Riot Control Corps

The Riot Control Corps, or simply, Riot Control (RC), are one of three police forces patrolling the country of Cyberia under authority of the ASC Department of Defense. They are regarded as the most aggressive and the most heavily armed on average of the three police forces. In military circles, they are seen as the grunts of the DoD; the strongest troops of the Antarctic State Military.

RC is commonly compared to foreign SWAT organizations, and sometimes even compared to a long-since dissolved agency known as the US Marshal Service. Indeed they are, officially, the middle ground between the common policemen and what is considered the army. Though even with this in mind, they are usually seen as the most aggressive division of the State Military as a whole, mostly because they are altogether actively engaged in more confrontation than any other division, due to the country's semi-isolationist tendencies in regards to other nations.

Riot Control's perpetual goal is to protect civilians and military assets whilst in very close proximity to said civilians. They are the ones that weed out criminals who use society to blend in. They achieve this through both reactive and proactive strategies, as well as continuous surveillance. They are commonly seen patrolling high-risk areas including but not limited to airports, government buildings (including prisons), and the immediate vicinity of high-profile individuals affiliated with the military.

History

The name "Riot Control" stems from the first militant police force that was formed before the official founding of the nation. It was formed as a deterrent and a response team to mine worker prisoner riots. They were slowly and unofficially formed around the 1950's as guardsmen who'd specifically keep an eye on the mine workers' actions and potential collusion. At this point of origin, they were not officially known as "Riot Control", rather they were simply military personnel tasked with overwatch. These men were known to be very harsh and violent to the prisoners at the mere hint or accusation of a revolution. Only around the 1990's, was the name "Riot Control" made an officially designated job title within the confines of the Antarctic resource mining circles. This military group was formed in response to a number of attempted revolts that the prisoner mine workers launched against the militaries that held them under thumb, which resulted in several deaths and severe injuries on both belligerent sides. It later became traditional for Riot Control to be the organizers and executioners in firing squad capital punishments, to further deter workers from revolting.

To this day, Riot Control serves both as a deterrent and response to many forms of high crime and rioting, as well as act in response to a multitude of less obvious crimes such as black market activities uncovered by themselves and/or other intelligence agencies.

Duties and Responsibilities

As their name implies, the Riot Control Corps act in response to and as deterrent against rioting of any kind. Though, that is not the only job that they can be ordered to do. In fact, the RC job most commonly seen by civilians is that of a security detail having been designated patrol routes in government buildings that have a disproportionate amount of civilian traffic or close contact. This is opposed to places where military traffic is most common, in which case the Security Forces is usually present instead of RC. Places where RC can be seen on guard and on patrol are airports, court houses, prisons, major military base entrances, crime scenes of shootings, and more.

The second most common job in RC is the operation of government prisons. Similar to their origins, the agency keeps both civilian and military prisoners in line, and quashes conspiracy to commit riots and the rare riot-in-progress. Prison wardens are usually commissioned officers of the Riot Control forces, while enlisted personnel are the prison guards and watchtower overwatch.

A relatively small section of the corps carry out warrants; court orders to seize an item, a person, or in some cases, a life. They take the form of search, arrest and execution warrants. Search warrants are issued when the government wants a house, car, other privately-held property searched for suspected contraband and other illegal items. Arrest warrants are issued when a person is targeted for arrest, usually fugitives, or those who fail to appear before a court or other government-designated time and place. Execution warrants authorize the use of premeditated deadly force on a targeted person, most commonly used on guilty death row inmates, in the pursuit of capital punishment, in which the target is executed by firing squad. Execution warrants are very rarely, if ever, launched against persons without a trial that concludes in a death sentence.

Riot Control can and has been ordered to carry out special duties as well, including armed escorts and convoys, and other operations deemed unorthodox or unprecedented.

Status in Cyberian Society

In Cyberian society, the military surrounds the average civilian both in person and in spirit. "The government" has been synonymous with "the military" since the country's inception. With this in mind, it is worth mentioning that Riot Control is very often regarded as the one 'branch' of the Antarctic State Military that sees the most 'action' and 'conflict' in their jobs. This conflict is well-known to come in the form of Riot Control's responsibilities in weeding out dangerous criminals and conspirators who would otherwise do great harm to the civilian population. This conflict is exclusive to civilian population centers, by virtue of the country's semi-isolationist relations with the globe, thus retaining much of its military in-country and in reserves; and by virtue of the country's extremely harsh climate and landscape making autonomy outside of government assistance virtually impossible, thus greatly easing the responsibilities of units with jurisdiction outside of cities.

The belief that Riot Control is the most dangerous job on average in the military has frequently been used to the division's advantage in recruitment campaigns, public media, and military culture. RCs often wear the macho image as a badge of honor and live a lifestyle that draws attention to it. It has also been used to justify Riot Control's (in)famous physically demanding training, heavy armaments, and particularly aggressive nature all around.

