Kyle Schneider

Kyle Schneider was the former leader of the resistance movement in Outer Heaven. He later operated as the mercenary Black Ninja in Zanzibar Land.

Early life and career
Kyle Schneider was once an architect who was forced to be part of Outer Heaven's design staff, but joined the underground movement when his wife and child were killed. As the leader of the resistance movement, he planned the resistance's activities with an acute inner sense as well as having a strong leadership. In addition, because of his earlier involvement in the fortress of Outer Heaven's development, he knew a lot about the internal structure of the fortress.

During Operation Intrude N313, he lent his knowledge of the fortress layout to Solid Snake, serving as a sort of navigator during the mission, as well as supplying intel of where weapons and equipment were located inside the fortress. However, Snake lost contact with Schneider just before he was about to reveal the identity of the Outer Heaven leader. Afterwards, he was presumed dead.

Post-Outer Heaven
In reality, Schneider survived but was taken captive by a clean-up crew deployed by NATO after a massive bombing campaign against Outer Heaven. He was used as a guinea pig for NASA's top-secret extraterrestrial environment special forces unit, codenamed "Black Ninja." He was outfitted with an experimental flex armor suit and reflex-enhancing drugs. When the Black Ninja unit was disbanded, Schneider and other members of the unit fled to Zanzibar Land and assisted Big Boss during the Mercenary War. Due to his involvement in the war, the world came to learn of his existence.

Although Schneider had originally opposed the Outer Heaven regime, he was grateful to Big Boss due to the fact that he provided refuge to the surviving members of the resistance movement after the NATO air strike that left many of them dead. He served as a vital member of Zanzibar Land's elite mercenary force after the war, repaying Big Boss for the favor.

During Operation Intrude F014, Schneider confronted Solid Snake after disguising himself as kidnapped scientist Dr. Kio Marv. He acted as a decoy following the discovery of a FOXHOUND transmitter, embedded in Marv's tooth, and removed it. Schneider fought Snake using his enhanced speed and throwing weapons, though the more experienced Snake was able to defeat him. A dying Schneider then revealed his identity to Snake and told him what became of him after Outer Heaven. Since he felt there was no hatred between them, Schneider provided a hint to Snake regarding the real Dr. Marv's location, as well as the identity of the man behind Zanzibar Land: Big Boss. He also hinted that revealing Marv's location was what Big Boss would have wanted him to do, before passing away.

Behind the scenes
Schneider (シュナイダー) first appears in the original Metal Gear as a radio contact, providing the player with information on where to find certain weapons and items. He makes his first physical appearance in the sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, as an enemy mercenary who must be fought by the player in a boss battle. He is also given the full name of Kyle Schneider (カイル・シュナイダー), inspired by that of the character Kyle Reese from The Terminator.

In the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2, Schneider was known as Black Color; a misromanization of the word "Blackcollar." The name is a reference to Timothy Zahn's 1983 novel The Blackcollar, involving a titular group of drug-enhanced space ninjas.

Other ninja-type characters also feature in later games in the Metal Gear series, known as the Cyborg Ninjas.