In early 2011, because of the continuous warfare that had plagued the Middle East and Subsaharan Africa, the refugee crisis in WesternEurope had reached peak levels. The countries of the EU had their assistance networks utterly oversaturated, as there were simply too many refugees to handle for the governments and the ONGs aiding them; the situation caused many instances of food and water shortages, epidemic outbursts caused by overcrowded refugee shelters and poor hygiene, as well as serious civil and social unrest. In an attempt to put a definitive solution to the humanitarian disaster, the UNHCR proposed and started Project HAVEN-1, completed in November 2011.

HAVEN-1 was created as a revolutionary way to provide assistance to the masses of refugees coming from Africa and the ME. It consisted of a massive off-shore facility built in the Eastern Mediterranean, approximately 120 kms north of the Egyptian coast. Administered directly by the UNHCR, the facility was equipped with hospitals, shelters, hydroponic greenhouses and farms, hangars, security stations, and other elements which made it completely self-sufficient and capable of sustaining a population of circa 3 million people. Immediately, the bulk of the refugees present in EU countries were brought on board of HAVEN-1, and the ones still en route were mostly redirected on the facility.

The UNHCR administration of HAVEN-1 went smoothly for the whole of 2012, and it appeared that the project was significantly relieving the gravity of the refugee crisis. However, starting from early 2013 concerns began to arose around various aspects of HAVEN-1: foremostly, the project had been a massive drain for UNHCR resources, and the organization was forced to cut funding dedicated to the facility; secondly, a growing number of international reports signaled the widespread presence of corruption among the HAVEN-1 staff, which in various instances engaged in illegal activities with criminal elements present in the refugees hosted on the facility. Lastly, in many occasions the security staff of HAVEN-1 had enforced martial law, mostly responding to tensions between different ethnic and religious groups of refugees.

In Summer of 2013, widespread rioting began across the facility; in August of the same year, the situation evolved into an armed insurrection of refugees against the UN and UNHCR staff. The insurrection had initially dismissed as another riot and was met with repression; in barely a week, the UNHCR had lost control of most of the facility. The UN staff was killed, taken hostage or escaped; on August, 23rd, after all external communication from HAVEN-1 had been silent for three days, a laconic statement was released on all HAVEN-1 comms channels, declaring the foundation of Haolam Haba.

Haolam Haba presented itself as a sovereign country, with Mulugeta Eshete (a former Ethiopian refugee) as head of state, and demanded to be accepted into the UN; diplomatic talks lasted for over a month, but in the end, the Nation of Refugees was granted a special membership of the UN. The representatives of HH vowed in front of the UN council to freely welcome and assist any refugee in need of shelter, only independendently and without interference from the UN or other countries. Among many segments of international public opinion, HH was seen positively, as the first example of refugees standing up to help themselves rather than depend on external aid.

The other side of the matter soon became apparent when HH started providing services identical in nature to those offered by PMCs (however at lower prices) to militias, insurgent groups and other armed organizations in Africa and the Middle East, as well as participating in the trade of weapons in the same regions. When faced with protest, the Haolam Haba representatives replied that they were doing nothing illegal, and that the military operations were simply a way of funding the newborn country; after all, the money obtained this way did go towards the assistance of refugees and HH's "army of refugees" were just another PMC operating in the area. Since then HH has continued operating as something between a country and a PMC, expanding its ranks with the steady flow of refugees coming from the wartorn areas of the world.

• Blackbeards: Formed in 2008, the Blackbeards or BBs are Cygnus's spec ops unit. Formed of elite operatives selected from the best of Cygnus combat personnel, Blackbeards are trained and equipped for clandestine and covert operations, and are specialized in espionage and recon missions in highly hostile environments. On HH, they've been employed by the CIA to rescue a missing team of SOG operatives. In case you forgot, this is us, soldier. Now, I don't wanna boast or anything, but we're pretty damn good at our job, and our mission record's almost perfect; we gained a reputation for getting shit done, no matter what, so you'd better live up to that. Also, if I hear any complaints about the cheesy name, I'm going to personally oversee your two months spent cleaning the barrack's bathrooms with your toothbrush.
  
