Phoenix Collective

The Phoenix Collective is an assembly of Pilot mercenaries who are willing to do anything and everything provided the price is right. Many are drawn to the Collective by ideas of becoming fabulously rich and aloof mercenaries, and these misguided souls are always shocked to find that life as a mercenary is actually quite difficult. Considering that Suits have basically no upkeep costs, it would be easy to assume that becoming a mercenary can fast-track one to riches, but the truth is in fact quite the opposite: clients will hire whoever can undercut their competitors by accepting the least payment for the most dangerous work. This means that in addition to often being exposed to far more danger with none of the support a Pilot could expect from the ACC, mercenary Pilots rarely earn more than their ACC counterparts. As a result, joining the Collective as a registered mercenary is seem by those informed as a compromise. Although not as "free" as simply operating as a freelancing Pilot, the network the Collective provides offers the advantages of being able to take risks at one's own digression while operating within a narrower set of guidelines defined by the rules of the Collective and the directives of the contract in question, granting both the contractor and the contracted respective protections as defined in the fine print of the contract.These wordly realities have done nothing to change the Collective's common external image as an organization charging hand over fist for what the ACC provides for free. Its Pilots are frequently considered by outsiders to be greed-driven thugs too conspicuous and rough to be part of a proper Pilot faction. This perspective is starkly different from that of Coalition citizens, who usually consider Collective Pilots to be "too good for ACC" and heroes that played a vital role in the Coalition's establishment. Both concepts have their grains of truth to them, but it could be said that the outsider's perspective is the more realistic.At the height of the war, Pilot mercenaries predominantly accepted missions from paying groups that could otherwise not afford the risks of utilizing their own Pilots, meaning in other words that the missions mercenaries were hired for were often either extraordinarily dangerous or highly unsavory. Pilots that survived and thrived in such conditions, and continued to do so, were either noticeably skilled or particularly deranged, with examples of "honorable" mercenaries being unsurprisingly quite rare. In the years since the war's end, the increasing scarcity of "Pilot-work" has seen the market for such individuals adjust and become extraordinarily competitive, evolving into a clique society where one's reputation and status is everything. While it was not unheard of for Collective Pilots to "accidentally" kill one another in the field in order to increase payment cuts or hijack operations entirely, the faction's cannibalistic tendencies have only become more apparent over the years as work continues to dry up. One of the few stern rules of the Collective is to not use Suits within Coalition city limits, and this is rather implicitly to prevent Collective Pilots from turning city blocks into warzones as they settle grudges. This doesn't prevent Pilots from using other means to eliminate the competition, however, and the Collective has been famously lethargic dealing with such incidents, preferring instead to let Pilots sort their own issues out so long as the collateral is kept to a minimum.The Collective operates entirely different from the ACC factions. Rather than a paramilitary organization, the Collective serves as a nexus for mercenary Pilots to receive missions and payment through contracts. Contracts are formed between the Collective and the client, and these contracts are then handed to an assigned agent who will manage multiple Pilots. The agent acts as the intermediary handler for the Pilots, determining who can accept what missions. In this way, the Collective has no military-style ranking structure, but does employ a grading system of E to S, with E-rank mercenaries being new to the system, D-rank mercenaries being considered low-skill, C-rank being average, B-rank proven, A-rank elite, and S-rank legendary. How exactly the grade is assigned and how one advances is unclear, but heavily factors into the kind of contracts an agent will offer to a Pilot.
==Specialties==
===Raven===
The Ravens are a group within the Phoenix Collective known for their high demand with potential clients and an "on-the-go' attitude. The Ravens began as a minor collection of former Armor Corps pilots who all had ideas of branching off and forming their own specialized unit. As the group realized how difficult this was without influence within the higher echelons of the major factions, they instead formed a group within the Phoenix Collective. As more pilots joined, the Ravens built up a reputation for being efficient and resourceful in the field. 
===Lynx===
The Lynx are a group within the Phoenix Collective known for exceptional close combat capabilities and successful operations in Brazil. The Lynx are a fractured group formed partly out of Green Initiative pilots and partly out of Moqaddas pilots. The strange and somewhat volatile mixture was created on accident following a massive influx of pilots when the Phoenix Collective was granted the ability to operate publicly. However, the best of both sides were selected and intermingled to form one of the most successful Phoenix groups. in both pay and reputation. 
===Man of Honor===
The Men of Honor are a group within the Phoenix Collective known for being eccentric, unorthodox, and usually quite unfitting of their name. A loose agreement set up by the sleazier components of Hanse Behörde and the more "unreliable" or "potentially threatening" components of the Engineers, the Men of Honor are a group that holds itself higher than most and backs up its advertising with utterly insane methods. However despite this, the men and (curiously) women of the Men of Honor are a group that, despite appearances, tend to actually get the job done. 
===Freelancer===
There are a large number of groups within the Phoenix Collective, and many look to make a name for themselves. Outside of the many groups, there are also those who act alone and intend to make a name for themselves as individuals. Regardless of how they get there, every pilot within the Phoenix Collective is looking to get paid, and looking to get recognition. Whether or not they are affiliated with a specific group is entirely up to them, but individual fame can both be a blessing and a burden - depending on who buys the contract. 
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:TE Factions
Category:Phoenix Collective