Outer Heaven (South Africa)

Operation Intrude N313 Outer Heaven schematic, showing the three main buildings of the fortress. From left to right: Building 1, 2, and 3 (note, Desert 1 and 2 are omitted).

The fortress of Outer Heaven was a large military compound, located in the mercenary nation-state of the same name, established in South Africa during the late 1980s. It was the headquarters of Big Boss's personal mercenary dispatch company. Its purpose was to offer soldiers a life outside the control of the Patriots, where they would always have a place, whether it be in battle or in society in general. Architectural engineer Kyle Schneider was forced to participate in the design of the fortress. In the aftermath of Operation Intrude N313, the fortress was destroyed under a self-destruct sequence after the TX-55 Metal Gear was sabotaged by Solid Snake. Afterwards, NATO launched a massive aerial bombardment against Outer Heaven. A pinpoint strike was executed on Outer Heaven’s nuclear weapons facility using bunker-busting bombs.

The majority of the fortress comprised three main buildings separated by stretches of desert. The floors in each of the buildings were color-coded by ground: 1F = Red ground, 2F = Blue ground, 3F = Dark gray ground, 4F = Dark blue, and B = Dark green with brick walls. The last two rooms in Building 3 had mostly the same colors as Building 1 3F. There were also a number of smaller buildings, which were possibly used as barracks or armories. To the south of the first building was a body of water.

Building 1

The main building which housed the main hangar for Outer Heaven's military vehicles and the cargo dock.

First Floor (1F)

The first floor of the building housed the main hangar to the west, where tanks and military trucks were stationed. German Shepherds were also kept in the inner courtyard, to guard against any intruders and to possibly prevent prisoners from escaping. There were two eleveators, one on the left, and one on the right. The former only had access to floors 1 and 3, and the latter had access to all floors (including the roof).

Second Floor (2F)

The second floor of the building. Machinegun Kid was a guard in this area. This may have been the area where technologies relating to HALO/HAHO jumps and infrared vision were developed, as infrared goggles and a parachute were located on this floor.

Third Floor (3F)

The third floor of the building housed several gassed rooms to deter intruders. This floor may have been Outer Heaven's weapons factory as there were many weapons stored here.

Rooftop (R)

The top of Building 1. This was presumably a landing area for Outer Heaven gunships, due to the fact that a Hind D was stationed here. Also, a wind barrier was installed on the roof, which prevented anyone from getting across to the other side of the building without a bomb blast suit. Air Troopers were deployed here, so they could keep watch over the entire area to the south.

Basement (B)

This was the main prison block of the fortress. Shotmaker served as the sole guard in this area, along with several attack dogs. There was also a secret passageway between the basements of Building 1 and 2, with Fire Trooper guarding the West Elevator within the latter.

Desert 1

There were a few deserts around the Outer Heaven fortress and it is possible they were interconnected. The first was located between Buildings 1 and 2. Due to the fact that mines were set up in the south of this area, as well as the deployment of military trucks and, sometimes, even a tank, this desert may have been used to train Outer Heaven soldiers in desert warfare.

Building 2

This was possibly the main R&D building, since this was where Dr. Madnar was held. It was located 10 km north of Building 1. Occasionally when a suspected infiltration operation was being conducted by the enemy, a checkpoint was set up in order to make sure no one could enter without proper clearance as a result of FOXHOUND's infiltration. A radio jamming field was also installed within the base in the event that an intruder somehow managed to bypass the checkpoint. Both Building 2 and Building 3 were connected via a water channel.

First Floor (1F)

The first floor seemed to had waterways, which were connected to Building 3. An armored bulldozer was utilized here. Like Building 1, there were two elevators, but they were color-coded in red and blue respectively. The red elevator only went up, and the blue elevator only went down. The red basement elevator was guarded by Fire Trooper.

Second Floor (2F)

The second floor of Building 2 was possibly where Outer Heaven's R&D center was located, since Dr. Madnar was held here. Two Bloody Brad units were deployed here, to guard many of the important areas on this floor.

Rooftop (R)

The top of Building 2, which was also guarded by Air Troopers.

Basement (B)

The basement of Building 2, like that of Building 1, was primarily used to detain prisoners. In fact, Building 1 and 2 shared the same basement via a secret passageway. Most of the corridors were gassed. Also, Fire Trooper seemed to be stationed in this area.

Desert 2

This desert was located between Buildings 2 and 3. There were a few trucks parked outside Building 3, which sometimes drove over to the courtyard of Building 1, implying that this desert was part of a military supply route. Also, scorpions seemed to be prevalent in most of the area, with soldiers and/or personnel being advised to carry antidotes, when travelling between the two buildings on foot. Since there were no discernible landmarks in this 20 km stretch of desert, a compass was necessary to get between the two buildings.

