en’t meta-haters. They also provide the police con-tract for Sweetwater Creek, which prevents other, less-balanced sec corps from harassing them.
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“Less-balanced”—I like that way of saying “raciallymotivated to crack people’s skulls just because they’re trogs.” It’s probably their best bet, because any other sec corp that put boots on these streets would get quickly overwhelmed and have to resort to high levels of violence.
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StoneFrom the top down, trolls and orks run this show.
The operations chief for the company is Jonathon Hughes, famous Lance Captain for Ares’ ’71 Desert Wars team that took the light-division champion-ship. He was reassigned to Wolverine Security once his fifteen minutes of fame was up after he got back.
He didn’t take well to the lack of discipline at Wol-verine and found their hyper-violent culture difficult to operate within effectively. After several citations—
not the meritorious kind—Hughes found himself re-leased from his Wolverine contract while operating in Atlanta. His SIN reverted to the CAS, and he went from the wilds of Wolverine to the anger of Atlanta.
He ended up in Sweetwater Creek and very quick-ly saw an opportunity to help out the community.
Southern Guard was already organized, but they were low on staff and training. Hughes offered his expertise to help the latter, and the former began popping up from inside Sweetwater.
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To this day there are groups that try to slip plants into SGrecruits. Every one of them has been a failure. Either they get washed out, or they roll over to SG’s side. It’s easy to do when you spend six months training and heading out on leave to this trog utopia. The community makes every ork and troll feel like they finally have a place to call home.
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Mihoshi Onileast four weeks on actual security work through-out the year, and all of them came up through the ranks. They look forward to the time back in the mix, even though most of the time they get planted in pretty docile spots. This quartet works together like a well-oiled machine. Three of the four have been with SG since the early days, and the fourth is settling in nicely.
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The fourth, Ames Redding, just took on the DC–Expansionrole after his predecessor found himself on the wrong side of an armored-car hit while doing his street time. He’s a big part of the reason SG got that A rating. Southern Guard is the main corp but Trollgarde (Spain), Five Arms (France), Bulk Armor (England), and Aggro Culture (UCAS) are all subsidiaries, along with a few dozen other non-security firms that folded into Southern Guard for a contract discount. Their growth has been impressive.
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Mr. BondsThe company operates without a lot of satellite offices and minimal autonomy when it comes to site operations. Everyone answers to Sweetwater directly because they’ve designed their internal structure without a lot of middle management. Site operational coordinators (known as OpCos), com-municate directly with OC Hughes or his assistant Billings. They are all trusted and trained thoroughly so that most of the interactions are after-action re-ports and a pat on the back, but the occasional job goes sideways and the OpCos need a little advice.
It’s rare enough that Hughes and Billings are nev-er ovnev-erwhelmed, but as they grow, the chances of that staying the case are getting slimmer.
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Billings looks like a troll, but he isn’t. Billings is a free spirit.A guardian, if the rumor mill is to be trusted. He teamed up with Hughes shortly after his arrival in Sweetwater.
Why the spirit hangs out with the mundane, no clue, but he operates 24/7 as Hughes’ assistant, something no metahuman could do.
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Lyran>
In a place of pain, fear is a feast.>
Man-of-Many-Names>
Their SOP leaves room for exploits. Hit several of theirsites with sideways ops and overwhelm the up-chatter.
The problem is finding folks dumb enough to hit multiple sites all guarded by orks and trolls.
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Stone>
I think you can find a few suggestions in the Trog Enemiessection of this upload.
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Slamm-0!Between his military and security experience, Hughes has brought a lot of tactical skill to the corp. He spreads it around generously, and the trogs who work here operate a step above most other security corps. Their basic training plan is also unmatched by any other corp. New recruits get a full six months to make it or wash out. There’s no shame in washing out of Southern Guard. After six months, they get an assignment locally while they train up some more advanced skills. Some stay in the Creek for another month, others a year or two, before they are sent out to a site where their training can be useful.
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Seems a bit much for security guards. How can theymanage all this with a standard corpsec turnover rate?
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Netcat>
They don’t have the same rate. Trolls and orks are hardyfolk. They tend to recover quickly, and that’s if they even get hurt in the first place. With as little turnover as they have, it leaves a lot of time for extra training as they cycle around.
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StoneThe company has a variety of Operational Pack-ages for their clients. They offer the basic guard in a shack checking IDs, various levels of patrol, advanced site security with monitoring, protected transport of both cargo and individuals, private residential security, personal protective services, and clandestine security. That last is one of their newest offers and can be placed on individuals by a client without their knowledge. Most clients look for patrol or personal protection, something where
the intimidation factor of trolls and orks plays a big part, and Southern Guard’s growing list of successfully thwarted attack attempts is drawing more and more clients their way. I should mention they do have one municipal contract: Sweetwater Creek. They act as the local police force, though that’s the only place they perform such a function.
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Staged attacks are a common tactic by a growing sec corp.Runners are hired to make an attack while the security team is prepared. A good Johnson will still pay, a shoddy Johnson will try to dock you. The worst possible outcome is success, because then they need to silence you before anyone comes looking.
