Disclaimer: We own neither the Metal Gear Solid nor the Gundam franchises, though I do wish I could write stories like Kojima can. Also, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a Hideo Kojima game!

Co-written with DragonKnightRyu

Prologue: Wormhole Troubles

"Boss, that jackal you brought back gave one of our guys at R&D a really crazy idea. I have no idea how it happened, how he made it work, or the exact physics behind it, but… Boss, he's managed to create a wormhole. Come back to Mother Base, you really need to see this."

The brown-haired man with a chunk of metal debris stuck in his right temple, wearing an eyepatch over his right eye had been extremely skeptical when he heard the news - after all, that kind of tech was supposed to come right out of those sci-fi movies. Some of the movie buffs on the base had bought copies of Star Wars, Star Trek and Star whatevers VHS tapes to bring over to Mother Base, but quite honestly he had never been really interested in that kind of stuff. Scientific hodgepodge, especially when it had been integrated into pop culture had never appealed much to him.

Still, he let out a sigh as he turned towards the Soviet soldier he had just finished interrogating. He was back in Afghanistan for a mission to capture a highly-skilled enemy soldier to add to the ranks of Diamond Dogs - the very one he was holding now. "Lights out," he muttered as he put his arm across the man's neck and began choking him out, until he fell limp.

Once he was absolutely sure the guy was out cold, he let him go and backed up against a nearby wall, peeking around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. "Anything else left nearby?"

He heard a momentary fizzle of static from his earpiece.

Wasting no time, he pulled out a small bag from his backpack and untied the cable from around it, attaching the hook on the end to the soldier's belt and pulling a smaller cord. A set of balloons quickly inflated and lifted the soldier up into the air, the sudden movement jerking him slightly awake.

"Huh…?"

The balloon inflated even more and flew right up into the air.

"WAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa…"

He could hear the distinct sound of a helicopter flying overhead to pick up the flying soldier from the troposphere as he walked away from the base, careful not to tread on the soldiers sleeping on the ground nearby lest he wake them up. With so many of them lying around he really didn't want to do that, or risk waking them up and raising an alert.

Snake let out a sigh as he pulled out his iDroid and dialed in the appropriate frequency. "Pequod, I need a pickup."

"This is Pequod! Copy that, Boss!"

He looked far off into the distance, at a nearby hill where he had spotted a red laser coming from, and let out an honest smile. He could honestly say that he felt a lot safer with his partner watching him on the battlefield.

Far away where he had been looking, a woman with chocolate brown hair tied back into a ponytail lowered her sniper rifle and flashed a thumbs up at the man. She was clad in clothes that might as well not be clothes as well - just a set of underwear, fishnet stockings, a utility belt and harness and boots. She stood up and seemingly vanished into thin air, before a trail of dust formed heading off in the direction of the landing zone.

Snake himself lowered his Int-Scope and headed for the jeep he had… 'borrowed' from the outpost. It was time to head back home.

Mother Base, Seychelles Waters

"Great job Boss, another potential recruit added to the base and another jeep for the garage," a soldier clad in the standard Diamond Dogs uniform - olive drab combat fatigues and a balaclava greeted Snake as he jumped off the chopper. The badge on his sleeve with a pair of intersecting hexagons indicated that he was a member of the Base Development Team.

"I take it Prancing Swan is having fun breaking him in," Snake said gruffly.

"Oh yes, she is," the soldier nodded back - if he was smiling, the horned man couldn't see it. "He'll fold fast - I've seen that girl at work and I haven't seen any smooth talker as good as her."

Snake simply nodded back as he stared up at the blue-painted box structure that made up the main building on top of the Research and Development platform. The remains of the wrecked Metal Gear Sahelanthropus were resting on top of the building, alongside the AI pod that mimicked The Boss. A firm look graced his face - that was his legacy to carry on as well. He had accepted that fact.

"Where's Ocelot?" Snake turned to the soldier.

"Off base. He had to return to his GRU duties for a while," the soldier reported. "Miller's in the main building looking at the new toy. I'm no rocket scientist but that thing doesn't make sense at all," he shook his head.

