HEAVY INDUSTRIES.. HEADQUARTERS:   Tokyo, Japan REGIONAL OFFICES:   Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and various other Japanese cities. NAME AND LOCATIION OF  MAJOR SHAREHOLDER:   Nomo Yamazaki 27.5% Tokyo, Japan  EMPLOYEES: World Wide: 40,000 Troops: 1000 Covert: 200

2005, Hiro Kitahara stared in disbelief at the photographs strewn before him. The room stood completely silent. Shocked board members bowed their heads and looked away, pretending not to notice the completely obvious. Nomo Yamazaki stared coldly at Kitahara as he studied the pictures. In his late 20s, Yamazaki was a handsome man. His hair was slicked back with the precision of an artist, and his flashy designer suit fit him as if it were a second skin.

"I've dealt with you sokaiya before and I've never come out the loser." Said Kitahara. "I don't intend to start today."

The sakaiya were a sort of spin off group from the Yakuza. Their modus operandi is to go into the boardroom, threaten to expose some sort of scandal and then collect a hefty payment. Yamazaki cracked a smile. Kitahara was famous for dodging payments to sokaiya and getting away with it.

"I'll do you a favor." Said Kitahara as he adjusted his glasses and pulled out his checkbook. "You take this ¥100,000 and we'll call it even. Deal?"

"I'm not here for your money Kitahara-san."

"Then just what is it you want?"

Yamazaki paused for a second, and then looked Kitahara right in the eye.

"I want Shinjuku Heavy Industries."

At that, the whole room looked up in shock. Kitahara was taken aback. There he sat, in disbelief at what this man was saying. He would be damned if he'd ever give up his company to some snot nosed chimpu!

"This is preposterous!"

Yamazaki heard the faint click of a safety as the huge bodyguard behind him readied his weapon. He decided he wasn't going to wait around for the bodyguard to make the first move, so he reached for his Arasaka WSA. With blinding speed he whipped around and pumped three shells into the unsuspecting guard. As the bodyguard slumped dead against the white marble wall, he turned his attention to Kitahara.

 "I dislike violence Kitahara-san."

Kitahara was white as a ghost, and he was losing his composure quickly. Suddenly, Yamazaki lowered the gun and blasted two rounds into Kitahara's leg, shattering his kneecap. Kitahara fell to the ground screaming. The other board members sat still like statues, too paralyzed with fear to move.

"As I said, I want your company." Said Yamazaki as he through down a piece of paper and pen in front of the agonizing CEO. "By signing this, you are signing all of your stock over to me. I'll expect it on my desk in the morning. If its not there, then I come back for your other leg."

And with that, Nomo Yamazaki walked calmly out of the boardroom.

The next morning Yamazaki walked through the front door of Shinjuku Heavy Industries as the CEO.

When Shinjuku Heavy Industries was founded in March of 1999, it was a small firm with one modest office and one small factory in Tokyo. At the time, Shinjuku specialized in the manufacture of heavy machinery for use in the construction industry. The company took off for a while, but by early 2002 it was already facing financial difficulty. The problem was that although it's products were of high quality, Shinjuku lacked the capital to stay in a market heavily saturated by corporate giants like Mitsubishi. The previous year, Shinjuku had invested hundreds of millions of yen into a project headed by Dr. Katzu Ito called the "linear frame." The linear frame would basically be a powered exoskeleton with an advanced bio-feedback system. This would allow workers to lift and carry extremely heavy materials on their own. Unfortunately, this project was shelved when the troubles started to hit in 2002.

In early 2005 a young sokaiya (sort of like Yakuza, but specializing in extortion) named Hiro Yamazaki decided it was time for a career change. He decided that he wanted his own company, but he knew he had no capital to start a business. He'd just have to take one instead. After months of careful research he stumbled across Ito's linear frame program. He figured that if it was refined and marketed correctly, it could become one of the most important innovations the construction industry has ever seen. The following month he took Shinjuku Heavy Industries by force, and reinstated Ito's linear frame program. By early 2006 the first working model was unveiled at a Tokyo construction technology convention. It was a huge success, and in the first year of Hiro Yamazaki's leadership, the company doubled in size and it's profits grew exponentially.

Since 2005 Shinjuku has been one of the forerunners in products related to the linear frame. The most notable of these is of course the powered armor. Shinjuku was the first company to introduce the powered armor for construction use, and has a huge catalogue of suits ranging from underwater construction units to orbital construction units.

In 2017 Yamazaki started the "Special Projects Division" to handle the design of military APCA. Since this time Shinjuku has become the most respected authority on APCA for covert ops. It should be noted that Shinjuku holds all contracts for military and police APCA in the country of Japan.

