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M E T A L G E A R S O L I D 2
S O N S O F L I B E R T Y
=== NASTASHA ROMANENKO'S BOOK FAQ ===
version 1.0
- Game Release Date: November 11th, 2001
- Developed/Published by: Konami
- Console: Sony Playstation 2
- Art Director: Yoji Shinkawa
- Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
- Military Advisor: Motosada Mori
- Producer / Director: Hideo Kojima
- Author of the FAQ: Imperator
luis.imperator@gmail.com
a.k.a. imperator171 (at GameFAQs boards)
==========================================================================
TABLE OF SECTIONS
________
/ 0001 |
==========================================================================
|| Name || Section # ||
==========================================================================
|| || ||
|| Table of Sections || 0001 ||
|| Version History || 0002 ||
|| About Nastasha Romanenko || 0003 ||
|| || ||
|| || ||
|| "The New York Mirror" || 0004 ||
|| || ||
|| "The Shocking Conspiracy || 0005 ||
|| Behind Shadow Moses" || ||
|| || ||
|| -------------------------------- || ---- ||
|| THE BOOK: || 0006 ||
|| "In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: || ||
|| The Unnofficial Truth" || ||
|| -------------------------------- || ---- ||
|| || ||
|| Special Thanks || 0007 ||
|| Contact Imperator || 0008 ||
|| Copyright Info || 0009 ||
|| || ||
==========================================================================
:: HOW TO NAVIGATE THE FAQ ::
You have to highlight the code section, copy it, enter your browser's
"Find" function, paste it there, and Find. If not working, then click the
Find button again.
Or simply highlight the code section and follow:
CTRL+C, CTRL+F, CTRL+V e ENTER
NOTE: If you are a Mac user, then, you should use:
[Command] + C, [Command] + F, [Command] + V e ENTER
CONTRIBUTIONS AND CORRECTIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME IN THIS GUIDE.
==========================================================================
VERSION HISTORY
________
/ 0002 |
==========================================================================
Version 1.0 (01/15/2005) - HUGE Update
- "The New York Mirror" added
- "The Shocking Conspiracy Behind
Shadow Moses" added
Maybe the last update. I'll update it
only if necessary or if some sugestion
convince me.
Version 0.8 (01/12/2005) - The FAQ is just born
I've just started to write it, but I
guess there will be only this version.
==========================================================================
ABOUT NASTASHA ROMANENKO
________
/ 0003 |
==========================================================================
Name: Nastasha Romanenko
Sex : Female
Age : 30
Nationality : Ukrainian
Height : 166cm
Profile:
1970s - Born in Ukraine.
1986 - She and her family were showered by the radiation from the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Prypiat (A City 3
Kilometers north of Chernobyl).
1990 - After losing her parents, who participated in the cleanup at
Chernobyl, she moves to the US.
1992 - Joins the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency).
1995 - Leaves the Bureau to become a freelance analyst. Writes for
assorted information magazines and US Naval information magazines.
1996 - Attends the Canberra Committee, the world's first nationally
hosted nuclear weapon abolition proposal group, as an advisor.
Where you can talk to her:
on Metal Gear Solid (Playstation, 1998) or
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GameCube, 2004) at
codec frequency 141.52
Where you can find her book:
This book is found inside Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
(Playstation 2, 2001). Procede the following:
- In the Main Menu choose "SPECIAL" (pressing circle)
- Click "Previous Story"
- Read the "The New York Mirror" article until the last page
- Then it will automatcally open the text "The Shocking Conspiracy
Behind Shadow Moses"
- Read it to the end and you should be able to view "In The Darkness
of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth"
Same procedure at Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (Playstation 2 /
XBOX / PC, 2002/2003)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What? A game character writing a book? Yes, my friend. Kojima had this
nice idea of exposing the view of someone who was inside of it all, and
should be able to tell with details the events happened in that fateful
day on that fateful place.
If you are really a MGS series fan, you MUST read this book. Well, it is
more readable here than on TV, I think. You can also print it, so it gets
better to read.
OK, folks. Enjoy the book! As much as you can. Feed yourself with every
single detail descripted here. Here it goes!
==========================================================================
"The New York Mirror"
________
/ 0004 |
==========================================================================
“In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth”
Author: Nastasha Romanenko
Reviewed by: George Franklin
Some topics in the recent American past have the immediacy and the
power that still engage our collective imagination. Names like, “The
Grassy Knoll,” or “Roswell”, roll off our tongue with deliberateness
reserved by most other nations for holy lands. With this new nonfiction
account from Natasha Romanenko, Shadow Moses – the scene of a nuclear
siege two years ago – is set to join their ranks.
Official history states that the takeover of a nuclear weapons
disposal facility on a lonely outpost in the Fox Islands, Alaska was the
work of a radical right-wing group. Their demands for the release of group
members incarcerated in federal penitentiaries were never met, and the
incident was speedily resolved by the successful deployment of a commando
unit. B.S… the author asserts. Romanenko says that she served as an
advisor to the Nuclear Emergency Search Team and deconstructs what she
claims to be a cover-up story by the government with precision.
According to the author, Shadow Moses Island was nothing less than the
U.S. Army’s testing grounds for a top-secret weapon known as Metal Gear
Rex, an all-terrain bipedal tank with advanced nuclear capabilities. As
for the facility’s takeover, Romanenko alleges that is was the U.S.
military’s own shadowy “wet-works” force, known as “FOXHOUND” that staged
an armed insurrection in a bid for REX’s possession.
The government responds to this crisis by sending in a lone operative,
a former FOXHOUND member known only by the code name “Solid Snake,” into
Shadow Moses. His infiltration is aided by a remote mission control team
consisting of an unidentified “Colonel Campbell,” a FOXHOUND medical chief
“Naomi,” a radar and electronics expert “Mei Ling” (supposedly a
teenager), and the author herself. Once on the island, “Snake” joins
forces with Metal Gear’s developer-turned-prisoner “Otacon” to eradicate
the weapon of mass destruction.
Among the other remarkable characters that make an appearance in
Romanenko’s expose is another FOXHOUND commando, a revolver-virtuoso
called “Shalashaska” a.k.a. “Revolver Ocelot.” One of the most
controversial allegations in the book deals with this figure’s connection
to a disavowed Russian militia led by a “Colonel Gurlukovich.” Romanenko
paints a bleak picture of a thousand-strong, highly disciplined army with
nuclear weaponry operating covertly within the American border. Even more
irresistible to conspiracy scholars and students of recent history is her
thinly veiled suggestion that the whole affair was planned from the
beginning by certain forces inside the U.S. government.
The U.S. Army and the usual suspect of federal agencies have issued a
statement denouncing the book as a complete fabrication. However, with a
number of detailed eyewitness accounts that back up the author’s
assertions cropping up daily on the Web, the denials serve more to enhance
the book’s growing reputation. “Shadow Moses” is an engrossing read for
casual and serious reader alike, and promises to involve readers in a
meaty debate over the truth of the matter for many years to come.
Excerpted from the library review column “All Booked Up”,
The New York Mirror.
==========================================================================
"The Shocking Conspiracy Behind Shadow Moses"
________
/ 0005 |
==========================================================================
The Shocking Conspiracy Behind Shadow Moses
by Gary McGolden
The island of Shadow Moses lies due north of Alaska's Fox Islands,
deep in the Arctic Circle. Above one of its rocky cliffs stands a cabin
normally used for meteorological surveys, and it was here that I found
myself, seated on a chair with my hands bound behind my back and a burlap
sack covering my entire head. A blizzard rages outside, and the cabin was
a dark, silent patch somewhere inside the storm. I could sense at least
four men around me.
They had been interrogating me for what felt like hours now. The
burlap sack is pungent with the traces of coffee beans. In the biting cold
of the cabin, images of Brazil come to me unbidden; alleys coiled through
with vivid, untended profusion of flowers, children with skin like frothy
chocolate, sunshine capable of burning out the cornea, erupting between
palm fronds.
I can feel my sense starting to fail.
The man in the front of me asks for the second, or the hundredth, time.
"I'm going to ask you again. What's in the optical disc?" "Told you, I
don't know. I just found it, okay?"
"You're lying, you bastard!"
A fist explodes into the pit of my stomach, bringing up a peanut butter
sandwich of many hours ago along with the rusty taste of blood. The
relentless beating and numerous knife cuts of the past hour have my whole
body screaming with pain, but I refuse to tell them what they wanted. I
had too much invested at this point, too many days of dangerous
investigation into the story of a lifetime. There was no way I was going
to give it all up at this point.
"That's enough."
A voice spoke up from somewhere in the back of the cabin.
"We have the disk back. Just get rid of him so we can get out of this
place."
Even in my current sorry state, I was still a journalist. He had said,
"We have the disc back." That meant that my hosts were the original owners
of that optical disc. The last piece of the puzzle was in it's place; I
knew beyond a shadow of doubt that everything recorded on the disc was
true, and that the conspiracy I had suspected did in fact exist.
At that moment, I heard a window shatter.
The raging storm outside seemed to gain entry to the cabin in an instance,
and I heard thin screams from the captors that encircled my chair. The
next second, they had already fallen heavily onto the floor.
The brief confusion ended before I regained enough presence of mind to
even panic. Whoever was now here, whatever had happened, my tormentors
were obviously out of commission. But now I could hear measured footsteps
approaching across the floor.
If this person had just saved my life, who was it? Or was I about to share
the others' fate? The footsteps came to a halt in front of me, but
strangely enough, I did not feel any sort of a presence nearby.
The burlap was slowly lifted from around my head, pulled off by an unseen
hand. The stinging night air cooled my face, and my eyes gradually
regained focus in the darkened room.
And I could finally see who it was that stood before me.
Just out of the sight of most of its citizens, a massive conspiracy
determines the working of this nation.
Weapons of mass destruction secretly developed by the military.
Super-soldiers re-engineered into war machines through genetic
manipulation.
A killer virus that only targets specific individuals with deadly
accuracy. Tanks that walk rather than roll, and carry a nuclear payload.
A covert organization, the third and the most powerful political party,
my encounter with which landed me in this chair in the Alaskan winter...
All of these are a part of the truth I found sealed within the optical
disc, and I intend to share what I have learned in the pages to follow.
That includes everything I now know about our government, and the secret
arena where an even greater power pulls the strings. This is the truth
many have glimpsed but never dared to talk about.
Everything detailed in this book actually happened, and after I lived it,
my world was no longer the same safe place I knew. Neither, I promise,
will be yours if you have the courage to keep going.
