Gene

Gene, also known as Viper, was a member of the CIA special forces unit FOX during the San Hieronymo Takeover.

Early life and career
Sometime after Operation Snake Eater, Gene joined the FOX unit where he received the "Viper" codename. In one FOX mission, Viper rescued Dr. Nikolai Sokolov from Russia and reunited him with his family. In 1966, he rescued a psychic girl, with the split personalities of Elisa and Ursula, from an East German research laboratory. Gene later underwent experimentation for the Successor Project, the goal being to create the "ultimate battlefield commander" modeled after The Boss, and was given superhuman abilities as a result. During this time, Gene developed CQC Enhancer, an enhanced and destructive form of CQC.

In 1970, Gene subverted Major Zero's authority over the FOX Unit and established his own. Accompanied by Lieutenant Cunningham, Python, Elisa, Ursula, and the child soldier Null, Gene led the takeover of a secret Soviet missile base on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, Colombia, and planned to use the CIA's new Metal Gear weapon to establish a new nation, known as Army's Heaven. Assisted by his hypnotic speech ability, Gene increased his unit's ranks by gathering disgruntled Red Army personnel to his side, vowing to end the world's political exploitation of soldiers, and had them commence work on fortifying the missile base.

Gene was soon forced to deal with a rebellion on the peninsula, headed by Naked Snake and Roy Campbell, the former having initially been kidnapped and taken to the peninsula for interrogation, regarding the Philosophers' Legacy. Gene later met Snake in person following his recapture by Null and Cunningham, and was impressed by Snake's resistance to Cunningham's torture. Shortly thereafter, Gene contacted his conspirator Ocelot and reported the success of his negotiations with the Kremlin, to ensure they didn't interfere with their plan. However, Gene planned to make good on his threat to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S., in defiance of Ocelot and his employer. Shortly afterwards, he was forced to use his superhuman reflexes and ESP abilities to halt a rampage by Null, and pondered over the effect Snake had had on the unstable youth.

After Snake was freed by his allies, with Elisa accompanying them in their escape, Gene anticipated that they would learn the location of the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear and attempt to destroy it. He then secretly replaced the ICBMG with Metal Gear RAXA as a decoy at the assembly plant. As Snake infiltrated the facility, Gene arrived by helicopter with a large platoon of soldiers, in order to apprehend him. However, when the base's former commander, Colonel Skowronski, hijacked RAXA and gunned down several of Gene's men, the distraction allowed Snake to hold the FOX commander at gunpoint. Gene then triggered the awakening of Elisa's twin personality, Ursula, and had her commandeer RAXA with her psychokinesis, giving it abilities far beyond its potential. While Snake was engaged in battle, Gene's men finished loading the ICBMG with nuclear weapons and transported it out of the plant to a missile silo. After Snake destroyed RAXA, Gene delivered a fear-inducing hypnotic speech, instigating a riot among both his and Snake's soldiers that resulted in many casualties, before departing for the silo.

Snake eventually confronted Gene at the silo's launch control room, where the latter revealed that he had actually planned to launch the ICBMG into Virginia, USA (the "twin lairs" of the American Philosophers), instead of Russia as had previously been believed. Since he had deduced that the Red Army would be negotiating with the DoD, and that no war would commence should he launch at Russia, an attack on America would convince the international community that the Soviets had fired on America, causing the Warsaw Pact to crumble and possibly enter into armed conflict with NATO. Gene then revealed his concept of Army's Heaven for soldiers to Snake, but Snake was unswayed by his offer of an alliance. He then taunted Snake with information regarding a "deviously cunning strategist," who had orchestrated the failure of the Virtuous Mission six years earlier, and ensured The Boss's death, but refused to reveal his identity. When he proceeded to launch Metal Gear, Elisa and Ursula, having survived RAXA's destruction, destroyed the control panel and attempted to stop his plans. However, Gene, with his much quicker physical abilities, murdered her, and proceeded to launch the nuclear missile via a backup launch control room.

A fight to the death then ensued between Gene and Snake to determine who The Boss's true successor was. During the battle, Gene attempted to use his powers of suggestion to break Snake's will, even quoting some of The Boss's words to Snake from years earlier, but was ultimately unable to subdue him. Snake eventually triumphed, forcing Gene to admit that Snake was indeed the true successor after all, and that "soldier genes" may have played a part. On his deathbed, he relinquished the funds and resources he had amassed for Army's Heaven to Snake. His last words were reminiscent of those given by The Boss, and he pleaded with Snake to go find his calling.

