33rd Strategic Battle Group
| 33rd Strategic Battle Group "Black 33" SBG-33 BlackOps "Supernatural Warfare & Esoteric Research" Group 33 "Anomaly Prevention & Containment" 33rd Rapid Emergency Response Group "AnHaz–SpecClean" | |
|---|---|
| Active | Since early 1958 |
| Country | People's Republic of Zhouran |
| Allegiance | Zhouranese People & Nation, the deities of the Spiritual Mandate pantheon |
| Branch | Zhouranese People's Army, Ministry of National Security, Supreme Investigative Directorate |
| Type | Strategic battle group consisting of 4 combat assault groups, 3 combat aviation groups, 1 combat naval group, and 2 "special research groups" |
| Role | Supernatural warfare Esoteric research Combating and containing individuals, entities, locations, objects, and phenomena that violate natural law |
| Size | Classified, consists of personnel from the Zhouranese People's Army, Ministry of National Security, and the Supreme Investigative Directorate |
| Headquarters | Classified, simply referred to as Dreamland and Slaughterhouse |
| Nickname(s) | Black 33 One-Eyed Wolves of the 33rd Those Brave Warriors In The Shadows |
| Patron | Kekang Keshen (Warrior God and Immortal Guardian of Peace in the Spiritual Mandate pantheon) |
| Motto(s) | Not one step back for we are the last line of defense and we will burn our own soldiers to defend the last line! (Putonghua: 没有退一步，因为我们是最后一道防线，我们将燃烧自己的士兵来捍卫最后一道线！; Pinyin: Méiyǒu tuì yībù, yīnwèi wǒmen shì zuìhòu yīdào fángxiàn, wǒmen jiāng ránshāo zìjǐ dí shìbīng lái hànwèi zuìhòu yīdào xiàn!) |
| March | Ode to the Defenders of the Motherland (since somewhere around late 1969) |
| Mascot(s) | A one-eyed Zhouranese Great Battle Wolf named Death (since somewhere around early 1967) |
| Commanders | |
| Group Commander | Senior Marshal [REDACTED], callsign Overlord (ZPA Ground Force) |
| 2 × Deputy Group Commanders | Chief Marshal [REDACTED], callsign Predator (ZPA Ground Force) Field Marshal [REDACTED], callsign Butcher (ZPA Ground Force) |
| Head Liaison from the Zhouranese People's Army | Senior General [REDACTED], callsign Chaos (ZPA Ground Force) |
| Head Liaison from the Ministry of National Security | Mr [REDACTED], callsign Black Sparrow |
| Head Liaison from the Supreme Investigative Directorate | Mrs [REDACTED], callsign Maneater |
33rd Strategic Battle Group "Black 33" (Putonghua: 第33战略战斗组 "黑色33"; Pinyin: Dì 33 Zhànlüè Zhàndòu Zǔ "Hēisè 33"), also going by different alternative names such as SBG-33 Black-Operations "Supernatural Warfare & Esoteric Research" (Putonghua: 战略战斗组33 黑色操作 "超自然战争与神秘研究"; Pinyin: Zhànlüè Zhàndòu Zǔ 33 Hēisè Cāozuò "Chāozìrán Zhànzhēng Yǔ Shénmì Yánjiū"), Group 33 "Anomaly Prevention & Containment" (Putonghua: 组33 "异常预防与遏制"; Pinyin: Zǔ 33 "Yìcháng Yùfáng Yǔ Èzhì"), and 33rd Rapid Emergency Response Group "Anomalous Hazard, Special Cleanup" (Putonghua: 第33快速应急反应组 "异常危害，特殊清理"; Pinyin: Dì 33 Kuàisù Yìngjí Fǎnyìng Zǔ "Yìcháng Wéihài, Tèshū Qīnglǐ"), is a highly-classified elite covert group in the People's Republic of Zhouran, established in early 1958 under the direct orders of the State Presidium and the People's Defense Council following the renouncement of Dark Ascension due to its infiltration by the political-superhardline. Answerable only to both the President of the State Presidium and the Chairman of the People's Defense Council, and tasked with safeguarding and preserving the safety & existence of the Zhouranese People & Nation from paranormal supernatural threats, collecting and studying anomalous beings & artifacts for military-oriented esoteric research & development, combating and containing individuals/entities/locations/objects/phenomena that violate natural law across the nation and the entire world, defending humanity's perceptions of reality and normalcy by concealing the existence of anomalies from the public, and preserving Zhouran's political stability by protecting the political-moderate and political-hardline from the political-superhardline, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group consists of numerous personnel from the Zhouranese People's Army, Ministry of National Security and Supreme Investigative Directorate that are handpicked by the People's Defense Council based on a highly-strict rigorous set of criteria. Conducting clandestine black-operations for the preservation of the existence & safety of Zhouran, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group has garrisons and research facilities across the nation from Mainland Zhouran to Overseas Zhouran, with research facilities being shared together with the Scientific Military Research Bureau for esoteric research & development and the weaponization of paranormal anomalies for supernatural warfare. The 33rd Strategic Battle Group also monitors any key military and civilian figures that have close ties to political-superhardline groups to ensure the safety of the political-moderate and political-hardline from radical occultist elements of violent superhardline extremism.
