“METAL GEAR KARENKO: HARVEST MOON”

By Red Sonic

Author’s note: To my reviewer who wonders if this is AWL or BTN, it’s a combo of both. Best of both words, you might say.

XxXxXxX

CHAPTER THREE: “BOXED IN”

The motorbike only carried her so far. There wasn’t much road to speak of and she was going as fast as she could. No doubt the motorbike was intended for that particular quadrant that she had landed in. The forest was thick, the brush fearsome—even in this cold winter—and she was risking a lot of exposure by herself. She figured she had at least a good lead on anyone who was inspecting the area. It would be a long time before anyone found what she had done.

They would be on alert, but she expected that. They would be on alert since she had emerged, so she had managed to take out a few enemies that might have come at her back. The forest here was a mixture of golds and browns, so she switched her camo over to a mixture of those colors as she rode.

Ultimately it was the sidecar that was her undoing. She nicked a tree trunk and, knowing she had done it almost as soon as she had done it, she jumped off and rolled into the grass. The bike sped forward another fifty yards, where it went into a tumble and crashed against a tree. Karen laid down in the high grass a moment, waiting—every sense was on alert.

Her Codec buzzed and she flicked over to it. “Agent Spider, this is Duke.”

“Not now.” She whispered, “I’ll be home by eleven, dad. Don’t wait up.” She flicked it off and waited…waited…there! In the distance, a pair of moving figures. A small patrol. She must have neared the next quadrant of the forest, so a new set of patrols would be on hand. No doubt they had heard the crash, however…she smiled to herself, her ears perking as she heard the sound of opportunity.

Lifting her head, she saw that the bike had just missed going off a sheer cliff by a few feet. Opportunity was knocking, she just had to wait for the right moment to open the door. Being careful, since the guards were alerted, but focusing on the crashed bike, she leaned up and darted to a nearby tree, taking cover behind it. Quickly she switched her camo to a bark/tiger-stripe pattern to help her against the tree.

Leaning out, she noticed their attention drawn solely on the fallen bike at they approached it. With lighting fast reflexes, and what she called ‘ghost running’, she dashed on her very tip-toes across the forest floor, from one tree to another to another, closer and closer to the pair. She paused once, when one of them glanced her way, but taking into account he was on alert, and scanning a wide area, she assumed he would miss the small part of her head as it peeked out from the tree and she was right. He gazed over the forest, ignoring her, and went back to the bike.

She was within twenty feet now. Stealth was all that mattered right now. They couldn’t know she was there. No more trees, it was only cold air between them and her now. She took a deep breath, cast off her hesitation, and ghost ran towards them. It felt like a very long twenty feet, and to her credit, her ghost running was enough to keep her from being heard until she was within arm’s reach of them.

They turned around and saw her, too late.

She gave a short hop into the air and, close as they were to each other, she planted one of her feet on each of their chests and drop-kicked them as hard as she could, shoving them backwards with all the strength her legs could muster.

The two men fell backward, towards the sheer drop and went over. The first men fell, pure and simple, screaming until he landed in the river some two hundred feet below. The second caught his hand on the cliff and held on, crying in terror as he struggled to grasp with his other hand. Karen’s eyes landed on a nearby fallen limb. She grabbed the impromptu club and bashed him in the head. He staggered, but held on. She swung again, this time smashing his fingers and finally the soldier let go and fell in.

She sighed, watching him fall. “Ooh, nice form, but a little rough on the landing. He may have to settle for the bronze.” She chuckled.

The cliff was no mere cliff, but a canyon that looked about a hundred yards across. The other side was the same dark green and gold and brown forest that continued on towards her destination. As luck would have it, she spied a bridge not fifty feet from where she stood on the right.

Frowning, she realized her luck wasn’t as good as she thought. Running towards the bridge, on her right, was the third member of the patrol that she hadn’t seen yet. Curse her, she thought. She took off, her compact bow in her hand, unfolding the arms. Just as she got her first arrow out, he reached the bridge and ran across. She saw his radio on his belt, so hopefully he hadn’t radioed her position yet.

She reached the lip of the bridge and ran across, straight for him. She had to pause to take aim and she lined up her arrow with him, taking only a heartbeat to adjust for wind and height and speed, then let loose. The arrow sizzled through the air and struck him in the chest. He fell down, hanging limply on the bridge.

“One more for the river.” She said, intending to kick him off into the rapids below. She was walking quickly, putting her bow up when she suddenly looked and saw him moving. She paused, his hands fumbling with something.

Karen gasped, “Grenade!”

