The Story of Metal Gear, Part 4:
The Shadow Moses Incident
It is 2010, eleven years after the Zanzibar Land Crisis and once again, the world is on the brink of a catastrophe. So who is called to get the chestnuts out of the fire? Right, good old Solid Snake...
When terrorists capture the nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska's Fox Archipelago, Solid Snake is taken aboard a submarine against his will, and briefed for the top-secret mission to deal with the terrorist threat. The terrorists are in fact next generation Special Forces enhanced by genetic engineering and are led by members of FOX-HOUND. They have secured several functional nuclear warheads, threatening to launch a weapon, if their demand to turn over the remains of Big Boss to them is not met. Learning about the involvement of his former teammates, and about their new leader, a man who shares his codename Snake, Liquid Snake, Solid accepts the mission, which is once again commanded by Codec by Roy Campbell.
After infiltrating the site using a small submersible craft and landing on the underground docks, he proceeds to rescue the two hostages: Darpa Chief Donald Anderson and President of ArmsTech, Kenneth Baker. They both were here on a special mission to test a new weapon when the terrorists struck. But Anderson mysteriously dies of a heart attack when meeting Snake, but not before telling Snake that the new weapon is in fact (and wouldn't you have guessed it) the new version of the Metal Gear, model Rex. Afterwards, he proceeds to rescue Baker, battling Revolver Ocelot in the process. But the battle with Ocelot is cut short when a mysterious ninja in camouflage armor severs Ocelot's hand. The ninja disappears again,and Snake learns from Baker that he
was forced to give his part of the launch codes to the terrorists. Reversing the process was possible, but difficult, and to do it right, Snake had better first ask Dr. Hal Emmerich, the designer of the new Metal Gear. Then, Baker dies of a heart attack similar to the one Anderson suffered. Something is definitely awry.Before he died, he told Snake about a key necessary for the emergency shutdown, as well as activation, of Metal Gear, which he gave to Meryl, Campbells niece, before being captured.
After contacting Meryl, who is masquerading as the enemy, per Codec, Snake contacts Emmerich, only to find the ninja already there. He is challenged to a man-to-man fight, and succeeds in driving off the ninja, recognizing him to be Gray Fox, his former friend whom he had to fight in Zanzibar Land. Saved, Emmerich agreed to help Snake from now on.
After also seeking out and meeting Meryl. After defeating Psycho Mantis, however, Meryl is shot by Sniper Wolf to draw out Snake. Realizing he is outgunned, Snake seeks out a sniper rifle, but when he returns, Meryl is gone, and Snake is captured, to be tortured bu Ocelot,but also meeting Liquid for the first time, realizing they look alike.
After escaping and then defeating Sniper Wolf, Solid is faced with Vulcan Raven, who reveals that the Anderson Snake spoke to, was in fact Decoy Octopus, not Anderson, tasked to get some vital information. The terrorists had known of Snakes coming, so there had to be a leak on the mission staff. At that point, Master Miller called and revealed some information he received on Dr. Naomi Hunter, severely implicating her.
Meanwhile, Snake reached the hangar, and receives another private communique from Miller, this time about FOXDIE, a genetically engineered virus that kills only those targets it is programmed to killed, by artificially inducing a heart attack, such as the case with Octopus and Baker. And the carrier therefore must be...
Betrayed once again by those he trusted, Snake still needs to stop the launch of the nuclear missiles. After inserting the abort codes, something went wrong. An electronic voice intoned:
"Launch code entered. All systems ready. Standby for 216 missile launch."
He had been tricked again. The terrorists never had the necessary codes for the launch, so they needed Snake to insert the deactivation codes, which are also the launch codes if the system is deactivated to begin with. Just then, Miller reveals himself to be Liquid Snake, and tells Solid, how he was tricked by the Pentagon as well, used only as a way to introduce FOXDIE to kill the terrorists. Snake also finally learns the truth about himself, that he and Liquid are both twin brothers, octuplets cloned from the DNA of Big Boss, the ultimate soldier by the U.S. military, but only two survived: Liquid and Solid Snake, two sides of a coin. He also learned that the Genome soldiers are also his brothers, in a sense as they also carry parts of Big Bosses DNA to upgrade their abilities. But they all were defective, himself included, and needed the pure strain to develop something to heal their decomposing DNA. That is why they needed Big Bosses corpse...
As the goal of the project Les Enfants Terribles was to create extraordinary soldiers, it was no surprise that when they finally met, the result would be a titanic confrontation. Liquid boards Rex, but is defeated by Solid with the help of Grey Fox, who gives his life to help him. Rex exploded, knocking Solid unconscious. When he awakes, he and Liquid are on top of Rex, Liquid waiting to battle Solid to see, which one of them is better. And so Snake and Liquid face off in a fight to the death on the "face" of Metal Gear Rex. After Snake emerges victoriously, the only thing that remains it to escape the island, since the military has ordered nuclear strikes on the island to cover up the truth. Depending on the choices made during the game, Snake either escapes with Maryl or with Otacon.
But there are a lot of questions remaining: Will the Foxdie-Virus Solid carries kill him as well? And who is the mysterious man we hear during the ending? Whom does Ocelot work for? Only the future will tell (or, as it were, the sequel).
Official Metal Gear Games List:
Metal Gear - Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - (Metal Gear: Ghost Babel)
Metal Gear Solid (see also Twin Snakes) - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Substance) - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater