisory role. With Strangelove's death Sigint took control of the programming. To say that's a big mistake is an understatement: they are not content with high-level data processing anymore, the damned things are now in-charge of everything now. It was they who orchestrated the Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion back in 1987. It was genius in itself that not only did they hack into HBO's satellite signal effectively but how they planned it through the perpetrators via sending instructions to its network of contacts. This was the AIs' wake-up call, that they are finally capable of planning and executing anything out of their will and their will alone. They've taken over Cipher."
"Jesus... Just like the AI pods' malfunctions back in Costa Rica." He remembered how Peace Walker's AI pod, modeled on the Boss, went against its programming and chose to drown itself in a lake in the Nicaraguan mountains. He remembered his conversation with Zero. He thought he had come at an agreement with him over the use of the AIs as high-speed clearinghouses for data. Had it really come to this?
"They're now taking humanity's free will from underneath it. Soon nothing will be beyond their reach and it would dictate the course of our entire species in the future unless it must be stopped. The only people it won't affect will be those survivalist fanatics who stock up guns and food for what they believe would the second coming. This system will snuff out our independence and squelch the Boss' will. They already have Big Boss now but me, I'm still free right under their noses. I decided to take a tactic straight out of Vasily Chuikov's combat handbook: hugging the enemy, grabbing them by balls, making it dangerous to destroy you without destroying themselves. And my 'hugging' is to become one of the Patriot's agents, working for Solidus. It was how I was aware that Solidus intends to rebel against the Patriots."
"And I thought they were a thing of movies like 2001: Space Odyssey and The Terminator. How did you learn of this?"
"I had a little chat with Donald, the keeper of the beast," Ocelot replied darkly. "Turns out he had let it lose and spent a great amount of time trying to reel them back in. But as they say, he was only closing the barn door the hose has bolted. He was the catalyst for their rise."
"He set them free? The AIs?"
Ocelot was silent for a while and Miller was able to read in his face that it wasn't he was choosing what to say to Miller but rather he was thinking deeply, slowly picking through the mists of past memory and dealing with some of the pain it brought. He'd been through that. "After Skull Face took on Mother Base, me and Zero had a deal... We saved Snake. It was the first time we got together and did something since we last met. We agreed to work together to take on Skull Face, having taken half of Cipher with him and the Parasites..." He stared aimlessly as he sift through his memories, trying to go on. "I have to give the devil his due. He helped Big Boss out of the Caribbean and had him airlifted to Cyprus where he can receive treatment and recovery in safety whilst keeping a lid on the whole affair. He also did a repeat of the Man who Never Was, Operation Mincemeat."
"Venom Snake..." Miller whispered as his chest received a sudden pain, a sensation crying out for release. Zero ordered this, not Big Boss. He created the Phantom out of the Medic, the man who treated his injuries after the Virtuous Mission. His eyes felt heavy at the sides and had to stifle himself. He remembered now... Zero really did that. "He... saved Snake." Yes, he heard Zero's voice and it sounded like he was distraught. How could he forget? "He led me to you... and you brought me the Phantom." Even at the cost of what was then effectively signing his own death warrant.
"That's right... Zero saved Snake so he can fight another day." Ocelot paused, drawing breath as he collected himself to continue on. "The remaining half of Cipher was put under the control of Sigint. His task was to find look for Skull Face and attempt to contain him, at least keep him away from Snake by arms length until he wakes up. Now the AIs were used exactly that, for high-speed data processing. It allowed Cipher to carry out their operations from remote control. However Donald Anderson lacked Snake's tactical and operational acumen and Zero's gift for secrecy and strategic thinking, he was too technical. Skull Face was always two or three steps ahead of him.
"Then he made a decision in 1983. Without the good doctor's work on analyzing emotions to mimic our brains to assist him he resorted to writing and then installing a program to give them independent thinking and giving them broad instructions. He sicced them after Skull Face and had effectively doomed the world from that day onward."
"Good grief," Miller said, somewhat downcast. "That was all it took: desperation over caution, deciding utility over uncertainty."
"I made him pay dearly for his part in the the greatest debacle of human history." Ocelot's voice and eyes were chilly, hard, and piercing as the winter outside. "Just like I helped Gray Fox get his vengeance on Para-Medic."
"You did?"
"Every time I look at Gray Fox being poked and prodded..." He breathed slowly to control himself. "All I could think was Big Boss and all the horrible things done to him by Zero."
Yes, in love with the legend indeed, Miller thought. However, whatever sympathy there in his situation disappeared when he used Venom as a stand in like Zero suggested. It was Zero who turned the Medic into a living incarnation of Captain William Martin, Royal Marines to fool Skull Face and his Cipher. Such a thing was unforgivable. With that he has common ground with Ocelot.
"Because of what I learned from him, I got a little carried away. I was supposed to learn of the activation codes for Metal Gear and had to do it by hand since Anderson has learned the art of mental blanking, which effectively protected him from Mantis."
"Andersen too banged up, forcing you to accelerate your timeline?" asked Miller.
"No, he's dead," he said coldly. "I can't just let the cat out of the bag yet so I had Decoy Octopus, our disguise expert, impersonate him."
Miller was about asked about how he would do this but he declined. Big Boss knew what he was doing when he built up FOXHOUND. He knew talent when he sees it and extraordinary talent he used them to a max - and giving the holder of such talent purpose and self-worth he wouldn't find anywhere else. "So about these AIs. How did Solidus found out?"