"You're not the only one that doesn't make sense to," Snake said gruffly as he began walking, the soldier falling into step behind him and slightly off to the side. "It would save some time though - if what Miller described it like is right, we can use something like that in place of the normal Fulton and it can't get intercepted."

"Or we could use it to simply get around the base faster," the soldier suggested. "I mean, as is we have to drive a long way out to the other platforms. I know Miller wanted Mother Base to be built like this so we have room for expansion and to prevent enemies from easily taking over the entire base, but it's tiring if I want to meet the others at the Command Platform for lunch."

Snake cast a glance at the yellow cargo loading area they were walking by. "Just pack yourself into a box and ship yourself around," he said sagely. "Try it, you might just find your own inner peace, Bullet Crab."

The soldier gave him an odd look. "Boss… I'll… think about it sometime," he said hesitantly.

"Young people these days don't understand the utility of a cardboard box…" Snake shook his head in disappointment as he pushed open a door and stepped into the building proper. Bullet Crab followed him in, closing the door behind them.

They descended several floors until they were just outside a door to the Battle Gear hangar, where he could hear sounds of welding going on. Probably repairing battle damage from the latest mission with it, he assumed. Their destination, however, was the door opposite that one, which had apparently been appropriated for the wormhole testing.

The two men stepped into the room and were instantly greeted with a strange light softly pulsing outward from… a swirling… something in the middle of the room, surrounded by thick glass panels. Several men were standing around it, including a man wearing sunglasses with blonde hair, in a beige long coat with a beret perched on his head. The silhouette was unmistakable.

"Snake, what took you so long?" Kazuhira Miller spoke up, still staring at the otherworldly phenomenon.

"So… this is it?" Snake muttered as he walked up beside his second-in-command. "The wormhole?"

"Yeah, it is," Kaz nodded, finally turning to Snake. "Truth be told I still have no idea how this thing works, but it does. Anything going in one wormhole comes out the other."

"Where's the other wormhole?" Snake asked.

"In the adjacent room," Kaz jerked his left thumb over at another door. As they watched, a cardboard box materialized from the wormhole and joined the stack already in their room. "They're doing final testing to determine if we can replace the Fulton with it. The applications, Boss, think of the applications…"

"I know, I know," Snake held up his hand to stop his close friend from rambling on, knowing his habits. "A Fulton that can't be shot down, that can be retrieved instantaneously with no lag time, that is completely safe for whatever's being transported."

"I still remember when you had to bring in those child soldiers from the Angola-Zaire border," Kaz nodded. "Pequod was complaining about all the fuel he wasted lingering around that area waiting for you to bring them on."

"At least until we developed the child-safe Fulton," Snake nodded. "So… has R&D just been testing it with cardboard boxes?"

Another cardboard box appeared from the wormhole.

"10 diamonds says the next one is a cardboard box," one of the watching soldiers drawled in apparent boredom.

"Not taking a sucker's bet," another replied.

"For two hours, yes," Kaz let out a sheepish groan.

A sheep materialized from the wormhole this time.

"Pay up."

"Hey! You didn't take the bet!"

"Finally," Kaz muttered, before rounding on Snake. "You're Fultoning so much sheep in, we could probably add a wool factory to Mother Base now…"

"Hey, the NGO's paying us a handsome price for each animal we bring in," Snake raised his hands placatingly. "Might as well take advantage of that."

"I'll bet," Kaz sighed.

A wild donkey appeared from the wormhole apparently a little dizzy as it stumbled around and knocked into the sheep.

"The Intel Unit's been trying to domesticate some of the animals for use during their operations in the field," Kaz commented, trying to strike up some conversation during the boring period. "Makes for very convincing camouflage as farmers."

"Tell me when they start testing on vehicles and containers. We could always use more," Snake said as he turned towards the door.

"W-Wait, are you really going to leave me here to wait until they start on those?" Kaz blinked a few times, turning back to look at the wormhole as another animal emerged from it.

"Yeah," Snake nodded, closing the door behind him as he left. "I have missions to do."

Kaz stared at the door for several moments before turning to Bullet Crab. "You, tell me when they start testing on vehicles and containers," he ground out as he turned to leave as well.

