Project War-Mantle

>    "An excellent idea sir, it's truly sad to see how far the military has fallen!"
> -Malik Rampart to Arya Bell
>
>

## History

### Early Plans

At the Al Smith Charity Dinner of 2049, Arya Bell became aware and fond of a 21 year old named Malik Rampart. Rampart was from the United Kingdom and was participating in an experimental Strategy and Military intelligence degree in Oxford University. Arya, who was the richest man in the world and advocate for a change in government grew to understand and even agree with Rampart's militaristic ideology. They both discussed how maximum efficiency could be met only with a blindly obediant and loyal force. They ended the night trading contact details and went their seperate ways.

Unknown to Rampart, Arya kept tabs on him and his progress and learnt of his entrance into the CIA. Eventually, when the Imperial Movement started in 2054 led by Bell, Rampart deserted the CIA and joined this movement. When Arya was freed from prison by loyalists, he once again met with Rampart and he expressed his confidence in the young man's skills.

Before 2060, Rampart was made aware of the Cloning Project to develop a military of billions of obediant and loyal clone troopers to serve the newly formed Empire.

### Imperial Founding and Difficulty

When the Empire was officially founded in 2062, Arya was forced to delay Project War-Mantle due to complications during his arrest in the 2050s and clone mutations. Moreover, Rampart, who he wanted to lead the initiative was occupied in the development of the Chain Code Implementation. Nevertheless, the cloning operations continued under supervised control and for the first 4 months of Imperial rein, the military was left untouched.

In May 2062, after the success of the Chain Code Implementation and Rampart's promotion to Admiral, he was personally contacted by Arya and informed of the plans for War-Mantle as well as its development. Rampart was optimistic for the project and promised a reformed military but many did not take to the idea. Prior to the Empire's founding, the Cloning Project and production of 4.5 million clones was entirely funded by Arya and a few Capitol Oligarchs but for the project to become accepted and viewed with promise, Rampart and Arya had to pitch the project with High ranking Imperials to ensure they felt their input was included. Whilst military generals and admirals were greatly fond of the initial plans, more strategic and background characters such as Director Wulf Yularen of the ISB were opposed to cloning at first viewing it as a cost-prohibitive useless aim. Later on, it was deduced by Rampart that if Yularen came to the project, then the others' opposing it would also back down.

In the June of 2062, Rampart was contacted by Imperial Intelligence and was notified that Marshall Gray was a traitor to the Empire and he had sent Imperial troops on a mission to destroy vital data needed for the cloning process and Project War Mantle. In an attempt to stop this, Rampart personally travelled to Camp Lehigh where Gray was situated, arrested him and put the facility into official Imperial control. Nevertheless, the ops team had already departed to destroy the data which dismayed Rampart, realising his project could be doomed because of that. However, Rampart saw an opportunity to prove the potential of the Cloning programme to Yularen who was arriving at the Camp to examine the damage done by Gray. Whilst waiting, Rampart became aqquainted to half of Experimental Unit 99 and their Captain, Gregor. He learnt that the other half of the squad were sent to destroy the data. He also learnt that Commander Jaro Sullust was spear-heading the operation, a man he had immense respect for as he was a key figher during the Imperial Revolution and unbenowknst to Jaro, saving Rampart's own life.

When Yularen arrived, Rampart took the opportunity to present a top-specimen clone trooper **CT-4712** to the director and sent the trooper alongside half of Experimental Unit 99 in order to test the clone's effectiveness to eliminate a resistance group. One trooper was killed in the conflict, but the mission had been succeeded where even top veterans failed. Such results impressed Yularen, admitting that the Cloning programme could serve a place in the Empire, but nevertheless, he reminded Rampart to continue utilising recruits and veterans until the time was right for a shift. However, Rampart was put in full charge of Camp Lehigh and Project War-Mantle which would serve to advance his plans.

### Apex Squad & Tipoca City

When Jaro Sullust and his half of Experimental Unit 99 arrived back in Camp Lehigh, Rampart used the remaining forces paired with 7 clone arc troopers to form, Apex Squad, the first military force combining humans with clones. Rampart sent this new squad on numerous missions with Sullust commanding it, and they had a near-perfect success rate, which Rampart further used to further his own personal gain.

In 2067, Rampart