Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero

by GreenS21

Cocoon Type-II

Twilight stood near the entrance to the Underground Base at the bottom of the Mining Pit with fellow MSF member Iguana, both of them holding out their M16 rifles and outfitted with the Battle Dress, Iguana’s uniform including a helmet with a mask over it. Snake was patrolling the level above them and further up, fellow MSF member Eagle surveyed the top of the pit with his binoculars. Snake had a metal plate over the front of his bandanna and Eagle, like Twilight, had nothing protecting his head. In addition to their M16s, Eagle also had an SVD sniper rifle, Iguana had a Carl Gustav Multi-Purpose recoilless rifle, Snake had an RPG-7, and Twilight had an XFIM-92A rocket launcher.

They’d received reports from Combat Unit members training at the Mine Base that unusual tremors had been occurring in the area recently. The Intel team was unable to verify the source of the tremors, but Snake had a sneaking suspicion that it was an AI weapon, having seen a number of inactivated ones while sneaking through the Underground Base. In particular, he thought it had to be another model of the Cocoon AI weapon as he remembered how the ground shook when it was approaching and climbing down into the pit. He rounded up the others to accompany him and had the chopper drop them off directly in the pit, hoping that would help draw it out. That had been a few minutes ago and so far, nothing had happened.

Snake suddenly came to a stop when he was standing across from the entrance to the Underground Base, a slight disturbance in the ground catching his attention. He looked in Eagle’s direction and saw that he seemed to have noticed it too since he had lowered his binoculars and was looking around. Twilight and Iguana soon noticed it as well when it began to get stronger, the shaking becoming impossible to ignore. Twilight looked at Snake and saw that he had crouched down, looking straight ahead at something. She turned her head to the left and looked up at where the shaking seemed to be coming from. It didn’t take long for it to come into view.

As Snake had suspected, the source of the shaking was a Cocoon AI weapon, this one possessing a light red-gray color scheme compared to the dark blue-gray color scheme of the one he’d fought. The behemoth of a weapon came to a stop at the edge of the pit for a few seconds, its treads angled downwards, before it began to roll down into the pit unhindered. Eagle hadn’t been right underneath it when it appeared, but it was close enough that he took off running almost as soon as it appeared. As it came down, Snake gestured to Iguana and Twilight to move before he took off running as well, stopping when he got behind a barricade across from where the AI weapon was coming down. Twilight and Iguana managed to run over to the nearby dirt slope and get to the level above before the Cocoon reached the bottom of the pit, where it came to a stop.

Now that they were out of harm’s way for the moment, Twilight took the opportunity to get a good look at the Cocoon. Two sets of treads, one in the back and one in the front, were on both of its sides, there were five mounted machines guns on top of both sides of its lower body along with what looked like multiple small machine guns sticking out of both sides, each corner of the lower body had what looked like a minigun mounted on it, and there was a large cannon mounted on the underside of its head. The AI pod sat on its head above the cannon, a mounted minigun sitting behind on it on each side. And on the back of its head was a long extendable arm with what appeared to be a chainsaw with a gun mounted on top of it at the end of it. The weapon was about as big as a fully-grown dragon that was sitting up, the machine still sitting in place as it shook a bit.

Suddenly, its upper body reared back a bit before leaning forward and moving for a moment before stopping again. Despite the small movement, Snake got out from behind cover and began running to the right as they all heard Miller’s voice over the radio, “Neutralize the Cocoon AI weapon!’ At his words, Snake pulled the RPG-7 off his back and took aim at the AI pod, Twilight and Iguana grabbing their big guns and firing at it shortly after he did while Eagle fired at it with his SVD. The explosions and gunshots rang out through the pit, the latter continuing while everyone else reloaded.

While they were reloading, the Cocoon’s AI said, “Main cannon loaded.” As it said this, it began turning its head and extended the front part of its head forward, the cannon turning to aim at each of them.

“Get out of there! Run! Hiding won’t do anything against a gun like that!” Miller ordered everyone. Twilight didn’t need to be told twice, both her and Iguana diving off the ledge as the big gun turned after firing at Eagle towards them, each shot making a loud explosion when it hit the ground. Twilight and Iguana managed to avoid the shots, feeling a little bit of dirt and rock fall down on them while their ears rang.

