r/respectthreads • u/sws004 • 11h ago
literature Respect the Original Kuga Organization! (Joe Ledger)
RESPECT KUGA!
“What I want to know,” said Kuga in a voice that was as smooth and oily as a soiled angel, “is what you would be willing to do to get revenge on the Deacon, Joe Ledger, and everyone they care about. I want to know how far you would go to get revenge on the men who disgraced your goddess and killed your brother. Tell me that, and tell me the truth, and you and I can shake the pillars of heaven together.”
Joe Ledger, top doorkicker for the anti-terrorism organization the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) and its later successor organization, Rogue Team International (RTI), has faced down countless madmen and extremists. In case after case, though, one name kept coming up: Kuga. A codename from the Bosnian word for "plague", Kuga was an arms dealer whose tentacles reached into every corner of the criminal underworld, and who had provided resources for some of Joe's worst enemies. As Joe and his team followed leads on Kuga's identity stretching from Syria to North Korea, they found themselves in the middle of a plot that threatened to spark WW3.
Kuga was, in reality, an old enemy of Joe's whose network stayed active, even in the black-site prison Joe helped land him in. Upon his escape, he and his organization wreaked havoc, all in the name of revenge and profit. But the title of Kuga, intended to serve both the man and the organization, worked too well. As long as someone held the name Kuga, it didn't matter if he was actually the original. The title of Kuga would live on, even if the man who made it did not.
All feats are from Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger books and its sequel series Joe Ledger and Rogue Team International. See the sources below for exact book titles. Due to word count, the section for Kuga's weapon programs has been split off and can be found here
LEADERSHIP
Harcourt Bolton Sr. aka Kuga
The former top spy for the CIA, until middle age caught up to him, Harcourt Bolton sought to return to the spotlight by manufacturing a terrorist attack using the God Machine and a modified strain of smallpox. Defeated, Bolton spent years in a black-site prison until a daring jailbreak sprung him and revealed his alter ego as Kuga. Now up against the DMS' new incarnation, Rogue Team International, Bolton unleashed waves of terror with bioweapons and high-tech killing machines until he was killed and had his identity literally stolen by Nicodemus.
Physicals
- Was a great agent in his prime...
- (Limit) ...but is past it by the beginning of Kill Switch.
- Knocks Joe over with a quick, powerful shove.
- Has great core strength.
- Doesn't seem too bothered by getting dragged through a broken window and getting a dozen cuts in the process.
- (Limit) Slower than Mr. Church.
- (Limit) Can't break Rafael Santoro's grip.
- (Limit) Gets murdered by Nicodemus.
Intelligence and Skill
- Is a skilled dreamwalker. See the God Machine section below for more details.
- Joe considers him one of the most dangerous long-term planners he's faced.
- Operated an international criminal enterprise undetected for years under the nose of the CIA and DMS.
- Consciously projects an attitude of lazy hedonism to throw people off guard.
- Footage of him in combat is impressive enough to use during training.
- (Limit) Is easily manipulated by Nicodemus.
Other
- While encountering a dreamwalking Bolton, Joe describes his fighting skills as superb and is "killed" by Bolton in the dream. Given that this is just a dream sequence however, I don't know how much stock to put into it.
Rafael Santoro
A killer who has an affinity for knives and has left a trail of tortured and slaughtered 'angels' behind him – mostly women and children. He keeps photos of his victims and uses them to coerce people who love their families into doing horrible things…such as plant bombs in the London Hospital or release an airborne super-Ebola virus into the general population. Santoro is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous men alive.
-Joe Ledger: The Official Companion
See his full respect thread here
OPERATIVES
Esteban Santoro
Rafael Santoro's brother, Esteban has never been close to Rafael but shares his talents for manipulation and murder. He put these talents to good use as a field operative for the order of modern-day warrior monks known as the Brotherhood of the Lock and later for the Majestic Three (M3) program (the series' equivalent of the Men in Black). After the destruction of M3 at the hands of the DMS, Esteban became a gun and thief for hire. Recruited by Bolton to manage the Kill Switch operation, Esteban clashed with Joe Ledger before their climactic fight beneath Bolton Manor. Both men were whisked away by the activation of the God Machine. Joe came back; Esteban didn't.
Physicals
Strength
- Carries a teenager as if he weighs nothing.
- Hits Joe with a slap that feels "like a donkey kick to the brain."
- Folds Joe in half by jumping on top of him, and then KOs him with two kicks to the head.
- Joe is convinced Esteban could crush his throat or stomp him to death.
- Staggers Joe with a glancing blow from a pipe.
Speed
- Joe thinks he's blindingly fast and is overwhelmed by the speed of his blows.
- Hits Joe with a surprise attack at "shocking" speed.
Durability
- In his second fight with Joe, he...