"S-Sir!?" Bullet Crab wasn't entirely sure if he should feel honoured or dismayed at the thought of watching the quickly-getting-boring, slow-paced testing going on under the orders of the people at the very top of the command chain.

On his way out, Miller turned to look at a nearby patch of empty space. He let out a sigh and left.

Command Platform

"You don't have to camouflage yourself when you're out in the open on Mother Base anymore," Snake turned to face a seemingly empty space on the deck.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, until the figure of his scantily-clad female partner uncloaked right there, letting out a sigh.

"I'm too used to you already, Quiet," Snake smiled. "There's no need to hide when Diamond Dogs has already accepted you."

Quiet looked away apprehensively.

"Force of habit, huh," Snake muttered, understanding the unspoken message and turning out to look at the sea quietly, just enjoying the silence.

The female sniper sat down on the deck of the platform, joining him in his sea-watching. A helicopter flew in from the distance, headed towards the Combat Platform - probably some of the Combat Unit returning after a mission.

"It's thanks to you that I can stand here today, you know," Snake spoke up. "We've gone on so many missions together, and when you left Mother Base on your own to go back to Afghanistan, it tore me apart."

Quiet looked away in shame, recalling that episode back at the Lamar Khate Palace in Afghanistan. When the two of them had fought off a wave of Soviet armoured vehicles intent on exacting revenge for their comrades who had fallen to her bullets. When the two of them had to escape from Soviet pursuit afterwards, having lost all their weapons. When Quiet had woken up just in time to stop a poisonous cobra from attacking Snake and possibly killing him. When the two of them had escaped aboard Pequod and she had vowed to herself to stay beside him, to never leave him again.

"Don't do it again, Quiet. Your home is here now," Snake nodded. "Regardless of who you were with before, or what you did, you're a part of Diamond Dogs now. Those vocal cord parasites aren't going to suddenly mutate for no reason."

Quiet nodded sombrely, well aware of the reason she had chosen to leave Diamond Dogs in the first place.

"One day… when we can finally make The Boss' dream come true, we'll sit down somewhere and have a nice dinner together," Snake continued, watching as the helicopter landed on the Combat Platform's helipad.

Quiet nodded again.

"Woof!"

Snake chuckled as D-Dog ran up beside him and he rested his intact hand on his back, running it through his black-white fur. "Good dog," he murmured.

D-Dog sat down on his haunches and just enjoyed the attention being lavished on him.

Quiet hesitantly lifted up an arm, hovering her hand over the dog's fur. When D-Dog made no move to stop her and Snake moved his hand away to make room, she began petting the dog too.

"He likes you," Snake commented.

Quiet smiled softly, continuing pampering the dog with more confidence this time.

D-Dog let out a low whine and rolled over onto his back, allowing the pair to pet his stomach.

Kaz watched from a distance, eying Quiet suspiciously before letting out a sigh and walking away. The man deserved to have his quiet time after all the shit they had been through at least. Only after a while did he realize that he had made a pun on the female sniper's name unintentionally.

He'd tell them about the results of the wormhole testing later.

Wormhole Testing Area, R&D Platform

Bullet Crab frowned. The wormhole seemed to be getting bigger and bigger - he had no idea what the R&D Unit was doing to the thing, but whatever it was, it was starting to unnerve him. The testing chamber had been cleared of all cardboard boxes and animals now, and the single guy that had been volunteered to go through it transported to the sickbay to get treatment for nausea.

Apparently they were going to try vehicles next - one of the jeeps had been driven in through the Battle Gear hangar and was sitting in the other room waiting to be wormholed. Even as he watched, said vehicle began to slowly materialize through the receiving wormhole. They had said that they wouldn't consider it a success until they had managed to bring a tank through it, so he was predicting it would take a while…

And then he heard a tank being driven into the hangar. Maybe it wouldn't take so long after all. Looking around for a while, he decided to head for the wormhole control room to get a better view of the whole process.

When he reached the door, he heard people discussing some scientific mumbo-jumbo in a confused and somewhat… panicked tone? He really couldn't understand a single word being said, but the way they were talking was unnerving him even more.

