Cowls: A World of Supermen and Subterfuge
- Thread starter MJ12 Commando
- Start date
- Original
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- Tags
- cyberpunk (punk)
- Location
- Pindorama
[X] Sideline Lima Seven-Nine. You'll probably need to sideline them for, hm… the next month, or maybe two. It shouldn't cause a problem if you leave them to guard the office, but if people catch them fighting alongside you in the field while memories of your raids are still this fresh, they'll draw the proper associations. You can kiss your PR goodbye at that point.
[X] USER MOTION Community Militia - Begin subverting the gangs. Hire some on, use the police officers as cadre to train them, arm them with confiscated weaponry. Set this militia to cracking down on the remaining gangs to gain community support, confiscating any remaining caches of money and weapons than can be reached, and using corp funds for a PR campaign to support this.
We must strike while the iron is hot and the gangs are at their most vulnerable; and this write-in ensures a level of self-sustainability perfect for a pacification endeavor.
[X] USER MOTION Community Militia - Begin subverting the gangs. Hire some on, use the police officers as cadre to train them, arm them with confiscated weaponry. Set this militia to cracking down on the remaining gangs to gain community support, confiscating any remaining caches of money and weapons than can be reached, and using corp funds for a PR campaign to support this.
We must strike while the iron is hot and the gangs are at their most vulnerable; and this write-in ensures a level of self-sustainability perfect for a pacification endeavor.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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- He/She/They
I'm... not set the most at ease by putting the gangs that were just tearing the area apart in a militia role.
Like yes, it looks good if we can pull it off, but it seems really likely to backfire.
Like yes, it looks good if we can pull it off, but it seems really likely to backfire.
- Location
- Pindorama
This will really depend on the reliability of the police officers; considering their previous record of comunity service, I am not so worried.
It is the most robust option though; all others require external effort to maintain, while the militia (if successful) would require only occasional oversight and funding.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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- He/She/They
I'm not so sure about that one, either. Like, a sports club is a good PR move but it's not exactly going to outweigh arson and death squads. I'd save that for a later stage than try to use it to deal with this particular problem -- right now, we need to mitigate the damage from what we have been doing, and I don't think bread and circuses is a very good way to get that done.
No, it depends on the gang members we're turning into a militia. A militia is not all that different from a bigger gang, and can very easily slip back into one, and facilitate criminal behavior.
It also depends on the ability of the cops to work with the gang members they're angry at for tearing the communities they're trying to protect apart. Which is not something I'm all that confident in.
- Location
- Luton Airport
The gangs will be made up of a few higher ups with the smarts or meanness to get ahead, and a lot of footsoldiers who're not that much different from anyone else, except for their gang membership. Co-opt those of the former category who're amenable and usable, slot them into a structure we control, destroy those who cannot be tamed, and the rest are of minimal threat.
There's no reason not to try and bring other people from the neighbourhood into the Militia as well, to leaven the ex-gangers with non-gangmember "solid citizens".
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notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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As-written, the writein is not implying much... selectivity about the hiring-on process. And I'm just generally uncomfortable with the multitude of ways it could come apart.
- Location
- Pindorama
Yes, which is why the capabilties of the training cadre to vet and discipline members is important. I assume we won't be assimilating the gangs wholesale, and instead poach members during this momnet of weakness to further undermine them. There may be future corruption problems, but not while the operation is at this stage.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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- He/She/They
Also, the militia option is slow. If you want to provide good and effective training for a neighborhood militia, this will take a lot of time. Median police training (excluding field training) is eighteen months. Even if you cut that down significantly because you're not training full police (which is... a questionable plan when we're talking about creating a respectable and trustworthy neighborhood watch militia that will not turn into a glorified gang), we're talking about not taking more meaningful action against the gangs for more than a month, maybe more than two.
I don't think we want to leave the gangs we aren't poaching members from to their own devices for that long.
I don't think we want to leave the gangs we aren't poaching members from to their own devices for that long.
- Location
- Pindorama
I don't think choosing this option will lock us out of performing other operations against the gangs, though.
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- Location
- Luton Airport
At the moment, we're still in urban pacification mode, not policing. The gangers know urban combat, we just need the police cadre to get them into a bit more organised, and somewhat less murderous, format. We pull in any local bigwigs we can to help legitimise the Militia, then as we get the neighbourhood civilised, pare down the recruits to the ones we want for active "policing", the ones we want to pull into our own security, and the ones we want to put back out as law abiding citizens in the now pacified neighbourhood.
EDIT: I'm still catching up, but what does the corporation actually do, so far as business?
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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The militia is the "what do you do about the gangs" option. It's not replacing the "What do you do with Lime Seven-Nine" option (and if it were, that would mean we were leaving Lima Seven-Nine as a roving death squad undertaking anti-gang operations, which is, uh, real bad).
Can you explain what your actual plan and timeline for this militia is over the next ~2 months? I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what it is you want.
- Location
- Luton Airport
We get the police officers out on the street, hitting the gangs, ideally taking down their cashflow, while looking to recruit suitable gangers into our orbit to back up the police. Those recruits get basic training from the police, (and L79 as well, if suitable for some aspects) to turn their existing urban combat talents to our service in the pacification campaign against their former compatriots (weapon safety, minimise collateral damage, etc).