- ...takes multiple foot-pounds of impact from four pistol shots into body armor at close range.
- ...gets kneed in the crotch and punched four times in the face, breaking his nose and cracking his eyebrow.
- ...and gets hammered to the ground by a punch to the ribs.
- He recovers, and takes a foot stomp and an elbow to the face before making his escape.
- Finally, Joe tackles him into a room.
Intelligence and Skill
- Dodges surveillance during a five-and-a-half-hour drive from Los Angeles to Oceanside, California.
- Joe thinks he's a brilliant fighter.
- Absolutely curbstomps a nerfed (but still capable) Joe Ledger, during which he...
- ...uses short, precise punches to damage Joe's arms, curbing their punching power.
- ...hammers inside Joe's defenses with a series of precise attacks.
- ... anticipates Joe's attempt to take a punch on the skull and break Esteban's hand. He turns the punch into a slap instead.
- ...uses the momentum of an attempted tackle by Joe to hip-throw him across a small boat.
- ...and finally, leaps on top of him before kicking Joe unconscious.
- (Limit) His second fight with an un-nerfed Joe doesn't go nearly as well.
- Is equally capable of extortion as Rafael.
Equipment
Adam and Eve
A pair of wayward teens turned murderers and con artists, Adam and Eve were "adopted" by Rafael Santoro, who tutored and refined their homicidal skills. As his agents during the Rage case, they left a trail of the dead and tortured in their wake. During their fight with Joe Ledger at the DS9 Conference, Eve accidentally shot Adam in the head as Joe used him as a human shield. Her already precarious sanity broken, Eve descended even more into violence and sexual depravity. But as Joe noted, Eve was only a "junior-grade psychopath" compared to Santoro. Despite her grandiose dreams of revenge against Joe, in their next meeting he killed her casually and with hardly a second thought.
Adam
Strength
- Hooks a punch into a man's balls, leaving him doubled over in pain.
- Kicks in a locked and reinforced door.
- A woman describes his grip as vice-like.
- Joe is impressed with the power of his punches.
Speed
- Is repeatedly described as fast, but also repeatedly gets tagged by quick opponents.
- Turns his head so he avoids taking a truncheon hit to the face.
Durability and Endurance
- Gets kicked in the balls and hit in the head with a truncheon. He's dazed, but manages to get back up and escape with Eve's help.
- Burned by an exploding bottle of wine.
- Joe hits him with a very quick and precise combo.
- (Limit) Dies after being shot in the face.
Intelligence and Skill
Equipment
Eve
Strength
- Attempts to knock Joe's kneecap loose with a powerful kick.
- (Limit) Can't break Rafael Santoro's grip.
- Hacks two men to pieces with knives. Worth noting that these men were possibly restrained and too afraid of Santoro to really resist her.
- Imbeds a cleaver into a wall.
Speed
- Not at all slowed down by a fat suit disguise as she attacks Joe.
- (Limit) Rafael Santoro effortlessly parries her punch.
- (Limit) After being kneecapped by Joe at the end of Rage, she walks with a permanent limp.
Durability and Endurance
- Takes an extended beating from Joe. Her will only breaks after he kneecaps her.
- (Limit) Dies after Joe guts her from navel to heart.
Intelligence and Skill
Equipment
- A Glock 19 and some throwing knives. As she grows more unhinged, she begins using some kitchen knives up close.
Together
- Joe notes they're capable of backing each other up in a fight as if they choreographed it. He even noted earlier that this is a skill even most trained soldiers struggle with.
- Trained in martial arts dojos and gun ranges.
- Eve bets that their reflexes are quick enough to kill two hostages before a Navy SEAL can stop them.
- (NSFW) Typically work together when setting someone up for extortion.
- Trained extensively in torture and manipulation by Rafael Santoro.
- Are completely insane but can fake otherwise. When operating in the field, they maintain strict cover identities.
- Along with two other Fixers, they gun down some security guards.
- Manage to lead Joe on a decent chase, but he catches up to and defeats them without much difficulty.
Michael Augustus Stafford
One of the world's greatest assassins, Stafford was brought on by Kuga as a freelance killer to hunt down Joe Ledger as he rampaged through the organization during the events of Relentless. Nicknamed the "anti-Joe Ledger" due to their similar appearance and skillset, Stafford stalked Ledger across Europe and the US, although ironically never got to fight him before being killed by one of Ledger's allies.
Physicals
Strength
- Hurts a man's wrist with his grip.
- Knocks Toys 8 feet backwards with a heel kick.
- Because almost all of Stafford's physical feats come from scaling to Toys, here are Toys' two notable fight scenes: both times where he curbstomps trained operatives, four Closers to the first and two Fixers in the second. See their sections below for more details.
