Part 18: Old Familiar Faces

18. Old Familiar Faces

…you've put on a little weight.

Heh…I had a few kids not too long ago…haven't burned off all the weight yet.

You, a mother?

Not a very good one, I'm afraid…I couldn't keep them.

Okay, so, really, what the hell are you doing here? What have you been doing?

Hiding, mostly. Trying to figure out what's what. Being a spy without a nation is hard…so I figured I might as well try joining the army without a nation.

Hmph. If there were some ancient Chinese kingdom in this land would you betray me to them too?

(What's going on?)

(No idea…sounds like an old ex-girlfriend…spy ex-girlfriend. That's always pretty rough.)

(Oi…)

You've changed. You're not really the Snake I used to know…and I'm not the Eva you used to know either. For the sake of convenience let's pretend we're total strangers and work our way up from there.

That'll be easy, because I don't think I ever really knew you to begin with.

*sigh*



Anyway. AIRPLANE SCHEMATICS! Good. But we need more fuel for them, so I guess we should try to research petroleum and start drilling for oil or something…

Heh. Look at you. A regular world leader now.

Yeah, well, the difference between me and them is I don't pretend I'm not making it up as I go. I'd be dead if it wasn't for guys like Kaz.

Well, every king needs an evil chancellor…

HEY!



Eva, Cahokia's in love with France and I'm sending you over there to manipulate them into liking us more. Show your cleavage a lot or…whatever else it is you still do to break men's hearts.

(Damn, bitter!)



Woo, coal-powered steamships with iron plating! These suckers will make mincemeat out of any of Napoleon's sailboats if he tries to attack us here.



Fffaaah! These weapons are…powerful. You're putting my men to shame, Big Boss.

Feel like surrendering yet?

NEVER!



Holy crap, these artillery cannons are fantastic. One shot and the city's walls are almost totally blown away!

Snake, be careful. Our overall morale levels always take a dip whenever we capture a city, we need to focus on finding ways to boost it.

Right…I know! Let's make a beach resort back at Mother Base. A place for R&R once the fighting's over.



We almost have the Metal Gear hangar rebuilt…not long now, Snake!



AAAH! Barbarians are flanking us!

It's probably a coincidence…but no matter, we have the firepower to take them on too!



Well, I exposed a few frauds and shook a few hands, Cahokia likes us better now…they're not totally disillusioned with France yet, though.

Give them food.

What?

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. It sure turned me on to you back in the day…that delicious roast snake… so, give the officials food! Here, I'm paying you a tidy sum to treat them all to a banquet.

Wouldn't a bribe be easier? It'd cost the same.

This is more deniable. And more delicious!



Strange…this Aztec art was made with modern machinery. We should study this more later, and put it in a museum.



Mother Base is fully rebuilt, Snake! We have our hangar where we built Zeke back!

Great! Begin building another Metal Gear!

That…uh…that might take a while…

Fff. Fine.



Hi! I'm Plato!

…You're not mad at us for killing Alexander the Great, are you?

Nah, he was a jerk. So, you want me to advance philosophy or science for you? I know I'm a bit antiquated, ha ha, but I can still teach you youngsters a thing or two!



Ulundi's going down, sir!

Right. I'm going in there to handle this personally. Take care of things, Kaz.

Next time: Shaka Boss Fight