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This article is about a subject from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Desperado Enforcement LLC., also known as DESPERADO Enterprises, was an American PMC primarily composed of cyborg mercenaries based in Delaware that was involved in several incidents in 2018. Although claiming themselves to be a PMC, Desperado, just as its name implies, frequently gave aid to terrorists and international criminals.

History[]

Early operations[]

Desperado Enforcement was known to be operating as early as 2016. Although they were based in Delaware, most of their business was handled outside of the States, with their financials being handled by a separate company located in St. Kitts and Nevis (which was also a preferred tax haven of large companies across the world). Their primary jobs were targeting places that were undergoing reconstruction efforts and ruin them. However, they've also had connections to the drug trade and human trafficking. Several of the PMC members were also forced to join due to being unable to provide a livelihood otherwise due to their cybernetic costs, some even holding deep fear and remorse for the actions they had to commit while in the group. Although several of them were ex-military, not all of them were, as evidenced by Monsoon's membership.

World Marshal Incident[]

See also: Raid at World Marshal, Ambush in Africa, Abkhazian Coup, Investigation in Guadalajara, Raid in Denver, and Operation Tecumseh

In 2018, Desperado attacked a convoy escorting the Prime Minister of an African nation recovering from a costly civil war. Desperado's leader, Sundowner, abducted the prime minister, and then killed him on board a train while an affiliate, Samuel Rodrigues, stalled Maverick PMSC member Raiden from rescuing him. Raiden ended up severely injured and failed to protect the PM. As a consequence, Raiden started becoming more active in combat, aggressively taking missions from Maverick that directly related to Desperado's activities.[1]

Three weeks after their attack, Desperado led a military coup in Abkhazia where the president and most of the cabinet were killed and replaced by a military junta. The occupational forces was led by Andrey Dolzaev (His primary arms supplier was Desperado), along with a Desperado captain Mistral, and were using a refinery along the coastline as their headquarters. Desperado had apparently anticipated Raiden's arrival, setting up cyborg ambushes as well as an attempted assassination by LQ-84i at the old city. Although Desperado technically broke several laws in their occupation in the country, they got away with their actions because of Abkhazia being a disputed territory within Georgia and not a sovereign nation, and that the UN were reluctant to get involved in Civil Wars due to the disastrous results of the Somalian Civil War in 1991. After Raiden defeated Mistral and Dolzaev committed suicide, the attempted coup made headline news with Desperado targeted as the main instigator. Part of the reason for Maverick's success was also the result of internal squabbles within Desperado, as Mistral had earlier instigated a revolt by one of their UGs, the LQ-84i, to have her partner Khamsin killed, which resulted in several of their forces being deplinished, including all heavy cyborg divisions, all Grads, all Mastiffs, and all two of their Fenrirs assigned to the mission.

Desperado also had a research facility located within the sewers of Mexico, which was also heavily guarded by Cyborgs and unmanned gears such as Raptors, Dwarf GekkoMastiff, and Vodomjerka unmanned gears. Maverick's discovery of this later resulted in Raiden being dispatched into the nation to investigate the existence and nature of the research factory. This research facility was later discovered by Raiden as a makeshift factory for transplanting children's brains to be placed in cyborg heads, where they would then be shipped off to their allied corporation, World Marshal Inc., the largest PMC after the events of 2014, where the brain casings would be subjected to VR training with a regimen similar to that practiced by George Sears, AKA Solidus Snake on his child soldiers during the Liberian Civil War.

Desperado's surviving 'Winds of Destruction', Monsoon and Sundowner, were present at World Marshal HQ in Denver to stop Raiden from retaking the children's brains. However both of them ended up being defeated, although not before the latter hinted at Operation Tecumseh, a plot concocted by Armstrong to create a false flag operation to reignite the War on Terror, and by extension the war economy.

Due to everyone knowing that Desperado had a contract with rebels in Pakistan, World Marshal intended for Desperado to be framed for the assassination attempt on President Hamilton by placing Desperado cyborgs at Shabhazabad Air Base where World Marshal had a security contract. To further implicate them, the Metal Gear EXCELSUS piloted by Senator Steven Armstrong had Desperado's markings. However, by the time Raiden arrived at the air base, Armstrong had altered the plan to take into account Raiden's arrival, and instead settled for simply framing Desperado with the deaths of the military personnel at the base, as he figured that would still have accomplished his goal all the same. After Operation Tecumseh was stopped by Raiden, Desperado was dissolved.

Equipment and personnel[]

The Desperado

Desperado soldier.

The vehicles of Desperado included Canard Rotor VTOL Scouting crafts, specifically the Hammerhead variety, and Strykers. The soldiers wore concealed Face Shields similar to other cyborgs and body armor resembling that of Gray Fox's actuator suit, and also wore a green combat vest. Mastiffs were utilized in combat as well. They also utilized the MAK-200, which Maverick PMC commander Boris Popov indicated was originally made in Russia, and customized American-made LAG-2 rocket launchers. In addition, Gekkos (including a UG type) and Dwarf Gekkos as well as other UGs like the water-skating Vodomerkas and the dinosaur-like Raptors were brought into operation. Moreover, at least two modified versions of the unmanned Metal Gear RAY unit were used which included much heavier firepower than usual. Slider drones were also utilzed, some attaching themselves to the soldiers similar to Raging Raven. Aside from that, Desperado possessed barrier trucks, which enact a barrier that prevented their targets from escaping their area. For airborne transportation tiltrotors were accessible

Several Desperado cyborgs also sometimes carried stealth camouflage in an attempt to ambush the enemy. There were three types of cyborgs utilized by Desperado, not counting the Cyborg cops affiliated with World Marshal, Inc.: The first utilized one or two HF blades. The second, called "Customs", utilized a far larger blade, and were also much taller. The third, unlike the other soldiers, frequently used giant sledgehammers instead, and were significantly heavier in form than either the regular or the Custom soldiers. These were known as "heavily armed." Although many of their UGs (e.g., Gekkos) are given the standard color, some of them were painted red and black, similar to their logo.

