//------------------------------// // Ground Zeroes Pt. I - The Rescue // Story: Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// Luna instinctively raised her left foreleg and wing to shield herself when she felt rain hitting her backside. She felt a lot of rain, actually; it seemed she was in the middle of a downpour. “So, these are the atmospheric conditions that Commander Miller mentioned,” she thought to herself, looking up at the clouds above. She brought her head down and closed her eyes for a moment to focus so she could cast a spell. After a moment, she could no longer feel the rain hitting her and opened her eyes to take a look around. She was standing on top of a rocky rise overlooking what she assumed was the base where Paz and Chico were being held, a rocky slope in front of her leading down to a watchtower and a door set in a chain link fence that most likely went all the way around the base, and that was all before she actually took a proper look at the base itself. She could see smaller buildings close by and a larger one, likely the main building, a little off in the distance. There appeared to be small structures in muddy fields on both sides of the smaller buildings and an area that was fenced off on the left side. She wondered what they kept back there, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t like the answer and that wasn’t why she was there anyway. It took her a few moments of looking around, but Luna soon noticed Twilight lying down on her front on the slope a short distance away, looking towards the base. Combined with the night and the rain, her Sneaking Suit, balaclava, and mane tied into a bun made it difficult to spot her right away. Even if one of the searchlights from the base shined on her, it might not make her readily visible. Aside from her head turning as she observed the base, she was almost completely still. “She must’ve taken Miller’s orders quite seriously,” Luna thought as she moved down to stand closer to her. After about a minute, Twilight let out a sigh and stood up. “Still nothing so far,” she uttered as she turned and began to walk up and along the rise. As Luna followed her, she heard her speaking to herself, “The shifts of the patrols haven’t changed much, there’s not a lot of movement in or out of the base or the prison camp… Aside from that escapee heading west, which I need to tell the Boss about, it all seems so calm. So why does it feel like that’s not the way things should be at all on a night like this?” She stopped and looked to the east, “The camp where Chico and Paz are being held is just down there. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to go down there and get them out myself. But… Miller said to stay put… And if I do get caught, it’ll probably be worse than when Coldman had me…” She was silent afterwards, still looking in the direction of the prison, and Luna guessed she was deeply considering her choices and the possible repercussions. As she looked at her and waited to see what she would do next, she couldn’t help but notice how the raindrops seemed to slide off of her Sneaking Suit and balaclava, never seeming to soak either. She remembered Twilight mentioning that the material used offered impressive insulation from the elements, but she wasn’t really sure she believed it until now. She could definitely say she was impressed by it. Twilight soon turned to look at the base again, so Luna assumed she decided to stick to her orders. She tilted her head questioningly a second later and turned to fully face it, sitting down, grabbing her binoculars, and holding them up to her eyes. Luna walked over and stood next to her, wondering what she had seen. She soon heard her muttering, “A bunch of soldiers just came out of the base… Their uniforms look different from the other Marines… Wait.” She inched herself forward a little bit, “Who’s that? Someone higher up?” Luna looked at her intently. Whoever she was looking at was important beyond whatever role he played at the base. She could feel the change in the air like she felt in the previous memories. Suddenly, Twilight let out a gasp and leapt to her hooves before jumping back. She then used her magic to pull her Stun Rod out and held it up as she looked around frantically, as if she was searching for something. Luna looked confused at her behavior, not sure what had caused it. After a couple of seconds, Twilight calmed down enough to look through her binoculars towards the base again, looking down and letting out a sigh of relief afterwards as she lowered her forelegs down to the ground. “Just a… crazy coincidence, I hope,” she muttered. She looked up at the base again a moment later, “But who was that guy? His attire wasn’t like anyone else’s. And what happened to him?” Suddenly, Luna heard a ringing coming from Twilight’s ear and watched her raise her hoof to it. “This is Morpho. Arriving shortly at LZ,” a male voice said on her radio. Twilight lowered her hoof and turned around, glancing