  
  
• CIA: The CIA is the foreign intelligence agency of the USA. Mainly tasked with intelligence gathering and counterespionage, the CIA also performs covert operations across the globe in order to safeguard American national security and American interests. On HH, a CIA SOG team had infiltrated the facility on an unknown mission, but communications with them have been silent for circa one month, and Cygnus has been employed to confirm their status. Man, fuck the CIA. If it were for me I'd leave those guys to rot in whatever hole they were shoved, but you know, they pay us for this shit. Anyway, the idiots wouldn't tell us what those poor bastards were after when they sent them, which means it's probably something very embarassing. No need to ask questions though, you just need to find them, see if they still breathe, and report back. Simple, ain't it?

• Name: Sgt. Leonard "Khan" Miller
  Date of birth: 17th September, 1978
  Place of Birth: Austin, USA
  Bio: The current commander of the Blackbeards, sgt. Miller was promoted to this rank after the death of his predecessor. Formerly part of SEAL Team 7, Miller has been a member of the BBs since their formation, and followed the unit every time it was deployed until 2014. In his last mission on the field, in northern Afghanistan, Miller and his unit, during exfiltration, came under heavy artillery fire; as a shell landed near him, Miller suffered severe shrapnel injuries, as well as temporary hearing loss and other health complications. When brought under medical care, doctors were foced to amputate his mangled right leg a few inches above the knee. In the same mission, Miller's predecessor was also KIA. Since then, Miller has acted as supervisor and mission control for BB operations. Sigh, look at that pic. I used to be a strapping young lad. Back then, I actually did get more ass than a toilet seat. Anyway, I'll be your boss and mission control for this deployment, which means you'll do as I say and nobody gets hurt. Hopefully. Also, as you may have figured out, the text you see in red was written by me: I added some stuff to the BlackWiki entries, mostly classified stuff, personal experiences, and some humor the nerds who originally wrote this stuff didn't want to add. I mean, we need some comic relief, we don't want you to come back with PTSD or something.

March, 1990: Soviet policies of perestroika and glasnost cause upheaval in many Eastern Bloc states: in East Germany, a political and civil clash occurs between parties favorable to a reunification with the West against the hardline, pro-Soviet elements. The hardline socialist SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands), supported by STASI, East Germany's secret service, comes out on top, leading to diplomatic crisis with West Germany and the end of any reunification plans.

August, 1990: the US and other NATO countries respond to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait with Operation Desert Shield, deploying a vast arsenal of troops in Saudi Arabia: this will be the prelude phase of the Gulf War.



October, 1990: the Rwandan Civil War begins as the RPF (Front Patriotique Rwandais - FPR) attacks the French-backed Rwandan government. The war quickly evolves into an ethnic clash between the Hutu and the Tutsi peoples, each attempting to genocide the other; both sides employ PMCs, and the war creates a severe refugee crisis.

December, 1990: the crisis in Germany aggravates itself as the Eastern government responds to Western threats and protests by installing a military cordon around West Berlin, effectively sieging the city; later, East German tanks roll into the city. West Germany and NATO respond by amassing forces at the German inner border and by issuing an ultimatum to the Soviet Union and East Germany demanding their forces to be retired from West Berlin; the world is on the verge of nuclear war. The UN steps into the situation by enforcing a resolution creating a demilitarized zone that runs along the German inner border, with various PMCs charged with patrolling it. The crisis is momentarily averted.

January, 1991: the Gulf War enters its second phase as Operation Desert Storm is launched by NATO, thus beginning the bombing and invasion of Iraq.