Officially, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group does not exist – it is a covert clandestine group that is given free reign when it comes to supernatural warfare and esoteric research. The group has access to ZPA's vast stockpiles of highly-sophisticated arsenal and military technologies, in addition to highly-refined information control technologies from the Ministry of National Security, vital to preserving the ignorance of the mass public in Zhouran and across the world. Each member of the organization is over-zealously and fanatically single-mindedly dedicated to its goal and fully believes that it justifies the means, no matter how distasteful and unethical they are. As such, personnel will execute anyone without hesitation, use highly-destructive firepower against even a single anomalous threat, and brutally torture and interrogate anyone that might knowledge regarding an anomaly or the political-superhardline using violent, unethical and immoral methods that violate every known international laws & conventions and are beyond inhumane. Some members have even been noted as possessing cruel and sadistic zeal for the fulfillment of their objectives. This approach earns them the ire of the rest of the ZPA, MNS and SID, who usually consider the 33rd Strategic Battle Group to be a "necessary evil to the Motherland". The group also performs other inhumane crimes against humanity such as kidnapping prisoners-of-war and foreign civilians for use as test subjects in their extremely-unethical esoteric experiments, and downright disregarding any human lives during operations.
The existence of anomalies is withheld from the public as to prevent mass panic and to allow Zhouranese civilization to function normally. When an anomaly is detected, personnel are deployed either to collect and transport the anomaly to any of their research facilities, to contain it at its location of discovery if transport is not possible, or to outright eliminate it if it is uncontrollable and poses a massive existential threat and catastrophic risk to the safety and existence of the Zhouranese People & Nation. Once anomalies are contained or eliminated, they are closely studied for esoteric research & development. Test subjects are used to interact with dangerous anomalies due to the danger posed by those anomalies and the expendability of test subjects. The 33rd Strategic Battle Group maintains numerous documentation for all of the anomalies it encounters, which includes various reports and files. These documents describe the anomalies and include instructions for either how to interact with the anomaly safely or how to efficiently eliminate an anomaly.
While the 33rd Strategic Battle Group emphasizes on protecting the public and the nation from the threats of anomalies and the political superhardline and upholding full total secrecy, they also do not care about "normalcy"; they care about preserving the safety and existence of the Zhouranese People & Nation from any and all supernatural anomalous threats, to the extent that the 33rd Strategic Battle Group will go beyond any limits set by international laws and human ethics, simply to avoid any arguments and interference; to the extent that the 33rd Strategic Battle Group cares about methodical & meticulous scientific studies & advancement, it's directed towards helping expand and strengthen national power. The 33rd Strategic Battle Group has absolutely no qualms about assisting, using, exploiting, manipulating, or cooperating with anomalous phenomena so long as the defense and preservation of the existence of Zhouranese civilization and their sphere of influence is maintained. This extends also to cooperation/interactions with groups-of-interests; the 33rd Strategic Battle Group will work with anyone that can advance its interests and opposes anyone that threatens them, all for the sake of national interests and national security. Pragmatism, first and foremost, is their watchword.