It all began a month ago –
THE POSTMAN RINGS
A month before my dramatic escape from death on Shadow Moses, I was having
late breakfast in my apartment in New York.
Ever since and alien abduction episode in my childhood, I'd been plagued
by a persistent ringing in my ears.
A large patch of mud was my undoing. I slipped, fell and was knocked
unconscious. When I came to, it was already dawn.
Later, I was trying to see the bump on the back of my head in the mirror
when I saw "IT" instead. A small hole, about the size of a pinprick, had
been made behind my ear. You learn a little something when you watch as
much TV as I did. There was no doubt that I had been abducted by a passing
UFO, and had spent the hours while unconscious with alien beings!
Unfortunately, no one in the area recalled seeing a UFO, and not a single
person had the sense to listen to my story realize now that this was the
day I decided to uncover truth for a living, and become a journalist.
But back to the present day. It turned out that the ringing wasn't in my
ear, but from the doorbell. The thing shrieked somewhere south of a
baritone bat sonar, barely within the range of human hearing. Blame the
mangling it took from a particularly displeased visitor. Outside the door
was the mailman, and in the mailman's hand was a thick manila envelope. On
the envelope was a label, addressed to me.
A letter bomb!
I pressed my ear against the envelope and concentrated hard. But not a
tick from the thing. Of course, no one uses analog watches in bombs these
days. That's why they call it the Digital Age. In fact, why would there
even be a watch in a letter bomb? The point is that the unlucky recipient
opens it, and the bomb goes off. Which means that it's actually the
completely silent envelopes that are dangerous. I knew that opening that
flap would send my eggs to the big omelet in the sky, but you don't get to
be an investigative journalist for thinking inside the box.
I tore through the bottom of the envelope instead.
*Riiip*
No!
The contents of the suspicious envelope dropped to the floor with
lightning speed!
In this world, you can never be too careful. Let this be a warning to you,
readers: when circumstances compel you to open an envelope from the
bottom, turn it upside down first. As a rule, I discovered, objects fall
down, and this is what happened to the contents of my lethal envelope,
straight down into a half-eaten depth of a delivery pizza forgotten on the
floor. I don't recall when exactly this food item arrived on these
premises, but the thing was definitely a museum piece by now.
Fortunately, it wasn't a bomb but an optical storage disc, now liberally
smeared with peanut butter. This disc was the kind that comes in a clear
plastic casing, through which the rainbow sheen of the circular unit
shone. I gazed into it awhile, thinking of the UFO from that fateful day.
Anyway, I fished the optical disc out, noting the lack of a label. A quick
wash at the sink got rid of the crud it had accumulated.
The disc was drying by the window as I hunted through the now-harmless
envelope for clues. A single sheet of Xerox paper was stuck to the inside
and it read:
"From the desk of MAX SMITHSON, Editor-in-Chief, MEGASURPRISE magazine
I'm mailing you this optical disc that was sent to the edit department.
It's right up your alley, see if you can turn up something more. We'll do
a book if you get enough stuff together. This is your chance for a
comeback, so don't screw it up."
Max is an old friend, and used to manage most of my book deals way back
when. We hadn't seen each other much since I gave up writing. Not that
that he has the right to tell me about comebacks and screwing up, but I
find myself growing excited by the prospect of writing another book. But
there was a problem, and it was a big one. How the hell was I going to get
the disc's content?
THE SHOCKING TRUTH WITHIN
My next-door neighbor is a starving college student, and I hit him up for
the use of his computer now and then. I banged on his door and screamed
repeatedly until he scuffled up to the door half-asleep. Once inside, I
made a beeline for the piece of junk and stuck the disc into the drive.
The icon appeared on the display with a gentle whir. The file name read:
"In the Darkness of Shadow Moses".
But an urgent click on the icon only brought up an error message. What
nefarious scheme was this!? What secret encryption was preventing me from
accessing the data!? I clicked again and again with the same result, and
started to gnaw on the keyboard in frustration. The starving student comes
running over, wailing about his equipment. He typed in some moon-man
language, avoiding patches of my spit, and a frighteningly cheerful
application startup screen appeared on the display. Then lo and behold, I
finally laid my eyes on the dense mass of text, the contents of the disc!
At the very top it read: "'In the Darkness of Shadow Moses' by Nastasha
Romanenko."
The starving student was being scholarly and trying to read the text over
my shoulder. I knocked him out with a punch to the solar plexus and
devoured the file's content. It was like a blow to the head with a frozen
tuna; my brain was reeling from the shock. The file was fill of wild
stuff: top-secret conspiracies, incredible genetic experimentation,
cold-blooded military deployment of classified weapons. This was the most
incredible stuff I had ever come across.
THE UNOFFICAL FACTS ACCORDING TO THE DISC
Most readers should be aware of the series of strange military actions
involving an island father north of Alaska's Fox Island, some two years
ago. The island was called Shadow Moses, and received a series of
well-documented but never-explained visits of obvious significance. USS
Discovery, an Ohio class ballistic missile submarine, was ordered away
from its designated training area and was confirmed offshore of Shadow
Moses Island. It joined an E-3C AWACS that had already and suddenly been
deployed to the area, with none other than Jim Houseman, the National
Security Advisor, aboard. Sixteen hours later, 6 F117 Night Hawks with
full a payload took off from the Galena AFB for Alaska.
Various theories were placed into circulation by the media at the time.
Some journalists insisted it had been a foiled invasion attempt by a
foreign state, other suspected a coup d'etat by a part of the U.S.
military. I myself wrote an opinion piece for a magazine explaining that
Shadow Moses was the Ellis Island for the "Greys." This diminutive grey
race is after all the most famous of our alien neighbors, notorious for
having secret bases all over planet Earth. But according to this file, we
had all been off our marks.
What had instead unfolded on Shadow Moses was the most major terrorist
incident in history, and apocalyptic scenario born out of a
government-developed superman project and a doomsday weapon of the same
origin.
On that fateful day, the nuclear weapons disposal plant on Shadow Moses
had suddenly been seized by an irregular operations squad called
"FOXHOUND", aided by a group of next-generation super-soldiers. And what
they threatened was no less than a nuclear strike against the mainland
United States!
So how is it that we're still alive? Apparently we have a man known only
as "Solid Snake" -- an his solitary infiltration of the disposal facility
-- to thank for it.
Believe it or not, this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the
Shadow Moses incident is concerned. This disc contains many more
horrifying facts such as a major government conspiracy, a classified
weapon described as a "walking nuclear-capable tank", and advanced genetic
manipulation projects. Many of these hidden dealings were discovered by
Solid Snake as he carried out his mission, and it is now my job to relate
these facts to you the readers.
But it is still a little too premature to do so? The content of the disc
may after all be nothing more than fiction, or even a delusion. After all,
who exactly is this Nastasha Romanenko?
IN SEARCH OF NASTASHA ROMANENKO
A quick search of the Web turned up a few illuminating facts about this
elusive writer. Nastasha Romanenko was at one point with the DIA (Defense
Intelligence Agency). At the time of the Shadow Moses incident, she
appears to have been a freelance military analyst, having already resigned
from the Agency. Nuclear and weapons technology would certainly be right
up her alley, and in the disc she states that she took part in Solid
Snake's mission support. Her exact role was as a member of NEST (Nuclear
Emergency Search Team), providing field expertise via the radio. Her
intimate involvement in the mission gave her a complete and clear grasp of
the facts surrounding the case despite the government's successful
cover-up. A look at Romanenko's curriculum vitae and body of papers makes
her anti-nuclear stance more than obvious. That, along with all the other
facts about this person, suggests that unless she suffered a sudden
chemical imbalance or is plotting a second career as a Hollywood
screenwriter, Nastasha Romanenko does not indulge in expounding conspiracy
theories for its own sake.
All very interesting. So where is Nastasha Romanenko now? I decided to
give Global Elements Inc., the book's publisher a call. Below is a
complete transcript of the conversation.
Me: "Hello. Listen, you leftover carnival prize, what do you know about a
woman named Nastasha Romanenko?"
Whoever it was: "Hey, your village called. They want their idiot back. And
watch your language, freak." Click.
Clearly, they're hiding something. Why else the abrupt response and the
hasty hang-up? I was on the trail of something important. Something
dangerous. If the content of the disc was true, this Nastasha Romanenko
was definitely the Woman-Who-Knew-Too-Much. Her life would be in danger,
and she must either have gone to ground or was already dead. That brief
telephone conversation spoke volumes: there was contract out on her life!
If this was the price of speaking the truth as described in that disc, the
picture was complete. But was everything she wrote really true?
I went back to my apartment and packed a bag. I was headed for Shadow
Moses.
THE COLDEST PLACE
I took a plane out to the northernmost domestic airport and went to see my
cousin John-Dee.
John-Dee is a hardcore Alaskan and a big-eye tuna fisherman. When I asked
him to drop me off at Shadow Moses Island during one of his trips out to
sea, he turned pale and a nervous tick started up at the corner of his
eye. "Shadow Moses? Are you nuts? All the other guys say the place is
crawling with the military. If you get even close to the shore they shine
these huge searchlights in your face, and some of my buddies even got
interrogated once!"
I felt the sudden chill of fear along with a certainty that I was on the
right track.
"You're a wuss, you know that? Try being abducted by a UFO, that'll teach
you what's really scary."
"I got a family, you know? I'm not about to go messing around with The
Man!"
"OK, you get me as close as you can then. I'll swim the rest of the way."
"Swim? You're gonna turn into frozen tuna treat."
"Don't worry about that. I have an idea."
We sailed out for Shadow Moses Island that day.
THE TRIP TO SHADOW MOSES
It was colder than the dairy section and the boat pitched like a subway
derailment on caffeine. I shook constantly from the cold, retched peanut
butter into the sea, then downed some more to keep warm. A few days passed
in this pleasant fashion until John-Dee, drawing lines on his charts,
turned to me.
"I'm sorry man, but this as far as I can go. If you really want to do this
thing, you're going to have to find your own way."
There were at least 20 miles to Shadow Moses according to the charts. But
John-Dee was already a blubbering wreck, and I didn't have the heart to
strong-arm him. I steeled my nerves.
"It's okay. Help me get ready."
The plan was brilliant. I'd gutted a super-size tuna and stuffed some
inflated balloons inside, along with a small oil lamp to keep the interior
toasty. I would cover the length of my body with the fish and dog-paddle
my way to the island. Any oxygen shortage could quickly be remedied thanks
to the balloon, and my landing would appear to be nothing more than a
large dead fish swept ashore. All I had to do was slip out of the tuna
undetected and investigate the hell out of the place. Absolutely
brilliant.
