2230AD Annal Entries

Annalist Coldfeet Cipriani, This Twenty-First of April, In the Year of Our Lord 1363.*
I must write these words in my mother tongue, no doubt in doing so I commit a grave disservice to the history of these annals by ending the tradition of the previous Annalists than came before me. Captain Hawkwood has elevated me to the position of Company Annalist, though I must admit this promotion seems as much a punishment as it is an honour. God Almighty knows how far back these ancient annals go, and some pages are so damaged as to be indecipherable even if there were any of my brothers left that spoke the tongue of this great company’s founders. The previous annalist Sir Page, Christ have mercy upon him, passed away before he could properly teach the language to me. No fault of his, given that it was also not his native tongue, the last native speaker died years before I ever signed on. We are left with a few phrases, a pauper’s version of a translation for some sections and a handful of trinkets and relics passed down from brother to brother over the years. Not to mention that -thing- inside the accursed sarcophagus…
What little we can translate of the old works seems to be bordering on the fantastical and not a little heretical. Had I not seen evidence of some of these events and abilities with my own eyes I would have dismissed it as fanciful storytelling and superstition, which is saying a lot coming from a mercenary soldier.  Dragons, undead, sorcerous witchcraft and the fall of nations and peoples that I have never even heard of in all Christendom. It is my summation that, in the Company’s ancient past, it must have campaigned as far abroad as the distant lands of the Orient that the likes of Marco Polo and others have written of. Possibly it was even founded there,** which would help explain the foreign artefacts and customs that distinguish us from the many other newly formed free companies.
Perhaps it is for the best that the pagan excerpts of those brothers who came before us remain shrouded in mystery, given our new contract with the Papacy. Having finished our campaign in the Pyrenes of Spain we go now to Italy, across the Alps. Captain Hawkwood anticipates hard fighting upon our arrival, and so we train whenever time permits. Even a Christian man such as myself recognises that a mercenary’s life is oft a sinful one, the words of the company shall guide us in whatever tongue it is spoken. “Black Hearts. Cold Steel. Dark Deeds."


*AI Annalist Note: Julian Calendar.
**AI Annalist Note: Given the lack of resemblance surviving artefacts have to any contemporary civilisations at or pre-dating this entry, this conclusion appears to be erroneous.

1363: The first wholly translated entry of the Annals, written in Latin. Annalist notes from this era indicate that the Company had been established for quite some time prior to this and had been recruiting heavily from the regions of France, Spain, Italy and England after enjoying significant success during the Hundred Years War. Unfortunately, the numbers of those fluent in the previous Annal language appear to have been severely diminished by the Black Death and other epidemics. By the time of this first Latin entry, the native speakers appear to have completely died out. Earlier entries prove impossible to accurately translate from the dead language, though carbon dating indicates that the oldest manuscripts date back at least several hundred years prior to the 1363 entries.
The practice of Latin entries continues well into the 20th century, during which time the Company’s strength ranges from as many as several thousand registered combatants to as few as a dozen individuals. The Annals generally focus on individuals and daily reports, with little context for the greater historical picture at the time. Nonetheless, several inferences can be made from those entries that have survived and been translated.

1450: Failure to honour promises of payment by Byzantium officials leads to the Company severing their contract and offering their services to the Ottoman rivals. Three years later, the city of Constantinople falls. What part the Company played in this is unclear, but the contemporary entry includes an attached calculation of the pay in arrears, later offset with interest by the city’s loot being divided amongst the Company according to the age-old ‘Rule of Quarters’.
1643: After the conclusion of a lengthy contract with the Spanish, the Company is hired to bolster the English New Model Army during the invasion of Ireland. Annalist Kettle freely admits to the Company participating in many of the atrocities reported there, despite the majority of its members being predominantly of Catholic origin at that time, but the contract proves to be healthy for the Company’s future. Further entries by Kettle and successor Annalists confirm that the Company is regularly hired by contacts in the burgeoning British Empire from then on, most notably by the East Trading Company and in the American Colonies.
1815: Annal entries indicate that the Company formed a significant part of the mercenary contingent of Emperor Napoleon’s Grande Armeé, most notably their distinction in the Battle of the Three Emperors. This entry implies that the previous relationship between Company Captains and British contacts must have at least soured somewhat. By the time of the Battle of Waterloo however, the Company was engaged in a regime change contract on the South American continent.
1917: Annal entries detailing which front the Company fought on during WWI have been damaged irrevocably, though the entries suggest that serious casualties were endured. Nonetheless it is clear, from Annalist Grey Gosling’s frustration with new Cossack recruits and the White Army Command, that the Company went on to participate in the Russian Civil War.
1944: Following the death of Rommel, whom Annalist Hindenburg refers to as ‘a friend of the Black’, the Company is redeployed to the flagging Eastern Front and suffers heavy casualties. After a violent confrontation with an SS brigade attempting to cull any ‘undesirables’ from their remaining units, as few as a dozen soldiers survive being hunted by both German and Soviet patrols. Unable to write Latin, Annalist God-Save-Ireland begins the practice of making entries in English. This continues to the present day.