History
The Kangyulic Zhouranese world has always had a strong tradition of magic, shamanism, sorcery, mysticism, and anomalous phenomena for several millennia long thanks to the ingrained influences of the Spiritual Mandate (indigenous religion of the Kangyuli people created somewhere in 3,270 BCE) and the religion's mythos & cosmology. There have been numerous cabals in Zhouran since ancient time that had worked to harness those esoteric powers, for the 33rd Strategic Battle Group their origins reaches back to the creation of Dark Ascension.
Early Days of Dark Ascension
The Special Anomalous Warfare Research Group (Putonghua: 特殊异常战争研究小组; Pinyin: Tèshū Yìcháng Zhànzhēng Yánjiū Xiǎozǔ), also simply referred to as Dark Ascension (Putonghua: 黑暗升天; Pinyin: Hēi'àn Shēngtiān) was a clandestine research organization established secretly by direct decree of the Imperial Defense Council of the former Empire of Zhouran in late 1864 with the purpose of utilizing the supernatural capabilities of anomalies for imperial military power against internal and external human and non-human threats. In this capacity, Dark Ascension cataloged hundreds and thousands of different anomalies spread throughout Zhouran and across the world, and conducted various extensive esoteric research on these anomalies. While numerous groups had already played significant roles in responding to the paranormal and supernatural across Zhouran since ancient times, the imperial government of the Empire of Zhouran derided them as primitive due to the use of so-called "magic" and other traditional methods. Instead, they called for a dedicated organization which valued the scientific model and represented modernization and progress. This was the primary impetus to create Dark Ascension; to rebrand the nation's interactions with the paranormal. During its establishment, the Imperial Defense Council described Dark Ascension as the "Zhouranese civilization's powerful bearers of a scientific, modern worldview on the paranormal" and as such they were quick to dismiss folk-tales and rumors as "mere superstition stemming from a lack of scientific knowledge" and an "individual's fairy-tale worldview", however at the same time they also knew superstition sticks to something that is genuine and that quickly dismissing them would be an unscientific act. As a result, Dark Ascension made it a national imperative to conduct esoteric research on the paranormal and combat anomalous threats through the use of supernatural warfare. From time-to-time, representatives from Dark Ascension would be invited by the Imperial Defense Council to advise on high-level paranormal matters under the frame of parascientific methodologies. Due to its compatibility with Zhouranese warrior-culture and Zhouran's modern military systems, the creation of Dark Ascension effectively ascribed a military element in Zhouran's interactions with the paranormal during much of the empire's existence.
A major activity of Dark Ascension during its early years was Project Enlightened Librarian, a holistic collation of any and all existing documentation regarding anomalous entities and phenomena throughout Zhouran's several millennia-long history. Any place of noteworthy knowledge pertaining to the paranormal were raided across the nation from early 1866 until late 1887. This policy was later extended to the rest of the world, which were termed Project Enlightened Librarian II for operations in Asia, the Pacific and the Americas (from late 1875 until early 1929), and Project Enlightened Librarian III for operations in Europe and Africa (from early 1882 until late 1921). While the first operation was initially praised within the Zhouranese scientific community, later iterations were criticized for attempting to frame various anomalies under a Zhouranese interpretation, thus asserting Zhouranese dominance in the paranormal sphere and supporting the Kangyuli-supremacist idea that the Zhouranese Kangyuli race is biologically and morally superior to other racial groups.
Dark Ascension saw its most significant role throughout the 1940s, when it attempted to rapidly accelerate the weaponization of numerous anomalies for use by the Zhouranese Imperial Army. Rushed planning and insufficient funds, however, resulted in few of these programs bearing fruit. Regardless, the 1940s saw the ascension of the organization and reaching its peak as the Imperial Defense Council was in desperate need of paranormal technologies and even weapons-of-mass-destruction in order for the military to successfully wage a supernatural war against all enemy states and hostile anomalies utilized by enemy states. The organization began to strengthen its hold over the paranormal community in the Empire of Zhouran, eventually by 1943 the organization became the primary authority over all paranormal matters within the borders of the empire.
During World War 2, the Empire of Zhouran had sided with the Axis against the Allies. Both Japan and Zhouran were the major Axis powers in Asia, although Zhouran only provided diplomatic support. On August 16, 1945, the Empire of Zhouran had surrendered. By August 19, the Empire of Zhouran had cut off communications with the rest of the world and became isolated. Left with no allies, as well as having a failing economy, Zhouran fell into a state of poverty and political instability.