I bore the fishy stink of the tuna skin with proper journalistic aplomb
and walked to the edge of the ship's deck. The Arctic wind was numbing
even through the wetsuit, but I bade John-Dee a hearty farewell and jumped
into the sea. But right then, disaster struck!
Actually it was the tuna spine. Its bony mass conked me hard on the back
of my head from the force of the landing. I tried to right myself, but I
was jammed tight against the balloons. The tuna started to sink rapidly,
and I kicked my legs wildly as about a gallon of seawater rushed into my
lungs. To add insult to injury, the lamp fell over, shedding its cover. I
could feel the heat of the exposed flame dangerously close to my face, and
smell the singed hair. This is why I hate traveling.
But after what felt like hours, I found myself ashore on Shadow Moses
Island. Let's take a moment here to review what happened on the island on
that fateful day. Romanenko's disc provides a complete answer.
Shadow Moses was no ordinary weapons disposal facility, but served as a
secret military training ground among other things. On that day, the
wetworks commando unit known as FOXHOUND and the next-generation Special
Forces group were conducting joint exercises.
FOXHOUND is an "irregular" squad of elite soldiers, equipped and armed to
the teeth with the latest technology. There were longtime -- and strictly
behind-the-scenes -- players throughout recent history, engaging in
sabotage, selective assassinations and other covert military operations.
Wherever the United States could not officially intervene, whether it was
a civil war, regional unrest or other types of low-intensity conflict,
FOXHOUND was there. It's unlikely, however, that an average citizen has
ever heard of them before; these commandos remain a top-secret government
project.
And then there's the next-generation Special Forces unit. This is a
cutting-edge anti-terrorist force newly organized to cope with terrorist
incidents specifically involving weapons of mass destruction typified in
nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. They drew heavily from former
mercenary ranks, and are on a diet of rigorous VR training guided by the
FORCE 21 concept. The result is combat capability, which is rumored to
surpass even those of the Delta Force and DEV GRU (formerly known as Seal
Team 6). Most frightening of all, these soldiers have supposedly been
manipulated at the genetic level to increase their combat performance.
They were the purebreds among the dogs of war, and they turned on their
masters with a surprising demand. Having seized the civilians that were on
hand, they demanded that the government turn over to them the body of
FOXHOUND's founder and combat genius, the so-called "Big Boss." The
government had 24 hours to comply or a nuclear strike would be initiated.
But what would motivate them to make such a demand, and how did they
intend to make good their threat of a nuclear launch?
With these questions still unanswered, the government decided on a
seemingly reckless course of action. For this daunting task of stopping a
nuclear strike and freeing the hostages from the clutches of these
ultimate soldiers, they sent in a single man. His name was Solid Snake --
no other than a former member of the now-renegade FOXHOUND and a legend
among mercenaries for single- handedly bringing down the fortress cities
of Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land.
Your reaction is probably one of incredulity. "Just one guy?" You may
wonder. "They decided to gamble the future of the entire world on a single
mercenary?" I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. But there is more
to this mission than meets the eye, as I was later to discover.
SOLID SNAKE'S REMOTE SUPPORT TEAM
Snake was delivered to the island by USS Discovery, an Ohio class
ballistic missile submarine. He may have been the lone field operative,
but there was a distinguished mission control team in contact with him by
radio.
The overall control of the mission rested with Colonel Roy Campbell aboard
the USS Discovery. As a former commander of FOXHOUND and Snake's CO during
the 1999 Zanzibar Land standoff, he was forcibly called out from
retirement to deal with this latest crisis.
Also aboard the Discovery was Dr. Naomi Hunter, a genetic engineering
expert with the commercial biotech firm ATGC Inc. She was in charge of
FOXHOUND's gene manipulation program. Mei Ling, the architect of the
mission's state-of-the-art radar and communication systems, was the third
team member. Apparently something of an engineering wunderkind, she
developed this next-generation communication technology while still as
student at MIT. At the time of the mission, she may have still been in her
teens.
McDonnell Miller, a former FOXHOUND survival instructor, was the only
land-bound member of the mission control team. Unlike the other four,
Miller was working out of his home in Alaska at his own request.
Lastly, Nastasha Romanenko, the author of "In the Darkness of Shadow
Moses," rounded out the team as an expert on nuclear and other weapons of
mass destruction.
WHAT TERRORIST ACTS WERE COMITTED HERE?
THE HOSTAGES AND WHAT THEY TELL US
The first task faced by Solid Snake upon his infiltration of Shadow Moses
Island was the rescue of the hostages. Two of the captives in particular
were considered top-priority, but neither survived the mission. Though
Snake successfully freed both men, they died suddenly in an identical
manner. At the time, the mission control team tentatively attributed the
deaths to heart attacks -- a diagnosis that was to prove starkly
incorrect.
The first hostage was Donald Anderson, the head of DARPA (Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency), the R&D body of the U.S. Department
of Defense. The organization is responsible for planning and overseeing
the development of new weapons technology.
The other VIP hostage, Kenneth Baker, was the president of ArmsTech, one
of the largest and most powerful defense subcontractors in the country.
An overseer of the U.S.'s war technology and a powerful arms producer
don't just happen to meet in an out-of-the-war military outpost. No one
reading this account can fail to realize that these two had no business
in a nuclear weapons disposal plant. And since neither Anderson nor Baker
was in the habit of enjoying winter picnics, Romanenko's assertion that
there was a new weapon secretly being developed on the island rings all
the more true. According to her, there was indeed such a weapon, and it
was close enough to completion to warrant a field test. But what exactly
was this new weapon?
THE MOTHER OF ALL WEAPONS
Metal Gear. I'm not sure it's a term that many of you have heard. I know
it only as a kind of a journalistic urban legend while I was still a beat
reporter. It was a phantom bipedal tank that moved with unprecedented
speed across difficult terrain such as mountains, desert and swamps,
firing nuclear warheads from locations that were previously impossible.
Once this weapon rolled off the < assembly line, nuclear strikes could be
made from almost any adverse terrain, and the tactical nuclear map for the
whole world would be rewritten.
This nuclear-capable bipedal tank is said to have lurked in the wings of
both Outer Heaven of South Africa and Zanzibar Land in Central Asia. One
theory holds that the development had progressed to a working prototype
stage, but the weapon never materialized on the world arms stage. In a
strange coincidence or a casual connection, it was none other than Solid
Snake who saved the world from the threat of Metal Gear during both
incidents.
But history does indeed repeat itself, and the specter of Metal Gear rose
once again -- in the state-of-the-art weapons development program of
Shadow Moses Island. When I reached this point in the narrative, I
suddenly checked myself. Wasn't Metal Gear's time effectively over? Ever
since the collapse of the Soviet Union late last century, the idea of
mutual assured destruction and the arms race to maintain this dangerous
status quo had been fading into obsolescence. The START2 treaty signed by
both superpowers had already started to chip away at the nuclear stockpile
even back then. In fact, the disposal facility at Shadow Moses had been
built to disarm and temporarily store many of these same warheads. With
the very idea of nuclear weapons under serious scrutiny, why would the
military invest in the development of a nuclear-capable tank? Or was
there something more to this weapon?
THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Metal Gear REX, the newest of its
kind. Almost forty-five feet in height, equipped with Vulcan cannons and
laser array and shielded by a cutting-edge composite armor, rendering the
unit practically impervious to even HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank)
warheads. And I haven't even gotten to the truly scary part of this thing.
The crown jewel of this Shadow Moses Metal Gear was its rail gun
technology. The gun was designed to fire nuclear warheads clear of the
atmosphere, where they would automatically align themselves to the target
and ride the optimal trajectory back down to Earth.
"So what?" you may think. "There's a big fat missile flying in from the
sky. Who cares where it came from? Just shoot the damn thing down." But
here's the catch: You won't be able to find any of REX's warheads, let
alone shoot them down. Don't believe me? The facts bear me out.
Normally, ballistic missiles go through four phases from launch to impact.
The first is the boost phase, which consists of the time between the
missile's launch and the point at which it leaves the atmosphere and
exhausts its supply of rocket propellant. Following the burnout, the
rocket enters the post-boost pause that concludes with the separation of
the reentry vehicle that contains the warhead. The third stage is the
midcourse phase, in which the reentry vehicle separates and achieves a
controlled descent back into the atmosphere. The warhead's reentry into
the atmosphere and its arrival at the target mark the fourth and terminal
phase.
Current missile defense systems are alerted to incoming ballistic missiles
by detecting the rocket burn during the missile's boost stage. However,
Metal Gear's missile technology employs a rail gun rather than
conventional rocket propulsion to achieve boost-stage acceleration. As a
result, there is nothing for existing missile defense systems to detect.
The rail gun's effectiveness is nothing short of amazing, with a range of
over 3000 miles, rivaling that of mid-range ballistic missiles. It
reliably homes in within 170 feet of the target 50% of the time, placing
it in the same class as high-end ICBM's. The ability of a Metal Gear to
conquer virtually all terrain means that the rail gun can launch a
stealthy nuclear strike from almost any spot on the globe.
This invisible attack would make it impossible for anyone to pinpoint the
origin of a given missile even in the event of a strike. Without a clear
aggressor to retaliate against, the concept of mutual assured destruction
falls apart. Without the fear of MAD, the existing rules of nuclear
non-engagement would no longer apply.
It also wouldn't matter if the whole world knew that a nuclear missile
would be launched from Shadow Moses Island; the missile defense system
was helpless against the new breed of ballistic missiles. This was exactly
what the terrorists counted on in unleashing Metal Gear REX and its
all-powerful nuclear weapon against the world.
WHAT I FINALLY SAW INSIDE THE FORTRESS
Anyway.
I trudged through the cave, sweating under the weight of my trusty tuna.
Soon, the rocks gave way to smooth walls and a row of bright lights. I
had finally arrived -- this was no doubt the cradle of insurrections, that
military facility which Solid Snake so brilliantly penetrated, the eye of
the storm that threatened to engulf the world! Fortunately, there was not
a soul to be seen. I could, however, hear a faint cry amidst the whistle
of the wind.
"Gary, help me -- "
I couldn't believe my ears. How could anyone on a remote island that I'd
never visited know my name? I took a good cautious look around and saw a
familiar figure among the steel pillars in the corner. It was -- John Dee!
My cousin, who'd so carelessly pitched me overboard into the subzero water
only few hours ago, was now sitting on the ground, tied to a post. What
had happened?
"Help, Gary -- "
I trotted over to where he was calling pathetically, the tuna heavy on my
back. He smiled weakly when he saw me.
