Skull Face

An unidentified man acted as the commander of XOF, a mysterious military group that is implied to have some affiliation with Cipher, in operation during the 1970s.

The leader apparently experienced extensive injuries in his past, including scars near his mouth resembling a Glasgow grin, various scabs and burnwounds across his face and neck, and a broken nose. In addition, for unknown reasons, his natural skin color had been changed to an unhealthy bluish hue.

At an unknown point after the Peace Walker Incident during the 1970s, the commander personally attended to a prisoner on Omega Base, a prison camp on Cuba, to inform him of what a female prisoner told him before telling him that he kept his promise to the prisoner, Chico, and seemingly gave her a merciful death. He then told Chico that he should give his regards to his boss when he goes back where he comes from, also making it clear that he will "play the traitor." He then, with several other soldiers from XOF, drove back to the heliport, and then masked the XOF symbol on his chopper before informing that the trojan horse is in and that the pirate crackdown is a go. He then, after departing, took all of the XOF badges and threw them out of the window.

Behind the scenes
The XOF commander appeared in the PAX demo for Ground Zeroes, as well as briefly in the VGA trailer announcing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which was composed of two separate games: Ground Zeroes, and The Phantom Pain. Although it was not made explicitly clear in the initial demo due to the lighting and environment (taking place at nightime and during a storm), a later demo, showing the daytime version of the mission, showed that he possessed blue skin.