Steven Armstrong

Steven Armstrong was a United States Senator representing the U.S. state of Colorado, as well as a candidate for the 2020 United States presidential election. He was also the benefactor for World Marshal Inc., its de facto CEO and its strongest warrior. He was also allied with the Winds of Destruction of Desperado Enforcement LLC., being the mastermind behind the World Marshal Incident. An extremely nationalistic, foul mouthed, patriotic & libertarian individual, Armstrong often expressed the desire to "reclaim the US dream" by instigating another American Revolution after Liquid Ocelot's insurrection and the Patriots' actions that weakened America, as well as contempt for the system they established. Steven Armstrong was born and raised in Texas. Something happened, and he moved to South Carolina, where he went to Pickens High School. He was in the JROTC program, where he got the rank of Cadet Sergeant First Class. After graduating, Armstrong moved back to Texas. Prior to pursuing politics, Armstrong played college football as quarterback for the University of Texas. He later joined the United States Navy due to a desire to serve his country, which also sacrificed his prospects of a professional football career. However, although a member of the Navy, he never saw actual combat during his time in the service. At some point, he moved to Colorado. By the late 2010s, he maintained his physique and even managed to secretly enhance it further via a custom set of nanomachines in order to put his strength far beyond a cyborg soldier. How he acquired them is unknown. Armstrong eventually ran for election to the Colorado state senate. One of the initiatives he spearheaded while acting as a Colorado state senator was slashing the state budget, leading to privatization of the police force, and allowing World Marshal to gain control of the Denver Police Department. Armstrong was eventually elected to one of Colorado's seats in the United States Senate. In 2016, Armstrong delivered a speech to increase his approval ratings, later expressing to his speech writer the belief that people only cared about the spin you put on it, and no longer cared about information control, or even right or wrong. The speech writer warned him that he would appear before a grand jury if his connection to Desperado PMSC was revealed, which Armstrong refuted, given his belief that ordinary citizens could not care less due to believing that money was the only thing that truly mattered for them. At this point, he was already the CEO of World Marshal. Armstrong also expressed a desire to “bring back the greatness of good ol’ United states” and “reclaim the US Dream”, blithely stating that the Tea Party Movement was not going to succeed due to its unwillingness to make sacrifices, implying that he wanted to bring about another American Revolution, and compared himself to the true Sons of Liberty. Armstrong then dismissed him as he had other matters to attend to, although not before promising to talk to him soon. The conversation was later leaked onto the Internet. That same year, just as was feared by his speechwriter, he was investigated for his ties to World Marshal Inc., the world's largest PMC as well as the largest distributor of cybernetic parts. Despite this, he was still considered a presidential nominee for the 2020 elections, and was even considered to be a "shoo-in." Armstrong was shown to be extremely nationalistic and patriotic, expressing the desire to "reclaim the American Dream" by instigating another American Revolution after the Guns of the Patriots Incident and the Patriots' actions weakened America. His intense patriotism was fully demonstrated during his fight with Raiden, declaring that if Raiden was not for the United States and his goals, he was effectively against it. Despite his patriotism, Armstrong held great resentment towards the "current" America; criticizing the war economy, the mass media, as well as the notion of "American pride." His plans involved governing the current USA and then reforming it so that people could fight for their own decisions, in accordance with more individualistic ideals. Using the people's desire for war as his justification, Armstrong planned to initiate the revival of the "War on Terror" in hopes of using war as a business to get elected as the next U.S. President, thereby granting him enough power so that he would be able to end war as a business in its entirety. He was also shown to be extremely cynical in regard to his views of people and especially his electorate, stating that people wouldn't care if a bad act happened or if there was information control as long as there's money involved or if it's at least given a good spin, such as effective scapegoating. Armstrong believed in the notion that "might makes right." In this regard, he viewed those who were "strong" as the ones deserving of dictating the laws of society, and that the "weak" should be purged so as to create a