Dare to be Badass
The Division: Operation: Crossroads is a series of novels set in the world of Tom Clancy's The Division. It is a set after the events of The Division 2 but before the events of The Division: Heartland.
After the Green Poison has ravaged the Earth, ex-Navy cybersecurity specialist, Maira Kanhai struggles to find a way to contribute to humanity's recovery. Helping a community in Washington DC survive for several months, a tragedy happens that results in both the death of her brother as well as several citizens. Her efforts during the mission result in her being recruited by the Division in order to replace one of their lost soldiers.
What follows is a cross country trip across the former United States, dealing with groups of survivors and the chaos that followed the pandemic. What follows is an introduction to the way the world has changed and what new factions have emerged.
The series consists of:
- Recruited (2020)
- Compromised (2020)
- Hunted (2024)
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General
- Action Girl: Maira Kanhai doesn't start as one of these, being an Action Survivor, initially, but gradually becomes every bit as badass as her fellow Division agents.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Outcasts, much like in the games, commit countless atrocities for no reason other than revenge against the world.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The Division is well-intentioned and wants to save the United States and its citizens but they must be willing to cross ethical lines to do so. The factions they oppose are almost all pure evil by comparison.
- A Degree in Useless: How Maira considers her cybersecurity degree after the collapse of Western civilization. It proves a lot more useful than she expected.
- Friendly Sniper: Yeong-Ja is The Quiet One but turns out to be a lot nicer and friendlier than you'd think a sniper would be.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The body count of the Division agents is very similar to that of the protagonists in the game.
- Genius Bonus: In-universe. The Freighties are a pun but not on freight hauling but the Euphrates River being the birth of civilization.
- Lady of War: Brenda Wells is an experienced Division agent and recruiter who leads Maira's cell.
- Naïve Newcomer: Maira was not trained by the Division so she has to learn about them and their mission along with the reader.
- One-Man Army: The Division Agents are a Downplayed Trope of this but often face dozens of attackers and emerge triumphant.
- Mirroring Factions: The Freighties and Roamers are identical in their methodology (big rigs), pasts (ex-truckers), and tactics (outfitting their rigs with weapons). The only difference is the Roamers charge for their services as part of a Protection Racket.
- Reality Ensues:
- Famine and acquiring a way to grow food reliably becomes a problem for the United States less than a year after the events of the Green Poison.
- Leo almost dies of common pneumonia he catches after exhaustion and injury. Just because he doesn't have the Green Poison doesn't mean other diseases have gone away.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Maira becomes one of these before the events of the book after her brother is killed by the True Sons.
- The Stoic: Leo Fourte is a Division agent who doesn't like to talk and prefers to simply focus on the job.
- Vehicular Combat: The specialization of the Freighties and Roamers.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: The protagonists kill literally hundreds of individuals over the course of the novel, usually to demonstrate their One-Man Army status, and Gameplay and Story Integration. Rarely does anyone pay this any attention.
Recruited
- Big Bad: Rowan O'Shea is determined to destroy the Division and has a personal enmity to the organization.
- Create Your Own Villain: Rowan becomes a rogue agent because her superior, Brenda, lies to her about the circumstances of her family's death. They were killed by agents of the Division while trying to fight some Outcasts.
- Doomed Hometown: Averted but just barely. Maria is able to save Athena with the help of the Division but the Outcasts come perilously close to killing everyone.
- Ignored Epiphany: Maira points out that Rowan killed an extremely large number of survivors when she used a dirty bomb on Saint Louis. People unrelated to the Division. Rowan seems shaken by this point but proceeds regardless.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Maira pulls one of these off to trick Rowan into lowering her guard and killing her, saying she's giving into her demands and shooting her. This isn't actually a war crime, though, because Maira is not a soldier for any nation but a traitorous Division agent.
- It's All About Me: Rowan assumes the Division cell is hunting her down rather than trying to avert a famine across the East Coast.
- No Kill like Overkill: Rowan detonates a set of dirty bombs in order to try to kill the heroes, destroying most of Saint Louis.
- Not Quite the Right Thing:
- Maira ended up getting some of her fellow survivors at Athena killed when she tried to loot the National Guard armory in Washington DC, unaware it had fallen under the sway of the True Sons.
- Brenda managed to turn Rowan into a mortal enemy by trying to blame the Outcasts for the murder of her family.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Maira's cybersecurity specialization turns out to be what prevents Rowan from destroying one of the three Division cores.
- You Can't Go Home Again: While Maira saved them from destruction, many of the people in Athena blame her for the losses they suffered.
Compromised
- Big Bad: Cassandra Raines appears to be this as the leader of the Reborn. David Georgio, a Rogue Division agent, turns out to be alive and manipulating the Reborn.
- Big Bad Wannabe: The Voice AKA Cassandra Raines turns out to be one of these when David Georgio casually executes her.
- Cain and Abel: Leo and his brother Raffiel find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict with the Reborn.
- Contrived Coincidence: Not only is Leo's brother, Raffiel, one of the Reborn but David Georgio is alive and one of Keener's Rogues.
- Cult: The Reborn act as one of these with their belief that the Green Poison renewed the Earth.
- Eco-Terrorist: The Reborn are a bunch of cultists who believe that the Green Poison has offered Earth another chance and that groups that still use fossil fuels should be shut down. Unfortunately, fossil fuels are needed to get food to the survivors.
- Evil All Along: David Georgio turns out to have always been a psychopath and murderer even during his Division days.
- Good Counterpart: The Molossi are a group of soldiers who are made up of ex-JTF who have decided to go their won way, like the True Sons. They aren't a bunch of psychopathic murderers, though.
- The Man Behind the Man: David Georgio is revealed to be the Rogue Agent using the Reborn to strike out against the Division via their terrorist attacks.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Colonel Georgio turns out to be one of these.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran:
- Maira has become one of these, having regular nightmares about the events of the first book.
- Colin was one of the First Wave of Division Agents who dealt with the disaster in New York. It still haunts his nightmares.
- Zerg Rush: The Reborn attack on the oil rig was designed to send hundreds of cannon fodder into the attack by the Division to literally exhaust their ammunition.
Hunted
- The Bad Guy Wins: Natalya loses her base but has enough of a basis for Maira's superweapon that she'll be able to finish it on her own.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Maira is drugged and isolated as part of Black Tusk's attempts to turn her into an agent.
- The Dragon: The Hunter proves to be a terrifying enemy to the Division, just like in the game. It is also an active Division agent, Thaddeus Greene, that hadn't been identified as a rogue.
- The Dreaded: Hunters inspire fear in every Division agent who has heard of them.
- Enemy Mine: A Keener Rogue agent named Gold shows up to fight against the Black Tusk.
- Evil Former Friend: Everyone assumes Maira has become one of these due to ISAC identifying her as a rogue.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Department of Homeland Security has formally allied with the Black Tusk and turned over all of its resources to them.
- Honey Pot: Natalya attempts to bring Maira over to her way of thinking with both her sexuality as well as comforts from the Pre-Green Poison World.
- Killed Off for Real: Brenda dies at the hand of the Hunter despite our heroes' best efforts.
- One-Man Army: The Hunter is a terrifying predator that has killed dozens of Division agents.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Molassi, Reborn, and Division do not trust each other to any degree despite having a temporary truce.
