PMCG Subcontractor - Task Force 281

[BunkyB]

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Faction Expansion

Short Description: Task Force 281 is a subcontractor of the Private Military Contracting Group, which was released this morning. Additions to the faction were encouraged and I wrote this up quickly.

How will this be reflected on-station?: Potential characters when PMCG comes around in NBT.

Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: It is a PMC that provides a service that isn't provided by any of the current PMCs.

Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways that you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: You bet.

Long Description:

VER.1

Quote

Task Force 281 is a highly diverse collaboration of Mercenary Pilots and Airmen headquartered on Crosk and being a relatively new PMC, Task Force 281 is an amalgam of many, smaller groups of Mercenaries. Task Force 281 aims to provide a top-quality squadron of trained and skilled Pilots to almost anyone who pays.
Each sub-member of Task Force 281 have widely varying skill-sets that allow the Task Force to provide professional Pilots for any mission, from escorting, transportation, reconnaissance, air patrols, ground attack, bombardment, orbital, sub-orbital, short-range and long-range; Task Force 281 has all bases covered.

Although under the new PMCG banner and by extension, the Task Force 281 name, many Mercenary Pilots still strictly operate with other members of their mercenary group, the largest are:
Master Key Consortium: The Master Key Consortium is frequently hired for long-range missions, usually along the Coalitions borders to the Human Wildlands. MKC Pilots and Airmen pride themselves for their ability to co-ordinate extraordinarily long flights that their sister groups couldn't manage. They have been known to employ people of any species.
Maroon Squadron: The Maroon Squadron is known, rather infamously, for their employment of a rather large contingent of Solarian Pilots be they military veterans or not. Maroon Squadron exclusively muster flight wings of orbital fighters and interceptors to patrol planets at high speeds with high efficiency. They are known to employ Humans and some Skrell.
Skyshield Team: Skyshield are often considered the brains of Task Force 281, employing a larger number of radar technicians and analysts, these mercenaries are the most common you'll see manning positions outside of flight, places like Stations, larger Ships and Airbases are the home to most Skyshield members. Skyshield employs the most people compared to the other members of Task Force 281, with a majority of their hires being guards to protect their many portable radar stations. Skyshield Team employs people of all species.

 

 

VER.2

Task Force 281 is a highly diverse collaboration of Mercenary Pilots and Airmen headquartered on Crosk and being a relatively new PMC, Task Force 281 is an amalgam of many, smaller groups of Mercenaries. Task Force 281 aims to provide a top-quality squadron of trained and skilled Pilots to almost anyone who pays. Each sub-member of Task Force 281 have widely varying skill-sets that allow the Task Force to provide professional Pilots for any mission, from escorting, transportation, reconnaissance, air patrols, ground attack, bombardment, orbital, sub-orbital, short-range and long-range; Task Force 281 has all bases covered. Prior to its introduction to the Private Military Contracting Group, it was an amalgamation of different mercenary groups; Master Key Consortium, Maroon Squadron, and Skyshield Team. It now operates as a singular subcontractor. 

The Master Key Consortium is frequently hired for long-range missions, usually along the Coalitions borders to the Human Wildlands. MKC Pilots and Airmen pride themselves for their ability to co-ordinate extraordinarily long flights that their sister groups couldn't manage. They have been known to employ people of any species. The Maroon Squadron is known, rather infamously, for their employment of a rather large contingent of Solarian Pilots be they military veterans or not. Using the local terrain knowledge of their Pilots, the Maroon Squadron is confident in almost exclusively muster flight wings of orbital fighters and interceptors to patrol planets in the Northern Wildlands at high speeds with high efficiency. They are known to employ Humans and some Skrell, all with Piloting expertise. Skyshield are often considered the brains of Task Force 281, employing a larger number of radar technicians and analysts, these mercenaries are the most common you'll see manning positions outside of flight, places like Stations, larger Ships and Airbases are the home to most Skyshield members, with most, if not all of their members having unrivaled expertise when working in EVA due to the amount of time needing to be spent on maintenance of their equipment. Skyshield employs the most people compared to the other members of Task Force 281, with a majority of their hires being guards to protect their many portable radar stations. Skyshield Team employs people of all species.