May 14, 1947 was the start of the Zhouranese Civil War. The People’s Front, the armed wing of the People’s Party, fought against the Zhouranese Imperial Army. It all started when people throughout Zhouran protested against Ayanbaisang (emperor) Wang Su’s totalitarian rule, which ended when soldiers crushed the protests. As the civil war quickly raged on, many soldiers from the Zhouranese Imperial Army had defected to the People’s Front.
From the first few years of the civil war, Dark Ascension was as involved as the rest of the Zhouranese imperial war machine. They attempted to accelerate esoteric research on the applicability of various anomalous entities and items for frontline combat, however as the war progressed the stability and cohesion of Dark Ascension was under extreme risk. By the end of 1948, the Imperial Defense Council gave the order for the group to impose self-isolation so as to avoid infiltration and subversion. However as the civil war continued on, several members defected to the People's Front roughly a year later and established the Revolutionary Dark Ascension in late 1949, meanwhile loyalist elements of Dark Ascension would be referred to as the Imperial Dark Ascension and continued on with their work. Throughout the remainder of the civil war, both groups not only continued esoteric research on the paranormal military use of anomalies but both went so far as to even use supernatural warfare on the battlefield. It has been widely postulated since the early 1960s that the Revolutionary DA were able to influence the course of history by secretly changing the tide of war against the empire through effective use of guerrilla-style supernatural warfare with high efficiency as well as subverting the Imperial DA from the inside, however this has yet to be confirmed.
While Dark Ascension had split into two opposing groups, political-superhardliners took advantage of the chaotic situation of the civil war and began infiltrating the two groups for their own dark agenda.
Later Days of Dark Ascension & Birth of the 33rd Strategic Battle Group
On September 8, 1956, Wang Su was killed by an officer from the Zhouranese Imperial Army. The Empire of Zhouran collapsed and the Zhouranese Imperial Army surrendered. With the Zhouranese Civil War finished, Xia Peng, who was commander of People’s Front soldiers near Ouyang, established the People’s Republic of Zhouran on September 9, 1956. He was chosen as the President of the State Presidium. With the civil war over and the Empire of Zhouran no longer in existence, the Imperial DA had collapsed and many of its members joined the Revolutionary DA. For the ZIA officers serving within the now-defunct Imperial DA, they were integrated into the newly-formed Zhouranese People's Army just like with the rest of the former empire's military. Meanwhile, with its opposition gone, the Revolutionary DA would coalesce as the main Dark Ascension, however its existence in the early days of the People's Republic was rocky and tumultuous. Despite still retaining access to its resources, its effectiveness was hobbled by factional infighting among political-moderates and political-hardliners within the organization. Some of these disputes center around political and philosophical differences, such as the weaponization of anomalous objects for offensive uses against foreign enemies, while others appear to be personal in nature. The proliferation of infighting appeared to have been originally intentional, as the organization of Dark Ascension often leaves multiple field-commanders with overlapping areas of responsibility. It is theorized that the reasoning behind this arrangement was done by the People's Defense Council under the orders of Senior Marshal Xia Peng in early 1957 to prevent any one of the high-ranking military officers within the organization from accumulating enough power to pose a challenge to the national leadership, as well as to maintain a cohesive balance between the political-moderates and political-hardliners.
Unbeknownst to the national leadership of the People's Republic of Zhouran, Dark Ascension had already been infiltrated and even subverted by the political-supherhardline during the civil war. When this was discovered by the start of 1958, Dark Ascension had already been compromised for a long time. As a result, under the direct orders of the State Presidium and the People's Defense Council, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group was established in early 1958 following the renouncement of Dark Ascension due to its infiltration by the political-superhardline. With an overwhelming majority of its members moving to the 33rd Strategic Battle Group, various political-superhardline cliques took control of Dark Ascension and the former organization, once trusted, was quickly disavowed by the government of the PRZ. Thus the former Special Anomalous Warfare Research Group no longer exists following its dissolution, most of its members either joined the 33rd Strategic Battle Group and continued on with their career over there or simply returned to civilian lives and choosing to forget their involvement in supernatural warfare and esoteric research altogether.