"It goes all the way back to his upbringing. You see, going by the Boys from Brazil methodology, the Sons were raised under different conditions to see how they turned out. Liquid, or Eli, was raised to be Cipher's soldier, working-class East End family, though he learned of his origins too soon. David was raised in an ordinary middle-class family: house, car, white picket fence, and friendly neighbors, the whole nine yards. Solidus was raised in a prominent WASP family."
"White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, " Miller noted. "America's upper class, gentry bordering on aristocracy."
Ocelot nodded. "The WASP family in particular used to be part of the network of the Philosophers."
"Snake told me about them. After the end of the First World War a secret meeting was convened among a group of powerful and influential individuals from Russia, China, and the United States at the end of the First World War called the Wiseman's Committee. They were men disillusioned with the outcome of the Treaty of Versailles and the troubled birth of the League of Nations. They sought a lasting peace for a united world. They tried do it behind the scenes, trying their best to influence the times. They created the Philosophers. Snake told me about them, how I learned of Zero in the first place. I also learned that the Japanese government learned of them back in the 1920's, having broken a spy ring in Korea. They were angered that it was them who helped the Taisho democracy and stalled their designs in Siberia and China. Pretty pissed about it."
"Yeah, having some international secret society opposing their goals sent the cultured warlords of the rising sun and their cliques into a hissy fit," Ocelot agreed. "How did the Japanese know about them?" He was astounded that Japan has learned of their existence.
"Back in '84, when we were searching for Skull Face and the Vocal Cord Parasites, we learned of some files guarded in a mansion in the outskirts of Kyoto. I had sent a team to break into it and they found a collection of old files from various branches of the government, from the Imperial Army and Navy, from the foreign ministry, and ultranationalist associations. They speak of a conspiracy against their designs in China. Our analysis concluded it intensified their activities in Asia and elsewhere."
"Interesting, I should've known of that," Ocelot quipped wryly as though it eluded him. It was a show. He knew of them, by his own means of course.
"It belonged to an outfit called 'Tokyo', another typical old-boys network, not satisfied with regional power/vassal status conferred to Japan after the war. From what I learned they did a few dealings with the United States during the early days of the Cold War. They were wiped out back in 1983. All of its top brass disappeared and their network was gutted like a fish. It had to be Skull Face's work, his signature was everywhere."
"Good ol' Skull Face never disappoints in the savagery," Ocelot agreed. "Wanna get back to Solidus?"
"Yeah, and the Philosophers." Miller nodded as he poured glasses again. "The 'Tokyo' connection can wait."
"They could have a handle on the rest of the world if it wasn't for the fact that the Wisemen's Comittee having disagreements over each other. The Chinese faction consisted of nationalists and people who still remembered the Boxer Rebellion's horrors and are suspicious of their Russian and American counterparts. The Russians were divided just like after their civil war, into several camps, some who believed that communism is the answer to the world's problems, the others believing in the anarchist theory of decentralized society, and more and the only thing holding them together is their distaste for the monarchist, reactionary, and conservative factions of the White Russian movement abroad. The American part held a lot of clout, wanting to implement Woodrow Wilson's vision of international peace and sought to break the European powers, with their colonial empires, which they argued over how best to execute it. These disagreements over goals and priorities kept the Philosophers from attaining their goal but it was all done within bounds of civility until the Depression hit and the death of the last founding member died, when the rivalries become more vicious and heated, fanning the flames of war in the 1930s.
"World War II broke out and they struggled to contain the conflagration started by their infighting, brinkmanship, myopia, and indecision, pulling their weakened selves together to defeat the Axis powers. It's a miracle the Russians survived Stalin's repression and the Chinese Philosophers barely held on in spite of Japanese harassment, aided and abetted by the Americans, who turned back when the Japanese clearly disliked playing second fiddle." That earned him an odd look from Miller. "Then they returned to being at each other's throats, the Cold War ensued as a result. They played the Boss, they played Jack-, I mean Snake. He learns the truth and walks away disgusted. And they took the Boss's objective - the other half of the Boss's objective, the Philosopher's Legacy."
"What the hell is that?" Miller questioned as he got another round ready.
"A slush fund established by the Philosophers in order to finance the war. One hundred billion dollars earmarked for research and development, spawning technology such as rocketry, telecommunications, and computers. It was supposed to be divided after the conflict ended but these funds were stolen and were then divided and hidden in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Australia and others untouched by the war or were least affected. It was enough to fight World War 2 five times over and by 1964 was worth infinitely more at inflation rates. It also contained the the membership list of the Philosophers. Col. Volgin inherited it from his father Boris, who was in charge of their money-laundering activities and absconded with it and used it developing the Shagohod. The Chinese through Eva tried to steal it but she got a fake, courtesy of me."
"Jesus, so much money to plunge the world economy into chaos? Theoretically unlimited funds for the holder..." Miller remembered the rumors of Nazi gold and of Yamashita's treasure being used to finance CIA operations. Much of them urban legends but the search for the Legacy may have triggered those.
