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Brothers in Arms	By : ktatters Category: +M through R > Metal Gear Views: 3912 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Metal Gear, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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It was hard to believe that Arthur Emmerich, a scientist who looked like he spent more of his free time drawing circuit boards than exercising, had been able to walk such a distance before mid-afternoon. Granted, Big Boss had driven slowly and circuitously to take advantage of the chance to get more information before entering the compound, but it was still a good 7 miles that he'd walked in desert heat without any water and woefully inadequate clothes. Not to mention getting past seventeen on-duty guards. He would have been impressed, had Emmerich just planned a little better. Of course, leaving it to Big Boss to clean up after your lack of planning did not tend to ultimately endear one to Big Boss's way of thinking.

Still, the man was intelligent and rather an important piece on the board, as evidenced by current international attention in certain circles to his work. His own technical advisors kept talking about the man. He'd dropped Emmerich off at the gates ten minutes ago with specific instructions to the guards about not harming the man, and was now waiting in the main building's lobby area for the brothers Shet to appear. So far he was not impressed with either of them, although that was good in this case. He readjusted the Russian hat again in a futile effort to get it to sit properly.

As the sounds of footsteps became clearer in the hallways, Big Boss walked to one of the plans on the wall and began a show of examining it. In the reflection of his polished medals, he could see that it was in fact the Major who had come to deal with the new guest. Or rather, new commander in a few moments... He continued studying the layout drawings in order to make the man wait.

The base was not well designed. The buildings were connected to each other haphazardly, but the internal ventilation system connected every room with every other room. It was so poorly done that even the scientists labs had air vents that were connected directly to other sections of the base.

The major stood awkwardly for several minutes behind him, apparently unwilling to disturb a superior officer, before he cleared his throat.

Big Boss turned instantly. "Major Shet. Good afternoon. I hope there haven't been any problems?"

"No, sir. Good afternoon, sir. We weren't expecting anyone. If I could just see your orders-"

"Are you questioning my orders or are you questioning me?" Big Boss pushed his chest forward. "I, who was awarded the Order of the Red Banner? Who lost his eye in the service of the common people? Who-"

"Of course not, sir, of course not! But how long will you be staying, Lieutenant General? We need to set things up for your stay." The smile on the man's face was the same the world over. The same wheedling look of insubordinates who wanted to rise higher in the ranks, the same hopeful tone of voice, always trying to make the superiors happy, no matter what it took.

Big Boss smiled inwardly, careful not to betray his good humor to the major. "I'll be taking over this operation. You and your brother will still retain operational control, of course."

"Of course, of course. I'll just have someone set up a room."

"Near the scientists, if that's possible." Big Boss already knew it was. "I'd like to keep an eye on certain problems you're having with security."

As he said it, the other brother entered the room. "Our little problem case. Yes, sir, I will deal with that very soon. He's done this one too many times."

Big Boss frowned. "Your last efforts didn't do very well." He turned his eye on the lieutenant. The Lieutenant's brown hair and eyes would have been common in any soldier from the USSR, though the almond colored skin would not have been common in the regular Russian army. He was a skinny man with no muscles whatsoever. Looks could be deceiving, of course... "I'll deal with the incident personally."

Lieutenant Shet's face turned into a twisted grimace of a smile. "Yes, sir." The tone of voice was disappointed.

Big Boss nodded at the Lieutenant. "General orders: we're going into high alert. We've received intelligence that the Americans are attempting something. From this point on, we will have complete radio silence. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," said the Major. He gave a precise military salute, which Big Boss answered with little effort, then gave a smile. "Why don't we take you on a tour, sir? And please, call me Habil. My brother is Kayin. It's easier than talking to Major Shet and Lieutenant Shet, isn't it, sir?"

Big Boss smiled at the Major. "It is, Habil."

"I can show you the labs," said Kayin, finally taking the cue from his brother. "Our people are working hard in there to make a lighter explosive. We're hoping to use it for the Algeirs operation."

A lighter bomb? Just what the world needed, lighter explosives. They would just end up being less powerful, and what was the use of having light, powerless explosives?

