Faction: Captain Al's Fish Sandwiches
Leader: Captain Al
Class: Businessman
Credits: 750
Army: 25 Mercenaries, 200 militia, 10 trucks
Navy: 1 Fishing Boat
Air Force: none
Structures: 1 Camp
Government: Patriarchal Neighborhood Council
Base: Al's Fish Sandwich shop on the beach near Citana.
Alfonso “Captain Al” Palacio is a Hachan chef, restaurateur and community organizer. He served in the Hachan Navy from 1984 to 1991, attaining the rank of captain before retiring to take a job as a fisherman on his father’s ship The Flying Cloud. When his father died of a heart attack in 1993, he left the ship and all of his modest assets to Palacio.
As the captain of the Flying Cloud, Palacio became known for the excellent fish sandwiches he would make for his crew while out at sea. In 1995, upon the suggestion of one of his crew members, he began selling his fish sandwiches to tourists from a small beachside shack outside of Citana he dubbed “Captain Al’s Fish Sandwiches”. It was not long before the small business became one of the most popular eating establishments on the island, making Palacio moderately wealthy. Palacio would quickly put his new income to use, providing for the island’s poor and working for the establishment of a neighborhood council to keep drugs and guns off the streets near his home. Palacio would meanwhile continue to expand his beachside restaurant and also allow for his sandwiches to be sold by vendors on beaches all around the island.
Palacio was able to endear himself to the local populace through his philanthropy and the safety provided by the neighborhood councils, though the fear of being ostracized or even attacked for going against the council also did much to keep the population in line with Palacio’s wishes. By 2005, if any tourist institution or business opened around his area of Citana, it required his unofficial permission to operate. A notable example of Palacio’s influence took place in June of 2008, the height of the tourist season, when a mass employee walkout occurred over the Sheraton refusing to allow one of Palacio’s fish vendors to operate outside the hotel. Faced with almost inexplicable underemployment on an island where the population would normally wait hours for a chance at a job, the Sheraton caved into Palacio's demands and even allowed for the vendor to operate inside the hotel’s lobby.
Following the Sheraton incident, the hotel chain complained to the government of Jules Clarke about the influence of Palacio, calling him the “Political Boss of Citana”. Though Clarke was aware of Palacio’s influence, meeting with him twice in 2006 and 2007, prior to the Sheraton Incident, he did not view him as large enough of a threat to bother with. Plus Clarke really enjoyed the fish sandwiches. In Febuary 2009, Palacio was faced with an attempt on his life while sitting on his front porch. Though Palacio was shot multiple times, the would-be-assassins failed to hit any of his vital organs and Palacio faced a full recovery after a few weeks in the hospital. With all of the evidence on the attempt on his life pointing to Clarke, Palacio declared an unofficial war on the government and has since accumulated a moderate sized force with the goal of either taking over Islas de los ejes que Lanzan and setting up an independent government or overthrowing the Clarke regime in its entirety and restoring democracy to the country.