Now back at the bottom of the pit, they both looked up at the Cocoon as it retracted its main cannon. A moment later, Iguana took his Carl Gustav off of his back and fired up at the AI pod again, the speedy round hitting it before the weapon’s treads could start rolling. Twilight looked up at him for a moment as he reloaded before she grabbed her XFIM-92A and looked through the sight as she took aim, waiting for it to lock on to the pod. She didn’t have to, but with it starting to move and turn, she wanted to make sure she didn’t waste a missile. It wasn’t entirely successful as it hit the side of the top part of weapon’s upper body, but the mechanical grunt it made at the explosion indicated that it still did some damage.

Iguana had just finished loading another round when the machine guns on the side of the Cocoon started firing down at them. Twilight dropped her launcher as she and Iguana ran to the side, trying to avoid getting hit by the bullets. While they were running, Eagle moved around and began firing his SVD at the guns, trying to take them out, while Snake focused on taking out the AI pod, still firing rockets at it.

A minute later, the machine guns turned up to fire at Eagle, forcing him to run for cover, as a series of hatches opened on top of the Cocoon’s head. “Commencing area attack,” the AI droned as it fired missiles out of the openings that came down on its right side, towards Twilight and Iguana. The two were too close to the middle of where they would land, so instead of trying to run to the side, they ran forward and through the gap between the weapon’s front and back treads, getting underneath it and avoiding the explosions that sounded outside.

As they caught their breath from escaping the near disaster, they noticed there were a number of vents attached to the bottom letting out small white-gray clouds. “Those are exhaust vents! This is how it keeps its innards cool,” Iguana realized. He then grabbed his M16, “Making it overheat could help us take it out. Save your missiles for the AI pod, Twilight.” Twilight nodded and grabbed her own gun with her magic and brought it over to hold in her forelegs, both of them opening fire on the vents.

Suddenly, the underside began to shake and raise up slightly, causing both of them to stop firing. “Oh, shit! We gotta get out of here!” Iguana exclaimed a second later, realizing that it was going to try to crush them.

It clicked for Twilight a moment later and she moved to his side, wrapping her left foreleg around his leg. “I’ve got you!” she said as her horn lit up, both of them vanishing in a burst of light moments before the Cocoon slammed its body down.

The two reappeared moments later a fair distance off to the side a fair distance away from the AI weapon, Iguana looking dazed for a moment before he shook his head to get rid of the disorientation. “Your magic is really useful, Twilight, but I swear I’ll never get used to it,” he remarked before he grabbed his Carl Gustav and fired his last round up at the Cocoon’s head. He realized this when he went to reload it and found he didn’t have any more in reserve. “Damn it, I’m out! I need to call in a resupply!”

Twilight looked up at the Cocoon and said, “Do it! I’ve still got a few missiles left!” She grabbed her XFIM and aimed at one of the large guns on the top of the Cocoon’s lower body while Iguana grabbed one of his Supply Markers and threw it away from the AI weapon, running towards where it landed as he clicked the button in his hand to send out the request.

While he was getting the supplies from the cardboard box, Twilight moved closer to the Cocoon’s side as she fired another lock-on missile at it. She was about to aim up at it again with her last missile when she heard it say, “Commencing sweep attack.” She looked confused at that, but then she noticed the arm on the back of it moving, the chainsaw being brought down close to the ground on her side. She let out a yelp as it began spinning around and dove to the side to get away from it, the end of her tail getting snipped off while she was in the air. She landed on her front and looked up to her left as the chainsaw finished its sweep. She managed to push herself up into a sitting position and used her magic to grab and hold her launcher. She brought it close so she could aim and fired at the chainsaw after it had locked on, the missile trying to follow its target but exploding too far away from it.

She heard a round fire behind her and looked to see that Iguana had finished stocking up and reloading. She put her own launcher back on her back and grabbed a Supply Marker, holding it up so that Iguana could see what she was doing. She then turned all the way around and threw it a short distance away. She then grabbed the small button with her right hoof, brought it in front of her, and pressed it with her left hoof. Immediately she got a call from Miller, “They’ve okayed your request for a cardboard box. It’ll be sent out shortly.” While she waited, she grabbed her M4 and fired up at the Cocoon, trying to do a little damage while she waited for the resupply package. A couple of seconds later, while she was reloading, she heard a thudding sound and turned to see that the cardboard box had arrived, the box breaking from the impact and dropping its supplies. Twilight quickly ran over and gathered everything up before she got a new missile ready.