Big Boss looked between the two brothers for a moment. "I've heard some things about the science branch here. Do you know that scientists who have been stationed here have the highest attempted defection rate of any military outpost in the Soviet Union?"

Kayin's smiling mask turned uneasy. "They have to work hard here, sir."

"Yes. With little water and inadequate supplies."

"Sir, you must understand, the ones they send here aren't easy to work with. They've all tried to defect before, some of them didn't come from allied countries of any sort, and they won't work without firm leadership and a strong hand." Kayin's jaw set. "Besides, if the guards were watching more closely, little problems like Emmerich wouldn't happen."

"The guards are fine, Kayin," said Habil sharply. "There's a reason you haven't been promoted past-"

"Gentlemen," said Big Boss, a real smile forming. "Gentlemen, there's no need to argue. I'm sure you're both trying hard. Why don't we look at the science labs, Lieutenant? Maybe I need some first hand observation to go with the statistics they fed me at HQ. And then, Habil, you can bring me to see a few of your soldiers."

"Right this way, sir!" Kayin looked inordinately proud of being the first one to show off. Big Boss and Habil followed the man out of the main building and across the small courtyard area to the buildings on the right. "The structures are all connected by underground tunnels," said Kayin offhandedly, confirming some of the things Big Boss had just read on the base maps, "but we don't advertise that to the rank and file."

"Why not?" asked Big Boss.

"Well, it's not the rank and file so much as the ones we've been told to keep an eye on," said Habil. "There's a good number of undesirables at this base."

Kayin shot his brother a dirty look before continuing with his own speech. "We've done a lot to make sure that the malcontents are as secure as possible, of course. As you can see, the guards are always two to a patrol."

"I only saw thirteen up top," said Big Boss, putting a confused look on his face.

"As my brother was about to say, it's different outside because of the organization," Habil took over effortlessly. "In the buildings, there's two for each patrol for safety as well as guarding. Out in the sunlight, each of the guards are able to watch each other."

"If you'll come over here, sir," said Kayin, motioning Big Boss to precede him through the door. "This is the main lab. Each of them have their own area, to a certain extent, though they share much of the equipment." Big Boss watched for a moment. Each man cringed slightly as they passed, as though expecting a fist to fall on him. None of the men looked as though they'd been receiving proper nutrition or even enough water. Here and there, there were even a few who looked worse off than Emmerich.

"Our problem from this morning is resting?"

"No, sir!" Kayin looked almost shocked. "The biggest problem cases are kept at the end of the hall here. There are three of them; each has his own 'office.' Guarded," he said as an afterthought. "Emmerich should have been brought there."

"I see." Big Boss paused. He'd intended for the man to be brought to the base med team. The sunburn and dehydration was only going to get worse. There was nothing he could do about it now, of course. "I'll just have a word with one of them before we continue." Kayin and Habil traded glances. "Is there a problem?"

"They tend to be... erratic," said Kayin cautiously. "Many of them have difficulty in responding to authority properly. Not all of them, of course. Ah, this one is quite intelligent, wanted to come here to learn the language..." Big Boss allowed Kayin to guide him to a scruffy individual. "This is Geoff Bludstun."

Big Boss looked at the man for a moment before motioning Kayin and Habil to move away. The scientist was writing numbers into a black book, carefully adjusting a burner and looking at temperatures, and muttering to himself. He didn't particularly look like the kind of man who'd asked to be here. "What are you researching?"

"I'm doing experiments on the reactivity of copper phosphate ions," he said, his eyes not straying from the numbers on his equipment.

"When was your last break?"

"We don't have breaks. There's breakfast and dinner. Sir." The afterthought seemed to have made the man nervous. "We're working as fast as we can, sir. As hard as we can..."

Big Boss nodded. The man was skittish, and he was one who'd asked to be here. The ones who hadn't must be like Emmerich, trying to get out at all costs. It was no way to run a facility. No, he didn't want them to succeed; yes, it was better for Big Boss if all of these people wanted out: but this seemed dangerous. "What kind of safety procedures are in place here?"

"I'm not in charge of that, sir." The man's hands twitched.

