Campaign against Black Widow

A collage of images during the war (from left to right: Bradley Houghton pursues Warhawk on horseback while being pursued by gunmen himself, Barry Maglio arguing with an unknown individual, Ethan Armstrong evading Black Widow operatives seeking to kill him, Bert Martin talking with his wife in Greece, Vlatko Marinković in the New York Public Library)

## Chronology

### Result

War ongoing:* Kenneth Clancy kills off Onan's top lieutenants
* Warhawk nearly exterminates Black Widow
* Onan Vural killed
* Ilgin Saglik succeeds Onan as leader of Black Widow

## Major Events

### Battles

First Duel at Forest ParkRescue of Alice Elliott

Attack on Leah West

Attack on Jennifer Starns

Firevault Regional Prison Escape

Brawl at Mirage Restaurant

Battle of St. Louis

Raid on the Fortress

Operation Uprising

Second Duel at Forest Park

### Notable incidents

September 11 MassacreKidnapping of Leah West

Attack on Leah West

## Combatants

### Allied Combatants

ReapersChapter X

Sisterhood of Anarchy

St. Louis Police Department

New York City Police Department

Crescent Genesis

Sisterhood of Anarchy

### Enemy Combatants

Turkish MafiaSupported by:

* Babylon Coalition
* Black Widows

## Commanders

### Allied Forces

Phyliss H. Brathwaite/WarhawkLewis Jordan

Charles A. Kinchen

Alice C. Elliott

Leah L. West

Ethan Armstrong

Ava Clancy

Corvus

Corinne Kitson

Doga Voroshilova

Rita Singleton

Alana Powell

Jane the Ripper

Gulsu Kivanc

Aydogan Ceylan

Osprey

Bengu Gundogu

Martin West

Faith West

Lucille Robbins

Ghost Beast

Black Manta (Late)

### Opposition Forces

Kingfish (Deceased)Iglin Saglik

Bradley Houghton

Black Manta (Early)

## Strength

### Enemies

Babylon Coalition assassinsBlack Widow operatives

## Casualties

### Opposition

Heavy

The **Campaign against Black Widow** is a series of conflicts against Black Widow, an international terrorist organization. The war started with a series of murders that were pinned on the Black Widows, an international terrorist organization, and the Babylon Coalition.

## Background

### September 11 Massacre

The September 11 Massacre were a coordinated series of murders perpetrated by Babylon Coalition hitmen and Black Widow sleeper agents across Europe and the United States of America; they targeted prominent military personnel and politicians, as well as their families. One week after the homicides, the Black Widows and their Babylon Coalition allies came forward to claim responsibility, announcing that the killings were part of a "war declaration" against "corrupt regimes in the West."

## Course of the war

### September 11, 2019 Attacks

On September 11, 2019, in Turkey, Turkish international student Eylul Burcak was packing to go to the United States of America as part of an overseas program her college was doing. Her father, Ahmet was giving her one final pep talk before she departed for the States. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Babylon Coalition assassin Nathan Thornton was stalking the family, with orders to assassinate Ahmet due to his status as a key Turkish politician. Ahmet arranged for his personal driver to take Eylul to the airport. Her flight was supposed to depart at 11:30 AM.

At about 9:55 AM, right when Eylul was giving her father one final wave goodbye, Nathan opened fire, attempting to aim at Ahmet's head. However, to his surprise, the bullet went wide, completely missing Ahmet and hitting Eylul instead. Stunned that he had miscalculated his shot and horrified that he had accidentally shot an innocent civilian (something that is forbidden according to the honor code of a Babylon Coalition assassin), Nathan fled the scene.

Meawhile, Eylul was rushed to the hospital, where it was discovered that the bullet had entered her left shoulder. Eylul was imediately treated for her gunshot wound. As a result, she survived the murder attempt. However, her overseas trip to the US was delayed for the next school year as a result.

The attacks didn't stop there, however; in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, another Babylon Coalition assassin and his Black Widow partner-Bradley Houghton and a Turkish soldier going by the codename "Jackal", had set up a sniping position at a parking garage overlooking PNC Park, with Bradley handling a sniper rifle and Jackal being his spotter. At around 12:45 PM Eastern Time, Bradley began shooting at five random people in the park.