He hadn't risen up through the ranks of the Soviet Army without learning how to tell panic from elation after all.

"Should we sound the alarm? There's no telling what'll happen if this keeps going on…" a single sentence of English from inside the room immediately set the alarms blaring in his head.

Bullet Crab slammed open the door, causing the panicking scientists inside to freeze at the sudden intrusion.

"Status report. Either you give it to me and I tell the Boss, or I tell the Boss to tell you guys to give it to him," he declared firmly.

They quickly chose the first option. At least that way the middleman would face some of Snake's wrath first.

Command Platform

"Boss, I… hate to interrupt you, but we have an emergency in the wormhole testing area. The scientists somehow lost control over the wormhole and it's growing rapidly. We've tried everything short of shooting the damned thing, even killed the power, but it's still growing!"

Snake let out a disgruntled sound as the call cut out, standing up from beside Quiet. "What the fuck is R&D doing?" he cursed, inputting another frequency. "Pequod, I need immediate transport to the R&D platform!"

"Roger that!"

Quiet stood up, looking at Snake worriedly. Even D-Dog seemed to sense the urgency and quickly stood at full attention, tongue lolling and tail wagging.

"No time to drive, we're flying over there!" Snake shouted over the sound of the chopper's blades spinning as he ran to the helipad. The chopper swung around the main tower and descended - the trio wasted no time climbing onto it.

Even from the air it was clear that something was going wrong at the main platform - the same odd lighting effects surrounding the wormhole now suffused the whole area despite having no clear source. Already some of the Mother Base staff were fleeing the platform in a jeep, driving across the connecting bridges toward the Command Platform.

"What… is that?" the pilot gasped.

D-Dog let out a low whine.

"An out of control wormhole," Snake groaned. "Take us in!"

"S-Sir!" the pilot acknowledged the order despite his own personal fears, bringing the chopper in to touch down on the roof helipad.

The wheels had barely even hit the ground when Snake, Quiet and D-Dog jumped off it. Quiet paused for a moment as her head almost went invisible, before shaking it off, cancelling her camouflage and taking off down the stairs after her partner.

"Report!" Snake shouted, slamming open the door to the wormhole control room barely a minute later.

"It's just like we said, the wormhole is going crazy!" Bullet Crab shouted from nearby a smoking control console. "The two wormholes have combined - we're not even sure where the destination is going to be, or if we're going to bring something else here! At this rate the wormhole is going to swallow Mother Base within the hour!"

"How could this happen?" Kaz appeared from the doorway, slamming his remaining hand against the bulkhead. "What was R&D doing!?"

"W-We were trying to make the wormhole bigger to see if we could transport armoured vehicles through it!" one of the scientists whimpered, drawing Kaz's attention and causing him to limp forward using his crutches to bodily grab the man's collar. "S-S-Something went wrong then!"

Bullet Crab eyed a patch of brown liquid on the control console suspiciously and pointed at it.

"Alright, alright, someone spilled coffee on it!"

"That's so cliched it's not even funny!" Kaz yelled, releasing the man and storming towards the console. "Does anything work?"

"Tried everything, sir! Nothing works!" Bullet Crab reported truthfully.

"Wormhole size increase is accelerating!" one of the techs added in a panic. "It's really going to completely encompass Mother Base at this rate!"

"What's the destination of this wormhole?" Snake growled threateningly.

"U-Unknown! We're not even sure if it's a receiving or sending wormhole!"

"You all are on toilet cleaning duty for the next month!" Mother Base's second-in-command declared.

"If we survive!"

"I don't wanna get dumped on the moon!"

"Wormhole has enveloped Mother Base! Transport sequence is starting!"

"Fuck me," Snake muttered as the glow grew brighter and brighter…

Until it all went white.

Later

"Urgh…" Snake groaned as he climbed to his feet, leaning against the wall for support. "Report."

There was no reply.

He staggered towards the doorway, rubbing his head from the pounding headache he was experiencing. It felt like a jackhammer was doing its work inside his head… he resisted the urge to vomit as he stepped out into the stairwell, his vision spinning. Upon clearing the staircase and emerging on the deck of the platform, he ran as fast as he could out to the edge of the deck.

