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[kv]

Hey all-

 I'm planning on sending some of my runners down to help a friend in CalFree with a little prototype aquisition, and he's going to need them to cross the border south out of CalFree and into San Diego, where this prototype is stored.

I'm already working on Photochopping some cityscapes of San Diego, but I was curious if anyone had heard what things were like between Los Angeles (and the rest of CalFree) and San Diego (Aztlan). Are there lots of patrols? Military presence?

How far north does the Aztlan border extend (those of you familiar with cities of SoCal would be very helpful here)?

  -kv

[Retread]

I wasn't aware that Aztlan had control of San Diego... perhaps I'm out of touch, though.

[kv]

Specifically, the things that I'm interested in is the area between Los Angeles and San Diego. Forces there, where the border is exactly, stuff like that.

So, what are patrols like on the Aztlan side? How many? How frequent?

In Corporate Download (pg. 49), it says that a standard Leopard Guard unit for Aztechnology consists of a mage (typically a shaman, of the totems Snake, Jaguar, Scorpion, Wolf, Puma, Dog, or Plumed Serprent), an adept, and three cybered hoop-kickers.

It also says that Jaguar Guard are nastier than Leopard guard, but how much so? What makes them nastier?

What are the units for 'standard' Aztechnology corporate guards?

How about on the CalFree/Pueblo side?
I'm running this before PCC took over the desert, so would the CalFree side be better or worse off?

[Retread]

Well, you could have picked a harder country for the players to sneak into... *snicker*

Anyway, between LA and San Diego was never really covered by any sourcebooks, so the best I can really say is to make most of it up based on the Aztlan sourcebook, if you've got it. However, here's a hand:

From Target: Smuggler Havens, there is a listing for the ratings of borders and how to cross them:

Aztlan: Sensor Rating: 10 Flux Rating: 10 ECM: 6 ECD: 5  Professional Rating/Karma Pool 4/4.

Scary, huh? Yeah, like I said, you picked a doozy. Better hope your runners are getting paid well enough. Anyway, the Aztlan border guards usually consist of paranormal animals and spirits. The ground patrol is usually 20 well-armed, highly armored troops equipped with Ferrari Appaloosas, Liebre RPV Drones, Tiburon Patrol boats, Aguilar helicopters, Halcon attack aircraft, and Lobo LAVs.

Your players best bet is to get smuggled in by someone who knows what the hell they're doing. However, if the players try to gun it, they'll probably die, painfully. There best bet is to cue in with some kind of distraction or to sneak in through the outskirts of LA perhaps during a riot of some sort. As for the trip in between, that's up to you, keep in mind that most if not all the Aztlan citizens will be Mexicans as most of the gringos left when Aztlan declared itself an NAN (and then subsequently were removed of that status)

Keep in mind that Aztlan has some weird laws, too. For example, you can have nice body armor, and an automatic weapon carried with you without a permit. The trouble is, the police have much much better weapons than you can muster. Additionally, if the policia injure or kill any civilians or cause collateral damage while chasing you, YOU foot the crime and the bill for it. Fragged up, huh? Despite this, Aztlan is the only nation to recognize free spirits as citizens. The environment there isn't exactly... clean there either. All the products in Aztlan are made by Aztechnology, additionally, nuyen is an illegally traded commodity as money must be exchanged for pesos immediately, and those pesos cannot be traded back for any other currency as Aztlan has a closed economy.

[kv]

Whoa. See, that's awesome. Very helpful, too.

The idea is to have them have to drive from LA to Temecula (the CalFree side of the border) and then sneak across into San Diego, where they're going to have to break into a research facility and steal a prototype.

Then they'll have to make it back across the border, and then back to LA, where they'll catch a nice, relaxing ride home.

Of course, during thier trip there, they're going to have to tangle with a group of Leopard guards while in the research facility, and those Leopard guards are going to hold a grudge and HUNT the runners.

Seeing as how we're on the subject, is there any chance you would know what sort of body armor the generic aztech guards would have, and what the Leopard guards would have? (I don't have the Aztlan sourcebook, and the Corporate download isn't a big help there)

  -kv

[Retread]

The corp guards are equipped with heavy security armor +helmet 8/7 and an Ares Alpha AZT equivalent assault rifle with smart-link and recoil reduction.  The border agents are equipped with  an armor jacket + helmet 6/5 and Colt Cobra SMGs (or their equivalent Aztech model)

Leopard guards are equipped with: Medium Hardened Military Armor + Helmet at 10/10, Ares Alpha equivalent with Smart-link 2, Rangefinders, Recoil Comp 2, and underslung grenade launcher. They also have Fineblade knives (long knife version)

[mercy]

and you can probly figure that the jaguars have heavy harded military armour and nastys weapons including lasers but unless I dont rember right jaguar guard has a higher protion of pa compared to lepords

[Ruski]

ahh... so that's why you bring the troll merc with the minigun arround with you... just for times like thoes.

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[kv]

If the normal aztech security was the army, and the leopard guard was the most bad-ass of the special forces gurus, then the jaguar guard would be the ninjas who ride high above the earth in a dojo-space-station from which they dispense all manner of death.

Jaguar guards are the most bad ass fraggers on the planet. They're even meaner than Seraphim, and that takes some doing.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Actually, by cannon, the Sioux Wildcats are the badest of the bad. ANd personally, I am inclined to agree. If fro no other reason then they have a much cooler name.

Gabriel

[kv]

Really? I thought that was just first edition that the sioux were so badass.

I mean, there are like a handful of jaguar guards on the planet, and they never leave Aztlan. In fact, they have to be demoted to leopard guards to be able to leave and track down the runners.

And the seraphim (Cross) are supposed to be better than Lowfyr at gathering information, like Shadowrun's version of the super-CIA. Yet thier CEO gets assassinated before 4th edition. You think they would have seen that coming.

But, as the writers of 4th Edition apparently believe, Damien Knight gets whatever he wants and always wins. Art Dankwalther was brilliant and willing to destroy himself to sink Knight, and Lucien Cross was just trying to stay alive, but Knight always gets what he wants.

I SOOOOooOOO want to write the adventure when he gets kacked. Cause you know there's NO WAY He's going to die of natural causes. And no one lives forever. Especially in Shadowrun.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Check out Shadows of North America for info on the Wildcats. They say that they "cut thier teeth" on green berrets and navy S.E.A.L.'s. As for the Seraphim, super spies do not make super soldiers. Go figure.

Gabriel

[kv]

Information is power.

Superior spies mean that they have superior information.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Oh I'm not about to argue that point at all. I'm just saying that if you want a guy who could bend Samuel L. Jackson over and make him call you "Daddy", it's not goign to be a Saraphem.

Gabriel (trying to get my own mental image out of my head... )

[ROOTless]

They say that they "cut thier teeth" on green berrets and navy S.E.A.L.'s.

<RL>
The same is said of the UK SAS troops, and many other units.
In general, US elite forces are considered to be "overequipped and undertrained" (quote: one of our own elite troops), relying overly much on high-tech tools.
</RL>

Word from the Wise:
Don't underestimate the Imperial Japanese Army special forces either. The black ops boys who do "covert hostile personel removal" in particular.
Just because you never hear about them doesn't mean they're not scare. Not at all.