//------------------------------// // Peace Walker Battle // Story: Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// Twilight and Paz turned around in their seats to look out the chopper’s windows back towards the base. Their chopper had not followed the rest back to Mother Base, instead hovering over the lake well outside the area of operations due to the sudden turn the situation had taken. As such, they were pretty far out, but they could still make out Peace Walker standing in Launch Mode, making the necessary calculations for to launch its nuclear missile. They could also faintly see explosions along the side of it, no doubt from Snake trying to stop it. These were soon followed by explosions off to the side away from it. Peace Walker must’ve launched some missiles of its own, but it was remained as it was. If it stayed like this… After several long tense moments, an explosion hit its head that caused it to react, its body shuddering as it got out of Launch Mode and instead went to Self-Defense Mode, finally turning to face Snake. It was still easy to follow and they could still faintly see explosions from when Snake attacked, but they had no idea how he was doing. Twilight was getting more and more nervous as she watched the AI weapon move, knowing that, at any second, it could easily end his life in a number of ways. Twilight looked up at Miller and asked, “Miller, isn’t there anything we can do to help him?” The man replied, “Most of our choppers are too far out; it’d take them too long to get back here. And Amanda and her compas didn’t come equipped to fight something like Peace Walker. All we can do right now is provide support any way we can.” As if on cue, Paz spoke up, “Look!” Both Twilight and Miller looked out the window to see a cardboard box being carried by a Fulton balloon flying past the chopper, heading for the base. “What’s that?” Twilight asked. “Supply drop. Thank God Snake requested those Supply Markers on his way to the facility. He’s probably going to need the extra ammo to take down this tank,” Miller replied. Twilight looked at him, “So all of this is normal for him?” Miller answered, “Well, maybe not the AI part, but this is definitely not the first nuclear-equipped tank he’s taken down.” Twilight looked back out the window, “How is that balloon traveling so fast?” Miller replied, “That would be due to the new transport catapult we built on Mother Base. We just load it up with cardboard boxes and let ‘em go.” Twilight sighed, “I’m so used to being directly involved with stopping threats and solving problems. This sitting around and waiting is actually harder to do than I thought.” Miller regarded her for several moments before starting, “Well, you could probably get back to the base faster than any of the other choppers, and you wouldn’t really need to prep…” Twilight looked up at him, “So…?” Paz added, “Commander Miller?” The man looked over at the latter and said, “Paz, I told you, you can call me Kaz.” He then looked at Twilight, “And I’m not so sure letting you go out again is such a good idea after you got captured by Zadornov.” Twilight felt both embarrassment and annoyance as he brought that up and argued, “Okay, he ambushed us and caught us off guard, okay? And I got captured because I hesitated; that won’t happen here. I fought a magic-stealing centaur at least half the size of Peace Walker before I came to this world and I sure didn’t hesitate when he was throwing fire at me. The circumstances are different, but I don’t see any reason to stop or hold back when there’s a weapon threatening Mother Base and the rest of the world.” Miller stared at her for a short while. His sunglasses made it impossible to have any idea of what he was thinking, but he eventually groaned, “She’s got spirit, that’s for sure. Wonder how close its gotten her to getting killed in the past…” Twilight was about to say something, but he stood up before she could get a word up and turned around, raising his hands up to open and reach into the compartment overhead. Twilight looked up at him, wondering what he was doing. After a few seconds, he pulled his arms back to his chest and knelt down. In his hands was a tan pack attached to a belt that looked big enough to be worn on the hips. “What…” Twilight started before he reached forward, getting his arms around her and pressing the pack against her back. He then moved his hands towards the straps, bringing them together in front and bringing the ends of the belt together, Twilight grunting as he tightened it. Once Miller was sure it was securely fastened, he said, “Stand up and turn around.” Although confused, Twilight did as she was told and stood with her backside facing him. He then reached into the pack and