So far everything seemed alright - they were still surrounded by blue water, which was at least a good sign. All of Mother Base was still present and completely intact, although it seemed that one of the evacuating jeeps had flipped over on the connecting strut. He'd have to review everything later on.

"Pequod… you alright?" he called out through his iDroid.

"S-Sir… I'm fine…" the reply came back. "Performing systems… check…"

"Once you've got that Blackfoot up and running, I want to be at the Command Platform yesterday," Snake heaved a sigh of relief - he had taken a liking to that pilot after all. "Contact the other pilots and have them do air surveillance around Mother Base. I want to know if anything changed around us."

"Yes, sir!"

He heard footsteps behind him and turned just in time to see a disoriented-looking Quiet as she climbed onto the deck, lurching forward to join him. D-Dog wasn't very far behind, though Kaz was nowhere in sight.

"Intra-base comms are still working, luckily," Snake sighed. "But we need to figure out what happened around us before we make our next move."

Quiet simply nodded.

Snake cast another glance at the Command Platform in the distance. It didn't seem like anything odd had appeared near them, so he deduced that they had been sent somewhere else. Where, he had no idea, but he was at least sure of one thing. The next time wormhole experiments took place, no drinks near the damned control console.

"Arriving at the LZ shortly, Boss!" Pequod's familiar voice rang through the iDroid as the sound of helicopter blades spinning filled the air and a strong gust of wind blew across the platform.

"REMEMBER, TOILET CLEANING DUTY FOR THE NEXT MONTH!"

And Kaz was most definitely fully conscious now, as the door leading below decks slammed open once again. The crippled blonde limped out on his crutches, reaching Snake's group just as Pequod came to a stop over the helipad.

"Come on, let's get to the bottom of this," Kaz growled.

Command Platform, Command Center

"So all communications with the mainland are down," Kaz frowned, standing on the central area of the command center that provided support to all of Diamond Dogs' field operatives. Around him were a large amount of staff sitting at banks of computers and radios.

"Correct, sir," one of the staff nodded.

"All comms satellites are inaccessible - the systems are saying that they're not even there," another reported.

"90% of personnel accounted for, the remaining 10% are Intel and Combat Unit members who were on missions during the accident."

"37 staff sustained minor injuries during the transition, they have already been hospitalized. No life-threatening injuries were reported. Medical supplies are still sufficient."

"The Quarantine and Animal Conservation Platforms have reported in. No damage reported, but the animals were a little spooked. The bears almost broke their cage down."

That one made Snake shiver a little. That legendary Himalayan Brown Bear hadn't been easy to take down non-lethally.

"So… can we conclude that we're somewhere that's not Earth?" Kaz groaned - this was going to be a hell of a mess to clean up. Assuming it could even be cleaned up.

"The thing is… all the star constellations look exactly the same," one of the techs hesitantly reported. "I think we're still on Earth…"

"Yeah, but those giant floating cylinder things in orbit can't be right," another argued. "I checked with a telescope!"

"This is Pequod! I can see the Seychelles islands!" Pequod reported in, having joined the reconnaissance after dropping off the group at the Command Platform.

"Then it's definitely still Earth…" Kaz frowned.

"I'm being hailed!" Pequod reported. "Routing transmission back to Mother Base!"

"This is the Seychelles Air Force! Unknown aircraft, you are in violation of Seychelles airspace! State your affiliation!"

"That doesn't sound like anyone we know," Kaz frowned, taking hold of the mike. "This is Kazuhira Miller, of the private force Diamond Dogs. My apologies for breaching your airspace, we were unaware that we had crossed into it."

"Diamond Dogs? Private force? I've never heard of such an organization!"

Kaz sucked in a deep breath. It was impossible for the Seychelles to have just forgotten them after all that they had done for them… at least in their version of Earth. He hated to delve into sci-fi excuses and whatnot, but it seemed that there was only one explanation for what had happened to them.

"I assure you, we are not hostile," he said calmly. "But allow me to confirm something. What is the date today?"

"It's May 2nd, C.E. 70. Why are you asking?"

"What's C.E.?" the same question was going through the staff's heads at the same time Kaz asked it.

