Gene

Gene, also known as Viper, was the commander of FOX during the San Hieronymo Takeover. His unique Sneaking Suit color was unknown.

Early Life
Gene joined the FOX unit after Naked Snake/Big Boss had left, receiving the codename Viper. He subverted Major Zero's authority and established his own. In his career, he had studied political science outside of the military, as well as being a rather prominent medical doctor. During one mission as a FOX operative, Gene rescued Elisa/Ursula from East Germany and adopted the "twins". It is understood that he served as their mentor; teaching Elisa her skills in medicine and chemistry while training Ursula as a soldier. Some time later, Gene became the product of the "Successor Project", the goal of which was to create the "ultimate battlefield commander", modelled after The Boss. During this time, Gene developed "CQC Enhancer", an enhanced version of CQC with destructive power well beyond Big Boss's CQC and changes in the composition of techniques.

In 1970, Gene became the FOX unit's central member and led the San Hieronymo Takeover hoping to turn the base into Army's Heaven, a new nation run for and by soldiers. Gene, along with Ursula, accompanied Cunningham when they searched the area for escaped prisioners (Big Boss and Roy Campbell) aboard a Hind-A gunship. Afterwards, they arrived at the Research Lab, where Ursula and Gene both successfully predicted that portions of a scaffolding were about to collapse, and warning Cunningham to remain still. Afterwards, when a soldier apologized for the accident, he forgave the soldier, and then demonstrated his hypnotic speech ability to the rest of the gathered soldiers. He himself apologizes for making the work seem more important than the soldiers' well-being, and promised that the days when soldiers were used as political tools would be ended.

After Big Boss was again captured, Gene remarks that intel extracted by physical torture is unreliable, and questioned Cunningham's abilities as an interrogation specialist. When Cunningham suggested that he use truth serum, he mentions that it isn't reliable since Big Boss is a former FOX agent. He ultimately lets Cunningham prepare the truth serum, but under the condition that he speak to Big Boss first. He explains to Big Boss, who was awake throughout the whole conversation, that the entire "rebellion" was actually staged by the CIA in order to prolong the Cold War.

Shortly thereafter, Gene had a telephone conversation with his conspirator Ocelot. Gene tells Ocelot about his "new world" and his other conspirator, whom he refers to as "the man with the same codename as Null". After the call, Gene stopped a rampaging Null using his inhumanly fast reflexes and ESP abilities.

Big Boss is eventually rescued by his allies and Elisa is taken with them. Gene anticipates that Big Boss and his group would learn from Elisa where the ICBMG was located and would try to destroy it. He then secretly replaces the ICBMG with Metal Gear RAXA at the Plant. As Big Boss infiltrates the facility, Gene arrives with a large platoon of his soldiers, accompanied by Hind A helicopters, in order to apprehend him. However, an event that not even Gene anticipated occured, in which Colonel Skowronski hijacked RAXA. Gene then unleashed his true trump card, awakening Ursula, who was actually the twin personality of Elisa. Gene had Ursula commandeer RAXA using her powerful psychokinesis, and giving it abilities far beyond its potential. While RAXA was ultimately destroyed, the battle still bought more than enough time for Gene's men to finish loading the real ICBMG with nuclear weapons and transport it out of the Plant to the Missile Silo. Gene then gave another one of his speeches, only this time it is far more threatening in nature, forcing both his men and Snake's batallion to go into a mass riot that resulted in many casualties, including the death of Jonathan. Gene then left for the Missile Silo.

Big Boss eventually confronted Gene, where the latter reveals that not only was he aware that Cunningham was trying to betray him, but he was actually planning to launch Metal Gear into Virginia, USA, instead of Russia as previously believed. He then taunted Big Boss with the information regarding the "deviously cunning strategist" who planned Operation Snake Eater, and hinting about "soldier genes". Elisa/Ursula, revealing her survival of RAXA's destruction, destroyed the launch panel and attempts to stop his plans. However, Gene, with his much quicker phyical abilities, murders her, exemplifying his hypocritical, two-faced nature and proceeds to launch the ICBMG via a backup launch control room. This results in a fight to the death with Big Boss to determine who the true successor of The Boss is. However, Big Boss managed to triumph, allowing Gene the revelation that Big Boss was indeed the true successor after all, and relinquishing the funds and resources for Army's Heaven. His last words are reminiscent of the last words of The Boss, and he pleads with Big Boss to go find his calling.

Personality and Abilities
Gene's intense charisma gives him the power to win people's hearts and minds. His voice was given a special manipulative mind-altering power where he feigned loyalty and strength to those who followed him but secretly despised the human race in general, exhibiting qualities of deeply pathological, tyrannical behavior. During Gene's speech-making, he could swell up loyalty and powerful, trusting emotions in his soldiers, but also used it to instill fear in mobs and cause riots to break out, laughing cruelly as he did so. Gene also uses his gifted voice to release Elisa's dark and powerful second personality, Ursula, and Gene's reflexes were also faster even than Null's reflexes (due to being a product of the Successor Project). He also possesses ESP abilities that enable him to defeat Null with a single direct mental blast.

Trivia

 * Gene referring to himself and Big Boss as "like brothers" mirrors the relationship between Solid Snake and Liquid Snake.
 * The relationship between Gene and Ursula parallels that between Big Boss and Frank Jaeger.
 * The trench coat that Gene wears is almost identical to the one worn by Big Boss in his later years (Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid 4), and those worn by the renegade FOXHOUND members in Metal Gear Solid.
 * One of his telepathic command ability quotes during the final battle mirrors The Boss's statement to Naked Snake in their encounter at Dremuchij North in Metal Gear Solid 3.
 * There are hints that Gene has a deep amount of respect for Big Boss, as he is impressed by the fact that Big Boss managed to remain conscious after enduring Cunningham's torture, as well as instilling Null with strong emotions. Some statements during the final battle seem to imply that he also wants to have a challenging fight against Big Boss.
 * The details of Army's Heaven, Gene's dream soldier nation existing in the shadows, bears several similarities to how the Patriots would emerge, giving an early clue as to what his true loyalties were. Also, Army's Heaven could (in a way) be considered a precursor to the idea of Big Boss's Outer Heaven.
 * According to the MGS4 Database, Gene is a master of "Zero Shift", an ability much like teleportation. Its name is a reference to Zone Of Enders, another game directed by Hideo Kojima.
 * It is possible that through the "Successor Project", Gene is a predecessor to the Genome Soldiers. On a slightly related note, Gene's English voice actor, Steven Blum, also voiced some of the Genome Soldiers in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

Gene