(Got it all set up- though heavily TBC as I'm quite tired!)

Characters (WIP)

Staff Sergeant Tobias Mervyn "Lionheart" Sinclair
Gabriella Louise "Dunner" Bat-Seraph

Character Sheet:

Name:
Age:
Nationality:
History:
Suit Spec/Desciption:
Weaponry:
Loves:
Hates:

[hider=Basic Lore]

Welcome to a near future world of shadowy contracts, shady deals and tech that you didn't think was real. The Special Forces units of the world might be the scalpel in the dark that keeps evil at bay, but for the right price, nobody, nothing, and nowhere is untouchable. There are some jobs that are impossible, but need to be done. And for that, a very different kind of operator exists.

A decade and slightly more from now, the withdrawal of NATO forces from Iraq and Afghanistan has created a new security paradigm in the Middle East and beyond. Private Security Contractors, once seen as plain mercs have been bolstered as an indirect response, both by NATO, Russia, China and other vested countries to fill the void of manpower, providing better bang for buck thanks to fewer overheads. Previously mandated rules on private contractors are of course bent, made to fit the new world that understands security is best for all- well, the right people, at least. Often shadowy in nature, well equipped private soldiers can provide deniability, and and return order into places where stability is barely even a thought. Often in joint enterprise, the money from mining, natural resources and other reserves can turn war-torn shitholes into places that can certainly turn a very big buck for everyone. Usually apart from the local residents. 

That is a very important point, actually. Whilst countries would never surrender their sovereignty, there are zones in the third world in which major transnational companies and private sector firms are given free reign, free of government interference and allowed to do as they please. Rapture it ain't- often in the middle of nowhere, such as the Congolese rainforest, or in the dry wastes of a Central Asian state, they serve industrial and research functions, in exchange for a lot of money, infrastructure investment, and a local office siting in their capital. It's a natural extension of what happened before- but this time, autonomy is granted. In these zones, anything goes- the company's dollar means they can test, try and do anything with labs and shadowy research facilities, be it CRISPR genetic augmentation, experimental drone use, novel drug and steroid usage and so much more- places where there are no laws and the locals, whoever left dependng from zone to zone, are going to have to go along with it. It often leaks out into their society as an extension- and has turned the third world into a fertile testing ground, a risk these countries consider needed to keep up with the west. Many people decry this, even the UN, but when it's happening thousands of miles from home and in countries that they can't reach that will not let them stop it, free rein preveils. It's not so much the military industrial complex that creates for an army, but one of its own accord. Regulated, so far mostly. But that is changing.

Just about everyone is in on this new plunder. While the continuation of the "Great Peace" continues since the early 90s thanks to the fact that barely conflict actually has arisen, espionage, spying and proxy-warfare continues between the West and East, through every mean that can be made. While tensions grow over the South China Sea, in Ukraine, West Papua, Venezuela and beyond, the world sits in a strange reality of calm, yet with a shadow war ready to burst somewhere that the news won't report. There's even talk of mercs fighting mercs- something most governments won't, or can't comment on. Concerns are being raised, but after all, it's bad for business to start causing uncertainty, or is it?

The largest PMCs certainly rake it in, but like any corporate environment, there's always room for specialists to take the contracts that even the biggest players can't reach down towards. The jobs that seem impossible- after all, sometimes there are jobs you can't just throw manpower at. And where the market misses gaps, one organisation plugs them with a unqiue force multiplier.

-----

The Company

Enter Iron Wolf, Ltd. You would think a small company registered in Jersey for tax purposes, with a small, quaint office in Bracknell would be the opposite of a company that is at the cutting edge of advanced warfare. No research of its own, well, not like some major multinationals have. Having only forty employees, with ten staying home in the office in Bracknell doing admin, HR and finance seems even more preposterous relative to the size of the firm's potency. Work parties are certainly easier to organise that way...

Yet this shell is what allows the company to be so successful, a dark horse that barely is known to most even in the private security game. Iron Wolf are in fact, a working part of DARPA and ARIA's cutting edge research, using advanced tech out of their process line as well as off the shelf tech to complement this. Their money from contracts goes towards equipment for a relatively limited number of operators, and their immediate support. What they lack in manppower they make up for in technology, and in return, provide a service as a deniable private military service that performs the most challenging, difficult operations that requires little to no support, and maximum firepower for secret services. This certainly means they're in the middle of it- and while fighting predominantly terrorist or other insergency groups, their prowess in this vein hasn't gone unnoticed.

One part mercenaries, another part heavy armour, another part spy-thriller. You now have a recipe for a very spicy world.

(TBC) 

[/hider]

[hider="Firehounds"]

[img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7cc0ab49-7c18-41f2-8bb7-11c95ff96e45/d4c6ppd-adf43988-179a-44b8-92b5-2fdf54a691e2.png/v1/fill/w_617,h_1296,q_75,strp/le_mbsr_1_by_retal19-d4c6ppd.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi83Y2MwYWI0OS03YzE4LTQxZjItOGJiNy0xMWM5NWZmOTZlNDUvZDRjNnBwZC1hZGY0Mzk4OC0xNzlhLTQ0YjgtOTJiNS0yZmRmNTRhNjkxZTIucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTYxNyIsImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTI5NiJ9XV19.CmplOfY5nwcrmgCMrhbChEcNYbMpQA83-IpZJKOxuwE[/img]

(Example armour)

The development of powered exoskeletons alongside advanced composite and ballistic material advances has been certainly of interest to many in the defence sector, but the foray into this avenue to really see what it can do hasn't been explored yet. Well, until the Firehound programme decided it might have a go.