"Cosmic Era. What kind of a rock have you people been hiding under this past century?"

Lots of loud gasps filled the room.

"It seems… we have a lot of things to catch up on," Kaz said after a very long pause. "With your permission, I would like to land at Seychelles International Airport for a more in-depth discussion."

There was a pause on the comms. "Are you people from those floating platforms that suddenly appeared in our waters in that flash of light an hour ago?"

"Yes," Kaz replied without hesitation.

Another pause, even longer this time.

"Our President will meet you personally at the airport. He's on route now."

"I'll be there within the hour," Kaz nodded. "Boss, you should probably come too."

"Right," Snake agreed and turned to Quiet. "You're on escort duty. Cover us in case anything goes wrong. Don't get spotted, nonlethal rounds only."

Quiet nodded, hefting her Guilty Butterfly sniper rifle.

"So… another world, dimension, whatever?" one of the staff asked, turning to look at Kaz.

"Seems like it," Kaz sighed, looking around them. "It's like something right out of a sci-fi novel…"

"How are we going to get back?" another person asked.

"I sure as hell am not authorizing another giant wormhole with no telling where it'll dump us!" Kaz shouted. "In the meantime, stay put. I'm putting Mother Base on alert status until further notice!"

"Sir!" a chorus came from the staff in the command center as they returned to their consoles.

Victoria, Seychelles

President Arsene Burnier steepled his hands as he turned his chair around to face the newcomers from Diamond Dogs. Snake and Kaz took the front, with their own escort of two in case things went pear-shaped. Of course, the President himself had his own guards, but they mostly paled in comparison to the well-built and well-trained Diamond Dogs staff.

Their only consolation was that they were all unarmed, which wasn't exactly true considering Snake had his prosthetic Stun Arm equipped. And disarming him of that would have proven to be too difficult anyway. And with all their men trained in CQC, they didn't need the guns to take down men with handguns.

And Snake could also see the glint of a sniper scope far off in the distance anyway. Nope, being attacked wasn't the least of their worries.

"Let me cut straight to the chase and get this straight, you people think you arrived from an… alternate world? Is that right?" the President asked, his brows furrowed in thought.

"Correct, Mr. President," Snake nodded. "We were performing some scientific tests which… got out of hand. The end result is as you see it."

Arsene sighed, massaging his head. "Sounds like something right out of science fiction," he finally said.

"We can't agree more," Kaz inclined his head slightly. "I hate to ask this of you right after meeting you, but can you please explain to us the state of the world now?"

"With Seychelles the way it is, I have nothing better to do," he shrugged, looking out the window. "From what I've seen of your technology, it seems to date back from before what we call the Reconstruction War. That particular war happened after the end of the AD era, when we humans completely wore out the Earth's petroleum resources and began bickering with each other over what was left. Economic blocks were formed by the major powers, and it didn't take long for tensions to flare up."

"So… now there's also the chance that we were thrown into the future…" Kaz groaned - yet another thing to consider now.

"Unlikely," Arsene shook his head. "I had my men run internet checks - even pre-Reconstruction War history was saved. If you people are as famous as you say you are, there should at least be some records. But there are none."

"We came from 1984 AD though, that should have been way before the Reconstruction War…" Kaz mused.

"I have no choice but to believe you, with the circumstances that led to your appearance here," Arsene shrugged. "Be that as it may, you… Diamond Dogs did come in at a very interesting time. The Earth Alliance is currently at war with the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, or ZAFT as people shorten it to."

"We're a private military force, but we don't have any intentions of prolonging conflict any more than necessary," Snake spoke up this time. "Rest assured, we have no intentions of profiteering off any conflict happening in this world."

"That's the first time I've heard of mercs that don't want to fight too much," Arsene scratched his head.

"Our previous benefactors said as much," Kaz chuckled. "Your counterpart in our original world had an agreement with us before we were brought over here."

"What sort of agreement?" Arsene asked, despite roughly knowing the answer himself.

"We helped them out during a coup d'etat and they gave us the platforms you see sitting in your waters now," Kaz explained. "We helped to protect the Seychelles after that, getting rid of pirates and the like, and they gave us room to keep growing."

