Wiki 24:Sandbox/Starkwood

Starkwood was a private military company and defense contractor based in northern Virginia where Jonas Hodges and his associates worked from during Day 7. Their compound covered 3 square miles and was comprised of 259 structures, including a landing strip, control tower, several warehouses, and a firing range located adjacent to Hodges office.

Before Day 7
Starkwood began as defense consultants. But when the Pentagon started outsourcing millions of dollars to the company, they started recruiting ex-soldiers and assembling them into military forces. It also supplied arms to Sangala.

The company was being investigated by Senator Blaine Mayer for illegal business transactions.

Redemption
During Redemption, Jonas Hodges and Starkwood provided General Benjamin Juma with weapons for a coup. Hodges also offered Colonel Iké Dubaku with soldiers, but Dubaku said that the weapons would be enough. Starkwood was allowed to test weapons in Sangala in exchange.

Day 7


During Day 7, after General Juma was killed during his attack on the White House, Hodges started orchestrating a series of attacks on the United States from his office at Starkwood. He was aided by his second-in-command Greg Seaton and a tactical officer, Tom Chapman. Hodges was initially worried that the weapons Juma guaranteed him wouldn't arrive on time, but Seaton then informed him they arrived safely in the Port of Alexandria. To retrieve the weapons, Hodges sent a team led by mercenary Stokes, while he met with the Board of Directors. During the meeting held at 10:15pm, Doug Knowles questioned Hodges decision to defy the government, but Hodges calmed him down.



Shortly after 11:00pm, Stokes arrived at the Starkwood compound with the weapon, where Hodges met him. After Tom Chapman verified it, he took it away for preparation. Since they had gotten Tony Almeida as a hostage at the port, Hodges orchestrated a way to deceive him into revealing the FBI involvement so far. Greg Seaton faked "killing" Stokes, while he interrogated Tony and told him he wanted to help. They moved to Seaton's office from where they called the FBI Headquarters. After Seaton arranged a presidential pardon, he led Tony to a warehouse where allegedly the weapon was being held. Tony gave this information to Larry Moss, who got into the compound via helicopter with a full tactical team, but upon entering the warehouse, they realized they had been tricked by Seaton. As they organized to check every building in Starkwood, Stokes arrived with a group of mercenaries and threatened to shoot if they did anything.

Hodges, who was with Chapman on another side of the compound preparing the weapon for their attack, went and met with Larry accusing him and the government of persecution. Claiming that they hadn't found the weapons in the warehouse, he repeated Stokes threat of firing at them if they didn't retire. Larry did, but Tony managed to slip into a warehouse as they did, meeting with Starkwood's chairman, Doug Knowles. Jack had contacted Knowles who had agreed to help them, and he led Tony to the warehouse where he thought the weapons might be. While Knowles distracted some guards, Tony entered the warehouse.

Knowles was taken by the guards and led into his office on Hodges' orders. He met with him awhile later trying to find why he was in the premises. When he realized Knowles would probably betray him, Hodges killed him in the Starkwood lobby.

In the meantime, Tony confronted two guards and disguised himself to enter the basement where the weapons were being held. These basement floors weren't present on the Starkwood schematics that Jack and Renee had. After making visual contact with the weapon, Tony sent a picture for Jack to confirm and President Taylor authorized the air strike on the compound. However, it was aborted when Hodges himself contacted her and threatened to use the weapons if she didn't meet with him. Hodges had Chapman load the prion variant into Python missiles that were locked on several eastern coast cities.

When Tony was preparing to leave the compound, he saw Stokes and Galvez putting RP-7 fuel, which is used for rocket launchers, on some tanks. After President Taylor indirectly authorized Jack Bauer to let him handle it, he took Stokes hostage and rigged the tanks with C-4. Stokes, however, managed to activate the alarm and Chapman activated the launch sequence, but not before Tony managed to detonate the explosives. When this happened, Larry and his tactical teams stormed the compound securing everything, he claimed most of the Starkwood mercenaries knew nothing about the missiles.

At 1:47am, Galvez shot two FBI agents and escaped the compound with a canister of the chemical weapon.

Background information and notes

 * The concept of a large, private, influential American military force may have been inspired by real-life private military company Xe (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide). The name may be inspired by Stark Industries from the Iron Man comic books, and Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off show set in Cardiff.
 * The overhead view of the Starkwood compound shown on "Day 7: 11:00pm-12:00am" is based on the Camarillo Airport in California where this episode was filmed (see here).