Not just one grenade, she realized, but a whole belt of them. He had pulled it off his waist and was plucking the pins out of them. Karen spun and ran, ran as fast and far as she could. She was far enough away not to be hurt, but if they trashed the bridge…

BOOM! The explosion resounded in her ears and she felt the bridge going limp under her feet. With the last little bit of strength in her feet, she leapt forward, diving for the cliff, but she was still a good way away from it. Her fingers grasped the ropes and she fell with the bridge, dropping in a slow arc until she slammed into the cliff wall. She gasped loudly, her breath knocked from her.

“Get up! Go! Before they come running!” She cried in her mind. She looked up and saw about fifteen feet left to climb. She activated her spider gloves and used them to help her climb up the wooden planks and onto the cliff above. Rolling onto her stomach, panting, she groaned as she looked out and saw the bridge, gone, and the other side far to far to jump.

As if to compound her bad luck, she heard the distant thump, thump, thump, thump’ of an approaching helicopter. She rolled into the cover of the forest and into the high grass and waited. The helicopter passed overhead, she watched it go and noted it’s make. An Apache, standard military war machine. Missiles and chainguns and air-to-surface rockets, oh my.

She put her finger to her ear, dialing up her Codec. “This is Karen Spider. You there, Jacko?”

“Roger, Agent Spider. Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for your recon report.”

“I love you too, sweetie. How’re the kids?” She smiled. “Listen, I just aced a squad some five miles back in our supposedly cleared out meeting area. I dispatched them and disabled their radio tower, so no one really knows I’m here. I just nailed a small patrol, but the bridge to the other side of this…canyon is gone. I need to know another way across.”

“I see. According to our topographical information, you’re at the Secharil River, which has cut a rather deep canyon into the soft soil of the area. If you look to the west, there’s should be a waterfall.”

Karen looked down the long expanse of the canyon. Sure enough, there was a waterfall approximately five miles down and rising above the forest. It was tall, and likely it would be a hard climb, but fortunately the terrain seemed to rise up with it, so it didn’t seem like a terrible feat, though it would be a terrible sidetrack.

“Agent Spider.” Duke said, “You have thirty hours at this point to reach your intended target. Let’s not waste time on the ground. Get going for the water fall and cross over. The water should be shallow enough for you to swim it safely. Take extreme caution.”

“Agent Spider out.” Karen flicked the little Codec off and made her way towards the distant waterfall.

XxXxXxX

He hated being old.

He had gone for so long without his real name, he doubted that it even mattered anymore. Once, he knew, he had been known as Saibara….but those days were gone now. For long now, he had been a skilled warrior, an expert sniper, and a proficient gunman, but in his old age, her had to force those skills along even worse than he had before.

But worse than knowing his age was getting in the way of his ability was that his incompetent grandson wasn’t going to be the one to carry that legacy.

Gray sat in the front seat of the two-seated Apache helicopter as they soared over the forest towards the far-reaching area where the radio tower was down. Suddenly they soared over the canyon and saw the bridge destroyed.

“The bridge!” Gray cried, “Sabotage! We must alert the base!”

“Hold yourself yet, Gray.” Saibara barked, “And see what others do not. Keep going forward. The bridge is gone, aye, but not on purpose. What fool would destroy his only means to escape to cross the canyon. No…the Crimson Blade was right. There is an intruder, just as I have felt in my gut since we embarked.”

“You speak a fool’s errand, grandfather.” Gray said, “What fool would dare try to breach our stronghold?”

“Fool’s with much to lose, should they concede to the Iron Regime. A single fool, yes, but a smart fool.”

“I’ll circle back and gun him down.” Gray said.

Saibara slapped Gray across the face. “The only fool I see now is you! The greatest advantage we have is to catch the intruder unaware. I have lived my life in these hills. There is a place I know of that we may yet catch our quarry. Circle around to one miles past the waterfall and leave me there. I will trap him in Diablo’s Box. There, he will find no escape.”

“Surely, grandfather, calling in a small battalion could flush him out in no time.”

Again, Saibara slapped him in the head. “Fool. That is why we were sent here, to flush the intruder out on our own and not bother the whole army of the Regime. No, better it be ourselves. Better still, it will be me. Once you deposit me, return to the base. I will radio for you when I am ready.”

“I can help, grandfather.” Gray said.

“No, Gray. No, you can’t. This is my mission, my purpose, my decision. Do as I say, or it’ll be the last mistake you make.”

Gray sighed, turning the Apache up towards the waterfall. “Yes, sir.”

XxXxXxX

It took some two odd hours to reach the climbing peaks of the waterfall. It was a solid three hundred foot drop to the ground below, but she would be safe for now. The small cliffs and drops were easy enough to climb, even without her Spider Gloves on.

She made the treacherous climb up to the side of the cliff, working her way across ledges barely big enough for her to step across, but always she managed to get aside and go further up the cliffwall.

