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Old Sun refers to the 2014 incident on the Bering Sea, in which Liquid Ocelot attempted to destroy the Patriots' core AI, resulting in a naval battle between Outer Haven and the USS Missouri.

"Everything Ends"[]

With Outer Heaven leader Liquid Ocelot in possession of Metal Gear REX's rail gun, he had the means to

Outer Haven by L1QU1D 5N4KE

Haven Troopers patrolling the decks of the warship Outer Haven.

destroy the Patriots' core AI, JD, with a nuclear strike. On board the Arsenal Gear-class warship, Outer Haven, Liquid headed out into the Bering Sea, 494 nautical miles (915 km) from the Bering Strait, in order to strike the U.S. military satellite housing JD. With the satellite orbiting at 10 kilometers per second, and the nuke's damage radius of 300 meters, JD was to be attacked as it reached its perigee in order to conduct an accurate launch.

Briefing U.S. military personnel on board the USS Missouri, Navy Captain Mei Ling intended to attack the submersible Haven when it surfaced to make its nuclear strike. Though trailing behind the technologically superior warship, the Missouri would be able to catch up to Haven while it made its launch preparations. However, the crew would have to rely on their eyes to locate it, as the Missouri had been stripped of most of her equipment, and also lacked any electronic warfare capabilities. Since a direct attack would be useless, thanks to Liquid's control of the SOP System, a strike team would infiltrate Haven during the assault and upload a worm cluster into the ship's AI, GW. Solid Snake volunteered for the mission, making no secret of his disregard for his own life, along with Meryl Silverburgh and Johnny Sasaki.

Having received intelligence from Naomi Hunter, the strike team planned to catapult aboard the vessel after it opened its top cover to fire the bridge-mounted rail gun. They would then penetrate GW's physical server room and upload the worm cluster, which had been created by Naomi and Sunny. The worm would both prevent the nuclear launch and wipe GW's programming. Since it would need to stay integrated within the Patriots' network, in order to assume JD's functions after its destruction, GW could not be deactivated to prevent the worm's upload. However, the server room would be heavily defended by Liquid's troops, along with microwave directed energy weapons.

Meanwhile, gun launderer Drebin 893 provided his services to the Missouri's military personnel, issuing them with "naked" weapons, along with catapults that the strike team would be using.

"At Dawn"[]

"Failure will spell doom for the human race."
Roy Campbell via Codec

As the Missouri closed the distance to Outer Haven, Snake (carrying Otacon's Mk. III), Meryl, and Johnny, prepared to board the enemy ship. Commencing fire to defend against Haven's missile barrage and deployed Metal Gear RAY units, the Missouri collided into the other vessel, plowing along its side. The strike team then activated their catapults and ascended upwards onto Haven, though Johnny hit the side of the ship and fell into the ocean. Meryl landed in a different area of the ship than planned, injuring her ankle, while Snake's successful jump forced him to continue the infiltration alone.

Screaming Mantis

Screaming Mantis, with the Mantis and Sorrow dolls.

Avoiding the dense force of Gekko and Haven Troopers deployed on deck, Snake made it to an elevator on the far side of the ship, and descended into the heart of Haven. Entering a large computer control room, he was forced to take on a wave of Haven Troopers, which he ultimately defeated. Snake was then confronted by the leader of the Beauty and the Beast Unit, Screaming Mantis. Snake was able to overcome her apparent psychic abilities by suppressing his nanomachines, and then stole Mantis' mind control puppet, allowing him to defeat her. Shortly afterwards, the ghost of Psycho Mantis appeared in her place and, after making several psychic predictions, revealed himself to be the one controlling all of the BB members, through the body of Screaming Mantis. Although he prepared to demonstrate his powers to Snake once more, God ended up interfering and banished Mantis forever. Another spirit, that of The Sorrow, then appeared and told Snake that the spirit of the warrior would always remain in him.

