[Modern Firepower] Technothriller gear for secret DHS team in 2017

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The FBI or US Marshals are not expected to investigate reports of animal cruelty or deploy with scientific equipment..

It wouldn't be the Marshalls in any event but the FBI has hordes of technicians and the best gear money can buy. They deploy with lots of stuff. They would also be the primary investigators for virtually any serious Federal crime.

If your APHIS Spec Ops team presented their credentials to me I would examine them closely and as soon as safely possible call them into the FBI as a suspected impersonators of Federal Agents.

I'm sorry if this is supposed to be a running joke for the game or something but the people who track down hoof and mouth outbreaks don't have an armed Special Investigations unit.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It wouldn't be the Marshalls in any event but the FBI has hordes of technicians and the best gear money can buy. They deploy with lots of stuff. They would also be the primary investigators for virtually any serious Federal crime.

If your APHIS Spec Ops team presented their credentials to me I would examine them closely and as soon as safely possible call them into the FBI as a suspected impersonators of Federal Agents.

And for a single computerised check of the ID numbers, they'd hold up for a day or two. Only a follow-up over the phone or reaching out to a specific Federal employee who'd follow up for you would reveal that the initial confirmation had been a glitch, probably a wrong ID number entered or something.

As far as our characters know, our handlers are not willing to tell the FBI anything about what they are doing. Impersonating an FBI agent is not something we can do. Impersonating an agent of one of several DHS agencies, however, appears to be possible. This, in itself, might be a clue to the identity of some of the people behind Onyx Rain. They don't have access to the FBI's servers, but they do for the servers accessible by the OIG of the DHS.

Now, I'm not saying that this means that my character suspects the Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC) of anything. But I've got my eye on you, Mr. Skinner.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I'm sorry if this is supposed to be a running joke for the game or something but the people who track down hoof and mouth outbreaks don't have an armed Special Investigations unit.

Probably shouldn't be buying rifles, tactical vests, NVGs, suppressors and surveillance gear, then.

Pretty much any Federal agency in the US has acquired military-style weaponry and usually some form of armed reponse team over the last fifteen years. No bureaucrat is respected by his peers if he doesn't have a Special Reponse Team in his agency, no matter how little they need it. Library of Congress? Check. IRS? Super double check. Smithsonian Institute? Check.

[dcarson]

A fanfic series I'm reading has a DHS department that has the covert job of dealing with biochemical accidents that create powers. The Hazardous Waste Assessment, Amelioration and Abatement. The HWAAA. Very boring sounding and explains lots of scientific equipment.

[weby]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I'm sorry if this is supposed to be a running joke for the game or something but the people who track down hoof and mouth outbreaks don't have an armed Special Investigations unit.

They do. Basically the most bizarre parts of the US federal organizations have armed agents, that is a trend that really started in the late 1980's/early 1990s, before that the the number of such agencies was MUCH lower that it is today.

It is a combination of investigators wanting to be armed agents because they will get better pay if they do, the organizations getting "street cred" for having such, the growing mutual mistrust between agencies and parts of the population, The tightened rules where such things need to be regulated and official instead of ad-hock and many more reasons.

[Icelander]

One PC is a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent on assignment with Onyx Rain. He still carries his CBP issue sidearm. According to Hans-Christian Vortisch's Police Weapons in the USA: Federal Agencies, the agent would have had a choice of H&K USP Compact pistol in .40 S&W, H&K P2000 pistol in .40 S&W or the H&K P2000SK pistol in .40 S&W when he was issued a weapon upon joining.

Has the H&K P2000 or the P2000SK been statted in Pyramid or somewhere else?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Has the H&K P2000 or the P2000SK been statted in Pyramid or somewhere else?

Not that I'm aware of, but shouldn't be too difficult to work out. Compared to the USP Compact, the P2000 has roughly the same size barrel (93 mm instead of 91 mm) and the same overall length (173 mm), for the same damage, range, and Bulk for each. Loaded weight is 1.91 lb for the P2000, and it holds shots 10+1. The P2000SK has a shorter barrel at 83 mm, which might be enough to justify a slight reduction to damage (maybe 2d pi+ instead of 2d+1 pi+, but that may be overstating the difference). Its 163 mm overall length might be enough to justify dropping it to Bulk -1 (the longest Bulk -1 pistol in HT, the Walther PPK, is 155 mm). Loaded, it weighs 1.83 lb, and holds shots 9+1. The P2000 series is apparently a bit more readily-customized than the USP (in terms of grips, accessories, etc), so the character is more likely to have a Weapon Bond, but that isn't necessarily the case. It was designed to be a bit more comfortable than the USP series, but even if that was accomplished it's beneath GURPS resolution (but may be a decent reason why the character would have chosen one of those). They can also apparently use the same magazines as the USP Compact, letting them have the same number of shots, but if the P2000SK is Bulk -1, using a USP magazine brings it to Bulk -2.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Not that I'm aware of, but shouldn't be too difficult to work out. Compared to the USP Compact, the P2000 has roughly the same size barrel (93 mm instead of 91 mm) and the same overall length (173 mm), for the same damage, range, and Bulk for each. Loaded weight is 1.91 lb for the P2000, and it holds shots 10+1. The P2000SK has a shorter barrel at 83 mm, which might be enough to justify a slight reduction to damage (maybe 2d pi+ instead of 2d+1 pi+, but that may be overstating the difference).

