Meryl Silverburgh




REAL NAME: Meryl Silverburgh
SEX: Female
STATUS: Single
AGE: Teens
NATIONALITY: American
HEIGHT: 175 cm
ADDITIONAL: New Fox-Hound operative, held prisoner somewhere on Shadow Moses Island. The niece of Roy Campbell. Specialist in hand-weapons, electrical circuitry, and stealth espionage.
Meryl Silverburgh was born to an American family in a house long steeped in military tradition. Unlike most children of military upbringing, Meryl did not feel the need to break away from the sometimes oppressive restraint typical of military families. Instead, she longed for what her father and uncle (Roy Campbell) had; a proud and respective sense of self rooted in accomplishments in the armed forces.

This ravishing red-haired beauty knew without a doubt her calling in life was to follow her father’s footsteps and become a soldier. Being a tall and lanky girl, she always seemed to have a looming presence; perfect if she were to ever become a soldier. Her height (175 cm’s at her peak height at the age of 19) which, for a woman, was rather tall, made her perfect considering her military dreams and determination to follow that dream to it’s end. This determination added to her strong-mindedness and desire to follow the males’ side of her family in their ultimate search for discipline and completion in their lives. Even from her earliest formative years, the lure of the strength and prestige that could only be achieved through a military lifestyle were attractive to her. By eight years old, she had mastered a Magnum Action Express Desert Eagle pistol. By ten, Meryl would have several junior marksmen titles from various competitions in which she entered with her father as her mentor.

Being a teenager did not cause Meryl to break away from the rigorous regulations of a military lifestyle; in fact, her will to satiate that inner desire to succeed was strengthened during her formative years as she became stronger and taller, thus becoming a more able combatant. As soon as she turned eighteen years of age, she enlisted in the United States Army. Being one of the few female soldiers in boot camp did not intimidate Meryl, though. Testing herself, she surpassed even some of the men in her squad and showed an excellent performance as an up and coming soldier.

Meryl did not plan on becoming a regular G.I. like some expected, though. She involved herself in more unorthodox soldiering ways, and longed for the secret field of an espionage agent. She loved the idea of working in secret and independent situations, relying on her own intelligience and decision-making skills. Exploring her tastes some, she entered a relatively new program in the Army which consisted of a heavy regiment of Virtual Reality training. The VR training was to simulate actual combat situations, and forced the person partaking to use decision-making skills and strong judgement to ‘win’ in a projected reality environment. Meryl was very adept at these courses and loved the thrill she got from the VR simulators. After getting the hang of the simulations, Meryl continued to strive for mastery, completing any and all simulations brought before her. Feeling like a soldier, Meryl felt she had completed a special part of her life, but one devoid of actual combat. Deciding to try for actual combat, she talked to her superiors, who, after noting her overall excellent performance in training and the newly instated VR training, referred her to a combat school where she took formal lessons from a guide. Learning along with other students her age and older, Meryl learned the important psychology of warfare. Bodily chemisty was also lamented upon heavily, introducing Meryl to concepts such as adrenaline levels during combat and what they called “combat high”. The course taught her many things about enemy behavior and expected reactions in environments that called for life or death decisions. Meryl had the psychology down, and knew she could handle a real situation; she had been ready for it all her life.

Using old contacts from her uncle Roy Campbell, she was referred to and scouted out by the legendary secret unit Fox-Hound. Liking what they saw as a possible recruit with a promising future, Meryl was given a position in the ranks of Fox-Hound; one of the first females to do so. She immediately began receiving minor genetic engineering for her first assignment and was billed as being a specialist in hand-weapons and electrical circuitry. Along with her strict military upbringing in which love didn’t hold any interest for her, Meryl was given further psychoanalysis to destroy her taste for men and a mental shield that blocked deep affection. This would make her a more efficient killer and less likely to suffer from paranoia or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by blocking feelings of guilt for what she would do on the battlefield. Jaded into the soldier mindset, she was given her first assignment and transferred to a secretive base on Shadow Moses Island as a new Fox-Hound operative. Her future as a combat agent would never be the same.

On the same day she was transferred to Shadow Moses Island, a terrorist insurrection shattered her military ideals and Meryl was caught in the midst of the uprising. Meryl, refusing to go along with the terrorists, and being as green as she was, was captured easily by rogue members of Fox-Hound and imprisoned on the base. Shortly before the uprising, Roy Campbell became worried when Meryl’s transmissions via Codec from the base became few and far between. A final radio transmission from her indicated that her natural Alaskan surroundings were beginning to have an effect on her values and view of life. Roy Campbell knew something was happening, and not just to his niece. Sure enough, his hunch was right, and shortly after losing contact with Meryl, the Fox-Hound renegades stated their claim to the disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island.

In the fallout of the Shadow Moses Island Revolt, Meryl Silverburgh was subject to intense human emotional drama put to test by the urgent responsibilites at hand on Shadow Moses. To add to her traumatic experience during her time on the island, Meryl’s mind was psychosomatically damaged by the renegade operative Psycho Mantis by forceful telekinetic brainwashing, which destroyed her mental defences heretofore installed against strong emotions by Fox-Hound. Perhaps more devastating, Meryl was wounded by gunshot several times and in critical condition. Being interrogated and possibly subject to torture, Silverburgh’s overwhelming experience in her first combat situation was more than what any new soldier could hope to handle. Teaming up with Solid Snake and remaining in contact through the first half of his mission, she developed a relationship with the veteran firstly based upon the respect she had for him for his past heroics. Later, as she became prone to Psycho Mantis’s brainwash and her first battle wounds, her view of the world changed, and she no longer wanted to become a great soldier, realizing that warfare and violence is not about glory and pride, but a deciding factor in who would survive. It was then that she found love in the shape of the loner Solid Snake, who sacrificed much for her in order for her to escape with her life. This devotion to saving her life enlightened both Solid Snake and Meryl into a less harsh and happier existence; Snake finding a goal in life by living life more full and not so selfish and posthumously. Meryl for realizing it wasn’t her dream in life for blood and guts and glory, and that the life she led up until the incident on Shadow Moses Island was not her own, but the one she was trying to please her father with.

Meryl Silverburgh disappeared shortly after the incident at Shadow Moses Island along with Solid Snake. Though Solid Snake resurfaced three years after the incident, Silverburgh’s location is still [CLASSIFIED].