"What the hell happened to you, John-Dee?" I asked, crouching down next to
him.
"I dunno. Right after I let you off, this black helicopter came around."
"A helicopter?"
"Yeah. A kind of squarish black one. The next thing I know, I'm tied up
here... Gary, why're you still wearing that fish?"
Was there more to this as I'd suspected? Who was responsible? The
military? Or that mysterious group mentioned in the disc, the one whose
authority outstrips even that of the President of the United States?
My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden gunfire. I instinctively pulled
the tuna over me again.
"Gary, you gotta help me! Untie me, will ya!?"
Where was the shooter? The bullets were wildly ricocheting off the posts,
making it impossible for me to pinpoint the origin. If I stayed put, I was
dead meat. What should be my next course of action?
"Untie me, man! Gary!"
"Don't call me Gary! I'm just a tuna!" I started to run, dodging bullets
and sprinting up the stairs. I was unstoppable, speeding away like a
gazelle in a large fishskin. Farewell, cousin John-Dee. There are
responsibilities greater than your safety that I must shoulder. Mine is a
high and lonely path.
SOLID SNAKE VS. THE ARMY OF DARKNESS
Let's take this moment to review Solid Snake's footsteps. The nuclear
weapons disposal facility that he had infiltrated was crawling with
terrorists, and engaging the enemy was unavoidable. This was a
battlefield, no mistake about it.
Snake's progress had been impeded at every step by the patrolling squads
of super-"genome soldiers," and such formidable FOXHOUNDs as Psycho
Mantis, the master of psychokinesis and mindreading, the chameleon -like
Decoy Octopus, the chaingun-wielding giant Vulcan Raven, and Sniper Wolf,
one of the best marksman in history. The following is a profile of
individuals whose involvement with the government conspiracy seems to be
the most intimate. The information should help make the terrifying truth
about this case more clear. - Revolver Ocelot. An ex-Spetznaz, also known
as "Shalashaska." After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he found
lucrative contracts as a mercenary in conflict-ridden regions throughout
the world. His activities led to his recruitment by the U.S. government,
and his entry into FOXHOUND. As his code name indicates, he is a brilliant
marksman whose preferred weapon is a revolver. Ocelot challenged Snake
when he came looking for Kenneth Baker, the President of ArmsTech Inc.
But the battle never reached the conclusion Ocelot wanted due to the
sudden intrusion of the stealth camouflage-clad cyborg-Ninja. The Ninja's
sword cut a deadly arc right through Ocelot's right arm, and Ocelot
retreated in agony.
The Russian sharpshooter also served as a liaison between his terrorist
band and a Russian militia led by the renegade Colonel Gurlukovich.
According to FOXHOUND leader Liquid Snake's master plan, the Russian
militia would join them on Shadow Moses after the nuclear strike had been
launched. They would then commence and all-out assault on the rest of the
world from their safe retreat on the island. With nuclear missiles that
could neither be detected nor defended against, over a thousand
first-class Russian soldiers, next-generation genome commandos and the
combat skill and tactical cunning of FOXHOUND, this new army's objective
was nothing short of World War III.
- The Ninja
The mystery figure equipped with a reinforced exoskeleton and stealth
camouflage confounded Snake as well as the terrorists with his superhuman
strength and agility. His interest seems not to have been what was
happening within the facility; evidence suggests that he was there solely
to engage Snake in battle. It was through such an encounter that Snake
realized the identity of the Ninja.
His name had been Gray Fox, and he was supposed to have been killed by
Snake, his best friend. This may seem surprising, but the dead coming back
tom life is a fairly routine occurrence. There are examples throughout the
world to prove the fact. When a Roland Grace's grave was relocated in
1952, there were deep gouge marks discovered on the inside of the
Hungarian farmer's casket lid. It looked as though the dying man had tried
to claw his way out of the coffin. On a brighter note, a Japanese man
called Jin-emon Natakama walked out of a stalactite cave in 1914, a full
ten years after he had gone missing while exploring the same cave. His
family was doubly astonished to discover that he had apparently not aged a
day since they last saw him. All this makes complete sense to me, and it
should to you as well in a moment. Two words: pyramid power. I have no
doubt that Gray Fox was forced to undergo the same revival process by
military scientists in the course of their horrific genetic experiments.
- Liquid Snake
I know exactly what you are thinking as you hear the name of the man who
led the Shadow Moses uprising -- and my answer is yes. Solid Snake, our
hero, and Liquid Snake are none other than twin brothers.
They are not, however, twins in the usual sense. This is yet another
manifestation of the U.S. military's dangerous love affair with genetic
engineering. The two Snakes are fighting machines created through the
so-called Project "Les Enfants Terribles"!
The rumors that the government is attempting "mass-production" of
super-solders are numerous and persistent. Just the other day, I came
across something called "D-People-E-O," a humanoid combat droid.
Development on the outer shell had gone off without a hitch, but the unit
had to have a human being inside to function, which B>094 decreased its
utility somewhat. The military finally realized the fact late in the game,
and pulled the plug. There was also a plan to use a well-known
psychokinetic's DNA material to breed an army of gifted soldiers.
Unfortunately, someone pointed out that there is indeed no spoon -- at
least not in a normal combat situation.
Solid and Liquid Snakes, however, were successfully created from their
"father" Big Boss’s genetic material. They were literally born to be
extraordinary soldiers, and it was no surprise that when they finally met,
the result would be a titanic confrontation.
WHAT I SAW ON THE ROOF
I hauled myself and the tuna up the steps, dodging the invisible sniper.
The spiral staircase seemed to go on forever. Just as I was about to give
up the climb, I saw the exit to the roof.
I pulled open the door and lurched into the faintly lit gloom. The subzero
wind felt soothing on my overworked body. I laid the tuna down and sat
down next to it, trying to catch my breath. The enemy may pursue me even
here, but I had nothing left in me to run with.
I pulled out my hip flask of peanut-butter-and-bourbon, and took a long
swig. The fiery liquid slid down my throat, hot and thick.
Peanut butter is my Waterloo. When I was a kid, I was a wuss who couldn't
eat peanut butter like other red-blooded children. One day, I decided to
confront this weakness of mine, and put myself on a peanut butter
overload; anything I put in my mouth had to have peanut butter on it. I
piled the stuff on everything from chilidogs without onions -- my favorite
dish -- to spearmint gum to my first girlfriend's lips.
The inevitable result was that I came to hate peanut butter. If I didn't
much like it before, I now loathed it with abandon. If I could gather the
entire world supply of peanut butter and dump it in the Bermuda Triangle,
I would. As it is, all I can do is eat as much of the stuff as I can.
Peanut butter, I will always hate you.
How does that song go?
"And I-ai-ai will always hate you-u-U-u."
No, that's not it.
"Will always -- "
It must be another song I'm thinking of. Can't remember. Snow is starting
to coat my shoes.
Where was my tuna? Oh, there it is, right next to me.
Bright light in my eye. Now I remember what day it is -- June 24th. The
anniversary of my UFO abduction. Why am I so sleepy? And what is that
sound?
It was a chopper. A squarish black one, and it was coming closer.
FOXDIE -- THE SECRET ASSASSINATION VIRUS
If you recall, I wrote that the two hostages -- the DARPA chief Donald
Anderson and ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker -- died of a heart attack
while they were being rescued by Solid Snake. The actual cause of their
death, however, was a specially engineered assassination virus called
FOXDIE.
FOXDIE is a retrovirus that kills only a select people; its development
was passed onto Naomi Hunter from her predecessor. Once FOXDIE find its
way into its target's system, the person dies almost immediately. It's
practically a viral equivalent of spontaneous human combustion.
Dr. Hunter had injected Solid Snake with this virus, and as he
unwittingly made contact with his targets one by one, they fell prey to
the retrovirus' power. But the decision to infect Snake was not hers --
that order in fact came directly from the Pentagon!
THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT'S GOAL
The true object of the DOD was to selectively assassinate the perpetrators
of the terrorist uprising. All Snake had to do was to come into contact
with the targets; the mission objectives he was actually given -- namely
to stop the nuclear launch and rescue the hostages -- were nothing more
than a smoke screen. By simply sending Snake in as a disease vector, the
Pentagon stood to reclaim their expensive investments, Metal Gear and the
bodies of the genome soldiers, with little risk of damage.
The Pentagon also believed that FOXDIE would successfully cover up the
incident by the virtue of its lethality. However, Naomi Hunter's
reengineering of the virus cast grave doubts on the reliability of FOXDIE
itself. Even though the nature of her manipulation was unknown, the
Pentagon decided to take extreme measures to counteract this development.
THE BOMBER ON THE HORIZON
Alarmed by the news of Dr. Hunter's tampering, the then-Defense Secretary
Jim Houseman personally took over as the mission's commander and headed
for Shadow Moses on an AWACS. Around the same time, a bomber took off from
a base in Galena, Alaska, carrying a payload of surface-piercing B61-13
tactical missiles. The Defense Secretary had decided on a more direct
approach to cover-up.
Fighting nuke with nuke -- it was a rationale that smacked of a return to
the arms race, and Snake was furious. He had already succeeded in
destroying Metal Gear REX, and the terrorist incident was over for all
intents and purposes. Was a nuclear air strike to be his prize for
accomplishing all this?
As it turned out, the air strike never happened. Somebody had
countermanded Jim Houseman's orders. You may think that the only person
with the authority to override the orders of the Secretary of Defense was
his commander-in-chief, the President of the United States. But like most
things in this account, the truth is far from obvious. The hand that
stopped the nuclear strike was that of a shadowy secret society!
But what kind of a group is it whose power outstrips even that of the
American Presidency?
THE FACE OF THE ENEMY
When I came to, I was sitting in a weather station cabin with a burlap
sack on my head and my hands tied behind my back. So this is the way it
ends, I thought dimly. I haul myself all the way out to this pimple on the
Arctic and died at the hands of an invisible executioner without finding
out a thing.
One of my captors moved in closer and started to rummage through my inside
chest pocket. I cursed inwardly; this was where I carried Nastasha
Romanenko's disc, the entire account of the Shadow Moses inside! My policy
is, the best way to ensure that something doesn't get stolen is to have it
with you at all times. Clearly, I needed to re-evaluate that one.
The man easily found and seized the disc.
"What is this?" He demanded.
"Whatever it is, it's worth more than you."
I responded with as much menace and dignity as the burlap on my head
allowed.
"Well, well, that is something..."
What followed was both highly tedious and painful, and nothing of great
significance was said until that electrifying statement, "We have the disc
back."
