Old and Vintage

Answer to a review:

GJO1088: Well, the Diamond Dogs might start to produce oil for Gallia when the war started. Also, while XOF won't make an appearance, logistic won't be the only problem for Diamond Dogs.

Aerial Command Center, Gallia

Big Boss is currently smokes a cigar while looking at DD who is having a nap. He smiles a little before deciding to play one of the tapes that he has. At the tape that he chose, there's a label "About Europa [1]: Story of Gallia". Big Boss examines the tape for a while before putting it in a walkman and plays it.

"So, after spending some hours in here, what do you think about the Mother Base?" Kaz

"It's…unbelievable. I never see anything like this in my whole life! This place…is basically an artificial island." Carl

"Well, I can't disagree with that. Now, I am sure this is a time for you to…give us some appreciation." Ocelot

"How?" C

"Simple, really. Just your basic identity and anything you know about Europa, especially Gallia." O

"Umm, OK. So, alright, my name. My name is Carl. I was born…" C

"Wait, that's it?" K

"Huh?" C

"No last name?" K

"No. I am a Darcsen, so I don't…wait, none of you know about Darcsen, right?" C

"Pretend that we don't. But let's save that for later." O

"Alright. I am Carl. I was born at March 4, 1908 at the city of Fouzen at northern Gallia." C

"Good, that should be enough. Now, I want you to describe about Gallia generally." K

"Gallia is a principality. It is known through Europa for its policies of armed neutrality and universal conscription." C

"What is a universal conscription and how is it different from an ordinary one?" O

"Unlike the ordinary one, universal conscription makes military training mandatory to almost all civilians from the moment they can aim a gun properly. This happens because Gallia share its borders with two superpowers that can invade you faster than you can say 'I surrender'." C

"I see. While I can understand the policy, this makes attacking Gallian civilians during war time – while still a crime – a lot more justified. You don't want that kind of people out of your grasp. If you can't have them, make sure the same thing happens to your enemy." K

"Yeah, that might explain why many of our civilians tend to be targeted." C

"It's a double-edged blade. You either protect your country but risk your people, or protect your people but risk your country." O

"That should be enough. Now, I want you to describe about Gallian military. The army first if you don't mind." K

"OK, I am going to put it simple. There's two types of forces in the army, the regular like myself and the militia, which is only called during a wartime. Our weapons are rifles, SMGs, machine guns, those usual weapons you find in any military. Our armored forces used mainly light tanks since most of our tactics are based around defensive. I am going to be honest, I don't exactly get it how light tanks and defensive tactics matched up." C

"I can think of some, but I also think that medium or heavy tank is more suitable for defensive. They're harder to crack, thus giving more boost on defense and firepower." K

"Alright. Now, what about the air force?" O

"…What?" C

"Umm, air force?" K

"We don't have this branch called 'air force'. Not even the Empire and the Federation have one. Heck, most of the air vehicles that I know – besides balloon – are still in development stage." C

"Well, that's a relief." O

"Yeah, now we're practically the ruler of air combat." K

"Boss, we almost reach our destination." Informed the pilot of Pequod suddenly.

Hearing that, Big Boss ends the recording and puts the Walkman on his satchel. DD also wakes up and appears to be more than ready for a battle. He goes to the left door, opens it and sits at the edge.

"[COMMS] Boss, the client of this mission is…umm, it's us. Sorry, Boss, old habit dies hard. Back to the point, we need you to infiltrate Gallian military base and 'borrow' as many vehicles and weapons as you can. Also, Carl spoke about something called 'Ragnite'. He said you can find it in a jerry can." Explained Kaz.

"[COMMS] So the usual then?" Replied Big Boss.

"[COMMS] Well, I wouldn't call it one. But, it's your choice, Snake."

Pequod flies low enough at the LZ. Once there, both Big Boss and DD disembark from the copter before Pequod flies away.

"Be careful down there, Boss."

As Pequod fly back to the Mother Base, Big Boss takes out the iDroid and look for the possible location of a military base. While there's none on the map, it shows a location of a military outpost. It's a good thing that the Mother Base has some drones in case they can't use the satellites.

Big Boss starts to jog to the nearest outpost with DD at his side. He needs to be careful not to attract any attention. The soldiers in Gallia wear a blue uniform, radically different from what Big Boss and the rest of the Diamond Dogs wear.

