It didn't feel like any time had really passed between Venom starting the mission and returning to Mother Base, all objectives complete.

He had been dropped close to the village with the deployment plans, and just needed to send Heirospecter in to collect them, before turning his attention to the convoy, now he knew their route.

With help from Heirospecter, it had been a simple job to extract all three tanks and the truck the colonel was riding in before they could reach their destination.

All he'd needed to do was give Heirospecter a few fultons and set the Titan into the road the convoy was going to take, and shelter himself in turn, much further behind Heirospecter.

When the leading tank was passing over Heirospecter, visibility from within the vehicle insufficient to make out the presence of the near invisible Titan, it planted the first fulton, extracting the tank without any need to disable it first.

It was the signal for Venom to act.

While the soldiers panicked, unable to figure out a way to stop the salvaging of the tank without risking either the lives of their allies inside or the vehicle itself, Venom advanced to extract the truck.

Even as he placed the fulton, Heirospecter advanced to the second tank, extracting that as well.

By this point the tank crew may have realised Heirospecter was there, or at least that there was something they couldn't see attaching fultons, but they were unable to lower the cannon enough to target it.

They also had no idea that the truck had been extracted, or that Venom was already approaching from behind to plant a fulton.

In less than a minute all the tanks were on the way to Mother Base with the colonel.

Venom took the spare fulton from Heirospecter and dismissed it, before turning his attention to the prisoner.

The legendary weaponsmith was too far away to retrieve on this deployment, so instead Venom returned to the village to retrieve the prisoner.

The guards had already been marked, something to do to pass the time waiting for Heirospecter with the plans, so Venom was easily able to drop them as he approached.

The int-scope didn't show any of the guards as having sufficient skills in any area to justify extracting, so Venom took only the prisoner with him to Pequod, taking him back to Mother Base with him.

There was good news waiting for him back at Mother Base.

"We've been able to develop a new model iDroid, using the technology from the Foundation," Ocelot reported, doing his best to ignore the puppy trailing after him. "The team you sent out also came back with something I think you'll be interested in."

He held up a familiar looking amulet.

Venom took a deep breath in. "Is that..?"

"Another Heirospecter? Unless the Foundation fobbed us off with bad technology, yes. Given how useful your current one has been on the past few missions, I thought you'd be interested."

Venom hesitated to take the amulet.

While he would be the first to admit that Heirospecter had helped greatly on the mission, would it really be right for him to claim a second instead of giving other Seekers in his employ the chance?

"The team tested their compatibility on the way back, but weren't able to bond," Ocelot reported, as thiugh reading Venoms mind. "And as the current procedure for the Seeker platform is that need to earn additional Titans, rather than risk giving too many to someone who won't be able to use them effectively, so nobody else is due for the chance. If you don't take the amulet, it's going in storage."

Venom accepted the argument and the amulet.

The bond came much faster than with the previous Heirospecter, as though they were more closely matched this time.

"Have RD made any progress with connecting Titans to the iDroid?"

"Not yet, but they hope to have it figured out by the next iDroid model."

Venom nodded.

"I'll get my iDroid upgraded while I have my new Titan trained. How goes the rest of the Seeker platforms work?"

"No new powers translated, at least not ones you could make use of, and none of the amulets they've scanned so far are likely to be useful to you. It seems there aren't many stealthy Titans in general, and your main concern outside stealth would be a Metal Gear, and I doubt even all our Titans together could make a dent in one."

]

Venom didn't expect what happened with the training.

The first Heirospecter he invoked demonstrated an ability to use the fultons without further training.

As did the second.

Somehow, it seemed as though his Heirospecter had learned to use the device before being invoked, been taught while wherever Titans went before being invoked.

Venom didn't know how it happened, how it worked, but with the next mission he received from Ocelot he was thankful for not needing to wait until the second Heirospecter was trained.

The tanks he had extracted earlier were only the advance guard, the deployment plans detailing additional forces Skullface was sending into the region as reinforcements, backing up rebel forces rather than the established regional militia.