perfect world. It is because of this mentality that he's able to hold great respect for Raiden despite his desire to kill him, as he viewed Raiden's life experiences (being brought up as a child soldier and eventually becoming a fugitive who refuses to conform to society's standards) as evidence that his philosophy was correct. At the end of their final battle, he likened himself to Raiden, claiming that they both live their lives in accordance with their own free will; even going so far as to claim that they were "kindred spirits" as well as declaring Raiden as a worthy successor of his philosophy. He held a sarcastic attitude. During battle, he excessively used nanomachines implemented in his body. The nanomachine base he used hardened upon experiencing physical trauma, in which it gave him blackened skin in areas where the nanomachines were in use. He was also in supreme physical condition, which he attributes to playing college ball during his tenure at the University of Texas. His body was riddled with scars (a side-effect of his infusion with nanomachines), bearing a similar appearance to the scars seen on Colonel Volgin's face and arms. His eyes resembled optical implants, although unlike cyborgs, his pupils only glowed a faint red and didn't emit a horizontal shine, as it's heavily implied to be a side-effect of his infused nanomachines. His arrogance will occasionally lead him to do brash and reckless things, which is especially evident just before the final battle, where he kicked Blade Wolf away shortly after it supplied Raiden with Sam's Murasama blade, despite such an action only resulting in Raiden becoming even more infuriated with Armstrong. Despite that, he seems to use his abilities wisely and not underestimate his opponents in a fight. Armstrong was a cigar smoker, smoking twice while on top of EXCELSUS, and was shown to be extremely coarse in his language, both traits being especially evident before, and during, the initial fight between Raiden and Armstrong on top of EXCELSUS.[6] Being a Presidential candidate, he wasn't adept at writing his own speeches, hiring others to do it for him. Armstrong was shown to be rather welcoming and somewhat gullible, quickly changing his mind and accepting Raiden when the two seemingly came to an understanding during their battle. This moment of understanding between the two proved to be false as Raiden was merely setting him up, quickly acting in defiance while throwing him on the ground afterwards. In part, due to his background from the state of Texas, Armstrong sometimes utilized lingo from the area, such as referring to his opponents as "son”, due to him being older than them. Even before his nanotech infusion, Steven Armstrong was considered to be quite strong - something he acquired from his days as a college ball player and as a sailor in the United States Navy. He was also very skilled in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, though it would seem that he preferred a much more brawl-like style of fighting; his fighting style was more along the lines of both wrestling and incorporating different college ball based moves (e.g. holding out his arms in a defensive position and then charging at Raiden as if to knock him over), and also incorporating some elements of sumo wrestling, the last was demonstrated when powering up just prior to fighting Sam, where he crouched down and then lifted up his right leg while still bent and then slammed it down with force. After his nanotech infusion, Armstrong's already impressive physical abilities were amplified to powerful superhuman levels. This allowed him to almost effortlessly overpower other individuals who are already very strong to begin with (Sam and Raiden), to the point where even Raiden, who could supplex massive Metal Gears like EXCELSUS , was completely helpless against him. It's also shown that during his final battle with him, Armstrong's strength was enough to allow him to lift the large chunks of EXCELSUS and throw it at Raiden as a makeshift projectile weapon, hard enough to pulverise them. Despite his size, he's also fast enough to react to cyborgs and engage them in fast-paced combat, capable of catching Raiden off-guard multiple times with his running speed. His agility was also greatly amplified, allowing him to decelerate and accelerate quickly and jump really high, while also making his body flexible as well, allowing him to recover quickly from being thrown off-balance. In addition, one of Armstrong's most prominent attributes was that his entire body was filled with nanomachines. These nanomachines would harden different parts of his skin in response to physical trauma, with the side-effect of turning the affected areas black, with some splotches of red on the outer edges, granting him pseudo-invulnerability. His skin, as a result of the hardening, would become immune to physical damage, and combined with his increased healing speeds, rendered Armstrong virtually indestructible.