Outer Heaven



Outer Heaven refers to a number of concepts that all pertain to Big Boss's dream, which involved ending the abuse and exploitation of soldiers by the world's governments, based on his interpretation of The Boss's will.

Inspiration
In 1970, Gene proposed the concept of Army's Heaven, which would in fact victimize soldiers in the pursuit of his goals. Naked Snake (Big Boss) responded that soldiers were looking for something "outside [Gene's] 'heaven'", and foiled his plans to attack the United States with a nuclear strike. After being defeated, Gene gave Big Boss data on the resources and personnel that he had amassed over the years for Army's Heaven, with the hope that he would put it to good use someday.

Big Boss was later inducted into the newly-formed Patriots by Zero, hoping to put these beliefs into practice, which he had inherited from his former mentor, The Boss.

Militaires Sans Frontières
After 1972, Big Boss became increasingly frustrated with the direction that Zero was taking the Patriots, so he left the group and began preparations to oppose it. Big Boss later formed the private military group Militaires Sans Frontières (French for "Soldiers Without Borders"), combining the best aspects of a state army and a special forces unit. The MSF were hired to repel the Peace Sentinels from Costa Rica in 1974, dispatching its forces into several warzones for income to increase its numbers, as well as maintaining supplies for its personnel. As the MSF's Mother Base grew in size and power, it even gained nuclear capability and Kazuhira Miller referred to it as the 7th nuclear power at the time. While still considered a group of renegades, Big Boss thought that MSF was quickly becoming his personal "Outer Heaven," free of any one global power's political control. After defeating the nuclear-armed AI weapon Peace Walker, MSF successfully subdued an internal rebellion instigated by Cipher, a.k.a. Zero, in which Metal Gear ZEKE was hijacked.

Later, in 1975, Mother Base was attacked by a mysterious force known as XOF, seemingly led by a man named Skull Face, and likely sent by Zero to take revenge against Big Boss for leaving the Patriots and rejecting his offer to return. After an intense battle, the Mother Base and the MSF are all but wiped out, Kaz is captured, and Bis Boss is ends up into a coma for the next 9 years.

Outer Heaven
In 1984, Big Boss is revived from his coma, and a man named Ishmael helps him escape from the Hospital when a group known as "Those who Do not Exist" is sent to kill the reawakend and disoriented Boss. He eventually escapes from the hospital and manages to meet up with Revolver Ocelot, who takes him to Afghanistan on a mission to rescure Kaz, and suggest that he should rebuild his army. Big Boss eventually succeeds in rescuing Kaz, and the two vow to take revnge against Cipher for everything they lost, and rebuild, with Big Boss already declaring himself a fallen Demon. It was during this time period that he reorganized what remained of MSF into a Unit known as the Diamond Dogs, a group willing to perform unsavory jobs for whatever client needed it, expanding Big Boss' Outer Heaven concept from one which merely takes in soldiers without a homeland, to a full on infamous mercenary force.

Following this, in the late 1980s, Big Boss used the funds he amassed during his mercenary career and during Diamond Dog's operations to expand his force and establish a fully independent nation, "Outer Heaven," 200 kilometers north of Galzburg, South Africa. Within the nation, he had architect Kyle Schneider build a great fortress as his mercenary company's main base. Outer Heaven became a sanctuary for disillusioned soldiers, where they would not be used as pawns of their government, and where they would always have a place, be it on the battlefield or in society in general. For insurance, Big Boss reinforced the fledgling nation's military force with the bipedal tank TX-55 Metal Gear (engineered by Drago Pettrovich Madnar based on Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin's concept) capable of launching a nuclear strike from anywhere on the planet. Outer Heaven also began taking prisoners, some of who were members of the local Resistance opposed to its regime.



When Outer Heaven's activities were discovered by the West in 1995, FOXHOUND was ordered to infiltrate the mercenary state and destroy Metal Gear. Still maintaining his cover as FOXHOUND's commander, Big Boss sent in rookie agent Solid Snake, believing that he would fail his mission. However, Snake was successful, defying Big Boss's expectations, and destroyed Metal Gear. When Outer Heaven's self-destruct sequence was subsequently activated, Big Boss confronted Snake, hoping to kill him but he was ultimately defeated and seemingly killed.

Shortly afterwards NATO launched an air raid to wipe out any remaining Outer Heaven facilities, indifferent to the resulting deaths of those in the area, since the war orphans and refugees were considered a liability. Big Boss, having survived the battle with Snake, managed to save many of them, including the surviving fortress personnel, mercenaries, and even Resistance members (the latter of whom he forgave for their initial opposition to him).

In 1999, Big Boss continued to pursue his vision of Outer Heaven with Zanzibar Land and Metal Gear D (also engineered by Madnar) but his plans were again foiled by Solid Snake.

