While providing security detail in an unnamed African country for its prime minister, N'Mani, Raiden and his team are attacked by rogue PMC Desperado. While Raiden fends off their forces, their leader Sundowner kidnaps and assassinates N'Mani. Raiden is badly wounded in a duel with Sundowner's lackey "Jetstream" Samuel Rodrigues, losing his left eye and arm, but Boris saves him as Sundowner and Sam escape. Doktor later repairs and upgrades Raiden with a more capable cyborg body. Three weeks later, Raiden infiltrates the breakaway Georgian statelet of Abkhazia after learning that Desperado is leading a military coup there.He plans to capture Andrey Dolzaev, a Chechen extremist leading the forces, to force Desperado into standing down. Desperado anticipates the move and assigns a prototype AI robot designated LQ-84i to stop Raiden. Raiden defeats the LQ-84i in combat and later has Doktor rebuild it as an ally, naming it Blade Wolf. He faces further opposition from Mistral, the commander of Desperado's forces in Abkhazia. After Raiden kills Mistral in combat, Dolzaev commits suicide by blowing up an oil tank he is standing on. Maverick assigns Raiden to investigate a research facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. There, Raiden meets an orphan named George, who was brought to the facility to have his brain—along with the brains of several other orphans—surgically removed and shipped to the United States.He learns that Sundowner inspected the facility in the company of Senator Steven Armstrong, creating an alliance between Desperado and World Marshal, a major PMC Armstrong has invested in. World Marshal plans to condition the children to become killers through constant VR training, and place them inside cybernetic bodies to create new soldiers, similar to Raiden.Raiden rescues George and the children to Doktor. Furious at their unwillingness to take action against World Marshal, Raiden resigns from Maverick and, with Blade Wolf by his side, launches a one-man assault on World Marshal's headquarters in Denver, Colorado.[30] Though no longer Raiden's employer, Maverick unofficially provides discreet support throughout. After he fights his way through the city's privatized police force and soldiers, Raiden encounters Sam and another operative named Monsoon, who, using technology they developed, force Raiden to listen to the thoughts of the police officers and soldiers he kills, which cause him to become extremely conflicted over his actions. Eventually, this leads to him unleashing his repressed personality of "Jack The Ripper", which he developed due to the Sears Program when he was young. He kills Monsoon and infiltrates World Marshal's headquarters before locating and killing Sundowner. There, he discovers that Armstrong is using Desperado to distract Raiden while readying "Operation Tecumseh", a plan to assassinate the President of the United States during peace negotiations with Pakistan to ensure another war on terror. While Doktor recovers the children's brains, Raiden seeks help from Sunny Emmerich to reach Pakistan in time to stop Armstrong. He encounters Sam on the way and the pair engage in a final duel, from which Raiden emerges victorious. Sunny helps Raiden travel to Shabhazabad Air Base in Pakistan, where he is attacked by Metal Gear EXCELSUS, a hexapedal mecha piloted by Armstrong who takes down Blade Wolf. He reveals that Operation Tecumseh was a false flag operation, and that his true plan was to frame Desperado for killing American military personnel at the base to turn the American people against them and in favor of World Marshal. Armstrong, being a primary shareholder of the latter, would win the subsequent Presidential election in a landslide, giving him free rein to realize his vision of a social Darwinist society, where the strong will thrive and the weak will be purged.[32] Raiden destroys EXCELSUS, but discovers that Armstrong has augmented himself with nanomachines that harden in response to physical trauma, destroying Raiden's high-frequency blade. Blade Wolf intervenes and gives Raiden Sam's sword, which allows him to defeat and kill Armstrong. Doktor receives approval to create a new cyborg staffing firm, allowing them to shelter the orphans' brains and potentially give them a chance at a better life, while George and Blade Wolf go live at Solis with Sunny. Although Desperado is defeated and the brain-taking operation defunct, World Marshal remains in business. Raiden decides against rejoining Maverick, resolving to fight his own war.