back at the base one more time before she spread her wings and ran to the edge of the cliff, jumping off. Luna ran to the cliff edge and saw Twilight gliding down to a small strip of land that stretched away from the base of the cliff as well as the lights of a chopper approaching in the distance. Luna knew she should stay close to Twilight, but she had a nagging feeling that Twilight’s odd panic attack was connected to what had happened to her. Something about the man she had seen was enough to freak her out when she didn’t even know who he was, and that alone gave her the feeling that she needed to learn more about him. With a nod, she turned back to the base and spread her wings, flying towards it. As she got closer, she noticed a pair of light transports driving away from the base. Seeing where they were headed, she flew down and landed near the overpass they would be soon be passing under, looking at everyone aboard as they drove by. It didn’t take her long to spot the man Twilight had seen, and she almost immediately recoiled when she saw him. She recovered quickly and flew over to his transport as it turned off the main road onto a dirt path, landing on the hood to get a better look at him as he sat in the passenger’s seat. When his transport had driven past her, he had been removing the black hat he was wearing. Now that she was in front of him, she could see that he didn’t have a single hair on top of his head, which was the only part of it that looked somewhat normal. The rest of his head, particularly his face, was marred with numerous scars and marks that she could only assume were from burns. It was clear why Twilight had wondered what he had been through; the skin on his head was not only scarred beyond what she would’ve thought possible, it also seemed to be tightly stretched. She could almost swear she could make out his skull through it. His clothing was mostly black in color, with a strap for a holster around his right leg and the shirt, tie, and undershirt beneath his jacket being the only pieces that weren’t black. The transport turned suddenly and Luna nearly lost her balance as it began to slow to a stop. She shook off her disorientation after it came to a stop and turned to see where she was. It only took her a moment to realize they had stopped at the prison camp. It was nothing more than a collection of large metal cages enclosed by a large chain link fence, a sign reading ‘Camp Omega Maximum Security’, a watchtower, and a row of outhouses and crates under an overhang being the only things on her side of the fence. Behind the fence, she could see guard dogs on leashes and several prisoners lined up against the fence with Marines watching over both. The prisoners wore dirty yellow jumpsuits, their hands were cuffed behind their backs, they had nothing covering their feet, and they had bags over their heads. Luna couldn’t help but shudder. This was her first impression of the camp and she was already horrified. She noticed the man and two of the soldiers in the back get out, one of the soldiers staying beside the vehicle while the other walked with the man towards the fenced off area. Luna got off the hood and followed them. The man stopped and turned to look at the guard dogs behind the fence as they barked wildly at him. Luna raised an eyebrow at this. The dogs’ reaction raised even more questions about who he was. He soon turned and followed his soldier and a Marine wearing a poncho over to a gate in the fence and Luna followed suit. The Marine saluted another Marine behind the gate, who unlocked and opened it for them. They stepped inside and made their way over to the cage on the far left. As they approached it, the Marine nodded to the soldier before continuing past the cage and standing off to the side while the soldier stopped in front of the cage and brought his gun out, readying it and pointing it at the prisoner inside before nodding to the man. While they were doing this, Luna took a look inside the cage and was shocked. Unlike the other prisoners, who were adults, this one was a young boy. He had his head bowed as he sat in the middle of the cage, but she was certain it was Chico. She scanned the rest of his cage and looked over at the other cages in the prison, but she couldn’t see Paz anywhere. “Didn’t Chico say she was here too?” she wondered. She was brought back to the moment when the man stepped in front of the cage and spoke, “She told us everything.” Luna looked back at him. “Don’t worry, I kept my word. She didn’t suffer long.” He took a few steps forward and held up a cassette player in his right hand, tapping it against one of the bars as he said, “Here, you earned it.” He then dropped it into the cage. Chico looked at it and scooted forward to grab it with his right hand, holding it in both hands as he turned it over a few times. The man knelt down and Chico looked up at him for a moment before quickly looking away. Luna could see he had a small headphone in his right