1969: The Cold War proves to be an especially profitable period for the Company, its numbers recover over several campaigns in Indochina, Latin America and the Mideast that draw on many veteran recruits from both sides. This practice continues well into the 21st century, during which the practice of backing up Annal entries electronically in what is known as the Archive comes to the fore. From this point the Annals are entirely intact and legible, though access to some sections of the Archive are restricted to senior ranks only.

2052: The Black Company is one of the most well-known and successful Private Military Contractors in the world, recruiting globally from the best of the ex-services of various rising continental superpowers. Careful to maintain its independence, the Company does not align itself too closely with any particular faction and fosters a reputation for professional discretion. A series of high-profile assassinations, member-nation coups and clandestine missions serve to prevent an all-out industrial scale conflict between the major powers for several decades aside from a few noteworthy brushfire wars. The Company’s participation in these side theatres is well recorded and profitable, but any records that might shed some light on its involvement in the arena of covert operations is heavily restricted.
2092: The Gethsemanie Blitz. Three years before First Contact with alien life is achieved, the attempted secession of the verdant Gethsemanie System leads to mankind’s first interstellar war. Already deployed to police actions in neighbouring New Antioch, Company forces slip past orbital defence stations undetected and make landfall on Gethsemanie using experimental orbital insertion technology. Having arrived several months before the main Earth Republic force, the main Gethsemanie spaceports are secured before the first Republic ships enter the system. Most independent faction ships, military and civilian, are reported destroyed or sabotaged in Company after-action reports, but requests for the handover of these supposed wreckages by Republic officials are routinely stonewalled or ignored.
2100: Don’t ask, don’t tell. Republic of Earth law prohibits human mercenary companies from offering their services to alien entities, a piece of legislation that the Company lobbies heavily against. Records that might implicate the Company being in breach of this law in the outer colonies are restricted. Following requests for assistance by the amiable Belcossan against the Kroll threat, Company activities in those distant territories are largely ignored if not outright encouraged to work alongside official Republic taskforces. Annalist Yuri Young makes repeated jests regarding the liberal definition of ‘private security roles’ throughout this period.
2120: Victory at Lone Pine. With Republic of Earth and unofficial mercenary assistance, the Belcossans successfully retake their colony of Lone Pine from the Kroll. The success of the Human/Belcossan alliance continues to bear fruit, with the Belcossans in turn providing significant aid to the then-struggling human colony of Three Pines, a world similar to their natural climate but far removed from Spring Unity borders. Belcossan immigrant family branches are welcomed to this human border colony with open arms.
2132: The First Siege of Three Pines. The Earth Republic and Belcossan Spring Unity hands an embarrassing defeat to the Royal Savis Empire and its Pect’Max tributaries at the conclusion of the First Siege of Three Pines. Company forces using refined orbital insertion tech were the only friendly reinforcements to make it through the Savis blockade in the first few months. Annalist Yolk mentions that a survivor of the local Belcossan Branch Unit, Thorns-Beneath-Flowers, joined the Company as a permanent member sometime after landfall. This is the first recorded instance of a xeno being recruited into the ranks of the Black Company. Annalist Yolk goes on to describe in detail the months long guerrilla campaign the Company engaged in against Pect’Max forces across the entire Lakota Range. Interestingly, this landmark does not appear in any modern maps of Three Pines which implies that the location’s name was colloquial in nature or otherwise entirely obliterated during the more pyrrhic Second Siege of Three Pines in 2213 in which the Company did not partake.
2150: The Third Faenwedhe Incursion. The Federation is ravaged by the enigmatic Faenwedge threat, stretched to the limit the Federation forces hire any mercenary cohort they can to shore up their military power. Although far removed from Federation space aside from the bustling tradeport of Perspira, the Republic of Earth sends expeditionary forces and humanitarian efforts to assist. Years of lobbying to remove restrictions on human mercenary activities outside Republic of Earth space has resulted in the legislation being watered down to being largely ineffectual legalspeak, so long as RoE interests are not compromised. Company contact with the Faenwedhe themselves is fairly limited, instead being deployed on worlds bordering the Royal Savis Empire after their attempts to seize remote colonies during the incursion. Annalist Armitage notes that this is the first recorded instance of the Company has officially operated on an alien payroll. Such contracts prove to be extremely lucrative.
