| This article is about a non-canonical topic in the Metal Gear series. |
No. 4 was a mysterious individual who gave instructions via Codec to "Jack", a participant of various VR missions. No. 4 was capable of impersonating other people, as evidenced by his mimicking of Mei Ling several times during one mission. Upon completing the course, No. 4 congratulated Jack.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
No. 4 appears in the special mission stages in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. He instructs the player via Codec, and also provides commentary on the events of the Galuade Incident, including things not made immediately apparent within the main game itself.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] His reference to the player as "Jack" alludes to the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which the VR-trained protagonist Raiden is named Jack. No. 4's behavior also alludes to the shadowy organization the Patriots.
Notes and references[]
- ^ All stages clear
No. 4: Your training is complete. Well done. Your combat capability is now undoubtedly beyond that of Solid Snake at the time of Galuade’s fall. Your time is about to come. Get some rest for now....Jack. - ^ -Stage 1-2 clear-
No. 4: It was Parker, the Army Chief of Staff, who forced through the deployment of the Delta Force team in Galuade. His immediate objective, as Sergeant Jenner revealed, was to silence the 'General' along with all he knew about Project Babel. However, what Parker really feared must have been to lose Project Babel and Metal Gear to Gardner. Driven by that fear, he attempted to salvage the situation with his pet Delta Force before the arrival of Solid Snake under Gardner's orders -- but Gardner leaked that piece of intelligence to McBride, and the Delta Force team and Parker's bid for control crumbled under an ambush. Gardner was always a step ahead; you have to give him that. - ^ -Stage 2-2 clear-
No. 4: I'll let you in on something Snake didn't know. At the time of the Delta Force team's termination at the hands of Black Chamber, Chris Jenner, instead of fighting with her unit, was looking for data on Project Babel in Galuade's central computer. As you know, she didn't find anything; the 'General' is a cautious man. What she did find instead were the bodies of her comrades. - ^ -Stage 3-2 clear-
No.4: Solid Snake didn't know this but -- Jenner didn't adopt the disguise of an enemy soldier to collect intelligence on Harks so much as she did it for the hunt for the whereabouts of that Project Babel data Parker had ordered her to find. She probably went for the power plant later on because she learned about the computer station on the second floor. - ^ -Stage 4-2 clear-
No. 4: It is a fact that Gardner gave that 'wet works' order to FOXHOUND against Black Chamber, but he also made arrangements for the safe passage of the leader Viper and other core members of Black Chamber at the same time. No doubt he wanted them on hand when he made a bid to recover Metal Gear and Project Babel from Parker... and we know his calculations paid off. - ^ -Stage 5-2 clear-
No. 4: Neither Snake, nor Harks in his isolated cell, seemed to know, but all the remaining engineers were already dead at this point. They were killed for refusing to co-operate with GLF, but Harks was spared because he volunteered to conduct the final adjustments on Metal Gear. In his defense, I might say that he was motivated more by his attachment to Metal Gear than a desire to save his own skin. But of course... Well, one always sees the light when it's too late. C'est la vie. - ^ -Stage 5-3 clear-
No.4: Outer Heaven - formerly known as Galuade. Do you know the truth behind that mission where Solid Snake destroyed Metal Gear and killed Big Boss to become a national hero? Solid Snake, a rookie FOXHOUND commando, infiltrates Outer Heaven alone, rescues fellow FOXHOUND member Gray Fox from the clutches of the enemy, and together they destroy Metal Gear. Solid Snake then takes down Big Boss, the commander of Outer Heaven... That's the basic story known the public. There are of course, parts that were edited out -- such as the fact that Big Boss was Solid Snake's biological father. He sent for Solid Snake with the intention of fighting to the death with his own son, but it isn't clear whether Snake knew anything about it... Whichever the case, Snake took his father's life with his own hands, and that is proof of his strength as well as his weakness... And something you could not accomplish... - ^ -Stage 6-2 clear-
