International Aid Association

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"Long as I remember the rain been comin' down*

*Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground.*

*Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun.*

*And I wonder still I wonder who'll stop the rain.*

- "Who'll Stop the Rain", Credence Clearwater Revival

## At a Glance

 **Motives** | Philanthropy, Humanitarianism, Generosity, Concern

## Background

### How to Save a Life

The world is wrapped in conflict today. No matter where a person lives some trace of war's madness seeps into daily life. Civilians worldwide are beset by battles of mercenaries, terrorists, and the detritus of armed conflict. These innocent people needed a lifeline, but there was always a cost. The Soviets and Allies made no attempt to hide their attempts to pull civilians over to their colors. International Inc. supplied some aid, but often it was because their equipment was used in the fighting. The Legion wouldn't help without at least a few hundred lira, and the Empire only sent token aid efforts, focusing on their own people no matter what had happened.

Of course, there are those in the world who can't stand by and let suffering happen. From the Red Cross, various national and international aid agencies quickly started banding together shortly before WWIII, knowing that alone they would easily be overwhelmed by the sheer number of desperate people that would need aid. Unfortunately, this meant that these aid organizations needed to streamline their operations. Many nations had varying levels of health care compared to others, there was certainly a discrepancy between Kuwait's healthcare system and France's.

Suffice to say, the war essentially gutted the world's aid groups. But the world wasn't ready to stop fighting yet, and the world needed someone to continue to standby with compassion and a load of bandages. Learning from the chaos that was WWIII, the aid organizations coalesced with the general belief that more could, and needed to be done. Money was pooled, vehicle fleets were created, and a formal organization was formed with the headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

As of 1969, the International Aid Association is spread throughout numerous branches in countries all over the world, from Allied member nations to the Soviet Union to neutral bloc members. Relying on a combination of volunteer work, international fundraising efforts, and donations from hosting governmental organizations, they have managed to successfully integrate themselves as a group without interests: were governmental agencies like the ACIN or KGB ever found to have misused Aid Branch services for the purposes of infiltration or cover, there would be a significant public backlash as well as an international trial against the government in question. Even groups like Legion Security respect the members of the Association, as utilitarianism no matter how foolish is appreciated when it means the difference between life and death for you and your buddies.

And just as the world sees more and more need for intervention and relief, so too has the International Aid Association seen an increase in activity. Wherever the relief forces of the world's power players go, the Association can be found not far behind, doing their best to assist...without doing harm.

## Unique Faction Mechanics

The IAA, due to their pacifist status, are completely unable to harm any unit at all, either directly or indirectly. No units have weapons, no units can even a scrap of damage, and vehicles cannot run down infantry.

The IAA are useful, however, in that they can field very useful noncombat support units with a wide variety of uses to assist your forces. As well as this, due to being a humanitarian charity, no IAA unit is automatically fired upon.

## Relief Volunteers

*"This is greater than us, Mr. Trudeau. What we have failed to do with tanks we must instead do with works. Where we failed with carpet bombing we must succeed with medical aid. Yes, it does take more time and effort to heal a population than shoot a terrorist. Yet when we heal the wounds caused by a terrorist, when we combat the reasons for a terrorist to be born, then we have achieved victory."*

- John MacAulay, testifying in the Canadian parliament for greater funding for the IAA.

### Deathmatch Reinforcements

**International Medical Guard**

In light of not only the atrocities committed by the so-called "Axis" powers towards allegedly neutral medical personnel during WW3, but also the seemingly ever-rising number of monstrous or, better said, "nonhuman" factions that seem to acknowledge no such neutrality the IAA has begun to suffer serious losses in the field.

Despite this they still refuse to arm themselves, stating that while some of these nonhumans may attack them, that could well just be evil commanders, not inherently evil beings much like the case with the Axis. All the same, in a rare show of cross-faction collaboration, the International Medical Guard or IMG was founded by those factions who do respect the neutrality of medics to protect the beloved IAA.

A strictly voluntary posting, the IMG provides actual combat capability for the IAA, despite the latters somewhat muted protests that something like that will only aggravate attacks on them. To alleviate these fears, the IMG is mainly focused on diverting enemy fire towards them, with comparatively weak armaments but armaments all the same and high health and armor pools combined with abilities that focus enemy fire onto them, or make it harder to attack their unarmed charges while they go about their work.

 File:IconIAA.png | Shieldkeepers
 File:IconIAA.png | Tank Gunner
 File:IconIAA.png | Matilda Protector