The first victim, 38-year old businessman Chester Lawton, was killed instantly when Bradley's sniper rifle blew his face right open in front of hundreds of horrified onlookers. The second victim was Indian-born British nationalist Aarushi Wells, a sales associate for Apex Corporation and the daughter of a British Army general. The next two victims were 33-year old Jeremy Slade and his brother, 55-year old Arnold Slade. Both were shot in the throat in rapid succession by Bradley. The fifth and final victim was 39-year old Darnell Slater, a former US Army Ranger who worked at a local Walgreens. There was also a sixth victim that Bradley had targeted, 30-year old babysitter Jennifer Starns, who was babysitting a young girl named Rose Drumner at the time. However, Starns and Drumner were abruptly rescued from certain death when a Good Samaritan foiled Bradley's shot and saved the lives of both girls.

Bradley attempted to shoot at Jennifer again before being forced to retreat when Jackal heard police sirens approaching.

### Kidnapped by Black Widow

That same day, at 5:45 PM Central Time, Evergreen Institute students Leah West and Alice Elliott were heading home after a day at swim practice. Unbeknownst to them, Kingfish, leader of the international terrorist group known as the Black Widows was stalking them inside a van. Ten minutes later, at 5:50 PM, Kingfish sent a team of operatives to kidnap the two girls, intending to use them as leverage against their parents, some of whom served in the military. Leah and Alice were both dragged into the van, but Leah was able to fight back against the kidnappers and escape, while Alice was successfully incapacitated. Leah ended up on a mad dash through the St. Louis streets, while being pursued by Kingfish and his men. Fortunately, Leah was able to reach a friend's apartment, where she was sheltered by Edward Maglio, Phyliss Brathwaite, and Lewis Jordan.

### Rescuing Alice Elliott

Nine days later, on the evening of September 19, 2019, Kingfish, leader of the Black Widows, sent the US government a threatening ransom video demanding the release of all Turkish POWs on American soil and about $14 million in ransom money, or else Alice would be executed. Edward Maglio, a student at Evergreen Institute, recognized the building that Kingfish was holding Alice inside but decided to hold off on a rescue mission out of fear of being outnumbered and outgunned. Later, on the evening of September 19th, 2019, Edward and his friend Olivia Martin, Ava Clancy, Kyle Bates, Mason Davidson and Sezen Ulas were taking a stroll through Maplewood after a late night shopping trip when they accidentally caught sight of Edward's aunt Courtney, who sought to destroy Kingfish in a revenge mission against the terrorist leader due to a past encounter that left Courtney scarred for life. Deducing that Courtney was going to stop Kingfish herself, Edward began to grow concerned for her own personal safety, as did Ava and Kyle. After much deliberation, it was decided that Edward and his friends would follow Courtney in order to talk some sense into her. However, all this wasn't meant to be.

That night, Courtney infiltrated the apartment where Alice was being held, while she was being tailed by Edward and his classmates Olivia Martin, Kyle Bates, Mason Davidson and Sezen Ulas. Upon entering the apartment block, Courtney found Alice tied up in the apartment's pantry. Suddenly, she was ambushed by Kingfish and Babylon Coalition assassin Lowell M. Carlisle, believing her to be a police officer. She was able to subdue the two, but just as Courtney was about to kill Kingfish, she was distracted by the sudden arrival of Edward, giving Kingfish the opportunity to overpower Courtney and shoot Edward in the face.

Edward, despite being in pain, shrugged off the injury and returned fire, wounding Kingfish in the left hand. Kingfish grinned, before shooting Edward once again, this time in the abdomen, and taunting him, commenting about how Edward was "weakened by attachments.", before shooting him again in the shoulder. He then raised the gun he was holding to Edward's head, intending to shoot him between the eyes, before being distracted by the sudden arrival of Ava Clancy, whom Kingfish shot in the chest (however, unbeknownst to Onan, Ava was protected by a Kevlar vest she wore underneath the jacket she was wearing). Enraged by this, Edward charged Onan and engaged in a vicious fistfight against him, beating Onan down. The fistfight then became a knife fight as Onan pulled out a combat knife and began viciously assaulting Edward, who was able to disarm the knife, only to be stabbed through the arm with Onan's hidden wristblade.