ear when he did this and she assumed he had one in his left as well, causing her to wonder why he had them in the first place. There was silence for a few seconds before the man spoke again, “How’s it feel to play the traitor? No more war games – you’re a real man now, soldier.” Chico turned to look at him at that, revealing a square bandage patch above his left eyebrow. The boy’s eyes glanced down for a few moments before looking back up, as if he was thinking about the man’s words. Luna could almost swear he looked resigned to the title he had just been given. After a few more seconds, Chico looked down and reached his right hand up to his chest, Luna wincing as he pulled the jack for his headphones out of the hole in the center of it. He plugged it into the tape player as the man stood up and started to walk away. He stopped after a few steps and looked back at Chico over his shoulder, saying, “Give my regards to your Boss, when you get home.” Luna looked at Chico and saw he was focused only on the player in his hands, even as the man turned and continued walking. Luna looked at him as he walked, noticing rats scurrying around near her hooves and seeing the dogs still barking at him even as a chopper flew overhead. She thought about what he said and remembered Miller’s words about the whole thing being a setup. It seemed like he was expecting Chico to be rescued and taken back to Mother Base, but what purpose would that serve? Had he told them anything? And what happened to Paz? It almost sounded like he had killed her not that long ago, but if so, that didn’t seem to fit with what Twilight had said about her. Luna shook her head. She knew a little more now, but she still had more questions than answers. She decided it was time to go back and check on Twilight, so she used her magic to locate her and transport herself to her. Luna found herself in a helicopter when she felt her hooves touch solid ground again and looked around. It was similar to the crashed one that Twilight had been using as a shelter in the earlier memory except the seats were in the middle of the compartment rather than along the sides, a metal railing separating the two. Twilight was sitting on the front of the right seat and there was someone in a green uniform sitting in the back on the left seat. Luna could tell the other person was a man, but she couldn’t tell much else about him due to the shadows in the back making it hard to see him completely. Looking back at Twilight, she saw her pull off her balaclava with her right hoof and exhale as she used her magic to let the back of her mane down. She tucked the mask away and leaned back against the bar behind her with her eyes closed for a few moments. She then opened her eyes and turned her head to look at her flight buddy, who now had his head turned towards her. He looked at her for a second longer before deliberately looking away, which caused Twilight to face forward and look down with a sad expression, going from sitting back to slumped forward. Luna looked back over at the man with a raised eyebrow. Twilight clearly had a history with him given the way she reacted to his dismissal of her, as if it were a common occurrence between the two. It made her wonder what the man’s history was and why it didn’t seem like he acknowledged her presence, but she couldn’t learn anything more now. Neither one was talking, and he continued to remain turned away from Twilight, content to remain an enigma to the Lunar Princess. For a while, nothing happened as the quiet, somewhat tense atmosphere onboard the chopper didn’t change. The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the helicopter’s rotors and the rain hitting its exterior. Luna was starting to wonder if she should do something when there was a shift in the way the helicopter was flying, which caused Twilight to look up. Luna wondered if this meant that Morpho was being called in to extract Snake and Chico. Sure enough, she soon heard the message over the radio that Morpho was approaching the LZ. Twilight stood up as the chopper came to a stop and began lowering down, pressing a button next to the right door to make it open. Twilight stepped in front of the opening and Luna did too; they both saw Snake standing in a rocky cove with a couple of jumpsuit-clad prisoners behind him, one of which was Chico. He began picking them up and climbing up onto the door to pass them off to Twilight, who used her magic to help situate them in the small space. Chico was the last to be loaded onto the chopper, Twilight catching him under the arms with her forelegs and holding him up. He didn’t seem any more willing to raise his head up now than he was earlier, so Luna looked back at Snake and saw he was holding a cassette tape in his right hand as he slid off the door, presumably the one the man had given Chico earlier. He held it up and looked at it for a moment before looking up when Twilight spoke, “We’ll take everyone except Chico to stay with Amanda