No. 4: As the 'General' said, Outer Heaven was conceived as an unofficial military reserve to keep various anti-American forces in check. But what he didn't say was that he himself was once an Outer Heaven mercenary, and a fervent disciple of Big Boss. His connections with the U.S. government date back to that period. After Outer Heaven fell, he drifted from country to country -- then came back, this time as the 'big boss' himself. Maybe all this explains why he chose Outer Heaven of all places to ressurect Galuade... - ^ -Stage 7-2 clear-
No. 4: Chris Jenner and James Harks are attacked shortly after this point... Viper figured that Solid Snake would come to rescue Harks and he'd had Harks' clothes rigged with a transmitter. But letting Jenner escape was not a part of their plan. Seems Jenner was a much tougher adversary than Viper had anticipated. Parker had made the right call in selecting her to bury the Project Babel evidence for him. - ^ -Stage 8-2 clear-
No. 4: As he eventually admitted, Campbell was blackmailed into participating in the Galuade offensive by Gardner. But that wasn't the only reason: though Campbell said nothing about it, his niece Meryl, an Army soldier, was apparently taken hostage to guarantee his co-operation. - ^ -Stage 9-2 clear-
No. 4: All communications with Sergeant Jenner cease after this point... Sergeant Jenner was captured by Viper; he did the job himself to make sure she didn't evade capture. After all, he needed her specifically as a surefire bait for Solid Snake. - ^ -Stage 10-2 clear-
No. 4: About that F-22 cruise missile attack -- did you notice something a little too smooth about it? Gardner had the air force on standby right from the beginning of the crisis. The idea was if the mission failed, he would have Galuade blown sky-high along with Snake. He even had a nuclear warhead ready to go. - ^ -Stage 10-3 clear-
No. 4: As you well know, the development of Metal Gear began in Outer Heaven. The project fell under the auspices of the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence and its director Steven Gardner, but the idea itself, for a bipedal vehicle that would launch a nuclear strike from anywhere on the planetary surface, was apparently conceived by Big Boss, Outer Heaven's commander-in-chief. The technology wasn't there at that point, but the concept of an invisible missile from a rail gun seems to have been already planned by Big Boss. And the idea became a reality in American hands following Outer Heaven -- Metal Gear is the phantom of Big Boss, in a sense. It's no wonder Snake is so obsessed with the destruction of Metal Gear; to him, it truly is the 'evil past'. But to us, it's the gospel to a new world -- a blessing. - ^ -Stage 11-2 clear-
No. 4: Actually Parker is more than a minor figure in the founding of Black Chamber. Parker once recovered Metal Gear from terrorist hands using Black Chamber, and demanded total control over Project Babel and Metal Gear on the strength of that accomplishment. But Gardner named a price: Black Chamber. And Parker accepted the deal for the sake of that power and stood by without lifting a finger while Gardner liquidated his Black Chamber Special Force... - ^ -Stage 12-2 clear-
No. 4: It looks as though Parker was aware of the possibility that the 'General' would betray Project Babel; they just went right ahead, using each other. The 'General' was doing a top-notch job. He fanned the flames of the minority identity movement for the Gindran Boias group with seemingly authentic ideology, and organized the GLF into a force to reckoned with - and all of this in spite of the fact that he is neither a Boian, nor even, as a matter of fact, of Gindran birth. But even he failed to best Solid Snake. We expect you not to repeat that mistake. - ^ -Stage 13-2 clear-
No. 4: The feud between the Army Chief of Staff Parker and National Security Advisor Gardner predates Project Babel and their current, respective positions as the power over the Army and the second most influential man in the U.S. government. It goes back to a time when Parker was an Army colonel and Gardner was only a CIA section chief. At the time, there was an incident involving the assasination of a government VIP and a foreign agent, and Parker's daughter was one of those under investigation. Even though the entire affair was clearly out of the CIA's jurisdiction, Gardner pursued the matter zelously, and the case ended with Parker's daughter commiting suicide. Since then, Parker and Gardner have been mortal enemies, taking their personal war to issues of politics, military operations, you name it. It looks as though Gardner meant to bring Parker down once and for all using Black Chamber and Metal Gear.