William's Fanfic Final

SNAKE'S END

Sokrovenno South, Tselinoyarsk. A Heavily forested area of the Soviet mountains comprising of snakes, crocodiles, and an autotrophic centenarian named ‘The End’. He is known as “the father of modern sniping” and is the man that Snake has to conquer if he is to complete 'Operation Snake Eater’: A near impossible battle to win for a solider that only has in experience in urban and marine sniping enviroments.

Crouched in a position as to minimize his sound and visibility, Snake slowly makes his way through the forest’s undergrowth into a position under a tree that will provide him concealment. Trying to relax in order to figure out a way he can actually beat The End, Snake runs through the pros and cons of sniper’s habits of laying in perfect camouflage in the same position for days on end.

Pros -

-Nearly Impossible to be visually identified.
-Lack of movement conserves energy.
-Advantage of surprise.

Cons-

-Snipers are long range attackers and can be ineffective in hand-to-hand combat.
-If identified by other means, such as Directional Microphone or Thermal goggles. Flanking The End can create a 'sitting duck' type situation.
-The End is extremely old, and therefore his movement and reflexes may be hindered by old age.

With these things in mind Snake ran through a possible plan of action. Find some sort of height advantage, such as climb a tree or higher ground. Then search for The Ends location by using his thermal goggles to identify the body-shaped white glowing area that acknowledges The End’s existance. Once finding him, very very slowly return to cover and remain in cover and circumvent The Ends position. From there he will trap and eliminate The End.

Putting this plan into action, Snake surveys his surroundings and spots an old tree in the distance that is covered in climbable vines. Scaling the tree without effort and coming to rest on the thickest branch he could see, Snake removes the thermal goggles from his item cache and slips it over his eyes. Adjusting to his new visual environment as a palate of blurred black through blue, green and yellow washes over his eyes, he concentrates to distinguish the differences between trees, hillsides and gullies.

Gaining his sense of depth, he starts scouring this vista for his nemesis. After around 5 minutes of trying to spot this glowing needle in a haystack, Snake finally spots his enemy, glowing in the darkness on top of a cliff face around five hundred meters to the north. The contrast in temperature between The End and his surrounding negating any of advantage gained from camouflage and making him stand out like a light in a tunnel.

With his enemy’s position now acquired, Snake can now perform the arduous task of hunting him down. Traversing back down the tree he decides the path of least difficulty will be to the west, where there is a smooth incline up to The End’s sniper’s nest. But there is also plently of shelter, cover, and long grass to keep Snake concealed from his enemy’s viewpoint.

Low and slow, Snake skulks up towards his enemy, making sure to remain extremely slow as so to not disturb any wild life in his hunt. For if there were to be any sudden flourishes of birds squawking and escaping, this would surely alert The End to snakes position. After three hours of emulating his namesake through long grass, Snake finally reaches the rear of the old man’s area.

Hours of anticipation and careful planning have lead to this moment, nothing must spoil it, and nothing must give away Snake’s position as he holds his breath and slowly inches forward with tiny steps. The excitement rises in Snake as he looks forward to ending this legend, his palms sweaty as he grasps the handgun in his right hand and knife in his left.

Equiping himself with thermal goggles again Snake easily spots his enemy, still as a blade of grass and glowing white hot.

With each step forward he can feel his eyelids widening, and his heart beginning to race as there is a sudden CLICK noise from below him. He suddenly stops. The End spins his head and sees Snake. There is an explosion and ball bearings rip through snake with no effort, eviscerating his torso and pouring out blood and any sense of life held within.The End’s trap had worked, Snake trampled straight into the claymore's tripwire. It was GAME OVER for Snake.

Frustration and desperation has reached boiling point, Snake throws down the Playstation 2 controller in disgust, closes his eyes, and counts to 10 while inhaling and exhaling slowly. His composure now regained, Snake tries to think of a new way to beat his enemy. After a break from playing to complete some household chores, he comes up with no new plans.

This leaves the only logical step: search the internet for a plan that is known to work. This task proves much simpler that his previous assignment, and a new angle on beating the decrepit old bastard surfaces. The internet informs Snake that if he saves his game, quits, then set his Playstation 2’s clock forward one week The End will die of old age. This seems too good to be true, but nevertheless, Snake carries out his new plan of action.

After saving his game, and changing the clock forward, snake reloads his game. And to the disappointment of his superiors, Snake wins the battle in the cheapest way possible.