-CONTRACTORS, 2020s-

"War was always here, amongst us. Before Man was, War awaited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting it's ultimate practitioner." - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

Awbari Coup, State of Awbari

Cold Harbor Private Military Company, Special Projects Group, Special Purpose Force "EMBER"

(Based off Jon Chang's Black Powder Red Earth series. Highly recommended that you read it.)

01// BACKGROUND

It's the Middle East and North Africa, at the turn of the new decade. The world is defined by once-stable nations that have now collapsed into total chaos, becoming playgrounds for foreign powers and nations.

It was not the clean chaos of declared wars with front lines and surrender terms, but the specific chaos of states that have failed so completely that the concept of governance barely applies anymore. Awbari is one of those places. It was a prosperous nation once, in the technical sense: borders, a government, an army, an economy built on hydrocarbons and rare earth mineral deposits that the rest of the world wanted badly enough to leave the government alone as long as the extraction contracts stayed favorable. That arrangement held until it didn't, and when it stopped holding it stopped all at once, and what replaced it was not a new government but a scramble.

Insurgents from three different organizational lineages started to carve out territory in the interior. A nascent dictatorship in the capital backed by foreign capital that needs the mineral contracts honored and the pipelines protected. Tribal leaders who have been running their own parallel economies for decades and see no reason to stop now. The country is swollen with refugees and mass graves. Every faction is fighting every other faction except when it is convenient to cooperate, and the cooperation never lasts. This is what a gray war looks like from the inside: no front lines, no clear enemy, and no moment where the shooting stops.

The foreign interests are the part that nobody discusses publicly. On one side: a U.S.-based energy hedge fund with significant holdings in Awbari's rare earth sector, backing the nascent dictatorship and its Awbari National Army, (also known as the ANA) contracting the Cold Harbor PMC to protect its industrial infrastructure and run the counterterror operations that keep the Aayari Network from overrunning the extraction zones.

On the other side, operating through a proxy architecture that has taken Western intelligence two years to partially map: the People's Republic of China, running influence and enablement operations through Hongbin Alloy Security Services — a mercenary outfit with official corporate cover and unofficial ties to Chinese state security, embedded as advisors inside the very ANA that Cold Harbor is supposed to be partnered with. Two foreign powers, neither one officially present, fighting a war through lethal surrogates on someone else's soil over resources that neither of them will ever publicly speak out..

02// THE INSURGENCY

The Aayari Network is not a typical insurgent force, and treating it like one has gotten people killed. It is an organization with command and control architecture, communications jamming capability, and the tactical discipline to execute coordinated maneuver warfare across multiple theaters simultaneously.

It recruits from regional organization pipelines, finances through the same mineral black market it is ostensibly fighting over, and maintains operational security that has frustrated Cold Harbor's intelligence efforts for the duration of the contract. Its connection to Hongbin is the part that changed the operational picture; Chinese mercenary advisors providing enablement, logistics, and planning support to a rebel network is not a relationship that was supposed to exist, and the extent of it is still being mapped. The Qasra raids were Cold Harbor's answer to the ratline problem: cross-border strikes into neighboring Qasra to destroy the safe havens and supply routes feeding the Network's Awbari operations. The raids worked tactically. The operational picture got worse anyway...

03 // THE (GOOD GUYS?)

Cold Harbor is a U.S.-based private military company operating in Awbari under contract to the energy hedge fund with nominal host-nation authorization from the Awbari government. Crisis Troop Scorch is its primary combat element in-country — structured and equipped like an outsourced US Ranger battalion, running direct action raids, site protection, counterterror strikes, and ANA advisory operations simultaneously. Scorch uses heavy fire support, drone ISR, and thermobaric weapons. It is effective, professional, and gets the dirty work done.

Meanwhile Special Purpose Force "Ember" is the Tier One raid force for Cold Harbour. Specializing in Decapitation Strikes, hostage rescue, and general Counterterrorist operations, they are modelled after the Commander's In-Extremis (CIF) companies of US SFGs, when units like the Combat Applications Group (CAG) or DEVGRU is tasked somewhere else.

04 // THE CURRENT SITUATION

The Awbari Military Coup. It is happening now. It's orchestrated mainly by the Awbari National Army, also known as the ANA. They trained, equipped, and operationally partnered with Cold Harbor for the better part of two years, but they have now turned heel. Directed by Hongbin advisors embedded inside ANA command, they coordinated with Aayari ground forces, and began to assault Cold Harbour positions across the State and Governorates.

Crisis Team SCORCH is being overrun at all posts, and it is up to Special Purpose Force 'Ember' to strike at the head of the snake that is the ANA, Aayari, and Hongbin heads at the top of the chain.

MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission is a direct action raid against a layered high-value target compound deep in Aayari-controlled territory, approximately 34 kilcks outside the nearest Cold Harbor operational boundary. The target package contains three HVTs operating out of the same rural safehouse network, a configuration that Cold Harbor's intelligence cell has been tracking for eleven weeks.

HVT-1: Senior Aayari Network commander, operational tier. Responsible for planning and coordinating the Network's maneuver warfare campaigns across the central Awbari theater, including the Ghat Airbase assault.

HVT-2: Hongbin Security Services senior advisor, currently operating under ANA military cover with the rank of seconded colonel. The link between Chinese state-directed enablement and Aayari Network operational planning.

HVT-3: ANA coup architect, senior officer level. The internal actor who provided Hongbin with access to Cold Harbor's communications infrastructure, compound layouts, and personnel rotation schedules. He is also the architect of the green-on-blue assault that hit Bonfire and every other Cold Harbor site.

Compound's a rural safehouse complex, located deep inside Aayari-controlled territory. There are three structures, a primary building, a secondary outbuilding used as a security billet, and a vehicle staging area on the eastern edge of the property. Outer perimeter is a hardened wall with two confirmed guard positions. Internal guard force is estimated at twelve to fifteen fighters, Aayari-trained, with at least two Hongbin security personnel embedded with the HVT-2 protective detail.

The compound has a communications setup that Ember's SIGINT has been intermittently monitoring — it goes dark periodically, which is most likely routine emissions discipline.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

Name: Gale Beretta

Age: 34

Nationality: American

Assignment: Cold Harbour PMC, Special Projects Group, Crisis Troop "Ember"

Previous Assignment: SO1, Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), Blue Squadron, Team 9 (BT9)

Backstory:

Gale Beretta grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Born to a pair of parents whom were in the military. Her mother and father met during the Vietnam War, as apart of the First Cavalry Division.

She enlisted in the United States Navy at eighteen years old in 2005, when GWOT was at it's peak. She passed her Physical Screening Test with very high scores, which allowed her to go into SEAL BUD/s training.

After BUD/s, she graduated at the top of her GT (Green Team) class, officially becoming a Navy SEAL DEVGRU operator, and was placed in Blue Squadron, Team Nine. She participated in combat operations in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom.

She honorably discharged at 31 years old, completing her service in the SEALs with exemplary conduct and performance.

At 32, she was selected for the Cold Harbour PMC, and thought; " it. Why not?".

Due to her experience as a former operator in DEVGRU, she was immediately selected for assignment to Special Purpose Force 'Ember'.

misc notes: Nothing much to say here. I've always wanted to see a BPRE based character card on this site. So, I made it. Anyways... enjoy PMC larp

Apologize for the unit logo images being weird on PC devices... janitor is a shitty website