Black Hand (JCX)

**Black Hand flag**
 Government type
 Head of Government
 Location
 Top Industries
 Official currency
 Allies
 Opposition

The **Black Hand**, also known as **Solís Pact**, is a geopolitical, economic, and military alliance, one of the major global powers in IronClaw's **Just Cause X** series**.**

## General overview

The **Black Hand Alliance** is a global power and a successor of Warsaw Pact. Its core members are *Black Raj*, *Russian Federation* and South Africa; the alliance was established to restore the balance of power after the end of the First Cold War. It's ideologically opposed to left-leaning Western world, and promoting the Nietzscheistic philosophy of Social darwinism and Technocratic principles of government.

Since the Panau incident in 2009, the **Black Hand** became a major player in the three-way **Second Cold War** with China and NATO.

Despite its economy still falling behind the Western nations (albeit the gap is not as significant as it was during the Soviet times), it is certainly leading the technological race due to it's unrestricted development practices, economic liberties for RnD corporations and massive government funding to Science and Technology; these funds are generally raised by cuttings in social fare.

## Politics and Administration

While **Black Hand** is presented as merely an alliance of states, it's economy and government is quite centralized, more so then European Union; however, there's no unified currency in the bloc, allowing it's members central banks to regulate the financial mechanisms more effectively.

The unrivaled leader of the Pact is **Black Raj**, a nation formed from Republic of India, Bangladesh and parts of Pakistan conquered in 1990's border conflict. It is the second world's largest economy by GDP, and it has the third (second, if nuclear arsenals are not accounted for) most powerful military - and the largest one. While the Raj is economic, industrial and scientific powerhouse of Black Hand, *Russian Federation* is it's main supply of raw resources and financial paradise/playground for major international companies, with worldwide-lowest corporate taxes and dirt-cheap labour force. *South African* nation is the third core member of the Pact, still run by apartheid supporters.

Except the core members and member states, the alliance has "partners", that include North Korea, Venezuela and other states which do not integrate their economy and political power, do allow Black Hand militaries a free access and base maintenance on their territories in return for "special" economic privileges and military support.

The ruling body of the Pact is the Central Committee, made up from representatives of it's member states. While *de jure* all of Black Hand member states have a voice in decision making, *de facto* it's up to "Big Three" to decide on bloc's policies.

**Black Hand** dictates aggressive foreign policies, disregarding the "western" International laws and agreements of the XX century. While prefering to wage proxy-wars, it's ready to engage it's opponents in open conflict, as became evident during Panau incident. In 2010's, Solis Pact forces participated in half-a-dozen hot spots around the world, including Syrian civil war, Indonesian crisis and occupation of entire Eastern Ukraine. It's armies are generally organized into *ad hocum* "Task Forces", expeditionary elements of several nations combined into a cohesive formation.

## History

The precursors of **Black Hand** appeared in early 1980's, when Technocrates of the Soviet Union were formulating the plan to reform the socialist economy into a corporate-run free market. Fortunately for them, the opposition in the Communist Party was quite strong, and the following struggle between interest groups has ultimately destroyed the nation. As 1991 coup failed, many former Soviet officials, military officers and KGB members fled to India, that was engaged in years-long war with Pakistan over Kashmiri region. These conspirators became the foundation of the **Solis Pact**, supporting Indian ultra-conservative parties and Western companies such as **Endron** and **Bering**, old allies that were promised a cut of the Soviet economy back in the eighties. Millions of Soviet engineers, economists and scientists fled to newly formed **Black Raj** during 1990's, and it's rumored that the Black Hand had stolen two thirds of Soviet gold reserves, actively investing it in their new nation.

Prior to 2007 when the Alliance was officially created after the famous Munich speech, Black Hand and it's conspirators were labeled as "terrorist organization", and **Black Raj** new government was not formally recognized by United States of America and several other NATO members. The declaration of Pact unification, however, changed the geopolitical reality of the XXI century, returning it to bipolar world model. The consolidation of Black Hand nations took place in **Solís** as a neutral ground, and was signed in April 21, 2007.

In 2025, the **Black Hand Alliance** became a global superpower, far surpassing China as the main contender for world domination; it's weather manipulation program along with major breakthroughs in computer engineering and bio-science, as well as adaptive economic strategy allowed the bloc to thrive in *Global Crash* of 2021, when *WARS9* virus devastated the global markets.

