Pistons: Could you ID the pages that they refer to Aztlan's intelligence contracted to Aztechnology Intelligence? It's in the defense-related chapter, on the right-hand page opposite a image by (Baxa?) of a fighter pilot and his jet. (How's that for not having seen the book in five years?)

Encyclopedic! Pages 78 and 79 talk about military intelligence. The specific page where it mentions what you're asking is 78, first sentence. (Same page as the artwork. The plane's named "Bearded Serpent.")

Oh, that's right (The plane's actually named "Bearded Serpent." Hah. I was only sure of the image painted on the nose). It must have been the comment about the Seattle Pyramid being in the footprints of three spy sats that was on 79, so that's probably why I thought it was all on 79.

Is that about the same part of the book where they speculate on Espectro's identity as maybe one of the wives of one of the six missing spy chiefs, or is that elsewhere?

On p.79 there is some speculation about Espectro's identity; I forget in what context exactly (other than sharing space with info about how General Paolo Batiste bought it) or the shadowposter, but the last line was, "I think we've found Espectro." Or something very close to that. (I'd have to dig the book out again, and I'm feeling lazy right now. )

Whistles aimlessly

Just passing, I recently read the Germany SB and found page 82 reference to the BND (Bundesnarichtdienst) with their HQ in Munich, Pullach district. I didn't want to lose the page number.

As in 2054 in both the English and German version of the Germany SB, Argus only had the MAD's tasks, and the BND was in Munich, it means the BND was disbanded between 2054 and DidS2 (2062? Can't remember...). Reading the former book, it might have something to do with the preference the BND had toward the Bavarian president over the AGS' Chancellor.

I'm be interested to read what you GM's out there have used as rules to maintain balance yet also reflect the resources a given intelligence/espionage-type agency would have available to characters associated or attached to the agency.

Would a character have to pay full price for their gear? Cyber? Bioware stuff? etc etc.

Nath did bring up a good point earlier on in this thread about the general lack of knowlege on what countries/areas of the world the UCAS has decided to focus on in recent years. So I did a little bit of digging, and did a little bit of logical deductions to come up with the following "targets" that might be prominent in UCAS foreign policy.

Souix Nation: All evidence in SoNA seems to indicate that these two countries watch each other like hawks, but that the Souix are the more parinoid of the pair, half expecting a UCAS invasion force to go rolling over the border any day now. I see the UCAS keeping tabs on one of their cloeset NAN neighbors, for no other reason then the size and training of the Souix military, which was also covered in SoNA.

CAS: As also stated in SoNA, the UCAS and the CAS seem to be constantly pokeing and proding each other intelligence wise, but not really getting involved in anything above and beyond the normal call of duty. The CAS has more imposing threats on its mind at the moment (read: Aztlan), and the UCAS is still feeling the aftershocks of Dunklezhan's death. Depending on how the timeline progresses, this might change.

Denver: As the Berlin of North America, I really do see Denver as a major intelligence point. With no less than five countries shareing territory here, you would have to be a fool not to have at least some kind of intelligence presence in this city.

The Middle East: This one is largely speculation on my part. The Mid East has always been a hotbed of contention and conflict, and now with NIJ rearing its ugly head, I can see the UCAS backing up Mossad in its intelligence gathering on the area.

China: It's a long shot perhaps, but when a country the size of China implodes into a gaggle of warring city states, one would assume that would be a prime target for intelligence gathering. Situations like the one that exists in that part of the world in 2064, can cause some real problems so the UCAS MIGHT have a few eyes over there, but it would probably be more logical for the JIS to be keeping tabs on the warlords.

Aztlan: Again, pure speculation, but Aztlan is a rather frightening Totalitarian Dictatorship. I can see the UCAS wanting to know what's going on down there.

That's all I could think of off the top of my head, I'll do some more digging over the weekend and see if I can lock down any other areas that the UCAS might be wanting to check up on.

Btw, how would intelligence agencies protect their assets from getting Mind Probed? I feel that in the SR technology age, it'd be a bit easier in some ways to avoid squealing under traditional torture/interrogation, but how would an agency protect its mundane assets from getting mind probed? Kinda hard for an FBI agent to infiltrate the mob if the mob has a wiz/sham on hand mind probing and such.

Willpower training, Magic Resistance screening, drugs, memory altering, hypnotism, masked Increase Willpower spells...

Pretty much the same way you prevent torture.

Sweet. I'd forgotten about this. raygun rules, as well as the rest of you.