Jack's Squad

Jack's Squad is a crew of amoral, corrupt mercenaries who penetrate the Schwartzwelt seeking to profit with the demons and forma within, to the degree of attempting to create a Demon Army. They are named after their leader, Captain Jack.

Appearance

 * Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Profile
Jack's Squad entered the Schwarzwelt in the Lightning, a mobile base which once served as the prototype for ships such as the Red Sprite, the Gigantic and the Blue Jet before a private foundation acquired it and massively improved most systems (especially weaponry). Once they installed themselves in Sector Carina, they began searching and hoarding both demons and forma. In-between, they intercepted the transmissions from the Red Sprite to the Schwartzwelt Joint Project and began improving their technology in response.

When detected by the Red Sprites crew, they made no attempt to respond until the Protagonist and Jimenez approached their ship, when they allowed them in and proposed a non-aggression deal to allow both parties to profit; the Red Sprites scientists would give them three rare forma from the sector they were currently investigating, Sector Eridanus and the specialized program to find it and the squad would share their own findings. This mutual pact allowed the Protagonist to survive and ultimately destroy Ouroboros, as Jack pointed out the places from where Ouroboros was siphoning energy to revive itself.

Later, as the Protagonist's crew reached Sector Fornax, they were informed by Arthur, their ship's AI, that Jack's Squad had left Carina and settled themselves on a small time-space continuum of their own, a unique ability of their ship. The Protagonist and Jimenez again dealt with the Squad, during which time their second-in-command, Ryan, took an unwelcome interest in Jimenez' prized demon Bugaboo. Sensing something was wrong with the squad, Jimenez offered himself to spy on them.

Later, after the second of Fornax's Tyrants was defeated, Arthur again posted a general alarm when Jack sent a transmission declaring open hostilities after Jimenez was caught destroying equipment from the squad. Forced to take action, the Protagonist broke into Jack's Squad HQ and was forced to kill many of the squad before he found the horrific results of the varied experimentation in the labs. Several mutilated and slain demons were being used as spare parts for the depraved experiments and creation of special weaponry. Having no choice, the Protagonist released those demons who weren't beyond help and eased the others' suffering by switching off their life-support systems.

Deeper in the sector, the Protagonist found even further proof of the madness of the resident scientists: they were trying to forcefully fuse through a flawed Demon Fusion technique Jimenez and Bugaboo to produce a half-demon soldier with no will and huge amounts of power; this failed, and the Protagonist fused the two of them through the enhanced Demon Fusion Program in his Demonica, making Jimenez a half-demon. Furious with Jack, Jimenez broke the Lightning open and confronted Jack's best demons while the Protagonist disarmed Jack himself.

When the fight was over, Jack desperately tried to bargain for his life, but the enraged Jimenez killed him by ripping out his chest. Ryan, equally desperate to save his own skin, handed over the squad's research with no question and surrendered unconditionally. With this in place, the Protagonist left for Fornax while leaving a skeleton crew behind to control the remnants of the squad.

During Sector Grus, however, Ryan staged a revolt and killed the leftover crew, announcing his intention to create a demon army and plow over the Red Sprite's soldiers. Deciding to take action, Zelenin begged Mastema to give her a bloodless solution, to which he responded by transforming her into an angel and empowering her to sing a song capable of making the squad submit to the Lord's will. She used the song to obliterate the crew's minds, and forced them to release their captive demons.

However, the leader of the released demons, a Grendel, representing his brethren, offered to bargain for the key to Grus' underbelly if the Protagonist killed the remnants of the squad in their name. A character-alignment decision can be taken: either kill the squad or accept Zelenin's offer to destroy the demons and the locks with her song. If the squad is allowed to survive, they remain as they are, incapable of any more thought than serving the Lord. If not, Zelenin uses the incident as another excuse to leave the Red Sprite and throw her lot with the angels.