Wardlord Defense Industries
It’s widely believed that the Wardlord family has been turning a profit on war ever since the middle ages. Duncan Wardlord discovered very early that it was easier to accumulate power and wealth by selling weapons and armor, instead of doing the actual warring. Most other noblemen thought him mad when he married his eldest daughter to the village’s blacksmith. History proved them wrong.
What started as a blacksmith in a castle making swords and shields for his father-in-law grew into a global behemoth of weapons manufacturing: Wardlord Defense Industries makes 65% of all weapons on the planet (85% if the illegal secondary market is taken into account) and holds defense contracts with almost every existing country.
WDI’s Research and Development Department has a larger budget than most countries’ GDPs and is responsible for some of the most important technological breakthroughs: undetectable plastic single-bullet handguns; bullet-resistant flexible fabrics and bullet-proof vehicles; ground-to-ground missiles; and weaponized drones. WDI has also invested a significant amount of resources into developing armor-piercing knives and blades. While WDI has developed chemical and biological weapons in the past, recently there have been hints of joint projects with a major medical corporation to work on more specific and deadly products, as well as cutting-edge combat implants. WDI has also been linked to an African company specialized in producing robots and automatons, and it is thought they are working on several joint products. WDI also has quite an exclusive line of products related to EMP fields and weapons that disable electronic devices. If it has kill potential or bullet-deflecting capabilities, the odds are WDI has people working on it.
WDI also provides what they call “defense solutions”, which is a euphemism for mercenary services. If a government needs to suppress its citizens or to fare war without openly sending its armies to fight, they can hire WDI’s elite professional soldiers to do their dirty work for them. WDI caters to governments, dictators, drug lords, or simply ultrarich people who either have a need to attack others or are paranoid about being attacked themselves and are willing to pay large sums of money for protection.
Wardlord Defense Industries is a sober organization, with a brutalist sense of aesthetics. Their main offices, located in the Autonomous City of Greater London is a fortress-like building made in concrete and steel. Above ground, the building houses the administrative headquarters and warehouses of the corporation in the upper levels, while the 100-meter deep basement contains the less public aspects of the organization — its manufacturing and testing facilities. These headquarters and their surrounding area are guarded by a complex system of defensive weaponry called Titan’s Web. The full capabilities of this system are not publicly known, but aerial imagery suggests that WDI’s main offices would be more than able to intercept and repel rockets and missiles, as well as resist a frontal assault. Given the company’s reputation, some theorize that Titan’s Web has functionalities not entirely within the scope of the law.
The center of the courtyard is mostly occupied by what appears to resemble a massive chimney. When asked about the purpose of this structure, company spokespersons have explained that it is part of the ventilation system which cools the fusion reactor that provides energy to the whole building. However, the hollow pillar appears to also serve as some sort of communication tower, which fuels some of the more radical theories about the chimney and its relation to Titan’s Web.
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