| abstract | - In 2000, five years after the events of the Outer Heaven Uprising, the American special forces squad Black Chamber, a replacement for FOXHOUND regarding black ops missions, had undergone a secret mission to quell a terrorist takeover in South America that resulted in a Metal Gear being hijacked. After the success fo their mission, they returned to America, only to be caught in an ambush by FOXHOUND, at the time led by Roy Campbell, which left only four known survivors: Marionette Owl, Pyro Bison, Slasher Hawk, and the group commander, Black Arts Viper. They subsequently swore revenge. Two years later, a C-5 Galaxy transport plane containing a U.S. funded Metal Gear prototype codenamed "GANDER" was hijacked en route to South America by a dangerous separatist rebel group, located in the small South African country of Gindra, known as the Gindra Liberation Front, led by General Augustine Eguabon. The group planned to use Metal Gear to finally win the civil war it had been engaged in. Roy Campbell, was called in to convince retired FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake to come out of retirement for one last mission: to infiltrate Gindra and destroy Metal Gear. Snake refused initially until Campbell revealed that GLF's fortress, Galuade, was formerly Outer Heaven, where Snake had destroyed the original TX-55 Metal Gear years ago. Snake consented to go through with the mission, commanded by National Security Adviser Steve Gardner. Snake then met his support staff, consisting of Campbell, Mei Ling, mercenary expert known as "Weasel" and Brian McBride, CIA agent. Snake was also informed that the United States Army's Delta Force, at the behest of General John Parker, Army Chief of Staff, was already inside the fortress, and that Snake had to carry out the mission in concert with them. Snake HALO jumped into enemy territory, where he successfully infiltrated Galuade. Once inside, however, Snake was contacted by Delta Force operative Chris Jenner, who told Snake that Delta Force had been ambushed and massacred by the mercenary group named Black Chamber. Chris was the only survivor. Chris then advised him to enter the watchtower and meet up with her. She also told him to enter the watchtower via the sewer system. Snake entered through the sewer system upon locating it, but then discovered, to his confusion, rats scurrying away. He later overheard two soldiers revealing that they had been reassigned from the sewers and had to evacuate as soon as possible, due to a squall coming in that was potent enough to send floodwaters that would sweep away anything caught in its path. Snake then used the ladders to avoid the floodwaters until he arrived at the ladder to the watchtower. He then proceeded to search for Chris while avoiding the soldiers until discovering her. Snake and Chris agreed to work together, and Chris left to investigate Galuade's power plant. Snake set off in search of Metal Gear's chief engineer, Jimmy Harks. Along the way, however, met his first member of Black Chamber, Slasher Hawk. After killing him, Snake reached the prison barracks where Jimmy was being kept. Snake rescued Jimmy and learned that Metal Gear fires its nukes via a rail gun that consumed insane amounts of power. Suddenly the power in the barracks went out. Metal Gear was about to fire. Snake rushed to disable the weapons before the rail gun was fully charged (leaving Jimmy's safety to Chris) and he hurried to reach Metal Gear before it could fire when he confronted and defeated yet another member of Black Chamber, Marionette Owl. Before he died, Owl revealed that Black Chamber was betrayed by the U.S. Government two years ago, in a mission commanded by "Anonymous", a man that they had vowed vengeance upon. Escaping the barracks, Snake discovered that Metal Gear was already above ground. Rushing to its location, Snake was waylaid by an armed helicopter being piloted by Black Chamber's leader, Black Arts Viper. Then it's too late. Metal Gear fired its warhead. Viper left and Snake fled the area under heavy bombardment when he learned the terrorist's intentions: the missile Metal Gear GANDER had just fired was set to land in an unpopulated region of Nevada - a test to prove the GLF had the capability to make a nuclear strike. "The General" gave the U.S. three hours to pull out all of its peacekeeping troops and recognize Gindran sovereignty or else it would fire another nuke - this time at a major population center. To prevent Metal Gear GANDER from firing another warhead, Snake went to destroy the power plant when he suddenly lost contact with Jimmy and Chris. However, Chris was able to contact Snake later on. She told him how they were ambushed, and Jimmy was recaptured but she escaped. After consoling her, Snake was attacked by another member of Black Chamber, Pyro Bison. Snake succeeded in defeating him. Before he died, Bison made several revelations to Snake: first, that Black Chamber was a special forces group that performed missions FOXHOUND would've taken on normally, had the group not become too famous after Operation Intrude N313, and that there was a spy in their ranks. Five members of Black Chamber survived "Anonymous'" ambush. Snake destroyed the power plant, but as he escaped, he saw a surprising sight: Jimmy in handcuffs with a dead soldier next to him. Jimmy revealed that he escaped from captivity when the plant was blown up, alongside