The four of them continued to attack the Cocoon, hammering and chipping away at it with their weapons while doing their best to dodge its attacks. Soon, Snake hit the AI pod with an RPG and the AI weapon started to shudder as it droned, “Thermostat malfunction detected.” It began to warble in the same singing voice that the Pupa and Peace Walker had had while its treads rolled, the weapon turning around without moving. It came to a stop facing away from the entrance to the Underground Base and a few seconds later, it quickly rolled forward and crashed into the side of the pit, its lower half pressed up against it.

Huey contacted everyone a moment later, “The shock dislodged the ladder on the side of the treads! You can use that to get on top!” Twilight looked at the treads on the Cocoon’s right side and saw that the ladder on the side of the front treads had indeed come loose, the bottom of it on the ground. She guessed there was one on the other side as well.

Snake’s voice came over the radio, “It won’t last much longer! Try to take out the guns so it’ll be easier to approach the AI pod when it deactivates!” Heeding his words, Twilight made her way to one of the nearby slopes to get higher up so it would be easier to target the guns while Iguana stayed at the bottom of the pit.

For about a minute, they continued their assault on the Cocoon, the weapon not moving from where it had crashed. Following Snake’s orders, Twilight and Iguana focused on using their heavy firepower to destroy the guns on top of its lower half, saving their bullets for the AI pod, while Eagle continued to fire his SVD bullets at the pod.

It didn’t take long for the Cocoon’s body to shudder again, the AI saying nothing as it shook and spouting gibberish after it settled down. “Attack the AI pod to destroy its hatch!” Miller ordered, everyone opening fire on the pod at his words. The red ring lights around the top and bottom of the pod began to change between red and yellow after a few moments of taking fire, indicating it had sustained considerable damage. “Somebody, hurry up and get in the AI pod! Otherwise it’ll reactivate,” Miller called at this. Unfortunately, no one was on top of the Cocoon’s lower half at the moment.

Below her, Twilight could see Iguana scrambling towards the Cocoon, aiming for the ladder. She looked up at the AI pod; she had no idea how long it would take for it to reactivate but considering this was supposed to be an improved version of the original Cocoon, she assumed it wouldn’t take very long. Deciding someone needed to get in the pod right away, she spread her wings and began flapping them. Due to the weight of the Battle Dress, it was a little harder for her to get up off the ground, but she was able to take advantage of the size of her wings to give herself some extra lift. Once she was sure she was up, she began flying towards the pod.

She made it up to the pod after a couple of seconds. The pod was tilted back towards the Cocoon’s body and she had to place her hooves on the front of it and pull herself up on top since she was still a little short. Once on top, she inched over to the hatch on the back and noticed that it didn’t seem to be open. She gave it a tap with her left hoof and it popped open a crack. She grabbed the handle on top with her magic and gave it a slight pull upwards, causing it to open all the way. She then dove into the pod forelegs first, the hatch closing behind her and the pod righting itself as the ring lights became red again.

Inside, Twilight found that the pod was rather small, the cylindrical AI in the center of the pod taking up most of the space. Twilight turned her body to the side so she could move around a little easier and circled around the AI as she looked it over, seeing some lights on the sides of it. Miller’s voice came over the radio, “Pull out all the unlocked memory boards! All the unlocked boards will have icons over them.” Twilight looked closer at the AI and saw that the lights on the sides were shaped, like icons. She sat down in front of the side labeled ‘A’ and grabbed the sides of one of the unlocked memory boards with her hooves, the board easily sliding out when she pulled it. She put the board in her saddlebags before turning back and doing the same with the other boards that had lights on.

Once she was finished, she stood up and made her way around to the ‘B’ side. As she sat down in front of it, her radio beeped and Huey said, “Any boards you remove can be used to improve our AI weapon. Memory boards have different functions according to the icons displayed over them. Go ahead and take whichever ones you want. If you attack parts on the exterior of the machine, the memory boards that control those parts should light up. You can tell what a memory board does by looking at its color when it lights up.” Twilight filed this information away in her brain as she continued to move around and remove the unlocked memory boards. It was a little hard to tell which ones were lit up due to the red light inside of the pod and the AI’s singing made it a bit hard to focus, but there weren’t many that were lit up. She was only able to remove ten of the AI’s forty memory boards; the rest of them were dark and would not budge.

