Code Name: Frag-Viper
File Name: Various
Primary Military Specialty: Grenade Assault Operations
Secondary Military Specialty: Explosive Ordinance
Birthplace: Various
Rank: Cobra Viper Mark 2
Officially, members of Viper Squad 7R46 were killed in action during an operation in Sierra Gordo. Mercenaries all, no honors were given and no tears were shed. Members of an international terrorist organization, few, if any, had messages sent home to families confirming their deaths. Their bodies were left in unmarked graves, carrion as forgotten soldiers often are. Unofficially, the bodies of Viper Squad 7R46 were retrieved and turned over to Dr. Mindbender's laboratory as fodder for a black-label experiment. After the mediocre effectiveness of the BAT program, Mindbender looked at ways to make use of organic material to supplement the robotics used in the BATs. The 7R46 unit provided that organic material. Vipers who were dead on arrival proved to be failures; but any with some remaining brain activity were successful implanted with control chips, their bodies refurbished through grafts and engineered organs. More manageable and responsive than BATs and easier to conceal among civilian populations, these new Frag-Vipers are shaping up to become a combat unit of the future. Mindbender considers them to be an early success.
"You can tell they're still in there somewhere, when you talk to them. Their voices are hollow, their eyes are dark and empty, but sometimes, when you're looking at one, when you're issuing a Frag-Viper orders, there's a flicker, a spark of the man they once were. But it's not a good feeling. Nah, I prefer the psychopathic unpredictability of the BATs to the Frag-Vipers. At least with the BATs you know it's just a robot. But with the Frag-Vipers, you can see that man's soul trapped in limbo behind those artificial eyes. And that soul is screaming, screaming to be released from the prison Mindbender put them in. Do me a favor - if I'm ever mortally wounded in combat? Put one right through my brain pan. Don't leave any scraps for Mindbender to bolt onto one of his Frankenstein monstrosities.”