The Glock 26, at 87 mm barrel, has Dmg 2d+1 pi and the Kahr K40, at 89 mm, has Dmg 2d+1 pi+. Unless the P2000SK drops velocity down to .38 Spl levels, Damage is going to remain Dmg 2d+1 pi+.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Its 163 mm overall length might be enough to justify dropping it to Bulk -1 (the longest Bulk -1 pistol in HT, the Walther PPK, is 155 mm).

The Glock 26, Glock 27 and the P99c are 160-170 mm and all get Bulk -1.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Loaded, it weighs 1.83 lb, and holds shots 9+1. The P2000 series is apparently a bit more readily-customized than the USP (in terms of grips, accessories, etc), so the character is more likely to have a Weapon Bond, but that isn't necessarily the case. It was designed to be a bit more comfortable than the USP series, but even if that was accomplished it's beneath GURPS resolution (but may be a decent reason why the character would have chosen one of those). They can also apparently use the same magazines as the USP Compact, letting them have the same number of shots, but if the P2000SK is Bulk -1, using a USP magazine brings it to Bulk -2.

Thanks. The PC chose the gun because it was the smallest one offered. He's a desk weenie and the character has no plans to ever fire his weapon, except for mandatory qualification.

[Daigoro]

In regards to arming agriculture inspectors, they might stumble across a terrorist chemical weapons test site, such as Banjawarn Station, in remote Western Australia, which was used by Aum Shinrikyo to develop their sarin production.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

In regards to arming agriculture inspectors, they might stumble across a terrorist chemical weapons test site, such as Banjawarn Station, in remote Western Australia, which was used by Aum Shinrikyo to develop their sarin production.

If the campaign over develops an international scope of that breadth, we very well might.

For the moment, our characters are in North America. What I know*, but not my character, is that our first 'mission' will be set on Jewel Island, a small (real) island 8 miles away from Portland, Maine and reachable by ferry, within the (fictional**) Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane. We are not armed, carry only generic ID that attests to our temporary status as 'consultants' to the DHS (and expires the day after in the case of my PC) and are accompanied by two Special Agents of the Office of the Inspector General of the DHS and a smooth-talking goverment lawyer whom we met at the DHS headquarters (though we are unclear as to where he is usually employed).

My character is still officially an enlisted man of the US Army convicted at court martial and stripped off all rank, pay and entitlements. As such, he is merely temporarily remanded from the USDB at Forth Leavenworth into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, allegedly in connection with a sensitive national security investigation that he might be able to provide helpful intelligence in regards.

The other PCs are one of the Special Agents of the OIG*** and a former US Army psychiatrist who used to work in Project Jade Serenity, now temporarily employed by the DHS as a civilian contractor. Our purpose in being there is to speak with an inmate who was a 91X (now 68x) Mental Health Technician at Camp Mackall when the Project was active. She is usually far from helpful when questioned and as it is vital that she divulge information that the Onyx Rain planers believe that she might have about former CW2 Raul Vargas, we were asked to persuade her. Michael Anderson, the psychiatrist, was her boss for a year and they were fairly close and my character, (then SPC) Mackenzie Chase Taylor, was her best friend at the base.

If we succeed and perform well enough for our handlers to trust us, we will be sent to talk to some more people. That time, however, we will probably carry weapons, because those people are former and current members of the 7th SFG(A), Green Berets, and they are AWOL in a small town or village in Mexico, near the US border, in an area formerly controlled by Los Zetas and currently under the control of either the Knights Templars or by the American Green Berets.

*Because the GM does not have much experience of technotriller/action/covert ops games and asked me to provide research and GURPS-statting assistance.
**Well, we are using pictures and maps of Danvers State Hospital / Danvers State Insane Asylum and inspiration from that place. But the location on the island, the status as both a satellite facility for St. Elizabeths Hospital and as a black research facility into psychoactive and nootropic drugs are entirely fictional. As are the highly unethical experiments, animal and human, which took place there during the Cold War. All of these, however, are firmly based on things which did happen in other places, albeit perhaps not quite as spectacular in results, if every bit as morally objectionable.
***Technically, he is CBP special agent on assignment to the DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) who has been temporarily detached to Onyx Rain and is carrying entirely fraudulent ID (though probably with the connivance of the OIG).

[Icelander]

These are two of the pistols that Danny O'Toole (PC), our desk weenie from the CBP, was allowed to choose between, the fairly compact carry pistol H&K P2000 and its subcompact cousin, the P2000 SK.

H&K P2000, .40 S&W
Dmg: 2d+1 pi+
Acc: 2
Range: 150/1,700
Weight: 1.9 lbs.
RoF: 3
Shots: 10+1
ST: 9
Bulk: -2
Rcl: 2
Cost: $700
LC: 3
Notes: No lanyard ring, Very Reliable.

Smaller than a full-size service pistol like the Glock 17 or the Beretta 92-series, this is more comfortable to carry all day for an investigator who mostly works in an office.

H&K P2000 SK, .40 S&W
Dmg: 2d+1 pi+
Acc: 1
Range: 140/1,600
Weight: 1.8 lbs.
RoF: 3
Shots: 9+1
ST: 9
Bulk: -1
Rcl: 2
Cost: $700
LC: 3
Notes: No lanyard ring, Very Reliable.

The subcompact P2000 SK, like the Glock 26/27, is very popular with higher-ranking officers, as it is even less uncomfortable than a weapon in a compact size range. The short sight radius and small size makes it harder to shoot accurately at any range, but this is not a concern for typical users.