We've now come full circle since the start if my account, and caught up to
the point where it originated. It was unclear how the disc had gotten to
Max Smithson at MEGASURPRISE, but my captor's words indicated that the
disc had originally belonged to them. Either that, or they were the ones
who wanted it the most urgently. I took my courage in my hands and opened
a dialogue with them.
"You, you guys happen to be that secret society whose power outstrips even
that of the American Presidency? Answer me, you artificial coloring on a
cheap drugstore candy cane!"
This had the exact effect I'd hoped for, namely to send them into a
violent fit of rage. I must have hit pretty close to home. The contents
of the disc were as good as verified -- this was indeed the secret society
whose power outstripped even that of the American Presidency! In my
delight, I hardly paid attention to the obscenities that were being
screamed at me, nor to the distinct sound of a gun being pulled out of its
holster.
It was then that the cabin suddenly erupted into controlled chaos. It
seemed only seconds from the time the window was smashed in to the moment
I realized that my captors had been decimated and I was alone with my
savior.
Who was this human whirlwind? I was ready to lose my lunch from the
curiosity and the terror. I could taste the peanut butter in my mouth, I
could hear the enigma walk up to me, and lift the burlap sack off my head.
I concentrated on the hammering of my heart for a moment, then slowly
looked up.
There was nobody there.
I could see nothing, sense nothing. But someone was untying the ropes
biting into my wrists. Invisible hands place themselves on either side of
my head in a strange parody of a coronation. They deftly removed the
bandanna I had earlier fashioned into a clumsy bandage for my bruised
head; the faded piece of cloth was not my own, but a flotsam found on the
beach. I reached for the unseen figure with my shaking hands, but with one
quick flick of the bandanna, it was gone.
But there were more surprises to come. As I gingerly moved my stiff body,
I felt an unfamiliar bulk against my chest, and discovered the precious
optical disc, miraculously recovered. Not only that, but there were
enough backup copies to fill me with awe and pop the stitches on my flimsy
pocket.
I thought of my mysterious savior: possessed of superhuman fighting
ability, invisible, and capable of burning discs in an instant. There was
only one possible explanation.
He had to be an alien, probably the little gray kind.
LIFE AFTER SHADOW MOSES
And so I came in from the cold to my hole of an apartment in New York, my
trusty tuna beside me. The landlord mentioned that my neighbor, the
starving student, had gone missing recently. It could be that I was nosing
around the wrong information from his machine. If I ever see him alive
again, I should apologize.
I am currently banging out this manuscript on an antique typewriter. This
is the truth as described on the optical disc, and as elaborated and
verified by my own experiences on that fearsome island.
As this account draws to a close, my thoughts dwell more and more on
Nastasha Romanenko, the woman who risked everything by recording the
facts of the incident onto this disc. I think it was her way of giving
voice to the victims of this mission, the casualties of nuclear weapons
throughout modern history, and to all the lives disrupted and damaged by
an elaborate government conspiracy. Her will was passed onto a
counterculture journalist in New York City -- that's me -- and the truth
is now out there for all to see, just as she dreamed. Readers, the
responsibility to disseminate the facts of the Shadow Moses incident is
now yours. What will YOU risk to know the truth?
PUBLISHER'S AFTERWORD
This nonfiction work was based on the factual account written by Nastasha
Romanenko, a military analyst who allegedly took part in a secret mission
to counter a terrorist incident on Alaska's Shadow Moses Island. Her
account was published in its original, unabridged form as "In the Darkness
of Shadow Moses" after the successful publication of this volume. Gary
McGolden, the author, is a journalist and a nonfiction writer who is best
known for his past bestseller, "The Telekinetic Powers of the Loch Ness
Monster - The True Energy Source of UFOs". The details of McGolden's
adventures on Shadow Moses remain uncorroborated, but there are serious
doubts as to his tuna-aided landing on the island. There is in fact ample
evidence that he was swept out to another small island several miles south
of Shadow Moses and failed to realize that fact.
McGolden has seemingly vanished into thin air following his manuscript's
arrival at our humble offices. While this has been a source of great
pleasure to our accounting department, I sincerely hope that this
notoriously fickle but talented writer is hard at work on a follow-up to
this volume. Though certain aspects of the book require further
fact-checking, this alone should not dissuade you of the veracity of many
of its main assertions, nor should you dismiss the contents of Nastasha
Romanenko's disc outright. Instead readers should approach this account
with an open mind and a sense of adventure, much as Gary McGolden did when
he first received the disc in the mail.
I should note, however, that Gary was mistaken about one thing. I never
mailed him that disc.
Max Smithson, Editor-in-Chief
MEGASURPRISE Magazine
==========================================================================
:: THE BOOK ::
In the darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unnofficial Truth
________
/ 0006 |
==========================================================================
Written by | Nastasha Romanenko
Page 001 | I dedicate this book to the casualties of
| Shadow Moses as well as to all those who
| suffered the tyranny of the nuclear weapons
| -- and to Richard Ames.
|
|
| Nastasha Romanenko
|
|
|
Page 002 | PROLOGUE
| Shadow Moses Island: XX XX N, XX XX W
| Even the local fishermen rarely venture to
| this outcropping of land. Yet the incident of
| all incidents took place on this remote isle,
| north of Alaska's Fox Islands. A number of
| confirmed facts undermine the U.S. govern-
| ment's denial of the entire affair. Among those
| are the sudden appearance of the Ohio-class
| nuclear submarine USS Discovery off Shadow
Page 003 | Moses, far away from its designated position,
| and an official record that shows that a
| squadron of six fully-armed F117 Nighthawks
| departed from Galena Air Force base for
| Alaska a scant sixteen hours later. In another
| possibly related event, and E-3C AWACS on
| emergency deployment to the Alaska area is
| said to have had none other than the then-
| National Security Advisor Jim Houseman as
| its on-board VIP.
Page 004 | What exactly happened on Shadow Moses?
| There was no lack of rumors to account for
| this series of unusual military activities: an
| armed incursion, a coup attempt by a branch
| of the military and other theories made its way
| to the public table. I can state unequivocally
| that none of them came close to the truth.
| What actually took place was the single
| greatest terrorist incident in modern history.
| It was an act of political violence on a scale
Page 005 | the world had never seen, a blow that
| threatened to send the Damocles' sword
| of nuclear warfare into a free-fall. Most
| significant of all, the attack stemmed from
| several so-called 'Black Projects' which
| the U.S. government had been conducting
| in top secret, away from public scrutiny.
|
| I have in my hand two optical discs. One
| contains the entire record of events that took
Page 006 | place on Shadow Moses Island that fateful
| day; the takeover of a nuclear weapons
| disposal plant by an armed group. Other
| key points of this incredible record are:
| - The identification of the perpetrators as
| the government's own genetically-enhanced
| next-generation commandos and a covert
| special forces squad, FOXHOUND, with a
| long dark history of secret intervention
| - The existence of one Metal Gear REX, a
Page 007 | bipedal nuclear-capable tank whose deve-
| lopment was one of the most classified
| projects of all time
| - The discovery of a massive government
| conspiracy
| - The activities of a former FOXHOUND
| operative who single-handedly took on this
| daunting situation and averted the crisis, a
| man who is known only by his code name:
| Solid Snake
Page 008 | The other remaining disc holds the details
| of Project FOXDIE, a massive cover-up, which
| the U.S. government planned and executed in
| order to prevent exposure. There are, after
| all, forces within the U.S. government who
| seek to maintain the military power structure
| established in the last century, and will not
| hesitate to resuscitate the terror of nuclear
| arms in order to achieve that end.
| My intent is to expose their activity, and
Page 009 | the entirety of the Shadow Moses Affair,
| through this book. Only then can we hope
| to free the coming generations from the
| damnosa hereditas of the 20th-century
| nuclear arms race.
|
|
|
|
|
Page 010 | I looked up from the mass of documents at
| the sound of the doorbell. On the monitor in
| front of me was a half-finished status report
| on the resurgence of nuclear arms
| development in a certain Middle Eastern state.
| The UNSCOM (United Nations Special
| Commission) had officially requested a survey
| by the UN weapons inspectors, and had been
| refused entry; tensions were once again
| running high in the Gulf. As a military analyst
Page 011 | whose specialty was nuclear arms, I was
| under contract from a think tank to produce a
| study of the situation. It was due the day after
| the next, and interruptions were definitely not
| welcome. I ground out my cigarette in the
| ashtray and stepped out of the study.
| All visitors to my house are checked via
| a surveillance camera and then let in through
| the heavy gate. The property itself is
| surrounded by a high wall. It may seem like
Page 012 | overkill for a beach community, but security is
| a necessity in greater Los Angeles, if only to
| keep out the legion of swimsuit-clad tourists.
| However, there was nobody to be seen at
| the gate. It was either a prank, or the camera
| was malfunctioning.
| Reluctant to investigate but feeling unsettled
| nevertheless, I headed back to the study and
| sat back down at the computer to continue my
| work. Just then, someone spoke behind me.
Page 013 | "You always were a little careless."
| I spun around, kicking my chair over. There
| was a man standing at the entrance of the
| study, slouching in a well-tailored suit.
| "Richard!"
| He caught my eye and grinned. Ignoring my
| surprise, he strolled into the room, gazing
| around at the pile of books and papers.
| "And still as disorganized as ever."
| He shrugged his shoulders in a familiar
Page 014 | gesture, triggering a wave of memories laced
| with bitterness.
|
| Richard Ames and I were married, once
| upon a time. We were both young, and
| working for the DIA (Defense Intelligence
| Agency). We spent much of our brief marriage
| in disagreement over virtually every issue, and
| just as I come to realize that our union was
| a mistake, he disappeared from my life.
Page 015 | A while later, I received the paperwork for
| divorce from his lawyer. There was a generous
| alimony offer involved, which I refused. Not
| only did I find the thought of owing him
| anything intolerable, I also wanted to prove
| that he was not the only one who could walk
| away without an explanation. The divorce was
| finalized without us ever meeting face-to-face,
| and we were legally strangers once again. In
| the fire years since, I quit the DIA and became
Page 016 | a freelance analyst. I had not seen Richard at
| all, nor even heard of his whereabouts.
|
| "How did you get in here?" I demanded.
| After all, attempting to scale the wall or force
| the front door would immediately trigger the
| security system. But he refused to be ruffled.
| "If you're going to use a flimsy lock like that,
| may as well not bother. I'd recommend a more
| professional security setup."