MAIN PRODUCTS

Shinkuku's chief product is the powered armor (and is increasingly becoming the military covert APCA). This section will outline only APCA and APCA inovations related to military or police use. It can be assumed that Shinjuku's non-military catalogue is huge, and that a suit for any work condition is available.

NEW APCA OPTIONS:

Riot Armor
Since most of the suits that Sinjuku produces are built light for stealth and mobility purposes, they tend to be more lightly armored than most APCA suits. While this is usually ok for operations against soft targets, there are times when a trooper needs a little extra armor. This is where "riot armor" comes into play. Riot armor is basically an oversized ballistic vest fitted for APCA. It usually comes in sections, with a main vest which covers the torso and smaller pieces which are used to cover the forearms, or in some cases the legs. Riot armor is affixed with heavy-duty quick release straps, so it can be ditched in a matter of seconds. Torso armor will impose an encumbrance value, but the arm and leg pieces are generally encumbrance free. It is available in the following classes. 

Shinjuku "Ghost" Finish - 75,000 EB
This is the pricier cousin of the Mirage finish, is based on Militech's "Ghostsuit." This finish uses multi-faceted fiber-optic digitization in order to totally mimic the suit's environment (remember Predator?). Observers are at -4 to see the wearer if still, and -2 if moving. There is an additional -1 for every 10 meters between the wearer and observer. This finish is even more expensive than the last, and is rarely seen on anything but the most specialized covert-ops suits.

APCA HALO Parachute - 2,500 EB
This option grew out of the need for vertical insertion of covert APCA units. Each chute must be custom fited for each APCA. When using the parachute make a REF + PA Pilot > 15 to land in the target area. By each point the roll is missed by, the APCA deviates 10 meters in a random direction (use grenade table).

NEW APCA

SHINJUKU HEAVY INDUSTRIES TYPE-S
The TYPE-S, in its various forms has been the standard APCA unit for Tokyo's C-SWAT since 2018. The growing number of cyberpsychos as well as heavily armed terrorists and Yakuza has given rise to a new era of violence in the Tokyo area. The TYPE-S was introduced in order to safely combat this menace. Its light weight and high mobility makes it a perfect SWAT suit. The TYPE-S is frequently used in police sponsored anti-terrorist operations, as well as in high-risk raids. It has been instrumental in the raids on the heavily fortified drug factories of the Tokyo Bay area. The TYPE-S is easily customized, and individual police departments often do so (see right). 

SHINJUKU HEAVY INDUSTRIES TYPE-31H "Tigershark"
The TYPE-31H is one of Shinjuku's newest military models. The Tigershark's role is a unique one as it is one of the few aquatic suits on the market. It can handle underwater combat, but that is not it's true forte. With the growing number of underwater facilities and the submersible craft that came with them, there was an increased need for a covert suit that could handle underwater insertion and underwater combat. The Tigershark was the answer to this call, and has become the pace-setter of underwater suits. Its most popular use by far has been in the field of submarine entry. The Tigershark is able to handle the extremes of the deep sea much longer then the human diver and can lie in wait if it knows the path the sub will take. A month after this suit was introduced, it made it's combat debut, when a Tigershark of unknown origin and a team of two divers infiltrated Petrochem's Submerged Drilling Project (SDPR) off the coast of Alaska. In a total of 10 minutes the SDPR crew was massacred and Dr. Lance Brenon, a renown scientist, was kidnapped. This event has been hailed as the world's first deep-sea extraction. 

⁺ Same as C6 Spray, only in a waterproof gel form.
 
 

SHINJUKU HEAVY INDUSTRIES TYPE-2C "Shinobi"
The TYPE-2C is Shinjuku's premier covert-ops suit, and despite its expense, it is used extensively by the richer corporations and governments. The "Shinobi" has seen a great deal of media attention as it has been used in several high profile assassinations in Japan as of late. Public Security Section 9 is believed to be involved as it is one of the major purchasers of TYPE-2C units in Japan. The Shinobi is well suited for covert-ops in a variety of environments. Its small size and light weight come in handy in urban environments as well as jungle and desert environments. The unit can be customized in several ways, and variations range from expensive to extremely expensive. The base (B) model comes equipped with "Mirage" finish and a suppressed version of the Towa 15mm SMG. The intermediate (I) model comes with "Ghost" finish and is equipped with the 15mm SMG and an APCA Sniper System (+55,000 EB). The advanced (A) version comes with all of the below and an ECM suite (+500,000 EB). All versions can be fitted with Riot Armor and the APCA HALO System. 

Written by: pminor@pacificnet.net

Images stolen from Megazone 23, Madox-01 and Patlabor (and yes, I do know that "labors" are supposed to bigger than what I'm making them out to be.)