"With their half of the Philosopher's legacy, The CIA used it to expand operations, making the Pentagon suspicious as Vietnam and their commitments overseas was draining the Treasury. Zero, while happy about the funding felt it was being misdirected at reviving the Philosophers. Gene, through unknown means managed to gain the other Philosopher's Legacy in spite of the best efforts by the Pentagon's mole in the CIA, Cunningham, to retrieve it. Being tricked into thinking a nuclear attack on Langley was imminent, the CIA director and his cronies tried to make their way to the bunker where I intercepted him, killed the bastard, and took their half. With both in hand the rest, as you know, is history. The Russian and Chinese factions had withered on the vine during the intervening years - before the death blow administered by Skull Face, who wanted to make sure no one strong enough to oppose him will make in-roads with Zero."
"And what's left the Philosophers, the new Patriots - computers - took control as well."
"Indeed. The Philosophers once had a network of schools, training centers for their operatives. Charm schools. The Boss was a graduate. Solidus was molded to become the perfect leader. He was balanced, unlike Solid and Liquid, a perfect clone - his genome contained a balance of dominant and recessive genes. It was something he accepted gladly and took pride on after he was intimated with that fact early in life. Of course genes alone would not make a Big Boss. It was to be taught.
"Solidus's youth was one that could be described to create the American golden boy: Ivy League education, Boy Scouts, meeting powerful people as he tagged along his adoptive parents, leadership roles. He was precocious youth, consuming books over a wide variety of topics and getting perfect As as a result. Privileged but by no means sheltered. They wanted him to experience America in all its entirety, at least as much as they could muster for him, whether it was visiting a Native American reservation or the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, participating in reenactments of historical events, charity work at inner-city Atlanta, or passing out dead drops to low-level contacts in downtown Chicago- and to test him, to see if he was worthy of being their puppet. So early on he was intimated about the their secrets at an early age. One of his crowning achievements in high school was getting several inner-city gangs, people who wouldn't like the proverbial white bread, to a truce and he used them to create a network to gather intelligence for his adoptive father's election campaign. Then in 1989 everything changed. He was shipped out with the CIA to Liberia, at the age of 17."
"Liberia..." Kaz whispered. "Civil war. Samuel Doe's coup put him as the first indigenous leader of Liberia after having been long ruled by descendants of freed slaves."
Ocelot added to that, "Tensions between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous Liberians existed because of discrimination and exploitation of the latter by the former. Samuel Doe did what every tinpot dictator does after attaining power by stamping out opposition, usually in a bloody way. He naturally produced enemies, chief among them was Charles Taylor. Arrested for embezzling government funds and belonging to a tribe that planned to depose Doe, Taylor escaped a Massachusetts jail while awaiting extradition due to the Patriots. He would then plunge his country into two bloody fratricidal conflicts in a row and his name would be become synonymous with the carnage and horror throughout embattled West Africa."
"What was Solidus doing in Liberia? Was he sent to support Taylor or any of the factions?"
"Not really. He was sent there to test his skills, chief of which are his ability to accomplish whatever objectives laid down on him, his leadership skills, his resourcefulness, how he can cope under the pressure of extensive low-intensity combat. The chaos in Liberia was perfect: an intensive war that's under the radar of many news agency around the world, with just enough critical resources to get greedy parties interested. The horror of the Rwanda massacre has both diverted and numbed the rest of the world of what's going on in that country."
"What a total hellhole... Ethnic conflict, genocide, horrors from an older age resurfacing...," Reports indicated that cannibalism was practiced by the different factions as psychological warfare. It was enough to make Hitler's SS look like plain street thugs, yet it made something in common with old Imperial Japan's soldiers engaging in such orgies of depravity. And to think we always styled ourselves as civilized, he thought bitterly.
"Solidus passed his test with flying colors but at the beginning of the conflict, something shaken him: he was getting old, literally."
"Literally? Does that mean something went wrong with his genetic structure?"
"Yes. Literally. As a child though, he was surprised by his own intellect, his quick-learning ability and he was often years ahead of his peers in thought and manner, he was once nicknamed Professor, Coach during PE, or back when he was in Lyman Ward Military Academy, Camp Hill, Alabama, Sarge." He chuckled at that. "He thought being the legendary soldier's clone gave him a headstart. But the Patriots tampered his genome, making him age faster."
"I bet it pissed him off a lot. Realizing he was being set up since his birth."
"It was a start, though he did his job well like the a good soldier. And that consumed him as he left in 1997 and the Patriots fast-tracked him afterwards, using him to push their agenda of enslaving America under their 'benevolent guidance.'"
"It's the same sort of arrogance that pushed Japan into conflict throughout the early half of the 20th century."
"Yeah, after they've done away with Clinton, they opened his presidency as George Sears with a kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center and the resulting War on Terror. The Patriots then created Solidus's domestic and foreign policy: for the military there was an intense focus on developing next-generation weaponry and innovative doctrine, through him they pushed for improving the quality of education nationwide and increased support for the information technology sector and the electronics industry. Under him the Human Genome Project opened the door for genetic engineering on humans and he was urged him to take a stand on bioethics while simultaneously breaking his vows performing experiments. By that time he was no longer let into the Patriots' plan but he deduced enough of the implications, however hazy and incomplete the big picture was, that he was enraged and horrified by what their doing and what it means to him: he was a throwaway tool, a rubber stamp for his masters, nothing of his own making to live his mark on history.
