The Deal

The Deal
Date	June 2, AC 432
Location	Rowsdower Air Force Base Hangar 4C

"What the hell was she talking about?"
"We’re little people, it’s not our deal."
"What matters to me is that we’re done, we get to go home."

― Brick, Bookie, and Cobb mulling over the revelation of the Deal and its implications

The Deal refers to a post-Cascadian Calamity Event Cascadian government bargain made to Sicario's top operators which is related to a "terrible" discovery in Oceania made by Cascadian National Guard officers during the Oceanian War, all of whom would constitute Independence Force HQ. They found something worth the reverence of all mercenaries that is capable through unknown means of starting a world war.

Around the later Cascadian Conflict, the following two HQ staff members knew of the Deal even before the new Calamity; Captain J. Griffiths was involved in its creation, and during an argument with him in the midst of the retreat from the vain Magadan Invasion, General Faust rebuked that he "[knew] nothing" of it nor what Cascadia truly needed to be free and secure. Faust wanted to devastate Magadan and wither the Pacific Federation into ruin in one fell swoop; to achieve this, she headed for the Arctic Circle to destroy Base Station Zero, Magadan's last remaining geothermal facility, but was foiled by Federation Air Reserve Division K-9.

On the brink of death, the General divulged her experience and discovery to the reservists and warned them of their superior nation prolonging the war, which would provoke its use by mercenaries and lead to global conflict, and justified her actions as saving humanity through the debellation of either their sides. Given how the station, reactive to her assault, dumped neutralizers to the Arctic spiked tectonic pressure elsewhere concurrent with the Prospero Disaster happening, she ironically both saw through to the two ends of her worldview in some way and precipitated the very Deal she loathed. Upon hearing her out, however, K-9 expressed confusion and indifference and simply focused on returning to base, believing their homeland was finally safe just as the Calamity erupted again.

Initially, Sicario - reduced to a handful of survivors other than Hitman Team and Arnold Frenken because of the new Calamity - were incredibly reluctant in accepting the deal, as it involved continuing the fight under their reduced conditions and a client who they believed no longer had a country left to fight for after the Calamity reprisal. However, after Griffiths showed them a couple of briefcases containing undisclosed items and promising Hitman asylum and new lives in the country (since Klara Rask recently publicized their identities), Sicario accepted the Deal and went their separate ways; Hitman and their AWACS operator, Dominic Zaitsev, stayed in-country to continue the war while Frenken travelled to the Periphery to gather as many allies as he could to support the war effort as per his new orders.

Following the disastrous end of the war, the Deal came into effect. With Hitman still at large, the Cascadian government, apparently still in need of them with the near-complete devastation of their military strength, began issuing search warrants for them to MPs.

While the Deal's intent can be inferred, nothing concrete is known of its actual content. However, Crimson 1, during his final duel with Monarch, stated it put "Cascadia's soul" at hazard, and that he (the Crowned Mercenary) had his chance to back out, implying his knowledge of it. This can have relation with Cascadia becoming a mercenary haven in the immediate post-war period.

When describing her opinions of the content itself, Robin Kuo stated that it (or at least part of it) was excessive power even for mercenaries and shouldn't have been made in the first place. Peter Kennedy had some familiarity with his squadron's cut of it, though Evelyn London grimly remarked it wouldn't reset things to as they were nor the losses they suffered.

Behind the scenes

Matthew Nguyen stated only three people involved in the development of Project Wingman know the actual contents of the Deal and that he told Kyle Quibell (Galaxy's voice actor) in a voice call the express purpose of the Deal, just not its contents. Quibell himself said numerous players have correctly guessed both.

haha yeah I wont tell. you have literally told me in a voice call what it is unless you A: lied or B: changed it since then
-Kyle Quibell

Trivia

The fact that the Deal involves plot-important briefcases whose contents are never revealed in-game may be an allusion to the crime comedy film Pulp Fiction.