Building 3

The building where TX-55 Metal Gear was stationed. It was located 20 km north of Building 2. Technically, this was more of an underground bunker as there was only one above-ground floor, with an elevator leading to a bunker 100 stories below the surface. Because of it housing TX-55 Metal Gear, it was rigged with an immense amount of traps and security equipment, such as gun cameras that fired lasers, poison gas, pit traps, and a constantly generating electric floor with no power switch in the room. It was also possible that this was the place where the main power generator and explosives were housed, as the self-destruct sequence was initiated in this building by Big Boss. Other than the elevator up to the top floor, the only other known method of leaving the base were three ladders that led up to the ground surface, and even then, only the leftmost ladder actually went up to the surface: The middle stopped first, and the rightmost stopped second.

Besides the area containing the elevator to the 100th basement level, Building 3 was also where Dirty Duck was often stationed: the building (where Dirty Duck was located) was interconnected with Building 2 via a drainage ditch, and contained four rooms and an electrified floor.

Security Systems

The fortress encompassed many types of security systems to deter enemy intruders, some complex and unique.

• Card key system for opening doors (each door corresponds to a specific card, from 1-8)
• Surveillance cameras (11)
  • Gun cameras (6)
• Gassed rooms and corridors (9)
• Rolling cylinders (4; giant automated machinery which roll from one side of a room to the other)
• Electrified floors (5)
• Infrared sensors (2; both fixed and random-patterned)
• Pit traps (23; with built-in pressure sensors)
• Armored bulldozer (stationed in Building 2)
• Attack dogs (11; present in Building 1 Basement and Courtyard)
• Venomous scorpions (24; provide a natural deterrence for traversing Desert 2)

Military Resources (as of 1995)

Personnel

• Big Boss (Commander-in-Chief)
• Mercenaries
  • Shotmaker (warden)
  • Machinegun Kid
  • Fire Trooper
  • Dirty Duck
  • Vulcan Raven
  • Air troopers (soldiers wearing jetpacks)
• Other
  • Drago Pettrovich Madnar decoy

Military Hardware

• Ground Military
  • Heavy Tanks (at least 20)
    • Outer Heaven Tank (at least 1)
    • M60 Pattons (at least 19)
  • Armored Bulldozer (1)
  • Military Trucks (18)
  • TX-11 "Bloody Brad" Cyberoids (2)
• Air Force
  • Hind D (at least 1)

Military Hardware Under Development

• Metal Gear TX-55

Other Weapons and Equipment

See Metal Gear weapons and equipment

• Beretta M92F
• Ingram MAC-11
• M79 grenade launcher
• RPG-7V
• C4
• M47 Dragon
• Anti-Personnel Mines
• Body Armor
• Bomb Blast Suit
• Flashlight
• Infrared goggles
• Gas Mask
• Mine Detector
• Antenna
• Binoculars
• O2 Cylindar
• Compass
• Parachute
• Antidote
• Ration
• Uniform
• Cardboard Box
• Key Cards
• Suppressor

Behind the scenes

In the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear, the Outer Heaven fortress was notably different in appearance, location, and even size. For a full list of differences between the MSX2 and NES versions, see here.

In the manual for the NES version, some of the fortress personnel were given names that weren't present in the original version: the soldiers that guard the entrance to Building 2 were named "Checkpoint Charlie"; the soldiers who activate the electrified floors whenever an alert is triggered were named "The Electrocutioner"; those who did watch duty until they changed shifts were named "Corporal Watchman"; the ones that fall asleep on duty were named "B.A. Dozer"; and the rest were named "Soldiers of Fortune." Also, the same manual mentioned that the scorpions found in Desert 2 were "trained killer scorpions," whereas the original version implied that they were wild scorpions, which presented a hazard to Snake. In the Japanese Famicom version, these fodder enemies were given more generic names (i.e. "sleeping soldier", "electric panel man", "attack soldiers").

In the Special Previous Operations section of Metal Gear Solid, the heart of Outer Heaven's base is described as having a near impenetrable defense system.

In the non-canonical Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, the fortress is stated to have been located in the mountains. However, the same game also states that the fortress was in Gindra, a fictional Central African country, rather than the Republic of South Africa. There were also various buildings besides the main three (of which the Metal Gear building was implied to be the Maintenance Base, which is on a mountain instead of at a desert).

The March 2014 issue of Game Informer speculated that the new base that will be featured in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is none other than the Outer Heaven fortress from the original Metal Gear. In addition, the ending timeline for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes mentions the South African government's abandonment of an underground nuclear facility in 1977, further suggesting that this may be utilized by the survivors of the Militaires Sans Frontières to build said fortress.