"That… is a problem that still exists now," Arsene groaned, reminded of the countless ships intercepted by pirates in their waters. Especially since the Bloody Valentine War started. He quite quickly made up his mind after that. "I'd like to renew that contract that my counterpart from your world had, if you like. I'll assume you know of the situation with our nation, we barely have enough people to field a standing army, and with the current war going on, I'd like to have some protection."

"It's perfectly alright with us," Kaz agreed.

"While Seychelles is taking the position of a neutral entity in this war, I want some insurance. The Earth Alliance has been pressuring other nations to join it as of late, trying to gather the manpower to fight back against ZAFT," Arsene explained. "They've been on a losing streak lately, and I don't want my people to get dragged into this fight. ZAFT won't act against the neutral nations, so you won't have to worry about encountering anything you can't fight back against. Those Coordinators have completely outstripped us Naturals scientifically…"

"You'll have to explain more to me about Coordinators and Naturals later on," Kaz sighed, knowing they had a lot of reading material to bring back. "But what do you mean something we can't fight back against?"

Arsene stared at Kaz. "Mobile Suits. Giant, bipedal humanoid robots armed with upscaled infantry weapons. One platoon of them can tear apart a whole standard army battalion."

Kaz's eyebrows were raised as he locked eyes with Snake. They were both thinking the exact same thing.

"Nuclear-armed?" Snake broke the silence.

Arsene let out a bark of laughter. "Hell no, ZAFT dropped a bunch of things we call Neutron Jammers all over Earth after they got nuked the first time. They prevent anything from going nuclear in a large radius around them. Cost Earth practically all of its energy too, considering we were mainly relying on nuclear fission for energy."

THAT revelation caused the Diamond Dogs members' eyebrows to shoot up to their hairlines.

"That's probably for the best," Kaz said grimly. "Nukes just make everything worse overall. Using a technology that completely neutralizes nuclear reactions would completely invalidate the need for nuclear deterrence too…"

"I take it you haven't had the best experiences with nuclear weapons either," Arsene asked curiously.

"We haven't," Snake shook his head - he was the best person to talk about it considering he had already stopped more nukes than most people got to see in a lifetime. Well, at least his implanted experiences told him that. Between the Shagohod from Russia, the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear, Peace Walker and Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, he had more experience than he needed on the subject.

"I see. Anyway, so long as you don't antagonize ZAFT too much for no reason, they won't have any reason to send Mobile Suits after you," Arsene leaned back in his chair.

"But if we're going to continue offering our services as a PF here, we'll need to figure out a way to counter them somehow at some point," Kaz frowned.

"It's almost impossible without using a weapon of the same scale, Mr. Miller," Arsene shook his head.

"Actually…" Snake paused, remembering that the remains of a certain bipedal weapon were still sitting on Mother Base's R&D platform. "Kaz, we do have one."

"What are you talking abo-" Kaz froze mid-sentence as he realized exactly what Snake was referring to. "Are you crazy? Sahelanthropus is in pieces, and no human adult can fit into that cockpit anyway!"

"Do you know anyone with a technical background who would be interested in working on a giant bipedal weapon?" Snake ignored Kaz and turned to Arsene.

Arsene very nearly fell out of his chair. "You're telling me you have a weapon that can stand up to a Mobile Suit by itself!?" he asked in shock.

"It'll need a few repairs, but it was fully operational before we… broke it," Snake nodded. "Kaz, if those Mobile Suits are as commonplace as we think they are here, a Metal Gear won't stand out as much and force everyone else to come after us like what happened last time."

Kaz stared at Snake incredulously. "The Earth Alliance doesn't have access to Mobile Suit tech, Snake! We don't know what they can do, and they'll likely come for us if we expose Sahelanthropus to them!"

"We don't," Snake chuckled. "We made the mistake last time of letting the whole world know we had a nuke. Now, we find someone to discreetly repair Sahelanthropus. It'll be our trump card - we don't play it unless we absolutely have to."

Kaz tried to find some kind of argument against it, but he couldn't really dig anything up and sagged. "Alright Boss, I'll trust your judgement on this."

