The Smokkelaars Alliansie

The Smokkelaars Alliansie, English; The Smugglers Alliance, is a large criminal organisation based largely in the continent of Africa, headquartered in Zaire, Angola, that specializes in extortion, smuggling, racketeering, murder and theft.

General Information[]

Formed from the ashes of long dead colonial ambitions of the European powers in Africa and the Indian subcontinent, and the various modern day continents' largely poverty-stricken inhabitants, the Smokkelaars Alliansie (English, Smugglers Alliance) has a long-standing history of foul play, back stabbing, extortion, murder, theft and smuggling. Fairly well-equipped, albeit with outdated equipment and vehicles like the Sterling SMG and M60 Patton tank respectively, the Alliansie makes up for what it lacks in both skill and equipment through manpower. As Mao himself stated; "Quantity has a quality all of its own."

With a very mixed cadre of men at it's disposal, ranging from former members of the South African police forced out of their home country for former Apartheid related offences that would now see them in the dock, to poor villagers pulled from the most impoverished locales in Zimbabwe by tantalizing promises of power and profit. The odd enterprising European and American gun for hire has been known to end up in their employ, but with the larger, more organized PMCs prevalent, such a large and relatively unorganized group rarely have the pleasure of their services for long. Leadership in the organisation is at best limited, with the various pockets and groupings having their own "leaders" to follow, though a few notable characters stand out.

For the most part, it's areas of influence are centered around Africa and India, with it's "headquarters" based in Zaire, Angola, though it has dealings internationally in small pockets, notably around Europe, South America and the Caribbean, usually involving the sale of narcotics, firearms, vehicles and various other black market oddities, the likes of which would usually carry a hefty jail time were they revealed. The organisation does strive to maintain friendly relations with the various other international factions, though naturally likes to keep them at arms length for fear of riling them, especially when dealing with those factions armed with advanced technologies the likes of which the world has never seen, nor even dreamt of, and which would likely spell trouble for the organisation - at least until the next batch of recruits arrived.

For the most part, the Smokkelaars Alliansie has a largely anti-PMC view; it supports a political ideology that is borderline anarchist in nature. They view PMCs as mere corporate pawns of world government, which they tend to despise, and thus entertain the idea that PMCs should be destroyed in their entirety. This has largely led to the Smokkelaars taking root in areas of extreme poverty or extreme political turbulence; though ironically the Alliansie does take up friendships with pseudo-governmental factions and forces operating in regions so as to maximize profits. For all the entertaining of a political ideology, however, money and the accumulation of wealth will always force any ideology, whether religious or political, to take a back seat. For the most part, this accumulation of wealth involves bribery of political officials and ingratiating certain politicians in many different countries, the most prevalent being South Africa and Zaire.

Historical Timeline[]

