First Team

First Team is a term used by Pentex personnel to describe the crack squads deployed by the company on the most dangerous and vital missions.

Overview[]

The First Teams were developed when Pentex was trying to create the strongest, fastest, and most controllable fomor possible. This is where the long, multi-segmented First Team recruitment, training and corruption program comes in. They are the elite, and are built based on statistical data, mission requirements, and available resources, ignoring the personal preferences of its members.

Most First Teams include both humans and formori. Exceptions exist — VIP protection details that can’t be exposed as supernatural may be entirely human, while brutal heavy assaults against the most fortified enemy may call for only the toughest fomori.

Troops shift between teams and can be reassigned with little notice, especially in high casualty areas. Despite this, most First Teams have a semi-permanent roster and a sense of camaraderie develops between teammates, especially after saving each other a few times. Experienced Teams with a good success record may have consistent membership — barring casualties — but no Team should be complacent. Upper management will occasionally tear teams apart just for the small satisfaction of inflicting misery on others.

Every First Team has a corporate designation and purpose according to organizational charts. Most teams go wherever Pentex sends them and follow whatever orders they’re given. The general purpose First Teams fulfill a variety of roles including direct combat, sabotage, or VIP protection. Most troops never progress beyond generalist duties, but those who show ability in specific areas may be chosen for additional training to join one of Pentex’s more specialized First Teams.

Teams[]

Every First Team has a corporate designation and purpose according to organizational charts. Most teams go wherever Pentex sends them and follow whatever orders they’re given. General purpose First Teams fulfil a variety of roles including direct combat, sabotage, or VIP protection. Most troops never progress beyond generalist duties, but those who show ability in specific areas may be chosen for additional training to join one of Pentex’s more specialized First Teams.

Assault Teams inflict the heaviest damage on the enemy by bringing overwhelming firepower — supernatural or mundane — to bear on the enemy. Fomori comprise the bulk of Assault Teams; few humans can survive the collateral damage of the assaults, and most don’t have the required psychotic mindset to inflict the levels of wanton carnage expected from these teams. Those few who do are rightly regarded as exceptional even by their fomor teammates.

Ranger Teams specialize in moving unseen and inflicting devastating surprise attacks on the enemy. They scout areas to map enemy locations and strengths, explore corporate interests for takeover possibilities or disloyalty, and hunt and kill rogue Pentex employees — including escaped fomori. Rangers train for infiltration and tracking, information-gathering, sabotage and assassination. They favor humans for their flexibility and ability to blend into hostile environments, but fomori with camouflage, persuasion or other subtle powers also suit ranger duties.

Retrieval Teams are sometimes confused with Rangers — the key difference is Retrievers bring things back alive. They train for stealth, infiltration, and quick and quiet murder the same as Rangers, but also include neutralizing and transport of almost any kind of cargo. To understand the best ways of isolating and incapacitating targets, Retrieval Teams study psychology, medicine and scientific skills as well as combat techniques. Other First Teams treat Retrievers with disdain, making them more insular and self-reliant than other teams. Retrievers nurture this as they could be called on to hunt and capture their fellow troops at any time, to almost certainly face painful interrogation and death. The focus on cerebral skills means humans are often better suited to Retrieval Teams than fomori.

The Retriever’s isolation and psychological knowledge gives them the best chance to see through Pentex’s lies and manipulations. Retrievers know the company watches them carefully — every team has a detailed file on another Retrieval Team from some other Pentex location, and a plan to capture that team should it ever go rogue. Every Retrieval Team knows that somewhere, Pentex has a team studying them and planning against their betrayal.