Part 3: Time To Get the Party Started

Part 3: Time to get the party started

Hmph. Yet more intruders. I will keep this simple. Do not cross paths with me and you will live. Otherwise, you will die.

Got it. Well, you're on the other side of Montezuma right now so you're not high on my priority list. By the way…he seems to be fixated on sacrificing foreigners for their blood. That means he's as much a threat to you as he is to us. Do you think we should coordinate a--

NO. I see no reason to get my people wounded in battle for your benefit. Deal with him yourself.

Okaaaay…



More potential clients! Excellent. Let's move that exploring warrior unit--Honeypot Ant--into their territory so we can collect rent and salvage from 'em.



Scouting party Macaw, you're up. I want you to sneak around north of Montezuma and see what's up there.



Our mercenaries are breaking even at the moment, but once things improve a bit I think I can make the payouts higher. That's always the downside of guard duty: usually, if you're doing your job right, nothing wrong happens and the client gets complacent, and then they think they don't need you. If we had some way of proving ourselves to the city-states we could easily demand a raise.



We need more research to work our way past sticks and twigs for weapons. I'm prioritizing a way of getting us a library and other stuff like that to speed everything else along. Some fresh paper might be nice, so we can print up manuals.



Mother Base is better still, now. I'm thinking next we should have a kill room, something for everyone to practice on. Our troops won't be so green.

I'm thinking of a few different ways of making MSF better, too.



Kaz, you like reminding me that MSF's a business, but it's more than that to me. It's going to be a society. A place where we honor those who fight. We're going to need to lay down social rules and so on to make our Outer Heaven a fine place to live.

Good idea. Just make sure we do more than sharpen our swords all day.

Of course. I'll make sure we have policies that promote growth and happiness too, but for now, let's focus on killing those barbarians and making our clients proud--and giving our men something to have pride in too.



Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Thanks, Big Boss!



(Killing off two barbarian brute units with Honor gives us 16 culture points, putting us very close to the next policy. Plus, we're going to be fighting barbs, a lot, so going Honor as MSF is very wise.)



You know what my favorite MSF tradition is? It's one of our first. The monthly birthday celebration for everyone whose birthday is in that month.



Right. Time to start outfitting some workers to haul in stuff from the land--and as soon as we can, we'll get that library built. Meanwhile, I'm assigning Alligator the task of teaching everyone how to use a bow. We'll need that power soon.

Sir! We found another settlement north of the Aztecs! It looks ancient, but very swank…uh, he wants to talk to you over the radio, sir.



Fascinating. What great power this technology must give you…to control your forces at a distance instantly instead of waiting for a messenger. We must talk more on this later.

(…Snake, I don't know about this.)

(Why? He doesn't seem so bad compared to the other two leaders we've met.)

(That's just because he knows how to be diplomatic. Assyria is the world's first empire--the first people who went around conquering other people. He might be just as bad as Montezuma.)

By the way, "Big Boss…" You must be wondering why you have appeared in this land, full of so many…anachronisms. Well, knowledge is power, and I happen to know exactly why we are here. If you want this knowledge, you'll have to come here…personally. You'll need to face the "test," of course.

Hrrrmmm…



Mother Base's Kill Room is set up. Now we're trying to scrounge up enough unused scrap metal to make weapons. Of course, none of us know how to blacksmith the old-fashioned way…we'll have to relearn that from scratch to make use of the iron.



Foraging for jungle food on the fly is one of my favorite activities, but if we really want to make use of these plants near our base we'll have to know when exactly they bloom. Since we don't know what the hell day it is I guess this means researching the calendar and the moon phase and other junk like that.



Hey, there's another civilization over here, north of Ashurbani--ash--north of the tablet guy.



GIVE ME THE TALKING BOX NOW!

Uh-oh.

ATTENTION DISTANT WARRIORS! I AM ATTILA AND I AM HERE TO KILL EVERYONE!

Kaz, please tell me when we research fermentation, because I am going to need a stiff drink real soon.

To Be Continued!

Current map:



(Looks like Monty's got a surprisingly low-population city…he must be prioritizing settlers…)