March, 1991: as Croatia attempts to secede from Yugoslavia, ethnic clashes erupt in the whole Western Balkans between Serbs and Croats. NATO help is given to Croatia, while the Soviet Union steps in to aid the Serbian side.



August, 1991: Soviet president Mikhail Gorbacev is deposed in a coup led by hardline members of the CPSU (Коммунистическая партия Советского Союза, КПСС), helped by KGB elements. He is replaced by former prime minister Valentin Pavlov: under the new government, policies of glasnost and perestroika are immediately repelled, and a new wave of authoritarianism takes hold in the USSR and its satellite states, as a program of centralist and repressive reforms is rapidly undertaken, as well as new investments into modernization of the Soviet military-industrial complex.

April, 1992: the situation in the Western Balkans evolve into a three way conflict between Serbs, Bosnians and Croats; the UN enforces limited peacekeeping areas, but it is too late to avoid the war from spiraling out of control, creating serious humanitarian crisis.



June, 1992: following Soviet withdrawal from the region, situation in Afghanistan collapses into chaos, as numerous Islamist factions rebel against the secular Afghani government.

December, 1992: UN peacekeepers intervene massively in Somalia in the attempt to pacify the wartorn country, which had been involved in civil war for five years; however, UN efforts were only partially successful.

February, 1993: following a period of political unrest, Italy begins diplomatic talks to leave NATO, moving closer to the Eastern Bloc; two momths later, the country independently intervenes in the Western Balkans, helping the Serbian side against the Croatian and Slovenian forces.

October, 1993: also thanks to actions by PMCs, the ethnic war between the Hutu and the Tutsi spreads from Rwanda to Burundi, engulfing the country in civil war and worsening the already deep humanitarian crisi of the region.

January, 1994: Cygnus Military Solutions is formed in Cardiff, UK. Most of the initial personnel is made up of former soldiers of Commomwealth countries and veteran mercenaries who operated in Africa.



March, 1994: ethnic conflicts begin in South Africa between the Bophutatswana black-ruled province and the Afrikaner pro-white movements Afrikaner Volksfront and AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, Afrikaner Resistance Movement); the fighting spreads to the whole nation, causing open hostility between pro-black and pro-white groups, with PMCs employed by both sides.

May, 1994: military conflict erupts between rival Kurdish factions in Iraq, mainly the pro-Iraqi KDP (Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê - PDK), and the anti-Iraqi PUK (Yekêtiy Niştîmaniy Kurdistan -YNK); both sides employ PMCs while major powers await before choosing which side to support.

June, 1994: civil war begins in Yemen between the US-backed central government and the Soviet-backed DRY ( جمهورية اليمن الديمقراطية, Jumhūrīyat al-Yaman ad-Dīmuqrātīyah). This is also the first mass deployment for Cygnus Military Solutions, employed by the central Yemeni government to protect its oil fields and launch raids into rebel-held territory.

February, 1996: a Chinese-backed Maoist insurgency begins in Nepal, led by the CPN; the war drags on for years as both sides entrench in the mountains and wage guerrilla warfare on the other.

September, 1996: Taliban forces capture the Afghanistani capital of Kabul. The new Islamist government proceeds to take control of the country undertaking systematic massacres and other atrocities against civilians.

October, 1996: Rwanda and allied countries and insurgent groups in Zaire begin a military campaign to overthrow the dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. The war drags on for months as both sides employ vast PMC forces.



March, 1998: a NATO-supported revolt, lead by the KLA (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës — UÇK) begins in Kosovo, in southern Yugoslavia, as the Western bloc seeks to accelerate the dissolution of Yugoslavian FR by stirring ethnic conflicts between Serbs and Albanians; meanwhile the USSR and its allies keep indirectly supporting the pro-Serbian forces.

May, 1998: Eritrean forces advance into Ethiopia, thus initiating the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. Attempts from the UN to pacify the situation are ineffective, until a massive peacekeeping force is sent to secure much of the border between the two countries.