Page 017 | "Does the term 'breaking and entering' mean
| anything to you, Richard?"
| "You know law isn't my field of expertise,"
| he replied nimbly and peered over my
| shoulder at the report on the computer
| display.
| "Radio isotope projectile separator...
| uranium-235 production feasibility for high-
| speed gas centrifuge... This must be about
| that Middle East nuke development. Look like
Page 018 | your career is going well. That's great."
| I pushed Richard aside and asked him flatly.
| "What do you want?"
| He took a step back and regarded me with
| a slightly mischievous smile.
| "What, you afraid I came back to give us
| another chance?" He let the silence linger as
| if to relish my reaction. Then, suddenly formal,
| he continued, "It's an official request from the
| DIA."
Page 019 | He place a folder on the desk. "I'm asking
| for your cooperation as a member of NEST."
| NEST stands for Nuclear Emergency Search
| Team, a group that operates on the Depart-
| ment of Energy budget. It was established in
| 1974 to provide technological support to the
| FBI in areas of intelligence, investigation, site
| securement, damage containment, and medical
| response during incidents involving criminal
| threats of nuclear weapon use. Call it a band
Page 020 | of experts on nuclear terrorism, if you will.
| NEST consists of independently contracted
| scientists from federally funded research
| entities like Los Alamos and Lawrence
| Licermore, and military specialists from groups
| dealing with nuclear arms issues. I happen to
| be one of the latter group.
| Richard was opening the file folder. "You've
| heard of Shadow Moses Island, I assume."
| I nodded assent. I had indeed heard of the
Page 021 | remote place, north of Alaska's Fox Islands.
| Though it was hardly public knowledge, the
| island was home to a nuclear weapons
| disposal facility
|
| According to the terms of the START2
| (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the total
| number of tactical nuclear warheads owned by
| the U.S. and Russia were reduced to some-
| where between 3000 and 3500 in the later
Page 022 | decades of the twentieth century. The outcome
| was a massive number of warheads in need of
| disposal when there was already a shortage of
| storage space for radioactive materials. As a
| result, warheads had to be kept somewhere
| before they could be dismantled and their
| radioactive elements extracted for long-term
| storage. The Shadow Moses facility was the
| answer. It was the crystallization of the forces
| of nuclear proliferation, political engineering
Page 023 | that gives preference to delaying a solution
| rather than producing one and a hidden
| military agenda to preserve what it could of
| the old nuclear stockpile.
|
| Richard took out several photographs from
| the folder and handed them to me. They all
| appeared to be satellite captures of the
| nuclear weapons disposal plant on Shadow
| Moses Island, perhaps acquired from the NRO
Page 024 | (National Reconnaissance Office). There were
| multiple human figures around the building
| structures.
| Richard broke the silence.
| "The disposal plant was seized by terror-
| ists." I looked up sharply at the news, but his
| next words left me speechless.
| "And the ringleaders are FOXHOUND
| members."
|
Page 025 | An "irregular" team of the best commandos
| the military has to offer, armed with cutting-
| edge technology. That was FOXHOUND. The
| best of the best, and completely unknown to
| the public they ostensibly serve. Their function
| was to intervene in the kind of low-intensity
| conflicts the U.S. could not officially touch.
| They were the shadow soldiers of numerous
| regional conflicts and civil wars, shaping
| history with sabotage, selective assassination
Page 026 | and other covert acts of war.
|
| Richard had more to say. "It's not just
| FOXHOUND that's involved in this. FOXHOUND
| was conducting joint exercises with the next-
| generation special forces, and they're a part
| of the takeover as well."
|
| The next-generation special forces is
| an aggressive anti-terrorism squad deployed
Page 027 | to counter acts of political violence involving
| weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear,
| biological and chemical warfare methods. The
| combat philosophy is derived from the one
| used for Force 21, and most of the recruits
| come from a mercenary background. The men
| are intensively trained in VR environment, and
| their combat capability is estimated to be well
| beyond even those of Delta Force or the Night
| Stalkers. While the government categorically
Page 028 | denies the accusation, there are persistent
| rumors that the men have been genetically
| enhanced to increase tactical advantage.
| FOXHOUND and the next-generation special
| forces. They were without a doubt the most
| skilled group of fighting men produced by the
| U.S., and they had hijacked a nuclear arsenal.
| Richard had more bad news.
| "There are also civilian hostages involved.
| Two of them happen to be the DARPA chief,
Page 029 | Donald Anderson, and Kenneth Baker, the
| president of ArmsTech, Inc."
| The Defense Advanced Research Projects
| Agency is the research satellite of the U.S.
| Defense Department, charged with planning
| and leading the development of new weapons
| technology; AT happens to be one of the top
| three defense contractors in the country.
| There is no such thing as a coincidence,
| especially the kind that involves the head
Page 030 | of those two organizations meeting in an
| out-of-way nuclear weapons disposal plant.
| I decided to be direct with Richard.
| "There was something going on in that
| 'disposal' facility, I take it? Let me guess --
| a demonstration of a new weapon."
| "How should I know? Shadow Moses is also
| a prime Northern Lights observation locale,
| you know." Whatever Richard knew, he wasn't
| telling. But his evasiveness only confirmed my
Page 031 | suspicions. Whatever was going on, this was
| no ordinary terrorist incident. With that in
| mind, I moved onto another point.
| "What are their demands?"
| "They want a body. Not just any corpse
| though -- they want FOXHOUND's founder,
| Big Boss. Legendary soldier, best fighting man
| of the twentieth century, the whole works."
| "His body? Why would they want something
| like that so badly?"
Page 032 | "No idea, but unless they have it within 24
| hours, they'll launch a nuclear strike," Richard
| glanced at the watch coolly, "So we have
| about 19 hours."
| "You don't seem too worried."
| "The DOD is already working on the
| situation."
| Just as I'd suspected. Richard always has a
| plan in place and the machinery in motion
| before opening up to someone else. All he
Page 033 | asks from others is approval after the fact.
| "Shadow Moses is completely locked
| down. We had to rule out deploying an entire
| assault team. Instead, we're inserting a single
| operative to free the hostages and prevent
| the nuclear strike."
| "Impossible."
| "Possible -- for Solid Snake."
| Solid Snake...! The former FOXHOUND, a
| legend among mercenaries for single-handedly
Page 034 | bringing down the fortress cities of Outer
| Heaven and Zanzibar Land. Yes, with Solid
| Snake in the picture, there was a possibility of
| success. But still...
| "USS Discovery, an Ohio-class nuclear
| submarine, is already in place with Snake
| aboard."
| So the plan was already a go. I looked
| Richard in the eye and held his gaze.
| "And what do I have to do with all this?"
Page 035 | He grinned. "Snake may be a legend, but he
| knows jack about nuclear weapons. Which is
| why I'm asking you to be a part of mission
| support. We'll have you set up in no time."
| Right on cue, two men started to move a
| large piece of hardware, apparently communi-
| cation equipment, into the study. Richard
| nodded towards the bulky load.
| "I'd like you to be available to Snake for
| consultation via satellite linkup."
Page 036 | As soon as the equipment was in place, an
| engineer type started to make adjustments. I
| could see another group of men setting up a
| satellite dish in the backyard. They were all in
| civilian clothes, but not a few of them had the
| build and the oddly-fitting jacket that marked
| them as armed military personnel. Clearly,
| refusal was not an option.
| But there was still something that puzzled
| me. NEST has a small investigative team, SRT,
Page 037 | on standby at all times for immediate
| response. They were stationed at Nellis AFB in
| Las Vegas, just over in Nevada. Clearly, they
| were the natural choice for this assignment.
| And if not the SRT, the DIA also had a number
| of qualified nuclear weapon specialists.
| Richard had started to direct his men on
| where to set up the equipment, but I inter-
| rupted him.
| "Why me?"
Page 038 | He turned and answered without missing
| a beat.
| "I need people I can trust. There's too much
| at stake."
| It was a lie. The Richard Ames I knew
| trusted no one. But it was clear that whatever
| the reason, he did not intend to tell me.
| "It's a good thing I was in. What would you
| have done if I weren't?"
| "You have to be somewhere. We would have
Page 039 | located you."
| "I'm sure you would have."
| "So are you in?"
| I took a deep breath. "Of course."
| I don't enjoy being a pawn, especially
| Richard's, but I had no intention of standing by
| while nuclear terrorism was in progress. A
| nuclear strike takes an untold number of lives,
| all in a blink of an eye, Adults and infants,
| women and men, it kills indiscriminately. If
Page 040 | there was a chance that I could do something
| to stay the hand on the nuclear button, I had
| to do it.
| "So everything is set..." Richard slapped a
| fist into the other palm.
|
| "Insertion was a success. Snake is on
| Shadow Moses." Richard walked into the
| study with the update he'd just received from
| one of his men.
Page 041 | The study was almost unrecognizable,
| thanks in part to the racks of communication
| hardware. Cables snaked across every square
| inch of available space, and engineers and DIA
| agents were coming and going in controlled
| chaos. The place looked like what in now
| was -- a temporary mission control room.
| Richard laid a hand on my shoulder.
| "You should be hearing from him soon.
| You're clear on how to use the radio?" I
Page 042 | nodded assent.
|
| While the engineers were busy setting up
| the equipment, I had been briefed on its use
| as well as the mission.
| Snake had been delivered to the general
| area of Shadow Moses Island by USS
| Discovery, and Ohio-class nuclear submarine.
| He was then ejected from the submarine on a
| swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV), which he
Page 043 | abandoned once within the range of under-
| water listening devices located near the
| disposal plant. He would swim the rest of the
| way, in the freezing cold Bering Sea water.
| This last leg of the insertion struck me as
| nothing short of suicidal until I learned that
| Solid Snake was outfitted with a state-of-the-
| art sneaking suit and had been injected with a
| compound designed to prevent the onset of
| hypothermia. In addition, while Snake would
Page 044 | be the only field operative involved, he would
| be in radio contact with a support team during
| much of the mission.
| The members of this support team drew
| from a wide range of backgrounds. The
| mission control officer was Colonel Roy
| Campbell, who would remain aboard the USS
| Discovery. I knew him by reputation alone. He
| was a former FOXHOUND commander, and
| Solid Snake's CO during the quelling of the
Page 045 | 1999 Zanzibar Land uprising. He had retired
| soon after, but from the looks of things, he
| had been called out of retirement for this
| mission.
| Dr. Naomi Hunter, a genetic engineering
| expert on a temporary assignment from the
| gentech giant ATGC, was also on the team.
| She had apparently been leading the bio-
| engineering program for FOXHOUND. Richard
| matter-of-factly confirmed that both FOX-
Page 046 | HOUND and the next-generation special forces
| had been undergoing genetic manipulation to
| enhance their combat capability. I have a diffi-
| cult time grasping what we have come to --
| modifying a person's essential genetic struc-
| ture for the sake of creating a better soldier.
| Also aboard the Discovery was Mei Ling,
| the inventor of the new radar and communi-
| cation system deployed for this mission. She
| was something of an engineering wunderkind,
Page 047 | an MIT student who managed to turn the
| current protocol of secure communication
| completely on its head.
| The last of the support team was McDonnell
| Miller, a former survival instructor for FOX-
| HOUND. Unlike the rest of us, he had
| volunteered his services upon receiving news
| of the incident on Shadow Moses. Like myself,
| he was working via satellite linkup from his
| home in Alaska.