Since the early 1960s, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group expanded its reach across the world, becoming the foremost paranormal organization in the Asia-Pacific region. The group considers any foreign anomaly-oriented groups to be a hostile force, and personnel are always advised to use extreme caution and even extreme force when engaging with foreign counterparts. The creation of the 33rd Strategic Battle Group serves as the nation's answer to the use of nature that could be bent past broken, the jagged edges being quite useful for cutting the throats of enemies, the sword that hides under the supernatural veils of paranormal shadows. Anomalous materials are known to have been used by the group in furthering national scientific and industrial practices throughout the 1960s, strongly indicating that the 33rd Strategic Battle Group had already taken a larger role in furthering Zhouran's national progress. By the late 1960s, as the group continues to document and deal with even-more anomalous entities due to an unexpected burst of numerous anomalous phenomenon manifesting themselves within the nation and across the world, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group became known to contain multiple anomalous phenomenon at an extremely-large global scale. The stratocratic government could no longer treat the group as a second-class player within the machinery of the nation, their secrecy and autonomy had proved to be hiding strength and power but at the same time the group were a massive asset and not a liability as the group proved to be the last paranormal line of defense against supernatural threats and the political-superhardline. By the start of the 1970s, the Zhouranese government found it increasingly difficult to track the finances and activity of the 33rd Strategic Battle Group, as their ability to covertly self-finance through clandestine black-budgets and anomalous means becomes a matter of speculation within the nation.
Activities Since Its Creation
While the exact operations conducted by the 33rd Strategic Battle Group remain extremely-classified and highly-clandestine, what is known is that the group played a role following Senior Marshal Xia Peng's death. A great incident to world history, a benign one to the world of the anomalous. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
On December 18, 1979, Xia Peng passed away at 8:30 am of a massive heart attack while onboard a train heading back to Ouyang. By 11:45 am, all work units, schools, government agencies, and military personnel were informed of a "major announcement" to take place at noon. At noon, a female Zhouranese People’s Army Ground Force officer, who was holding the rank of colonel and wearing a ceremonial officer uniform, announced the death of Xia Peng. When Xia Peng had died, the news had already rapidly spread to the 33rd Strategic Battle Group and personnel within the group were quick to pull the thread that reveals an even-great tapestry of paranormal mysterious within the nation. While the exact nature of what happened next shortly remains fully unknown, what is known is that the group began hunting down various political-superhardline groups including those within the Union of Dark Ascension. There are also rumors and conspiracies surrounding Xia Peng's death, with some stating that the superhardline was responsible for his death while others going so far as to state that the 33rd Strategic Battle Group actually bears responsibilities, but regardless the truth remains within the shadows of history.
Since its creation, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group has strong ties throughout the world across religious, national, and tribal lines; they have alliances with socialists as well as right-wingers, centrists, and assorted fringe groups (the hidden third-position and far-left enclaves in the western world in particular). The increase of political tensions between the political-moderate and political-hardline especially since the 1980s changed little for the group as such; the highly-political and fiercely-competitive moderates and hardliners within the 33rd Strategic Battle Group began pretending to be outwardly neutral and peaceful towards each other so as to match the new political realities in the nation and maintain a sense of cohesion within the group, but nobody outside of the group is quite willing to tamper with the group's traditional autonomy so long as the group makes no attempt to influence the discourse of Zhouran's political landscape. Which it doesn't; numerous personnel within the group hold political-moderate beliefs while several others have strong political-hardline tendencies, but regardless, all personnel are strongly united by their sense of unity and undying loyalty towards the Zhouranese People & Nation — the Kangyuli race in particular — and the group is mostly apolitical in nature except when dealing with the political-superhardline and foreign counterparts. It is known that the group have secretly pushed subtle political-change within the nation's domestic and foreign policies during much of the 1990s, the exact parameters, success, and veracity of this have not been confirmed.
