Aztech Military Issue weapons + State of Caribbean, Two seemingly unrelated questions. Options

[Brahm]

Just some thougts on what sidearm would normally be issued to an Aztech pilot. Keep in mind that he was transporting an Aztech executive. I was thinking maybe machine pistol, or would it just a semi-auto pistol of some sort? Also what is Aztech's in-house brand? I lost track of which manufacturing brand(s) they own or deal with enmass.

On a somewhat related topic, but only because we hijacked a VTOL out of the Yucatan and fled to Cuba, what is the lastest word on the Caribbean League. Is the most recent meat still Cyberpirates plus the Threats 2 blurb about Miami falling into disarray because of Dankwalther trashing Gunderson corp? Please keep in mind the the we are running in the year 2069-70. EDIT Aztech should still not have much of a corp presence, yes?

I guess what I'm really asking is if the Sixth World Wiki References are current and complete? Thanks.

[Crusher Bob]

If you are asking about what a combat piloy might have tucked away in his flight suit you can try this. Add a pistol (and maybe one extra magazine). But really a pilot is not likely to get much use out of his sidearm.

[Brahm]

Thanks for the link, interesting read.

I would expect a pilot to only get use out of a firearm if things went very wrong. But I know historically at least some military pilots have pistols as standard issue in the event they find themselves in conflict outside their aircraft, or they have to deal with unruly passengers. :cyber:

With what seems to be somewhat of a current trend to market machine pistols for other military personel that historically were carrying pistols I was wondering if pilots might eventually fall into that as well. At least on an aircraft that functions in much the same rolls as a helicopter where you have a tendacy to be flying toward the meyham.

[stevebugge]

One of the Corp Books mentioned that the Aztech Personnell who were not part of one of the elite units tended to be undertrained and overequipped, which in stat terms translated in to skills & perofessional rating 1 less than normal but with much heavier weapons. The example given suggested that where most facility guards would have Heavy Pistols the Azzies would be loaded with SMG's and Shotguns. In this case where a normal pilot would probably carry a survival kit like the one linked above and a Light Pistol of some type and azzie would most likely have a little less of the survival equipment and a short barreled shotgun or machine pistol.

[Shrike30]

Black Hawk Down mentions at one point that the weapon issued to the helicopter pilots in case of a crash was an MP-5K. While a fighter pilot would need something that could be tucked into his flight suit (so that when he ejects the weapon remains with him), vehicles like helicopters (and small corporate jets, for that matter) don't have ejection seats. If the pilot survives the crash, getting to a weapon stored right next to him will likely not be an issue, and they'd much rather have a submachinegun than a pistol in a firefight.

The book also mentions that the crew chiefs on the helicopters have M-16s, which other soldiers use the magazines for at a later point. It seems likely, however, that these are weapons carried by the chiefs, rather than weapons stored on the helicopter for their use (as the helicopters have much heavier door guns).

In short, a SMG would be my suggested weapon for the pilot, unless he was flying a military vehicle of some sort, in which case I'd give him one of the smaller heavy pistols (Browning Ultra-Power comes to mind). It's also a possibility (with the advent of weapons like the MP-7) that issuing a machine pistol with APDS ammunition would be a practice.

[Brahm]

The corporation is the governement. The pilot is effectively military, he's flying an armed transport plane in a war zone (Yucatan).

After all this helpful feedback and some thought I think I'm going to suggest to the GM that he be carrying an FN P90L, laser sight instead of Smartlink, loaded out with SS191 and likely with whatever is the equivalent of the USG IR x1 night scope mounted. One spare clip, with it's 50 rnd capacity, should be about right.

That obviously isn't a standard stated SR weapon. They don't really have any of the PDW in the currently published books. I think to express it in SR4 stats I'm going to suggest that given the normal 4P/0AP for a Machine Pistol, 5P/0AP for an SMG, and 5P/-1AP for Heavy Pistols (except the Ruger Warhawk at 6P/-2AP) that it get an 4P/-2AP rating because it, like the HK MP-7, is designed to penetrate IIIA body armor but generally doesn't put bigass holes is people. I think I'll try convince him as well to give it a built-in 1 or 2 recoil comp as well, but we'll see.

