| |
|
 |
 |
The Usual Gang of Idiots |
 |
|
 After hooking up with Zak, who secede his Earth Special Forces group from the original, The UGoI decided to go full time in the helping department. Next thing they knew, the Night Parade arrived and made them design a forum with a cute UGoI-ESF logo (not immediately recognizable as such, but what can you do?). And so the Earth Special Forces was born. Its goal is helping people, mainly but not exclusively against supernatural threats.
Roleplayers do not see much of the normal UGoI force in Rhy'Din, because they are completely unable to handle the kind of super-criminals that are wreaking havoc in Rhy'Din City. The UGoI are quite similar to any big-city department in the 20th century. The department is formally organized into several divisions or specialized police sections, such as Traffic Control (this section includes the motorcycle Highway Patrol) Detective (handling criminal investigations), Patrol (the cops on the beat), Child Welfare (a fate worse than death for a Night Parade officer), Internal Affairs (investigating violations by other officers as well as providing security in the ESF HQ), and several others. All divisions and sections are coordinated by an administrative division ("desk jobs") that handles accounting and payroll, dispatching, public affairs, and data processing. Most police divisions are further sub-divided into various sub-sections. For example, individual Detective sub-sections may specialize in organized crime, homicide, juvenile crime, smuggling (Rhy'Din has a major harbor), or environmental crimes.
An ordinary UGoI officer on street duty wears a uniform (pants for men, long skirt for women) and carries an electronic notebook, radio communicator, club, handcuffs, pocket knife, and automatic pistol. Detectives wear plain clothes in most circumstances, and do not usually carry a club. Motorcycle patrols wear helmets. Everyone can weara a gas mask, of course, to protect themselves against bacterial clouds. If necessary, officers from any division may be called upon for crowd-control (for example, if there is a major political demonstration ocurring), and issued riot gear (visored helmets, plastic shields, clubs).
There is a certain rivalry between the UGoI (including the attached Earth Special Forces) and the police and sheriff departments of the nearby big-city Rhy'Din Police Department. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
The Night Parade |
|
|
 The Night Parade were formed in 1999 to deal with the depredations of the Orochi Gang and other well-equipped super-criminals. The purpose of the Night Parade is not to investigate crimes, but to respond to situations that are too much for the ordinary UGoI to handle. Essentially, they are a super-ESF team that uses military-grade force to deal with extraordinary threats to public safety. Despite the Night Parade's reputation for violence and mayhem, statistics show that they have indeed succeeded in reducing violent crimes by as much as 20%.... But at a heavy cost of property destruction and lost lives.
The Night Parade are run by the Chief, and commanded in the field by Squad Leader Walker Akero. They are organized into at least three tactical teams, or "units". Each unit consists of 3-8 tanks (depending on how many crew members are available and how many tanks are down for repairs), and thus a full Night Parade mobilization can put over 20 tanks on the street. Since each tank has a crew of two people, the maximum fighting strrength of the Night Parade can exceed 20 officers. In normal situations, however, the Night Parade operates in three shifts, with one unit on active duty, a second on reserve at the station, and a third off-duty. Since a single tank can sufficiently handle most violent crimes, often only a solitary tank or a pair of tanks will be dispatched to handle "routine" situations such as drug wars or armed robbery.
The Night Parade practice various pre-planned patrol and battle formations which are given coded letters (for example, Walker shouts "Battle Formation M"). Emergency transmissions are given similar codes (for example, Rahan calls in "Code B-7... We're under attack!"). In practice, however, the tanks operate much like ESF team members, and the main question on any patrol is whether to adopt a loose formation (covering a greater area) or a close formation (maximizing fire power). A basic tactic is the "bounding overwatch" where one tank will cover another's advance, then advance itself; the idea is to maintain a watch for anti-tank rockets and other hazards. In practice, Walker usually prefers a frontal attack, but his subordinate commanders (such as Rahan and Bo) are happy to take full advantage of available cover, and will make their own by smashing through buildings when necessary. The major decision made by a unit commander is how far apart to separate the tanks. A group that is dispersed can cover more area and is less vulnerable to ambushes, but a group that is close together can protect one another more effectively. In an urban environment, it is easy to lose sight of an ally.
The standard Night Parade uniform consists of the same dark black shirt, black trousers, and black boots. Officers usually wear a black T-shirt underneath (Walker often lounges around with the T-shirt only). Their insignia is a gold shield worn on the shoulder. A wide variety of hairstyles are tolerated at least in Walker's squad. Aside from their tanks, the Night Parade are issued much of the same equipment as ordinary UGoI police officers (see above). Their daily uniforms are slightly different (no metal insignia to catch on the inside of a tank, for example) and they also have regular access to assault rifles, submachine guns, guns, grenades, and body armor, much like the ESF officers. Tank crew may also wear a special headband that incorporates a headset radio, onto which the gas mask and (if desired) a clear plastic face plate can be clipped. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
The "elite" of the UGoI are the Earth Special Forces (ESF) team. The ESF teams generally consist of volunteer officers who have other duties (such as patrol) but who signed up for extra tactical training. When there is an emergency that ordinary patrol officers may not be able to handle, ESF officers are called to deal with it. ESF teams generally specialize in dealing with barricaded suspects and heavy-duty arrests (for example, entering a gang headquarters to bring in a suspect).
