Cobra Unit

The Cobra Unit was a legendary team of soldiers that were assembled by The Boss in 1942 to combat the Axis Powers. Together it's said that they nearly won the war single handedly.

History
When the World War II becomes global The Philosophers joined their resources, an estimated total of one hundred billion dollars, to fight the war more efficiently. In 1942 they officially formed, under the command of The Boss, The Cobra Unit a group of soldiers trained to win the war and with superhuman abilities(Colonel Volgin later revealed that). During the D-Day landings at Normandy, on 6 June 1944, The Cobras were sent on a mission to destroy V2 rocket installations. During the war the Cobra Unit was used for the nastiest kinds of wet works, the kind that could never be let out into open. Their missions were so top secret that not only were they forbidden to be taken prisoner, they couldn't even leave their corpses behind. Bacause of this, they carried a microbomb with them on their missions in case they needed to commit suicide.

They were later officially disbanded in 1947.

They were back in action on August 24, 1964, following The Boss' defection to the Soviet Union and capturing Sokolov at the end of the Virtuous Mission. Time later, during Operation Snake Eater, where they fought The Boss's final apprentice, Naked Snake and were all ultimately wiped out by him.

Probable Theme
Throughout the game they are used as a metaphor for the arbitrariness of enemy lines in war. Although comrades-in-arms during World War II, they are later separated because of the events of the Cold War. This is only remedied when The Boss supposedly defects over to the communist faction.

It is also noteworthy that they rarely exhibited a strong nationalist sentiment or necessarily agree with Volgin's plans to adversely compromise Mutually Assured Destruction diplomacy. If anything, they only battle Naked Snake due to their interest in his abilities (being a protégé of The Boss).

This can be perceived as an expression of Kojimas views that soldiers are continually being used as pawns in political affairs; a view that he stresses again in Metal Gear Solid. The Boss explains to Naked Snake before their final encounter her true intentions, expressing her views on relativity (that enemies and friends change with the times and that soldiers may have to fight their old comrades) and the futility of war.

Members

 * The Boss (also known as The Joy)
 * The Pain
 * The Fear
 * The End
 * The Fury
 * The Sorrow

Trivia

 * The Sorrow is dead by the time the Virtuous Mission begins, but Snake does have an out-of-body experience with him.
 * Probably some of the superhuman abilities of The Cobras come from experiments carried out by The Philosophers to create superhuman soldiers to be used during wars. Other examples are The Perfect Soldier Project and The Successor Project developed after.
 * They refer to themselves as "Sons of The Boss" a clear reference to the Sons of Big Boss and The Sons of Liberty.
 * The Cobras all had microbombs attached to them. When they died, the microbombs automatically detonated and they exclaimed their codename. Even if they were defeated by wearing down their stamina, the bombs would still activate. The Boss and the Sorrow also had microbombs, but they probably had them removed after World War II ended.