Serpent's Tale Part Four: Viper's Nest

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"Serpent's Tale Part Four: Viper's Nest"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 15, 2010
Cover date	September 2010
Written by	Mike Costa & Christos Gage
Art by	Sergio Carrera
Colors by	Wil Glass
Letters by	Neil Uyetake
Editor	Carlos Guzman

A Viper shares his story with Leonard to convince him to escape and expose The Coil's true nature to the world.

Synopsis

Venomous Maxmimus oversees the writing Leonard Michaels is doing for The Coil and compliments it in a way Leonard finds a bit patronizing. After all, he's a Pulitzer Prize winner, of course he has a way with words. And no matter how many drugs they pump in him, he still has a sharp mind. Venomous reminds Leonard that his treatments aren't to dull his mind but rather to open it, so he can continue spreading the truth of The Coil to those poor, unenlightened souls that need it. For now though, Leonard is starting to feel a bit tired, and Venomous agrees it may be time for bed. In the middle of the night though, Leonard is woken up by a Viper who wants to know if what he said about having won a Pulitzer is true. While Leonard confirms it, that was before he was part of The Coil, back before they made him a better man. The Viper though assures Michaels that he isn't a better man and that he's come here with a story to convince him of it...

Four years ago, the Viper and his brother, both of them ex-Navy SEALs, have been freshly recruited by a mysterious organization. Flying alongside three dishonorably discharged Army Rangers, a pair of ex-Delta Force Operators, and a former member of Spetznaz, the men are going to be parachuting into the desert for a training exercise where they'll have to survive in the wilderness with no supplies or gear. And when their instructor Skullbuster says nothing, he means nothing, including clothes. Parachuting out of the plane using pre-WWII era chutes, when they land in the freezing, bitter cold of the Taklamakan Desert, the only thing any of them have for warmth is their parachutes. One of the Delta Force Operators got separated from the group on the way down and, following S.O.P., buried his chute after landing. On the second night he froze to death. When the vultures arrived to pick at his corpse, the rest of the men get their first real meal in almost a week. Since fire isn't allowed, the men have to eat the birds raw, and this causes the other Operator to throw up. For this, Skullbuster snaps his neck.

The group spends the next four days hiking over some of the harshest terrain imaginable, still completely naked save for their parachutes. Over the course of the journey, the men can feel themselves growing more and more hostile towards one another, getting to the point where they actively want one another to die. When one of the Army Rangers can't stand it any more and breaks down crying, another member of the group kills him. Fortunately for the future Viper, he and his brother have one another, and because of that they're able to hold onto some shred of sanity. On day five, the men reach a poppy field being operated by around 20 members of the Taliban, who are barely able to put up a fight against these five starved, exhausted men. In the end, they only suffer one casualty and finally gain some clothes and weapons. Before they leave, Skullbuster orders his men to torch the fields, just because he wants to watch them burn.

Continuing on their way, the men hit another obstacle on their way to the extraction point: a peaceful Afghani village receiving aid from the United Nations. Rather than going around it though, the men don't even hesitate to shoot their way through, gunning down UN soldiers and innocent villagers alike. They sustain another casualty from the battle, leaving only Skullbuster, the two ex-SEALs, and the Spetznaz member. However, within miles of their destination, the Spetznaz member steps on an unmarked landmine and is killed, exploding all over the others, who howl with laughter at the absurdity of the situation.

When they finally reach the extraction point, one of the two ex-SEAL brothers mentions that the group has two survivors as opposed to only one as Skullbuster had predicted. While they fear that Skullbuster is going to kill one of them, he merely climbs on board the helicopter instead.

In the present day, Leonard is confused as to the meaning of the story, thinking that was the kind of training the Viper had to go to just to guard him. Frustrated, the Viper informs him that he wasn't finished. When he and his brother got on board the helicopter, Skullbuster asked the pilot if the next group would be ready for him when they got back to base. And in that moment, both of them realized that this little exercise wasn't a one-time thing for Skullbuster. This is something he does all the time and revels in. They joined an organization where people like that are not only rewarded but thrive. And their survival meant they were trapped here for the rest of their lives. And so the Viper's brother killed himself then and there by jumping out of the helicopter. And as his brother watched the only reason he was able to stay sane through the past week of torture plummet to the ground, Skullbuster smirked with satisfaction that his prediction had come true after all.

The reason the Viper shared his story with Leonard was so that he would understand The Coil's true nature. It isn't just some crazy cult, there's an even bigger organization behind it! And now that he's shared that with Leonard, he can tell the world all about it. They won't listen to some no-name soldier with a checkered past, but being a Pulitzer winner carries some weight. But first, Leonard needs to get out of here...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashback.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

G.I. Joe	The Coil/Cobra
Leonard Michaels (2)	Venomous Maximus (1) Concerned Viper (3) Skullbuster (4)

Quotes

"With my past, no one would ever believe me. But you won a Pulitzer. They'll believe you. You are going to tell the story of The Coil, Leonard. The real story. To the world."

-Concerned Viper is very hopeful everything is going to go as planned!

Notes

G.I. Joe references

• Continuing this series' habit of giving some lesser known characters time in the spotlight, it's Skullbuster! Originally part of the 2002 G.I. Joe vs. Cobra line, Skull Buster (two words, not one as it is here) was the survivalist leader of the Range-Vipers. The connection isn't made explicit, but the odd helmets worn by The Coil's vipers do somewhat resemble the skeletal helmets of the Range-Vipers more than the standard ones.

Covers (1)

• Cover A: Skullbuster's mask, by Antonio Fuso.
• Cover RI: Skullbuster, by Ben Templesmith

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