August, 1998: what would become known as the Great African War begins as a continuation of the ethnic conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi that had taken place in the previous years, as the now Tutsi-dominated Rwanda, together with other African countries, financed, directed and armed rebel groups against the Hutu-friendly government of Congo. The conflict rapidly becomes a patchwork of regional guerrillas and proxy wars spreading across much of Central Africa, with numerous PMCs involved (including Cygnus, employed by the Ugandan government against the militias of the LRA - Lord's Resistance Army); all parties in the war engage in war crimes such as ethnic cleansings, mass employment of child soldiers, and mass rapes, and attempts from the UN to intervene are made mostly vain by the sheer complexity of the political and military situation. The humanitarian crisis that ensued was unprecedented, creating the first mass wave of refugees headed for Europe.

September, 2000: a particularly heated riot sparks the beginning of the Second Intifada in Israel, with numerous Arab countries indirectly helping the Palestinian rebel groups.

September, 2001: four coordinated terrorist attacks orchestrated by Islamist group al-Qaeda take place in the US, striking the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The gravity of the attack is unprecedented.



October, 2001: responding to the 9/11 attacks, the US leads an invasion of Afghanistan, with the intent to overthrow the Taliban regime which had harbored al-Qaeda. The operation is a partial success: a new Afghanistani government is estabilished, but the Talibans still hold power over numerous areas of the country, from which they wage guerrilla warfare and terrorist actions against the US forces.

December, 2001: the five major PMCs in the world sign the Auckland Charter, leading to the creation of the Peace Sentinels Networ. In less then a year, more than 95% of the world's PMCs will sign the document as well, becoming part of PSN.

January, 2002: as a follow-up to the invasion of Afghanistan, the US lanches a military campaign in the Philippines, aimed at eradicating pro-Taliban Islamist groups from the archipelago, as well as various communist insurgent forces, such as the NPA (Bagong Hukbong Bayan - BHB); in response, the USSR and China begin arming and training the communist militias.

February, 2003: violent ethnic clashes begin to take place in Sudan between the non-Arab populations of Darfur, spearheaded by the US-supported DLF (Darfur Liberation Front) and the pro-Arab central government, aided by the USSR and China.



March, 2003: the US and its allies launch an invasion of Iraq, based on the assumption that the country possesses weapons of mass destructions. Although the campaign rapidly topples the Ba'athist Iraqi regime, the war drags on for a long time as numerous insurgent groups arise in the region, with the USSR supporting some of them and covertly employing PMCs to sabotage US and NATO operations in the region; this situation creates the first severe refugee crisis of the 21st century in the Middle East.

March, 2004: a mass Islamist insurgency takes place in Pakistan, threatening to topple the existing government; the US intervenes in order to stabilize the situation.

November, 2006: Mexico falls into chaos as full-blown civil wars take place between drug cartels, USSR-backed communist insurgents, and the central government. The US intervenes in many occasioms, but the situation devolves in a severe humanitarian crisis, mostly because of the violent actions taken by drug cartels against civilians.

December, 2006: the situation in Somalia is worsened by a systematic attack by Islamist forces attempting to take over the country; the UN no longer has resources to intervene in a significant way. Another mass wave of refugees from the Horn of Africa moves toward Europe.

February, 2007: the US and various African countries launch an offensive against Islamist groups in Western Africa and the Maghreb. In response, the groups bunker down and begin to wage a tenacious guerrilla as well as numerous terrorist acts.

December, 2008: Israel launches a massive attack against the Palestinian-held Gaza Strip, resulting in many civilian deaths. This act is met with condemnation especially from the Eastern Bloc, causing the USSR to grow closer to the Palestinian movements.

January, 2009: in a last attempt to pacify the country, the UN stages a massive military intervention in Somalia, against the numerous Islamist groups rampant in the region, mainly al-Qaeda and it affiliatd group al-Shabaab. The attack, while supported by many African countries, is only partially successful, mainly because of the vast support the Islamists have from local Somali warlords, as well as poor coordination between UN and African countries.

