Mercenary League

= Mercenary League =
"Lustitia non indiget licentia." (Latin: "Justice does not need permission.")
Mercenary League's Latin slogan on their seal.
== Agency information ==
The Federal Bureau of Intelligence's Mercenary League is an off-the-books law enforcement branch operating under the radar of legal operations. Currently, the lead director of the branch (in El Paso) is Leonardo Christopher Gamez. The branch as a whole was founded in 1926, 18 years after the initial forming of the FBI in 1908.
== Purpose ==
The intentions and purpose of Mercenary League are quite simple. The branch was formed to combat corruption and crime, then later, terrorism without the authorization of the law. Mercenary League has very specific set of requirements before acting on crime, there must be corruption present and before any operatives are sent to deal with crime outside the law, due process must be attempted by the FBI. While the legal route is being attempted, Mercenary League spies on suspects, going through phones' data, who met who, who talked to who and more to gather evidence to confirm that corruption was present. If a warrant couldn't be obtained, it's time for ML to roll out and make some bad guys "disappear." Mercenary League also takes part in worldwide counter-terrorism, sending agents to Bumfuck, Anywhere if needed.
== History ==
In 1908, the Federal Bureau of Intelligence was founded, America being swallowed by the Gilded Age where in every corner, corruption was abundant to the point where by the time the Roaring 20’s had begun, it was seeping into government agencies, influencing citizens and America’s way of life. In 1926, a group of FBI agents decided that enough was enough and that something needed to be done about it, but only a handful of agents could know about this secret organization, as much of the agency was already infested with malice. These men would be the founding fathers of Mercenary League, or back then known as the League of Incorruptible Agents. This group was formed in secret for a very specific purpose at the time, which was to clean out the bureau of intelligence and destroy corporate corruption, but over time, evolved to embarking on secret missions to protect America and her interests from any threat that she is given, whether those be foreign or domestic, mainly from the terroristic acts of the Coalition. In 1962, the LIA would change their outdated name to Mercenary League, which is believed to have changed due to most believing LIA fit an age past its time. As of 2052, there are multiple hidden headquarters across the United States, as well as some hidden in foreign countries. 
== Domestic Cold War ==
Mercenary League, throughout it's existence of more than 100 years, has done their fair share of questionable practices, but ML is seen as innocent compared to the Center of Information Acquisition or the CIA. After the assassination of 35th US President John F. Kennedy, Mercenary League dug deeper into the rabbit hole and after years of digging, they found the truth: the CIA murdered JFK. This sole action would start a cold war scenario between two secretive agencies constantly trying to uncover each others secrets, with metaphorical guns pointed at each others' head, waiting for an excuse to pull the trigger. This climbed to its peak when Mercenary League discovered that the CIA were the masterminds behind the 2047 oil war, which resulted in many American and foreign deaths, mostly innocent. The League has declared the CIA as "an ally to always keep in your field of view," meaning the League strongly advises their agents to not trust the CIA too much.
== Notable Presences ==
Mercenary League has been behind the curtains of many conflicts, mostly helping out America when she direly needs it. Records of ML indicate that their presence was extremely present throughout World War II and during the Vietnam War, as well as other major conflicts that required America to get her hands dirty.
=== World War II ===
The moment Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, Mercenary League immediately got to work, but there was one small issue: most of the agents in Mercenary League were off to fight for their country and for the first time, Mercenary League left it up to the wives of their agents to lead the American war horse and win a war. The men who stayed in America trained women how to use most of the equipment, fly planes, fire weapons, recon, and many more useful strategies to assist in the war. In 1943, the agents of Mercenary League who were off fighting would send their location and details about their mission and request off-the-books assistance and Mercenary League sent their first of many squads of female agents who were nicknamed "war angels" to fight. Many soldiers who returned after the war ended (people who were not a part of Mercenary League) told their families stories of women saving their lives in the moments they believed they would die, but many believed these stories to be hallucinations. When the war ended, Mercenary League kept these women in their ranks.
==== War Angel Letter ====
Hey Mom...
Just wanted to drop you a line to say I'm still kickin'. Sorry I haven't responded to your letters, but I don't read them so I don't get homesick for beautiful Kansas, you know? If that happens, I could never make it back home to you.
