We are the battered shield in the night,
We are the bane of abusive might,
We guard against the wrongs of hate,
And we do it all for one low rate.
Syndicate Soldiers securing a Tezdriani city
Simply put, we deal in security. Plain and simple. We don't enjoy being called "mercenaries", but if that helps you envision what we do, then so be it. For a low, semi-annual rate that is personally tailored to your nation, we offer the protection of our armed forces to your government and your nation. If you are attacked, we will defend you. In the following paragraphs I hope I can convince you of the benefits of the service we provide and add yours to the list of nations that are our patrons. So why, exactly, should you sign a contract with the Security Syndicate? Here are some reasons.
I: We Are Experienced
The Security Syndicate has been protecting nations like yours for well over two decades. We have never once failed to uphold our end of a contract and none of the nations that signed a contract with us have ever backed out. Now that is a track record of success. And that doesn't even touch on the experience of our soldiers. If you think a soldier is an experienced veteran after just one war, imagine what that means for the vast majority of our soldiers that have participated in over ten separate military campaigns in their time of service alone!
If you are going to entrust the security of your nation to someone, why not entrust it to a company that other countries have been trusting for nearly thirty years?
II: We Are Reliable
At the Security Syndicate we have a saying that goes, "Our Contracts are as Good as Gold." This is represented by the gold in our flag. You've probably already wondered, "If they are a company operating for profit, what's to keep them from ditching me for a better offer." It's simple, really. We have a reputation to protect. We have never flipped on a client and we never will. We have honor to protect and we have our name to defend. In the security business, your reputation is everything. If word gets around that we flip on our clients, our business will be utterly ruined. We would probably lose close to one hundred percent of our clients. We don't trust people who sell out their friends, and we don't expect you to either.
Our soldiers are professional and highly trained. Our men have never "gone rogue" inside a client's nation and only ever act within the parameters set by our clients. When they leave for a campaign, we make them put at least $50,000 worth each on deposit with us. If they want their wages and their deposit, they must return home with their unit. If any soldier is found to engage in unprofessional behavior, they do not get their deposit back and are discharged from our service post-haste. Needless to say that this incentive ensures that our soldiers rarely disobey orders and never maraud or go absent without leave.
To show you how confident we are in the discipline of our men, we guarantee you that if our soldiers do maraud or cause damage to property in your nation that was neither authorized by your government nor necessary in the line of duty, we will pay for 200% of all damages and personally ensure that the soldier(s) in question is/are held accountable for their actions.
In the event of any conflict, we equip our own men with our own guns, our own ammunition, our own artillery, our own food, our own water, and our own medicine as well as other assorted supplies. It is our policy to never share supplies with our clients' forces. We also pay for any costs that our forces may incur in action.
Because your patronage is so valuable to us, we employ an army of representatives and liaisons to meet with you and give you free tactical and financial consultations. We also permit our clients to rent the time of our generals and officers for such consultations if need be.
A Syndicate representative meeting with another
satisfied client
III: We Save the Lives of Your People
The true horror of war is losing the lives of one's countrymen. But the more of your enemies we fight, the smaller the number of your citizens that must die defending their nation. The benefits of this are numerous: Your population suffers less during war, your economy is not as impacted by a war (as fewer of your citizens will have to leave their jobs behind), and of course the media of your nation will have much smaller casualty numbers to hurl at you come election time.
The above are just three of many reasons as to why you should entrust the SSBP with the security of your nation. I do hope I have convinced you.
~Peter Cantrell, Customer Relations
How do our contracts work?
If you sign a contract with the Security Syndicate of the Black Plains, we offer you a guarantee that we will not only protect you in defensive conflicts, but also supplement any of your offensive conflicts with one man of ours for every ten of yours (if you can prove that your attack was provoked or pre-emptive, we will give you one man for every four of yours). If you attack the Black Plains, your contract is void. If you initiate hostilities against another client of ours, your contract is void. Those are the two big rules. If you are at conflict with a client of the Security Syndicate we will not initiate a contract with you until the conflict has come to a close.
What does your "protection" entail?
Offensive conflicts work a bit differently, but if your nation is under attack (even if it is a counter-attack), we will fight the enemy with as much strength as we can until one of three things occur: They are expunged from your territory, peace is made, or your contract expires. Don't worry, though, we know how expensive war is. During a conflict we reduce the amount of money you must pay us and we will accept bonds as payment for the duration of the conflict. If you have been our customer long enough, we will likely waive all payments during war-time altogether.
Sounds expensive...
Not at all. Allow me to give you a run-down of how our prices work. We decide how much your semi-annual payment will be based off of several factors. I will explain each one to you.
Your nation's size: Not only does your nation's size often determine how much you are able to pay, but it also helps us determine how much of a risk there is that you will go to war in the near future. Smaller nations are less likely to be attacked than larger nations, for instance.
How many wars you've been in recently: We've never turned anyone away for being attacked too much, but a nation that has engaged in nine wars in the past five years is much riskier than one who has gone twenty years without any conflict. This plays a major role in our risk calculations. This also plays to your benefit, however. After you sign a contract with us, the longer you go without a war, the less we will require you to pay. Essentially, as your risk goes down, so too does your rate.
What alliances you're a part of: This factor can be good or bad, really. If you are a member of a particularly bellicose alliance, it might drive your rate up a bit. Peaceful alliances geared towards diplomacy, however, often have a positive effect.
What region you're in: Regions known for unrest drive up the risk involved with protecting your nation significantly.
Then there are things that we do not consider such as:
Religion
Ethnicity
Type of Government
Ability to Pay (we give you a rate that we believe is equal to your risk and you choose to accept or refuse it)
Say, do you guys do...?
No. The answer may be yes, but it's probably no. If you want any of these things:
Assassinations
Sabotage
Fomentation of Rebellion
Terrorism
Enslavement
Kidnapping
then the answer is a resounding no. Once again: We have an image to protect. If you are having trouble with your nation's populace (e.g. you are facing rebellion or civil disorder) then we will work out a deal in private. With those sorts of things we operate on a "pay-as-you-need-it" basis. That being said, we are liable to refuse to use excessive or deadly force against unarmed civilians. Our soldiers are trained to deal with riots, but killing innocent civilians is something we tend to avoid.
If you submit an application, a representative will contact you with information including your semi-annual rate.
PLEASE NOTE: If your nation is considered to be a particularly risky customer, we reserve the right to include a co-pay clause in your contract, meaning that if you go to war you will have to pay us a certain amount of money in order to receive aid from us. This is in addition to your annual rate. This policy is to discourage needless wars. If you go long enough without war, we will remove the co-pay clause. Asking our clients to include a co-pay in their contract is extremely rare.
The Security Syndicate is the proud Partner of the GE&T Central Security Corporation.
OOC: It is up to you if you want to make these contracts canon. I would be more than willing to RP with you in the event of an actual engagement.
EDIT: Constructive criticism is valued. Mostly because it drives up thread activity.