pulled out an earpiece that was connected to a small box with a button taking up most of it, a small stick underneath the button. He turned the switch on the back of the box to the ‘ON’ position before reaching forward again, placing the earpiece in her right ear. He messed with the length of the wire for a second before closing the pack, feeling she had enough cord length. “All right, all done,” he stated a moment later. Twilight turned around to face him, the earpiece already starting to bother her. “What is this?” she asked as she reached her right hoof up towards it. Miller caught her hoof with his right hand and said, “It’s a radio, different from the one you had on Mother Base.” He pointed to her ear, “That earpiece will let you hear what we’re saying.” He then pointed to the box, which hung between her neck and chest, “The button lets you send and receive calls. The little stick lets you change the frequency. It’s a bit of an old model, but it’ll works for what you need it for right now.” He then let go of her hoof. As her hoof went back down onto the floor, Twilight asked, “So… I can go?” Miller’s eyebrows narrowed, “You can go back to the base, sure, on one condition: you listen to whatever Snake tells you. If he’s okay with it, then you can help him. If he says no, you turn right around and come back here. If you want to go out on the battlefield, then know this: he is your Boss as well now, and he gets the final say here.” Twilight glanced down in thought, but looked up and nodded in understanding a moment later. Miller then moved to the right side of the chopper and slid the door open, moving out of the way and gesturing with his left arm for her to go. Twilight nodded and spread her wings, running towards the opening and jumping out. She let herself fall a little to put some distance between her and the helicopter blades before she shot off towards the base. As she got closer to the base, she became worried because she couldn’t see Peace Walker anywhere. Suddenly, it emerged from the water, placing its forelegs on the ground and remaining in that position. Judging from the white cloud coming from its missile launcher, she guessed it was back in Launch Mode. She narrowed her eyes and flew faster, using her wings to hover over it as she fired several moderately-charged beams of magic from her horn. They caused the machine to buckle and close the cap on its missile launcher as it said, “Switching to Self-Defense Mode.” Twilight flew and landed off to the left as it began to pull the rest of its body up out of the lake. As she landed, she heard Snake ask, “Back for more, huh, Twilight?” She looked up and saw him standing a short distance away with what looked like a black switch in his right hand. “It is actually a little boring sitting around waiting for something to happen. I’m sorry. I can leave if you don’t want me here,” she said in a straightforward manner. Before Snake could reply, Peace Walker let out a loud roar that caused them both to wince. As the roar ended, they heard it say in The Boss’ voice, “Face me!” Snake looked up at the AI weapon for a moment before saying to Twilight, “I was just about to call in a supply drop. Can you keep it busy for a minute?” Twilight replied by doing a right-hoofed salute and spreading her wings before turning to look at Peace Walker. While Snake pressed the button to send out the call, Twilight folded her wings and ran towards Peace Walker. As she got closer, the AI weapon bent forward and said in its mechanical voice, “Flamethrower engaged.” Twilight came to a stop and leapt back when it started shooting fire out from underneath its head, but she calmed down a bit when she realized it had a limited range. It kept firing for several seconds even though there was nothing in its range and she took the opportunity to land some free shots on it, aiming for the Reptile Pod under its head. As the flamethrower stopped firing, Twilight heard a pop behind her and looked back to see a cardboard box drop down on top of the marker after the balloon carrying it burst. She raised an eyebrow when Snake opened the top of the box and climbed inside, the flaps closing once he was all the way in. The box shook for a moment before it broke apart, Snake now having more ammo for his Carl Gustav missile launcher and a new machine gun strapped to his leg. Twilight was glad he got his supplies, but she also wondered what happened to his other gun. She didn’t get a chance to ask him, though. “Firing drill missiles,” Peace Walker droned, both Twilight and Snake turning to look at it. The hatch on the smaller missile launcher was open and it was launching a pair of missiles that did look like drills at the ground. “Move!” Snake yelled and Twilight