Arsene cleared his throat to get their attention and leaned forward in his chair. "Gentlemen, Seychelles doesn't have the technical expertise to do this kind of thing, but I can introduce you to a nation we have diplomatic ties to that does."

"What nation?" Snake asked.

"The ORB Union," Arsene stated plainly.

Orb Union, Morgenroete Facility R&D Complex

Deep within Morgenroete's R&D Complex, a deep thumping of drums and bass was heard from one of the many 'workshops' that made up the complex, this one looking to be more of a miniature hangar rather than the regular garage look to most of them.

The reason for this was actually, rather simple, dominating the center of the hanger was a half-assembled mobile suit, with partly assembled parts surrounding it. The left handed wall had a large assortment of firearms, assault rifles, hand guns, SMGs, LMGs even an RPG launcher, although each and every one of them were in various states of disassembly. Finally the right handed wall was covered completely in computer equipment, each monitor was active and either running through assorted simulations or they were pulling out information from assorted sources on anything from Bioengineering to Theoretical Physics and compiling them into assorted folders.

In the chaos that was his workshop, a single man, looking to be in his early twenties with messy, short cut brown hair and emerald green eyes, wearing a standard Morgenroete Engineering uniform, the upper part tied off around the waist to reveal a black muscle shirt that hung somewhat loosely from his shoulders.

His head bobbed with the beat of the rock music that echoes throughout the hanger as he hunched over a rifle looking device, various wires streaming out of it as he fiddled with it.

"Dammit Hisanaga, how many times have I asked you to keep that music down!" a feminine voice cried out over the din of the music.

Ryu Hisanaga looked up with a surprised blink before reaching over to a computer and hitting the pause button. "Huh, you say something, Simmons?" he asked absently.

Erica Simmons, a senior engineer for Morgenroete, sighed in response to his question, shaking her head as she held a hand to her forehead.

Ryu Hisanaga, an undeniably brilliant young man, was also undeniably eccentric and absentminded, hell she lost count of the number of times an explosion came from his 'workshop' because he forgot he left something volatile out in the open.

But, his work more than made up for any damages he might have caused, especially given that he was one of the reasons they had advanced their mobile suit technology so far.

"So, what is your project this time?" she questioned, folding her arms across her chest with a raised eyebrow.

"Beam Weaponry," Ryu replied after a moment, turning back to what he was working on. "Not even at the proof of concept phase so don't ask how long until a prototype is ready."

Erica sighed and shook her head in response, looking over the assorted half-finished projects he had laying around. "Well, let me know when you do," she said resignedly. "But you'll have to leave it for now, Lord Uzumi has asked for you personally."

Ryu blinked and looked back up. "The Lion?" he asked in surprise. "Why?"

Erica shrugged. "No clue," she informed. "Something hush hush so you better hurry."

Ryu nodded. "Let me shower first then I'll head over," he responded as he set his tools down. "Talk to you later, Simmons."

Erica chuckled as she watched the engineer trot off before leaving the workshop herself, making sure the lights were off before closing the doors.

Author's Notes:

AstralXYZ: I do apologize for not working on Accel World: Ruby Chronicles, but let's just say I've been very busy these past few years with my studies and getting absorbed in various other games. It's pretty obvious - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is my most recent one. I promise I'll get back to that other fanfic in time (especially with the new Accel World anime just recently announced), but in the meantime, I really, really wanted to write a resolution to MGSV that didn't end in Quiet's death. I talked it over with a friend of mine, and we thought of making a Gundam SEED crossover using the wormholes in the game as a transfer method.

For those of you not aware, as of late I've been co-writing fanfics together with a few other friends of mine, one of them is here with me for this fic. I'll let him introduce himself.

DragonKnightRyu: Sup, I'm DragonKnightRyu and I am responsible for late night drunken acts of debauchery and larceny. Plus many of you might know my fics for mostly being gender-bent leads.

AstralXYZ: There you have it. Feel free to drop a review or a comment if you're entertained by this fanfic - constructive criticism is very much welcome! If you happen to check out any of Ryu's fanfics, the Yukikaze siblings are my usual OCs, just so you know.