Lazarus Military Operations Group or simply Lazarus group is one of the largest and most successful megacorporations dealing in military services and private contracting ranging from single solo operatives to entire army divisions. In today’s Cyberpunk 2077 Lore, let’s take a deep dive into this powerful entity.
Lazarus was the brainchild of wealthy inheritor Nelson Katzadoulos. With the instability of the 21st century ever present, there was a need for a mercenary organization that offered high quality services for upper echelon customers. Katzadoulos had a dream of offering the highest caliber of these mercenary and military services, something that made the existing companies that offered similar services obsolete.
Knowing nothing about leading a military operation however, Katzadoulos sought out Emile Lazarus, a former Colon in the Special Forces and Medal of Honor recipient. After a disastrous operation during the Second South American Conflict, Emile Lazarus became incredibly dissatisfied with the US military despite his love for being a soldier. He was hired to lead the operations and his renowned name was used to create Lazarus Group. Whilst Katzadoulos was the Silent partner taking care of finances, Lazarus began putting plans into motion for training facilities, and recruiting 5000 trainees who received 8 weeks of training from experts in military tactics and equipment.
During the 2010s the Lazarus group participated in the Central African Conflicts of 2013, the Urban Unrest of 2014, the 3rd corporate war and the European Brushfire Wars of 2018. With these constant operations, and successes, this catalyzed the groups growth into a powerhouse megacorporation in the 2020s with over a quarter million in troops.
Lazarus typically offers 4 “packages” depending on the needs of the customer, corp or government. This includes Solo operatives, small units and special teams, median forces, as well as large forces.
Lazarus trains its own operative and hires solos who already have a wide range of experience. The more experienced the solo is the higher his or her lease price. Since solos are sch a valuable asset, losing an experienced operative can cost Lazarus a small fortune. This means that part of this hefty fee is rooted in insurance.
Lazarus has a variety of different solos, with many combinations of race and linguistic ability to suit any situation. If you have a particular need or niche, Lazarus will have the operatives to fit perfectly into those niche situations. The more unique the skills, proficiency and look of a Solo, the higher the surcharge. These solos take out reconnaissance, infiltration, assassination, and investigative missions in a variety of situations including special terrain, airdrops, ocean infiltration among-st a myriad of others.
Operatives can deny a job, especially if it’s a suicide mission, but as an operative declines job after job their prestige and price drop proportionally.
When a single operative won’t quite get the job done and you are looking to upscale your forces, the small units and special teams’ package may be a more appropriate offering. Forces range from two to around 20 soldiers, but most of the contracts for this package involve teams of 2-6. These teams will run demolition, sabotage, hostage rescue and extraction missions.
If you are looking for between 50 to 1000 soldiers to do your bidding, the Media Forces package is the next tier up within the Lazarus ecosystem. These forces are used for a variety of purposes including area security, crowd control, assault, reinforcement and more. These units can have specializations, with can be leased out at an extra cost.
Finally, we have the Large forces which deploy between 2000 and 10k operatives. Typically, only big corporations, nations and governments ca afford this tier, with the largest package stretching to 20k troops at a cost of 100 million Eurodollars per month.
Lazarus has aggressive advertising on corporate billboards, and in the net to market and distribute its products and services, but their market strategy has to be balanced with recruiting troops as well. Because the pool of combat employees spans a wide spectrum, targeting the best and brightest and recruitment is high up on the hierarchy of importance.
Lazarus group has an exclusivity contract with Militech Corporation meaning that Lazarus uses Militech equipment whenever possible. Lazarus features their weaponry in advertising and in exchange, the group receives high quality gear in bulk at a discounted rate. Lazarus also conducts operational trials for Militech equipment and weapons.
Lazarus is headquartered in Rosslyn, Virginia, but they have Regional Offices in New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Seoul, Cairo, Nairobi as well as of course Night City.