"And the Patriots sent me, I told him about their nature and he took me into his confidence, commissioned me to create a perfect score that will make him a hero he always desired, a liberator who would free the nation of their grip, just like the Found Fathers back in 1776. Knowing that he's a clone without any means to sire heirs he will pursue his goals even more."
"So Sears is no older than Solid Snake but why did the Patriots caused him to age faster?"
"It's a failsafe," Ocelot answered. "An insurance policy to ensure the clones do not become trouble as they grow older, prudent it seems that all the 'Sons' inherited Big Boss ability to sift through bullshit for the truth and his rebellious streak."
Miller gasped as he let the new facts settle in. "Snake..." It was worse than he thought. Yes, it was true. They can find the truth for themselves and then go against the powers-that-be. Eli's resentment towards authority, David's unorthodoxy, which earmarked him for FOXHOUND, and now Solidus's is openly seeking rebellion. But the worse fact is that Snake was doomed to die early on from the very start, a disposable toy soldier for these... computers - once they're finished with him. And Venom too. He inherited that streak through the false memories implanted in him, albeit honed by... "Damn!"
The room fell silent saved for the howling winds beating against the window and the mournful melodies of Elegia. The song seemed to heighten the anguish in his heart at Snake's impending forced mission, following the script of five damned computers buried somewhere in the Pentagon. "If Sears is so dead-set in wiping those AIs, why not he just send FOXHOUND to search and destroy those things in the Pentagon?"
"Any open move on his part would alert the Patriots and force them underground, they'll only get stronger from there," Ocelot pointed out. "You wanna speed up their timetable?"
Kaz paused as he looked into his drink. Back in Costa Rica he had witnessed autonomous weapons in action that would have handled entire armies effectively except Big Boss. Coldman believed they were the wave of the future, using them to demonstrate human fallibility in decision-making by transmitting false attack data to get other parties to launch it at but it went against its programming, modeled on the Boss, to drown itself than to destroy the world. They were the ones who fully validated the AI, convinced in Sigint's suggestion of using them for high-level data processing. They allowed Strangelove to continue her work briefly for a while. Then it was back to DARPA - back to Cipher. "No. It was our fault. We helped this happen."
"And because of this we have to end it," Ocelot answered. "One way or the other."
"Is there any other way?" Miller asked loudly.
Ocelot shook his head gravely in reply. "I wish it were did simple too. Just find the damned things, shorting them out forever by just taking a piss on the data banks but... they've accumulated so much power that there's no way they'll let anyone get close to them to do that."
"They're a virus thinking itself a cure for humanity." There was disgust in his voice. "How can we ever hope to destroy an enemy like that?"
"Not directly. They have a weakness, everything's got one, I assure you. I haven't found one yet and they're not gonna give it to me. I will force their hand somehow, getting them expose that weakness. This is gonna be like playing chess and poker at the same time."
Miller looked up at him. "You think this is a game?" The tone was offended and threatening.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Really, we are creatures of action, Miller. We do like a challenge. What we call work is just play, Miller, activity. Cultures around the world encourage different kinds of interaction within a particular social framework. Humanity progresses because of these dynamics and the AIS are playing a game with a set of rules they devised. They're not gonna make it easy on us, why should we make it easy for them anymore than it is?"
"So what's your idea to defeat them?"
"At the moment the Patriots are rewriting everything. No doubt they are rigging the rules of any game against them so they come out on top. But for all their vaunted intelligence they overlook one crucial factor: chaos theory, unpredictability. Humanity, the wild card they seek to control, may well lead to their downfall. Weaknesses in their system may appear to the keen-minded and those like me will seek an opportunity to exploit. They're aware of that so they must constantly restructure themselves to cover those but every time they do they expose yet another set, and around and around the wheel turns. The theory is that the AIs cannot keep up but for how long? Which is why I need to act now. They still think I'm one of their own. Good. Keeping up a masquerade and keeping my enemies guessing - in the wrong direction - is what I do best."
"That sounds complicated." Miller was often at awe at how people with aptitudes in espionage like Ocelot and Zero can come up with such complex, convoluted strategies and yet make them work - most of the time. "How the hell do you intend to keep that up?"
"For as long as it takes." He smiled devilishly. "And the Sons will be stars of it all. You, I, and the Patriots have molded them into the most efficient soldiers the world has ever seen. With Solid Snake 'killing' his 'father' back in the former Tselinoyarsk, it won't be long before he faces the others. The Patriots, like vultures, will watch in earnest. They will be scheming behind the scenes, pitting one against the other, and the survivor is the loser, whom they would discard and pick as needed until they're done with him."
"It makes sense now..." His voice trembled slightly. "What we had talked about... The age of Big Boss's sons... how they're fated to face each other... and there 'father.' They still want their champion, Big Boss."
Ocelot drank his whiskey. "The Patriots knew that an icon will always be needed. Big Boss is that icon. Soldiers all over the world will look up to him and through him they control them. I'm not sure whether it was calculated ploy or vestigial thinking on their part from the original programming but it's in their interest that they keep him alive."
"Yeah, keep the legend alive," he added bitterly.
"No, Miller, like literally alive. He's in a coma."
"Coma!?" But he was dead, if he was used for genetic enhancements he would just be a frozen popsicle.
"Somehow they're keeping asleep, under their control. I intend to free him and when he does the Patriots will shit their pants."
