[Val Couture]

Recording Session – Start.

My name ******* Monroe, I’m a reporter working on uncovering the secrets of the Blacklight International Corporation. After traveling all across the world, I have found reliable sources that told me more about the Corporation, and here is what I have found so far:

It all began when Blackwatch Industries, a family owned business, came to power. With their technological developments and creations, Blackwatch gained the trust and respect of the militaristic, first-world governments all over the world. When the father died, the son, Declan Blackwatch took over the Industries, creating more effective weapons of war. From weapons of mass destruction to the smallest personal defense weapons, Blackwatch’s products were outmatched. They scattered all over the globe even more ever since Declan’s ascension to the throne.

Competitors even tried to sabotage Blackwatch manufacturing plants, but failed miserably. Declan’s father was more of someone that keeps to himself, and was more untrusting towards other companies and governments. But the son liked collaborating with others, even though most were done in secret to prevent complaints from the public. These projects include the creation of many military weaponry, armory, vehicles, and even space satellites and communications.

Rapidly gaining the trust of his former foes, Blackwatch’s competitors turned into allies, or more like puppets to Declan. His bold plan have him use the competitor’s patented weapon designs, and had his research and development crew secretly improve them by adding and subtracting some minor details, hence avoiding lawsuits, wiping out rivalries, and even improving his Industry.

But one company remained strong, and wasn’t falling into Declan’s influence. The Silverlight Enterprises, a company that is driven to improve daily lives of humans and for a brighter, peaceful future. Their peace-keeping ideals didn’t match Blackwatch’s cynical, war-mongering point of view. Declan wanted his hands on Silverlight’s unparalleled robotics, artificial intelligence, construction, and biotechnologies. Declan grew impatient, and had to resort to a new tactic.

He hired the best hackers to infiltrate the Enterprises’ bank accounts and created chaos within the board of directors, and made it seem that the Enterprise has been doing poor in the market. For years, the board’s trusts have waned thanks to this cunning move. They lost their trust with the CEO, Alan Grayson, and the young owner, Gunnar Samuelson. Declan knew Grayson was weak willed and couldn’t handle the pressure of the complaints from the board and the shareholders. Samuelson was just too busy frolicking elsewhere in the world, not knowing that his company was at the jaws of a beast.

After his long wait, Declan was ready to surprise the world. The board lost their faith with the current owner, and all agreed to have Blackwatch take over the Enterprises. At a formal party held in his honor, Declan announced that he bought 90% of the stocks of the Silverlight Enterprises. Gunnar was surprised, and there were even rumors that he never showed up in public ever again. Grayson, however, remained in charge of one of the departments.

Headlines were all about this hostile takeover, and surprisingly the majority of the public agreed to this as well. On the very first day of his control over the Enterprises, Declan merged the names of the two business titans, and the new born giant was named Blacklight International Corporation. With Silverlight’s scientists now at his disposal, Declan made his first move that would benefit the militaries all over the world. I still need to review these informations I have gathered, and would elaborate more on this later. That is all for now.

Recording Session - End.

[Val Couture]

Recording Session – Start.

Where I left off, I talked about Declan Blackwatch’s first move ever since his control of the major technology conglomerates, notably the Silverlight Enterprises. He made a proposal of sorts to the militaries around the globe, a promise to make war more efficient, though not less violent. His plan was conveniently named The Blacklight Development, dividing the workforce of his entire business empire for a single goal. Declan didn’t spill the details about this Development, only saying that after a certain number of years, there would be a great leap of technology worldwide and outside the earth.

The Corporation was divided into ten divisions, most of which bore names from angelic choirs in the Bible. Each division focused on a branch of scientific research, ranging from weaponry to genetics, and even construction. Spending millions, or even billions of his corporation’s money to get these projects done, Declan never seemed to have run out of funds. Though this might be the case, he would never leave his business undefended, hence the creation of the very first division - the Legion.

The Legion was not in particular a research and development party of his projects, but rather the testers of the new products and the company’s security group. Or at least that was the public was lead to think. According to one of my anonymous sources, these hundred thousand contractors, both men and women, are Declan’s shadow army. With weapons, armor, vehicles and other equipment from his previous military industry, the Legion are as heavily armed just like any armed forces. When seen in public, the Legionnaires, as they were called, wore power-armor designed to strike fear to others, with their dark colors and concealed faces.

My sources indicate that the members of this private military company were no ordinary employees who apply to be security guards, but rather from the Special Forces, Marines, the Army, the Navy, or from other mercenary groups that switched sides for greater sums and benefits. These men and women were pushed to the limits in their training courses, most were said to have died. But the latter claim can never be backed up due to their lack of legality. The Legion casualties were never counted. Their operations were too shrouded that, even Congresses of the many nations they operate on cannot find enough information to punish their crimes, or even declare their actions as illegal.

As they continue to serve Declan’s empire, the Legion spread out and became even more dangerous. In their youth, the Legion were just deployed in nine countries, but they gain control of two countries every year, fighting shadow wars with other mercenary groups, that protected the little remaining foreign companies that refused to fall to Declan’s control. They all learned the hard way, however, as Declan’s iron fist – the Legion – smashed them into submission.

These other corporations were eventually absorbed by the bigger Blacklight, adding the foreign workers to their roster, and to the other eight divisions that were dedicated for the future. I shall delve into them later.

Recording Session – End.