Paz Ortega Andrade

Paz Ortega Andrade, real name Pacifica Ocean is a character who appears in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Early Life
It is unknown as to what her true background was. However, a falsified documentation (presumably made by Cipher) lists her as a young Costa Rican girl who cherished peace. Her false name, Paz, means "Peace" in Spanish. The documentation also stated that she was studying the nation's Peace Constitution under the guidance of Galvez at the yet-to-be-sanctioned United Nations University for Peace. The documentation stated that she's huerfana (Spanish for Orphan), and that her "mother" had died when she was still very young. According to the same falsified documentation, she had also lost her grandparents during the Costa Rican Civil War, most likely influencing her passionate hatred of war.

However, the one thing that was true about her was that she was an orphan. She apparently owed her life to Cypher due to taking her in. However, she most likely feared Cipher more than truly being loyal to it, as she felt she had to obey Cipher regardless of whether she agrees with its goals or not as she'll suffer "a fate far worse than death" if she didn't.

Peace Walker
She was held captive by the mysterious armed force, the Peace Sentinels initiating military development in various parts of Costa Rica after she had stumbled upon a supply port facility north of Puerto Limon while she was searching for a lost friend (it is implied that she possessed scars from her captivity that were inflicted on her by Coldman). She later found out that her friend had also been captured, due to accidentally recording a conversation of The Boss on her walkman while bird watching. She was able to escape unscathed, although her friend did not make it out in the process. After she had shown Galvez the tape, she, alongside Galvez, entreats the "Soldiers Without Borders" to eliminate the armed force and restore peace to the nation.

Paz was later recaptured by Coldman (exactly how he managed to recapture her is never specified), and was taken over to the United States Missile Base in Nicaragua, placed in an unknown cell, and then relocated to the Control Room where Coldman gloats about inputting the false data (data used to trick Peace Walker into launching a nuclear strike as it cannot launch an unprovoked nuclear strike due to it being a weapon for deterrence) for the Mother Base. However, she discovered that not only was Professor Galvez in league with Coldman, but actually planning to have it launch to Cuba to ruin America. Galvez, or rather, Vladimir Zadornov, tries to have her shoot Coldman after betraying him. However, despite her hatred of Coldman for what he did to her, she simply could not shoot him, proving that she is, in Vladimir's words, a true child of peace, before Vladimir decided to shoot him himself.

Paz broke down onboard Miller's MSF chopper due to the intense events of the mission, with Miller lecturing her that she shouldn't pick up a weapon unless she knew how to use it, as aiming a gun itself doesn't make it a deterrant, suggesting that she leave the guns to the MSF, as part of the agreement, telling her that their mission was complete. Paz calmed down enough to thank them. Unfortunately, it proved not to be over, as Coldman had activated Peace Walker and nearly caused an all out nuclear war not only due to it's capability of launching a retalitory nuclear strike (with false data or not), but also leaking said false data to several agencies around the world, including NORAD.

During her time at the MSF after the fiasco, she got a cat that she named "Nuke." She also briefly participated in a match in soccer.

Unfortunately, Paz, or rather, Pacifica Ocean, turned out to not be what she actually was. It turned out that she was actually an agent of someone or something known only as Cipher and most of the life she was stated to be was actually falsified: A fake identity similar to Vladimir Zadornov's alias of Professor Galvez. However, she did seem to realize that being at the MSF seemed more peaceful in her life, implying that she might have started respecting it, although she did realize that it won't last much longer. She considered lying to Cipher about the progress of the edits to Metal Gear Zeke so she can do the band with Paz, Kaz, and Vladimir, but an unknown agent of Cipher (later revealed to be Kaz), revealed that she had completed the edits before she could get the chance. Chico also inadvertantly overheard the conversation, so she was forced to enact her plan, crying while she does so. She ends up hijacking Metal Gear Zeke, and after explaining the history of The Boss and Big Boss and Zero's respective paths, and continuously referring to "Cipher's" plans to ultimately control weapons and humanity, she has decided to set the coordinates of the launch strike towards the East Coast of the United States in an attempt to frame Big Boss and the Militaires Sans Frontieres in being an extremist cult, forcing Big Boss to kill Paz.

Trivia

 * Paz's true name, Pacifica Ocean, is a pun off of the name "Pacific Ocean," as well as another peace reference (Pacifica or Pacific derives from Pax, latin for Peace.).

Behind the Scenes

 * Paz's English voice actress, Tara Strong, is the same voice actress who voiced Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
 * Her character song, "Koi no Yokushiryoku", will be included in "Heavens Divide" single. Kojima Productions broadcasted it on air in Hideochannel Radio on February 18, 2010.
 * After the main events of the game, there is an Extra Op mission that involves Big Boss going on a date with Paz. However, as Paz does not mention the events of this date in her Briefing Files, it is unlikely to be canon.
 * Interestingly, even after Big Boss kills her in the fight against Zeke, Paz and her credentials/bio can still be viewed under the personnel section of the Mother Base menu as if she were still alive.