until the inspection’s over. Okay, Boss?” Snake nodded in reply, so she let go of Chico and moved around him to close the door as the chopper started to rise. As soon as it had closed, Chico launched himself at Twilight crying, “No! No!” Twilight let out a small cry at this and the feeling of him landing on her back. She turned her head around to look at him, “Chico?!” Chico began to shake, throwing off her balance as he cried, “Not Amanda! Please! You can’t!” Twilight struggled to remain upright as she said, “Chico, stop it! Get off!” The man in the shadows, who Luna noticed had been looking over the prisoners Snake had rescued, suddenly came over and grabbed Chico, saying, “That’s enough, Chico!” The boy continued to cry, “No! Amanda, she- she’ll kill me! Just like Paz! She’s…” His struggles and crying became a lot weaker at the mention of Paz’s name, allowing the man to easily pull him off Twilight. He pulled him back a bit before setting him on the floor and saying, “All right, that’s enough.” He leaned over and grabbed Chico’s left leg with his hand to keep it still while taking a closer look at his foot. “I don’t know how much we can do about that,” he said after a moment. Luna leaned over to take a look and, with the light, quickly saw what he was talking about. Chico had bolts driven into the tendons at the back of his feet, making him unable to move without a great deal of pain in the process. While the man went back to look at the other prisoners first, Twilight walked over and sat in front of Chico, saying, “Chico, Snake told me what he wants earlier. He wants you and Paz back at Mother Base. These prisoners he’s rescued are the only ones he wants Amanda to take care of, and he’s not leaving the base until he finds out what happened to Paz. If you don’t want Amanda to know you’re here, I won’t tell her. Promise.” Chico kept looking down at the floor, so Luna guessed that, even though there wasn’t much for him to be happy about, he was at least placated with that. A short while later, the chopper shook upwards suddenly, so Luna assumed that they had reached their destination. By this time, the man, who she guessed was some sort of doctor given the way he had looked over and treated the rescued prisoners to the best of his abilities, had taken Chico in the back to look him over while the prisoners were sitting around Twilight near the front of the chopper without the bags that had been on their heads. When the shaking stopped, Twilight stood up and pressed the button next to the door to open it. A moment after the door opened all the way, Amanda and a few of her fellow Sandinistas stepped into view. Twilight smiled, “Amanda!” The woman smiled back, “Hey, Twilight. It’s been a while. You have something for me?” Twilight’s smile faded slightly, “Yeah. The Boss rescued some prisoners that were being held at the camp. Do you think you could take care of them until the inspection is over?” Amanda nodded, “Of course. We’ve already prepared accommodations for them.” She turned to the flanking Sandinistas and gestured with her head at the chopper. They nodded and stepped forward, helping Twilight get them out of the chopper and supporting them. After the last one had been helped off, Amanda turned back to Twilight and asked, “By the way… since you’re here, is there any news on Chico?” Twilight hesitated at that and Luna wondered if she was going to tell her or if Amanda was going to figure it out herself. She managed to recover fairly quickly though and told her, “The Boss is still at the base searching. He’s not leaving until both Chico and Paz have been accounted for.” A tense silence followed as Amanda looked back at Twilight intently, as if she was searching for something too. After several moments, she spoke, “I see. Well, like I told Miller earlier, I’m prepared for the worst.” Twilight replied, “Right. Well, we should probably head back now so the Boss doesn’t have to wait too long when he calls for an extraction.” Amanda gave a slight nod and said, “Be on your guard, Twilight.” Twilight nodded, “Okay. Hope to see you again soon, Amanda.” The woman nodded and turned around, walking back into the darkness. Twilight turned around as well after a moment and climbed back onto the chopper, hitting the button to close the door as it lifted off and started its way back. Somewhere along the way, Twilight was sitting on the seat again when Luna heard a ringing coming from her ear again, the mare raising her hoof to it and asking, “Miller?” The man on the other end answered, “Hey, got some good news and some bad news for you, Twilight. The good news is the Boss has found Paz. The bad news is they found out she’s missing and now the whole base is on alert. Snake’s called for a direct extraction from the helipad, so it looks like you’re going to be able to help out on this mission after all: you’re gonna clear a path for the chopper.” While he was talking, Twilight grabbed her iDroid and called up its map, checking something. She