So, I know I’ve brought this up before, but I wanted some more input from some of the rest of you, now that we’ve had a year with Freelancer to really understand it, about what is going on from a story standpoint with the non-Leader targets of the mode. There’s a couple of different possibilities for how this is playing out, and it could even be that both are taking place, one way with some campaigns and the other way with other campaigns. So let’s look into this more in-depth now, and share your ideas on what you think is happening.
I’ve mentioned multiple times now how Diana is most likely getting the contracts from the dark web that are being put out there for anybody looking for them to try to complete, and that they’re most likely not coming to Diana directly because, with the ICA gone, she doesn’t have the communications network the agency had to pass along requested hits. Some of you have suggested that these might still have old contacts she knew from ICA who may be passing along some of the contracts to her, but those seem to be the only two possibilities of where these are coming from, lacking a large organizational structure like ICA had. That’s mostly settled, I think.
But, let’s look at what the clients’ intentions are by putting up these contracts. Presumably they’re not just people looking for justice against criminals, but also government agencies, corporations, and even rival crime syndicates putting these up. But who are they actually targeting? For example, the most recent syndicate I played was a Psy Ops syndicate run by The Influencer; so my question is, did the client, whomever they are, put up the contract to stop the entire syndicate, stating that all they know about them, other than the cities where they operate, is the business name of their Leader, The Influencer? Are they wanting members of the whole organization killed off? Or, are they putting up only the name of the Leader, expecting the syndicate to collapse without them, and it’s Diana’s strategy alone to knock-off lower-ranking members until the Leader shows themselves?
How is the payment for the hit being structured based on that? If they’re wanting the whole syndicate taken down, are they paying bits of the total of the contract for termination of members? If they’re only paying for the Leaders, is it Diana deciding to divide up the total? Presumably the optional objectives are listed as ways they’d like the contracts carried out in accordance with the message they want to leave, but I imagine Diana decided to put part of the payment behind their completion?
Then, what about the targets themselves; 47 and Diana are doing paid vigilantism now, but how guilty are most of the regular targets? Some of the syndicates are so blatant in their crimes that there’s no way every member isn’t aware of what they’re doing: Arms Trafficking, Eco Crimes, Psy Ops, and especially Sick Games, there is no way each person involved doesn’t know what kind of organization they are part of and what goals are being worked toward, but what about the others? For Espionage and Assassination syndicates, how many of the targets have no more involvement than passing along intel, possibly without even knowing its significance or who they were giving it to? Is every target actually an assassin or spy, or just being played every bit as much as those they are working against? For Organ Harvesting and Big Pharma, how many are involved in illegal medical procedures or burying clinical trial data, and how many are just paper pushers or transporters thinking they’re doing legitimate work for reputable employers?
How do you guys think the Freelancer contracts are going down within the lore based on these questions?
