Unicron's Mercs

From Axalon RPG

The protagonists of Predacon Base RPG. A team of mercenaries loosely affiliated with the Tripredicus Council. Funding, gear and assignments are taken from the Council, but there are no official or traceable ties, so the group can be disavowed if they are ever caught. It also theoretically keeps the group free to take missions from other employers and to serve its own interests. The team operates out of the light attack vessel Storm's Eye II.

The group itself is fairly loosely affiliated. It operates with a bare minimum of military discipline and procedures. As a general trend, its members are for various psychological and personal reasons unfit for regular military duty, but at the same time far more skilled and lethal than the average shock trooper. Thus, the team can be very effective in ways even special forces cannot, however their various malfunctions can impede the ability to function as a team and be a.. distraction, to say the least, when not focused on a mission. In the group's first and historically defining campaign, the power and leadership of Unicron held them together. Now it is mostly shared experience. Though it has had a few different leaders recently, none has been able to command the authority Unicron did.

Membership rules are loose and ill defined. Some members were assigned or donated from some other organization, others were helpful allies on the ground and just tagged along. Regardless, how long you stay on the team is determined mostly be how long you can survive it.

History

Tygress War

Records of the group begin with the Tygress War, which was fought between Predacons loayl to the Tripredicus and the renegade warlord Tygress, after said warlord took over Cybertron. Their original leader was Unicron (hence the name), a powerful Predacon whose life force was derived from the remains of the planet eating evil Transformer god Unicron that you probably remember from Transformers: The Movie (1985). Though they took a time-travelling detour or two, Unicron's Mercs were instrumental to defeating Tygress. Unfortunately, Unicron sacrificed himself to see that mission through. The group broke up shortly thereafter.

Members of the original Tygress War campaign included:

• Unicron
• Logic
• Sphinx
• Prism
• Backlash
• Lightspeed
• Pestilence
• Toothpick
• Penji
• Vamp
• Amok
• I'm forgetting a couple NPCs and PCs.

Note that the author (riboflavin) of this article entered the RPG partway through the Tygress Saga, so I'm probably missing a bunch about it's beginnings and if anything came before.

Second Coming

Ten years later, surviving members that could be found were rounded up and reformed as Unicron's Mercs for a covert mission to Earth to investigate some hostile actions. They were under the leadership of Backlash, but he was abducted by Quintesson agents shortly after the team landed (*cough*opmaxdisappeared*cough*). Prism declared himself commander as a more immediate threat to Cybertron, the Purification, was revealed.

Operations agains the Purification became the Merc's main directive. Leadership of the group swung from Prism to his girlfirend Lightspeed, but no individual has been able to command the band of lethal misfits and sociopaths the way Unicron once did. Pursuant to stopping the Purification, the Mercs picked up a shadowy sponsorship from the DTC corporation.

For current members, see Predacon Base RPG