was done by the time Miller finished talking and put it away while she said, “Understood.” She then used her magic to tie the back of her mane up into a bun while she grabbed her balaclava with her hooves and slipped it on. She then leapt to her hooves and made her way over to the left door of the chopper, opening it and sitting down at the foot of it with her hind legs hanging over it. Luna walked over and stood behind and to the left of Twilight to watch. She could see that they had already arrived at the base and were flying over the buildings, the chopper maneuvering around as it made its way towards the helipad to avoid the watchtowers and gunfire coming from below. Twilight pulled out a handgun from her holster and started firing on any marines who came into range, everyone she hit being blown off their feet before they hit the ground. Luna guessed it was some sort of non-lethal weapon since she didn’t see anything that would indicate the shots were opening wounds. She also noticed that while Twilight didn’t have to reload after every shot, the gun only held five rounds and she had to reload them individually. Still, she could see they were steadily getting closer to the main building. As they approached it, Twilight inched herself back into the cabin and flipped herself around, standing up afterwards and quickly moving to grab two bigger guns, one of which had a launcher attached to its underside while the other had a scope mounted on top of it. She then returned to her spot and used both of them to help clear the helipad. She fired a grenade at a nearby anti-air gun to take it out before anyone could occupy it and used her sniper rifle to perfectly shoot a gas barrel on the other side of the helipad to destroy another gun. Morpho announced afterwards, “Clear! Touching down.” Twilight slipped the sniper rifle onto her back and placed the assault rifle against the wall next to her. She brought her handgun out again as the chopper came in for a landing, shooting at any marines she could see. The chopper soon descended and stopped, hovering just above the ground. Twilight then turned herself around and took a few steps back into the cabin before turning around to face the door, balancing herself on her hind legs and holding her hooves out in front of her like she was going to be handed something. Luna peered out and saw Snake making a dash from the building towards the chopper with something on his back. He reached it in no time at all and leapt up onto the door, tossing what was on his back into Twilight’s waiting forelegs. Luna gasped in horror when she got a look at what, or rather who, it was. It was Paz. Luna remembered Miller saying Snake had found her, but it was clear she’d been through as much as, if not more than, Chico since her face was the only thing that hadn’t changed. She was wearing an orange prisoner uniform just like Chico and the other prisoners, but the front of hers was covered in blood, particularly around her abdomen. Her once long hair was now cut very short, almost like a boy’s hair. And there was something else about her that Luna couldn’t put her hoof on at the moment, but she seemed… older now. There was no time to wonder about it now, though. While still holding her under her arms, Twilight used her magic to carefully lift Paz’s legs up and move her over to the left seat, laying her down across it. She looked at her sadly for a moment before turning and running to the right door, opening it and getting into position while Snake stayed where he was to cover the left side of the chopper. It lifted off soon after and, despite reinforcements arriving to try to bring it down, successfully made its exit not long afterwards. Once they were clear, both Snake and Twilight climbed back inside the chopper and shut their respective doors. Twilight let out a sigh as she pulled her balaclava off and let her mane down. Snake approached her after she put the mask away and pulled two cassette tapes out of one of his pouches, handing them to her. “You brought the other tapes with you when you were dispatched, right? You should keep hold of these too until we get back to base,” he said while Twilight looked over the tapes. She then sat down and set her saddlebags beside her, pulling out the fake book from before and putting the tapes in it while Snake pulled out some more tapes for her. In total, he handed her seven tapes for safekeeping. “He just retrieved those. Perhaps they contain information on who that man was or what else transpired at that base,” Luna thought to herself, resolving to find the book and learn what was on the tapes. She was sure they wouldn’t be too hard to find; they were just added after all. But she wasn’t done yet. She still remembered Miller’s words about Chico’s call for help being a trap, and so far, aside from what he, Paz, and the other prisoners looked like, nothing had happened that would explain Twilight’s recent behavior. She had a bad feeling the worst was yet to come.