Special Forces in the 6th World, De Opresso Frag 'em All Options

[VagabondStar]

The popular notion of Special Forces doesn't always seem to jive with the reality. Where most people may believe Special Forces are unstoppable killing machines worthy of the title "Rambo", the reality of the situation is quite a bit more diverse and balanced than that.

Special Forces draw their lineage from the OSS's (WWII's precursor to the CIA) Clandestine Paramilitary Wing. This organization's mission was to actually arm indigenous people and train them in unconventional warfare. In short: To start Insurgencies against unfriendly powers.

The primary Mission of USSOF is summed up in their motto "De Oppresso Liber" To liberate the oppressed.


Now how has the awakening changed all this?

[psychophipps]

Not very much, I'm sure. Add a few mages that qualify when you can find them and go back to work. Magic seems like it would be a great idea but skull-humping your new "friends" into doing what you want tends to seriously backfire in way too short a timeframe to be helpful at all.

An old character of mine was a corporate force multiplication specialist (read: CorpSec SF). He would go into the back 40, find people who were pissed at the corps like eco-terror groups, train them in insurgency tactics, and help guide them through a few missions and the like "to help them along".
Of course, his new terrorist class would target his corps enemies. Or he would find out about something owned by his corp that would be set for demolition anyway that he would sick his new crew on so his corp could collect on the insurance and double-dip. The crew got a bit too good or stopped being helpful to his own corps agenda anymore, he would sell them out to whomever CorpSec he'd been pissing off (usually multiple clients just to be sure they all got dead) and fade back into the shadows.

Good times...

[Cheops]

I still really like my idea of the Black Pearl warship in SR and a Delta-type force of magicians sent into the jungle would work this perfectly. A small force of Awakened Deltas sent into the Maracaibo Basin by Amazonia and given all the materials they need could get the locals building 19th century warships, enchanted to act as vessels, and sending them as coastal raiders against the Azzies.

[Sir_Psycho]

But that was World War II, the situation has changed since then. That kind of operation is the province of an Intelligence Agency, most likely that Central one. Special Forces are a different thing, now.

The main thing to factor in is that in the sixth world, global powerbases have divided so many times. We don't just have governments supporting insurgencies now. We have governments, corporations, dragons, immortal elves, policlubs, militaries, free spirits and the list goes on. That's why there is so many groups in Loose Alliances. They can always find some-one to bankroll them and support them.

The awakening will be hard thing to cope with for insurgency training. If you want to train a militant rabble, and one of them is a awakened, you have to send one of your magicians (astrally, I assume) to go check. Then the training will probably have to be one on one, or another small number, and it's time intensive. Not much need to train the magicians in combat spells though. We've determined on dumpshock already that a large band of mooks with AK-97's are deadly. So an insurgent magician will probably be focused on support spells, like stealth, invisibility, heal, etc. spirits are also a great force multiplier, and are useful for their concealment power.

training the rabble is much easier, however. If you can set up a makeshift medical shop in their mountain hide-out, and bulk buy skillwires, then you can easily send a doctor or three there and just have them wire up all the insurgents, and then copy them a bunch of activesofts like infiltration, explosives, automatics etc. You can even give them all goggles with sensors in them and a spotter drone, load up some tacsofts, and you've basically got a low-cost special forces team.

[psychophipps]

I still really like my idea of the Black Pearl warship in SR and a Delta-type force of magicians sent into the jungle would work this perfectly. A small force of Awakened Deltas sent into the Maracaibo Basin by Amazonia and given all the materials they need could get the locals building 19th century warships, enchanted to act as vessels, and sending them as coastal raiders against the Azzies.

Yeah, too bad the Azzies would just haul out a few blood mages and whup they asses, eh? Trying to go magic vs. magic against Azzies?!?

Not exactly the Chinese way of long life, neh?

