Gustava Heffner

Gustava Heffner was a member of the STB (the Czech State Security) assigned to protect Dr. Kio Marv during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance. She was fluent in Czech, Slovak, Russian, and English.

Early life and career
Gustava's mother was a Holocaust survivor who spent her days in the sewers under the city of Warsaw, Poland, fleeing from the Nazis during World War II.

Formerly an Olympic gold medalist figure skater, Gustava was known as the "Ice Princess" both in professional ice skating and in the Olympics, where she previously won two championships in a row. During the 1980s, she met and fell in love with a Westerner named Frank Hunter during the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She tried to elope with him, but she was denied U.S. citizenship and could not leave her country. Because of her failed defection, Gustava was stripped of her competition rights and her family was constantly persecuted and humiliated. With very few places left to turn, Gustava joined the STB. While in the service of the STB, she managed to kill a man.

During the energy crisis of the late 1990s, Gustava had been assigned as a bodyguard to Dr. Kio Marv, the inventor of OILIX, when his plane was hijacked by agents of Zanzibar Land. Gustava was able to escape, disguising herself as a Zanzibar Land soldier, although they took away her radio in the process of evading capture. However, she had been able to plant tracers on both Dr. Marv and his colleague Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, prior to their capture. While incognito as the enemy, she also got a locker, which she used after using a sauna without being caught by the soldiers.

Gustava later established contact with Solid Snake, who had infiltrated Zanzibar Land to rescue Dr. Marv as part of Operation Intrude F014. With Snake's help, Gustava was able to ascertain Dr. Marv's location. Accompanying him for a brief time, she eventually developed feelings for him and he in return. She also helped Snake to free Dr. Madnar from his cell. While the trio attempted to cross the suspension bridge leading to the detention camp, they were ambushed by Metal Gear D in an elaborate trap set up by Dr. Madnar. As a result, Gustava was hit by a missile. Ironically, the man piloting Metal Gear was her former lover, Frank Jaeger. Before she died, she gave Snake her brooch shaped in the symbol of Zanzibar Land, which was secretly the key to Dr. Marv's locker, where he had hidden the OILIX formula.

Behind the scenes
Gustava Heffner (グスタヴァ・へフナー) was originally named Natasha Marcova (ナターシャ・マルコヴァ) in the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Her name was changed in the re-released versions of the game, presumably to avoid confusion with the similarly named Nastasha Romanenko. Her backstory of being a Czechloslovakian Olympic ice skater who became romantically involved with an American soldier, was derived from the novel Crossfire.

In the Previous Operations section of Metal Gear Solid (and its remake, The Twin Snakes), it is stated that Gustava, then referred to as Natasha, was a former Czech International Secret Police agent. This was presumably done to address the earlier fall of Communism in the Eastern Bloc, than what was portrayed in Metal Gear 2. However, in the re-released versions of Metal Gear 2, Gustava is still referred to as an active member of the STB due to the fact that the script wasn't updated.

Although Gustava's portrait depicts her as a brunette, her sprite depicts her as a blonde. In addition, she is shown having waist-length hair while dying from the missile explosion via Metal Gear D. Finally, her sprite depicts her wearing a bandana though it doesn't appear in her portrait.

Appearences

 * Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid/Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (mentioned via Previous Operations section)
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (indirectly mentioned)
 * Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (trading card)