"I Am Lightning"[]

The Beauty and the Beast Unit was defeated, but Snake's mission was far from over. Continuing towards GW's server room, Meryl and Johnny appeared in time to save Snake from another wave of Haven Troopers. While Snake proceeded onward, Meryl and Johnny stayed behind to fend off the seemingly endless supply of soldiers, eventually running low on ammunition. In the heat of battle, Johnny proposed to Meryl, claiming he had always loved her. Initially, Meryl refuses his proposal. Since she always wants to do things her way, she herself proposes to Johnny, who gladly accepts.

Snake was then further outnumbered by knife-wielding Haven Troopers, who ambushed him directly outside the microwave corridor leading to the server room. A still armless Raiden then appeared to protect him, requesting that he upload the virus himself, as his body could withstand the microwave emitters. However, Snake refused, with Raiden relenting after further argument. Allowing Snake to pass, Raiden decided to keep the encroaching enemy soldiers away. However, the battle was still heavily one-sided, and Raiden, although initially fighting well, was quickly swarmed and outnumbered.

Snake entered the microwave corridor,

Snake travels through microwave room

Snake struggles through the microwave room.

and with no other choice available, began to make his way past the powerful emitters. Forced to walk due the immense pain, he eventually collapsed and forced himself to crawl the remaining distance, growing weaker every second. His OctoCamo was stripped from his skin and his Solid Eye exploded from the waves. However, against all odds, he made it to the server room, where the Metal Gear Mk. III uploaded the virus, just as Snake was swarmed by an army of Dwarf Gekko.

"Full Circle"[]

With the successful upload of the worm, the battle quickly turned. The soldiers ambushing Raiden, Meryl and Johnny went into hysterics as their nanomachines shut down, and the Dwarf Gekko surrounding Snake deactivated. The unmanned RAY units attacking the Missouri also shut down, with some sinking into the ocean depths.

Gwinside

GW's server room.

Shortly thereafter, a video of Naomi Hunter, programmed into the worm, appeared on the server room computer screens. She explained that the worm, named FOXALIVE, had used GW as a conduit into the Patriots' entire network, destroying the AI cores, disabling SOP, and bringing the war economy to a halt. The Patriots had apparently intended to extend their nanomachine control to the civilian population, and she had been unwilling to allow this. Having intentionally misled Snake and Otacon into carrying this out, Naomi apologized for her deception. Exhausted, Snake collapsed into unconsciousness.

"The war is over. But we've still got a score to settle."
Liquid Ocelot seeking one last fight with Solid Snake
MGS4 - JD

The satellite housing JD.

Liquid Ocelot found Snake, while Otacon had gone to find medical help, and dragged him to the top of Outer Haven. Explaining to Snake that the worm's upload had been his intention all along, as well as the history of the Philosophers and the war between Zero and Big Boss, Liquid proclaimed that Big Boss's dream of Outer Heaven had come to pass. Challenging Snake to a final hand-to-hand duel, he restored his brother's stamina with an injection, then engaged him in CQC. During the long fight, Revolver Ocelot's psyche slowly began to resurface for the first time in years. Upon being defeated by Snake,

Snake defeats Liquid

Snake defeats Liquid Ocelot.

the Liquid persona disappeared, and Ocelot (restored to his original psyche) stated that he was "Liquid's doppelgänger," and exclaimed "You're pretty good," before dying.

Otacon later discovered that Sunny had modified the FOXALIVE worm to "destroy the brain, but leave the brain stem intact." Rather than destroying the Patriots' system entirely and plunging the world into chaos, Sunny had programmed the worm to remove their control while preserving the energy and resource networks essential to modern society, allowing the U.S. to truly live free for the first time in many years.

Behind the scenes[]

"Old Sun" is the name of Act 5 in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Act 5 - Old Sun

The title card for Act 5 in Metal Gear Solid 4.

