Belt Army Faction

The **Belt Army Faction**, otherwise known as the **Decks-Grimmerson Group**, was a pro-Protectorate militant group active on Earth during and after the Solar War.

## Name and Ideology

The BAF believed itself to be a fifth column extension of the integrated Protectorate military and used the word faction in the sense of ‘part of’, though they embraced the implied sectarian undertones. Both of their founding members had spent significant amounts of time in the Main Belt during peacetime as private citizens endorsed with Consortium aerowings.

The BAF vehemently rejected any claim to property by the Consortium and believed it was a greater threat to Solar stability and spacer liberty than the Technocracy. It refused to recognize the Technocracy’s legitimacy. It considered any Consortium property or employee on Earth as a legitimate target for their complacency in what they viewed as aggression against spacers.

Their goal was to disable or otherwise tie up Consortium resources and vowed to cease operations if the Consortium withdrew from the war and offered just compensation in full for the loss of spacer life and property.

## Background

In SY 129, the Solar War broke out with the Battles of Kamijing and Dosijing. The Consortium strongly condemned the violence and, while initially recognizant of the continued sovereignty of the Confederacy, vowed action if the ITS system was interrupted by the war. When much of the Main Belt fell to Technocracy control, the Technocracy utilized this as leverage to gain recognition from the Consortium.

Politically active members of the Alliance on Earth carefully monitored the developing situation. News came from Hades down the wire. No orders were given, but at least two Alliance members, Soren Decks and Nate Grimmerson, believed that their standing orders would mean violent opposition to the Consortium if in fact the Consortium chose to enter the war.

## Formation

By **SY 132**, then-unknown Alliance members Søren Decks and Nate Grimmerson had gathered a list of names of contacts around the globe who they considered trustworthy and willing to engage in militancy. Membership was restricted to those who had been to space, were willing to renounce Consortium citizenship and risk death, and could not be a current or former Consortium employee. Directly after the speech to World Congress by Marcus Cato Scaevola and the passage of the Consortium Security Acts, the group composed of several dozen members announced themselves as the Belt Army Faction to little fanfare or notice. In their first circulated press video, they swore loyalty to the Protectorate, renounced Consortium membership, and vowed tit-for-tat violence against the Consortium as reprisal for military actions.

## Years Active and Actions

The BAF gained instantaneous notoriety for a series of bombings against CONPOL stations and bases as reprisal for crackdown on Lunar independence. The bombings killed hundreds of CONPOL agents and destroyed countless millions in property. With each of these bombings, they reissued their first press release and a series of calls for spacer independence, which was received with vehement public rejection on Earth.

Leading up to the Battle of Earth, the bombing campaign continued, most notably with the São Paulo bombing that completely destroyed an Academy.

During the Battle of Earth, they initiated Operation Blackheart, resulting in the successful assassination of several World Congress members and a failed attempt on Marcus Cato Scaevola’s life. They were also able to provide save haven for the spacer team led by Jaymeson and Cera Nicks and participated in the razing of the Neoparthenon.

Several of their members were taken prisoner by CONPOL during the engagement, leading BAF to seize and wire the CONPOL headquarters in New Athens with a demand for their release. With their demands unmet, they killed their several dozen hostages and blew the wired building in a bloody firefight-escape.

The group remained active until the Siege of Mars, when a second major operation saw many of their members killed. Søren Decks was himself captured and executed in a short, highly publicized trial. The remaining members went underground and several of them were known to have joined the American Republican Army in SY 140 in advisory roles.

## Known Members

Søren Decks

Nate Grimmerson