Big Boss nodded slowly. There were a lot of things that could go wrong here. This place would be deserted at night: no one was dedicated to what they were doing in the lab. No safety procedures, so a fire might shut the area down for days while they determined the cause and whether or not anything was still dangerous. It might shut it down for days if the wrong thing caught fire. In fact, with the underground tunnel system and the poorly designed interconnected ventilation, the entire base might have to be evacuated... If that happened, the Algiers operation would not be able to continue.

"Lieutenant." Big Boss walked to base's two commanding officers. This might be a good time to get some good will out of the scientific part of this organization. "These men cannot be working at peak efficiency like this," he said in a loud voice. A number of heads turned towards him, faces carefully controlled while they tried to hide fear. "They need breaks. They need more water. They need lunch. You are supposed to be keeping these men loyal. Instead, you push them into the arms of our enemies."

"Sir, we are doing the best that we can, but these men-"

"Lieutenant, I want to see some positive changes here."

"But-" The major kicked the lieutenant when he started to protest again. Big Boss held in his smile.

Big Boss let a silence grow. "Habil," said Big Boss, "show me what is happening in the rest of this compound."

"Yes, sir!" Habil led him out of the scientists' buildings while Kayin, left behind, started shouting orders. Once they were outside the building, Habil stopped. "The guards are posted at each corner of the perimeter walls, with one patrolman on each. One is on each building, and three patrol the grounds. This place is near impenetrable, sir."

Big Boss nodded and made a show of looking for each of the guards in their assigned positions. "Your brother," said Big Boss in a low voice. "Can we trust him?"

"Of course, sir. He's not a bad man, he's very loyal. He's just not very good with people."

"Riding your coattails all the way?"

Habil shook his head quickly. "If you look at his records, you will see that I have never promoted my brother: his superiors have always done so." Big Boss nodded. "For all his flaws, my brother is as trustworthy as you are, sir."

"I understand." Big Boss smiled comfortingly. "He is your brother and your comrade. Now. Why don't you show me the training facilities for your men."

"Yes, sir." Major Shet quickly led him across the courtyard and into a building that looked like a carbon copy of the scientists' building from the outside. Even the layout of the rocks surrounding it seemed the same.

The inside was markedly different. Instead of hallways and doors, much of the area had been made to look like a set of underground tunnels, presumably a replica of a part of the sewerage system underneath the Algerian capital. An older soldier sat by the door, carefully watching the time on a stop watch. He glanced up as they entered, but motioned silence before looking back to his watch.

There was a noise in one of the hallways, and he pressed a button. A lively song began playing in the tunnels. "We swear by the lightning that destroys, by the streams of generous blood being shed..."

Big Boss raised an eyebrow. "What's happening here, Major?"

The major smiled grimly. "We've come at the end of the training run... they should be coming out soon..."

"...When we spoke, none listened to us, so we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm and the sound of machine guns as our melody..." As the second verse died and the third began playing, the old soldier shook his head and marked something down on his sheets. Big Boss took some time to examine the map. The paths were twisty, and some areas were marked with do not enter.

The sound of drumbeats grew ever louder as the song entered it's fourth verse. Habil frowned deeply as there was still no sign of his men coming out of the tunnel 'entrance.' "The cry of the Fatherland sounds from the battlefields. Listen to it..." Big Boss shook his head and looked towards the entrance. He could hear people vaguely running through the corridors. "Oh, Glory, we have held out our hand to you!"

The old soldier sighed and wrote something else on his sheet of paper. "Be our witness! Be our witness! Be our witness!"

The music died out as five men stumbled through the door. Habil shook his head in disgust. "Where was the explosion?"

They all looked unhappily at each other. "Sir, we cannot possibly have so few men in so little time complete this mission successfully." The old soldier stood, his hands slapping against the table as he struggled to rise on a game leg. "There are too many places where the soldiers have difficulty. They cannot escape before the bombs explode, not in this amount of time."

"Did they even set the explosives?"

Big Boss walked to the map again and studied it.

"No, sir. There is no use in wasting even the token detonation charge."

"Where are the bombs set up?" asked Big Boss.

One of the younger soldiers with a bit of nerve walked to the map and pointed to an out of the way corridor. "Over here, sir." A raw recruit, his voice still cracking with youth.

"How much time?"