Over the next couple of months, we should see us with a growing group of Militia, and a declining pool of remaining gangs, and hopefully increasing public support for our efforts.
Rather than recruiting gangs to fight for us, we'd be recruiting individuals to slot into an organisation we shape.
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- Location
- Pindorama
The option doesn't seem to say that, though.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
We have two votes this time around. What we do about Lima Seven-Nine, and what we do in our anti-gang operation. The militia is obviously not the first, and thus it fills the latter slot.
...oh.
First, there's not any mention of hitting the gangs before the militia is done training in the write-in, so that should really be fixed.
Second, I really don't think having the cops pull double duty training the militia and hitting the gangs is a good idea; they're already our weakest combat asset, and this just weakens them further. This honestly seems like a worst of both worlds choice.
- Location
- Luton Airport
I'll make the write-in more explicit as to timeline. The idea would be that the cops are primarily acting as tactical leaders of the new recruits, rather than being constantly on the frontline themselves, and we keep up pressure on the gangs, siphoning off their members and resources, rather than letting them be marshalled against us. A campaign of colonialism with ganger sepoys, as it were.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
This is a fair point. I'm all for hiring the gangers on, but given our immediate PR needs, extensive training is probably impractical. Changing my vote back.
- Location
- Luton Airport
[X] Sideline Lima Seven-Nine. You'll probably need to sideline them for, hm… the next month, or maybe two. It shouldn't cause a problem if you leave them to guard the office, but if people catch them fighting alongside you in the field while memories of your raids are still this fresh, they'll draw the proper associations. You can kiss your PR goodbye at that point.
[X] USER MOTION Community Militia
Set up a community organisation to combat the gangs. Begin subverting gangers, offering them a new role in the militia under us, and potentially positions in our own security division. This should hopefully attract the smart ones, who can see the writing on the wall.
We use our ex-police officers as training cadre and leaders of this group, use L79 for training in weapon handling, basic squad tactics and such. We use the captured weapons and armour to outfit the militia.
The initial mission of the militia will be to continue to keep pressure up by confiscating more gang resources and limiting their cashflow as much as possible, preventing street dealers operating and such, demonstrating that the gangs are no longer in control of the streets. If necessary, we pull out our enhanciles for an early demonstration or two, to make clear our strength.
We may have to spend a bit of cash to make the militia suitably bulky to deal with the urban pacification campaign and deter the gangs from direct confrontation, but longer term, once we have pacified the gangs, the goal would to transition the militia to actual policing tasks under our supervision, take those suitable for it on into our own security, and have the bulk of the ex-gangers as essentially normal citizens, in a more economically productive neighbourhood.
[X] USER MOTION Research Department
Found a Research Department, to investigate opportunities and threats available to us. Shamus, Darius, Immolator etc, can all contribute to this, to gain us a better awareness of the environment we're operating in, and seek out business opportunities for us to exploit.
[X] USER MOTION Community Militia
Set up a community organisation to combat the gangs. Begin subverting gangers, offering them a new role in the militia under us, and potentially positions in our own security division. This should hopefully attract the smart ones, who can see the writing on the wall.
We use our ex-police officers as training cadre and leaders of this group, use L79 for training in weapon handling, basic squad tactics and such. We use the captured weapons and armour to outfit the militia.
The initial mission of the militia will be to continue to keep pressure up by confiscating more gang resources and limiting their cashflow as much as possible, preventing street dealers operating and such, demonstrating that the gangs are no longer in control of the streets. If necessary, we pull out our enhanciles for an early demonstration or two, to make clear our strength.
We may have to spend a bit of cash to make the militia suitably bulky to deal with the urban pacification campaign and deter the gangs from direct confrontation, but longer term, once we have pacified the gangs, the goal would to transition the militia to actual policing tasks under our supervision, take those suitable for it on into our own security, and have the bulk of the ex-gangers as essentially normal citizens, in a more economically productive neighbourhood.
[X] USER MOTION Research Department
Found a Research Department, to investigate opportunities and threats available to us. Shamus, Darius, Immolator etc, can all contribute to this, to gain us a better awareness of the environment we're operating in, and seek out business opportunities for us to exploit.
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notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
On further thought: We can't use Lima, and the cops are gonna take nasty casualties if we sic them on the gangs. This will probably feed back as more PR problems. So the cops are out too. That leaves us with enhanciles... who we, of course, have a limited number of. But that can be helped.
Thus, a writein!
[x] Vigilant(e) Guardians
Ez and Darius reach out to "Vertex" (Jennifer Austin). We can easily smooth over any particular problems she's running into with aug maintenance (or provide cover stories for her parents, or a cash influx, whatever she happens to need). We don't want her to hire on with us in a long-term sense, though -- we're asking for her help. The gangs may have been defanged, but they're still sending their thugs on shakedowns, running protection rackets, and so on. We, Vertex, and Immolator, with police support, want to stop that. Hitting out at the gangs directly isn't necessary here; instead, we're going to hit their thugs, protect shopkeepers, let the streets run without fear of reprisal. We'll use our enhanciles, and make sure we are seen. We'll keep things nonlethal whenever possible (which means Immolator will be of reduced utility against unaugmented gangers, but he's good for intimidation and flashiness value). At the same time, PR is going to kick into gear -- we'll help spread stories of the awful things the gangs have done, and provide support for local business owners to speak out (both against the gangs, and in gratefulness for their protection).
