July 24th marked the first official look at Battlefield 6, an incredibly important entry in the franchise. There's plenty to examine and theorize about, from locations to new faces. I'll be asking a lot of questions - since we obviously lack a lot of context as of now - but I hope those are conversation starters in the discussion section!

Be sure to read through this blog post below because some events covered in there will be referenced here!

Pax Armata Strikes - BF Chronicles

Learn about Pax Armata’s challenge to NATO dominance.

Battlefield ChroniclesComet

REPORTER CHATTER

The countdown on the YouTube premiere was 3 minutes of reporters waiting for a White House press conference. Below, you'll see just about all the dialogue spoken. (There may be some errors, but I tried my best to get the most accurate dialogue!)

CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Standby cam three. 2:50 to go. Still no notes from the podium.”
MALE REPORTER: “Uh, what do you think their response will be?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Whatever it is, it’s gonna be bad.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Could you check audio, am I gonna be able to hear?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Let me guess, more known statements with no official attribution?”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Can I get a light balance please?”
MALE REPORTER: “I would say that after Gibraltar it’s pretty clear who did this.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “It’s got Pax written all over it.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “2:30 to go.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “This is way bigger than Gibraltar.”
MALE REPORTER: “Gibraltar was the brink, this is the fallout.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “We’re still hot on stage left.”
MALE REPORTER: “Which country jumped this time?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Not officially, but the chatter says France.”
MALE REPORTER: “France?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Yeah, out of NATO two days ago. My filing(?) had a full Pax contract the next morning.”
MALE REPORTER: “Christ.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Two minutes to go. Switching to cam four.”
MALE REPORTER: And we’re still supporting both sides of the war?
FEMALE REPORTER: “They’re the only ones actually doing anything.”
MALE REPORTER: “You notice who’s not here today?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Yep, someone told them not to show up.”
FEMALE REPORTER [WHISPERING]: “They already know what he’s going to say.”
MALE REPORTER: “If he says containment, I’m walking out.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “You and half the room.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Back to cam two.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “We still got spill on left. Can someone kill that?”
MALE REPORTER: “They’re keeping it tight, which means it’s bad.”
FEMALE REPORTER: "Well, yeah."
MALE REPORTER: “Has anyone claimed responsibility yet? I mean somebody must know something.”
MALE REPORTER: “Not officially, but Pax doesn’t sign their work anymore.”
MALE REPORTER: “Did you hear about Brooklyn?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Yeah. Coordinated air to surface.”
MALE REPORTER: “In broad daylight?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “No warning, no message, just smoke.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN [TO THE PRESIDENT]: “K, you want to get in front of the camera, we’ll do a quick test.”
MALE REPORTER: “Testing, testing, Georgia, Gibraltar, Brooklyn, Pax.”
MALE REPORTER: “Our side waits for territory no one is willing to invade. 
FEMALE REPORTER: “Yeah.”
MALE REPORTER: And we all nod like it’s fine. Same dance, different war.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Did you see the footage?”
MALE REPORTER: “Yeah.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Signature was clean, Pax ruthlessness.”
MALE REPORTER: “Yeah, you ever seen a strike pattern like that?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Ehh, not outside a war zone.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “It’s wild! We spend 50 years building connected defense and then throw it out for a private army?”
MALE REPORTER: “Pax isn’t an army.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “They’re not?”
MALE REPORTER: “No. They’re just a business.”
FEMALE REPORTER: “A business for jets and guided munitions?”
[PHONE RINGS]
FEMALE REPORTER: “Hang on.” [ON THE PHONE] “Yeah? What? Christ… An attempt? Oh ok.”
MALE REPORTER: “An attempt? On who?”
FEMALE REPORTER: “Unconfirmed, but... might be the president.”
MALE REPORTER: “No wonder he’s not on stage yet.”
CAMERA TECHNICIAN: “Cam three, confirm clean video and audio.”
MALE REPORTER: “Now, the doors are locked.”
MALE REPORTER: “Shut up, here he comes.”

There's certainly a lot of interesting things to dissect, including how we can get a better idea of the timeline of events so far.

First, we can already see how the reporters are exhausted with the current president. What's even more concerning is that the reporters haven't received the president's statements beforehand, which is usually what occurs. The countdown video also has several White House staff scrambling, underscoring the chaos.