Page 048 | The five of us were more than equipped to
| support Snake from our respective areas of
| expertise, but Snake was still the lone field
| operative and the mission was a desperate
| one. Despite that, Richard maintained that this
| was the most workable plan produced by the
| DOD situational analysis. In hindsight, perhaps
| I should have suspected something then. The
| signs of a conspiracy were there, cleverly
| disguised as it was in a seemingly reckless
Page 049 | mission plan. But we failed to see it, and both
| Solid Snake and I were to regret out folly
| bitterly.
|
| "It's time Nastasha," Richard called out as
| the call signal came on. The line was already
| live as I nodded to him and took my position.
| I could feel myself growing keener, more on
| edge.
| "This is Nastasha Romanenko. Good to meet
Page 050 | you, Solid Snake."
| "You the nuke expert that the Colonel was
| talking about?"
| The voice that responded over the radio
| was, above all things, calm. Here was a man
| operating alone out of a deeply hostile terri-
| tory, and I could sense nothing resembling
| tension or impatience in his tone. Instead, it
| was as level and unruffled as someone
| answering a routine telephone call at their
Page 051 | office desk. Impressed, I continued on.
| "Correct. If you have any questions about
| nuclear technology, all you need to do is ask.
| My department is military analysis, so I should
| be able to provide support with weapons
| information as well. I was called into this
| mission as a Nuclear Emergency Search Team
| (NEST) consultant, and I'd like to emphasize
| that my cooperation was freely given. I have
| no intention of allowing any nuclear strikes on
Page 052 | my watch, let alone the rogue kind. Let me
| work with you on this one."
| "...You get to the point fast, don't you?"
| "There's a missile that's about to fly. A
| nuclear strike can never be someone else's
| problem, and I'm not good at standing around
| twiddling my thumbs... Not that I can do little
| more than advise in this case."
| That fact was all too obvious. Snake was the
| one who was putting his life on the line in
Page 053 | Alaska, and I was safe and sound in California.
| All I could do was talk over the radio.
| Snake's voice became less abrupt. "It may
| not seem like much, but it's enough. No one's
| asking you to come out here and fight. That's
| my job... Anyway, Nastasha, I'll be counting
| on your help."
| It was strangely comforting voice, a voice
| that inspired trust.
| "Same here." As I answered, I resolved to
Page 054 | myself to do everything in my power to help
| him complete this mission.
| "The nuclear weapons disposal plant on
| Shadow Moses dates back to 2002. It was
| built solely for the purpose of temporarily
| storing nuclear warheads slated for
| disposal..." I started to brief Snake on the
| background of the disposal facility, running
| through the points he needed to know.
|
Page 055 | My first short exchange with Solid Snake
| ever, I was beginning to understand why he
| was called the man who "makes the
| impossible, possible." The icy clam in the
| face of insurmountable difficult, the absolute
| confidence, made it suddenly seem possible
| that he would pull off this deadly mission.
| He had the power to make me believe.
| I grew conscious of Richard's gaze.
| "What?"
Page 056 | "Oh -- just that you have a kind of glow
| about you when you're working. I like it."
| "A glow? Funny, you used to call it
| workaholism in the past. You found it very
| unappealing, I recall."
| "Time flies. People change their minds."
| "It's called nostalgia. You'll dislike it again
| soon enough."
| "Perhaps..."
| Richard continued to look at me.
Page 057 | Solid Snake certainly managed to live up to
| his reputation. He adroitly wove his way
| through the enemy's patrols and infiltrated
| the nuclear weapons disposal plant, where he
| made contact with Donald Anderson, the
| DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects
| Agency) director. Throughout the mission, we
| had radio monitoring capability over Snake's
| every movement thanks to his internal nano-
| machines. It was through this access channel
Page 058 | that I learned a shocking fact.
| Donald Anderson -- discovered in solitary
| confinement by Solid Snake -- confirmed that
| the terrorists had full nuclear capability, and
| that Shadow Moses Island was the site of a
| field exercise for Metal Gear.
|
| Metal Gear. The very mention of that name
| sent me reeling. It was the ultimate weapon, a
| nuclear-capable bipedal tank that could
Page 059 | launch a rapid and accurate nuclear strike
| from virtually any terrain, from mountains to
| marshlands to the desert dunes. It could
| bestow the dubious privilege of initiating a
| mission strike from sites that were previously
| out of the question as launch locations. For
| that very reason, analysts had long predicted
| that if brought to fruition, Metal Gear techno-
| logy would rewrite the tactical map of the
| world.
Page 060 | The are speculations that this Unholy
| Grail of weapons development was being
| pursued late last century in the South African
| fortress state of Outer Heaven, then in the
| ultra-nationalist sovereignty of Zanzibar
| Land in Central Asia. One source went so far
| as to claim that a working prototype had been
| produced, but the weapon never made it onto
| the world military stage; instead, it was
| destroyed by a special forces operative. The
Page 061 | squad in question was FOXHOUND, and the
| operative was a man codenamed Solid Snake.
| I briefly wondered if it were some strange
| quirk of fate that had brought Snake into this
| latest incident, but I knew Richard too well.
| Snake had to have been called in because of
| his past battles. Whoever had planned this
| mission had been thorough, and the more I
| realized the fact, the less I liked it.
|
Page 062 | A few years ago, I interviewed a high-
| ranking DOD official and led the conversation
| to the subject of Metal Gear. His response at
| the time was that the U.S. had very little
| interest in developing a weapon like Metal
| Gear (not that he officially admitted that such
| a thing as the Metal Gear existed - on a
| purely a hypothetical level, IF such a techno-
| logy were available). With the collapse of the
| Soviet Union, nuclear arsenals built to
Page 063 | enforce the idea of mutually assured
| destruction had lost its justification, and the
| deterrent argument was losing ground. In the
| current "multilateral world order rife with
| smaller regional powers" as he put it,
| development priority lay with cruise missiles
| and smaller weapons with lower lethality that
| could be carried by stealth bombers.
| He also went on to note that Metal Gear,
| with its affinity for rough terrain, would be
Page 064 | extremely difficult to discover and destroy.
| Hence, it was the perfect nuclear strike
| system for rogue states. He was deeply
| concerned that if such non-democratic
| sovereignties were to get a hold of Metal Gear
| technology, the resulting upset in the balance
| of military power would lead to a massive
| rupture in world order. It was a fear that I
| myself shared.
| An artifact of the Cold War. The devil's
Page 065 | candy, created by nuclear proliferation. That
| was what Metal Gear seemed to be. So why
| was this weapon, a cutting-edge technology
| that was politically long-obsolete, being
| developed once again on American soil? It
| was possible that the Defense Department
| wanted to restore last century's nuclear
| strategy to the national agenda. Or did this
| new Metal Gear have something that set it far
| apart from Metal Gear as I knew it?
Page 066 | Anderson had more to say. Metal Gear's
| launch key consisted of two separate pass-
| words, one held by Anderson himself and the
| other by Kenneth Baker, the president of
| ArmsTech. Anderson's own password was
| already in the terrorists' hands, and he feared
| that the same was true for Baker's. A
| renegade FOXHOUND psychic, codenamed
| Psycho Mantis, had literally read Anderson's
| mind and obtained the key.
Page 067 | The bottom line was that the terrorists
| could activate Metal Gear and launch the
| missile whenever they pleased. The worst-
| case scenario had come true.
| However, Anderson revealed that there was
| still a way to prevent the nuclear strike.
| Kenneth Baker alone had the emergency
| override key that could be used to reenter the
| launch code and cancel the missile launch.
| Even if the terrorists had already completed
Page 068 | preparations for a strike, the override would
| reverse the process.
| His only hope now riding on obtaining the
| override key, Snake attempted to leave the
| cell area with Anderson in tow. We heard the
| terrible cries over the radio at the same time
| Snake did. Anderson had suddenly started to
| clutch at his own chest in agony, and before
| we could even recover from our initial shock,
| he was dead. Dr. Naomi Hunter, monitoring
Page 069 | the situation from onboard USS Discovery,
| tentatively diagnosed the cause of death as a
| heart attack.
| Snake walked out of the cell alone in search
| of Kenneth Baker, leaving behind what had
| until recently been Donald Anderson, chief of
| DARPA.
|
| "All right, what exactly is going on here?"
| I confronted Richard as soon as I confirmed
Page 070 | Snake's safe departure.
| "You know the situation. There was a Metal
| Gear field exercise being conducted on
| Shadow Moses. FOXHOUND and the next-
| generation commandos were in charge of the
| exercise, and now they're threatening to use
| the Metal gear to launch a nuclear strike."
| "Apparently, I didn't know about that
| particular situation."
| "If you say so."
Page 071 | I glared at Richard, but he didn't turn a
| hair. He knew as well as I did that I could
| not abandon the mission. Even if I did
| refuse to cooperate further, there was an
| entire group of DOD personnel around me
| that would not permit that to happen. I
| briefly closed my eyes and brought the
| recent events into focus again.
| "What happened to Anderson? Why is he
| dead?"