Despite the agonizing pain that he was in, Edward was able to shrug it off and continue fighting; Onan was able to slash Edward a couple times before Edward kicked him in the groin. Bent on killing Eddie, Onan was able to beat Edward down before stabbing him in the rib with his wrist-blade. Onan mocked the injured Edward, spitefully telling him to look at himself before calling him pathetic. Before he could finish Edward off, Courtney ambushed Onan from behind, then scratched his face with her fingernails, disfiguring him. However, as Onan was pulled off of Eddie, the injured college student was able to stab Onan in the abdomen with a shard of broken glass, much to Courtney's shock. There was a brief moment of silence as Onan painfully yanked the shard of glass out of his abdomen before attempting to stab Edward again with the wrist-blade, only to be overpowered and beaten by Edward within an inch of his life. He then disfigured Onan further by scraping his face against a broken mirror, while Onan screamed in agony. He then proceeded to bash Onan's already injured face against the broken mirror, taunting him about how every time he would look at his mangled face, he would remember what he did to Edward and his friends. After getting his face bashed against the mirror a total of four times, Onan passed out from his injuries.

While Onan was down, Courtney freed Alice before checking on Edward's wound. Meanwhile, Ava Clancy recovered from being shot and walked into the apartment. Upon seeing the carnage and Edward's injuries, she immediately called 911 and an ambulance.

She and Aunt Courtney then tried to comfort Edward, believing he was dying. Edward looked into their eyes and told them he was proud of them for standing up for him, before passing out from his injuries as well.

The attack left Edward out of action for a while, with his friend Lewis Jordan taking his place as head investigator until he recovered.  The attack also left Alice Elliott suffering from PTSD and she wound up going to therapy sessions for months.

### Framed for murder

Bill Maglio, having learned of the recent events, decided to launch an investigation into the attacks. In the process, he uncovered troubling evidence of a possible coverup. This investigation caught the attention of Kingfish, who arranged for Bill to be framed for the murder of a prominent US Army general in order to throw Bill off of Kingfish's case. The plan worked; Onan's men were successful in murdering a prominent US Army general and then framing Bill using false evidence.

### Breaking Bill out of prison

Upon learning of the recent events, Courtney Norris and Lewis Jordan visited Bill in the prison he was being held in, where Bill revealed the unsettling discoveries he made prior to his being framed for murder. Promising to clear Bill's name, both Courtney and Lewis swore to find the perps and take them down. Later that night, Onan decided to send hitmen to the prison in order to assassinate Bill to silence him. Coincidentally, Courtney returned to the prison, killed Bill's would-be killers, and broke Bill out of prison, much to Lewis and Edward's surprise. In response, police launched a manhunt for Bill and Courtney, which further emboldened Lewis' mission to prove Bill's innocence.

### Battle at Mirage Restaurant

Following Bill Maglio's escape from Firevault Regional Prison, with help from Jane the Ripper, a police manhunt was launched to find and apprehend Bill and Jane the Ripper. At the same time, Ralph Powell, AKA Black Manta, a freelance hitman, received a tip from an anonymous individual (actually terrorist leader Kingfish operating under an online pseudonym) that Bill Maglio and Jane the Ripper were found in the Delmar Loop and that they needed to be killed. Being the hitman he is, Black Manta took the job without a second thought. He stalked Jane the Ripper and Bill Maglio through the streets of St. Louis, which was noticed by Lewis Jordan and Ralph's own daughter Alana. Deciding to stop Ralph from killing the wrong man, Lewis and Alana decided to intervene in the assassination attempt.

Desperately searching for a means to evade Ralph, Bill and Courtney took shelter inside a restaurant called Mirage, where they kicked out the kitchen staff and barricaded the kitchen against Ralph, though the hitman was able to sneak in through the back door.

In an attempt to distract Ralph, Courtney threw a tin pot at him. While his back was turned, Bill rammed Ralph with a cart containing silverware, then tried to disarm Ralph. This escalated into a hand to hand fight as Bill and Courtney began exchanging powerful blows against Ralph. Eventually, Lewis and Alana were able to reach the kitchen and defuse the situation, arguing that Ralph was going to kill the wrong man and that if Ralph killed Bill and Courtney, he'd go to prison for killing the wrong people.

