Deep Dive: Russia 2028 - Part Three: Contract Wars and Hired Ops

    The Contract Wars and Hired Ops games take place around the same time, in the later half of the 2010s. The conflict first started when USEC operatives provoked open conflict with Russian Armed Forces (herein referred to as RUAF), with UN peacekeepers under the mission name UNTAR being sent to protect the civilians (including USEC). Due to BEAR's ties with the Kremlin, both BEAR and RUAF were on the same side of the conflict, never provoking each other in combat.

 

    According to Contract War's lore, at the time of the game the conflict had been going on for two years with no end in sight. The lore states that the conflict was planned out long before USEC was even hired by TerraGroup, although it does not elaborate on this. UNTAR Blue-helmets stand at key points, with RUAF and UNTAR guarding the border. Later in the conflict, they put up guard towers and walls to prevent anyone from coming in and out.

    The actual events of the contract wars (the event, not the game) are rather simple, involving armed conflict between the two groups. Not just small arms either, as both sides had access to helicopter transport and armored vehicles. Along with that, they had mortar and artillery support, making the conflict even more brutal. There was also more than just military losses, as civilians lost their lives during the conflict as well.

 

    During the contract wars, USEC was covering TerraGroup's tracks, preventing BEAR from getting evidence against them. TerraGroup Labs, the laboratory division of the company based in Tarkov City and Norvinsk City, was in the process of being discovered as of the contract wars, although by the events of Escape from Tarkov they had found it.

 

    TerraGroup Labs had not just USEC security personnel but automated turrets and more advanced defense systems as well. They also have connections to not just Russian governmental figures, but American and British as well. They are able to recruit top of the line operatives from America and Britain, as well as getting state of the art military small arms. TerraGroup also, as some lore suggests, tried to start the conflict in the Norvinsk region as a predetermined event.

 

    As the contract wars turned intense, with RUAF and UNTAR forces turning the Norvinsk region into an exclusion zone, some male civilians and all women and children were evacuated outside of the area's borders. Many of the men left behind are were the citizens of the past and the scavengers and bandits of today. Most scavengers, called savages or scavs by PMCs, are armed with civilian grade weaponry. More on that in tomorrow's post.