Everything

Tactics

No matter the strength and resilience of First Teams, Garou often outclass them in battle. First Teams com­ pensate for this disparity of supernatural potence with numbers, firepower and tactics.

Every trooper carries silver ammunition to use in case they encounter werewolf targets — when the mission planners expect strong Garou presence they issue many more silver-packed magazines. Pentex knows even the strongest Garou fall quickly to heavy curtains of silver. Superior numbers and firepower have the advantage of a high success rate, but they cost the company dearly in casualties and expensive ordnance. While they could launch Wyrm-tainted rockets into Garou strongholds and call in airstrikes on Caerns, that only works in combat zones and countries where the government forces are too far in Pentex’s pocket.

For smaller conflicts requiring a veil of secrecy First Teams try to stick together and concentrate fire on individual targets, and use their own powers and equip­ ment to force werewolves to separate from their packs and die one by one. The Garou have a natural instinct to work as a pack, but it’s just instinct. First Teams have multiple drills each week on anti-Garou tactics, working on the same theories as counter-insurgency and guerrilla tactics. They know how to use their numbers to watch over all the angles, provide covering fire, lay traps, and press every tactical advantage.

In urban environments with plenty of witnesses, First Teams use the crowds to confuse and delay the werewolves. They use Wyrm-tainted aerosols to spray unwary civilians and turn them into beacons to attract the Garou. If the werewolves try to use Crinos form to force the humans to flee in panic, the team deploys FightBack gas grenades (p. 193) to change the crowd to an enraged mob.

First Teams who have the resources and time to plan prefer to distract werewolves. They establish kill-zones and sniper’s nests and use their heavier fighters to harry the Garou into the kill-zones. Teams call in heavy sup­ port and use Banes and insane combat fomori as shock troops to drive the werewolves where the First Team waits to ambush them. If this doesn’t work, the Teams try to enrage the Garou — preferably by killing one of the beasts so her pack is overcome with grief — and fall back through heavily secured and trapped kill-zones so when the frenzied and unwary werewolves chase through they receive a hail of bullets as welcome.

Every First Team knows of the Garou’s tactical advan­ tage from stepping sideways and using the Umbra. Teams carry markers, shoe-polish or other items to cover and

mar any reflective surfaces they find. This doesn’t always prevent the Garou moving to or from the spirit world, but it does help control where they can use their power.

Ideally, the best Pentex operations occur when the Garou aren’t there. When it can spare the resources, Pentex keeps Garou confused to the real target by flooding irrelevant areas with Wyrm-taint or sending Ranger teams to sabotage and destroy Garou-held territory before the primary mission starts. One particularly effective feint is to stage an attack on an identified Kinfolk community or Garou caern and retreat to a fortified position when the werewolves begin to mount a credible defense. Usually, the Garou follow the offending Team and fight against the well-defended position, while the true mission takes place in another nearby location. Even if the werewolves realise the ruse, their rushed response to protect the real target is disorganised and more vulnerable to the First Team’s tactics.

Retirement

The First Team employment contract includes generous retirement provisions to support the former First Team member well into old age. Pentex can afford this largesse — no one has ever retired. Joining the First Teams is a life-long choice.

Most troops die young, killed by werewolf claws or enemy bullets. Fomori tend to expire less than two years after possession — they either burn out or repeated combat ensures their deaths. Fomori with more than two years of service are forces to be reckoned with. They find themselves given the most dangerous missions, with the reward for survival being something even more dangerous. A handful of fomori earn promotions, leading teams into battle. These are the first among First Teams, sent into suicidal engagements that they somehow survive time and again. Legends grow around them that are used to awe and inspire new generations of recruits.

If they survive years of Pentex throwing them into the worst hells, the corporation always wants to know how. The doomed trooper reports for duty at Magadon, NDL, or another subsidiary that dissects the new test subject for knowledge to use in creating future generations.

Some rare human veterans manage to survive long enough to move away from active service to become jaded trainers, mission planners, or commanding officers. From this pool the most ruthless sometimes successfully transi­ tion into Pentex senior management positions. Other corporate minions give these corrupted powerhouses the respect due their position but watch them even more carefully than their peers —their sanity is surely frayed beyond rational decision making.