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Mihoshi OniYou don’t grow in a cutthroat field like security without making a few enemies. You can probably increase that list of potential troublemakers ten-fold when you are a sec corp completely staffed by orks and trolls. Some of SG’s foes focus on trying to filch their staff. After all, these are some of the best-trained trolls and orks around. While some companies take issue with putting these guys on their billboards, they have no problem sliding them into some body armor and covering those tusks with a reflective visor or using them on their less-publicized operations.
Currently SG is having extensive trouble with Lone Star and Knight Errant. They’re the biggest security firms in the world, and neither is going to be usurped by SG anytime soon, but both are losing some of their highest-margin (percentage wise) small contracts to the trog firm. City con-tracts make great headlines and they get you noticed, but they don’t make a good profit. Sure, they’re worth billions, but they also cost billions to operate and enforce. Smaller contracts offer more cushion and provide a lot of networking opportu-nities as well as an abundance of off-the-books jobs that are full of black cash that can go right into a rainy-day/trip-to-the-Carib-League fund for the execs who control them.
Along with the sec corps, there are a number of other corporate entities who would prefer to see a trog security company collapse sooner rather than later. These corporate fronts aren’t a representation of the overall corporation but rather a small manip-ulation by forces within the corp. At least once in the past year, Zeta-ImpChem has come after SG.
The endeavor cost a few contracts and a few lives, but it wasn’t really the chem corp behind it all. It
was Baxter Ridley using his influence on the chem corp for the purposes of the Humanis Policlub.
These attacks are far more common than Hughes would like, and his new DC-Expansion is looking into a way to counter this problem in the future.
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Baxter Ridley wasn’t working for the HP. He was workingfor the HN. Much worse, but also much less likely to be known by Sherman.
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Snopes>
That new DCE counter plan is to hire more runnersand keep them on retainer for the corp. There are also rumors of another corporate acquisition. This time it’s SecuriTech Inc., out of Chicago. They’re listed as a small private security firm, but they’re really a runner stable.
They’re currently the only reason Governor Presbitero is still sucking air, and that man has had hell thrown at him over the past few years while trying to help put Chicago back together.
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Mihoshi OniSouthern Guard isn’t done growing, and it’s not planning to leave its foundation as an ork- and troll-only corp any time soon. The small international outfits that it has picked up are maintaining the status quo and going through training transfers in the CAS.
For some it’s a rude awakening on the state of trog life in the CAS (which is far from being a metahuman haven). Their other expansion considerations are currently focused in three areas, all related to securi-ty. They’re building up their internal force of Talented trogs while also looking into purchasing an existing arcane security firm, so they can start with a client base. They’ll likely sell off the contracts of any non-trog employees and move their own people into place. Hughes already has a leader for the division targeted and being courted, a SURGEd ork by the name of Vice. He’s a Wise Warrior shaman currently working for Evo with a history in the shadows. While a move might be arranged, an extraction might be needed if Evo goes against the grain. Along with ar-cane, SG is looking to separate out a Matrix security division as well. They currently use Big Tech, another Sweetwater outfit. They’ve considered a merger, but Big Tech wants to stay independent, and Hughes un-derstands and respects that. Some employees may transfer over once they start up, but until then it’s all subcontracted. Lastly, Southern Guard is trying to grab an arms maker. They’ve courted a few, includ-ing tryinclud-ing to legitimize Krime, but the two compa-nies have very different business philosophies. This one is looking to be extremely tricky from a
trog-corp perspective. Existing companies have a lot of already-present and talented employees who they would have to let go or sell off if they wanted to stay all-trog. Option two here is to buy production facili-ties and launch their own line, but in a market already saturated with knock-offs and name-brand loyalty, it’s a risky investment.
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We’ve talked about Vice before. He’s a solid guy. Thatsaid, he’ll probably need extraction, not because Evo won’t let him, but because Evo will want to save face. It will be negotiated into the contract that a job is arranged to pull him out.
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Butch>
Seems Sherman is either feeding old intel or just notshowing all the cards. SG already has an arms-production facility. They picked up a former Colt facility in Alabama that had been out of commission for several decades and gutted it to move all the manufacturing equipment to a warehouse in Sweetwater. They aren’t officially producing, but they’re certainly closer than Sherman states.
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Stone>
I think a little bonus commentary is necessary about whatSG does in the shadows. Some comments will already be made, I’m sure, but I’m locking this as the end of the file.
SG has a lot of former shadow assets in its stable.
Trolls and orks that had to live SINless in places where only the strong survive have slowly been recruited through test runs to see how they operate. After the job, they get another invite for work, this time in Sweetwater.
This one is a test of their coolness under pressure because Atlanta sucks for trogs. If they blow up, Sweetwater just lets them walk away.
Not all of those runners go legit. Some are too hot, some just don’t want to, and SG has a use for all of them.
Whether it’s ops against a rival security company to steal contracts or runs to gather intel for their Expansion Division, they use internal assets merged with hired teams.
The jobs combine real operations with “interviews” to make connections with non-trog runners. Having friends in Sweetwater is a big deal around Atlanta and in other cities where they hold contracts.
They use us for site testing as well. Jobs with inconsequential objectives that test the readiness of sites all over the world. It’s usually an onsite data grab with a bulldrek file that looks heavily encrypted. If your hacker breaks in, all they find is a bunch of trogporn. It’s like a double lesson on what not to do when grabbing data for Mr. Johnson.
All in all, they run a nice balance of shadowy gigs and regular business.