She spied a small bit of relief in sight, a small area, about as wide and narrow as a bus with the cliff wall on one side and the drop on the other. She could take a bit of relief there before finishing her climb. She edged along, making her way into the small clearing of sorts and sighed.

“Don’t…move.” The voice said.

Karen paused, swallowing. Oh, what now?

“Look up…and see your mistake.”

She did as told and as she slowly looked up, she saw him, sitting on a ledge in the path leading from the clearing to the top of the waterfall, cloaked in gray camo, aiming a sniper rifle right at her. She had nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.

The old man, gray beard and all, looked almost oblivious against the gray stone of the cliff. Karen almost slapped herself. How could she have made such a stupid mistake? How could she not have seen him? She hadn’t expected anyone to be up here, that was why. He knew she wouldn’t and he had counted on it and he had been right.

“He’s good.” She thought, then said, “You got me, stranger. Looks like this is the end.”

The old man sniffled and readjusted his grip on the sniper rifle. “Indeed. American, I see. I should have know those gung-ho cowboys couldn’t resist sending one of their Rambo hot shots. I must admit, though…I’m surprised that you are a woman.”

Karen smiled sweetly. “You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”

“No doubt. Nevertheless, your mission, such as it was, is over. I’m sorry to have to do this, but it’s nothing personal, you understand? I’m just a soldier, doing his job.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I take it personal.” Karen said, sneering, “I don’t even know your name.”

Saibara paused, thinking he should kill her and be done with it. But something made him pause. Maybe it was because he was tired of his idiot grandson, that he hadn’t seen a true soldier in years. He could see the determination, the skill, the sheer willpower in her glaring green eyes. Beautiful as she was, intelligent as he knew she was, he truly hated to kill her for this, yet he had no choice “What was it she tells me? Our fate is not our own?”

“I have gone by many names, but I am called the Blacksmith.”

Karen smiled, nodding. “From FOXHOUND? What’s an aging old warhorse like you doing in a nasty little country like this?”

He swallowed. She was playing with him, he should end it, but where would she go? He had her in his sights and she wouldn’t escape it. Kill her now or kill her later, it made no difference…she was dead. “I am a soldier, young woman. My heart is in battle, my soul in the grip of a gun…I know of no other way.”

Karen looked down, “Yeah. That’s what I felt like. Too bad you’ll never know what it’s like to be free of that.”

Saibara choked. She knew? She knew how to shake off the dreadful vice of war from a heart?

She looked up, hoping to have enticed him, “I guess if you kill me, you’ll have to stay like that…desperate for a resolution that will never come, waiting the bullet, the knife, the bomb that takes you out. A soldier’s death.”

“I could hope for nothing more.” He whispered to himself. She saw into his heart, he knew it. She was like him, she was his equal, if not better. Yet, she was above him, for she knew her heart better. It frightened him. She couldn’t have found that answer, not so young, not when he had been searching for so long. She was lying! Better to kill her now! He took aim and squeezed the trigger.

Suddenly, his arms went flying as the sudden, unexpected Apache helicopter came soaring from over the top of the cliff and turned to hover before Saibara and Karen. The Blacksmith gawked at his audacious grandson. He screamed into his radio. “I HAVE NOT SENT FOR YOU!”

“I WILL SHOW YOU THAT I AM OF USE!” Gray cried, his hands squeezing the triggers of his chainguns. Karen’s eyes widened and she dashed up the small path, heading for Saibara. Gray’s wordless cry echoed in the cockpit as he twisted the control stick to follow her, a line of exploding rock racing behind her. But it wasn’t until he had already done it that he realized that Karen had raced past Saibara, who was too unbalanced by the winds to shoot her, and his chainguns sliced across his own grandfather.

“Ah!” He paused, his hands momentarily off the sticks, staring at the sight of his fallen sire. “Grandfather! No! What…what have I done?”

It was all the break Karen needed. She hated to waste it, but she pulled out her small deathwire and grabbed to hefty stone. Quickly, as Gray was distracted, she tied a stone to each end of the wire. She hefted it over her head, swinging it like a bolo, harder and harder with each swing.

Gray turned his glare on her. “You! See what you have made me do!” He screamed out loud, his copter turning, chainguns blazing as he tried to gun down the figure of Karen, standing atop the cliff with her homemade bolo.

Karen gave a final heave and hurled the rocks and wire at the tail of the Apache. They spun and, with great luck, caught the tail rotor. It tangled them up, spun them for a second or two as the slack was spun out of them, and smashed into the tail, the rotor cutting itself to pieces on the rocks. It wasn’t much damage, but Gray instantly lost control of the machine and the Apache rushed forward towards Karen.