"The song lasts 3 and a half minutes," said the old soldier, pushing the youngster out of the way. The boy stumbled, and without a glance, Big Boss pulled him up. "We insert here. The men have to make their way here ," he said, stabbing at the map. "We need to do it in under ten minutes. There are a number of alarms that we change every day: hitting one of them stops the exercise. The men carry the explosives with them. 50 kilos."

Big Boss nodded. "Right." He took another hard look at the map. "Give me a weight, and let's start the timer."

The old soldier cracked a smile as his eyes flitted to Big Boss's patch. "Right you are, Lieutenant Colonel. If anyone can show these youngsters how it's done, it's a man like you." The smile never wavered, and the soldier sat down, but his tone bordered on insubordination. He nodded at a pile in the corner. "The weights are right there."

"Sir," Habil smiled uneasily. "You really don't have to prove anything-"

"You have no faith, Major." Big Boss picked up one of the stones. "I believe in leadership by example. You're free to stay here, of course." Habil's eyes widened as he realized he was being told to join in the demonstration. "How do you set the fake explosives?"

"Set it to 3 minutes when the song starts playing. It's a simple push button timer when you get there." Big Boss nodded minutely. "Then get back here before it goes off." The old soldier glanced at the younger men, then pressed the button on his stopwatch. "Go."

Big Boss went. He moved fairly slowly through the area at first, alert for the traps the old man had mentioned. The first one he came across was high in the corner: a security camera that scanned on a slow path. He took note of it on the mental map he had memorized earlier, his internal clock already synchronizing the timing with his mental timer counting the 8 and a half minutes he had left.

The second and third traps were easy to avoid: simple trip wires placed at awkward heights. The fourth was a variation on a theme: instead of trip wires, laser beams were strung up and down the hall like so many Christmas lights. He avoided them and found himself only meters away from the goal, with over 5 minutes left. He walked around the shallow pit just in time for the sound of drums to fill his ears. "We swear by the lightning that destroys..."

"That bastard," muttered Big Boss with a sardonic shake of his head. "I knew he'd do that..."

He put the stone on the floor and pressed the button. When the timer started, he grinned and looked around the area for a few seconds more before leaving. "We are soldiers in revolt for truth..." The lasers had started to move. Big Boss shook his head, but avoided them easily. He started running, jumping over the tripwires.

"From our heroes we shall make an army come to being." He pressed his back against the wall and carefully went under the camera's view. "From our dead we shall build up a glory." When he finished evading the camera, he broke into a run.

He exited the tunnels with a smile on his face. The soldiers were flabbergasted. "Let it be written with the blood of martyrs," Big Boss sang with the Algerian Anthem. "And be read to future generations. Oh, Glory, we have held out our hand to you, we are resolved that Algeria shall live!"

"So be our witness. So be our witness. So be our-" The sound of the explosion drowned the last word.

"So be our witness," said the young soldier quietly, his hand rising to a salute.

Habil looked at Big Boss for a moment, astonished. "That..." Big Boss grinned and tilted his head to let the man give the requisite speech to inspire his men. The major turned to his soldiers. "That is how a true hero of the Union lives and breathes his calling!" he declared. "The West cannot defeat such men as this. We must all follow his example!"

The soldiers were still looking at Big Boss. Most of them had gone into full salutes. "At ease," said Big Boss. "What one man can do, so can all of you. Don't tell me what isn't possible: show me what is." He sent another grin to the old soldier, who was even now staring unashamedly at Big Boss' covered eye. "And no man is a cripple." The old man's eyes took on a faraway look. The young one's took on an idealistic glow. Habil looked uneasily at everyone. "And always remember the chain of command." The eyes of the other men turned to Habil.

"I want each of you to practice the course alone, with two stones! We will be ready, sir!" said Habil with a tone almost approaching the religious fervor Big Boss had heard from some of the Shiites who'd subsequently killed everyone around them in suicide blasts. Big Boss gave Habil a half-grin.

"There are some fine men here. I have no doubts that they'll be ready to complete their duty. I'm going to take a look at the rest of this facility. Remember what I said, Habil: leadership by example."

"Yes, sir!"

Wow. A week on two sites and not a single review? Is anyone reading?
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Brothers in Arms