Contractors of Fortune: Deniable Work, 1980 to 2000

Run a deniable crew. Win on the balance sheet.

"You don't exist. Your outfit doesn't exist. And if you leave brass with serial numbers on it, you never got paid."

Hancock, by telex, 1987

Between the proxy wars of the 1980s and the corporate asset grabs of the late '90s, governments stopped sending armies when they needed someone bled. They sent people who don't wear insignia.

You run a deniable outfit out of a safehouse with a telex, a locked armory and a ledger in red ink. Your lifeline is Hancock, a broker in deniable work. He finds the jobs, takes his cut off the top, and keeps a tab on everything he fronts you.

HANCOCK'S BOARD

New work every week across seven regions, from Central America to the Eastern Bloc: strikes, extractions, intelligence, security, recoveries and social jobs. Clean Fit jobs suit your crew. High Margin and Suicide Run jobs pay more and fight harder. Hancock's own jobs are his best work. Fail a job and the fee is gone, and Hancock still wants his.

THE CLOCK

Hancock pays your crew through his own books, but only for the days the job should take. Every day over comes off your cut. A clean run pays. A messy one bleeds.

YOUR PEOPLE

Ten trades: shooter, medic, wheelman, planner, tech, quartermaster, face, ghost, breacher and tracker. Every operator has a fighting style and a past. People who come home from three jobs together become buddies and shoot better side by side. Lose one and the other gets shaken. The dead stay dead.

THE JOB

Read the dossier, then pick your way in by helicopter, boat, plane, truck or on foot, and survive the road. Then work the job: talk your way in, steal it, sneak it, gamble for it, or go loud.

THE FIGHT

Turn-based combat on the grid, with cover, fire modes, grenades, firebombs, the M79 and an 84mm recoilless. There are hand-to-hand fighting styles and fuel drums that go up. In night fights, muzzle flashes and flares give you away. When it goes bad, Hancock's phone rings, at his price.

THE BASE

Build the armory, med bay, motor pool, radio room, training range, stash, gym and intel room. Clean jobs earn classified files for the collection.

PLAYS ON A CONTROLLER

Every screen works on a gamepad, or on a mouse and keyboard.

FOUND A BUG?

Hit RUN CODE in the top bar and email the code to [email protected]↗ (Opens in new tab). It holds your whole run, so the bug can be played back.