After walking for minutes, Big Boss can see a glimpse of the outpost. He takes out the Int. Scope and observes the outpost. He detects and marks four guards, all of them are E-rank. He approaches the outpost slowly and when close enough, he takes out his tranquillizer gun before resuming. All the soldiers are looking at the other way.

Suddenly, one of them turns around. But instead of seeing Big Boss, he's seeing a cardboard box and a dog besides it. Dumbfounded, but doesn't see anything suspicious, the soldier once again turn around. Once he did, Big Boss begins to move again while keeping the box.

When he's only few steps from the nearest soldier, Big Boss checks the location and condition of the three other guards; one is walking inside a tent before deciding to sleep, one is watching the other side of the outpost, and the last one is patrolling and currently far away from Big Boss.

Big Boss puts away the cardboard box, walks over the first soldier, before holding him by the neck. He increases the pressure before letting the soldier falls to the ground unconscious. Big Boss immediately goes to the patrolling soldier, sneaks behind his back, and does the same thing earlier. He then goes to the sleeping soldier and shoots him with a tranquilizer to prevent him from waking up at the wrong time. Finally, Big Boss silently approach the final soldier. But this time, he lets DD handles him. The dog bites an electric rod from his clothing before running towards the soldier and electrocutes him. The soldier lets out a small scream before falling to the ground.

Good thing about the outpost is that it only has three tents. That means searching through for an intel won't take long. While the first tent gave no clue, the second tent was where Big Boss found the file about the location of the nearest military base. It's three miles to the northeast of the outpost.

Knowing how far he's going to travel, Big Boss sends a demand for a jeep to the Mother Base. Few minutes later, a PF jeep landed near him. He embarks the jeep with DD taking the shotgun. Big Boss starts the engine and drives towards his destination.

A quarter of an hour later…

Just few meters away from the base, Big Boss and DD disembark from the jeep. The former attaches a Fulton Recovery pack on the vehicle and sends it back to the sky. He then takes out the Int. Scope and scans the base.

It's a small military base, capable of at least holding 60 personnel and two dozen of vehicles. From his location, Big Boss can see seven soldiers; two are having a conversation while smoking while the rest are patrolling. From experience and observation, he knows that there are more inside.

Big Boss and DD begin to approach the base. Seeing a gap on the patrol, they use it and are now inside the base. Big Boss starts to look around and with DD helps, manage to find at least twelve soldiers inside the base. Kind of light, but he's not going to complain.

Big Boss searches around the base and see a building guarded by one soldier. Then, there's a soldier with a rifle approaching the first one.

"Something wrong, private?" Asked the guarding soldier.

"Yes, quartermaster. When I brought this rifle to the shooting range, I found out that this weapon is jammed." Replied the other soldier.

To prove his point, the soldier grabs the bolt of his rifle and tries to pull it, but just like he said, it's jammed. Seeing it, the quartermaster goes inside the building. When he's out, on his hand is another rifle.

"Here it is, boy. An unjammed rifle ready for action." Said the quartermaster.

"Thank you, sir."

Both of them trade their weapons. The quartermaster goes inside the building and the other goes somewhere else, presumably the shooting range.

From what he saw, Big Boss deduces that the building is an armory. It does give a sense of one. He approaches the armory and sees that there's no window. Big Boss goes towards the door and peeks inside using the keyhole. The quartermaster is currently disassembling the rifle. Big Boss goes inside with his tranquilizer gun ready. He aims at the head and fires. The quartermaster looks dizzy for few seconds before falling to the ground, sleeping.

Big Boss looks around the armory and sees quite a large number of weapons. He can't bring all of these himself. He's going to need something…like a jeep!

Big Boss exits the armory slowly and walks around the base, hoping to find a jeep or something like that. He's lucky; when he's walking around stealthy, he sees two soldiers driving a jeep. Both of them stop in front of a rather large building. One of them takes out a clipboard before the duo enter the building.

Seeing the chance, Big Boss looks at DD and sees that he doesn't show any sign of sensing nearby soldier. Both of them go to the jeep and embark it. Big Boss fiddles around with the wires to started the engine. When the engine starts, Big Boss drives the jeep and making sure the he used a way where no soldier can see him.

On his way back to the armory, Big Boss notices a fatal flaw in the jeep; some parts of the engine are not covered by the hood. Those parts are also glowing blue for some reason. He's going to ignore it for a while.

