Solidus Snake

Solidus Snake (ソリダス・スネーク) was the third "Son of Big Boss", created as part of the Les Enfants Terribles project. The project was initiated by The Patriots in order to retain a figurehead for the organization in the image of Big Boss after relations between he and Zero became strained. The initial phase of the project produced genetically diverse twin clones, one inheriting Big Boss' superior soldier genes, and the other his inferior soldier genes. The twins were designated as Liquid Snake and Solid Snake respectively. The creation of the original clones led to Big Boss' departure from The Patriots, thus the organization required a perfect clone to act as the key to its master AI, JD, to which Big Boss' DNA was the key. As neither Solid nor Liquid were genetically identical to Big Boss, Solidus was created with the same perfect balance of dominant and recessive soldier genes that Big Boss possessed. As a result, unlike Solid and Liquid, Solidus was genetically (and almost physically) identical to Big Boss, a fact that he took much pride in. The egg-donor and surrogate mother used in this phase of the project are unknown. Though Solidus was later known as George Sears, it is unknown if this was his birth name or if he even had one.

The accelerated aging written into each clone's genes was apparently designed to be faster in Soldius' case, thus producing the required figurehead for The Patriots (a United States President in the image of Big Boss) in a relatively short space of time as well as providing the same fail-safe of limited life-span should the clone fall into enemy hands or turn against the organization. As a result, Solidus appeared considerably older than his cloned brothers, despite being created afterwards.

Whereas Solid and Liquid used their designations as their personal prefix to their FOXHOUND codenames, the reference to Solidus as ‘Solidus Snake’ was a purely honorary title in reference to his brothers (and possibly father), he did not gain the codename as a member of FOXHOUND.

Background
The early years of Solidus' life are unknown. The earliest relevant information that has been discovered is that Solidus fought in the first Liberian Civil War during the late 1980's as a teenager. He killed Jack's parents during that time, adopted him, and trained him to be a ruthless killer at an extremely young age as part of Solidus small boy unit (which he was presumably the commander of).

Solidus was later the 43rd President of the United States of America, being known as George Sears while he was in office. In the year 2005, acting outside the orders of The Patriots, Solidus initiated the Shadow Moses incident in total secrecy, ordering Revolver Ocelot to persuade Liquid Snake into stealing Metal Gear REX and use the weapon as he saw fit. But because the existence of Metal Gear REX and the GENOME Army were both made public during the aftermath of the incident, Solidus was forced to resign from the Presidency in humiliation. Solidus then went into hiding when he learned that his former superiors, the Patriots, were planning to kill him off as punishment for such embarrassment. While in hiding, Solidus took command of the Dead Cell unit as a way to gain power and destroy the Patriots.

From the early events of the Manhattan Incident it was made clear that Solidus, along with Ocelot, Olga Gurlukovich and the remaining members of Dead Cell had devised a plot to take over the Big Shell where rumours stated that a new and highly advanced battle station known as Arsenal Gear was being developed there. Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, Solidus Snake assumed the identity of his presumed dead brother, Solid Snake, and "kidnapped" the current President James Johnson (The President originally aided Solidus of his own freewill).

It was believed that Solidus planned on using a Purified Hydrogen Bomb (which is essentially radiation-free) from Arsenal Gear to create a gigantic electro-magnetic-pulse over New York City, and attempt to reveal the existence of The Patriots to worldwide public scrutiny and topple their power of the business community in Manhattan. Solidus later revealed that he was in fact going to give Arsenal to Dead Cell after extracting the identity of The Patriots. Dead Cell were intended to draw the Patriots' attentions whilst Solidus would hunt the 12 individuals down killing them off one by one. Solidus' plan never came to fruition thanks to Ocelot, a Patriot spy, who had helped orchestrate the entire event (see S3 Plan for more information). Solidus was chosen to be involved because his relationship with Raiden resembled that of Solid Snake and Big Boss.

When Arsenal Gear crashed into Manhattan, Solidus and Raiden were thrown from the top of Arsenal onto the roof top of Federal Hall, where Solidus told Raiden his true intents and desires. Solidus, unable to father children and pass on his legacy, wished to be immortalized by history, but knowing The Patriots indomitable control of information they wouldn’t allow this. He explained his reason for the Big Shell takeover and his plan to kill off The Patriots, finishing off by declaring that only one monstrosity will have the privilege to live on. Solidus and Raiden clashed swords in a duel that would ultimately result in Solidus’ death, falling from the rooftops of Federal Hall with his spine severed.

Solidus Snake's corpse was stolen by EVA and used as decoy in a huge pursuit involving Raging Raven, and the Raven-Sword PMC group. Vamp later throws the body into a fire where it was incinerated, everyone around having been convinced the body of Big Boss had been destroyed.

Weapons
In terms of small arms, Solidus used a P90 sub-machine gun and also used a daisho (Katana and Wakizashi set); the "Minshuto" and "Kyowato" (Democrat and Republican) blades.

It's of considerable note that Solidus' combat ability was demonstrated as extremely dextrous; both as a marksman and a swordsman.

Exoskeleton
The Exoskeleton that Solidus wears was developed by the U.S. Army. It increases the wearer's speed, strength, and agility through the use of the same artificial muscle technology that was initially developed for Metal Gear RAY. It has two prehensile tentacles, or "Snake Arms", which can be used to grab or axphyxiate opponents and also has the ability to fire small missiles. The snake arms can be ejected to further increase the wearer's speed and agility. The suit is also equipped with an accelerator that allows the user to make quick movements across terrain, leaving a trail of flames in his path.

Trivia

 * The solidus (the Latin word for solid) was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans. The word soldier is ultimately derived from solidus, referring to these coins with which soldiers were paid. "Solidus" is also the term used by chemists for the line on a pressure/temperature diagram that marks the phase transition between solid and liquid;
 * Solidus is the only Snake to use swords as a weapon, though Solid Snake would eventually use a knife;

Solidus Snake