Captain (Mother Base survivor)

This article is about a non-canonical topic in the Metal Gear series.

The Captain was a former soldier of the Militaires Sans Frontières, who helped Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller escape from Mother Base after it was attacked by XOF. The soldier later traveled to the parallel world of Dite to recover the survivors of an expedition team and their research, enduring both the hostile environment and its inhabitants.

Biography[]

Militaires Sans Frontières[]

During the early 1970s, the soldier was a member of Militaires Sans Frontières' Combat Unit^[1], and according to war buddy Seth, was "as green as they come," implying inexperience.

Ground Zeroes Incident[]

Main article: Ground Zeroes Incident

On March 16, 1975, Cipher's strike force XOF, under the guise of a UN nuclear inspection, attacked Mother Base. During the assault, the soldier saved both Big Boss and Miller from being shot down by an XOF soldier, before losing consciousness. Eventually coming to, just in time to see Big Boss and Miller departing, a wormhole unexpectedly opened above Mother Base, drawing several people and objects into it. While attempting to save Seth from being sucked in, the soldier's left arm was amputated when the wormhole closed, and seemingly took a fatal plunge into the ocean. The soldier's body was later recovered by the survivors of the attack and put in a coffin, alongside his other fallen comrades, and then buried at sea.

Aftermath[]

The soldier's body was later recovered and put under observation. In reality, the soldier had survived due to an infection, through direct contact with the wormhole, that brought on a kind of suspended animation. During the coma, the infection stimulated tissue growth, regenerating the severed arm.

The soldier eventually woke up six months later in a facility belonging to Wardenclyffe Section, a secretive research organization of the United States government. A member of this organization, a man known as Goodluck, gave the soldier some directives: he was to be sent to another dimension inhabited by creatures called Wanderers, former humans infected by a strange lifeform, that through a wormhole they appeared on the earth. The Section could extract Kuban energy from them, which would shift the balance of power in the world.

When the wormhole appeared over Mother Base, the Section was able to obtain the coordinates of Dite, the Wanderers' world, and sent an expedition team, the Charon Corps, but lost all contact with them. Goodluck gave the soldier two mission objectives: 1) recover the research data of the Kuban Energy left by the Corps; and 2) rescue any survivors. Goodluck revealed that the soldier was already infected with the lifeform and that he had no other choice but to follow his orders.

Stranded on Dite[]

The soldier was then sent alone to the parallel world with the codename "Captain" with the order to reach "Beatrice" and the Base Camp, by Goodluck through comm link. During the travel to the Base Camp, the Captain encountered Reeve, a stranded XOF soldier, and the two reluctantly worked together to escape a group of Wanderers.

At Base Camp, the two encountered Virgil AT-9, Charon Corps' support AI. They began to retrieve the Corps' memory boards, which were scattered around Dite, to activate the Wormhole Digger and retrieve the information on the infectious lifeform, Kuban energy, and a way to return home. The quest to retrieve the memory boards proved to be fraught with danger, with the Captain discovering the body of a Charon Corps member on one mission, who had died from gunfire rather than a Wanderer attack. Reeve believed a traitor was in in the Corps, but the lack of information led to continued research. Thanks to an oxygen canister found on the dead soldier, the Captain could enter the Dust.

A memory board revealed the existence of Wormhole Transporters, devices that could carry objects and people from one side of Dite to the other, but required reactivation before they could be used. At some point, the Captain investigated a helicopter crash site, where an unconscious nurse was found beside a nearby ambulance, surrounded by Wanderers. Using a reactivated Transporter, the Captain saved the woman and brought her to the Base Camp. The nurse, named Miranda, thanked the Captain and immediately came into conflict with Reeve, insisting that they prioritize rescuing survivors before returning home via the wormhole.

The Captain was later able to obtain the Wormhole Digger, necessary for opening a portal to Earth, but the activation opened a series of wormholes around the Base Camp, from which Wanderers came out to attack the survivors, attracted by the Kuban energy. The Captain was able to eliminate the Wanderers but the Wormhole Digger failed to open a portal, although Section member Joseph Gruen was able to inform the survivors that Goodluck acted outside the orders of the Section, and had been removed from his position. With the aim of now finding Iris Energy to activate the Digger, and to save as many survivors as possible, the Captain resumed the journey.

During the quest to find more Iris Energy, Captain was able to save two more survivors: a child named Chris, and a policeman named Nicholas. When the Wormhole Digger was ready, the Captain began the activation sequence and like the previous attempt, a series of wormholes opened around Base Camp. The Captain was able to eliminate all the Wanderers just in time for the Digger to open a stable wormhole, at which point Gruen, who informed the survivors of Goodluck's death, ordered them to use more power, an order that a displeased Virgil performs. However the energy attracts the Lord of Dust, a massive creature that transports itself near the Base Camp, attacking it in an attempt to absorb energy. The crew barely managed to enter the wormhole and save itself from the creature, also amputating one of its arms in the process.

Destroy the Lord of Dust[]

The survivors discovered that they had not returned to Earth, but were in another part of Dite, an FOB established by the Charon Corps. A posthumous recording of Goodluck informed them that the true mission of the Captain was to eliminate the Lord of Dust, which Gruen wanted to use for its energetic potential, and that there was a weapon capable of killing it, guarded by a survivor of the Charon Corps. The Captain found the survivor Dan torturing his old partner and war buddy Seth, and when the soldier's arm seemed strangely to react, Dan ran away. The Captain brought Seth to the FOB, where he reported that Dan had betrayed the Charon Corps and killed them all, and that the weapon Goodluck had talked about was called "Sahelanthropus". The Captain found Sahelantropus, but was interrupted by Dan who pointed a rifle at the soldier, but Virgil stopped him. Dan revealed that the real traitor was Seth and that he could not be trusted, escaping just prior to the arrival of the Wanderers.

