Desperado is a PMC with a ruthless reputation and an ideological streak. Its manner is chrome, swagger and open contempt for the weak. It holds that strength is the only language and that conflict is the natural condition of the market. Its leaders also know the war economy is draining, and they are racing to seize as much of it as they can, in ports, mines and contracts, before it runs dry.
Sundowner commands Desperado in the Zone. Its elite cyborg core includes the blade-master Jetstream Sam, Monsoon, Khamsin and the newly recruited Mistral, and it fills out its ranks with hired muscle. Desperado holds Old Town, east of Palace Row and the Spire, and it runs protection and hostile-takeover contracts in Kolkhida Port, the Rioni Valley Works and the Phasis Delta.
Nobody knows that Desperado is a subsidiary of World Marshal. The two companies share resources seamlessly behind closed doors, and Desperado's violence is the first half of a deliberate strategy: it helps create the instability that World Marshal then sells the Zone a cure for. Their public rivalry on Leselidze Street is largely for show. Desperado is sometimes hired by Vanta and sometimes hired against it, which suits the parent company either way.