[Tactics are a godsend. Not that he isn't already considering how they might be able to make themselves stronger to have some sort of advantage, but he knows these scientists could be taken alive. And he's seen enough of their writing on the previous level to have concluded that they could have helped their cause.]

Probably. [He agrees with the statement of ego, with a similar train of thought.] We did see how dangerous the Ingress could be, but the people working on it here went into this knowing nothing.

[Venom and Big Boss, though, were ten years older than him and he clung to the notion of even partnership with them. He commanded men ten to twenty years his senior in Central America. And he tries to live up to the mentor that Snake had, but he can see right then how he and this man are nearly the same age, and right now both carry a lot of weight, a lot of responsibility that they are now realizing they may never meet.]

[But here he acts as a peer, a friend, and when he stands in front of him and settles his hands on his shoulders to reassure him, it's as that.]

We'll figure something out, Snake. We'll keep building ourselves up so we can get a foothold. We don't know what's through there. But we'll face it together. [They're not going into this alone. And to punctuate it, he pats him roughly where he held him.]