Armoured vehicles rather than tanks, but he had only a narrow window of opportunity to deal with them, by destruction or extraction.

And on top of the vehicles, there were multiple prisoners in the area, several scheduled for execution during his window of opportunity.

By invoking both Heirospecters when he landed, giving both a supply of fulton devices (as many as they could carry, resupplying himself using his 'hammerspace' power), he was able to send them after the convoys sent by Skullface while going after the prisoners himself.

Venom had secured the second prisoner, three of the vehicles extracted by his Heirospecters, when Ocelot contacted him again, notifying him of a truck carrying an experimental Soviet weapon passing through the mission area.

There was no way for him to contact the Titans to update them on the mission, leaving it to Venom to save the prisoners and retrieve the weapon.

He didn't know which route the truck was taking, and there were still prisoners set to be killed, making this far from the ideal situation for him to be in.

But he could still complete all his objectives if he moved fast.

At every decent vantage point he found, he paused with his int-scope to scan for the truck or prisoners, a strategy that let him spot the soldiers chasing after an escaping prisoner and take them down with his sniper, securing all five for extraction before turning his attention back to his other objectives.

Which was when he received another report from Ocelot, about a prisoner being transported through the mission area by jeep.

So now he had two vehicles to track down, on top of the other prisoners, and four- three, according to the latest update, armoured vehicles to avoid while his Heirospecters extracted them.

And all the while the clock was ticking down on the mission timer and the Titans were taking their toll on his energy.

When he did locate the truck it was mostly by accident, getting distracted by a report that indicated one of his sand snakes had secured the prisoner transport instead of what it was supposed to and happening to see the truck in the middle of glancing down at his iDroid.

He didn't have much time before it would get clear, so Venom threw down a flashbang, startling the driver into throwing on the brakes, while sprinting towards them.

A burst of rubber rounds from his assault rifle, and the driver was left unconscious in the cab, giving him an opening to climb into the back and secure the weapon, some kind of launcher (either rocket or missile, he couldn't tell just from looking), in his 'hammerspace' before extracting the truck.

At about the same time the last armoured vehicle was extracted by his Heirospecters.

Venom barely had time to start to relax, looking forward to an easier job rescuing the remaining prisoners without having to watch out for them, when a new report came in.

Three tanks and a gunship had arrived, Skullface moving more openly in deploying XOF forces into the field upon confirming Snakes presence.

There was nothing the Titans could do about the gunship, and no way to deal with the threat non-lethally, so he was just going to have to deal with it as he secured the last prisoners, trusting the Heirospecters to keep going and salvage the tanks.

It was becoming hard to think, to concentrate and keep going, but Venom held strong, intent on seeing the mission through.

By the time the third tank had been secured, he had located a prisoner imprisoned in what amounted to a metal box, getting them clear.

Things went black for a moment, and Venom was stumbling next to a road, both Heirospecters back in their amulets.

Another blackout, and he was carrying a prisoner under a bridge, moving to get them where he could extract them.

He blinked, and Pequod was in front of him, Venom collapsing into the hold, unconscious before he hit the floor.

]

Ocelot had kept track of everything Mother Base could record in the area of Venom Snakes mission, keeping count of each extracted vehicle, basic armoured or tank, and prisoner.

Things had seemed to be going well, overall (even with the additional objectives added to the mission after it was in progress), until Venom Snakes garbled report of securing the weapon.

It wasn't a problem with the radio, the problem was entirely with Snakes wording.

It was nothing Ocelot hadn't encountered before, just usually from some inexperienced operative who pushed themselves for days without rest, rather than an experienced soldier with the memories of a modern day legend operating off a full nights sleep.

Something was very wrong here.

He had heard the reports that Seekers used their own energy keeping Titans invoked, or using powers, but could it really be that exhausting?

Or was there something else going on?

He had hesitated before choosing reinforcements to ensure Venom Snake would return safely, calling off the rescue mission entirely, with a certain amount of relief, upon receiving a report from Pequod that he had Snake and was returning to base.

Once they returned, it would be time to get answers.

… Probably best to make sure Pequod landed on the medical platform.