Why does Renraku, of all the megacorps, have a named elite squad of soldiers? Mitsuhama and S-K are both supposedly better known for their security; why is Renraku special in this respect? And which megacorp has the best physical security?

Aztechnology has the Jaguars.

I don't think it's so much which corp has the best physical security, as which sites have the best security, regardless of who owns them.

Ares Firewatch teams are mentioned as 'elite', I think.

Aye it's just a matter of who showed up in novels or in certain major events.

Every corp has thier own version of red samurai.

Cross has "The Seraphim", Aztechnology has their Jaguars, Ares has Firewatch.. They all have named supergoons. Check out Corporate Download. It's your best source of information on corps.

Most secure group is MCT: Zero Tolerance, baby, and Yakuza hitters on the payola.

Ares and Saeder Krupp are both up there as well (scoring 9/10 physical security), but MCT is the most secure of the three, canonically.

Saeder Krupp and MCT are tied for security (both are rated 8). MCT have better Matrix but the dragon's got better maaaagic.

Top 3 of the "elite" AAA security forces

1) Ares Firewatch - Superior to Ultimate(and the only sec force to be rated so)
2) Red Samurai - Superhuman and Professional
3) Just about everyone else - Superior and Professional

Shiawase has the Spirit Company also.

I believe the canon mentions a group called SK Prime being Saeder Krupp's elite (i.e. Lofwyr's personal goon squad), but they are more oriented towards internal investigations.

Kami No Bushi (The Spirit Company) - Shiawise Special Forces

Black Omega (Mages), Black Alpha (Awakened), Black Nova (Shamans), Schroedinger's Cats (Deckers) - Novatech black ops

Yamatetsu Naval Technologies (no military per se, but they will/do have SEAL type unit).

BTW, the Jaguars are technically Aztlan's military elite, Aztechnology has no official military assets.

The Seraphim are black ops, and they do handle security.

Jaguars are mentioned as being the security goons at Aztech Arcology, so they must serve in that capacity somehow. I guess they can be considered military personnel, since Aztlan *is* Aztechnology and vice versa.

Jaguar and Leopard Guards are both Aztech. Back in the day, Jaguars never left the country, but that has (obviously) changed since the Aztlan SB. Jaguars are the more badass of the two.

I did not know about the Kami No Bushi, where's the info?

S-K Prime is not a specops group. it's the core corporation that forms the center of S-K.

The Red Samurai.


It's all about rep.

Yep. The Red Samurai will kick your front door in, while the Seraphim are lurking in your shadows and spy on you.

If Mitsuhama's the hardest to break in to, does it have the best paydata, also? I know it's incredibly diversified, so one could make the case that it does, but still, it's not the biggest corp. You'd expect S-K to have, like, the best, since it's the biggest, most devious, and, as Matrix Crash 2.0 has shown, most impervious to EVERYTHING.

Bieng the biggest doesn't mean value data wise.

Wal-mart is bigger then most research groups, but stealing thier data about upcoming bargain pricing won't be half as profitable as say getting Klaxco's upcoming cancer research....

Soooo... Mitsuhama DOES have the best loot?

That all depends on how you run your game and world as the GM. Maybe in your game Mitsuhama does have the best paydata hands down, or maybe the runners are working for a group that hates Saeder-Krupp, and the group is willing to pay more for paydata from SK, over say, Mitsuhama.

I don't think the Firewatch teams are the same as the Red Samurai. They are more of commando forces that Ares doesn't want to be in public. I get the feeling that the Red Samurai do have a public image. Heck they mentioned in Trid listings!

In our games we painted Renraku of being more willing to embrace the Japanese heritage than the other corps. NCt has a pagoda matrix presence but not so much in the real world, Fuchi, remember them, really was global, Shiawase never had an image in the officvial stuff and Yamatsue kept a very low profile until Nigel Findly brought them out.

Do the Red Samurai have their own simsense and holovid franchises? Seems like the kind of thing a gigantic, faceless corporation would do.

IIRC there is a Walker-type action trid series about a team of Red Sams.

Hopefully, just like Walker, they have a lot of cool slow-motion martial arts scenes. That'd be awesome.

I think the main difference between the Red Samurai and, let's say, SK's elite security forces is, that the Samurai are much more flashy in their samurai-armors than regular securities in non-descript armor. Possibly Renraku wants its forces to be feared as the best of the best. The old wyrm, on the other hand, uses the more secretive, dragon-like approach. But you can bet that he could throw elite forces into the heat that would be absolutely capable of holding their ground against the sams if necessary.

What's the old adage? "Anyone with a PR Campaign that good, probably needs it."