Besides, a true "Delta Force" of any type would combine technology and magic as a cohesive total strategy anyway. The surgical application of the correct type of force and a low operational footprint are the hallmarks of special operations forces, let alone "The best of the best" groups like Delta and Seal 6/NavSpecWarDevGru.

[AngelisStorm]

@ Pyscho: Well actually that's what the Green Berets do. They are our special forces that specialize in training up locals to fight the man.

@ Vagabond: But they are super killing machines. When they are able to do what they are trained to do. Take 300 Navy Seals and tell them to hold a air field... not a good day, as history shows.

(Of course, if you want special forces to take an airfield, you send the Army Rangers. Their specialty: being the biggest "special forces" numerically around. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

[hyzmarca]

The awakening will be hard thing to cope with for insurgency training. If you want to train a militant rabble, and one of them is a awakened, you have to send one of your magicians (astrally, I assume) to go check. Then the training will probably have to be one on one, or another small number, and it's time intensive. Not much need to train the magicians in combat spells though. We've determined on dumpshock already that a large band of mooks with AK-97's are deadly. So an insurgent magician will probably be focused on support spells, like stealth, invisibility, heal, etc. spirits are also a great force multiplier, and are useful for their concealment power.

The big problem is that your magicians have to be of the same tradition as their students, or at least they must possess enough arcana skill and magical knowledge to convert their spells and techniques to another tradition. For hermetics or classic shamans then is easy. But when your dealing with the obscure magical traditions of an isolated third-world tribe, you might have to spend more time developing a framework of conventions in which you can translate your skills than you spend actually training the third-world magicians.

[Sir_Psycho]

I imagine the best way to do it would be to subcontract it out to a magic user who experiences their magic using a compatible paradigm. I'm sure you could hire an islamic mage to do such thing if training middle-eastern insurgents.

However, for smaller more isolated groups (like the tribes you mentioned) you would need a specialist. A mage with a high instruction skill, arcana skill and the correct language skills (most likely linguasofts). But then again, if you're using hermeticism, it might be easier to just educate them in mathematics and magical formulae. I'm not sure which would be more efficient.

[Cheops]

Yeah, too bad the Azzies would just haul out a few blood mages and whup they asses, eh? Trying to go magic vs. magic against Azzies?!?

Not exactly the Chinese way of long life, neh?

Besides, a true "Delta Force" of any type would combine technology and magic as a cohesive total strategy anyway. The surgical application of the correct type of force and a low operational footprint are the hallmarks of special operations forces, let alone "The best of the best" groups like Delta and Seal 6/NavSpecWarDevGru.

Read about what the Heavenherds are and then decide if Amazonia can go toe to toe with Azzie mages.

[psychophipps]

Read about what the Heavenherds are and then decide if Amazonia can go toe to toe with Azzie mages.

I still call Aztechnology (what I thought they were talking about with "azzies", my bad) FTW. The reason is simple, really. It's called "better technological, logistical, intelligence, and fiscal support". With the whole of Aztechnology behind them, as the blood mages are a recognized part of the whole, there is no way in hell that the Heavenherd could pull out a true victory.
Not saying that the ol' horror-humping Amazonians wouldn't have to earn it the hard way and be hosed for quite a while afterwards, I'm just saying that the Azzies would eventually all get their souls sucked out and fed to something on the rather nasty side of the paranormal spectrum as sloppy seconds.

[Sir_Psycho]

If Aztechnology could just crush Amazonia, they'd have done it already.

[Cheops]

If Aztechnology could just crush Amazonia, they'd have done it already.

Agreed.

[Chrysalis]

There is quite a few factors involved in training. We can always go with terror and counter-terror training. If you are not interested in legal or ethical ramifications of what to teach. Then you have all sorts of possibilities with alternative methods. It depends on what you want to teach.

I feel that magic is just another tinker toy. A suicide bomber with magic is no different than a suicide bomber with a C4 and nail vest. It just passes most counter measures better.