Logo
The skull logo of Outer Heaven displays a left-facing swastika on its forehead, which is used as a geometrical motif and as a religious symbol, especially in Eastern and Dharmic religions. It can have many meanings, often relating to peace (the original Sanskrit svastika literally means "to be good"), but despite this, the symbol has become stigmatized in the Western world because of its iconic usage by Nazi Germany. Modern usage often displays the left-facing swastika (卍) due to the association of the right-facing version (卐) with Nazism.

The skull itself originated with the logo of the Militaires Sans Frontières, which was in use during the 1974 Peace Walker Incident.

Former members

 * Big Boss (founder/commander)
 * Bloody Brad
 * Dirty Duck
 * Fire Trooper
 * Machinegun Kid
 * Shotmaker
 * Vulcan Raven

Criticism and views
Outer Heaven was seen by the West as a rogue state, whose ambitions for military superiority and the acquisition of nuclear weapons was a threat to world stability.

Concerning their military nature, Naomi Hunter referred to the Outer Heaven mercenaries as "rent-a-war bastards," despite her benefactor, Big Boss, having been their leader, and her adoptive brother, Frank Jaeger, having been a mercenary himself.

Shadow Moses Incident
In 2005, Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND and the Next-Generation Special Forces took over Shadow Moses Island and threatened the rest of the world with Metal Gear REX. Liquid informally changed the name of Shadow Moses to "Outer Heaven" to honor his interpretation of Big Boss's dream and memory, hoping to surpass his father, but was foiled by Solid Snake.

Manhattan Incident
In 2009, Solidus Snake used the term "Outer Heaven" as a codename for his plan to destroy the Patriots. Solidus originally intended to detonate a nuclear warhead over Wall Street, causing an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the Patriots' computer systems, used to control the nation from the shadows. After the loss of this nuclear capability, he provided Arsenal Gear to Dead Cell leader Fortune as a distraction to lure the Patriots' fire, while he would track down and eliminate the members of the Patriots' "Wisemen's Committee", whose identities he had obtained from Arsenal's AI. By doing so, he would liberate America from their manipulations forever and claim a place in history. However, Solidus's plans never came to fruition due to his defeat at Raiden's hands as well as the Patriots' machinations.

Outer Heaven (mother company)
In 2014, Liquid Ocelot set up a new Outer Heaven as a mother company for his PMC armies, and commandeered an Arsenal Gear-class warship, with the ultimate purpose of causing the destruction of the Patriots' orbital AI satellite. His public plan was to launch a non-registered nuke at JD via REX's rail gun, although he secretly intended for Snake to upload a virus into the AI system to destroy it. Although this plan was thwarted due to Sunny making the modifications to the virus so that, when Solid Snake, using the virus to infect and destroy the AI network, it would at the same time leave its use in regulating essentials for society intact, Liquid believed Big Boss's dream of Outer Heaven had been accomplished.

Behind the scenes
Outer Heaven first appears as the enemy force in Metal Gear, whose motivations beyond the acquisition of greater military power are not elaborated upon. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Big Boss's dream of a nation for soldiers is first detailed, which he attempts to bring about through Zanzibar Land. Metal Gear Solid is the first game to define "Outer Heaven" as being the overall term for this philosophy, beyond the name of the original mercenary state. Its origins, along with those of its founder, are further explored in subsequent games throughout the series.

In the English manual for the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear, Outer Heaven was given a slightly different backstory: The nation was implied to have already existed long prior to Big Boss founding it (in fact, in the manual's story, Big Boss doesn't even exist). In addition, it was originally a democracy, before Mongolian terrorist Colonel Vermon CaTaffy took control of the region, and began creating a global terrorist network by forcibly recruiting villagers into his own mercenaries, and ruled by "bombs and bullets."

In the non-canonical Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Outer Heaven is instead located in the fictional Central African country of Gindra, rather than the Republic of South Africa. Outer Heaven had actually been formed by the United States government as a venture to provide mercenaries to its "clients," in an attempt to unofficially keep tabs on anti-American forces. The idea was thought up by the CIA Deputy Director at the time, Steve Gardner. However, the man assigned to the project, Big Boss, broke from the program, so the U.S. staged the Outer Heaven Uprising, and Solid Snake's mission there, in order to maintain plausible deniability. Project Babel was a second attempt at carrying out the original intentions of the Outer Heaven project.

Outer Heaven was mentioned indirectly by Big Boss on the official Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus website after the player succeeded in taking out several Kerotans on Map B (REX Hangar).

Outer Heaven was given a brief mention in another work of Kojima's, Snatcher, as the name of a nightclub.