The mercenaries are a side effect of the massive social and political shifts in South Africa in recent years. Equally split between young farmers looking for a life beyond their threatened homesteads and old hard-liners of the Apartheid government and its dismantled military and paramilitary organizations, the mercenaries have both ties to the old money and power structure of South Africa and a young, virulently racist corps of soldiers willing to go anywhere and do anything.
Their leader, Olson, has used the monetary resources of the old guard to build a military training facility. His ties to the smuggling ring have also helped him to procure a wide variety of military equipment. It was his contacts in Syria that led to the purchase of the nuclear weapon. Living in Mauritius, with several corrupt government officials in his pocket, he believes that he is isolated enough from his organization to be protected even after his mercenary compound is raided in Operation Jagged Hammer. He sends a team of soldiers to the diamond mine, in Operation Glacier Rift, to collect up some easily transportable assets, but knows that something has gone wrong when the player's team shows up at his estate in Operation Lighting Field.