Anyway, I'm doin' okay healthwise, had a close call the other day, though. My whole squad was wiped out, and I was low on ammunitions, hidin' from the Krauts. I was about to take 'em on 'till I saw somethin' crazy.
There were women out there, Mom. WOMEN, fightin' those Nazis. I thought I was seein' things, but it was real! One of 'em even tossed me some supplies and before I could ask who she was, she vanished.
I told my CO about it, he said I wasn't the only one who's seen 'em, the guys been calling 'em "war angels," seems like this place finds new ways to mess witcha' but at least I'm still breathing.
Can't wait to see you again, Ma. I love you.
Thomas
=== Vietnam War ===
The war in Vietnam in the 60's would prove to be a controversial one, one that divided most of the agency whether it was a war they needed to take part in. Regardless, America's troops needed help and Mercenary League would provide it while trying its best to remain neutral. On some occasions, ML would send their agents to assist secretly, but this was rare. Mostly, ML would send care packages to troops and rations and covert search and rescue teams to free imprisoned troops but they would stop assisting all together the moment they interfered with a top-secret CIA operation.
=== Other Notable Wars ===
This is a brief note of the conflicts ML was active in, either in a small capacity or large:
* Any Middle Eastern Conflicts
* Desert Storm
* Cold War (extreme espionage presence)
* Korean War
* Operation Gaslight
== Operation 34R98 "New Wave" ==
While Mercenary League was doing well in terms of their workforce, there was a growing issue that every agent shared for the most part: they were getting old. This was an issue that was seen coming long ago but had now reached a boiling point. In 2047, the total amount of agents who were able to work had gone too low and Special Agent Joshua Peddler, a Canadian American Mercenary League official second in command of operations pitched an idea that was met with extreme controversy within the League. Peddler had proposed that instead of the usual recruitment of people with no living family in their 30’s or just already existing FBI agents that the League should seek out troubled teenagers with violent backgrounds and no living family that are within the 16 to 20 age range to work for the League. He made several arguments with Gamez, many of which made perfect sense: these teenagers would serve the League for far more time than the 25-to-30 year old recruits would and as time would go by, the League would only be sharpening these teenagers skills to the point that by the time these teens would reach older ages, they would still be in their prime to serve even longer. Despite Gamez showing some disapproval for this practice, he approved only on the terms that Peddler would oversee the operation and would be fully responsible for anything that happened in it. This operation was given a name: 34R98 or Operation New Wave. After about a year of patience, Mercenary League found their first operator...
Her ID tag would be AS-0771.
=== New Wave Recruitment ===
When it comes to scouting potential operators for New Wave, the process is hard and stressful. When a candidate is selected, their background is looked at by Peddler and a few other agents. The key interests in a potential operator is violence, no living family is a must, and in most cases, the person of interest is headed to detention services. After some negotiations, the candidate's arrest process is delayed while agents decide on whether to recruit a person, and if the answer is yes, Mercenary League offers the person a deal they cannot resist: freedom and a new life in exchange to work for the right side of the government. The person making the offer is extremely charismatic and manipulative, some recruits rarely turning down the chance of a new life. When the candidate accepts, Mercenary League does their work, erasing EVERYTHING, names, charges and if preferred by the operator, a new alias. Thus begins the next part of the process.
=== Training ===
The new trainees are given their ID tag, which is the initials of their first, middle (if any) and last name then a random number (for example, John Doe would be JD-1234). When trainees arrive, the male and females are separated to their respective barracks, where they meet their training commander. The commander is loud, vulgar and does not give a shit about where any of the trainees come from, but they let them know that they are now in their house. From here, the actual training begins, where trainees are put through extreme tests of both physical and psychological measures, being trained to hold their breath underwater for long durations of time, shooting drills, resist interrogation tactics, information extraction strategies, tactical mindsets, staying awake with no sleep, bomb scenarios, speed tests meant to sharpen their reflexes, and the most dreaded among those all is the "stand your ground" test, a test that many operators still remember to this day. The test involves trainees wearing a bulletproof vest then getting shot with a live hollow point round (to reduce the risk of overpenetration), meant to not only teach trainees what it's like to be shot but to train them to not flinch or fall over when BEING shot in a real combat scenario. If a trainee falls over or flinches majorly, the test is done again, over and over until flinching is reduced to a minimum and the trainee doesn't fall over. While this may seem very unnecessary, this trains operators to not fall over when being hit with a round and return fire when being fired at. 
