Alexander's Mercenaries are a group of guns-for-hire led by Alexander Kessel, who have been contracted to take down the U.S. interceptor base known as SBX-1.
History[]
Early History[]
After Alexander Kessel was discharged from the United States military after torturing two prisoners to death, he became a mercenary, eventually forming his own team.
When Russian terrorists sought to destroy several cities across the United States in a nuclear attack, they contracted Kessel and his team of mercenaries to assist them in taking down the two interceptor bases to remove America's defences. While he would relegate the task of bringing down the U.S.'s primary interceptor base - Alaska's Fort Greely - to some sub-contractors, Kessel spent six years planning an operation to infiltrate the secondary outpost known as SBX-1, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and hijack it. During the planning stages, Kessel decided that he and his team would pose as idealists who saw America as self-destructive and in need of cleansing, and use acid to disable the controls for the interceptors to ensure they could not be set off.
Eventually, Kessel's mercenaries were able to manipulate the necessary paperwork to get themselves onboard SBX-1, posing as janitors so as to allow them to learn the in-and-outs of the facility without drawing attention to themselves. From within SBX-1, Kessel reviewed the psychiatric files of the people stationed at SBX-1 to identify threats. In addition, Kessel approached Corporal Beaver Baker - who had become disenfranchised with America's ideals - and offered him $10 million to assist his team once the operation was underway. Before the operation was to take place, Kessel had his contact in the Russian terrorist group bribe the crew of the K-83 Danilov to lurk in the waters around SBX-1 so that they could move in once the base's command center was under the mercenaries' control and extract them once the operation was completed.
A few days before Kessel and his mercenaries were ready to begin, Kessel learned that Captain JJ Collins had been reassigned to SBX-1 after a stalling in her career and would arrive on the day of the mercenaries' operation, and Baker warned Kessel that Collins would be trouble and that he should kill her at first chance. While Kessel read her file and believed that there was a chance that he might be able to turn Collins to their side given her history, he took precautions by having an associate travel to Scottsdale where her father lived to use as leverage should the need arise.
Interceptor[]
On the morning of the operation to take down the interceptor bases, as Fort Greely was taken out and the Russian terrorists stole the nuclear missiles they needed from Tavlika, Kessel and Zhang watched from an external platform as the chopper transporting Collins to SBX-1 approached.
As Lieutenant Colonel Clark Marshall and Collins made their way to SBX-1's command center in response to the report on Greely's attack, Kessel and his team began moving to take out the rest of the staff on site, leaking nerve gas into the air conditioning system to put those stationed outside the command center to sleep and allowing the mercenaries to start executing them with ease. As Mikael and Wade were finishing setting up in the corridor adjacent to the command center, Kessel joined them, just as Marshall and Collins were exiting the command center. Locking eyes with Collins and seeing that she had figured out the possibility that there were infiltrators onboard SBX-1, Kessel ordered his people to move.
Wade quickly drew a hidden pistol and shot Marshall in the face, but Collins herself was able to draw her own sidearm and shoot Wade in the chest, killing him. Joined by Kira and Nikolai, Mikael and Kessel opened fire on Collins, forcing her to take cover. Seeing Marshall's exposed access key-card, Kessel ordered his team to grab it, but as Mikael and Nikolai moved up, Collins shot a gas cannister, causing a small blast that knocked the two mercenaries back. While Nikolai was sufficiently stunned, Mikael was able to recover quickly enough to pursue Collins as she retreated towards the command center, tackling her to the ground in the corridor as the blast door sealed shut behind him.
Kessel arrived at the door moments too late, and as Mikael and Collins were fighting, he banged on the door and urged Mikael to open it again via the nearby control panel. The planned ease of the mercenaries' operation was soon derailed as a burst of gunfire during Mikael and Collins' skirmish happened to clip Baker in the side of the head and render him unconscious, and Mikael himself was killed as Collins stabbed him through the eye with the frame of her sidearm.
Kessel started to reassess the threat Collins posed, and the mercenaries began preparing to break through to the command center through alternate means, with Kira and Nikolai bringing in blowtorch equipment to cut their way through the blast doors.
Knowing that they would get through before any help could arrive for Collins and Corporal Rahul Shah, Kessel tried to reason with the holdouts to convince them to grant the mercenaries access, though Collins refused. Soon Ivan brought the not-yet-executed Captain Welsh before Kessel, who tried to use Welsh as a hostage to threaten to force Collins to accede to their demands, though she remained resolute and so he executed Welsh.
Meanwhile, Zhang made his way to the lower external hatch of the command center via the rungs around the bottom of the platform, and once there blasted it open, catching Collins and Shah off-guard as he breached the command center. Before he could shoot Shah, Zhang was tackled aside by Collins, and after the two fought hand-to-hand, Zhang was killed by a shotgun-wielding Collins.
Soon Kira and Nikolai succeeded in the cutting through the first door, and as they and Kessel approached the second door, Baker regained consciousness and retrieved a concealed weapon, which he used to disable Collins and Shah before allowing Kessel's team into the command center. As Kira got to work hacking into the Emergency Broadcast System and setting up a satellite relay, Kessel had Nikolai and Baker tie Collins and Shah to some chairs, as the latter explained his reasons for siding with the mercenaries. Once Kira was done, she patched in the White House's Situation Room so that they could watch as Kessel began broadcasting the mercenaries' intent to the people of America and ordered the first missile be fired at Los Angeles.