January 6th 1975 - January 13th 1976: East German National Volksarmee and Stasi officer Friedrich Lang is deployed as a sole agitator to Africa to offer support to the fledgling ZANLA faction in Rhodesia. However, following at least a year in the country, Lang leaves the group, having given up on his socialist principles in favour of taking part in the lucrative smuggling trade in Africa. Lang sets about using his contacts to corrupt numerous politicians and begins setting himself up as the leader of a smuggling ring.
April 5th 1978 - November 30th 1979: With the collapse of Rhodesia looming, Lang's group of corrupt Rhodesian politicians and soldiers meet together to discuss the next step in ensuring their livelihoods remained intact. They agreed to form an alliance of criminals specializing in arms trafficking and contraband smuggling, drawing attention from many other interested parties in Africa, Europe and the United States and thus form the Smokkelaars Alliansie, with Lang as the nominal head amongst a shadowy group of other bureacurats, warlords and arms dealers.
January 1st 1986 - November 6th 1991: The group receives funding from the CIA openly as part of it's CONTRA program against Soviet expansion into Africa. Many officials from both the British, American and French governments soon become corrupted by promises of wealth and influence. Lang dissapears into the shadows, with many assuming that he is deceased.
October 20th 1994 - August 23rd 1998: The group received an influx of White South African soldiers and military experts, all of whom have substantial records of their own criminal acts during Apartheid. In exchange for protection, these men agree to join the Smokkelaars and escape legal action whilst reaping the rewards of contraband deals.
June 3rd 2000 - October 7th 2005: The Smokkelaars Alliansie has most of the African continent under subtle control, mainly through bribery and blackmail of leading politicians and a growing network of spies and informers. By this time, the war economy has taken off and the Smokkelaars soon find themselves resorting increasingly to hard-hitting, regular forces utilizing tanks and small arms, rather than the subversive espionage they had become used to in the 1980s - 1990s.
May 4th 2016: The Smokkelaars Alliansie recovers an aging oil refinery; whereupon they soon discover that the refinery also had other uses, recovering what appears to be synthetic blood, organs and other tissue. Intrigued, lead Alliansie members organize further searches for the valuable finds. Following a series of disastrous attempts to incorporate the synthetic components into the human body, the Smokkelaars have a breakthrough when one Logan Schafer, a volunteer rather than a test subject, undergoes the treatment and survives, albeit with crippling negative side effects brought on by the synthetic components rejecting native organs and tissue and replacing it with it's own, akin to cancer cells spreading through the body. The Smokkelaars establish a search for cybernetic components to complete the unnatural combination and complete their first cyborg; soon after, this success arrives; 0-1, as Logan is now called, begins active service within days of undergoing a succesful surgery.
May 19th - May 22nd 2016: With ongoing fighting in Syria, the Smokkelaars Alliansie sees fit to deploy troops to the Syrian city of Ash Shaddadi to secure supply lines with AWA forces in the besieged city, under attack by the WLA. However, the AWA also sees fit to detonate three "dirty bombs" seized from Elios in the city within days of the substantial Smokkelaar force's arrival, destroying a large part of the city and killing the majority of the Smokkelaar's forces sent to the embattled city. The resulting effect is a sudden shift in tactics and a growing concern about the AWA's zealous fanaticism. Efforts to loot what can be looted from the radioactive city begin in earnest.
June 1st - June 6th 2016: Terrorist attacks in New York City and the Platine Commonwealth set off a series of air attacks on Ash Shaddadi, with the Tbonian Air Force smashing Smokkelaar and AWA targets from the air, revealing the obvious flaw with the ZU-23's aged design. Following the aquirement of a series of BUK M-1 missile systems the Alliansie manages to shoot down their first Tbonian MiG-23 and take a single prisoner, the pilot, to Ash Shaddadi. The Alliansie, after parading the captured airman for a number of days in a show of defiance against the TPAF, promise the the AWA the pilot's custody; the AWA, planning an execution, gleefully accepts. The Alliansie then proceeds to capture a SABRE director on Cyrpus and take him back as a hostage to Ash Shaddadi so as to counteract the loss of the airman as a valuable hostage. However,a rescue attempt by Karaqi and Boliverian special forces succeeds and both hostages are freed,with the Alliansie left holding an empty bag and the AWA greatly infuriated by the loss.
June 6th - June 13th 2016: Bitter fighting rages on the outskirts of Ash Shaddadi as Kraaivuur International and Sparrow Corporation forces pound the besieged city in waves; the Alliansie and AWA's forces ultimately survive the worst of these days thanks to a steady stream of supplies and simple expendability of it's low-ranking troops, though a hearty helping of improvised explosives and armoured vehicles also puts the two PMCs actions at bay. However, with Trinity's presence in the region looming over the heads of many of the Smokkelaars, the Alliansie's commanders begin to draw up contingency plans in case of another mass assault.
June 13th - 30th June 2016: As the fighting grows increasingly against the AWA and Alliansie's favour, assasinations and mass attacks amount to at least twice a day; such a drain on resources causes the rest of the Alliansie troops to give up on the city and abandon it to it's fate.Alliansie commanders flee the battered city of Ash Shaddadi in droves as a result, and 0-1, the Alliansie's cyborg "supersoldier", is very nearly killed by the Tbonian "supersoldier", TKGB agent "Kursk".With this,the defence of the city collapses and the majority of the Alliansie's forces flee the city into the desert on vehicle or foot;the few that could not escape are trapped in the city and gradually either surrender or are hunted down by the combined forces of Gecko Heavy Industries, Kraaivuur International, Sparrow Corporation and Trinity Corporation.

Faction Relations[]