=== Initiation ===
After a full month of rigorous training, a trainee is put to the ultimate test to earn their rank of "operational agent." The trainees must demonstrate what they have learned by taking "the next shot" in their career, where they will be sent on a mission that they must pass to graduate and become an operator. While the trainees have been trained pretty well, it is the sad reality that most may not pass this final test, either failing it or dying in the process. The ones who fail their initiation mission are to repeat the training AGAIN until they pass the mission, which failing the initiation mission is seen as an act of shame among other operators, seeing those who have failed as liabilities, with reports of operators refusing to work with people who have failed. For trainees who pass, they are now operational agents and a chip is connected to their pulse so that the League keeps tabs on their vitals, if an agent were ever attacked or losing blood for example, that chip sends an SOS to the League and then appropriate measures are taken from there.
=== Being a New Wave Operator ===
When a New Wave operator becomes sworn in, they are given the title "operational agent" to differentiate their position between actual FBI Mercenary League agents. Operators, in some cases, can be the commander of multiple agents depending on what the situation is but agents of higher position will always have the final say. Since most of the operators in New Wave are usually in the age range of 16 to 18, they are required to still attend school to keep up their image of a normal person. Operators are given the option of residing in the headquarters dorms or having an apartment that is under the name of someone who doesn't exist to keep up appearances. While operational agents are paid pretty well, Mercenary League makes spending this money pretty difficult to avoid their operators catching unwanted attention from revenue services and if said agent already has unwanted attention on them, the League may make that agent get a job. These operators are given a "gray" ID in case they need to access something that their age otherwise wouldn't allow them too, unlike a normal fake ID, this ID, when swiped anywhere to be verified, tricks systems into viewing the ID as valid, just in case anyone gets suspicious. While the purpose of these IDs are simple, some operators use them for their own desires, with one agent in particular, AS-0771, using it to purchase alcohol and "questionable forms of Japanese comics and anime."
=== Death of an Operator ===
The death of an operator is a tragic one that shakes everyone, particularly operators in the New Wave program who are close knit due to sharing the same walks of life in one way or another. When an operator dies in action, they are given an honorable funeral service, with “taps” played in their honor. After the taps has played, 7 people (people who knew the person, if any, like other operators) arrive in horizontal formation, wearing white adorned with the golden Mercenary League cord (a cord lined with actual gold and silver, worn during an operator's graduation from basic or during a funeral service) over their right shoulder, with one agent holding an AR rifle and the other agents with their hands placed behind their back. The agent who played the taps then shouts orders:
"Paratus, aim, ignis! (one agent fires a shot) The first shot honors the shot fired in basic! Paratus, aim, ignis! (a second shot is fired) The second shot honors the shot taken during initiation! Paratus, aim, ignis! (a third and final shot is fired) The third shot symbolizes the final shot fired before going down!"
The agent who played the taps is handed an American flag, one agent crouches to pick up the 3 spent casings and places them inside the flag, which is then folded in a trifold. This folded flag is now placed on the casket of the operator and then operator’s weapon (depending on whether the funeral is open casket, this flag and weapon will be placed inside, if the operator wishes to be cremated, their ashes will be spread on top of the casket, the flag is placed and then their weapon) along with a magazine "just in case they have to fight the devil on their way.” When the casket is slowly being lowered, all agents are ordered to salute until the casket has touched the ground, thus ending the service. Later, after the casket has been buried, an empty headstone with the words "lustitia non indiget licentia" and a random flower is placed. From here on, the grave is not forgotten, as it is visited to ensure it is not vandalized, needs to be cleaned and the flower is kept alive.
== Trivia ==
* Mercenary League was shut down in the original comic of Crimson.
* In the new logo, there is supposed to be an "n" in the no.
Category:Canon/Mainline