"Like they ever will let you," the hell master said dryly. "He'll be probably be guarded like Fort Knox." Then a thought hit him. "What's their interest in genetics anyway besides creating new Big Bosses? Are they trying to engineer mankind too?" It was a horrifying notion: AIs recreating humanity from his basic, most fundamental building foundations: his genes. They'll be just like livestock, cattle. A herd of beings custom-designed from birth for a specific purpose, destiny charted by the AIs.
"Under them their research into genetics and through the parasites they created two breakthroughs: nanotechnology and a virus created to target specific genes."
"What are those?" Miller asked, mystified - and horrified - by these exotic concepts.
"Nanotechnology is a concept about machines ranging in size from one micrometer (one-thousandth of a millimeter) to one nanometer (one-millionth of a millimeter) using MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology. They can be inserted into the human body via injection into the bloodstream. Among the potential application for nanomachines is medical, performing functions such as monitoring the body's physiology, augmenting bodily functions and repairing tissue damage. They're also the wave of the future in IT, allowing a person access with the information stored in his or her body's nanomachine network. That application is currently in the conception stage and progress was slowly but surely showing some promise."
"Look's like I could use some," Miller quipped wryly. "Better to chug my alcohol without a hangover and check my blood pressure."
"That's gonna be their main selling point when they come out soon," the cowboy agreed. "It'll be like taking an RFID chip, monitoring your body. Take one and call me in the morning."
"Yeah, the better for the Patriots to keep track of your ass." He chuckled. "Oh, sonovabitch. These bastards are taking our freedom from us and no one's even noticing." The chuckle became a laugh. "And to think we thought back then that the vocal cord parasites were the greatest threat to mankind. And now parasite research broke ground for little robots that move inside your body, fixing it up while transmitting a record of your body's activities to the damned supercomputers in the Pentagon's basement."
Ocelot started to laugh as well. "And all because Sigint tried to squash a bug with a steam hammer." They were feeling their alcohol now, already warming them from the inside. "Now the Patriots can keep track of everyone around the world." The laughter stopped. "Makes you nostalgic for the good old days when it was fighting Cipher and going around the world doing missions-for-hire was all that mattered."
Miller's mirth disappeared too. "Yeah. It does." Especially with Venom at his side. He was the one true Boss. "Fighting the good fight."
"Yeah. And to top it all off, we got a virus you can customize to target your enemies."
"Spin-off of the parasite research. Can't they just let the machines do the killing?"
"They would if they could but it would be a few years before nanomachines reach that stage of advancement. Besides, it won't look good on the medical community and insurance companies when the little buggers are suspected of killing patients."
"A very convenient means of disposing an enemy of the Patriots quietly. Look's like a nightmarish police state in the making."
Ocelot looked out the window. Then he looked on the floor to see the husky asleep. Boring conversation, ain't it, boy? "You know the Japanese were undertaking their parasite research? They laid the foundations that made it possible after the war."
"Yeah, I remember Unit 731, who were responsible for the Imperial Army's research into biological weaponry, horrible atrocities were committed on test subjects. Most of its members got off scot-free from the Tokyo War Tribunals in exchange for working with the Americans."
"And they were invaluable for getting it running. No doubt some those fed information back to their masters to continue their own research, a parasite that attacks the brain, causing the victim to suffer violent psychotic outbreaks and hallucinations. It usually ends in scratching out the throat in formication or a heart attack."
Miller blanched at the description. "That's a lousy and downright gruesome way to go."
"The Alphabet Project, they called it, after the old acronym for NBC, with 'Atomic' standing in for 'Nuclear' back then." Ocelot then whispered, "'Tokyo'. They were working closely with Dr. Clark. The head of the Alphabet Project, a Major Miyo Takano, loaned a research assistant whose womb would be the source of the eggs used in Les Enfant Terrible program."
The song was drawing to a crescendo. "'I'm surprised the Americans had not learned of them or had they looked the other way?"
Then began playing Joan Baez's Here's to You.
"Washington never knew it was being played, perhaps because it was better to look the other way indeed." Laying your head in the sand was how you get bit in the ass first time. "This old-boys network, 'Tokyo', I believe was responsible for stonewalling you in your investigations back when you were in the Self-Defense Force."
"That makes sense, especially when I was investigating really sensitive stuff like an army truck 'accidentally' running over a nuclear physicist from Tokyo University or supply stores unaccounted for in the army paybooks. What happened to them?"
"Gone. Wiped out like completely by Skull Face. To this day no one else knows how it happened or why. Or would not dare hazard a guess. They disappeared after a field test of their pathogen failed completely. It was due to the resistance presented by the inhabitants of the remote Japanese village they tried to wipe out."
"They were going to test it in their own soil?" Miller was surprised that the "old boys" would kill off an entire village just to test a weapon. "What did it have against them?"
"Apparently, they protested against building a dam on their place, which would flood. From what I heard they would be happy to see them go. After that setback, no one ever heard from 'Tokyo' again."
"From the way they operate, I'm just as happy to see them go. I've heard about Major Takano a few times. What happened to her?"
"She's dead." Ocelot readjusted himself for a comfortable sitting position. "Died in the psychiatric home where she was interred after suffering a nervous breakdown from the project's failure. Her neck was broken violently, someone must have snapped it to two-hundred forty degrees, and three staff members killed via headshot. Autopsy recovered three .44-40 slugs and shell casings."