One of the reporters mentions Gibraltar, referring to Pax Armata's invasion of that British Overseas Territory. They say that while Pax hasn't officially claimed responsibility for this apparent attack on American soil, anyone could deduce that the PMC is behind it.

They move on to talking about France leaving NATO. The tone in which they say this could mean that this has become a common occurrence. How many more attacks has Pax done to pressure countries into jumping ship? It's unclear at this point, but I feel as though we'll get more context soon enough. The female reporter says that nothing official has been said about France's withdrawal from NATO, but also mentions that she discovered a Pax contract that had been signed by France. "Our Protection, Your Peace" that's for sure. We can assume that by virtue of France taking a Pax contract, that they also could've joined the coalition that has been mentioned in headlines.

Confidence in the current administration seems to be at an all time low. Some reporters don't even bother to show up to press conferences/Presidential addresses. "Containment" is a word that reporters have grown to hate as even America can't keep control of Pax. This could mean that the President has been downplaying the threat that Pax really is.

An attack on Brooklyn is the reason for this press conference, which we see scenes of in the reveal trailer. This could've happened earlier in the day since one of the reporters said it happened at daytime, with this press conference occurring around noon or the afternoon. How could've an attack on the US not been foiled? Maybe the Pax cells, which have been confirmed to be on American soil, could've had a hand in this? This is certainly something that will be explored in the single player campaign.

One line that is particularly chilling is "We spend 50 years building connected defense and then throw it out for a private army?" Why have major international leaders given in to this private army? Has NATO fallen that far? And what has caused Pax to turn the world on its head?

Lastly, just before the President is ready, a reporter receives a phone call where she learns of an assassination attempt. The person on the other end can't determine whether it was on the President, but it certainly explains the delay of the address. And as we'll see in the beginning of the reveal trailer, the President does have signs of a physical altercation on his hands.

As for a recap, here's the general order of events from what we know so far:

1. Pax missile strikes a NATO base in Georgia.
2. NATO Secretary General Hawthorne was assassinated in Brussels, Belgium (1 and 2 could've happened in the span of hours).
3. France leaves NATO, signs a Pax contract the next morning. (I'm assuming this is in direct response to 1 and 2. Heck, the French President could've been threatened by an assassination.)
4. Pax Armata initiates a full invasion of Gibraltar and near La Línea de la Concepción.
5. Two days after France leaves NATO, the Brooklyn Bridge is attacked by Pax Armata in broad daylight. An alleged assassination attempt on the US President occurs. The President makes a statement formally entering war with NATO allies against Pax Armata.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

US PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens... My fellow... [CLEARS THROAT] We will prevail.
WHITE HOUSE AIDE: We're ready, Mr. President.
US PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens, today represents a dark day in our history. With this monstrous, unprovoked attack, no country is safe from their reach. For all those serving on our behalf, our prayers go with you. For the Pax Armata mercenaries who are watching now, I have a message: it's over.

During the trailer, there is a distinct focus on the President's injured knuckles, possibly implying that he fought back against the perpetrator. We also never see his full face, just around his mouth. There's the saying that the eyes are the window into someone's soul. It could be that the President is a Pax asset, and thus he didn't get assassinated because he needed to declare war.

There's also some interesting word choice by the President. He only says "my fellow citizens" and not "my fellow Americans." This could reinforce that America isn't in the best shape in the BF universe, with a polarized political environment. Maybe the policies that the President has enacted concerning Pax has been unpopular (or just the administration's general policies as well). It could be that the President is very pro-war but the American public is against entering the war; especially with the trailer including Bob Dylan's "Masters of War," an anti-war song.

For the remainder of this article, I'll be breaking down the trailer by focusing first on the characters, and then on the locations shown and their possible narrative significances.

NATO CHARACTERS

"Move fast, move decisive. Dagger on my six."

Dagger is a squad of American soldiers. The soldier pictured above seems to be the squad leader since he's leading the way on this operation. I'll be referring to him as Dagger-1 since we don't have an official name just yet. Notice the burn scarring on Dagger-1's left hand and possibly right forearm. (More on that later!) Also in the picture is presumably another member of Dagger wearing glasses. I'll refer to him as Dagger-2.

Another Dagger squad member is this soldier in the foreground of this photo. He shows up in a lot of the scenes during the Brooklyn attack. For simplicity, I will refer to him as Dagger-3. Just to the right of Dagger-3 is what appears to be the aforementioned Dagger-2.