Ralph was initially hesitant about abandoning the mission, seeing that he was given "proof" that Bill was guilty. However, he relented after Alana implored for him to think about what he would do if he were in Bill's position. The five of them eventually escaped the area before cops arrived.

### Delmar Loop Skirmish

After the Brawl at Mirage Restaurant, Onan Vural decided to take the battle straight to the Maglio family. Deciding to go on the offensive, the Maglio family responded in kind, actively working to hunt down the Babylon Coalition and Black Widow members to help local law enforcement apprehend the criminals. This eventually sowed the seeds for a full-blown war.
On the afternoon of September 26, 2019, Bill Maglio was going to Brentwood to meet up with his wife Diana, who had some new information regarding the Black Widow conspiracy. As he stepped off the train to the Brentwood I-64 Station, he noticed that Bradley Houghton was standing on the platform as well. The two had an intense standoff on the platform, until Bradley opened fire on Bill in full view of the other passengers, causing a mass panic. Bill disarmed Bradley and the fight soon transitioned into a hand-to-hand brawl, with Bill and Bradley exchanging punishing blows on each other. After subduing Bradley, Bill caught sight of several other Babylon Coalition hitmen congregating around a particular spot in the Brentwood station. Suspecting another assassination attempt, he went to confront them, but was unable to reach them in time before the operatives fled the scene.
At the same time the Brentwood Brawl was happening, Ryan Foster ran into Olivia Martin and the rest of Eddie's siblings-Ava, Marsha, and Olivia Maglio-along with the Sisterhood of Anarchy at a supermarket known as The Blue Plane. At this point he was escaping the chaos of the Brentwood Brawl after having personally witnessed Bradley shooting at Bill. Upon learning of the brawl, Marsha insisted that they leave the store and help their father. Before they could make a decision, they were suddenly ambushed by Violette Ross, who was disguised as a street performer, who opened fire on the three of them. Foster pushed Olivia Martin and the Maglio siblings out of harm's way, before engaging in a fistfight with Violette alongside the Sisterhood of Anarchy while the Maglio sisters and Olivia Martin alerted a security guard. Foster was able to defeat Violette by breaking her arm and fracturing her ankle before knocking her unconscious by slamming her head against a table at the nearby Subway restaurant, also located inside the store.

Evergreen Students Lev Raskov and Mason Davidson were heading home after a long day in class, when they was suddenly jumped by a team of Babylon Coalition hitmen led by a guy built like a sumo wrestler. The two exchanged heavy blows, though the sumo wrestler was able to beat them both. The two of them eventually ganged up on the sumo wrestler, incapacitating him by blowing out his eardrums with gun muzzle flashes and eventually killing him by shooting him in the throat.

While this was happening Sezen Ulas was hanging out with Ava Clancy at the Grand Lake Garden, located fifteen minutes away from the Delmar Loop. While this was happening, they were being spied on by Anna Byrne, an assassin for the Babylon Coalition. Anna then tried to gun Sezen and Ava down, only to be subdued by Ava, who later stabbed Anna to death.

At around the same time, Lewis Jordan was reading and doing homework at a Bubble Tea restaurant in Richmond Heights, Missouri. He received a text from Edward Maglio, who was still recovering at the hospital, revealing that he'd watched the news and saw the attacks on his friends and family, imploring for Lewis to be careful on his way home. Lewis smiled to himself and replied that he already knew, but thanked Eddie for the heads up anyway. Immediately afterwards, he noticed a suspicious man sitting at the table across from his own, which worried him. He went to go call the police, but as he did a team of Babylon Coalition operatives broke into the restaurant, under the pretense of robbing the place. Lewis looked down at his silverware, and then began fighting back against the assassins by throwing various different knives at them.