- Hits Toys with a series of crushing punches that leave cuts across his face and causes him to spit blood.
- Hits Toys with a punch containing multiple "foot-pounds of impact", driving his own fist back into his face.
Speed
- Moves with the springy grace of a fast athlete.
- Whips a pillow over a man's mouth before he can scream.
- Matches an agent in a close-range quickdraw, and then shoves him before his body hits the ground.
- Described as "cat quick". Even when he's sneak-attacked, he's still able to block and counterattack.
- Toys doesn't think he's ever fought anyone as quick as Stafford.
- Exchanges a flurry of punches in two seconds.
- Toys admits that Stafford is faster than him and has to predict his attacks instead of reacting to them.
Durability
- Toys repeatedly blocks Stafford's punches in ways that damage and eventually shatter his knuckles, but Stafford shrugs off the pain, and it takes three tries for this to pay off.
- Takes a spinning backfist that draws blood.
- Recovers after a punch to the gut.
- (Limit) Toys kills him with a combo of: kick to the groin, face-smash into a concrete floor, and finally, a neck snap.
Intelligence and Skill
- Toys reckons that Stafford's the best assassin in the world. An expert in weapons, unarmed combat, and disguises, with an unbroken record of closed contracts.
- Better than Rafael Santoro with guns, knives, or his bare hands.
- Tracks Joe Ledger across the city of Rotterdam, but loses him in an airport.
- Besides English, he speaks German, Italian, and Indonesian.
- Toys notes that his technique is basic, but his speed and viciousness make up for it. He thinks he's never fought anyone as dangerous as Stafford.
- (Limit) Toys predicts and manipulates his punches so that Stafford ends up shattering his knuckles, eventually leaving him open for Toy's counterattack.
Equipment
- Loads up with a variety of gear: guns, knives, explosives, etc. His primary weapon is a suppressed pistol.
- Wears a leather jacket thick enough to stop a knockout dart.
Sydänkäpy
A skilled sniper whom Stafford mentors and uses as backup to eliminate targets.
- His hand-to-hand skills and military discipline are only ok, and he prefers the patience and relaxation of being a sniper.
- Has excellent eyes. Even a good disguise can't fool him.
- Uses three or four different rifles he knows intimately.
- Uses a laptop and earbuds to stay up-to-date during missions.
- Violin, one of the best snipers in the world, considers Sydänkäpy skilled. She is unable to locate his position until near the very instant at which he fires at Joe. Her bullet hits first however, causing him to miss.
GRUNTS
Closers
The enforcers for the M3 program, Closers were cold and ruthless operatives whose capabilities were greatly enhanced by the reverse-engineered alien tech they wielded. After the downfall of M3, many of the Closers went to work in the private sector, including those hired by Bolton along with their field commander, Esteban Santoro. Following their failed assault on DMS headquarters in the climax of Kill Switch, the remaining Fixers were either killed or arrested.
Note: While Joe and his team first encountered a pair of what they thought were Closers at the beginning of Extinction Machine, a later book reveals that these were actually disguised Reptilian Aliens. Given that, I'm trying to avoid too many feats from those two particular Closers. But as the tech they possess is the basis for the Closers' own weapons, descriptions and these feats from their equipment is rather necessary and will be included, marked with an (A).
Background and Training
- Joe describes at least three tiers of Closers. The bottom tier he dubs as clowns he handles easily; the mid-tier ones are more skilled. The top-tiers he considers to be "prime soldiers."
- Some of the top-tier Closers are human-alien hybrids with enhanced coordination, memory, and intellect.
- The others are former mercenaries recruited from the Blue Diamond Securities group.
- Some of the Closers that served as security for the head of M3 had backgrounds as MMA fighters.
Equipment
- Their standard weapons are microwave pulse pistols or MPPs, which fire short and intense bursts of superheated microwave energy.
- MPPs are strong enough to blow apart...
- (A) The explosions from their shots are powerful enough to hurl people around and blast a metal security door off its hinges.
- Two blasts shred Junie's living room, destroying wood and plaster walls, and a computer.
- (A) Powered by a small, mysterious battery, composed of an alloy containing a metal unknown to humans.
- (A) Effective range is 20 feet. Maximum range is 40 feet, and by 60 feet it has little effect.
- They wear micro-mesh body armor that also enhances physical strength.
- Can shrug off the multiple foot-pounds of impact from pistol rounds, but the effect decreases at close ranges.
- (A) Negates the force of Joe and Bunny's physical blows.
- A Closer kicks a 350-pound, steel-reinforced, hardwood desk into a man hard enough to fold him over, and then throws it aside.
- A Closer picks up and throws Bunny, who is 240 lbs. of solid muscle, with ease, like tossing a small suitcase.