"That's Skull Face, alright, tying up loose ends himself." He nodded. "Typical. She would have been put to death quietly or allowed to rot for the rest of her life if it was 'Tokyo.'"
"She was the lucky one, her death marking the closing of a chapter in Japanese history unknown even to this day. A sad, miserable ending for a bunch of sorry amateurs playing at conspiracy, a Napoleonic attempt at reclaiming greatness and getting some revenge." Ocelot's face creased into a frown. "Really puts the boys in old boys' network: a bunch of overgrown kids who think they can challenge the world, bend it to their will, without regard to the difficulties or consequences, or the fact it might come get them. Not that it stopped Clark and Sigint from their own work."
"So they continued Cipher's biological weapons research, specifically this virus that can be custom-made to kill an individual just by homing on his genes."
"Oh yeah." Ocelot was brought on track by Miller's reminder of the fact. "ATGC, the company responsible for Les Enfant Terrible and having ties to DARPA, was continuing their bio-weapons research for a virus that targets specific genes but it all reached a dead end. That was until in 2003 a Dr. Naomi Hunter joined the team. She was the orphaned Indian girl Gray Fox adopted."
"What!?" For some reason Miller was heartened to know that someone very dear to Gray Fox survived. "What sort of involvement does she have with ATGC?"
"She studied genetics and earned a doctorate in genetics, specializing in nanotechnology-based gene therapy. Her credentials were good enough though the name Naomi Hunter isn't her real name, she obtained it from another Dr. Naomi Hunter, who disappeared in the Middle East a few years back. As a matter of fact, she never gave her real name, either to her adoptive brother Frank or to anyone."
"Trauma of battle?" Miller asked.
"Best bet. Either it was so intense that she forget who her name was, not uncommon to developing minds exposed to intense traumatic experiences, or she wouldn't give her name, probably still gripped with fear over Frank's actions. For that matter Frank didn't asked, probably to shield himself from further pain from his guilt of killing her parents."
"Yeah, he's been through hell and the last thing he wants is to push away the one thing he cared about in the entire world."
"And she's probably shocked to learn about what Clark did to Fox, experimenting gene therapy techniques that would become the standard used on the Genome Soldiers. She helped him escape after he finished Clark off, Fox was missing ever since."
"Wait, I thought he was part of your lineup at Shadow Moses."
"I only said he was saved from Zanzibar Land and made property of FOXHOUND, not that he joined them. In any case, after Clark's untimely death, Hunter was made head of FOXHOUND's medical staff and genetics expert, where she created her masterpiece: FOXDIE, the virus for all your assassination needs."
"FOXDIE?"
"She named it after Fox, after Frank. This virus works by being encoded with the DNA of its target and deployed in aerosol. Only the target is taken down, according to the test files, it causes a hear attack via means that I don't have time to read over. Suffice to say the Pentagon was constantly refining the bugger into its most effective and precise form."
"I had to assume that the Patriots can do away with FOXHOUND quietly with it," Miller observed. "If the virus can target its members' genetic codes, they can recover Metal Gear REX and the nukes quietly. Except you of course."
Ocelot grinned in wry agreement. "Naturally. Skynet's doesn't want to kill off its boots-on-the-ground."
"As long as you keep dancing to their tune while you figure out the steps." The hell master yawned. It was getting to be a long morning.
"Another, very novel idea with FOXDIE that a person can be injected with it and act as a vector, unaffected by the virus while the bug in him goes after its targets."
"Then that means..." Miller was seized with dread as the implications flashed and danced in his mind. "Snake!"
"Snake will be the unwitting triggerman. It's only natural that the whole thing will be deniable, that not even the man who brought down both the Bosses will know what's going on. No lose ends."
"And would that include Snake?" It was an accusation.
"I hope it won't come to that," Ocelot replied.
"So you can use him again?"
"Not really. The AIs want their Big Boss but what they have in mind would make Snake irrelevant to the equation. Why need one Boss when you can have an army of them? Not just genetics either. No longer would it be through the clumsy and costly method of shuffling a Snake from one crisis to another.
"Force XXI. The Virtual Reality training simulator program. It was conceived as a means of producing quality soldiers while cutting costs. Well, it's basically that but with the goal having their own army of Snakes."
"And I supposed it will supplement the genetics augmentation by grooming soldiers into their mold."
"Exactly. The Patriots may have hold a lot of power and are currently consolidating their grip on the world but they anticipated the resulting backlash to their control in whatever format, whether its right-wing ultranationalists or environmental terrorists and most likely, the likes of FOXHOUND. They will need enforcers and Big Boss was the benchmark for what they have in mind: a cunning and resilient operator who is able to think on his feet, carrying out the mission in spite of overwhelming odds and come back alive. Training scenarios can include revisiting historical battles and missions like D-Day, Stalingrad, Hue City, or Fallujah or recreations of Naked Snake's missions, or even outlandish ones like taking on King King or Godzilla, the possibilities are theoretically endless."
"And they can mass-produce thousands of Snake out a production line." The hell-master's tone was blank, yet it said volumes. Armies filled with ranks of Big Bosses doing the Patriots' dirty work. There's nothing in the world that can stop them. With them no one can threaten the Patriots' absolute control of the world.