Not being able to trust Seth, the Captain had nothing left but to transport the giant machine to the FOB. Eventually, the Captain was able to bring Sahelanthropus to Base Camp, after defending it from a horde of Wanderers, through a Wormhole Digger, and Seth reveals his true colors. He takes Chris hostage, and tells the Captain to join him at Base Camp, where he reveals to be a "sentient" Wanderer after getting infected by the Dread Dust, and having exterminated the Charon Corps. Here, Seth reactivate the Dread Dust inside Virgil and attempted to convince the Captain to succumb to the infection. However, Reeve shot him and takes advantage of it to save Chris, with Seth fully transforming into a Mortar-type Wanderer, the Captain was forced to kill him in self-defense. The fight with Seth, however, recativated the Dread Dust inside the Captain as well, leaving the soldier and Virgil only 12 days before succumbing to the infection, concurrently with the arrival of the Lord of Dust at the Base Camp, where there are the only ones that can prevent him from going back in time and repeat the cycle of destruction.

The survivors begins the preparation to fight the Lord of Dust, Chris and Dan prepare the Sahelanthropus's Archaea Blades, so that they can be activated from the prepared positions, while the Captain recovers the data of a program for the rail gun of the machine from a memory board. Once the Railgun program and the modifications have been completed, so that it can be used through the Captain's iDroid, the Lord of Dust arrives at the Base Camp during the Wormhole Digger activation. The Metallic Archaea inside the blades manages to stop the Lord of the Dust, and Chris is entrusted with the task of being able to return in their time the other members of the group, while he is sent back home by the wormhole just opened, by the Captain.

Thanks to the installed program, the Captain manages to hit the body of the gargantuan creature with the rail gun. However, since the Lord of Dust does not possess the concept of "Death", since he began his life as nanomachines, Virgil sacrifices herself by entering it so she can share with him the concept that the AI developed during her journey on Dite. The Captain then strikes the Lord of Dust again and ,now knowing death, he is finally destroyed. With the creature destroyed, the survivors return to the Base Camp determined to find a way to get home, Virgil survives the blow of the railgun due to having reinforced armor designed to survive a nuclear war, restoring only one personality, and resume her role of guide for the Captain.

Personality and traits[]

The Captain appeared to have a strong sense of loyalty, deciding to save commanders Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller from XOF and comrade Seth from a wormhole, even as Mother Base was falling apart. This loyalty extended to the Captain's new allies in Dite. This attitude seems to be due to Big Boss's ethical code towards MSF members, which would explain why the Captain also appeared shocked, saddened, and hurt after unwittingly being abandoned on Mother Base. This ethical code, however, can be used against the Captain, as happened with Seth.

The Captain was reserved and rarely spoke, reacting mostly with simple body language. Like Big Boss and Venom Snake, while on Dite, the Captain preferred to work alone.

Battlefield inexperience and the shock of arriving on Dite made the Captain appear fearful of the Wanderers, even in small numbers. When cornered against a wall and a small horde, the Captain seemingly gave up hope and accepted fate, until Reeve provided rescue. However, all this changed as the Captain gained experience and confidence, finding Charon Corps' memory board first and then saving survivors brought to Dite through other wormholes.

The Captain, at the beginning, was not so skilled in using CQC, reaching a level of proficiency close to Big Boss and Venom Snake, Big Boss's best soldier, in the Captain's days on Dite. At Mother Base, the Captain was armed with a M2000-D Sniper Rifle, becoming more skilled with an assortment of weapons while on Dite, including ranged, missiles and melee weapons. Presumably due to the Captain's infection, the Captain was also shown to deliver powerful enough blows to send non-Wanderers flying.

Behind the scenes[]

The Captain (キャプテン, Kyaputen^?) is the protagonist of the spin-off game Metal Gear Survive. The Captain was first seen in a TGS 2016 game play demo for the game.^[2] In the beta and final version of the game, the gender of the Captain is chosen by the player. The Captain's name and facial features are also chosen by the player in Survive, which serves as a deliberate player avatar, like Venom Snake in The Phantom Pain.

There are also other similarities between the Captain and Venom Snake:

They both save Big Boss's life at the risk of their own;
Both were involved in an incident that resulted in the loss of their left arm;
They both had their limbs replaced with a substitute, Venom Snake's arm was replaced by a prosthesis, the Captain's arm was regenerated by the metallic crystalline lifeforms;
They are both leaders of their own organizations, Diamond Dogs and the Captain's crew.

The Captain rarely speaks in the game, only speaking three lines of dialogue in cutscenes, them being "BOOOOSS!" while being sucked into the wormhole to Dite, "Let's go!" as Wanderers approach Base Camp, and "Right!" as the Lord of Dust approaches Base Camp.

Depending on the build, the Captain can either perform CQC in the Ground Zeroes variation, or the faster and more powerful variation shown in The Phantom Pain.

Bad Ending[]

In the opening of Metal Gear Survive, the Captain's name is listed among the Wandering Mother Base Soldiers from The Phantom Pain. In the bad ending, the Captain is transported to 1984 Afghanistan, waking up in full MSF attire and suffering from memory loss, then picking up a memento photo before wandering aimlessly into the desert. However, the roar of the Lord of Dust heard shortly afterward implies that it was transported to Afghanistan. Also, the "Dead Dogs" nameplate featuring a Wanderer crystal, implies that the Captain will infect the Diamond Dogs upon being rescued.