Venom and Ocelot had a shared priority upon his return to Mother Base to secure the sniper properly, placing her in a special cell on the main platform.
Content she was no longer a threat, they turned their attention to Venoms mission.
"After you called off the mission, I did some extra digging. The base Emmerich is being held at is the site for a project 'Sahelanthropus'. There is also evidence to suggest that the base is where the remains of ZEKE ended up."
"Emmerich is working with the XOF to build a new Metal Gear," Venom concluded, Ocelot nodding in agreement.
"After… the assault on the Organisation," Ocelot prevaricated, avoiding the actual reason, "I started to feel that things around Emmerich didn't add up. Without the added perspective, I had dismissed them as coincidences rather than malicious acts, that there had been communication problems that led to the inspection that Skullface used as cover, the disappearance of Strangelove. We had other concerns at the time. And then… well, we were focused on rebuilding."
"But now?"
Ocelot nodded.
"Everything fits together. Emmerich betrayed us, and his location was leaked as a trap. Either you get caught trying to 'rescue' him, and they can…"
Ocelot trailed off briefly.
"Do we actually know what Skullface wants with you? Zero wanted to recruit you into Cipher, but the XOF went rogue."
"He might just not want me to be able to interfere with his plans," Venom pointed out.
"Well, whatever he wants to capture you for, if we succeeded in securing Emmerich, the XOF would have an agent within our base."
"Meaning we can't take the risk of extracting him."
Ocelot nodded in agreement.
"Besides everything else, Skullface has demonstrated a willingness to plant bombs within people as traps. And that is the last mission in the region that requires your personal touch," Ocelot declared. "On the other hand we have tracked the activity of Skullface back to a region of Africa. While Zero was still in charge of Cipher, he kept Skullface contained, so by establishing a presence in the region we may be able to find evidence of his plans."
"I trust you have a mission for me," Venom responded.
"Yes, a certain corporation is willing to pay for the sabotage of an oil field in the region. Evidence suggests a possible connection between the oil field and the XOF, so this would advance both our primary objectives."
"Getting our name out to those interested in Africa and getting in the way of the interests of Skullface and the XOF," Venom concluded.
"Just so. We have located an LZ to start you off, but you'll have to find others to use across the region."
"Just like when we started."
]
Rather than head straight to Africa to start the mission Ocelot has found, Venom decided to try once more to secure the legendary weaponsmith for Mother Base.
At least, until he realised the man was somewhere in the base housing Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, and elected to cut short his time in Afghanistan.
The only change he made to his loadout between the expeditions was the addition of the explosives he'd need to sabotage the oil field, the supplies unneeded in Afghanistan after his prior work clearing possible LZs.
The travel time did have one benefit, in giving Venom the chance to learn the power Ocelot had selected, at least to the level he could learn it without practising casting.
After all, the confines of a helicopter was not a good place to try out a power that was supposed to kill anyone it hit, even if wasn't supposed to create any form of explosion upon impact.
His first use of the Drybite power would be against the XOF Skull unit.
A matter for later though, as right now Venom was touching down in an African river, DD jumping out of the helicopter with him.
The environment here was quite a change from the arid heat of the region of Afghanistan he'd been deploying in, and reminding Venom that he should have adjusted his camo rather than assume he'd be in the same type of terrain.
Something to keep in mind for when he returned to Mother Base.
Well, between DD and his Titans, all connected to his iDroids marking system, he should be able to get enough warning to maintain his stealth against any hostiles in the area.
As he climbed above the river, reaching the first settlement on his route to the oil fields, he received an unpleasant surprise.
"They're using child soldiers," he hissed into his radio, even less willing to cause injury to children than to adult soldiers.
He needed to extract them, get them somewhere safe, where they had a chance at a life, but the fulton system hadn't been designed with children in mind. If he tried slapping one onto them, it could easily cause them to accelerate too fast, breaking their neck or causing some other injury.
It was possible that placing them in a jeep and extracting that might bring them to Mother Base safely, but there were still risks.
