Egg



In zoology, an egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg (Latin, ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing embryo can survive on its own. The term "egg" is used differently outside the animal kingdom, for an egg cell (sometimes called an ovum).

Eggs laid on land or in nests are usually kept within a favorable temperature range (warm) while the embryo grows. When the embryo is adequately developed it breaks out of the egg's shell. This breaking out is known as hatching.

Eggs have been eaten by mankind for thousands of years. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen (egg white), and vitellus (egg yolk), contained within various thin membranes.

Zanzibar Land
Genetic modification was carried out on eggs from the Zanzibar Wood Owl and Zanzibar Snake in the bio lab of the Zanzibar Land fortress during the 1990s. This allowed them to develop and hatch at an accelerated rate. Ex-FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake procured such an egg during his infiltration of the fortress in 1999, from which hatched an owl.

Philanthropy
Sunny Emmerich regularly cooked chicken eggs for the occupants on board Philanthropy's aircraft, the Nomad, due to the lack of food, besides military rations. She would fry them "sunny side up" and believed that when they turned out right that Solid Snake's next mission would go well, and vice versa. Sunny usually sang various songs to a specific tune while making her eggs, examples being elements in the periodic table, or the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence.

At one point, Naomi Hunter taught Sunny a technique to improve her success at cooking the eggs, and helped her overcome her social awkwardness. Sunny later instructed Raiden to tell Naomi that she "cooked them right," as code for her having completed work on the FOXALIVE computer worm.

Behind the scenes
The Egg is an item featured in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Two Eggs can be obtained from the Bio Lab in Zanzibar Land, with one eventually hatching a snake, and the other an owl. The Snake will eat rations in the player's inventory until it is disposed of by pressing the Action button, as it moves over the remains of its egg shell. The owl will provide the player with a means of accessing the Prison, its hoot causing the guard at the entrance to believe it is nighttime, who will then switch off an electrified barrier. Even after the owl has hatched from the egg, it is still maintains the Egg's name and description in the item window.

"An egg taken from the bio lab. Doesn't look edible. Its use is unknown."

- Egg description in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

While cooking eggs in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Sunny sings songs to the tune of "Victory," a song featured at the Final Results screen of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, also whistled by resistance members in Act 3, Third Sun, and heard in Metal Gear Online. In addition, the cooked eggs seem to represent the titles of each chapter. For example, the mission briefing for Act 2, Twin Suns, shows Sunny cooking two eggs.