flapped her wings, leaping back before he began firing at the missiles, managing to destroy them as they began to spin around. Once the dust had cleared, Snake said, “Keep shooting, but keep moving too. You should be able to avoid most of its artillery if you don’t stop.” He then began firing at the Reptile Pod, Twilight joining in with her magic after a second. After several seconds of this, Peace Walker said, “Commencing jump.” While it was saying this, it bent its legs inward and then did a mighty jump backwards, landing far away from Snake and Twilight at the other end of the road. It then began walking behind the warehouses, both Snake and Twilight hurrying after it. They had only just gotten past the second of the three warehouses before they heard it say again, “Commencing jump.” This jump ended up putting it so close to the two that it was almost on top of them, the impact from the landing stunning them for a few seconds. While they were recovering, it said, “Firing drill missiles.” This time it fired five of them and there wasn’t any time to stop them before they started drilling, so Snake started running and Twilight followed his lead. Each of the missiles only came up in one spot before they exploded, so Snake had been right about it being a good idea to stay in motion. Once the explosions stopped, Snake turned and pulled his missile launcher off of his back while saying, “Now!” His missile ended up hitting the side of its round head, causing it to turn to its right to look at him. Twilight saw an opening and spread her wings, flying up and getting above it before flying towards it. As she did, Peace Walker attempted to attack Snake with regular missiles, but after the first one was fired, Twilight began firing her magic at the open ports to try to shoot them down. She managed to destroy a few, their explosions causing some damage to Peace Walker. She then started firing her magic at the top of it, but she was forced to break off to avoid being hit when it reared back, narrowly missing getting hit by its nuclear missile launcher. Twilight flew off to the side a bit and looked back at Peace Walker as it said, “Firing S-mines.” At this, it shot off six umbrella-shaped explosives that went off a few seconds after being released. Twilight flew further away to avoid them, but thankfully, they didn’t have a wide blast radius. Relieved to have avoided the explosions, Twilight flew back towards Peace Walker after Snake hit it with another missile, putting more magic into her attacks as she fired more shots at it. She then turned and flew behind it, Peace Walker jumping up and turning to follow her, giving Snake a chance to fire another missile at it once he was done reloading. It was clear that Snake had already done quite a bit of damage to Peace Walker before Twilight arrived, but it was still fighting as hard as it could. It still had a couple of other attacks, including a beam that it announced it was using by saying “Freeze!” before emitting an orange beam from its eye. Twilight guessed it was able to stop them in place since neither she nor Snake were caught by it. It could also emit an electromagnetic pulse that prevented Snake from using his missiles and, at one point, it even stood up on its hind legs and walked forward for a bit while firing its flamethrower and S-mines. Despite all this, the two kept doing their best to dodge its attacks while trying to attack it back, especially when it went into Launch Mode one more time. Finally, Peace Walker made one last attempt to take them both down by charging forward at them. They both managed to get out of its way, Twilight by flying up and Snake by rolling to the side. Snake picked himself up afterwards and reloaded his launcher, firing a missile at the Reptile Pod when it turned to look at him, hitting the large cylinder dead center. He had just finished loading another missile when its body began to shake, explosions suddenly going off beneath its armor. It shook and staggered for several seconds, trying to stay up all the while before finally slumping forward, its back legs remaining up while its head and forelegs lay on the ground as it came to a halt, facing the lake. As she and Snake stared at it from some distance away, Twilight wondered, “Did we…?” They both soon heard Miller’s voice in their ears, “It stopped moving… Snake, Twilight, you did it. You stopped the launch!” Snake asked, “Huey, how’s NORAD?!” The scientist answered back in a worried tone, “Not good…” Due to the connection still being open, they were all able to hear what was going on at NORAD as well as in Washington D.C. “BMEWS continues track the targets on radar.” “DSP satellite status is green. Still assessing as