Metal Gear REX



Metal Gear REX is a Metal Gear prominently featured in Metal Gear Solid, and somewhat playable in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

History
In 1964, a Soviet scientist named Granin created designs for a very REX-like "walking tank", and intended to send them to his friend in America, who (according to Sigint) also wrote a highly-criticized paper on the topic of walking tanks. However, it would be another forty years before REX would progress past the design stage, as the technology of the 1960's was insufficient for its complicated hydraulic system.

When REX began development, weapons company Arms Tech were in a dire state financially. With talk of a hostile takeover after the failure to obtain the contract for a new line of fighter jet, the chief of DARPA (then Donald Anderson) was bribed heavily to back the Metal Gear REX program and fund its development covertly. During railgun testing at a nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, REX's prototype was captured by the FOXHOUND special forces group which had been assigned to protect it. The threat of a nuclear attack was used in an attempt to extort $1 billion and Big Boss's remains from the US government.



REX's chief engineer, Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, was opposed to nuclear weaponry, and it was unlikely he would have assisted in the program if he had known REX's true purpose. He was informed that REX was intended for intercepting nuclear weapons, and REX's armaments were handled by a separate department to keep him in the dark. Their development and integration into the main chassis were out of his control, and as far as he knew, these armaments were intended to defend the REX unit itself, and to provide Theatre Missile Defense.

It became clear that REX was in fact to be used to make the nuclear strike; Otacon took it as his duty as REX's creator to destroy it. It was subsequently disabled by Solid Snake with the assistance of Grey Fox and Otacon's information.

Revolver Ocelot escaped Shadow Moses with the blueprints for REX, however, and soon sold them onto the black market.

As a result, REX models spread worldwide. Snake and Otacon therefore formed Philanthropy, and sabotaged as many REX development operations as they could; the USMC's response to the REX threat was to develop a new Metal Gear, a hunter-killer to eliminate REX's descendants. It was named Metal Gear RAY.





During Liquid Ocelot's revolt, he salvaged the rail gun of REX to fit with Outer Haven, so he can launch a nuclear strike on AI JD. Snake tried to stop him at Shadow Moses, but it was too late. Instead, Vamp fought him and Raiden on top of REX, and was killed for a final time. Otacon managed to repower it and allow Snake to pilot it out of the base, and fought Liquid, who was piloting a Metal Gear RAY. REX delivered intense punishment to RAY, including ripping apart its arms. REX's impregnable armor took the same amount of damage, and after RAY fell, REX's power core shut down, thus destroying it once more.

Crew
REX is shown to be operable by one individual, as Liquid Snake is able to use it quite effectively in battle against Solid Snake and Gray Fox. It is not clear if it is intended to have additional crew. The pilot has no direct view of the world outside of the cockpit; instead information is gathered by a sensor package in a radome on the left shoulder of REX, and passed on.

Metal Gear REX was a truly impressive weapon. From it's defensive capabilities to its nuclear ones, it was a true revolution on military weaponry.

The armor of this bipedal tank was thick enough to be virtually invulnerable to anything short of a HEAT(High Explosive Anti-Tank) missile. A RADOME on REX's left arm allowed the pilot to see.

Its basic weaponry consisted of a a laser cannon under the cockpit, two vulcan machine guns, and medium ranged anti-tank missiles aimed by radar. REX's feet are also lethal; two long spikes that act as "toes" can dig into the ground beneath it, dragging or crushing anything beneath it into dust. The main weapon on REX's right arm is a magnetized railgun, that employed powerful electromagnets instead of conventional chemical propulsion.

These however, were only considered defensive mechanisms. Its main weaponry was its nuclear payload, and its system to launch it. Past Metal Gear models had already revolutionized nuclear warfare by creating the capability of launching a nuclear warhead from any stable land. Metal Gear REX took it one step further.

Not only did it provide the same capability as its predecessors, but added a new system to launch the nuke. By using the railgun to launch a missile, chemical propellant isn't needed, so any nuke launched would leave no chemical trail - this made it invisible to any radar, making it a stealth nuclear weapon (something impossible when using chemical propellants). Because it is a stealth missile, it's impossible to intercept. The force of the railgun, even on its own, gives a missile global range.

This gives REX the ability to launch a nuclear strike from anywhere on the planet to any target, undetected, and leave within seconds. By the time it reaches its target, REX will be safely hidden away. With enough REX units, any nation would have true first strike capability - the ability to completely and anonymously destroy the nuclear arsenal of an enemy nation, without fear of a retaliatory nuclear strike, even from other nations. Otacon has said that REX "could mean the end of the world".

It was this capability that, after the plans for REX were sold on the black market, drove many countries in the world to begin their own Metal Gear programs.



Trivia

 * The first Metal Gear to appear in 3-D. Its appearance, with numerous flat surfaces, was tailored with the graphical limitations of the PlayStation console in mind.


 * REX is the first and only Metal Gear to be playable in the MGS series.


 * REX appears alongside Metal Gear RAY and Metal Gear Gekko on the Shadow Moses Island stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.


 * Ocelot reveals during the end of Metal Gear Solid that Liquid was wrong in believing that he was the 'inferior' Son of Big Boss and that Snake was the 'superior' brother, all along Liquid was in fact the brother with the 'superior' genes. Despite his genetic advantage Snake the 'inferior' clone of Big Boss managed to beat Liquid. In a similar manner REX is considered the 'inferior' Metal Gear and RAY the 'superior' Metal Gear, which mirrors Liquid and Snake's relationship. Yet despite this advantage REX, with Snake as its pilot, manages to overcome RAY, being manned by Liquid Ocelot.

It also appears as a sticker and trophy with the following description: "A war machine of ruinous power. Metal Gear REX was developed at the weapons company ArmsTech under the eye of Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich. It had the ability to launch nuclear warheads from a mounted rail gun. During testing, REX was captured by FOXHOUND, a rogue special-forces unit headed by Liquid Snake, but Solid Snake managed to destroy the machine before calamity ensued."