Vertex, of course, will be more than amply compensated for helping us protect the locals, whether she wants that in cash or in favors. We have a technopath and a corporation's resources, as well as world-class legal expertise -- there's a lot we can offer her. We are asking for her help in this situation, but not for her to work for us long-term (which is not to say we'll turn her down if she offers, but we can be clear that it's not the goal). If she's suspicious of us, well, that's fine too; we're asking because we want her help, and because we want her to see the good we want to do for the area with her own eyes, not through the rumor mill.
If she says no, that's unfortunate, but workable; we can sub her with Darius in our actual operations and just suck up the hazard pay.
Thoughts, criticism? I'm riffing off of the option provided for Downzone 3:
Thus, a writein!
[x] Vigilant(e) Guardians
Ez and Darius reach out to "Vertex" (Jennifer Austin). We can easily smooth over any particular problems she's running into with aug maintenance (or provide cover stories for her parents, or a cash influx, whatever she happens to need). We don't want her to hire on with us in a long-term sense, though -- we're asking for her help. The gangs may have been defanged, but they're still sending their thugs on shakedowns, running protection rackets, and so on. We, Vertex, and Immolator, with police support, want to stop that. Hitting out at the gangs directly isn't necessary here; instead, we're going to hit their thugs, protect shopkeepers, let the streets run without fear of reprisal. We'll use our enhanciles, and make sure we are seen. We'll keep things nonlethal whenever possible (which means Immolator will be of reduced utility against unaugmented gangers, but he's good for intimidation and flashiness value). At the same time, PR is going to kick into gear -- we'll help spread stories of the awful things the gangs have done, and provide support for local business owners to speak out (both against the gangs, and in gratefulness for their protection).
Vertex, of course, will be more than amply compensated for helping us protect the locals, whether she wants that in cash or in favors. We have a technopath and a corporation's resources, as well as world-class legal expertise -- there's a lot we can offer her. We are asking for her help in this situation, but not for her to work for us long-term (which is not to say we'll turn her down if she offers, but we can be clear that it's not the goal). If she's suspicious of us, well, that's fine too; we're asking because we want her help, and because we want her to see the good we want to do for the area with her own eyes, not through the rumor mill.
If she says no, that's unfortunate, but workable; we can sub her with Darius in our actual operations and just suck up the hazard pay.
~~~~~~~~~~
Thoughts, criticism? I'm riffing off of the option provided for Downzone 3:
This serves the purpose of getting more combat assets for our immediate future, getting in the good graces of Vertex specifically, and improving our PR. The obvious downside is that it gives the gangs some time to regroup, but it isn't us entirely leaving them alone -- we're just going for hitting their image now that we've defanged them a bit.
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- Location
- Luton Airport
The problem I'd have with it is that, if successful, it still leaves something of a void in its wake, which is likely to fill up with some form of gang again. I'd rather we took active steps to put in place our own structure for the post-pacification period.
notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
It's not actually taking the gangs out, just cracking down on their more dangerous-to-locals operations. We'll need to do something more permanent eventually, for sure, but we're not actually leaving a vacuum -- if anything, I think the downside of this plan is it gives the gangs more freedom to regroup than hitting them directly would.
- Location
- Luton Airport
So is there any reason not to try and push the militia as a constantly expanding pressure, while the vigilantes are hitting the gangs flashily and keeping them occupied? I'd already suggested having our enhanciles do some flashy demonstrations to make clear how outmatched the gangs are while our footsoldiers do the grunt work.
EDIT: The militia concept sounds like it might potentially appeal to Vertex, actually.
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notthepenguins
Neither Spherical Nor Frictionless
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- He/She/They
I don't want our cops split between training and fighting gangs; I think we'll get way too many cop casualties that way, which is both a waste of their capabilities and a PR hit. I especially don't want them split three ways, and they're needed for this writein -- a handful of enhanciles can do flashy things, but can't reliably guard businesses and deal with thug retaliation for simple number-of-bodies reasons. Plus, the cops are actually trained for this kind of crime stopping and protecting the community, and that could help the optics of the whole thing.
Edit: Vertex doesn't trust us enough to sign on, we don't know her opinions on criminals or law enforcement in general, etc. It might appeal to her, but it's really risky to out-of-the-blue it to her.
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- Location
- Luton Airport
We've got what, two dozen or so cops? I don't think that's sufficient mass to cope with the legwork of backing the enhanciles on their own, hence why I want to bulk out the numbers available for the sort of "policing" operations you mention via the militia. If we put one or two cops to guard a particular business, for example, to me, we're just giving the gangs free targets to shoot up.
We wouldn't look to get Vertex to join the militia right away, but the concept behind it, of dealing with the gangs and criminality, should hopefully give us a boost in her opinion.
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