Eastern Legion: As one of the few factions doing trade with the Smokkelaars, the Eastern Legion is considered a fairly-trusted trade partner; though little else, given it's close proximity, both in terms of geography and relationship, to Tbonia; although, it seems that Tbonia might well be dealing with the Eastern Legion in the not-so-distant future in a far less cordial manner. Cheeki Breeki, smuggler scum.
Tbonian People's Republic of Tbonia: Not a single Smokkelaar alive trusts the mammoth force that is Tbonia, especially with the recent air assault that the TPAF has launched in retaliation for the New York terrorist attacks; though black market narcotics trade in Tbonia is rather profitable. An individual Tbonian will pay handsomely for his fix. Also, never forget the Western Route.
Vice Union: Fascist corpse-look-alikes; seem like a nice bunch of blood thirsty maniacs to do a certain amount of business with, and the nostalgic choice of uniform and insignia is certainly refreshing in an age of heavily advanced technology and ever tighter skin-tight lycra trousers. Wonder what their fix is?
Anointed Warriors of Allah: Trade has begun with the AWA, though on the caveat that certain items will be "gifted" to the AWA and unrelated dealings will be taxed by the AWA. The only problem is that alcohol smuggling is certainly out of the question when it comes to dealing with these zealots; this being likely to infuriate smugglers trekking across the desert to deliver their fine wares. Nevertheless, relations are fairly cordial, with both factions relying on each other for their specific needs; in the Smokkelaar's case money and in the AWA's case weapons. However, they did detonate a few nukes and, in the process, gave the Smokkelaars within range of the blast one hell of a sun tan.
SABRE International Security & Investment Group: A bit hoity-toity for the likes of many smugglers, though SABRE does have a rather nice selection of advanced equipment at it's disposal. That, and they've a sizeable portion of the Cypriot government on their pay role, putting a great strain on Mediterranean smuggling operations. Might be a good idea to start bribing a few of their operatives.
Children of God: Insane cultist superhuman clones; sounds fantastic for business, as you'd imagine their after-massacre parties would be the stuff of legend. Sadly, the CoG hasn't made any orders, bringing great sadness to would-be Smokkelaar party planners.
Trinity Corporation: A techy group of scientists that might have been a nice push over had it not been for the army of maniacal clones that were literally born yesterday and serve the company fanatically. The Alliansie has ruled out trade with them in the foreseeable future, partly due to their current higher-ups links with the US government and mostly due to the aforementioned army of clones; after the loss of Ash Shaddadi, a feat largely headed by the effective fighting forces of Trinity's vast clone army, this has made any future relations downright impossible.
First Baltian Republic: Former communist-bloc countries fighting with one of the Smokkelaars best customers and armed to the teeth with fairly modern Western equipment rarely get a good rapport with the Smokkelaars as a whole; never the less, the idea of milking them for every cent appeals to the higher-ups of the organisation.
Blackforce Corporation: Yet another hot-shot PMC that the Smokkelaars hold with a somewhat contemptuous regard, possibly due to the better pay and dental plan that they have. Blackforce happen also to have an interest inside of Syria fighting against the AWA; putting the Smokkelaars own business interests with that same group. Needless to say, tensions are high and relations are frosty.
World Liberation Army: A Chinese-backed organization likely of communist political orientation comprised of a largely conscript force. The particularly bloody nose inflicted by the AWA on this organization has recently seen them leave Syria; however, that same bloody nose can be also attributed to the Smokkelaars following the nuclear detonations in Inkhil.
Sparrow Corporation: A particularly active thorn in the Alliansie's side, Sparrow Corporation appears to have taken it upon itself to constantly raid and disrupt Alliansie actions across the globe. Whilst this has led to many assets belonging to the Alliansie falling prey to this hawkish faction following every successful mission, it has also given the Alliansie a steady stream of modern weaponry with every failed mission.
New Republic of New Rhodesia: An apartheid nation that has become an area of great interest in the aftermath of the Smokkelaars Alliansie's disastrous defeat at Ash Shaddadi, especially with such a large, albeit impoverished, customer base readily available on a relatively small narcotics market.
Gecko Heavy Industries: Yet another corporation more than happy to develop highly advanced weapons and then shill said weapons out to other corporate entities, GHI had made itself properly know to the Alliansie via it's attacks on Ash Shaddadi, entering the conflict near the bitter end of hostilities as the Smokkelaars Alliansie pulled out of the city in defeat.

Vehicles[]

Equipment[]

Notable Personnel[]

Locations[]

Zaire Headquarters
Tiefouma Oil Refinery
Ash Shaddadi Safehouse

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Smokkelaars Alliansie can trace its origins back to the Western Route and shares a few similarities - minus the slack-jawed army of apparent clones.
Narcotics smuggling is apparently a good way to ensure one's mortgage is cleared.
The Smokkelaars Alliansie head-shed and low ranks despise factions that utilize clones and cybernetics; what is up with that clone fetish, anyways?
The Smokkelaars Alliansie is also trying to work on it's own cloning and cybernetics program, albeit with slim success; do as I say, not as I do.
If one were to taint the entire supply of Jack Daniels worldwide with poison, one would have discovered their best chance to eliminate the Smokkelaars in their entirety.
Apparently radiation is good for one's sun-tan, according to Smokkelaars who've never actually been near radiation, and that Odessa's actually a very quaint place. Smokkelaars who have, on the other hand, seen both these things talk of nothing but terrifying creatures, crippling radiation and unnervingly abandoned streets; sounds fun, really.