reliable.” “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a representative of the Secretary of Defense and Congress have arrived at NMCC.” “We’ve got fifteen-hundred ICBMs crossing the North Pole. Target region is confirmed as the west coast of the United States.” “Go to Defcon 2. Prepare to launch ICBMs.” Huey spoke, “You’ve only damaged the drive system… The data uplink’s still intact…” Snake asked, “How do I make it stop?!” Huey replied, “Peace Walker is a fully autonomous system. Unlike the other machines you’ve fought, its command authorities are all located inside its cerebrum, the Mammal Pod.” Strangelove, who had driven the van up closer after Peace Walker stopped moving, said, “We’ve got to stop the Mammal Pod…! I don’t have the abort code either; Coldman was the only one…” Miller spoke, “Snake, Twilight! Destroy the AI inside the Mammal Pod!” Snake raised his rifle and Twilight channeled her magic into her horn, making it glow. They both fired several shots at the pod, but Snake’s bullets bounced off and Twilight’s magic bolts barely left any mark on its surface. “What’s that thing made of?” Twilight asked. Huey answered, “The inner barrier protecting the Mammal Pod is designed to be as strong as a bomb shelter.” Twilight didn’t need any further details; she knew shelters were meant to be safe, sturdy locations and a bomb shelter would have to be especially strong to protect those within. “What’s it going to take to get through it?” she asked. Huey hesitantly replied, “I… I guess an atomic bomb would do it…” Snake angrily spoke up for both of them, “You trying to be funny?!” Huey answered in an irritated tone, “No! I’m telling you, that armor was designed to withstand a nuclear war!” While they were talking, the Mammal Pod’s active data link was still letting them listen in on the situation in America, including the meeting in the Emergency Conference Room in the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center. “We can’t get through to the President. The decision is on us.” “You can’t be serious!” “There’s no way I’m gonna wipe out the human race.” “This is the President’s call!” “There’s no time for that. We need a decision, now.” Snake grunted, “Huey, get the Pentagon on the line! We have to tell them the nukes aren’t real!” He then started running towards the van with Twilight following close behind. Huey started typing away as he said, “I’ll give it a shot.” While he was trying to connect with one of the phones in the NMCC, the situation was starting to get worse. “Forget the order of succession. If we’re all going to Hell, let’s take those bastards with us!” “We have twelve minutes to impact, sir.” “…May God have mercy on our souls.” Miller exclaimed, “Jesus… Coldman guessed wrong! They’re gonna go through with it!” Huey mused, “The platform’s sustained a lot of external damage. All we need is some pressure…” Miller questioned, “Pressure?” Huey spoke, “Sink it in the lake. With that much water pressure, even the tiniest crack should be enough to flood the innards. The AI pod is a mass of highly sensitive electronics. Short the contacts and the signal will stop.” Miller asked, “How much does that thing weigh?” Huey answered, “Five-hundred tons.” Twilight, who was standing next to the open door on the van’s passenger side, said, “I’ve never used my magic to lift anything that heavy before, and I used a lot of it just trying to stop Peace Walker from moving.” Miller grunted, “It’s hopeless. We can’t move that thing.” Snake grabbed a phone that was built into the van as he ordered, “GET THE PENTAGON ON THE PHONE!” While NORAD continued to monitor the false data, at the Pentagon, one of the Congressmen spoke to the Chairman, “Sir, we’ve got a call!” The Chairman asked, “The President?!” The Congressman answered, “No, sir.” The Chairman questioned, “Then who?” When the Congressman hesitated, he demanded, “Spit it out!” The Congressman said, “He claims to be… Big Boss.” The Chairman exclaimed, “Big Boss? Patch him through!” Snake held the receiver up to his right ear and spoke, “Mr. Chairman, I’ll get straight to the point. Cancel the retaliatory strike, now!” When the Chairman questioned him, he explained, “The radar blips you’re seeing are all fakes. No one’s launched any nukes.” The Chairman asked, “How do you know?” Snake said, “The launch data is fake, part of an experiment that leaked. You weren’t supposed to receive it. Your radar is showing missiles that don’t exist.” The Chairman replied, “If you’re lying, we’ve got ten minutes ‘til we’re toast. We have to retaliate or more Americans die.” Everyone involved looked on in trepidation as Snake explained, “The experiment was planned and executed by the CIA’s station chief in Central America.” The Chairman said, “Then put