She gasped and dove forward, down the cliff, the only place where she could go. The Apache crashed against the cliff wall and ground out the main rotors, rendering the machine inoperable. It slowly tumbled, falling down the cliff and past Karen, who had caught the edge of Diablo’s Box with her Spider Gloves and ducked as it fell past her. She could hear Gray screaming as he fell and watched until the Apache landed on the bottom below, exploding in fire and smoke.

She sighed and hauled herself up to the small ledge. She looked up and approached the form of Saibara, who sat back with his hands around his sniper rifle. She looked closely at him and raised her eyebrows in surprise. There was a line of red, bleeding holes across his torso, yet he was still breathing—although very shallow breathing, if at that.

He opened his sad, aging eyes. “You…lived. Good.” He smiled, “The world….is a better place…with you in it.”

Karen furrowed her brow and kneeled next to him. “Why do you say that?”

He looked into her eyes, red staining his lips and trickling into his beard, his ever word rasping. “Because…you’re like…me…and I never…never knew…anything…beyond this.” He patted his rifle. “But you…you say you know what’s….beyond this, have you?”

“I have.”

Saibara smiled. “Good. Embrace it…or my fate…is yours. What…what is…your name…soldier?”

“My name is Karen.”

Saibara smiled. “A lovely name. Mine is…Saibara. A pity, don’t you think? That…that my death…came at the hands…of stupidity?”

“No pity.” Karen said, “Not for you. Go in peace, old man.”

He glowered, “I hate…being…old…” The light in his eyes faded and Karen stayed mute as she pushed his eyes down. She hated to leave him, to leave him unburied. Why was he different than the other grunts? She didn’t know how, but she knew it. Let him stay here, with his rifle, guarding this pass for all eternity. That would be how he wanted it.

She gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Farewell…Saibara.”

With that, Agent Karen continued on her way and up towards a place where she could cross safely.

XxXxXxX

General Takakura sighed, tapping the radar screen with his finger. More bad news.

“What’s the problem?” A cool voice said from behind him. It took all his willpower not to leapt at the sound of her voice. He turned around to face Naminaga and gestured to the radar screen. “We have lost contact with the Blacksmith’s helicopter. It’s…crashed.”

Nami narrowed her eyes. “Then we have an intruder. Put all patrols on alert.”

“Shall I tell the Lady?”

“No, I’ll tell her. She wouldn’t dare cross me.” Nami said. She saw gratefulness in her friend’s eyes and knew that he was eternally in her debt for this. He hadn’t wanted to tell the Lady Popuri anything that resembled bad news. It would have been his head. She nodded, showing him that she understood his fear and was willing to take her wrath.

Nami turned on her heels and marched through the hallways of the Iron Tower. She climbed the stairs towards the Lady’s room, rather than taking the elevator. When she reached the highest floor, the penthouse suite that the Lady resided in, she went in swiftly.

Why this ignorant woman had no bodyguards was beyond her. She opened the door without so much as a knock first and found her inside, laying stomach down on her luxurious bed wearing her red silk dress, sparkling diamonds and gold all about her figners, ears, around her wrists and neck and a glittering tiara on top of her head. Her head rested in her propped up hands and she watched her brother, who sat on the floor, in utter rags, as filthy as the day Nami had tracked him down in the forests.

He was gnawing on a piece of deer haunch that hadn’t been cooked fully, blood and juice dripping down his hands and mouth. He looked up when she came in, but said nothing. He looked pathetic. He looked like…a dog.

Lady Popuri frowned when she saw Nami, but tried to pay her no mind. “Isn’t he cute when he’s like this? This is how he looked most of my life. This is how he looked those years I simply fell in love with him.”

Nami gulped loudly.

Popuri looked up at her, “What was that?”

“I threw up in my mouth.” Nami said, fighting against the bitter taste on her tongue. “I have news. There’s an intruder or intruders in the forest, near the waterfall.”

“Pooh! That’s too far away.” Popuri said, “No one would be so stupid.”

“The threat is real, I assure you. Do you wish to send any forces?”

Popuri bounced to her feet, grabbing a leather whip that sat on the edge of the bed. “I trust our patrols to deal with anything. I’m not frightened, Crimson Blasé, but I am upset. Rick, you know what that means.”

Rick swallowed the last of his meat and set the haunch down. He stood up and bent over, exposing his bare back.

Popuri turned to Nami. “Don’t trouble me with little things like this again. Your punishment for such a thing is now his punishment. I do so hate to hurt my lovely brother, but someone has to pay and I can’t very well whip you, now can I?”

Nami narrowed her eyes angrily. “No…you can’t. As you wish, Lady.” She turned as she heard the first crack of the whip. Rick gave no scream, but she knew it hurt. She felt for every strike she gave him. Nami left, the cracks of the whip following her, but she shook her head. There was nothing she could do.

“My fate is not my own.”