Obsidian Shield

A competent mercenary company that lost a contract and a contractor on the same day, and has not been allowed to forget either.

Overview

Obsidian Shield is a mid-tier private military company: professional, unromantic, and good at the work. They take contracts, scout properly, and break off cleanly when a job turns. Orion Dynamics hired them to recover the X-43 loader mech from a jungle moon out in Jovia, which was an ordinary contract that they lost in an ordinary way — to a competing crew who got there first and fought better.

What they believe happened

• They were beaten to the objective by a better-positioned crew
• Their own contractor was bought mid-firefight, which is the part that stings
• The man did not even leave afterward. He stayed with the people who paid
• Nobody has offered them another explanation, and no other explanation is available

Goals

• Recover the reputation. A company that loses a job to its own man has a problem it cannot advertise its way out of
• Find out what Vance is doing now — not necessarily to kill him. A conversation would do
• Take the next contract, because the next contract is how this stops being the story

Relationships

• Orion Dynamics — the client they failed. Not a relationship that survived the invoice
• Kadiri Vance — a former contractor who took a better offer mid-firefight

Status

Still taking contracts, and taking worse ones than they did a year ago.