Unusually for most PMCs/PMSCs, Desperados had cyborgs as the majority, if not composed as the entirety of the PMC. Kevin speculated that this was because they supplied the surgeries for any wounded combatants and then put them in a steep loan until they "break even" with them as a means of forced servitude. This was later confirmed by Samuel Rodrigues and Monsoon. At least 30 of the Desperado soldiers, including at least one platoon commander had been cyberneticized by the Patriots prior to the group's dissolution.[2] The cyborg parts were also suspected to have been supplied to them, of whom their supplier was later revealed to be World Marshal.

[]

The Desperado logo was composed of a red and clear-colored diamond border, with the left half being covered in red, and the right half remaining colorless. Each half of the diamond depicts two lines at the edge as well as two halves of a fanged skull (with the colors of certain portions being inverted depending on which half of the diamond its on). The name also has some color inversions as well, with the "Des", due to technically being outside the diamond border, being colored red, and "perado" being left colorless, with the "o" at the end being stylized to resemble a backwards capital "D", while the "Enforcement LLC." portion of the name is colored red.

Members[]

There was also a four-cyborg unit within the PMSC, called the Winds of Destruction:

Colorado Senator and Presidential candidate Steven Armstrong also had some involvement in the organization to the extent that, had anything tying him to the organization been uncovered, he'd potentially have to face a grand jury. However, Armstrong was fully confident that they either wouldn't find anything, or wouldn't care even if they did.[3]

The Brazilian mercenary Samuel Rodrigues was also involved to some extent with the group, although he was not actually a member of the PMC, much less of the Winds of Destruction.

Affiliates[]

As the group was largely engaged in terrorist activities and other actions, they also possess several clients for their services.

In Abkhazia, Andrey Dolzaev, a European extremist trying to ensure independence via terrorist actions, hired Desperado to attack Sukhumi and engage a military coup.

In Guadalajara, Mexico (and presumably Colorado), the local mafias cooperated with Desperado and World Marshal in the latter's Sears Program, including tricking children (such as George) into getting abducted via the promises of getting a well-paying job, and also declaring the cyberneticized children's brain canisters labelled for "adoption" to be sent to Colorado, due to loopholes in the United Nations' Arms Trade Treaty.

They were also allied with the PMC World Marshal Inc, where they were supplied with their cybernetic parts, and they would also make cyborg child soldiers as part of World Marshal's Sears Project.

Although not directly allied with Pakistani terrorists, the manner in which they attacked the American base at Pakistan was done in such a manner that made it seem as though the Pakistani terrorists had been involved.

Behind the scenes[]

The group itself first appeared in the VGA 2011 trailer, although they weren't identified by name. Desperado Enforcement LLC. was first mentioned in the "leaked" Senator audio on the Make It Right viral marketing website, where Senator Armstrong mentions to his speechwriter that the grand jury's "got nothing that connects me with Desperado." Desperado made its first actual appearance in the E3 2012 trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Their design in the VGA 2011 trailer was different to the final version. In the trailer, Desperado soldiers frequently utilized green hooded jackets, while wearing SWAT vests and knee guards. They also frequently wore balaclavas. Their primary weapons were HF blades and MX8 machine guns.

They also received another design from the E3 trailer, where they strongly resembled a combination of the Peace Sentinel Escorts and the FROGS, although like above, this was discarded by the time the TGS trailer and up to the final version.

The prologue had dark-skinned, gold armored cyborgs during Desperado's first appearance. These types did not appear anywhere else in the main story, although they were a recurring element in the VR missions.

Desperado is the second enemy group in the series, and the third group overall, to occasionally give their equipment a red-and-black color theme. The first was the CIA mercenary group Peace Sentinel from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker with their custom vehicles/aircraft, and the Militaires Sans Frontières from the same game who occasionally stole the vehicles/aircraft from Peace Sentinel.

Out-of-universe, the reason why Desperado was composed primarily of cyborgs was due to censorship laws in Japan, as the Japanese weren't willing to cover extreme violence on regular humans.

The Desperado/World Marshal cyborg soldiers made a later appearance in the Versus Battle section of the official Metal Gear Solid website, where they fought against Dwarf Gekko. According to their stats, their strengths were their strength, durability, and skills with blades, but they only possessed two arms.

"STRENGTHS: Strong, Durable, Skilled with a Blade
WEAKNESSES: Only Two Arms
FEATURED FACT: More powerful than a human yet equally as cunning, a cyborg is a formidable adversary.
FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE
"
―Cyborg soldier stats in Versus Battle on metalgearsolid.com

According to PlatinumGames, the Desperado logo had the Chinese character meaning "bad/evil" (悪) hidden within the skull portion[4]

Gallery[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ^ Yoji Shinkawa's commentary during the official E3 preview of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
  2. ^ Doktor: (Hm...) There was classified data embedded on that hand. It appears that man (Desperado platoon commander) underwent modification at a Patriot facility... just as you did!
  3. ^ http://www.metalgearsolid.com/rising/
    AUDIO DATA ACCESS FILE #01000011: "Make It Right" - Senator Armstrong Leaked Audio
    waronourshores.com/
    Armstrong: ...Don't tell me you're still going on about that grand jury nonsense. They've got nothing that connects me to Desperado. Besides, the average Joe doesn't give a shit, either way. People these days think money is the solution to all their problems.
  4. ^ https://twitter.com/platinumgames/status/438977263401304065
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