## Industry

**Black Hand** nations are heavily industrialized, as technocratic government of the Pact does not believe in "post-industrial" economic model, preferring to focus on material development rather then service sectors. It's a leading oil and gas exporter, as well as major global material manufacturer. Most of the world's heavy machinery and factory equipment comes from **Black Hand** facilities in Raj or South Africa. Nuclear fission and (prospective) fusion reactor manufacturing is yet another sector where the Pact firmly holds an upper hand.

The alliance is very well known for it's IT developments, producing components for many Western computer companies despite the geopolitical rivalry. Despite many accusations of industrial espionage and blatant copying of the western designs, Black Hand states became entirely self-sufficient when it comes to electronics and hi-tech equipment - an area where Soviets lagged behind.

**Black Hand** also leads in bio-sciences, synthetic biology and neuroprosthetics due to unrestricted experimentation on humans, disregarding the international law. The bloc aeronautics and space industries are clearly ahead of Chinese and European competitors, but still fall behind America.

All in all, Solis Pact is a developed and highly advanced bloc of nations with self-sufficient economy and rapidly expanding markets.

#### Domesic companies of the **Black Hand**

* **URGA Products**
* **Grupo Próspero**
* **TechMach** (Defunct)
* **BMI**
* **Eldrith Tech**
* **Gigaloo**
* **Kerala Genetic Tech**

...Obviously, there's many more corporations and holdings in the Solis Pact.

#### Foreign companies that are close partners of the **Black Hand**

* **IBM**
* **Bering**
* **Delta Corporation**
* **Heil**!
* **Endron Company**
* **Haswell**
* **Zirconia**

## Human rights abuse

The economic boom came with a price of total abandonment of social fare and labor rights in member states of the **Black Hand**. The big business runs rampant, and the government only supports the "productive" members of society, letting the less fortunate perish. Worker unions are disbanded, and most citizens work 70 hours per week (12 hours per day) just to get by.

Anti-government protests are suppressed with extreme force, and all political freedoms within the Pact are severely restricted. Not only the Black Hand has death penalty by firing squads, the most severe crimes are punished by conducting weapon experiments on those deemed guilty. Labor camps are common, as prisoners "should not parasite" in society, actively working for their freedom at uranium mines and other hazardous developments. Freedom of expression is nonexistent, and anyone caught criticizing the government and business practices could be charged with sabotage.

Illegal human experimentation and literal slavery is quite common, and international human right activists are forbidden entry to **Black Hand** territories. Nations under the Solis Pact military occupation often treated with genocidal purges, as biological and chemical warfare, as well as *psyonics* is used against rebelling peoples.

## Terrorist and criminal connections worldwide

Neither **Black Hand** nor the **Agency** is afraid to openly support various criminal and terrorist organizations around the world to achieve it's goals, supplying them with money, vehicles and military ordinance to frightening extent - so much so that many "micro-nations" started to pop up around the globe as various conspirators and terrorists got their hands on unending supply of tech from both sides of the Second Cold War.

Still, Solis Pact has enemies as well as friends in the criminal underworld. One of the unrelenting enemies of the Black Hand is Russian Mafia, also known as "Bratva", which ruled Russian Federation in the 1990s. To achieve control over Russian government, Solis Pact commenced violent purges, killing families and friends of anyone even remotely assassinated with the Mafia, which made them blood enemies of each other.

One of the strategic partners for Black Hand is the infamous **Montano Cartel**.

## Military

**Black Hand** armed forces are the most numerous in the world, and arguably the most capable. It possess massive land armies over-equipped with the latest and most powerful weaponry humanity has to offer. Interestingly, Solis Pact does not solely rely on domestic manufacturers, such as URGA and Prospero, but often buys foreign vehicles and equipment, having ties in Western companies like Delta and Bering. Despite this, Black Hand naval power is still lags far behind NATO, an undisputed master of the seas.

Solis Pact has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and by 2025 two thirds of its missile carriers are hyper-sonic.

To bolster it's formidable Armed Forces even further, the alliance has developed a secret super-soldier program, resurrecting the ancient demons known as Shetani.

*For the Black Hand forces deployed in Nova Kyungastan, see: **Task Force Chimaera***.

*For the Black Hand forces deployed in Askabjǫð, see: **Task Force Firecat***.

## Trivia

* It is as retcon of the Just Cause original Black Hand.
* It serves as the antagonist of JCX and main faction of JCX2.
* It in many cases represents the desired political system of the author.

## Gallery

Black Hand passportA generic Pact's landscape after a controlled climate changeMoscow in 2025Calcutta in 2025A generic major BH city