Normally APDS, which are currently the only real AP in SR4 right now, gives you an extra -4AP. But I think that is just over the top. Plus this in total keeps the penetrating ability down just under that of a standard AR, which at 6P/-1AP overcomes 1 point higher armor.

An MP-7 would be pretty much the same thing, but with a extendable stock. But I'm just guessing that the GM won't buy into Aztech springing for that gear. It is funny that you mention the MP-7, because I actually started looking at it and the FN P90 before you posted. So I feel pretty good about being on the right track.

[Vaevictis]

I would submit that given that the pilot was transporting an executive, you should not be suprised if there is serious ordnance on the plane, if there is any chance that they were anticipating trouble.

As far as the GM not buying that Aztech would spring for an MP-7, keep in mind that the value of the cargo in this case (a freaking executive) is definately worth a high end submachine gun. In fact, I'd be very suprised if that was the extent of it. I mean, think about it: aside from just training and ability, what kind of secret information on Aztech projects does an executive have rattling around in his brain? ... and a few thousand nuyen in weapons is too much to protect that?

Personally, I would expect that the pilot would be carrying a pistol of some kind on his or her person, probably a Steyer TMP equivalent, with an Beretta Model 70 equivalent readily at hand (for post-crash E&E scenarios, I imagine the sound supressor would be handy).

Assuming that it's still an option to do so, I would also expect that the executive would also actually have a body guard present, probably carrying a concealed pistol (Ares Predator) and a melee weapon of some kind (spurs?), but he would be much more capable skill-wise in the use of firearms than the pilot would be; and if there was no bodyguard present, that would imply to me that the executive was packing himself.

(or is it that the situation is that you've 'jacked the plane and are frantically looking around for some armament for your characters to use? :) )

[Eddie Furious]

Hey all, I'm the GM that Brahm is speaking of.

You know Brahm, if you really wanted to know, you could have just asked!

Okay, as far as the P-90/MP-7 debate, both use next generation ammunition, which, while it penetrates armour quite nicely, basically makes an "owie" compared to 5.56N and the newer rounds like 6.5 Grendel and 6.8SPC (the 6.5 Grendel is basically the accepted assault round in the SR universe I run).

The Aztec flight pool is where they draw their pilots from, especially in a contested zone where corporate aircraft will get singled out pretty quickly. So he was basically on board a Combi- version of a military VTOL. The pilot is rather well trained and well cybered with betaware. He was issued a B&T MP-9 SMG smartgun loaded with AP and carrying a spare mag. He is linked up.

However regarding the APDS thing, I am thinking about talking about that next session. I have some ideas I want to bounce off of you guys.

[Demonseed Elite]

[Eddie Furious]

[Brahm]

There was also suppose to be a Jaguar team onboard that we impersonated with the old Jedi mindtrick for the few moments that it took to get off the ground. Part of that facade was toting obvious hardware, so no we aren't really hurting for things that go bang.

I'm just trying to flesh out the pilot because we've basically made him a dead man in Aztech's eyes he is prime material for becoming a runner. The payoff for my PC for this run is some cultured bioware surgery, so it is pretty natural for him to be off somewhere while they grow him a new spine. My backup PC, which I haven't even played yet, is back up north with no natural way for him to be involved in anything we are doing down south. So it just occured to me to consider turning this pilot into an alternate PC since we haven't actually need to put a slug in his head and it is looking like we might have the compasion to cut him loose instead.

Our campaign is such that we don't usually have a lot of military grade equipment lying around. We have some, but it has been expensive for us in cash and favours. The only opportunistic loot we were able to grab was the plane, which we needed, plus a couple Ares Alpha's, one nolonger in functioning order. The addition of a GL to our arsenal is nice.

[Eddie Furious]

[Vaevictis]

[Nasrudith]

Shouldn't the piolet have a tazer or a crossbow? Depreasurization would kill everyone on board otherwise.

[Vaevictis]

[Eddie Furious]

[Brahm]

[Brahm]

[Shrike30]

[Vaevictis]

[Vaevictis]

[hyzmarca]

[Shrike30]

Mostly because having to use a screwdriver to remove the existing magazine and then to screw in the new one is just a waste of time :)

[Brahm]

[Eddie Furious]