He was able to take down a majority of the assassins and escape the restaurant before he was confronted with reinforcements led by Konstantin Rozhdestvensky, a former Russian Army officer. He braced himself for another round of combat, only to witness Konstantin getting ambushed by a masked Phylis Brathwaite, who was wearing a futuristic black operations battle dress uniform. At first at a loss for words, Lewis watched the melee in disbelief, but eventually got back into the fight after seeing that Brathwaite was outnumbered. After taking down the assassins, Lewis, recognizing Brathwaite's voice, complimented her new outfit and asked where she got the suit from. Brathwaite casuallty replied that she bought it from Ebay, but for some reason the suit came in two weeks late. Confused, Lewis inquired if they ever sold suits like that on Ebay. Brathwaite replied by claiming that the suit's previous owner was a former military grunt who sold the suit after he decided "the uniform didn't fit", before killing another assassin that tried to ambush Lewis from behind. She then told Lewis to come with her. Lewis initially refused, but eventually relented when Brathwaite told him she had a ride for him to use to get home safely.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Chapter X operative known as Ghost Beast went to the Galleria Mall, tailing Indonesian Babylon Coalition operative James Simarmata, who in turn was stalking Leah West, who was meeting her friends Alice Elliott and Geraldine Marx for lunch. Under the pretense of doing a charitable act, Ghost Beast abruptly paid for Leah, Geraldine and Alice's lunch, much to their surprise (however, unbeknownst to them, this was really a facade to get a positive ID on Leah and Alice). During her time with Geraldine and Alice, the two noticed Leah felt incredibly uncomfortable. Geraldine ventured to guess was the result of PTSD from her kidnapping. Leah confirmed Geraldine's suspicions, which led all three girls to realize that people were still after them. Attempting to keep their cool, the two girls changed subjects to talk about more mundane things. However, this did little to alleviate Leah's concerns. Suddenly, James Simarmata ambushed the two girls, holding Alice at knifepoint. A panicked Leah and Geraldine attempted to defuse the situation to avoid another nasty incident. However, Ghost Beast intervened to save Alice's life, leading to a brutal hand-to-hand fight between the two warriors that led to Ghost Beast killing James by disarming him of his knife (the intended murder weapon) and stabbing him to death with it.

### Raid on the Fortress

After the Battle of St. Louis, Jeffrey P. Hoyt, head of Chapter X, discovered intel that Bradley Houghton had fled to the Fortress, a safehouse located in St. Louis, Missouri. After much deliberation, it was eventually decided that Bradley should be killed to deal a huge blow to the morale of both the Babylon Coalition and Black Widow.

To that end, Chapter X operatives Jawhara Al-Saleh and Knox Burton were deployed to downtown St. Louis with orders to find and kill Bradley Houghton, as well as any witnesses.

At around the same time, Lewis Jordan, Phyliss Brathwaite and Mason Davidson, who had been tracking Bradley Houghton for quite some time (with the intention of getting him arrested), came across the Fortress completely by accident, not realizing that they had stumbled upon a Babylon Coalition safehouse until after seeing Bradley entering the building, a run-down brownstone.

On October 2, 2019, about 7:00 PM Central Time, Lewis, Phyliss and Mason entered the building, with the intention of spying on Bradley to figure out his next moves. However, their cover was soon blown when they were spotted by Nathan Thornton. However, at around the same time, masked gunmen broke into the building, intent on assassinating Bradley. They were able to kill quite a large amount of Babylon Coalition assassins and were moments away from assassinating Bradley and Nathan, before they were abruptly stymied by the unexpected intervention of the Reapers. In the ensuing three-way battle, Lewis was able to expose the masked assassins as Jawhara Al-Saleh and Knox Burton, much to Bradley and Nathan's surprise.

Lewis tried to interrogate the two about their mission, but failed when Knox was able to knock Lewis to the ground before firing at Bradley, who fled behind a wall. Nathan Thornton was able to beat Jawhara down and escape the premises, only to be cornered by an arriving squad of policemen and arrested.

Bradley, meanwhile, was able to kill Knox and incapacitate Jawhara before escaping the premises, only to be arrested by another squad of police officers arriving at the scene, attracted by the sounds of the melee coming from within the building. Meanwhile, Lewis, Mason, Phyliss, and Jawhara were able to escape the premises, only to be captured by an arriving team of Black Widow operatives.

In the aftermath of the failed attempt on Bradley's life and their capture, Jawhara plotted a means of escape from Black Widow. The team succeeded, but the previous events became the catalyst for a rift between Chapter X and the Reapers. Despite this, they were still able to work together to fight a common enemy.

## Gallery

Bradley Houghton pursuing Warhawk while he is pursued himself by Chapter X operativesBarry Maglio arguing with someone over how to deal with the Babylon CoalitionEthan Armstrong fleeing Babylon Coalition operatives seeking to kill him