It would seem that Dagger squad is who we're playing as in the campaign. Since in the trailer, we can see several shots of three members in Dagger, we would be playing as Dagger-4.

Rounding out the section on Dagger, we can see the squad breaching a door in a luxurious palace likely in Cairo, Egypt.

Other characters can be spotted on the NATO side, which appear to be part of the main cast for the campaign. Some characters appear to be soldiers for the multiplayer since their face is mostly covered up so I won't cover those here. The first is this African American soldier who is wearing a compact ghillie suit. Judging from the general color of his uniform, he is likely going to be part of the campaign that delves into Africa or the Middle East.

During the clearing of a Brooklyn apartment, we can not only see the aforementioned soldier on the right, but an Asian soldier as well. These two appear on the cover art of the reveal trailer, so this Asian soldier could be part of the cast of characters.

PAX ARMATA CHARACTERS

For Pax, there are less characters to examine, which I think means we'll probably play only as NATO soldiers in the campaign (I'd really love to get some missions from the perspective of Pax and explore their side of the war). This character here appears to be played by Tony Curran, and since the actor is Scottish, we could reasonably assume his character will be Scottish as well.

With Dagger-1 and this character both having apparent burn scars, it suggests a shared history between these two. There's a lot of scenarios I could come up with, but I do want to point to one particular scene in the trailer.

This could be part of a sequence where Dagger is confronted by this Pax soldier, but things go south. This event leaves both Dagger-1 and the Pax soldier scarred, and sets up a revenge plot. There's also an interesting piece of dialogue which might give us insight into what type of weapons Pax has. Dagger-1 says at one point, "He's gonna fucking burn us all." This dialogue occurs directly before the Scottish soldier yells, "We will do whatever it takes!" It certainly seems like Pax doesn't care about collateral damage, they only want destruction of NATO.

Closing out for Pax is this picture of several soldiers at an airfield. You can spot a bracelet of some sort which has African resemblance. This likely means that Pax has a strong presence in Africa, and recruits a considerable amount from the continent.

VARIED LOCATIONS

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

As has already been mentioned, Brooklyn will be an important part of the campaign. The event that draws the US into war will certainly be expanded upon. One part of the New York scenes that I haven't covered yet occurs at night.

With the Brooklyn Bridge not burning just yet, we can assume this happens before Pax's attack. The Little Bird flying close to the Manhattan Bridge has Dagger-3 on it. Dagger-1 is over the comms saying he's painting a specific part of the bridge for the F61's to strike. We see in another scene there is an intense chase in the metro. Whoever Dagger is trying to kill, they need them dead badly enough to destroy a part of the Manhattan Bridge.

CAIRO, EGYPT

Looming in the distance are the Pyramids of Giza. This location makes sense to appear in the campaign since we already know Pax and the coalition are present in Cairo. It's clear given there are Abrams moving in that the US has acted on this piece of intelligence.

GIBRALTAR, BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORY

Another location that has been established in the lore so far is Gibraltar, a critical and strategic position for both sides. Pax moved quickly to capture the territory, and NATO must do the same.

First, paratroopers insert on the Rock of Gibraltar to conduct covert operations involving taking command of Breakneck Battery, and most likely other areas as well. This is because without control of the coastal cannons, a coastal invasion would be a massacre for NATO forces.

The airborne operation must've been successful because a full-on beach landing occurs. This could even be the climax of the campaign, and sets up the multiplayer maps set in Gibraltar.

PAMIR MOUNTAINS, TAJIKISTAN

There are actually several parts of the trailer that appear to be Tajikistan, including the snowy Pamir Mountains. The first of which is a Pax Armata airfield base with hundreds of soldiers departing from Chinooks.

Furthermore, there's a quick scene where we're looking down at a base from what could be a Blackhawk. Since we see Dagger-3 here, it's likely that NATO launches a full-scale attack on this Pax base. The mountains in the background line up well with the previous picture.

Dagger squad can be seen driving on quad bikes through a valley, likely en route to the dam that is struck by missiles.

One thought that came to mind is that Dagger is destroying the dam to completely wipe out the nearby Pax airfield.

That's all for this breakdown! Have any thoughts on what was covered? If so, start a conversation in the discussion section, and thank you for reading!