Having cleared the air about who exactly he was, as far as he had been able to at least, and struck back against the Organisation for what they'd done, it was time for Snake to return his focus to Afghanistan and the XOF.

No, not Snake.

Venom.

They always ended up referring to each by a single part of their codenames, unless they needed to avoid ambiguity between those using the same word in their codename, best for him to think of himself as Venom and the other as Snake.

At least in the privacy of his head.

They had told Miller the truth, but nobody else.

He hadn't been happy about the deception, but learning that they'd told him as soon as they remembered, to some degree of interpretation, had mollified him enough that he was willing to stick with the team for now.

"You didn't deceive me by choice," he allowed. "That was his choice, the other Snake. You didn't get a choice in the matter. Him, on the other hand," he indicated Ocelot, "he chose to forget. And your original, it was his intention to deceive me. That… that isn't the Snake I was willing to follow."

It was interesting for Venom, hearing someone else with the same perspective on Snake, that he had changed so greatly from when they had made him into his double.

No, not from when he'd been changed, but from when they had created the model of Snake to plant in him.

Or however he'd been turned into Snake.

Ocelot hadn't been too forthcoming about the exact mechanism through which he had become what he was.

Ocelot had volunteered himself as part of the process, his hypnotism, but the rest of the process had been left unclear.

Not that it really mattered, Venom acknowledged.

He was what he was, and he just had to live with it now.

And right now, he had a mission to complete.

There were three company commanders due to have a meeting.

And they were his targets.

It was his job to extract each of them, to be recruited into the Diamond Dogs.

As always, Ocelot had given him further objectives, to complete if possible.

First, to extract the security for the travelling commanders with their jeeps.

Second, to listen in on their entire meeting.

Third, to rescue a pair of prisoners being held in a nearby town.

He had been dropped off with D-horse with plenty of time before the meeting, and all the equipment he should need.

It was time to get to work.

]

The first priority with any extraction mission was to mark the targets.

It was tempting for Venom to include the prisoners in his initial marking, but he resisted in favour of the commanders, not wanting to miss the meeting.

The first he located to the North of the barracks, with a relatively straight road to the meeting.

Venom made sure he marked the jeep and each of the soldiers, so that his iDroid would keep track of each of them, just in case.

Having finished with the first commander for now, he made for the garrison of the second.

Even with all of D-horses speed, the second commander had already set off by the time he reached a vantage point.

At least he was in time to see which of the two possible roads he was being driven down, and would most likely take on his return.

He marked each of them, and the jeep, before spurring D-horse into motion, dropping to his flank before any of the soldiers could see him to pass unremarked.

The roads made something of a loop here, giving a shortcut to those on foot or using another method of transportation that didn't rely so completely on roads in such terrain, and when he reached the other side of the loop Venom dismounted, making preparations for the commanders return.

A thought crossed his mind as he was heading back to mount D-horse again.

"This could be done so much easier if you could apply a fulton," he commented at the amulet for Heirospecter, tied to his belt for ease of access.

His Titans had been good at following his plans, even without verbal direction, but this was a bit more complicated.

"I'll have to get you trained when we connect you to the iDroid."

It might have been a better idea to wait until they had developed a system linking his explorer Titan to his iDroid and its marking system, but that would also give Skullface more time to proceed with his plans or seek out Snake.

And also they needed whatever design they came up with to survive the Titans transition between worlds or states or whatever precisely they did.

Early testing had found that Titans generally weren't able to take things with them when dispelled, and their one success so far with an old bandanna had seen it lost on the other side, likely for good.

Current hopes were that if negotiations with the Huntik Foundation were successful, the basics of their holotome technology could hold some vital piece of information they were missing.

The assault on Organisation Central, as they had discovered the base was named, had secured a technonomicon, as well as a collection of amulets and books that likely contained a variety of powers for Seekers to learn (there was only one he'd been able to read without needing translation work, which he'd made sure to add to his arsenal), but said technonomicon was damaged. About all they'd been able to discover from it was where exactly the original holographic technology for the iDroid had come from.

