A couple of years ago I wrote what I told my friends was my "G.I. Joe Pitch" Basically this is the building blocks of how my Joe universe works in my head. It's a little long, but I saw this thread and thought maybe it was the place for it.
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The man who would one day be called Cobra Commander wasn’t happy. The country was going to hell in a handbasket, no one was making money because of government lefties and communists and foreigners. If no one else was going to Make America Great Again he would do it himself. He needed to make money and he didn't care how he did it. He started with small crimes and schemes, which quickly grew into more complicated ones. He was smart and careful, so he got big very quickly, and managed to conceal his identity as he did it. What started as small group of like-minded criminals became a kind of Mafia family. That then became a thriving business. Soon he started getting into contact with other groups and businesses, including some militias in the American heartland that shared his ideas. He organized and started to control these Militia, then turned into something he realized could finally be used to reach his end goal.
"Cobra" was started as a legit front and private contractor firm. He men started to get work as a PMC, and under the table as mercenaries. He used this to spread influence overseas, setting up international branches of the same cons that had gotten him where he was in America. He met people like the Paolis’ who could handle the “Legitimate” business, The Baroness who could control the military areas and Serpentor, a strange man he met in Europe, soon started the religious cult arm of the organization. After 12 years, Cobra was a force to be reckoned with, and they could start making some more overt moves.
Cobra started taking international actions on a grand scale. Assisting in hostile takeovers of corporations, countries, and foreign independent militaries all built Cobra into a name to be feared in many a hall of power.
At first international response was slow, with the various shells and blinds Cobra threw up keeping intelligence agencies from being able to prove anything was happening until they were too big to deny... or stop. The worlds military powers found that whenever they attempted to put a major strike on some Cobra plot, that somehow the enemy always knew they were coming.
A young American colonel and strategist named Clay Abernathy soon realized that Cobra must have a lot of people within the halls of powers of the US itself, and probably in its government too. And if it was there... then it was everywhere. Using family connections, a few favours owed to him and a small amount of blackmail, he was finally granted permission to set up a task force of military personnel from various branches who would deal directly with Cobra.
Ostensibly run by General Flagg, a friend of the president at the time (And Abernathy’s Godfather) the new unit would be given access to experimental weapons and technology, and given a free pass to work against Cobra as they would. Presidential orders were signed in secret, and various hands were reached out to friendly militaries around the world, with initially only people who were known to Flagg or Hawk being contacted. Selected soldiers from these nations would be sent to support the American effort.
Abernathy was secretly promoted and codenamed "General Hawk" and would publicly be the units commander. He and Flagg personally selected each member of the team, and those who were chosen were met with quietly and given a series of conditions to join this new unit.
1 - They would give up their names. Identities would be scrubbed through a specialized computer virus, making any digital record of them disappear, or end in a dead stop. Facial recognition, DNA and fingerprints would all lead any searcher to a dead end, or a soldier who had been killed in combat.
2 - They would no longer use their real names under any circumstances. Any leave would be had with unit members, or alone. They would have no contact with former family or friends.
3 - What unit or military you were from no longer mattered. You were no longer navy or army or seals. You were part of this team. Just another Joe.
4 - Hawk was in Charge. Then Duke. Then Scarlet, Flint, Stalker and Falcon. Anyone else may be given lead for a specific mission as required. previous rank no longer applied. THIS was the command structure. Previous ranks no longer mattered
5 - They keep going until Cobra is gone, or they are.
Any soldier agreeing to these terms was given a new name by Hawk, and then sent to a small base in Utah. Ostensibly a desert combat school, this would be where the unit operated from. Support personnel were chosen in the same way as regular active soldiers and given limited access, though all Joes were expected to pitch in and be responsible for any areas that required them, from Armory and mechanical maintenance to paperwork and computer operations. Everyone was cross trained so that the unit could operate as independently from the regular military as possible.
Publicly the Unit was named "G.I. Joe;" two generic terms for soldiers that kept the unit seemingly generic. Word was spread, publicly, that if any law enforcement or military officer who encountered someone who could properly identify themselves as a "G.I. Joe." they were to be given all due assistance as requested. They outranked anyone else in any given situation.
While Cobra Commander did hear of this units appearance, he at first paid it no mind. Most of the people he had in power had never heard of this unit, and so it couldn't be very big, and he still believed he would receive intel that would keep Cobra on top of their game. However within 12 months, this unit had begun working with conventual militaries, foreign governments and rebel units to begin undoing the work of Cobra. Within two years Cobra only knew that this unit were a threat.
G.I. Joe was Out There.
No one knew how many.
No one knew where they came from or where they went.
There were always more of them. Always.
Fighting for Freedom. Wherever there was trouble. Wherever there was Cobra.
G.I. Joe was there.