[Sir_Psycho]

An awakened suicide bomber would be a terrible waste.

[Chrysalis]

An awakened suicide bomber would be a terrible waste.

So is a twelve year old kid with a grenade but that is one of the unpleasant things in life.

[hyzmarca]

So is a twelve year old kid with a grenade but that is one of the unpleasant things in life.

Grenades are cheap. Kids are cheaper. Skilled magicians are damned expensive.

Giving a bomb vest to an untrained 12-year-old makes logistical sense 90% of the time. Sending a magician on a similar mission makes logistical sense practically never. They're sufficiently rare and sufficiently useful in other capacities that sending them off to die really is a waste.

[Chrysalis]

The more expensive the suicidal killer to train the more important the mark. A head of state is a logical example.

"A highly trained magician" is an interesting choice of words. The importance of the individual is dependent on the value placed on them. Most intelligence operatives are only cogs in the machinery.

[Pendaric]

Special forces to sending children to die. DS is, if anything, unpredictable.

The balkanization of nations and increase of corporate power has lead to more spec forces. The inclusion of former freedom fighters (after all they won) the Soux Wild Cats, being the best spec op's, seems to point to magical assests still being intergrated else where.

[VagabondStar]

@ Vagabond: But they are super killing machines. When they are able to do what they are trained to do. Take 300 Navy Seals and tell them to hold a air field... not a good day, as history shows.

Not arguing the point - but I believe there was an old SEAL saying that went something like "We're not really that good at what we do... everyone else is just THAT BAD."

[AngelisStorm]

Great quote. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Backgammon]

That is actually a great point. I was watching some of those special ops show on the Military Channel, and one of them was the (unwilling) extraction of this Balkans dude so he could be put up at a war tribunal.

In the end, the spec ops guys, all dressed as civies, had to infiltrate the hospital where the mark was working (as director or whatever the fuck). So to bypass the bodyguards in the lobby, they posed as delivery guys delivering vaccines, go through the door, then fucking walked into the dude's office, chlorophormed him, sat his unconscious ass in a wheelchair and wheeled him out like he was a patient.

That is the most cartoonish retarded plan I ever heard of. But it worked perfectly, cause the opposition is just never that good. The guards were a little suspicious that 4 large men were delivering vaccines, but they let it slide. And then no one stopped them from wheeling the dude out.

[psychophipps]

The more expensive the suicidal killer to train the more important the mark. A head of state is a logical example.

"A highly trained magician" is an interesting choice of words. The importance of the individual is dependent on the value placed on them. Most intelligence operatives are only cogs in the machinery.

The problem here is that you simply don't see highly trained (a la special operations) and motivated suicide bombers. This is why the POTUS is still alive, after all. Everyone, the Secret Service included, freely admits that a highly trained and motivated suicidal assassin could probably take care of biz in this regard. The rub, however, lies in the fact such individuals basically don't exist.
This why your typical suicide bomber isn't a happy family man with a good career in a financially stable location. You need to convince your suicide bomber that they have nothing to live for, that their death is more important than their life, and that their sacrifice will mean something to someone or a group of people that will remember them. Needless to say, Spec ops-types don't share these traits as free thinkers, generally having a strong entrepreneurial attitude, usually rather willful, and loving their jobs and the sense of camaraderie that it instills.

[VagabondStar]

This why your typical suicide bomber isn't a happy family man with a good career in a financially stable location.

Never say never. Remember that doctor in the UK a year or two ago?

[hyzmarca]

Actually, with the advances is radio control and robotics technology it is possible to build a suicide bomber in your garage. Hell, you can learn everything you need to know to blow up the President and survive get away with it from watching Mythbusters.


Drones make suicide bombers obsolete.

[Wounded Ronin]

Drones make suicide bombers obsolete.

Obsolete besides for the extra "fuck you" value that is derived by demonstrating to the target(s) that you think nothing of personally self destructing to get at them.