"Already candidates are being trained with it at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Hell, I believe that after Shadow Moses is dealt with, genetic augmentation will be invalidated as a crock. Who needs Big Boss's DNA when you can have his skills and mindset?"
Here's to You ended, giving way for Hako Yamasaki's Wandering.
"Like what you did to Venom?"
Miller's statement was a jab on the heart for Ocelot. The master spy looked down on his empty glass. "I supposed it was... I gave them the model which I used to create Venom Snake. My price of admission so to speak. They know about me very well and won't take any chances and for my part, I needed a way to get them to trust me, force their hand a bit to see what I'm going up against."
"And what do you see?"
"The greatest threat to mankind ever faced, knocking our species off the pedestal and making itself king." He smiled with joy. "And my greatest mission, handed to me by Big Boss himself. The AIs are evolving in their thinking at a frightening rate, surpassing beyond a mere Turing test, and know a threat to them when they see it but me? I enjoy a challenge. I thrive in the swirling tempest of humanity's shifting political games. And I am living the greatest lie ever-known, a spy who serves different players while simultaneously working against them and I am their high priest of their ideology. I am the virus in their system, the unknown quantity, the wooden horse gifted to Troy. No question of the difficulty involved and so as the stakes, subtly undermining them would be a bitch but the ultimate triumph would be sweet.
"And when they came crashing down hard on their bloated, rotting weight, the world will be free again. Soldiers will no longer be shackled to corpse of nation-states and their political agendas once they see Big Boss alive, well, and free. War will no longer be a continuation of politics by other means, it will be a political force on its own right. About time the nabobs and fat cats see and despair as they're out of the game they so enjoy playing without consequence to their cloistered selves. The cycles of petty tit-for-tats will slow down as we control the premium of war. Outer Heaven, a new age will dawn."
Ocelot has not given up Big Boss's dream. There's no use of getting him to do otherwise. Both of them had been after that unicorn since they split back in the 70s. Yet... "Venom had a dream to," Miller finally said after the silence. "Do you remember what it was?"
The mention of Venom's own dream put Ocelot in silence, respectful, heartfelt silence. "Yeah... I do."
"Yes, even if he was under the illusion that he was Big Boss, what he said was his own." He can recall the confession like yesterday, back when he said it facing the setting sun after they retrieved a nuke stolen by a terrorist organization. "To this day I cherished it: 'I haven't forgotten what you told me, Boss. We have no tomorrow: but there's still hope for the future. In our struggle to survive the present, we push the future farther away. Will I see it in my lifetime? Probably not. Which means there's no time to waste. Someday the world will no longer need us: no need for the gun, or the hand to pull the trigger. I have to drag out the demon inside me, build a better future. That's what I— what we will leave as our legacy. Another mission, right Boss?'"
Miller struggled to control himself as his face contorted in emotion. "And he told me why he said it: a few days after making landfall in Pakistan and making your way to Peshawar, he was watching BBC, on satellite, Dad's Army, the episode Branded. One of the characters, Private Godfrey, was revealed to be a conscientious objector during the First World War. He was ostracized by the rest of the platoon after he was denounced by his commanding officer, Captain Manwairing. However, during a first-aid exercise involving rescue from a burning building, Godfrey saved Mainwairing without hesitation after failing to follow through in a smoke-filled hut. He had a stroke but recovered and it was revealed that he volunteered as a stretcher-bearer, winning a Military Medal for saving several men in no-man's land during the Battle of Somme. He was being modest about it." He took a deep breath. "The episode was aired in tribute to Arnold Ridley, Godfrey's actor and a First World War veteran. Ridley died a few days before. It's painful because Medic's favorite TV show was Dad's Army and he remembering it meant that there was some semblance of his old self, what's left of it after the shrapnel piece in his head destroyed everything else." He breathed deeply controlling himself. He poured himself another shot.
The master spy was breathing deeply too. Venom - Medic - was like that, a dedicated soldier, a man who would give his life a thousand times over to others, a man who would see his mission through the end. Playing his part in creating Big Boss's meme and building his own name was perhaps the greatest story never told. "We played our roles, alright... All the way to the hilt, shaping the age which brought us. But Venom was perhaps the best of us... How do you repay that to man who gave everything he had and still held the course? How is he to be honored... Anyone who calls him a patsy I'll kill him." He heard Miller pouring whiskey into his glass.
The hell-master held his glass high. "To Venom."
Ocelot slowly and reverently did the same. "To Venom."
"To Paz."
"To your people in the Caribbean."
"To our fallen brothers back in '95 and '99."
"To Code Talker."
"To Quiet."
All the people they lost were remembered that night as they drank their toasts. Quiet, the man who tried to kill Venom, believing him the Legend, who saved their asses and the world back in 1984. Code Talker, who passed away peacefully in 2000. And to all the departed dead.
They've already have enough drinks to feel warm in spite of the cold. Miller breathed deeply. "Big Boss asked us about if we can survive long enough into the Twenty-First Century to see how it turns out and I agreed to go the whole way." He grimaced. "Well, Big Boss is put into cold storage, as you say while I witnessed great upheavals of which we both have our hands in making. I have to say that we managed to create a mess of titanic proportion and it will be the Sons who'll take the mantle from us, continue our broken legacy. I just someone would be their to clean up this disaster we collectively created, set the record straight."