After about a minute of being inside the pod, a brief beep like an alarm went off and the pod began to shake slightly. She remembered what the Pupa had done after it had been defeated and realized the pod was probably going to detach from the Cocoon. “I’d better get out of here!” she thought and looked up, spotting the hatch. She spread her wings and flew up to it; the pod was starting to shake more, but she could feel the hatch moving as she pressed her hooves up against it. She pressed hard against it with a grunt and it opened all the way, Twilight placing her hooves on the exterior of the pod and pulling herself all the way out. She panted a bit as she crouched on top of the pod; she couldn’t tell if she was panting because she was getting anxious or if it was because the pod didn’t have much breathable air inside of it.

There was no time to dwell on it, however; explosions were going off along the Cocoon’s body and the pod was shaking a lot more now. Twilight took a second to compose herself before she spread her wings and leapt off the pod with a shout, the pod detaching from the Cocoon almost immediately afterwards. The weight of the Battle Dress caused her to go down a little faster than she was used to, but she was still able to glide through the air and land on the ground at the bottom of the pit near Iguana. They both looked up and saw the AI pod sputter for a moment before it shot up into the air, flying away from the Mining Base.

The two were soon joined by Snake and Eagle, the former standing to Twilight’s left and the latter at Iguana’s side. After a moment, Snake spoke, “Quick thinking just now, Twilight. Nice work.”

Twilight looked up at him for a moment before she glanced down at the ground. She then looked at the Cocoon and asked, “So… what now, Boss?”

Snake replied, “Well, we’re done here. I already called for a ride back to Mother Base. We’ll leave this for the R&D boys; they’ll figure out if there’s anything we can salvage for ZEKE.” As he started to make his way up out of the pit and the others followed after him, Twilight could swear she heard him mutter, “Hope there’s not too many more spare AI weapons that are starting to become active…”

________________________________________

“Whoa. Were you guys able to use the Cocoon for anything?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight thought for a moment before answering, “Well, since we mostly focused on attacking the AI pod, its armor was pretty much intact. It needed some work done on it after it was brought back to Mother Base, but they were able to apply it to ZEKE not long afterwards.”

Cadance said, “So they were able to repurpose it for the MSF’s AI weapon.”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. ZEKE was mostly built using pieces from the CIA’s AI weapons. You know, the Pupa, the Chrysalis… we were even able to get a hold of some parts from Peace Walker.”

Applejack asked, “How’d y’all get pieces from that thing?”

Shining added, “And what about the Chrysalis AI weapon? You haven’t mentioned that one much.”

Twilight answered both questions, “I’m not sure, and like I said before, I never saw the Chrysalis aside from what Huey showed me. The only thing is I was outside when they transported the railgun back to Mother Base, though. I got to see several transport helicopters carrying the large gun below them.”

Luna asked, “What is a ‘railed gun’, Twilight?”

Twilight replied, “From what I understand, Princess Luna, a railgun is some sort of new, experimental type of weapon. It uses magnets and electricity to fire bullets at extremely high velocities. It can only fire one bullet at a time, but… they’re pretty devastating. I know the guys in R&D were trying to build a smaller version for the Combat Unit to use. I think I remember them saying they had some problems getting it to work right.”

Celestia cleared her throat and spoke, “So that was one time where you accompanied Snake on a mission, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded, “Yes. I even got to go with him to that island I woke up on once or twice. Turns out it was home to dragons and other large creatures.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Pinkie whined, “Didn’t you do anything FUN while you were there, Twilight?!”

Everyone turned to look at her. “What are you talking about, Pinkie? She took down a huge weapon! She helped save the world! She got to creep around and attach guys to balloons! She got to do some awesome stuff!” Rainbow said.

Pinkie replied, “Yeah, it’s all exciting stuff, Dashie, but you know what else it is? It’s a lot of work! That’s pretty much all we’ve heard about! Nothing but work, work, work!” She looked at Twilight, “Did you get a chance to do anything else while you were there, Twilight, or were eating and sleeping the only times you ever got to take a break?”

Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin as she thought about the question. “Something fun, huh? Let’s see…” After a moment, she smiled as a memory came to mind. “Well…” she started.

Comments

[Commander Darklight]

Carl Gustav Multi-Purpose rocket launche

its a recoilless rifle not a rocket launcher

[Commander Darklight]

also twi and iguan swapped launchers when the fight started and falcons callsign changed to eagle when the fight started

[GreenS21]

8956185

8956200

Thank you. Better?

[sonicandmario826]

Alright twilight and Snake taking on more weapons!!!

Nice action in this chapter I did like that Twilight remembered that she had wings and got in the pod.

Looks like the next chapter is more lighthearted which will be interesting to see.