Kessel turned to the prisoners, first trying to get Shah to speak out on injustices he'd received, and then revealing Collins' checkered history. Taking Kessel's attention, Collins lured him in before slipping free of her restraints and going for his weapon. As they struggled, a burst of gunfire killed Nikolai and forced Kira and Baker to take cover. Collins then forced Kessel and Baker out of the command center, keeping Ivan at bay with the last of her bullets before re-sealing the blast door.
As the only mercenary left inside the room, Kira fought with Collins, attempting to kill her or otherwise keep her at bay long enough for the L.A.-bound missile to reach the point where it couldn't be stopped. But during their grueling fight, Collins succeeded in launching an interceptor to destroy the nuke, and then killed Kira.
With the rest of their team having been brought down, the remaining mercenaries - Kessel, Ivan and Baker - stood out in the corridor to contemplate their options. Baker fretted over their failure, the consequences they would probably face for an attempting nuking, and reminding Kessel that he'd warned him about taking Collins out at first opportunity.
Kessel then implemented the first of his contingencies, having his comrade in Scottsdale take Collins' father hostage. Before Collins could give in to Kessel's demands to let his team in, Frank urged her to continue fighting, prompting Kessel to order him killed. Though the feed cut off, Kessel and Collins assumed Frank was killed, unaware that Frank's fellow veteran neighbours had stepped in to rescue him.
Angered that this had failed, Kessel had to resort to his final option, which was to sink SBX-1 entirely using the facility's own scuttling protocol. Seeing Shah moving to head to the ballast area to try to stop the process, Baker volunteered to go after him, soon cornering and executing his former comrade.
Moments later, Collins realised the truth in that the mercenaries were not idealist fanatics, and forced Kessel to cut the ongoing EBS feed by threatening to share the Swiss account he was going to be paid into. Kessel finally lost his composure as Collins taped up the window to prevent him from seeing into the command center, and ordered Baker to use the outside rungs to follow Zhang's previous path into the room.
Knowing that if they fled now, their Russian contractors would kill them, Kessel and Ivan were forced to stand by in the corridor, where they received another taunt from Collins over the intercom. Moments later, Baker infiltrated the command center to find Collins had apparently fled onto the roof, and then opened to the blast door to allow the mercenaries inside once more.
Kessel contacted his associates to order them to fire all of the missiles and restarted the EBS feed, while Ivan destroyed the interceptor launch controls with acid and Baker set off in pursuit of Collins. When Baker reported that Collins was not on the roof, Kessel and Ivan began sweeping the command center for her, with Kessel noticing too late as Collins - having hidden inside a hazmat suit - cut down Ivan from behind and used his weapon to force Kessel to flee.
Baker came across Collins as she was about to use a jury-rigged launch control to fire the interceptors, and held her at gunpoint. Collins made the turncoat lower his guard by revealing that Kessel had left, then the pair began fighting hand-to-hand. Baker was dismissive when Collins wrapped some razor wire around his neck, realising too late the danger he was in as she made him plummet through the open hatches, with Baker being decapitated in the fall.
Kessel emerged from the command center after Collins had successfully brought down all of the nukes, and expressed his confidence that he would have another opportunity to bring America down before he engaged her in combat, only to be bested and brought down. Upon seeing the Danilov rise up out of the ocean, Kessel grinned in the expectation that he would get away. However, being disappointed with the failure of his team, the Russian terrorists had decided to cut Kessel loose, and the submarine's Captain had the mercenary shot dead, while Collins was left unharmed.
Members[]
Allies[]
- Corporal Beaver Baker †
- Russian Terrorists
- Fort Greely Infiltrators
- Scottsdale Operative
Goals[]
As a team of mercenaries, Kessel and his people are guns-for-hire, having presumably undertaken a number of illicit jobs for profit. In accordance to the contract they have with a group of Russian terrorists, the team spent several years infiltrating the SBX-1 interceptor base in order to usurp control of it by deadly means, in order to allow their employers the freedom they desire to launch nuclear missiles at the United States. To disguise their role as mercenaries - and thus keep hidden the fact that they were being paid - Kessel acted as though they were a group of fanatics who had tired of America's flaws and wanted to destroy it so that the country could begin anew.
Equipment[]
Weapons[]
To Be Added.
Other[]
- Sulfuric Acid: Tanks of acid which some of the mercenaries carried in packs during their attack, with the intention of using it to disable the launch controls for SBX-1's interceptors. During his fight with Collins, Mikael's tank was damaged and began leaking the sulfuric acid onto the floor, forming a small pool which Mikael's body landed in after he was killed. When the mercs entered the command center a second time, Ivan poured his tank of acid over the interceptor launch controls.
- Blowtorches: After failing to breach the command center before Collins sealed the blast doors, Kira and Nikolai brought in a pair of blowtorches and used them to start cutting around the door, doing so in around 30 minutes. Though they had claimed that they would still be able to use them for the second door, Kessel and the remainder of his team didn't try to use them again after they were locked out of the command center again, apparently deeming that they would not have enough time before reinforcements arrived.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
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