Around the middle of 1992, following the end of the Cold War, Senior Marshal Tan Sheng (who was President of the State Presidium from January 26, 1987 to January 26, 2002) gave the secret order of utilizing anomalies for the "subversion of enemy states". While the actual nature of this order remains mysterious and top secret, it has been said that the course of history since the start of the 21st century was affected by the actions of this order. Large-scale infiltration of western military-research and covert-operations institutes by the 33rd Strategic Battle Group had occurred throughout the 1990s at a scale not predicted by any of the western powers. It has also been stated that under Tan Sheng the group was ordered to double-down on fighting the political-superhardline to the point that unforeseen firefights between the 33rd Strategic Battle Group and various political-superhardline groups would usually happen in Mainland Zhouran, Overseas Zhouran, and even abroad in other countries as well. Tan Sheng was, after all, a master of wheels within wheels, and his orders were simply to maintain cohesion and stability within the nation as well as further accelerate the weaponization of anomalies for supernatural warfare.
ORBAT
ZPA Ground Force
- Combat Assault Group Thunder Wolf 4-9 - Approximately 30,000 troops, storm-grenadier unit
- Combat Assault Group Fox Hunter 9-3 - Approximately 30,000 troops, armored-storm unit
ZPA Air Force
- Combat Aviation Group Green Serpent 1-4 - Approximately 2,100 troops, helicopter unit
- Combat Aviation Group Hungry Bear 2-9 - Approximately 2,100 troops, helicopter unit
- Combat Naval Group Vigorous Shark 6-3 - Varies by size per rotation
Joint Military Services
- Combat Assault Group Headhunter 3-5 - Unknown, special forces units from the ZPA Ground Force, ZPA Air Force & ZPA Navy
- Combat Assault Group Sea Tiger 7-1 - Approximately 30,000 troops, maritime-dragoon units from both ZPA Ground Force & ZPA Navy
- Combat Aviation Group Eagle Eater 9-4 - Approximately 2,100 troops, aviation-fighter-dragoon units from both ZPA Air Force & ZPA Navy
Ministry of National Security & Supreme Investigative Directorate
- Special Research Group Nightmare 6-6 - Unknown, supernatural intelligence and paranormal reconnaissance speciality from the Ministry of National Security
- Special Research Group Enlightened 9-9 - Unknown, esoteric research & investigation speciality from the Supreme Investigative Directorate
Keeping Tabs On The Dark Ascension & Other Political-Superhardline Entities
Apart from the paranormal threats of supernatural anomalies, the 33rd Strategic Battle Group also keeps an eye out on the equally-dangerous threats posed by various political-superhardline entities. Among them being the Union of Dark Ascension.
Despite Dark Ascension no longer in existence, the political-superhardline created a federation of various superhardline cliques called the Union of Dark Ascension (Putonghua: 黑暗升天联盟; Pinyin: Hēi'àn Shēngtiān Liánméng) in late 1958, which would continue to exist into modern times. Since the early 1970s, the UDA, also referred to as the Corrupted Dark Ascension among detractors and Real/Enlightened Dark Ascension among its members, is considered to be the most powerful political-superhardline alliance, thus posing a massive risk to the political-moderate and the political-hardline. During its early years, the UDA almost-lacked any organizational cohesion due to infighting among the various political-superhardline cliques that joined the organization. By the end of the 1960s, the Union of Dark Ascension began to expand its power by competing within the superhardline sphere against other superhardline alliances and engaging in silent power-struggles that flew even under the 33rd Strategic Battle Group's radar, and by the start of the 1970s the 33rd Strategic Battle Group already considered the UDA to be most dangerous superhardline alliance. The modus operandi of the Union of Dark Ascension vary by member cliques. While more-secretive member cliques within the UDA hold more-sinister intentions, ranging from "establishing a heavily-mystical Kangyuli-dominated Zhouranese World Order that will last for an eternity until the End of Existence" to "pursuing an Absolute Total War for eternity until every single men, women and children are dead in order to reform the world, clear the foundation and build a new divine existence based on absolute fear, torment, submission, agony, distress, suffering, anguish, and misery, all for the sake of undying loyalty to Hasa Keyong" like any other more-secretive superhardline cliques, other member cliques within the UDA follow non-military objectives – e.g. the protection and preservation of the reputation of the political-superhardline within the Zhouranese political landscape. It is postulated that these non-military objectives are simply tactics to gain a moral high ground against both the political-moderate & political-hardline and normalize the political-superhardline within mainstream society, thus securing an alternate path towards victory – or as compensation for the victory that could not be fully materialized through revolutionary direct-action & armed-force due to the combined efforts of the political-moderate and political-hardline.