Jolly Roger Battalion

## Overview

The Jolly Roger Battalion, JRB, or simply Jolly Rogers, is a rogue extremist Black Ops organization aligned with the United States in the Domestic Theater. They are most known for committing extremist military actions against fundamentalist groups in the Appalachian Baptist Dominion. Their manpower draws from veterans of the United States military and civilian recruits that wish to commit to more offensive actions, rather than the defensive posture that the United States has currently held against the Dominions. They are most notable for recruiting Christian extremists still loyal to the United States, who largely believe that the Dominions are blasphemous, and have committed a vengeance war against so-called heretics. JRB is also alleged to recruit mentally unstable individuals that would otherwise be unfit for regular military service, and are offered an outlet to wage war on a common enemy.

## History

At the end of the Summer Secession of 2026, and during the Last Battle of Gaston, NC, a US Army UH-60 helicopter was shot down by secessionist forces of the fledgling Evangelist Carolina Dominion. On board was a 7th Air Cavalry officer, and a Special Forces Colonel leading his team on special action missions in and around the North Carolina/Virginia border. Losing the rest of his team in the crash, the two officers regrouped with a stranded platoon of Rangers of the 75th Regiment, who had been separated from their unit during the mass withdrawal from North Carolina. Against their own standing orders, the mixed force decided to make a stand in the town of Gaston, holding off fundamentalists converging on the road leading to Virginia. In the event of their loss, the team destroyed the bridge leading into Gaston, cutting off the Dominion from moving further, and denying the enemy a vital roadway North.

Cut off from resupply or pickup, the team was essentially deemed lost. Instead of returning to their command elements in federal territory, they decided to establish themselves in the Poconos Mountains, to stage a guerilla war against Dominionists in the region. It was in this region that they came upon a derelict Bureau of Land Management airfield and storage facility, and founded their own base as Fort Revenge. Using their base of operations and few remaining resources, they took it upon themselves to recruit from local communities and other stranded loyalist forces, and started their own war against the Appalachian Baptist Dominion. No longer under the oversight of the United States Army, this Black Operations team disregarded conventional Rules of Engagement and the Geneva Convention, to stage ruthless vengeance missions.

Originally, the group simply branded themselves as Black Company, but as their ranks grew, so did their mission parameters. Their hit-and-run actions had given them a reputation as raiders by the local populace and Dominion, and so they took on the moniker of pirates, and rebranded themselves as the Jolly Rogers. This name comes from the traditional skull-and-crossbones pattern of a Jolly Roger Flag, most often associated with pirates from the Age of Sail. With this new tradition, they began to use call-signs and nicknames in place of their actual names or NATO call-signs.

## Personnel

### Blackbeard (Name: [REDACTED]:

The JRB falls under the command of [REDACTED], also known as Blackbeard, the alias of infamous pirate Edward Teach. Blackbeard is a former Colonel and career operator of the United States Army Special Forces. He was and is a career soldier, despite no longer directly falling under the United States Army chain of command. His command style was known as very hands-on compared to other staff-grade officers. He’s known to form relationships with each of his own subordinate commanders, some positive, and others negative.

Despite success in the previous few years, in recent months of his command, mission objectives have become less clear, raids have become looser in parameters, and operational tempo has risen to the point where his troops have been unable to recuperate from combat.

### Bonnet (Name: [REDACTED]:

Blackbeard’s Executive Officer is a former commander of the US Army 7th Air Cavalry, taking on the namesake of the pirate Stede Bonnet. Like his namesake, Bonnet was a thrill seeker. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Bonnet took any downtime he could to pursue extreme hobbies, such as sky-diving, bungee jumping, spelunking, and SCUBA diving to explore ancient shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea. Allegedly, he financed these hobbies with money from his family, who are supposedly major shareholders of a prominent US Defense Contractor.
Following the Last Battle of Gaston, Bonnet was promoted from his last official rank of Captain to Major. As a member of JRB, he ensures that all of their missions have the logistical assets to support them. His ties to America’s remaining wealthy have given him the ability to finance the JRB as a deniable asset to the United States. He also keeps a library available at Fort Revenge for all soldiers and residents to access.

Recently, as the US Domestic Theater has been dragged into a stalemate with the Dominions, Bonnet has tried shifting operations away from the front lines, to move to better establish themselves in their own territory, working with the other communities in the Poconos, and repelling Dominion insurgents from the region. This has led to a rift between leadership and soldiers within JRB. However, the majority has been drifting more towards Bonnet.

### Mary Reed (Name: [REDACTED]):

Mary Reed is considered by many on Fort Revenge to be among JRB leadership, but with the exception of Bonnet and Saint, another platoon leader, she has very little contact with any of the regular troops. Mary Reed is actually a Central Intelligence Agency asset, and Bonnet’s half-sister. (Mary attended Yale University through tuition paid for by her estranged father, in order to make sure her and her mother never drew attention to the fact that she was the child of an affair).
After graduating, Mary was groomed for selection to the CIA as an intelligence analyst, specializing in operating with Tier One teams and relaying intelligence. She has many contacts, and supposedly has dossiers on every member of JRB. Her assets give her the ability to build bridges, as well as burn them, for the JRB, at will. She holds an extreme amount of pressure on the battalion, protecting them from international attention and helping them maintain their stream of funding and weapons.

Mary Reed has also helped with recruiting members for JRBs officer pool, such as the operators named Saint, Witch, and Plague. On Fort Revenge, Mary Reed keeps to herself, quartering herself in her own separate intelligence office, away from the other troops, and has a special detachment of guards on loan from Voodoo Company, to protect her Intel resources as well as herself.

## Structure:

### Ghost Squad:

JRBs most reliant unit, with the highest deployment rating out of any other group in the battalion. Ghost Squad is a part of the Operator Force of Ghoul Company, and among 1st Platoon led by Saint. Ghost Squad is led by a zealous former US Army Chaplain.

### Zombie Squad:

Under the direct command of Saint and his platoon sergeant Slacker, this squad is another staple of 1st Platoon. It is mostly made of members that previously served in 1st Battalion, 509th Regiment, also known as “Op For” in the US Army. Other members of this infamous unit are also Cannibal Squad.

## Tactics

The JRB mostly commit hit-and-run missions. The objective of each raid varies, from abducting or assassinating HVTs, destroying ammo dumps used by the Appalachian Baptist Dominion, or raiding convoys for extra military-grade resources. Their combat doctrine involves vertical envelopment, softening targets with helicopter gunships, and deploying air-mobile troops to rapidly strike and withdraw. Occasionally, they are also supported with their own personal attack planes, crop duster airplanes retrofitted with rocket pods and machine guns.