"Hmm, I don't remember that one. It mustn't be that important."

This article is about a subject from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." It has some level of canonicity within the continuity, but reader discretion is advised.[?]

The Sears Program was a project practiced by World Marshal Inc. and Desperado Enforcement LLC., meant to replicate the methods of former U.S. President George Sears' training of child soldiers during the First Liberian Civil War.

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Methods and history

In order to manufacture child soldiers for the reawakening of the war economy in 2018, Desperado cooperated with the local mafia to abduct children, namely street beggars, in human trafficking, by tricking them into thinking that they'll be hired to a well-paying job. After they place the bait, the children were then thrown into a boat to be taken to a Desperado-owned research facility located in Guadalajara, Mexico. Desperado's researchers, upon receiving the children, then proceed to surgically remove the children's brains and install them onto mechanical cyborg head casings. The remaining bodies post-surgery were sold in black market organ trafficking. After a certain time period, they are then shipped to Denver, Colorado by the mafia, specifically to a medical facility for "treatment," and were then placed into "adoption" by the mafia, due to loopholes regarding human rights laws and the Arms Trade Treaty that allow the children to be considered humans, albeit lacking in bodies. However, they were actually sent directly to World Marshal's HQ.[1] The children were then placed into VR training, which was specifically modeled after Sears' methods of training child soldiers during the Liberian Civil War. Upon "graduating" the class, the children were then given new bodies.

Raiden and Maverick discovered this plot when investigating the Desperado facility in Mexico. Because Maverick was unwilling to break the law by directly attacking World Marshal, Raiden abruptly resigned from Maverick to do so himself, feeling that he had to prevent the children from experiencing the same childhood as himself, having been one of Solidus Snake's former child soldiers in Liberia, and also knowing that the first shipment of brains (1,860 in total) had only been shipped a month prior, meaning he could save the children from this fate in time as VR training could not be issued at an accelerated rate to cyborgs unlike UGs. Maverick unofficially supported Raiden and Doktor assisted in shipping the brains out to a safer location in Germany.

Because of Raiden and indirectly Maverick's actions, the Sears Program was shut down for good.

Behind the scenes

The Sears Program is a major plotpoint in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Notes and references