another prisoner, who was another operative from Delta Force. Suddenly, Jimmy's handcuffs exploded, killing him. These revelations prompted McBride to accuse Chris of being the fifth member of Black Chamber, a fact that Snake argued passionately against. However, when he attempted to contact her, he received no reply. With a heavy heart, Snake continued on his mission, when he's attacked by the same armed helicopter, this time being piloted by the General's second in command, Sophie N'dram. Snake destroyed the helicopter and wounded her, but refused to kill her. She revealed that Chris was still alive, but had been captured by Viper. Snake proceeded to the underground maintenance base, where Metal Gear was being kept. Before he could reach the dread weapon, he's confronted by Viper. Viper revealed to Snake that Black Chamber was assigned to a mission two years ago by the government to recover Metal Gear, which at that point had been seized by a South American terrorist group. Fearing that Black Chamber's existence and Metal Gear's construction would spell doom for the U.S., certain government officials ordered in FOXHOUND to ambush and wipe out Black Chamber when they returned home. Five members escaped (but now only two remain, thanks to Snake). Viper and Snake proceed to fight, but Snake proved the victor. As the room exploded behind them, Snake and Chris escaped. Chris revealed that she escaped Delta Force's massacre because she wasn't with the group at that time. She'd been given special orders by John Parker to destroy all data on "Project Babel" and Outer Heaven and to assassinate "the General." Charged with finding an escape route, Chris left and Snake proceeded to finally fight Metal Gear GANDER. He entered the hangar where Metal Gear was being kept, and found the General already there. He activated Metal Gear and history repeated itself, as Snake battled Metal Gear in the hundredth floor basement of Outer Heaven. After destroying Metal Gear, the General revealed to Snake the truth about the U.S., GLF, and Outer Heaven: Outer Heaven was a U.S. funded project, established to investigate anti-U.S. forces at the time. The field commander of the Outer Heaven project, Big Boss, was a loose cannon, however, and rebelled causing Operation Intrude N313. After Outer Heaven was destroyed by Snake, the relationship between Gindra and the U.S. continued, up until Project Babel. Project Babel's objective was to establish the U.S. as the sole super power in Africa. The project was created by the Army Chief of Staff, John Parker. After that revelation, the General gave Snake the disk containing the project data before dying. It seemed that it's all over, but Snake was again confronted by Viper, who revealed that he now knew the identity of "Anonymous", thanks to the General's speech, and that Campbell was in command of FOXHOUND the night Black Chamber was terminated. Finally the fifth member of Black Chamber revealed himself: Brian McBride. But there was still one final revelation: There was more to Metal Gear than just the rail gun; Metal Gear GANDER was programmed to control seven nuclear equipped satellites, able to launch nukes from orbit. As the elevator began to ascend to the surface, where the satellites would become activated, Snake and Viper had a final duel to the death. Snake proved to be the victor, as Viper finally fell dead to the ground and the nuke system was deactivated. Snake received a call from Campbell, who told Snake that he's sorry, he didn't know that Black Chamber was an American unit until after the whole thing was over. Weasel told Snake that he killed McBride. Upon hearing Campbell's past with Black Chamber as well as that he had been blackmailed into participating in the operation by Gardner due to being a former Deputy Director of Intelligence at the CIA, Snake, remembering what both Viper and Eguabon stated about the history of Project Babel and its ties to both his missions, deduced, with Weasel confirming, that Gardner was "Anonymous." Project Babel was actually created by Gardner, but he lost control of it after Metal Gear was seized by the South American terrorists. Control was transferred to Parker. Gardner planned the whole operation to disgrace Parker and get control of Project Babel returned to him. Weasel was actually under direct orders from Gardner the entire time. However, he decided to let everyone go free, instead of killing them. Chris reappeared with a jeep that she found and she and Snake drive off together. Along the way, Chris explained that she joined the Army because she felt it was the place where an absolute right and wrong could be found, but she realized that she needed to look for it and not borrow it. Snake then explained that he endured something similar: he thought he would settle the score of his past by returning to Outer Heaven, but it turned out he only wanted death by returning, because he was afraid of seeing what he truly was. He did admit that, thanks to Chris, he found his salvation and intended to forgive himself for his mistakes. He also stated that he intended to return to the United States, even though FOXHOUND was most likely waiting to ambush him, to confront the faceless men who played chess with peoples lives (referring to Parker and Gardner) and find out what he was like, and after making them pay, he would return to Chris.
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