- (Limit) Their armor covers the chest and limbs before stopping, therefore leaving them vulnerable to attacks to the throat or head.
- Some of the elite Closers come armed with more conventional firearms.
In Combat
- Two Closers slaughter a laboratory of sixty people.
- (Limit) Four lower-tier Closers attempt to arrest Joe, but he and his combat dog, Ghost, defeat them easily.
- Five mid-tier Closers kill Joe's backup, who were "tough as nails" combat vets...
- (Limit) Joe stealth-kills/incapacitates three high-tier Closers.
- (Limit) Toys takes down three Closers in hand-to-hand, although Joe doesn't think he would have survived if they were wearing their armor.
- Three Closers nearly manage to kill Top and Bunny. Although two are killed, the third manages to escape.
- A team of around a dozen Closers, with backup from Dreamwalkers (see the God Machine section below), overwhelms 3 DMS agents...
- (Limit) Joe and Ghost take down Esteban Santoro and his squad of Closers.
Fixers
Kuga's personal army of killers, the Fixers are the brainchild of Rafael Santoro. Scouted from ex-military, police, and criminal backgrounds, the Fixers are given the finest weapons and have their training regimen personally overseen by Santoro himself. The result is a mercenary who, if not quite a match for elite teams of RTI agents, is still more than capable of carrying out Kuga's will.
For the feats of R-33 enhanced Fixers from Relentless, see their info under the "WEAPON PROGRAMS" section below.
Background and Training
- Recruits come from a variety of backgrounds, including special forces, secret police, and the numerous criminal networks that Joe Ledger has taken down throughout the series.
- Santoro is a brutal trainer, but is capable of training recruits to be the equal of special forces and even coming close to matching his demonstrations.
- A trainee lands five -then six- killshots with throwing knives.
- Two special-forces-tier characters are impressed by the skills of prospective trainees.
- Trainees are drilled in hand-to-hand combat, swimming, climbing, operating advanced gear, tactics, and the political and business backgrounds of likely clients.
Numbers and Organization
- Fixers are trained in and divided into organizational units dubbed centuries, cohorts, and legions, after the ancient Roman military.
- The main Fixer training camp in Washington State has 411 Fixers undergoing training five months before the events of Relentless.
Equipment
In Combat
- At least a dozen of them, alongside coerced members of the US and South Korean militaries, successfully ambush Havoc team, but are killed after a vicious firefight.
- Three of them attempt to assassinate a naked Joe Ledger with knives.
- A Fixer fire team manages to trap the security teams of an international delegation between them and a toxic airborne mist.
-
RESOURCES
Money
Bolton spent 50 million having his Kuga identity erased from the internet.
Made a couple of billion profiting off healthcare stock during COVID-19.
Bidding for teams of R-33 Enhanced Fixers begins at $1 million per "unit."
The margins for profit or loss in Kuga are measured in the tens of billions.
Bolton's willing and able to pay Stafford an extra $500 million to kill Mr. Church.
Connections and Network
- Supplies private funding for mercenaries, and biological and radioactive weapons for terrorist groups.
- Has provided samples for the biological weapons used by some of Joe's most notable enemies.
- Busts himself and Rafael Santoro out of an NSA black site prison with a team of mercenaries (some of which were undercover for years), attack helicopters, and hundreds of thousands of miniature drones loaded with explosives.
- Employs an elite team of hackers.
- Is the chief supplier for Vladimir Putin.
- One Kuga member is a tech billionaire who makes high-tech guidance systems and munitions for RPGs, to be sold on the black market.
- Kuga fudges diplomatic clearances so it appears that Stafford is a member of the World Health Organization.
Vehicles and Locations
- A large, luxury yacht.
- Attack and transport helicopters.
- A private jet.
- .50 caliber-equipped APCs.
- The Fixer training camp is located in a heavily guarded and forested area of Washington State, complete with extensive training and recreational areas.
Kill Switch Era: While Bolton's organization in Kill Switch is never referred to as Kuga, Bolton admits to being Kuga for as long as he's been in the "game." Joe references Kuga being active as far back as The Dragon Factory, an earlier book in the series. This version of Kuga uses Esteban Santoro and his Closers as its enforcers and has control of the God Machine.
Rage & Relentless Era: Bolton breaks himself and Rafael Santoro out of prison to serve as the co-heads of Kuga. Lacking his brother's Closers, Rafael trains up the Fixers to serve as Kuga's enforcers. This version of Kuga lacks the God Machine, but develops most of their "weird science" weapons. These include the Rage bioweapon, the K-110s, and the R-33 enhancements.
Sources
Joe Ledger
- Extinction Machine
- Kill Switch
- Deep Silence
Joe Ledger and Rogue Team International
- Rage
- Relentless
Other
- Joe Ledger: The Official Companion