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Old 03-05-2010, 02:04 AM
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Default Silver Shogunate

The Silver State of Nevada groans under the yoke of a warlord and his army of motorized marauders. The self-styled Shogun holds the survivors in Nevada and portions of the surrounding states in a grip of terror, using a network of secret police and the ever-present threat of death on wheels. Despite having lost nearly eighty-five percent of its pre-war population, Nevada has reached the point where the long road of recovery can begin—but only if the surplus labor of the population can go into rebuilding the society instead of supporting the Shogun’s army.

The Gunryo
After a violent birth and early development in southern Nevada during the first months after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of 1997, the Gunryo emerged as the principal marauder army of the area. Employing a combination of co-option, deception, cunning, and force the Gunryo absorbed or destroyed its main rivals during the terrible struggle for food, water, and fuel that marked the downfall of Las Vegas and its surrounds. Following the movement of all government forces operating out of Nellis AFB to California in the wake of the start of the Second Mexican-American War in mid-1998, the Gunryo began operating throughout Nevada. The marauder army clashed with 46th Infantry Division in the autumn of 1998 when the division moved by road from Fort Carson, Colorado to Sacramento, California. The Gunryo has successfully defended its area of operations from a variety of marauder bands and probes by New American forces from Idaho, state forces from Utah, and units of Sixth US Army from California. As of April 1, 2001 the Gunryo maintains control over the entire state of Nevada and portions of the surrounding states.

Location: Nevada
Subordination: None
Manpower: 900 (+2000 support personnel), divided between a main group and several patrol groups
AFV: 3 BTR-80AM
1 ERC-90 Lynx
6 modified civilian armored cars/trucks
10 improvised armored pickup trucks


The Gunryo is unlike most marauder armies in post-Exchange America—which tend to be short-lived collections of bands of brigands—in that the Gunryo in marked by a high degree of internal cohesion, discipline, and organization. The Gunryo is a product of its leadership, and no leader has exerted greater influence over the army than its commander, the Shogun.

The Shogun’s “real” name is David Tokugawa. Among those few who know this name, it is speculated that he crafted his name to refer to great leaders from the past. Also, the Shogun’s pedestrian name can be seen as a blending of American and Japanese traditions. Certainly, this is what he has done with the Gunryo. The Shogun was a highly successful salesman from Los Angeles who was gambling in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving in 1997. Through a series of events that are poorly understood, Tokugawa maneuvered himself into a position of leadership in one of the many bands of survivors who coalesced in the weeks after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.

Although every state in the United States has been dramatically affected by the Twilight War, Nevada is one of the more extreme cases. In the aftermath of the Soviet surgical nuclear strikes on the United States, Las Vegas was placed at the bottom of the national triage list. Electricity was never really restored to Las Vegas, and the food, water, and fuel began to run out very quickly. Within a day or two of the first nuclear strikes, civilians poured out of Las Vegas. Most died on the roads. A mixture of military and police forces operating out of Nellis AFB attempted to maintain law and order in Clark County, but they were unable to prevent the rise of a number of gangs that competed ruthlessly for the remaining consumables. Among these gangs was the earliest incarnation of the Gunryo, which was by April under the undisputed leadership of salesman-turned-warlord David Tokugawa.

In declaring himself Shogun, Tokugawa imposed a unique identity on his marauder band. He promoted officers who embraced his efforts to give his army distinct characteristics. The army was increasingly Nipponized as a means of fostering internal cohesion, distinction from the other gangs of violent survivors, and codification of behaviors. An internal ranking structure became formalized using Japanese ranks. Pride and began to emerge among the survivors of the spectacular attrition rates. (The Gunryo had a 1000% turnover in its membership in the first six months after the Exchange.) The Shogun used this pride to impose discipline and the beginnings of formal training.

The Shogun succeeded in co-opting a number of useful individuals and even groups. Consequently, the Gunryo began to emerge from the pack of survivors in southern Nevada. Distinct appearances and behaviors to promote internal cohesion and discipline, coupled with skills and equipment brought in by co-opted police, civic officials, military deserters, and other specialists enabled the Gunryo increasingly to dominate southern Nevada. Although the Shogun was not strong enough to challenge the Nellis Group directly, the pressure he brought to bear on them was a significant factor in the decision by the Joint Chiefs to abandon Nellis AFB and all federal facilities in Nevada. When the Nellis Group moved to Sacramento, the Shogun was in a position to gain by seduction, coercion, bribery, and ambush.

The rest of Nevada also suffered from the disruption of society, although not nearly to the degree that Clark County suffered. The main concentrations of population in the western part of the state and along Interstate 10 in the north suffered somewhat, but they were able to manage in the first six months of 1998 without any local repetitions of the holocaust in Clark County. It was inevitable that they would come into contact with the Gunryo.

Aware that he had to secure new supplies of food and fuel, the Shogun launched a series of all-or-nothing attacks on towns throughout western Nevada, then northern Nevada using what fuel he had scavenged, stolen, and hoarded. A calculated indifference to losses enabled the Shogun to force the fealty of towns throughout Nevada.

By early 2001, the economy of Nevada is geared towards supporting the Shogun and his Gunryo. He controls the towns with small detachments of his secret police, the kempeitai. Regular law and order is left to local sheriffs and deputies under the watchful eye of the kempeitai. The kempeitai ensure that rebelliousness is cut out of the society through a combination of informants, kidnapping, interrogation, torture, and murder.

The secret police are backed up by the threat of annihilation by the Gunryo. The Shogun’s force is like a hive of army ants on wheels. To a degree not seen in North America since 1998, the Gunryo travels with its support and supply. The main body of the Shogun’s army is a convoy of gun trucks, cargo haulers, and military vehicles that moves regularly and unpredictably between the various municipalities that pay tribute to the Shogun. The Gunryo accomplishes this remarkable feat of mobility through several factors: economy of size, vehicles and support stripped to the bare necessities, the use of a few small caches, and the consumption of all surplus labor in Nevada and portions of the surrounding states. The Shogun sets unreasonable quotas of biofuel (converted from alfalfa), food, and manufactured goods to support his army. What the survivors in Reno don’t need for survival goes into the fuel tanks, engines, stomachs, and weapons of the Gunryo.

The situation is highly unstable. The Shogun maintains order through fear. He doesn’t have enough troops to garrison all of the towns in his realm. Unrest simmers under the surface, waiting for its opportunity. The Shogun has decimated a few towns to keep the others in line, but there are real limits to the death and destruction he can mete out to the people under his thumb; he can’t destroy his logistical base. He doesn’t believe he can afford to move his force less, since the very mobility and unpredictability of movement of the Gunryo is the cornerstone of security. In addition to keeping internal order, the Gunryo actively combats marauders and other armed groups all around the perimeter of the Shogun’s territory. To fail to deal with the marauders is to lose the tribute of the peripheral towns. To lose tribute is to lose fuel, food, spare parts and ammunition. The Shogun fears that once the downward spiral begins, he may be unable to arrest it.

Security can only come through increasing productivity. The only way to increase productivity under the current conditions is to allow trade and increased specialization. Allowing free trade means allowing free contact between the municipalities of Nevada. The Shogun knows that trade and contact mean fostering rebellion. He cannot risk allowing rebellion to grow; nor can he afford to have Nevada’s economy stagnate for much longer. A single bad season could bring down the whole house of cards.

Life in the Silver Shogunate will be hard in 2001.


Webstral
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