Also, Big Boss believes he hears something along the line of "Where the Hell is our jeep?!"

Big Boss reaches the armory. He disembarks from the jeep and goes inside. There, he sees the quartermaster is on the verge of waking up. Big Boss simply takes out the gun and put him back to sleep. He starts to take as many weapons as he can and puts them in the jeep.

Inside the jeep, there are semi-automatic rifles, SMGs, bolt-action rifles, grenades, pistols, and other equipment. When he checks the weapons, he notices the jerry can attached on the jeep. Big Boss grabs it and opens the can. He can smell something like gasoline but different. And if his eye doesn't fool him, the content is glowing blue, just like the jeep's engine. This could be the ragnite or something that Carl talked about.

Big Boss puts the jerry can back on the jeep and makes sure that it and the weapons won't fall before attaching a Fulton Recovery pack onto it. The jeep starts to float before going straight into the sky.

"[COMMS] Good job, Boss. There's nothing we need for now. Time to return." Informed Kaz.

Hearing that, both Big Boss and DD start to exit the base.

Aerial Command Center, Gallia Sea

Inside the ACC, Big Boss notices that there is still some recording left on the tape that he hasn't heard. He starts it and listen to the recording.

"Well, now that is done, I suspect that you haven't eat anything beside the biscuit and bread we provided to you, right?" Kaz

"No, I haven't. You know, I am wondering what kind of food you Diamond Dogs served here, Mr. Miller." Carl

"Well, we have experience of serving food from places our staffs came from. Take hamburger for example." K

"Hamburger, sir? What is that?" C

"…What?! You don't know what a hamburger is?!" K

"N-No, sir." C

"Damn it, the situation is more severe that what I expected." K

"Umm, sir?" C

"Stay here, Carl. OK? I'll be right back!" K

…

…

"Alright, here it is, Carl. One of the finest example of hamburger we served on Mother Base!" K

"It's a sandwich." C

"What?! No! This is a hamburger! Don't compare it to that two slices of bread with meat and cheese between them!" K

"But…" C

"This. Is. A. Hamburger." K

"Alright, alright." C

"Good. Now why don't you take a bite? I am sure you're going to love it." K

"OK. Here it goes." C

Sound: Carl bites off the hamburger and munches it before gulping.

"And?" K

"This…this is…this is…perfect." C

"I know, right?!" K

"I…I don't understand. The bread, the meat, the lettuce…they're not as fresh as the sandwich I used to eat. But the taste, it explodes inside my mouth! How…is this possible?" C

"Well, I'll explain it when I believe you're worthy of the knowledge. For now, just enjoy the hamburger." K

Big Boss can't help but roll his eye and smiles a little. That's the Kazuhira Miller that he knows; reliable but can be an oddball.

Mother Base

Big Boss goes to R&D Platform to check how's the inspection of the weapons and the jeep went on. When he reaches the research place, the researchers are checking over the disassembled weapons while four of them are looking at the jeep's engine.

"Anything worth founded?" Asked Big Boss as he approaches the four of them.

"Ah, Boss. Yes, we found something strange with the machine. Its horsepower is only a little below ours. Make sense remembering that the jeep kinda resembles WWII's. But, for some reason it lets out heat more than what one and a half of our engines can let out." Explained one of the researcher.

"So the reason a part of it is outside the hood is to prevent overheating?"

"Yes, that might explain why the inventor taking such a risky move."

"What about the content of the jerry can?"

"Well, the color is blue and it glows the same color. It's as effective as normal gasoline but more combustible. My friend over here can proof it." Said another researcher as he points at said friend.

That friend shows an annoyed look. Big Boss remembers seeing him with a hair and bread, but now he's almost completely bald. He can guess on what happen.

"Other than that, there's nothing worth mentioning, Boss."

"So we haven't find out what's inside the jerry can?" Asked Big Boss

"Except what we explained, no Boss."

Big Boss starts to walk outside the research place and goes to the edge of the platform. He looks at the blue sky for a while before taking out his iDroid. He won't like his decision but that guy is the smartest person on this entire Mother Base. Maybe he can find out about this ragnite stuff.

"[COMMS] Miller here."

"[COMMS] Miller, listen. I need you to do something that none of us will like."

"[COMMS] What is it, Snake?"

"[COMMS] Get Huey."

And the chapter is done.

If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.

Review please.