Horse, I agree that reconnaissance and infiltration of the various powers in Phoenix will be goals for the Huachuca command. However, the means will fall far short of the needs for some time. Explaining why takes a bit of doing, but I would be remiss in not trying to summarize some of my other work for this purpose.
The 111th comes within a roll of the dice of being destroyed in mid-1998, along with Fort Huachuca and the various armed bodies in Tucson. I have some numbers somewhere in the archives. Suffice to say that if the Mexicans had thrown in another brigade—perhaps even another battalion—the whole show would have gone differently.
At the same time, Phoenix disintegrates during the summer. Food and fuel run out, and the city melts down. Fires, violence, disease… the word ugly just doesn’t cover it. Surviving government forces yield control of the metropolis area by area. Refugees pour out, only to die of dehydration and heat ailments on the roads. Large armed bands, temporarily united by the conviction that government forces at Luke AFB have the supplies they need to survive, gradually drive government forces back to Luke for a final showdown. Government forces break out and flee to Flagstaff with everything they can carry.
Following an orgy of bloodletting, the Valley of the Sun fragments into something vaguely comparable to the regions of Western Europe after the fall of West Rome. Where water can be made available, food can be grown. Productive land attracts people with arms. The situation in the Valley of the Sun comes to resemble that of Manhattan in many ways.
While Huachuca is rebuilding 111th Brigade, the need for recce all around SAMAD is raised. The LRS effort gets a shot in the arm in late 1998 when a large group of cadre and students from Kirtland AFB (where USAF Special Operations types are trained) makes their way to SAMAD. (The fight in New Mexico has settled into a stalemate by this time, and Albuquerque has gone the way of Phoenix and Las Vegas.) A few law enforcement types know something about undercover operations. Nevertheless, Huachuca is stuck with building a LRS force and espionage force virtually from scratch, albeit with a head start thanks to the presence of a variety of specialists.
In Phoenix, warlords emerge before the battle at Luke AFB. In this context, warlord is simply a stationary bandit who exerts direct control over territory and people. Gangs, in this context, raid and extort without direct control. Infiltrating a warlord’s organization is difficult, though not impossible. This would be a good mission for a group of PCs. Infiltrating a gang would be very difficult, though again not impossible.
The various players in Phoenix quickly learn that Fort Huachuca has survived the opening round of the Second Mexican-American War. A few of the early recce missions end in disaster, which makes everyone aware that Uncle Sam is interested in intervening in the Valley of the Sun. (Very few people in Phoenix distinguish between MilGov and Fort Huachuca.)
Still, there are some operations that could be called cloak-and-dagger. Huachuca opens and maintains a trading post within the turf of one of the bigger players. For the moment, we can consider him the Duke of Phoenix. The Duke benefits by taxing trade and by appearing to have the support of the government. Naturally, he benefits more from trade with SAMAD than anyone else. His agents can collect intelligence from folks coming to trade.
At the same time, though, Huachuca’s agents can make contact with anyone who makes it to the trade post. Arrangements can be made for LRS to meet with smaller parties in other parts of Phoenix. The ability to move supplies this way is rather limited, though. For this reason, the partnership with the Duke is the most important one. When Huachuca is looking for a particular item, the Duke’s folks can provide security for specialized parties who actually find the stuff (like heavy machinery, for which the Duke has no immediate use) and take it away. Naturally, this arrangement does lend itself to some cloak-and-daggerisms.
One way or another, though, liberating the Valley of the Sun is a major undertaking. A logistics base would have to be built and stocked. Casualties would be high. The metropolis would be taken under control a bite at a time, necessitating a long, drawn-out affair lasting several months. Even with the luxury of knocking over one warlord at a time, absorbing one defensive co-op at a time, and exterminating one gang at a time, SAMAD has its work cut out for it in Phoenix.
Kalos, to answer your question the Mexicans are close at hand in April, 2001. Nogales Brigade controls Nogales, which is right across the border. However, by this time the Mexicans aren’t the problem they used to be. Second Mexican Army has gone over to the Constitutionalists (EMC). Now they are Army of California. The EMC have made peace with SAMAD, and they have concluded a cease-fire with MilGov forces in southern California. The EMC is now more concerned with fighting the Nationalists than the Americans. This development has made it possible for Thomason to consider dispatching 111th Brigade to Phoenix for an extended operation while leaving the very much weaker 3rd Brigade on security duty at home. The Mexican OB has more details about how the Mexican Army shakes out in the Second Mexican Civil War.
Webstral
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