Page 072 | This time, I could see a trace of a reaction
| in Richard's eyes.
| "It's hard to say from our end. Naomi thinks
| it was a heart attack but -- I'll have his
| medical records pulled just in case." He
| turned and left the study, presumably to give
| orders to that effect.
| The sounds and the voices being broadcast
| from the radio told me that Snake was moving
| deeper into the complex in search of Kenneth
Page 073 | Baker.
|
| Snake found the ArmsTech president in one
| of the underground levels. Kenneth Baker was
| bound to a steel girder along with multiple
| packets of C4 explosives. Before Snake could
| free Baker, he came face to face with the
| originator of this trap: a FOXHOUND operative
| called Revolver Ocelot. It seemed that he had
| anticipated Baker's rescue attempt upon
Page 074 | receiving news of Snake's arrival.
| According to Naomi Hunter, the former
| director of FOXHOUND's genetic manipulation
| program, Revolver Ocelot is a former
| Spetznaz. He moved into OMON (Otryad
| Militsii Osobogo Naznacheniya, the Interior
| Ministry riot squad, AKA Black Berets) and
| the SVR (the Russian Foreign Intelligence
| Service) -- a successor to the KGB's First
| Chief Directorate -- after the collapse of the
Page 075 | Soviet Union, but was unable to adapt to the
| new regime and dropped out. He cut a swath
| through the world's hot spots as a mercenary
| before being recruited by FOXHOUND. As his
| codename indicates, Ocelot is a master
| marksman with a marked preference for
| revolvers.
| We could hear the gun battle between
| Snake and Ocelot over the radio. Ocelot was
| using an antique Single Action Army revolver
Page 076 | against Snake's SOCOM pistol. The first Single
| Action Army Revolver was manufactured in
| 1873. A small number of them are still in
| production today, but strictly for collectors
| and antique weapon fanciers; using this out-
| moded weapon for live combat is unheard of.
| But Ocelot seemed to invest the vintage gun
| with diabolical powers. He would purposefully
| fire against walls and the floor, weaving a
| tight web of ricocheting bullets around Snake,
Page 077 | gradually hamming him in. All we could do
| was silently monitor the battle. However,
| Snake was slowly but surely gaining the upper
| hand by dodging the ricochets and exploiting
| the revolver's lengthy reload window. Finally,
| just as Snake was about to deliver the
| decisive blow, an explosion rang out.
| "My hand!" Ocelot's scream came a second
| later, followed by more explosions.
| "What the hell is going on!?" Richard
Page 078 | cried.
| The controller in charge of the data sent in
| by Snake's nanomachine started a running
| commentary.
| "We don't know yet, I'm seeing a life sign
| other than those of Snake, Ocelot, or Baker."
| Explosions continued to boom out over the
| radio.
| "The unidentified fourth subject is knocking
| down girders. No sign of firearm use! What-
Page 079 | ever it is, it's moving fast!" The controller's
| voice rose with excitement. "The speed is well
| above anything a human being should be able
| to handle."
| The situation was chaotic. I could make out
| Ocelot's voice through the roar of collapsing
| metal.
| "Stealth camouflage! Someone left a job
| only half done... As for you -- we'll continue
| this later!"
Page 080 | It seemed Ocelot had left the area.
| The explosions went on one after the other
| as girders crashed to the ground. In the midst
| of the collapse, Snake confronted what we
| could only guess was the fourth life sign.
| "Who are you?"
| "I'm like you... I have no name."
| It was not human, but an artificial machine
| voice that answered. In spite of the metallic
| tones, there seemed to be in that voice an
Page 081 | unspeakable pain. Baker's labored groans
| could be heard over the conversation.
| "You have a reinforced skeleton -- !?"
| Suddenly, the possessor of the metal voice
| let loose an animal howl. The shattering
| scream set the communication speakers
| screeching, and I instinctively covered my
| ears to shut out the maddened sound.
| The cry went on and on, then cut out as
| abruptly as it had begun. In the ringing
Page 082 | silence, the controller's voice floated out, thin
| and hollow.
| " -- the fourth subject has disappeared."
| The words brought us out of a state of
| shock.
| "Can we track him?"
| "Negative. He's vanished, no traces."
| "Collect as much data as you can."
| "I have the full results on information
| relayed by the nanomachines. There's an
Page 083 | electromagnetic pattern that resembles a
| stealth camouflage signature."
| "Stealth camo and reinforced exoskeleton..."
| Richard muttered, deep in thought.
| "Not everything is happening according to
| plan, I take it?" I inquired with some
| sarcasm.
| "It's within acceptable deviation. The
| mission will go on as planned."
| For a split second, his eyes betrayed his
Page 084 | disquiet; then he quickly recovered his
| characteristic arrogance. "You just concen-
| trate on your job."
| Snake had called the fourth life sign the
| "Ninja." I could not help but wonder about the
| identity of the name's bearer, and what it was
| that accounted for the superhuman abilities he
| had just demonstrated.
| Far away on Shadow Moses Island, Snake
| was attempting to raise the shaken Kenneth
Page 085 | Baker back on his feet. We could hear Snake
| asking him about the nuclear launch code,
| knowing the answer even as he spoke. Baker
| painfully acknowledged that he had volun-
| teered the information. He arm hung broken
| and useless by his side, presumable Ocelot's
| handiwork.
| According to Naomi Hunter's intelligence,
| Revolver Ocelot had served as a Special
| Interrogations Consultant in the Soviet gulags
Page 086 | during his days with the Spetznaz. In other
| words, he was an expert in torture. There was
| no way that the weapons technology
| executive, an untrained civilian, could with-
| stand the techniques of coercion developed in
| the cells of Lubianka. We now had con-
| firmation that the terrorists possessed both
| launch keys. The situation was more desperate
| than ever.
| Baker's response to Snake's queries about
Page 087 | the emergency override key was almost as
| grim. He had entrusted a soldier, a woman who
| had refused to join the mutiny, with it while
| they had been sharing the cell. I caught
| Snake's sudden murmur.
| "The Colonel's niece?"
| The "Colonel" was presumably Campbell,
| and Snake seemed to know something I
| certainly did not. I stole a glance at Richard
| but his expression was as closed as ever. He
Page 088 | no doubt had known from the outset about the
| presence of Campbell's niece on Shadow.
| Snake was pressing Baker, asking him
| whether there was a way to stop the launch
| without the override code. The executive gave
| him a name: Dr. Hal Emmerich. If it were
| indeed the case that the launch codes were in
| hostile hands and the strike sequence had
| been started, it stood to reason that the only
| person who may know of a way to cancel the
Page 089 | launch was the chief of Metal Gear's develop-
| ment program.
| As Snake promised to search out Emmerich,
| Baker handed him a single optical disc. It
| contained, he said, all the data from the
| training exercise.
| What exercise data? He had to be referring
| to the Metal Gear exercise. I saw Richard
| raise his eyebrow sharply.
| Baker, oblivious to the frenzy of speculation
Page 090 | he had remotely set off, continued.
| "There's no need to feign ignorance. You
| were sent to retrieve this, and we both know
| it."
| I was now even more puzzled than ever. If
| Metal gear was being developed on Shadow
| Moses, surely the research data was backed
| up somewhere outside of the ArmsTech lab.
| Not only that, but why would the president of
| the company have been carrying the data
Page 091 | himself? I was apparently not alone in my
| disconcerntment. Snake took the disc, obviously
| uncertain. It was clear that he, like myself,
| had not been briefed on the existence of the
| disc.
| The disc safely out of his hands, Baker's
| tones became pleading.
| "You have to stop them. If the truth got out,
| AT would be finished -- I would be
| finished -- "
Page 092 | "But Metal Gear technology is already a
| known factor."
| "The core technology is, but that's not -- "
| Baker trailed off, suddenly pale with pain. "Oh
| God, what did you do to me...?"
| We could hear hid labored coughing as he
| gasped out.
| "It can't be... That thing. Damn Pentagon
| bureaucrats... I get it now... You son of a -- "
| He tried to lunge at Snake, but reeled back
Page 093 | in a fresh wave of pain. Still clutching his chest,
| he fell down, dead. It was too similar to the
| last moments of Donald Anderson's life, and
| the fact had not escaped Snake. He was
| immediately on the radio with Campbell.
| "Colonel, you'd better be listening real well.
| This one dropped dead too."
| Snake demanded an explanation, but neither
| Campbell nor Dr. Hunter could provide an
| adequate one. Snake was clearly dissatisfied,
Page 094 | but Campbell directed Snake to cooperate
| with his niece, Meryl. The only way left to
| prevent a nuclear strike was to obtain the
| emergency override key, and the key was in
| Meryl's hands. Snake walked away from
| Baker's body in search of the elusive
| commando.
|
| Kenneth Baker had been colluding with
| Donald Anderson, the DARPA chief, to secretly
Page 095 | develop a new Metal Gear on the govern-
| ment's co-called Black Budget. My later
| investigations revealed that regular payments
| in the tens of thousands of dollars had been
| made to the corporate account of a firm for
| which Anderson's wife ostensibly acted as a
| consultant. The ArmsTech payoff into this
| dummy company had started several years
| ago. The total amount is difficult to estimate,
| but there is little doubt that Anderson had
Page 096 | been bribed to the tune of an astronomical
| sum.
| Even the government Black Budget had
| limits, however. I recalled a rumor from some
| years before the Anderson payoff started. The
| CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) at the time
| had a classified pet project, and the scuttle-
| butt was that it involved the construction of a
| completely new type of battleship. Just what
| kind of a ship was never revealed, since the
Page 097 | entire program fell apart after the CNO
| suddenly passed away. The unexpected death
| coincided with ArmsTech's launch of the Metal
| Gear development program. The Black Budget
| earmarked for the CNO's little project must
| have been freed up by his death; the question
| was whether it had been freed up for
| allocation to the new Metal Gear development.
| The manner of the CNO's death was officially
| ruled a suicide, but I could not help recall the
Page 098 | theories to the contrary that had made its
| rounds back then.
| Whatever the background, Anderson and
| Baker's deaths could not be a coincidence.
| Anderson's dying words included a reference
| to the Pentagon, and I was certain that there
| was more to it than met the eye.
| "So now Baker is dead as well. Are you
| looking into his medical records too?" I asked
| Richard.
Page 099 | "We'll do that. Just as a precaution." He did
| not seem particularly disturbed. "It may have
| been for the best, anyway. Having to babysit a
| senior citizen with a broken arm sure wasn't
| going to help Snake with his mission."
| "You haven't changed a bit, I see."
| "What?"
| "That bad-boy act of yours. You only talk
| like an insensitive jerk to divert attention from
| something. I wonder what you're hiding?"
Page 100 | Richard turned away.
| "Nothing. There's nothing to hide."
|
| Having successfully made radio contact with
| Meryl, Colonel Campbell's niece, Solid Snake
| agreed to put off a rendezvous with her in
| favor of rescuing Dr. Hal Emmerich, the chief
| of Metal Gear development. He reached that
| lab just as the Ninja was attempting to attack
| Dr. Emmerich, and the two fighters
Page 101 | immediately squared off.
| Snake and the Ninja launched into a silent
| hand-to-hand combat, a balletic exchange of
| blows that seemed almost to serve as a
| private dialog. The fighting seemed intermo-
| nable to us as we followed over the radio, but
| just as in the l