As with the other acts in the game, trading "Sun" for "Snake" forms a codename. In this event, it is Old Snake; Solid Snake, having undergone accelerated aging. It is also common for the word "Son" to be replaced with "Sun", as to translate to "Old Son."

The scene in which Solid Snake has to traverse a microwave tunnel on board Outer Haven, shares similarities to the final scenes of the original Metal Gear. In Outer Heaven, Snake is forced to pass over an electrified floor, while his life gauge steadily depletes, in order to reach TX-55 Metal Gear.

During Liquid Ocelot's exposition to Snake, regarding the history of the Patriots and Outer Heaven, a missile can be seen in the accompanying montage, firing upwards and hitting the satellite housing JD. Though the rail gun launch was not ultimately carried out, JD's destruction via FOXALIVE can be seen as having achieved the same objective in Liquid's eyes. The same exposition also showed stills from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the canonical games that had been released at the time of Metal Gear Solid 4's release, as well as stills of the individual members of the Wisemen's Committee in Metal Gear Solid 2.

Old Sun is the only briefing to not occur within the Nomad. It instead occurs on the USS Missouri. Consequentially, it is also the only briefing to not have Sunny cook eggs and sing a song and the only act in the game to not have the Metal Gear Mk. II (or in this case, Metal Gear Mk. III) accessible via gameplay (although the player can do limited interaction by moving the projector images around).

The final battle between Ocelot and Snake, titled "Snake & Ocelot Fight", appeared on Versus Battle, where it fought against "Snake & Raiden Stand" from Metal Gear Solid 2.

"STRENGTHS:
Badass Battle of “Brothers” Atop Outer Haven
WEAKNESSES:
Someone Had to Lose
FEATURED FACT:
A thrilling example of high-stakes cut-throat CQC at its best, where fists, elbows, knees, kicks, and sweeps cut like knives and winner takes all

FEATURED GAME:
METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"

―"Snake & Ocelot Fight" on Versus Battle

Appearances[]

See also[]

Notes and references[]

Timeline of events in Metal Gear
Date Event Game
1962 Sokolov Defection
Cuban Missile Crisis
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater
1964 Virtuous Mission
Operation Snake Eater
1970 San Hieronymo Incident* Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops*
1972 Les Enfants Terribles Project
1974 Peace Walker Incident Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Eliminate the Renegade Threat*
Intel Operative Rescue*
Classified Intel Acquisition*
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
19XX Déjà Vu**
XXXX Jamais Vu**
1975 Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements*
Ground Zeroes Incident
Wormhole Incident** Metal Gear Survive**
1976 Attack on Zero Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
1977 Zero visits Snake
1984 Hospital Escape
Phantom Pain Incident
1995 Outer Heaven Uprising
(AKA "Operation Intrude N313")
Metal Gear
19XX Metal Gear (NES)**
19XX+3 Operation 747** Snake's Revenge**
1997 Mercenary War Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
1999 Zanzibar Land Disturbance
(AKA "Operation Intrude F014")
2002 Galuade Incident** Metal Gear: Ghost Babel**
2003 Assassination of Dr. Clark
2005 Shadow Moses Incident Metal Gear Solid (The Twin Snakes*)
2005-2007 Snake's VR Simulation* Metal Gear Solid Mobile*
2007 Tanker Incident Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
2008 Liquidation of Dead Cell
2009 Big Shell Incident
2011 Raid At Area 51
2012-2013 Raiden's Capture
2014 Guns of the Patriots Incident
(Liquid Sun · Solid Sun · Third Sun · Twin Suns · Old Sun · Naked Sin)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
2016 Lobito Island Incident** Metal Gear Acid**
2018 World Marshal Incident*
(AKA "Raiden's Revengeance")
Raid at World Marshal · Ambush in Africa · Abkhazian Coup · Investigation in Guadalajara · Raid in Denver · Operation Tecumseh
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance*
2019 SaintLogic Incident** Metal Gear Acid 2**
* Dubious Canonicity
** Non-Canon
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