The Faceless Mercenaries, also known as the Black Company, is a far-right paramilitary force and hired black-ops task force that is a group of private military company and bounty hunters. They appear in the Great Dawnfall Universe as supporting antagonists, and have a group working for the Death Slayer.

Description/Structure[]

They are highly organised and disciplined fighter agents, known for their ruthlessness and brutality, who will carry out any task for a reward from their principals. They are known for their enhanced military and combat prowess and mobility, which makes them brutal fighters. Their behavior and tactics are partially identical to those of the Tenebris Special Forces, but they are characterized by their precision and unpredictability, against which they are usually outmatched by other enemy factions.

The Black Company is characterised by strong military order and discipline, soldiers who are loyal to their paymasters and usually sell their services to the highest bidder. Although the Black Bunch appear to be independent of any faction such as the Tenebris Organization, the Society of Light or the Global Occultist Covenant, if the mercenaries are offered the right rewards or deals they are able to work for various independent factions, military states or back-room super-organizations outside the Occultists.

They act as a sort of mobilised task force and clean-up unit, as they are extremely extreme and ruthless in their dealings with any magical, supernatural being or rival agents and soldiers, their well known methods of execution include striking their victims with a crash axe or stabbing them in the head with their tactical knife. Executing them instantly.

Their identities and motives are often obscure and their motivations highly divisive and contradictory, but they live by some strict moral principle and code of honour, and are divided into different groups. Some operate independently of all factions, opposing all factions, while others work for reward and pay for factions such as the Tenebris Organization, Society of Light or the Independent States/Factions.

The Black Company, strongly Social Darwinist, hold extreme Nationalist views, whose principles are not based on religious, racial, ethnic or national competition and/or discrimination primarily, but on morality. They operate under a code of honour whereby people who commit any crime, immorality or impurity are considered depraved and unclean and are put on their "Death List" Those who are put on the Death List are put on a bounty and hunted. This category includes those who have any supernatural or magical abilities, whether they are innocent people or intelligent beings rather than evil. Those who obstruct or threaten the Black Mercenaries are also targeted by the bounty hunters.

The Mercenaries, funded and controlled by Death Slayer, are infantry soldiers/hired guards operating on Death Slayer aka Kovács's Navy ship and they make up the crew. They may have their ship somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean, from where Kovács directs his missions and campaigns and launches his helicopters to points of arrival.

Appearance[]

The look of the Hunters has instantly identifiable trademarks such as the ballistic mask or uniform full face gas mask and assault helmet, dark grey, grey camouflage or black military uniform, bulletproof vest, elbow and knee pads etc. They carry some of the equipment of executed agents of rival factions as trophies. What is also distinctive of the Black Company is their own symbol on their armour and assault helmet, which is a shield with a winged skull with a double cross on the head and a sword through the head. They also have various Neo-Nazi, white supremacist symbols/badges on their clothing. However, it is unclear whether they are actually white supremacists/Neo-Nazis, but some theories suggest that their purpose is psychological balance and that they carry fear, hatred or disgust for members of liberally sensitive survivalist colonies and factions because of psychological warfare.

History[]

The date of their formation and founders are unknown, but they were established sometime after the events of the Great Dawnfall, when the global cataclysm occurred. This was the Three Days of Darkness, when the sky was forever covered by dense dark sulphur clouds, and temperatures rose so high that the entire planet became hot. Then, earthquakes opened up cracks in the planet, and the flames of hell burst forth, from which the forces of hell, mutants, demons and entities, came to invade the earth. The air became poisonous and Black Sludge Disease broke out across the planet, turning humans into undead man-eating mutants. Human governments eventually deployed nuclear weapons to stop the demons and the disease. The failure turned the planet into a nuclear toxic wasteland.

The remaining survivors form colonies and try to survive, while the remaining factions fight amongst themselves to rule the planet in their own way. One of these factions is the Clerical Fascist Tenebris, an ancient brotherhood that has operated in secret for centuries to protect the human race from supernatural forces. In contrast, the other faction, the legitimate successor to the Freemasons and Illuminati, the Ultraliberal Society of Light, seeks to thwart the aims of the Tenebris and to lead humanity on the path to enlightenment along with supernatural beings. The third faction is the Satanist Covenant of Global Occultists, who are the servants of their "Benefactors" and seek to maintain the reign of Hell.

It was during this time that the Black Company, aka the "Faceless Mercenaries" were formed who oppose all factions while being willing to cooperate with them in exchange for the right pay. Rumour has it that they mostly act as mercenaries for an independent faction called the Confederation.

The Chronicles of Darkness[]

WIP

Powers/Abilities[]

In addition to their unique military and combat capabilities and training, they seem to inject themselves with some unknown serum extracted from the DNA of the supernatural beings and angels they hunt. This gives them superhuman strength, speed and agility, and their body mass and muscle fibres increase, making them a brutal killing machine, just like one of their well-known leaders, the Death Slayer. It also makes them more resistant to supernatural creatures, mutants and demons, as well as the extreme weather conditions such as storms and extreme temperatures on the surface to which they are exposed. They have minimal regeneration capabilities with minimal damage. In addition to their excellent marksmanship capabilities, they have stealth, close combat, knife tactics and crash axe tactics capabilities. This makes them a formidable and relentless enemy in the first place.

The Black Company are shock troops and operators similar to stormtroopers, assaulting enemy positions with unconventional, unpredictable, rapid and coordinated attacks, which they do in a relentless manner. They are organised for mobility with the aim of penetrating the enemy's defences and attacking the enemy's vulnerable rear areas.

Their special cleanup unit is a group of flamethrowers equipped with flamethrowers and fireproof suits, and their incendiary unit specializes in eliminating enemy positions, demonic creatures or mutants, and containment of the Black Sludge Disease virus. They use fire to incinerate anything and anyone spreading the disease, at any cost, including burning the uninfected.

Weapons/Equipment[]

After the events of the Three Days of Darkness, weapons were acquired from the armed forces and mercenaries of many NATO and Russian and other nations. They have various high-tech weapons and equipment ranging from short-range weapons to long-range weapons. These include, among others, UMP-45s and KRISS Vector submachine guns equipped with anti-nanomal/anti-natural ammunition, as well as directional sights and other accessories, SPAS-12s and Benelli M4 Tactical Shotguns and G36s, M16A3s and Ak-104 assault rifles. Their general service pistols include the Beretta 92FS, H&K USP-45 and SIG Sauer P320. They use close combat weapons such as the Bayonet M9 Tactical Knife and the Crash Axe, thanks to their melee and knife tactical hand-to-hand combat.

Their equipment includes tracer ammunition, first aid kits, grenades, ammunition carriers, deployable bombs and turrets, and drones. Their high-tech military drones are used for assassinations, reconnaissance, and in their own areas like the Death Slayer's naval vessel to track down intruders. They also have vehicles, including Transverse-rotor aircraft, and other military helicopters used to transport troops and bomb enemy points.

Trivia[]

The Schwarzer Haufen or Black Company is named after a real-life military group, the peasant army of the German Peasants' War under the leadership of Florian Geyer.