April, 2009: the USSR begins a new policy of renewed efforts in taking control of the Middle East, starting with supporting a Ba'athist, pro-Soviet insurgency in southern Yemen, which rapidly takes hold of most of the country; both the UN and the Western powers are too busy on other front to intervene significantly.

July, 2009: a new wave of Islamist attacks take place in Africa as Boko Haram, one of the terrorist groups targeted in 2007, begins a massive offensive against Nigeria and other countries of the region; rapidly, the war creates a severe refugee crisis.

November, 2010: the UN intervenes in the Ivory Coast following repeated clashes between different branches of the government and the armed forces leading to civil war; numerous PMCs are employed by both sides, leading to a war tha destabilizes the whole region, with USSR agents seizing the opportunity to finance socialist groups in Western Africa.



February, 2011: a NATO-supported revolt begins against Lybian pro-Ba'athist dictator Muammar Gaddafi. As the USSR openly condemns Western involvment in the war, the Eastern Bloc begins to openly support Ba'athist regimes in all the Middle East, sending troops and men in Lybia to help Gaddafi. This creates a new atmosphere of tension between the East and the West; also, the chaotic situation in the key country of Lybia causes another mass wave of refugees to pour in into Europe, causing the assistance networks of many European countries to collapse under the pressure. Project HAVEN is initiated in response.

March, 2011: as the US seeks to completely eradicate Ba'athism from the Middle East, a revolt is staged in Syria, attempting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. The situation rapidly turns into a multi-sided civil war: as the USSR rapidly deploys troops en masse to aid Assad against the rebels, numerous Islamist groups and militias take hold of vast territories; among them, are the al-Qaeda-affiliated militia al-Nusra, as well as what would become the new most prominent group in Islamic terrorism, ISIL (الدولة الإسلامية, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah). Meanwhile, Kurdish militias, also supported by the USSR, take up arms against the Islamist and the rebels.

December, 2011: following the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the country rapidly plunges into civil war as a four-way conflict erupts between the US-supported government, USSR-supported Ba'athist groups, Iran-supported Shi'a militias, and Islamist groups, spearheaded by ISIL. The massive refugee crisis created by the Syrian and Iraqi wars is the first true test of HAVEN-1's effectiveness.

March, 2012: after a revolt in the DR Congo, a chain reaction also fueled by various PMCs actively seeking to prolong the conflicts in Africa plunges much of Central and Western Africa into a series of proxy wars and ethnic clashes: countries mainly involved are the DR Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, and Mozambique.

July, 2013: HAVEN-1 is overtaken by refugees, leading to the creation of Haolam Haba.

November, 2013: as geopolitical world tension is on the rise, the EU passes a resolution that allows the formation of a Joint European Army, led directly by the EU. The US views this development with suspicion, but the EU begins stockpiling guns and equipment to be used by the new army.



January, 2014: the Iraqi conflict enters a new, more violent phase as ISIL captures the cities of Fallujah and Mosul; the USSR deploys troops to halt ISIL's advance and to covertly support Ba'athist and Kurdish factions against the Iraqi government, despite Western protests. Haolam Haba troops are empoyed as mercenaries by numerous factions involved in the conflict.

July, 2014: tensions escalate in the Middle East as Israel launches a mass offensive against the Gaza Strip. The USSR accuses Israel of war crimes against Palestinian civilians; in turn, Israel accuses the USSR of arming Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

January, 2015: following political repeated political and economical disagreements and discussion between its member states (foremostly the UK, France and West Germany), the European union is dissolved. The stockpiles of weapons and vehicles meant to be used by the Joint European Army are divided up among former member states and, more prominently, sold into the legal and illegal weapon markets, causing a flood of European weaponry among PMCs and irregular militias worldwide.

December, 2016: Operation Dog Shelter is launched.