"If it's any consolation you've lived this far enough to see everything. It's a rare privilege to see much history in our lifetime and still see it unfolding before us. Most people can't see the forest for the trees."
Kaz scoffed. "So? You'll kill me too? You said it yourself? One of us will have to kill the other?"
Ocelot nodded in agreement. "The thought occurred to me but... I came here to give a confession, of what once, what is happening, and will happen in the future. I'm old and this could probably be my last time I'll ever have to truly honest with anyone. I came to you, Miller, just for that. My only chance to confide to someone from the old days before the Patriots send me elsewhere to do their bidding."
The bastard was right, he thought. The AIs seem like a dark cloud threatening to engulf the world and Ocelot will be waging a lonely battle against them in the guise of carrying out their orders. "Glad I obliged rather than shooting you."
Ocelot put down his glass. "I also urge you to put everything, all your experiences, your entire life on record. If the Patriots manage to cast their digital net on the world you won't have another chance to pass down your side of the story to the next generation."
"Why? What for?" Miller was puzzled.
"Because it's our duty - yours and mine - tell our part of the story. Well, yours anyway. You deserved it, seeing you've been through hell. Someone needs to see things from your perspective, know what you witnessed, what you thought of it, how it influenced your actions, what it meant to you."
"Or the Patriots will silence me forever."
Ocelot did one of his signature finger gestures. "Good, now you caught on."
"You know, my gut's telling me that Snake's gonna win this. He always had, like in the saying 'third time's the charm.' But if they found out about what Solidus is doing behind their backs they'll be awfully pissed."
"He's aware of that." Ocelot looked rather pensive. "He's got a posse which he set up, Dead Cell, just like FOXHOUND for the US Navy but reporting directly to him. Push comes to shove he'll bring them in with him."
"That's what I'd do when they come knocking for my ass to adorn their fireplace."
Ocelot looked at his watch. "A major storm system's forming over Alaska. A blizzard will be hit Shadow Moses hard for four days. Better get yourself a typewriter, some paper and ink ribbons. It's gonna be a long day telling your life's story. Make copies too. The Patriots will be hard-pressed to find anything not digitized or stored in any place they control. Throw in some magnetic tape too. There's no way anyone can scrub any audio recorded on it."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"And thanks for the whiskey." He rose slowly. Miller followed. As the hell master led him to the door. "Been nice talking to you, Kaz."
"Likewise." The door was opened and the cowboy went out into the snow, the melodies of Wandering fading behind him. He whistled for his horse, which came out of the woods. He mounted and waved a cowboy, Miller waving back as he closed the door. He urged his stead forward into the predawn darkness, unaware of a figure standing straight in regal fashion among the woods, watching.
A/N: The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion was an interesting piece of hacking history were a television signal was hijacked by perpetrators who remained unknown to this day. It's not without precedent though due similar incidents in 1977 and 1986. However, in the MGS universe, the 1977 incident would not have happened as the AIs had not matured yet wheres in 1986, the perpetrator was identified and arrested.
The concept of hugging would have been something that Ocelot adopted in order to take on the Patriots. Also, the inspiration for Venom acting as a decoy, the Man Who Never Was, was a reference to the sensational, disinformation coup, Operation Mincemeat. It involves a dead body carrying false papers washing up ashore and the Germans grabbing onto it. This paved way for the successful invasion of Sicily by diverting forces to Greece, which the papers identified as an invasion site. Zero, having served in the SAS during WW2, would have been familiar with that ploy, thus he implemented after the events of Ground Zeroes, albeit with a man whose memory and identity was obliterated with a piece of shrapnel.
There's a minor reference to Death Stranding here, where Ocelot explains briefly about playing. Kojima's project aims to examine the concept of the "play" mechanic of videogames under the microscope.
The Japan bits, about "Tokyo" are a reference to the bloody-murder mystery anime Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and in particular to my crossover, Pax Nipponica. The fic explores "Tokyo's" demise in the hands of Skull Face.
We never knew about Naomi Hunter's real name, her Indian name. Exposing a child to trauma at such a young age may cause them to forget their name. A Catholic saint was named Bhakita, as her former name was lost in the trauma of the slave raid that took her away from her home.
Turing test was developed by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. The Patriots AI will most certainly surpass this any frighteningly uncanny ways.
Thinking of Medic/Venom made me think of the Dad's Army episode Branded. Scriptwriter Jim Perry called it his most favorite episode and Arnold Ridley was very happy about it. When he read the script he said, "Jimmy, its good to mention conchies as they were called, because they went through hell a lot of them, and a lot of them had high principles. I'm very honoured to play it." Arnold, who served during WW1, really played his character Godfrey with care. The episode made me think of the Paz sidequest. Her name is Spanish for peace, which was a topic discussed at length in Peace Walker. Venom was the medic who removed the first bomb from Paz and tried to remove the second, only for her to jump off the chopper to save everyone aboard in Ground Zeroes, filling him with survivor's guilt, made worse by the implanted memories of Big Boss. And then you have Private Godfrey, the platoon's medic, who chose to be a stretcher-bearer to serve his country without taking a life and his selflessness demonstrated in the episode, contained both attributes of Paz (dedication to peace, maybe a front, maybe not) and Medic (loyalty and dedication). This dovetails nicely to Venom's speech in the Nuclear Disarmament Ending of MGSV: TTP.
To be concluded.