The tall grass stretched from the crevice through the narrow path leading to it all the way to another far larger and more open area on the other side. Slithering his way through the lush green blades Naked Snake would be greeted to a familiar, yet changed sight. The Bolshaya Past Base in all it's crude, Soviet glory. Still sitting amongst the woods like nothing had happened.
From where the FOX agent lay there were few obstructions to his sight allowing him to observe the base safely and properly. It still seemed mostly the same. The 'base' was made up of a few different sections. A central building that acted as a crude barracks with a side room for lockers and storage. A radio room to the immediate right of the crevice path. A food storage shack to the north of the central building. A munitions storage shack tucked all the way into the north east corner of the area.
And a
helipad.
It was really just a flat area beside the base cleared of grass with the exposed earth giving it a crude slap-job feel. Crude or not it worked as parked on the space was what appeared to be some kind of helicopter. Landing wheels perched in the dirt and unmoving.
From a distance the helicopter seemed very similar to the 'Hind' helicopters Naked Snake had seem numerous times during his mission. His first encounter of which was at the very same base he found himself at. Yet the helicopter didn't look the same. It was sleeker and the silhouette differed in several areas from the original making it look more advanced and refined then the Hinds he had seen previously.
Regardless of what it was it still seemed to be a 'Hind' type helicopter and appeared to be armed. Heavy machine-guns, rocket pods, missile racks. Whether or not it actually was armed or even worked was another matter entirely though...
A crude trench ran around part of the perimeter of the building. Deep enough to crawl around it but a short enough gap someone could easily jump over with wooden pallets draped across the gaps as make-shift bridges.
It wasn't long after starting to watch Snake would begin to notice movement and begin to see men walking around the area. Uniformed man patrolling with automatic rifles close to their chests.
They were dressed in thick camouflaged fatigues and wore black balaclavas over their faces. While the camo they wore wasn't anything Naked Snake would recognize they held themselves like proper soviet soldiers. Each was armed with what looked like an AK-47, but it seemed to small and compact to fit the bill.
Though they patrolled the base diligently the soldiers seemed unfamiliar with the area as they kept looking around and watching their feet, as if fearful of what might be present. Many soldiers had opened their uniforms or outright taken off their shirts as the heat of the jungle had gotten to them through their somewhat thick uniforms.
Out of the three soldiers Snake could see outside each seemed worn down. Exhausted with untreated scrapes and bruises marking the exposed parts of their bodies. None of the soldiers seemed to have their full kit with them either. Carrying very little on them besides their weapon and whatever they had in their pockets...
More soldiers were likely inside or behind the buildings, but in their current state they seemed vulnerable. As long as they weren't alerted they were likely easy picking...
Walking to the south Poppy, Six, and the Merchant would find themselves before a crude base. Threatening uniformed men walked about the place, heads turning from side to side as they searched for intruders.
One was just a few feet away while another was a greater distance away to the south west. Both had their backs turned to them though and seemed largely oblivious of their presence.
Enemies are currently in CAUTION mode. They are wise to the presence of enemies in the area and are more observant then they normally are. Catching an enemy they will achieve calling for assistant much faster then if they were caught unaware.
Meanwhile on the other side of Tselinoyarsk, a teenage girl seated herself atop a barely restrained homicidal robot.
Cedar used Julian's decreased height from his kneeling and his outstretched arm as leverage to monkey up his mechanical body. After a few awkward moments of scuffing her sneakers against his otherwise clean armor plating she seated her legs over his shoulders and sat down. Like a tired little girl sitting on the shoulders of her much larger, angrier mechanical father.
"WOOOOOOOO! Let's go that way! Robot power all the way!" Cedar threw up her arms and cheered as she ordered Adrien forward, prompting a barely audible sigh from Quiet as she looked on in uncomfortable bafflement.
"The strategic value. Think of the strategic value." Those who began to move to the north did so to find the other half of the area which was made up of a large clearing with a tree and the other wise of the rockface they had seen when they first arrived. The farther they walked north the taller and thicker the grass began to get. Quiet found the grass coming to her hips as she waded forward, following Cedar and Julian as they took point.
Continuing northward they would follow a grass choked path that was largely unremarkable. Quiet noted that given how narrow it was anyone approaching where they had started, their 'camp', would have to come from through the path which meant they would have the advantage if they were defending. At least against normal enemies...
The grassy path eventually broke out into an open area. Quiet and Ceder's faces immediately scrunched up as they were met with a wet, rotting smell. They were in some kind of small bottomless swamp. A pool of dark, vicious mud at least 30 feet across spread out before them like a foul pond. It gurgled and squelched, shifting slightly as gasses and other liquids made their way to the surface every now and then.
"Ugh, gross." Ceder muttered, shaking her head at the smell as she looked around.
At first glance the mud part of the swamp seemed too far to jump over. Though Quiet felt she could make the other side with her enhanced jumping abilities.
Encircling the swamp was a ridge of proper earth. It wasn't very wide, barely enough to shimmy along and even then one wrong step would put someone in the mud of the swamp. Yet off to the side there was a little 'island' out cropping in the mud with a thin bony tree growing on it. Amidst the branches of the tree a fat, active beehive buzzed with the working of hundreds of insects.
"How are we going to get-" Ceder looked to Quiet, hoping to get some kind of advice from her, but the women only raised a finger to silence her.
Quiet extended her arm and pointed to the other side of the swamp. There on hard, dry land were two
things. They looked like dinosaurs, raptors specifically but drastically different in some respects. Both of the creatures were tall roughly the height of horses. Standing on their hind legs with thick straight tails extending backwards they leaned over, biting and clawing at some bloody mess on the ground with their stubby arms.
The two monsters, Genprey, seemed unaware humans had entered their new territory and stood with their backs to them...
Location: 2Fort, Underground Offices (red side) "Wait, seriously?" Handsome Jack had been bored. Ever since the group left he had little to do besides sit, wait, and practice spitting from the back of his throat at the wall behind him. He could have checked up on the townsfolk above ground or simply done a bit more exploring of the ground facility, but he was still tired and short on patience. The man was about ready to get up to look for some place to piss when he heard a young voice speak out and surprise him.
"Who asks if it's OK to ask a question right after they asked something? That's just-If you're going to ask something then just ask it. Being overly polite just complicates things and gives whoever bothers to answer you a headache..." Turning to the north most hallway Handsome Jack was taken aback as he found himself staring at a child in one of the ugliest sweaters he had ever witnessed. Holding back the urge to laugh or simply cry at the state of the boy's (or possibly midget's) fashion sense, Handsome Jack cleared his throat and spread his arms to his side.
"Welcome to Pandor-Fuck! I did it again! Ahhhhhhhh!" Handsome Jack shouted in blind frustration, closing his eyes and pushing his knuckles into his temple. It just came so naturally to him it was difficult
not to say. He'd only worked and actually ruled over the place, plus 'Pandora' was such a catchy name.
Dropping his arms to his side Handsome Jack sighed, looking to Chara with a shrug of his shoulders.
"What I meant to say was, welcome to 2Fort! As for where we are I have no god damn idea. No on seems to know. I'd say we were in hell but there's not nearly enough fire or lawyers to suggest that." Scratching his head Handsome Jack walked over to the little midget/boy to really feel the height difference between them.
"So what are you doing here, kiddo? Your parents finally get you out of their hair?"