A joint US-UK research project, Firehound is an exercise to see what happens when an awful lot of money is thrown at that idea- creating effectively a walking tank by blending the two together, with a dash of heavy weaponry and intelligent battlespace information overlays. Whilst ordinary defense procurement programmes would test first on the Army, or perhaps the Marines, they instead went to a private contractor that would provide a plausible deniability for it's use. Why? Because to get operational experience for such a piece of kit requires someone to get it very dirty, and thus, throw it into the hands of the evolving network of private security contractors, rather than the Army which won't give it a go. After all, they're busy sitting back at base- but Iron Wolf? They on the other hand happens to be in the worst of that- a unit that reliably works for the CIA and MI6 as a black ops, hail mary option that leaves no crumbs back to the UK, and could certainly use that tech very well. It makes the Firehound project certainly risky, but capable of being thrown straight into the lion's claw.

--

The armour itself, whilst varied in appearance relevant to the operator's personal choice remains primarily the same- making the operator stand at about 7"10, an incredibly imposing sight. An inch and a half of titanium-reinforced composite forms the base of the armour on top of a tungsten-titanium frame, with three inches of Dragonskin, kevlar, liquid armour and carbon composite interweave on top of that, finalised with a titanium-carbon nanotube hexagonally-patterned "skin" on the surface- the use of a carbon nanotube making the suit's overall integrity tremeandous against blunt and burst impact. This makes the armour basically inpenetrable to small arms below 7.62mm, in fact, being rated high enough to actually sustain .50 caliber fire across most parts of the suit. Even 20mm rounds have been seen to be held back by the suit's armour and it keep integrity- showcasing just how insanely well put together the system is as an IFV on legs. The armour when coupled to a heavy weapons system, more like a suit in its totality weighs about 350kg, so is supported by a cutting edge exoskeleton unit, fuelled by a honeycomb-run hydrogen unit that provides power for over 12 hours. While still lumbering, the suit is relatively flexible all things considered- melee weapons in particular have been shown in testing to be quite vicious, particularly blunt weaponry, and the exo can be "overcharged", allowing for brief sprints and charges. The operator is effectively immersed in the suit due to this exoskeleton as it were worn by them, the elongated arms and legs working through a haptic feedback system given the operator's situation in the suit- oh, and of course can be customised with comfy, nice materials. Satin is a favourite. It has an internalised cooling and heating system, and the suit is fully sealed against CBRN when the helmet is locked in- as well as having a coating against EMP and electronic warfare. After all, this thing has to keep fighting, even in terrible environments- and while this costs a fortune, it keeps this kit going. The helmet contains a holographic visor, with a blink and voice-based AI assistant system to support combat awareness and weapons deployment, coupled to a PDA hard-wired into the forearm of the suit for advanced calibration. The visor can also shift between vision modes, including night vision, thermal infrared and near ultraviolet. The suit also comes with an intergrated sensor array and tactical module- making it possible to patch into UAVs, drones and other feeds with relative ease, as well as acting as a secure radio.

Speaking of weaponry, a platform like this allows for far heavier than usual weaponry to be carried into the battlefield with a large ammunition pack and a power source. Miniguns such as the M134, or even a lightened version of the GAU-19 allow for a firepower that even an LMG can barely keep up with, while classics like the M2 .50 cal and Mark 19 GMG allow for overhwelming firepower from .50 cal rounds or 40mm projectiles. Other custom equipment, such as a heavy flamethrower, or dual-wielding automatic shotguns or LMGs are also on the cards- there's certainly plenty more options to hand. Mind you, there are some very interesting additions on the horizon that are in the pipeline- everything from a Tesla-coil based lightening gun to a suit-portable railgun are on the horizon, and can offer a very exotic, if at all specialist tool for use. Secondaries usually take the form of adapted high-ammo count SMGs, such as the P90, MP7 or modified M4A1 carbines with drum mags, as well as pistols as an absolute backup, or melee tools such as trench clubs, maces and combat axes.

As for shoulder-mounted munitions, a variety of weapons technology is on the cards, ranging from point-lock anti-tank missiles, smoke grenades, mortar shells to anti-infantry projectiles. Hand or shoulder-fired grenades are often in the cluster variety, useful for clearing out often hordes, rather than singular enemies, as well as oversized smoke and stun grenades. The use of a shoulder-mounted suit-portable Trophy System also helps negate RPG, anti-tank and other large projectile weaponry be negated- so indeed, it's very difficult to kill an operative using one of these. Not impossible, mind. Enough focussed heavy caliber fire, heavy munitions or bigger things can kill one of these units faster than you think- so using one while taking on foes requires more than a grunt's mind.

[/hider]