Edited November 6, 2021 by BunkyB
Added the second version, applying Caels formatting and adding two extra tidbits that fluff out MS and Skyshield.

[Caelphon]

Please use the correct application format. Thank you. 

[BunkyB]

6 minutes ago, Caelphon said:

Please use the correct application format. Thank you. 

Got this out and forgot it, thanks.
Updated with format.

[Caelphon]

Thank you for your application! 

How does the below sound? I think its best to avoid smaller headings. 

Quote

Task Force 281 is a highly diverse collaboration of Mercenary Pilots and Airmen headquartered on Crosk and being a relatively new PMC, Task Force 281 is an amalgam of many, smaller groups of Mercenaries. Task Force 281 aims to provide a top-quality squadron of trained and skilled Pilots to almost anyone who pays. Each sub-member of Task Force 281 have widely varying skill-sets that allow the Task Force to provide professional Pilots for any mission, from escorting, transportation, reconnaissance, air patrols, ground attack, bombardment, orbital, sub-orbital, short-range and long-range; Task Force 281 has all bases covered. Prior to its introduction to the Private Military Contracting Group, it was an amalgamation of different mercenary groups; Master Key Consortium, Maroon Squadron, and Skyshield Team. It now operates as a singular subcontractor. 

The Master Key Consortium is frequently hired for long-range missions, usually along the Coalitions borders to the Human Wildlands. MKC Pilots and Airmen pride themselves for their ability to co-ordinate extraordinarily long flights that their sister groups couldn't manage. They have been known to employ people of any species. The Maroon Squadron is known, rather infamously, for their employment of a rather large contingent of Solarian Pilots be they military veterans or not. Maroon Squadron exclusively muster flight wings of orbital fighters and interceptors to patrol planets at high speeds with high efficiency. They are known to employ Humans and some Skrell. Skyshield are often considered the brains of Task Force 281, employing a larger number of radar technicians and analysts, these mercenaries are the most common you'll see manning positions outside of flight, places like Stations, larger Ships and Airbases are the home to most Skyshield members. Skyshield employs the most people compared to the other members of Task Force 281, with a majority of their hires being guards to protect their many portable radar stations. Skyshield Team employs people of all species.

Edited November 6, 2021 by Caelphon

[BunkyB]

8 minutes ago, Caelphon said:

Task Force 281 is an amalgam of

Contradicts with

8 minutes ago, Caelphon said:

Prior to its introduction to the Private Military Contracting Group, it was an amalgamation of

I'd be happy no matter which option you pick, I'm fine with the formatting.

[Lucaken]

While I take no issue with the writing itself after Caelphon's edit, I am a bit unsure if this will see that much use with the NBT. Based on what you wrote, I assume you expect people contracted from 281 to be Bridge Crew in terms of their job - the prompt really only allows for that. From what I have been told, Bridge Crew are going to be SCC-contracted only, which presents an issue. While yes, you could have characters who are originally from 281 and then get hired to be Bridge Crew under the SCC, that feels like a very niche implementation. 

I do not know what the 'limit' is going to be on the number of PMCG groups, but I feel this would take up a slot that could be used better. I would rather see this group molded into just one entity, and then perhaps made into a sub-faction of a larger member of the PCMG.

[BunkyB]

While two of the sub-groups don't provide much backstory for on-ship characters, I tried to allow security characters to interact as a part of Skyshield.

4 hours ago, BunkyB said:

these mercenaries are the most common you'll see manning positions outside of flight, places like Stations, larger Ships and Airbases are the home to most Skyshield members. Skyshield employs the most people compared to the other members of Task Force 281, with a majority of their hires being guards to protect their many portable radar stations.

MKC and MS don't allow much for characters and I'll admit that. I'm not at all against having my submission superseded or attached to another PMC.
 

 

12 minutes ago, Lucaken said:

I would rather see this group molded into just one entity

They operate independently under the name of one entity, much similar to the EPMC, now PMCG. EPMCs are mostly independent of one another and take contracts separately, that is what I was aiming for with 281.

