Auxilliary Reserve Garrison

Purpose:

Auxilliary Arcological Garrisons are paramilitary security subcontracted companies that serve three specific purposes. First, they provide boots on the ground and support for larger Security corporations, acting as local sourced men and women to act in the name and letter of said corporations. It's easier for a commune, arco, or other municipality to accept authority from a multi-national security megacorp when half or more of the personnel are locals. Secondly, the financial interests that back and organize ARGs do so typically as a way to siphon off funds from highly lucrative security contracts. Often the backers of such Warm Body Battalions can quickly find themselves very wealthy, and very powerful locally because of their investment. Finally, ARGs are useful in crackdowns and basically terrorizing unarmed, disorganized civilian populations while supplying plausible deniability to the parent company. This is especially useful for quelling the food riots and other civilian rebellions and subversions.

Agenda:

Similar to law enforcement, ARGs function like National Guard Mercenary units. Serve and protect the population, largely by keeping the populations docile and submissive to authority figures.

The presence of an ARG in a city or municipal area is considered a bad sign overall. Their employment is a surefire indicator that normal police and paramilitary police are no longer sufficient to maintain law and order. The other side is that they are also a good sign of a local goverment or corporate interest that has gotten out of hand, and is moving to change the local goverment to favor their own power structure.

Leadership:

ARGs typically draw their organizational leadership from ex-military personnel. They tend to look for effectiveness, and not accomplishment, a sort of dark meritocracy. This allows some unsavory figures to move from obscurity and barside careers to put on uniforms again and get back in the old business of opporessing people and causing collateral damage.

Founders:

ARGs are founded typically by two different types of people: corporate backers and dishonorably discharged veterans. Corporate Backers tend to organize ARGs for making piles of money, a typical and straight forward plan. Dishonorable discharges tend to organize cells of disreputables into a semblance of a mercenary unit.

Resources:

Variable

Most ARGs have a hockey stick graph of resources and material. The front and center forces, and headquarters units tend to have the best equipment and the best visuals. The larger units have rapidly decreasingly valuable and useful gear and funding.

The Serenity Militars are an exemplary ARG, founded as a cash grab by the Serenity Investment and Management Group and SecuriTron Concepts Corporation. The Militars grew to contain over seventy armored vehicles, a dozen rotorcraft, and over a thousand men and women. The command company of the Militars was equipped with combat armor, SmartGun systems with non-lethal weaponry, power armor suits, security autons and more. More than half of the Militars were equipped with plastic lasers or self sourced weaponry. This would have been fine, so long as the Militars were never asked to do more than walk patrols and rough up punks and teenagers. Everything went to hell when Serenity Heights was hit by organized riots that overlapped with an underworld assault. The Militars lost half of their vehicles, a third of their membership joined the rioters, and once it was all said and done, Serenity Group lost 80% of it's market value and was bought out by SecuriTron Solutions.

Whitewater Boarding Agency, infamously known as Warm Body Association, was a massive fraud of an organization. WBA was, on paper, a multi-million credit organization, generating massive profits, and converting its backers into wealthy men and women. In truth, it was little more than an armed gang, wearing ratty uniforms and carrying improvised weapons, stolen equipment, and worse. Whitewater lasted sixteen years, through three Review Board hearings, and was only dissolved after the Gangland Wars destroyed more than half of the existing platoons, and the rest 'went native' in a massive urban guerilla war.

Manifesto/Creed

Kick Ass, Take Names, Get Money, Nail Dames

Symbolism

Most ARGs adopt non-offensive symbols and livery, they are mostly ceremonial and protocol in use, and are neither police nor military. Their use of color, motif, and the rest is generally chosen to deflect from the fact that they are usually a uniformed, organized paramilitary force of bullies, borderline criminals, and worse.

History

The History of ARGs is relatively simple, they have been used in some form or fashion for years. The military industrial complex and law enforcement agencies have long enjoyed bloated budgets and the private sector longed to get some of that sweet sweet lucre. Forming paramilitary security subcontractors was the optimized way to do this, creating layers and legal protections between those who would profit the most obscenely, and those who were putting boots to necks and engaging in the graft and violence to make the money flow.

The Petroleum Era mostly saw this as Rent-a-Cop operations, but they really didn't begin until after the Resource Wars. Then, when corporations started fielding their own forces, forces designed for pure profit and social exploitation were sure to quickly follow.

This has only increased in the modern Cosmic Era as the level of threats have escalated, moving from just social unrest, territorial and resource disputes, and socioeconomic wars to include Dimensional fatigue events, superpowered humans, rogue robots, and augmented genetic and cybernetic supermen. Having waves of disposable, profitable, minions is just good business.

Usage

ACME Rent-A-Merc - ARGs are ways to create hosts of low grade, low skill, poorly armed bullies and jackasses to oppress a population, and become meat for meat grinder fights between PCs, cosmic horror, war, and the all the rest of that. Their morale is low, their gear is not threatening, and their greatest strength is their numbers.

Conspiracy - ARGs are great sources of muscle for secret societies, hidden masters, political conspiracies, and behind the scenes power mongers. This then slots into the Rent-a-Merc option, giving said obfuscated groups expendable muscle.

Bad Employer - the PCs end up being hired by a low end ARG

10 Ply Bad Guys - ARG troopers are soft, the core might have gear and guts but the rank and file are running on hopes, prayers, and stolen merchandise. Killer Filler Mooks.