The only guaranteed way to bring them to safety would be by calling in Pequod.
And carrying them, one at a time, through the river wouldn't be a wise use of time.
So instead, he needed to find an alternative LZ first.
Which meant avoiding the child soldiers until he had somewhere to take them.
The alternative was risking startling them into retreat or causing permanent harm by repeated tranquilisings.
Assuming the dosage was safe for children in the first place.
"Mother Base, is the tranquiliser I have been supplied with safe for use on children?"
There was a pause.
"Preliminary reports are that the tranquiliser is safe on all possible targets you are to encounter," was the initial response, the awkward wording a sure indicator that the Diamond Dog on radio duty wasn't a native English speaker.
Venom waited a while longer for anything else the soldier had to say.
"Medical reports that they should be safe, unless you shoot them up multiple times or suffer an allergic reaction. Such should be rare, given the care they took in its formulation. But they have confidence that their skills would enable them to treat any reaction, should the subject be brought to them."
Meaning that Venom should prepare their extraction before making a move.
Except securing an LZ for Pequod would require infiltrating the settlement to ensure any anti air defences were offline.
Venom considered the odds of establishing an LZ in time should one of the children prove to have an allergy to the tranquiliser, and found them lacking.
There was nothing he could do to save the children without risking causing them greater harm.
He quickly brought up the RD menu on his iDroid, assigning them to research an upgrade for the fultons to allow the rescue of children as soon as possible.
It wouldn't be enough to save these children now, but Venom made a note to return to the village once he had the fulton to rescue any child soldiers still present at the time.
It didn't feel right to him, abandoning them, but he had no better choice.
And would bringing them to Mother Base be any better?
He could all too easily see Ocelot or Miller deciding that they should be sent into the field as members of the company if they wanted to stay on the base, and even if they didn't the children would be surrounded by mercenaries as they grew, drawing them towards the same life.
How much moral difference was there between grooming children to be soldiers when older and using them as child soldiers directly?
No, it might be for the best discussing the childrens future on Mother Base before extracting them.
And with that decided, he turned his attention towards finding the oil field.
]
DD wasn't as much of an aid in locating the forces around the refinery as Venom had hoped, only appearing to detect their presence once he was too close to use his sniper rifle without being detected.
It wasn't that he was being careless, and relying on DD to detect them, rather than the facility didn't have the best sightlines from outside, even scouting the area until night fell.
A good, if inconvenient, design.
Then again, DD did give enough warning of approaching guards for Venom to be ready with the pistol to drop them before they could spot him, taking the opportunity to extract them before setting his explosives.
After all, an explosion around flammable materials could easily go out of control, and just because he wouldn't be killing them directly didn't mean it wouldn't count.
Plus it appeared dark enough for the remaining guards not to notice the balloons inflating, the guards not having time to awaken before they were too high to be heard.
In theory, it might be easier if he invoked a Heirospecter, and their natural stealth would be a boon planting the explosives as well, but Venom didn't want to risk it.
Especially the explosives.
He could acknowledge the utility of his Titans, and he'd already overcome the trauma from completely exhausting himself once, but something rebelled against the idea of invoking one here.
Either way, DD gave him sufficient assistance to avoid being taken by surprise as he cleared the refinery of guards.
And resources.
Well, the crates were just sitting there after all, and Mother Base used a lot to keep running and researching.
They couldn't keep themselves supplied just from payment for missions.
And with the refinery cleared, he was able to place the explosives to take it out of action near permanently.
And with that done, he slipped out of the refinery before pressing the button.
The explosions ripped through the refinery, tearing the machinery apart, to Venoms quiet satisfaction.
He turned to head for the closest LZ, before any unwanted attention could arrive.
Only to stop, at an unexpected sight.
The group of soldiers approaching the site weren't riding horses or jeeps, but rather smaller single person machines.
It looked to Venom like Metal Gear technology, just heavily miniaturised.
And with reduced defensive properties.
In any case, this was something Mother Base needed to know about.
And given the typical armaments of a Metal Gear, he knew just the Titan to extract one.