him on!” Snake replied, “He’s dead. I can give you his name, though.” The Chairman demanded, “We need more than the authentication code you gave the switchboard. We need proof you’re actually Big Boss. Do you have any?” Snake hesitated, letting out a soft groan from between his lips before he started, “All right… If you know the name Big Boss… then maybe you were there… at the ceremony… when I received the title from President Johnson.” The Chairman nodded, “Indeed I was…” A Congressman yelled, “We don’t have time for this bullshit!” The Chairman rebuked him, “Hold it! Let’s hear him out.” He held the phone back up to his ear, “You were saying?” Snake continued, “At the ceremony, the DCI tried to shake my hand. …I refused. What happened in that room is classified – top secret. Only a handful of people would know.” Another Congressman spoke up, “He’s making it up! Don’t listen to him!” The Chairman said, “Wait!” He returned to the phone, “Why did you refuse to shake his hand?” Snake remembered going to the cemetery, making one final salute on The Boss’ grave as he answered, “Because… I knew where my loyalty belonged.” There was a tense moment of silence before the Chairman spoke up, “Everybody, listen to me! Those Soviet missiles are fakes!” The first Congressman asked, “What?! You’re actually going to believe him?” Another Congressman agreed, “He’s right! This is some sort of Commie trick!” The Chairman said, “No, it’s the real Big Boss. Trust me.” The first Congressman demanded, “How can you know for sure?!” The Chairman answered, “Because I was the Army Chief of Staff back then, and I was standing right next to the DCI when it happened. I saw everything.” The Congressman let out a grunt of disbelief. The Chairman then spoke into the phone, “You saved us all, Big Boss. We’ll stand down the alert.” Snake let out a sigh before nodding, “Thank you.” The Chairman replied, “When we meet again… I hope you’ll shake my hand.” The situation was only averted temporarily, however. The Chairman suddenly let out a gasp as a gun was clicked and held up to the side of his head. “What are you doing?!” he exclaimed. The Congressman answered, “Sorry, Chairman, but we are NOT standing down!” Snake slammed the phone down, “Dammit…!” Miller growled, “Those worthless sacks of…” Twilight’s anxiety began to come back full force at this, knowing it was going to take more than words now to convince. They either needed to shut down the Mammal Pod or find a way to reveal its existence to the world in less than ten minutes or a nuclear war was going to break out. She glanced around as she tried to think of something. While she was doing this, she caught sight of something that caused her to stop and take a second look. “A butterfly? Here?” she wondered aloud, seeing a small butterfly with light blue and orange wings flying in front of the van. Snake noticed it too out of the corner of his eye and muttered, “Wait…” They all looked towards Peace Walker, seeing more butterflies fluttering around it, as its Mammal Pod spoke, “Jack…” A second later, it slid up out of the groove it was nestled in, standing upright and opening the hatch on top as it repeated, “Jack…” Strangelove gasped, “It’s opening…?” Snake stepped out of the van for a better look as a whole flock of butterflies came out of the pod. Strangelove pulled her sunglasses off and breathed, “She’s calling to you…” Twilight looked at where the pod was for a second before turning to look up at Snake and saying, “Snake!” He looked down at her and saw her horn glowing with magic. He nodded to her after a moment and she spread her wings, flying towards Peace Walker as he broke out into a mad dash after her. She kept looking up at the pod as she flew, quickly running through calculations in her head before she dropped down a short distance away from Peace Walker and spun around to face Snake. Once he was close enough, she grabbed his foot with her magic, lifted him off the ground, and gave him a hard toss up towards the pod. As he was soaring through the air, Miller said, “Destroy the Mammal Pod and the data will stop flowing!” Twilight ended up being spot-on with her toss as Snake disappeared through the opening, Strangelove murmuring as he did, “Please, stop her…” Twilight turned and took a couple steps back from Peace Walker, getting a good view of the Mammal Pod from the ground. As she looked at the pod, the red light on the front of it started blinking as it spoke, “I’ve been waiting, Snake, for a long time. Waiting for your birth, your growth, and the finality of today. …I didn’t raise you and shape you into the man you are today just so we could face each other in battle. A soldier’s skills aren’t meant to be used to hurt friends. So then what is