Personality and traits
Gene's intense charisma gave him the power to win people's hearts and minds. His voice was given a special manipulative mind-altering power where he feigned loyalty and strength to those who followed him but secretly despised the human race in general, exhibiting qualities of deeply pathological, tyrannical behavior. Despite this, however, he reacted with some surprise when Snake pointed out that his viewpoints make him nothing more than a dictator. During Gene's speech-making, he could swell up loyalty and powerful, trusting emotions in his soldiers, but also used it to instill fear in mobs and cause riots to break out, laughing cruelly while his men killed each other as he did so. Gene also used his gifted voice to release Elisa's dark and powerful second personality, Ursula. His charisma and-speech making was also powerful enough to subvert even soldiers of the highest morale to his command. In addition, Gene genuinely believed that the point of people's existence was to sacrifice their free will and even their own lives for a cause and a higher belief or being, and implied that The Boss's sacrifice, and especially her allegedly being deliberately set up to die, was instrumental in his belief.

There were hints that Gene had a deep amount of respect for Naked Snake, as he was impressed by the fact that Snake managed to remain conscious after enduring Cunningham's torture, as well as instilling Null with strong emotions. Some statements during the final battle seemed to imply that he also wanted to have a challenging fight against Snake.

Genes reflexes were said to be even faster than the Perfect Soldier Null, due to being a product of the Successor Project, along with his abilities of ESP. This was because the project of which Gene was the byproduct, the Successor Project, was intended to lead those supersoldiers created as part of the Perfect Soldier Project, of which Null was a byproduct. His enhanced speed was also fast enough to evade bullets from a high-powered gun while making it seem as though he was standing still, as evidenced when Colonel Skowronski tried to kill Gene with RAXA's gatling gun only to hit some of the soldiers. He also seemed to possess some limited telekinesis that gave him the power to defeat Null with a single direct mental blast. Furthermore, Gene was also a master of "Zero Shift", an ability much like teleportation, which allowed him to kill Elisa and Ursula before she had a chance to react. He also used this ability during his battle with Snake, though employing the technique too often left him physically exhausted, giving Snake an opening in which to defeat him. He is also capable of generating mental shielding powerful enough to render even Ursula incapable of reading his mind/predicting his next move, removing it only when he believed that Ursula died in her battle against Snake. He presumably did this to ensure that Ursula didn't rebel against him so he wouldn't have to kill her.

In combination with his supernatural speed and reflexes, Gene was also extremely skilled with knife throwing and knife fighting in general. Beneath his military coat, the would-be-dicatator hid a large amount of finely sharpened knives which he could throw with deadly accuracy, his aim being so perfect that he could even incapacitate the superhumanly fast Perfect Soldier by impaling his hands and limbs. Gene's reflexes were so finely tuned that he was able to throw his knives with the rapidness of a machine gun, enabling him to tear even a well armored foe apart in seconds.

Behind the scenes
Gene serves as the primary antagonist of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. His character shares many similarities to that which Naked Snake would become as Big Boss in the early MSX2 Metal Gear games; a charismatic leader attempting to establish a nation of soldiers in opposition to the current world order. He even wears a similar trenchcoat associated with the older Big Boss. Gene's reference to them both as "like brothers" also mirrors the relationship between Solid Snake and Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid. While other members of FOX have unique colors on their Sneaking Suits in Portable Ops, Gene's own is not revealed due to his wearing of the trenchcoat.

His name, Gene, both refers to genetics and is a shorthand for the name Eugene.

Gene's "Zero Shift" ability is a reference to that of the same name used by the Orbital Frame Jehuty from Zone of the Enders, another game produced by Hideo Kojima. Like the one used by Gene, the process of charging the attack before teleporting in front of an enemy is the same as the one used by Jehuty.

Portable Ops recruitment
Gene can be unlocked as a playable character by not only defeating him non-lethally, but by also recruiting over 200 soldiers within the same save file. However, the 200 recruits can be accumulated through multiple playthroughs. A soldier is officially recruited in this context after they make it past the prisoner stage, and then can be discharged at any point. In the European version of Portable Ops, Gene can only be unlocked by completing the Boss Rush mode. A radio call to Sigint will allude to the method of unlocking Gene.

Gene comes equipped with a Bowie Knife; it is more powerful than a regular knife, swipes more times in succession, is not CQC compatible and 3 are thrown when the lockon button is held.

"Member of the CIA Special Forces unit FOX, he combines superior combat and tactical capabilities with an intense aura of charismatic leadership. The mastermind behind the San Hieronymo rebellion, he assumed the role of the heart of FOX after Snake quit the unit."

- Official description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (flashbacks and painting; painting's non-canon)