Unfortunately development of the iDroid had already advanced the holographic technology beyond what the technonomicon provided, so it provided no real benefits.

There was a certain temptation to build a larger team of Titans for himself, but Venom resisted.

Better to identify what Titan each amulet held, match them with Seekers either to complement their current specialty or cover their weakpoints.

But all that was for the future.

Right now he was trailing the commander to his meeting.

By preference he would attempt to overtake them, get into position to observe the meeting, but the cliffs of plateaus lining the route meant that such an attempt would simply sound the alarm.

He stopped at the approach to the barracks, using the int-scope to observe the jeep come in to park and mark the active soldiers.

From where the other jeep was already parked he had a good idea of which building the meeting was due to take place in, and a plan for how to extract the commanders as ordered began to form in his head.

Venom reached for his amulets, considering how well each Titan would play the required role.

In the end he selected Freelancer, invoking the Titan quickly.

"Head around to the far side of the barracks," he instructed. "Wait for my signal. When it's time, I want you to stage a distraction, draw the soldiers in the base towards you. But don't let them see you until it's time."

The impassive look from the Titan did a good job of purveying its opinion of a plan involving a living suit of armour and stealth.

That didn't stop it from following his orders though.

Venom didn't stop to watch Freelancer head out to get into position, heading into the barracks himself.

He dodged the patrolling soldiers, reaching his chosen vantage point on a roof they didn't seem to check, and brought out his box just in case.

From his fully concealed viewpoint, it was safe for Venom to bring out his int-scope and watch the meeting, every word relayed back to Ocelot at Mother Base.

Venom couldn't understand what they were saying, and the translators on Mother Base weren't passing it on, the implications of the mission being to secure the commanders and a pair of prisoners enough for him to request only pertinent information for the mission to be passed on rather than risk his newly reawakened instincts as a medic cause him to be distracted by anger.

As such it was an empty wait until they finished speaking, the drain of keeping Freelancer active his only real distraction.

Soon enough the meeting finished and the commanders started to leave.

Venom repacked his box, preparing to give Freelancer a signal, but Freelancer acted before he had a chance.

The commander was just getting into the jeep when the shooting began, drawing the attention of all three of them away from him, giving Venom the perfect opening.

He stepped off the building, with a whisper of "Featherdrop" to let him land silently.

Moving quickly, before the driver could start moving, he planted a fulton on the jeep.

The soldiers had no time to react before they were pulled into the air with their jeep, too high to risk jumping out before they knew what was happening.

The only problem was that the barracks commander was close enough to hear, and was already turning towards him.

Judging the distance quickly, Venom drew his pistol, landing a headshot with his tranquiliser rounds before the man spotted him.

Venom placed a fulton on him to extract the commander, before hurrying back to D-horse.

The soldiers of the barracks were busy with Freelancer, giving Venom a clear route out.

As he mounted D-horse he could see the remaining commander driving away in his jeep, and dismissed Freelancer as he spurred D-horse into a pursuit.

There was a certain risk about the soldiers witnessing a Titan like this, but given the reputation he was no doubt building with the disappearances of men and materials, he was willing to take the risk.

He was relieved to see the jeep taking the turning he'd expected, and rode D-horse across the loop once more.

As he neared the spot he'd prepared earlier, he dismounted and brought out his trusty cardboard box once again.

And waited.

This wait was much shorter, the jeep soon passing in front of him.

And triggering the emp mine he'd planted earlier, cutting out completely.

He was moving before they could figure out what had happened, shooting out of the box and planting a fulton on the jeep.

And moments later the primary mission was complete.

As he approached D-horse, preparing to head to the prisoners, his radio crackled into life.

"Snake, we have located a legendary weaponsmith in the region. If you extract him, he should be able to modify your weapons with parts from other weapons of the same class. Such as silencers for your chosen assault rifle."

Venom considered.

He had used three fultons so far on this deployment, which left plenty for the prisoners and the weaponsmith.

Or perhaps it would be better to extract the weaponsmith via Pequod.

Either way, he was only finishing this deployment with all of them secured.