2166: The Chorkum Intervention. A convoy of RoE merchant ships to Yibrak space, escorted by Company frigates, is saved from an overwhelming Kroll raid beyond the demilitarized zone by a single Holy Chorkrum Empire vessel of staggering size. The rescue appears to have been an unintended consequence of the ship hunting Kroll vessels that had strayed into their nation’s borders.
2173: The Calypso. A Black Company ship is destroyed in orbit over the Vesh planet of Blackspire. It is unclear whether the ship’s presence in the system was a navigational error or some other purpose. Despite attempts at mediation between the RoE and Federation council members, the Vesh make no apology for the attack.
2185: The Standoff. A minor habitable moon on the border of Federation and Republic of Earth space becomes a major point of contention between the two powers. While both sides stand down after mediation efforts without a shot being fired (officially), Annalist Yolk reports that a proxy war for control over the most hotly contested sites for initial colonisation.
2198: Kroll space goes silent, the first year since initial contact with the aggressive reavers that no hostile ship has breached the demilitarized zone.
2200: The Rot. First symptomatic reports originate from the Belcossan capital of Spring.
2201: The Valkyrie Outbreak. The first recorded case of a Rot-infected patient on Earth soil.
2203: The Fall of Hightower. Earth enters planetwide quarantine.
2205: Disaster at Gethsemanie. Numerous other worlds across Savis, Yibrak and Federation space also go dark.
2207: The Grand Armada. World after world is cleansed in fiery bombardment, with all vessels attempting to flee ruthlessly destroyed.
2209: The Fall of the Anatolia Defence Line. With the collapse of containment efforts centred around Istanbul, the spread of the Rot becomes unstoppable as advanced stages of the plague specimens wreak havoc in the designated ‘safe zones’.
2209-2210: Earthfall. With the Republic of Earth Systems governments effectively non-existent or fled, all attempts preserving existing safezones are effectively abandoned. Faced with the choice of holding out indefinitely against impossible odds or securing their own survival, Black Company higher-ups begin taking more extreme measures to secure their own survival.
When the thermo-nuclear silos of Earth are launched in a spiteful attempt to deny the remaining ecosystem to the pervasive Rot, a full 48 hours notice was given to those remaining planetside inhabitants. For some, this would be their last chance to seek escape. For the vast majority of Earth’s populace however, this was a death sentence. Where possible emergency extractions were launched for teams stranded around the world, but for the most part Company members had the make their own way to the rendezvous point by any means necessary. The fate of the contemporary annalist is unknown, though she was presumed lost some time after the fall of the Anatolia Defence Line. There are all too many archived first hand accounts of the harsh measures some had to take to get to their ticket off-world. Safe zones abandoned and left to the Rot without thought for safe evacuation of the residents, families evicted from their vehicles at gunpoint, mobs of refugees mowed down as they swarmed the landing zone… There are few surviving veterans of the Fall of Earth that do not have their own unique horror story.
Records detailing how the Black Company came into possession of a prototype REV battleship are restricted, though one can infer that the Republic did not just give away such a valuable piece of equipment.

2213: The Second Siege of Three Pines. The remnants of the Republic of Earth and majority of refugees successfully expunge the growing infestation on the small alpine world. The extremes measures taken to achieve victory, plus the lingering effect of the Rot itself, does irreversible damage to the planet’s ecosystem. The world is likely to become utterly uninhabitable  in a few short decades. The Black Company took no part in this battle, and these last RoE holdouts would fall into anarchy in the aftermath due to losses sustained and critical supply shortages in the face of the massive refugee crisis.

>>>Post Earthfall to Current date
The Company is primarily hired by Savis, Yibrak and Federation forces to continue to clear out persistent Rot infestations, though at a pittance of what they would normally be able to charge. Given that a significant portion of the Company is derived from survivors of Earth Republic Regiments, contracts assisting these xenos empires in pacifying scattered human colonies are refused until the financial and material situation of the Company becomes truly dire.

Although still paid a fraction of what a xenos mercenary outfit might charge, the rates of the Company are significantly more lucrative than what a human in most other professions can expect to earn. The unofficial ban on alien recruits is lifted. Humans still make up the vast majority of the Company, to the point where a significant portion (Latest Estimates 1.3%) of the surviving human race is directly employed by or otherwise indirectly affiliated with the Black Company.