an enemy? Is there such a thing as an absolute timeless enemy? There is no such thing, and never has been. And the reason is that our enemies are human beings, like us. They can only be our enemies in relative terms. The world must be made whole again. The Philosophers must be reunited. I will devote my skills to that purpose. And with the Colonel’s money, I will achieve that end. Just as I once created the Cobras. They are my family. I may no longer be able to bear children, but I still have a family.” Twilight stared up at the pod with wide eyes as she listened in. Was everything the Mammal Pod was saying scripted, that it was meant to repeat everything The Boss had ever said, or was it actually thinking of all this even as Snake was trying to stop the data uplink? Regardless, she kept looking up at it and listening while hoping that, if anything was going wrong, she would spot it right away. “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” “Kill me… Kill me now… Do it.” “There is nothing left inside me now…” “Shall we walk through the rainy plain of Spain?” “All that is left for you to take… is my life.” “Pi is equal to 3.254637369888888…” Twilight finally looked down and held her hooves up to her head as she listened to the AI try to recite the digits. “No, no! That’s not right! Is it because Snake is pulling her apart? Is she forgetting things?” she wondered. “Let’s make this the greatest ten minutes of our lives.” “All that is left for you to take… is my life.” “The lonely fox chases the one-eyed hound.” “I have been waiting, Snake, for a long time…” “Shall we walk through the rainy plain of Spain?” Suddenly, she said, “Pi is… Pi is…” Twilight leaned forward subconsciously, wondering what she was about to say. “…about three,” she finished. That confirmed it for Twilight. If she did know the digits of Pi, then the process of shutting down the pod was causing her to forget. “Commence the operation.” “Prove your loyalty!” “Kawanishi-noseguchi, Kinunobebashi, Takiyama, Uguisunomori, Tsuzumigataki, Tada, Hirano, Ichinotorii, Uneno, Yamashita, Sasabe, Kofudai, Tokiwadai, Myokenguchi.” “You’re a soldier…” “Thank you for listening to me.” “Pi is… Pi is… about three.” As she listened, it sounded to Twilight like the AI was having difficulty just trying to replicate The Boss’ voice. It almost sounded like it was becoming more garbled. Suddenly, it began desperately saying, “Jack…! Jack…! Jack…! J-ack…! J-ac-k…!” A few seconds later, Strangelove reported, “Valid data regions: zero.” Huey added, “Exit all done.” After he said this, Twilight noticed the light on the pod dim until it was completely off. “…It stopped,” she heard Snake say over the radio. At this, she held her hoof up to her right ear and asked, “Huey? Has the transmission stopped?” There was a moment of silence before she heard the sound of static followed by the alarm going off at NORAD. Huey let out a gasp and asked, “The data uplink’s bypassing the Mammal Pod…?” At the Pentagon, the Chairman said, “Put down the gun! Come to your senses, man! The fate of the world… the fate of the Earth is at stake here!” More guns could be heard being readied in the background, the Chairman letting out a grunt. Twilight heard metal banging over the radio accompanied by Snake exclaiming and grunting, “Why?! …I don’t understand!! …Answer me!! Tell me why!! Answer me!!!! BO-O-O-OSS!!!!” She could hear him desperately breathing and coughing; he sounded like he was running out of strength to keep fighting when everything they had done so far did nothing to make the situation better. “Six minutes remaining.” The first Congressman spoke, “…Wait. Authority rests with me now. I’m ordering a retaliation.” The Chairman yelled, “No, don’t! It’s the end of us all!” One of the other Congressmen said, “Who gives a damn?! I’m not gonna sit here and die like a dog!” Another said, “If the Russians are gonna kill my family and destroy my country, I’m taking them with me!” A third asked, “You see now, Chairman? Deterrence is just a fool’s dream.” Twilight looked back up at Peace Walker and cried, “Why?! Why isn’t it stopping?!” As she saw Snake climbing out of the pod, she heard footsteps coming up behind her and heard Strangelove say, “Sometimes the body continues to live even after the brain is damaged.” She looked back at the woman, “The Boss AI isn’t doing this. I think it’s something rather more… primitive…” Huey voiced his agreement, “Reptile has taken up Mammal’s dying wish…” Twilight looked back up and saw Snake drop down from the top of the pod on Peace Walker’s back. He quietly said, “No…” before looking down at Twilight and Strangelove and desperately saying not just to them, but everybody, “Stop it… Don’t just sit there! STOP IT!”