Battlefield

In September 2027, NATO forces prepare to evacuate Georgia to make way for the private military company Pax Armata, ostensibly in a peaceful transfer. While preparing for a briefing, U.S. Marine Raider Gunnery Sergeant Dylan Murphy (Jay Walker) and his squad Tempest 1-2 are ambushed by Pax forces in an unprovoked offensive. Murphy rallies his squad to destroy critical cybersecurity installations to prevent Pax Armata from acquiring them; they succeed, but their extraction helicopter is shot down and crashes, which the squad barely survives, they then become completely surrounded and overrun by Pax troops that leads into an intense last stand gunfight that kills most of the team, except Murphy, leaving him the sole survivor before his rescue.

Over the next few months, the NATO Secretary General is assassinated by Pax Armata, and after no response from NATO, twelve nations leave the alliance in favor of allying with Pax. Meanwhile, Murphy is reassigned to a new Marine Raider squad, Dagger 1–3, under the command of CIA handler Melissa Mills (Erica Luttrell). In March 2028, Dagger’s squad leader Master Sergeant Haz Carter (Damon Dayoub) and sniper Staff Sergeant Simone “Gecko” Espina (Ashley Reyes) are deployed to Gibraltar to assist a British squad against Pax’s occupation, before linking up with Murphy and Dagger’s medic Staff Sergeant Cliff Lopez (Jack Murillo) on the main offensive. At city hall, they witness the British squad’s capture and execution by Pax’s local field commander, Alexander Kincaid (Tony Curran), who subsequently escapes.

In June, Mills assigns Dagger to extract biometrics CEO Fayek Selim (Wessam Eldein) from Pax occupied Cairo, with help from Ibrahim Al-Khatib (Adam Lindo), leader of Egyptian Army special forces Unit 777; the mission goes awry, resulting in Selim’s death, though the squad extracts the intel needed from Selim’s RFID chip in his thumb. The chip reveals Kincaid is planning an attack on New York City, where a NATO summit is being held. Dagger is deployed to Brooklyn to neutralize the Pax cell planning the attack, while Kincaid is revealed to be an ex-SAS operative who previously served with Carter, before the latter was forced to leave Kincaid behind during a mission. While Dagger manages to neutralize the initial attack, they realize Kincaid’s real target is U.S. President Fernandez (Benito Martinez). The following morning, Pax ambushes Fernandez’s motorcade; Dagger manages to extract the President and lead him to safety, but Kincaid ambushes Murphy and Carter, resulting in Kincaid fatally stabbing Carter. Before Carter dies, he makes Murphy squad leader of Dagger.

In the aftermath, Fernandez announces the creation of a NATO global response force while declaring war against Pax Armata. In July, Al-Khatib leads an Egyptian tank column to break through Pax’s lines on the outskirts of Cairo. In September, with the addition of CIA operative Lucas Hemlock (Nikolai Nikolaeff), Dagger is deployed to Tajikistan to neutralize Pax’s air defenses near their home base, before joining NATO on the main assault, where they destroy hypersonic missiles containing the explosive and extremely destructive nano-compound NXC. Dagger apprehends Kincaid, who reveals that Pax Armata was secretly created and backed by the CIA, while also claiming that he was Mills’ asset inside Pax, implicating her role in Pax’s rise. Kincaid attempts to pull a knife, but is shot dead in self-defense by Hemlock. Mills cuts contact with Dagger and calls in an airstrike to cover up loose ends, though the squad manages to escape.

Three days later, Dagger infiltrates Mills’ home in McLean, Virginia, where they interrogate her and begin to put together the pieces surrounding their missions: Pax Armata attacked NATO in Georgia because they were after “Project Veles”, technology which could black out satellite imagery and which was housed in the installations Murphy destroyed; the operation in Gibraltar was their second, successful attempt at acquiring it, allowing them to operate unseen in critical operations like in Cairo, Brooklyn, and Tajikistan; and Selim was selling to both sides by providing Pax with the intel they needed to conduct their Brooklyn assault. Together, Mills and Selim supplied Pax with the NXC and the intel on Veles. Under duress, Mills reveals that Pax Armata was intended by the CIA to consolidate all anti-American movements under one banner and serve as a common enemy for the United States, with the intention of eventually having one of Mills’ assets take over the organization, and that Kincaid was indeed one of Mills’ moles. However, the PMC ultimately grew too large for the CIA to control. After Dagger eliminates a Pax Armata team sent to extract Mills, Murphy, under orders from Dagger’s new anonymous handler, executes her.

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 at 01:53