[ImmortalRedshirt]

While I am pretty satisfied with the number of PMCs that are on the wiki, I do believe that this is a pretty significant niche that none seemed to include, and really, it's a good concept. I like that what this group does is written with the intention of "we need a PMC that can do x" over "we need a PMC that comes from y", while still acknowledging the latter, as I see skill being a way more important thing to consider than nationality or even species in the case for all except MS. Were this to go through, Caelphon's formatting would also be preferred.

Overall, solid idea that knows what's important to focus on.

[Faye <3]

task force 281 is an incredibly generic name. it sounds more like something from an activision game. 

[Alberyk]

What this introduces character or background wise that the other contractors options in security or medical won't be able to?

[stev]

Not going to lie, I'm a little confused about whether this is supposed to focus on being a COC PMC or a Solarian one - while based (in Crosk), it has very little link to the Coalition outside of that; if anything, it has a more solid link to Sol with Maroon Squadron's noted Solarian military presence. It's also a little concerning to me that there's such potential for massive internal conflict purely within this subfaction with the split focus between Solarian and COC military personnel.

[BunkyB]

6 hours ago, Faye &lt;3 said:

task force 281 is an incredibly generic name.

Suggestions are always welcome.

 

4 hours ago, Alberyk said:

What this introduces character or background wise that the other contractors options in security or medical won't be able to?

Skyshield is the main focus here, they give a unique background of specialists trained to work with radar and sensors, similar to how N4NL has a cybersecurity background.
Skyshields part in 281 allows any potential characters to be able to identify vessels, include limited technical jargon in their speech and something I forgot to mention originally, their proficiency in EVA.

 

2 hours ago, stev said:

Not going to lie, I'm a little confused about whether this is supposed to focus on being a COC PMC or a Solarian one - while based (in Crosk), it has very little link to the Coalition outside of that; if anything, it has a more solid link to Sol with Maroon Squadron's noted Solarian military presence. It's also a little concerning to me that there's such potential for massive internal conflict purely within this subfaction with the split focus between Solarian and COC military personnel.

I decided to not nail MKC or Skyshield down to any specific race or species due to how extraordinarily diverse the CoC is.
Maroon Squadron doesn't exclusively hire Solarians, rather they hire Solarians due to their technical, regional and local knowledge, primarily taking contracts in the Human Wildlands.

 

 

I'm willing to update my suggestion based on how the subfactions progress over time, it's difficult to think out exactly what I want from my submission before I post it. I will be updating my original post with the added tidbits.

[DeadLantern]

I really don't see how this will make our PMCG roster more interesting. They recruit pilots, okay. I will remind you that piloting in our lore has never been established. We have no idea if piloting consists of hotshot mercenaries galivanting around the Galaxy, using their superior skills and luck to narrowly dodge asteroids and star-stuff while in transit, or if piloting is a methodical, monotonous job where one must be constantly checking your programming and your surroundings, adapting and changing your direction ever so slightly for even the subtlest of disturbances. Piloting may also consist of a dude pressing a few buttons and letting the system do the rest of the work.

Let me ask you this: What does this PMCG group exactly accomplish? What unique niche does it fill? If it is the unique niche of having cool pilots... you can already have that. Just have them be part of a different corporation or group and be a bridge crew person. There is nothing else this group accomplishes besides having cool pilots. Sure, there are short descriptions of how they fly differently or they're part of this country, but these are superficial changes at best. They represent little to no change in the actual roleplay besides the mere fact of including different countries. I really don't see why this should be added until it becomes more unique.

[BunkyB]

2 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

I really don't see why this should be added until it becomes more unique.

Would you like to contribute to it?

[DeadLantern]

I'm a bit busy, but you could always bounce ideas off me or ask for my opinion on something. I could write a small thing here or there, just solicit me at my DMs. My discord is DeadLantern#5679

Edited November 7, 2021 by DeadLantern

[Caelphon]

After speaking with the Lore Team, we have decided that the PMCG will instead have an addition revolving around space-based operations. Thank you for your application, however, we are denying it.