Uniforms

See also: Uniforms of the Antarctic State Military § Riot Control Uniform

RC's special on-duty garb is unique in that they are the only uniform whose regulations mandate the wearing of body armor. Indeed, Controlmen are issued soft body armor to strap to the arms and legs, and hard body armor to wear over the torso and crotch. This armor is then covered by an overdress consisting of a black jacket and trousers, both of which have a number of utility pockets for casket magazines and other hand-sized items. RCs can be easily identified by their black uniform, their obvious armament, and their bulky appearance which is mostly due to their armor plus the insulative clothing. There is also a large-font patch on RCs' upper backs that reads ПОЛИЦИЯ (English: POLICE) in white text and all caps.

Enlisted ranks and warrant officers alike maintain the default ABUs of the State Military when not on armed duty. This is a technicality in the fact that warrant officers have not earned a commission and therefore are not considered commissioned officers. The popular myth foregoing this technicality is that Riot Controlmen don't appreciate the fancy look of commissioned officer uniforms and prefer looking rugged.

Personnel

See also: Cyberian Military Forces § Rank Hierarchy

The Riot Control Corps share all of the ranks that Public Security, Security Forces and the rest of the ASM hold, including the enlisted, non-commissioned officers (NCOs), senior non-commissioned officers (SNCOs), and commissioned officers.

Enlisted: Those holding ranks with an 'E' designation are altogether enlisted. The designation can even be used as a noun. These are the so-called "grunts" of the RC corps, as they are the troops that do the majority of the heavy lifting; the guarding, patrolling, incursions, and other skirmishing in pursuit of the corps' end goal, protection of the people, from within the people.

Warrant Officers: Along with the shared ranks, there are a unique group of officers that only RC employs, called Warrant Officers.

Warrant Officers, before Cyberia's creation, were a group of ranks of the branches of the United States Armed Forces who were highly knowledgeable in their jobs; technical experts. They were granted warrants; requests to stick around and share their knowledge, and thus were promoted to positions of very important teachers tasked to train lower-ranked troops using their extensive and specialized expertise.

Warrant Officers, in the context of the Cyberian Military Forces, are officers of the Riot Control Corps who are tasked with satisfying legal warrants, or target parameters that mark persons, places and/or things for search/acquisition, arrest, or in rare cases, execution. These tasks are carried out by ranks of WO-1, WO-2, and WO-3 respectively, as shown. Warrant officers are expected to command a squad of two to fifteen enlisted in the pursuit of their given warrants.

Search, arrest, and execution warrants are not required to be written on paper, and are issued by the Criminal Records Office and Warrant Service (CROWS) of the Department of Justice.

Commissioned Officers: Commissioned officers are those of superior rank to enlisteds and warrant officers. They form the managerial section, as opposed to being field troops. Commissioned officers compile and analyze the intel and data that enlisteds and warrant officers gather out in the "field", among other intel and data relinquished to RC by other ASM departments and organizations, and determine the next best move(s) for the corps to make.

Being of superior rank above warrant officers, commissioned officers give orders to their lesser-ranked brethren through legal warrants; official documents outlining parameters for the search/acquisition, arrest, or possibly even execution of physical targets, whether they be people, places or things.

Recruitment and Training

Recruitment into the Riot Control Corps is considered one of the most physically exclusive out of all job divisions in the ASM. Though it is not explicitly required, RC greatly prefers applicants who are male, at least 20 years of age, at least 6 feet (183 cm) tall, and of the strongman body build (as opposed to the bodybuilder body type). These specifications are preferred as to uphold the reputation of aggressiveness and intimidation RC is known for, and to some extent give surrounding civilians a sense of security.

Applicants are only chosen internally, meaning only from those who have completed state military basic training, or are otherwise already employed by the Unitary Government of Cyberia. Recruits are given further training that is well-known for being much more mentally and physically demanding than basic training.

On the mental end of this training (and arguably the physical as well), recruits are required to go through many serieses of classes on anti-terrorist and homeland security topics and tactics, as well as team-oriented exercises employing these tactics. These classes and exercises include room clearing and building/land reclamation, hostage reclamation, large-scale arresting, implementation of martial law, and more altogether with the anti-riot procedures, otherwise known as 'aggressive peacekeeping'. All of this on top of ensuring the safety of law-abiding civilians.

On the physical hand, recruits are required to maintain a strong build of muscle, enough to carry a specific loadout of RC equipment for a standard amount of time and distance. Along with this, a specific minimum percentage of body fat is required along with the usual maximum percentage.

Beyond physical and mental abilities, in order to complete their weapons training, RC recruits are required to fall victim to a number of non-lethal weapons for the purpose of being knowledgeable in their effects in the event that they must use them on another person someday. Not only are they required to be subjected to these non-lethal weapons, they are also required to resist/block them to a certain degree while in uniform and/or remain an effective soldier while under their effects. The non-lethal weapons involved include pepper spray, tasers, tear gas, paintball markers, batons, and some others.

Tactics

Riot Control uses deterrence strategies most often. This is shown in their embracement and borderline encouragement of the aggressive nature they have been known for. This is also shown in the fact that they adamantly present themselves as very well-armed in not just offensive weaponry but defensive armor and even observational equipment both on the personnel level and the vehicular level. It is no secret that RC seeks to employ taller men who hold and maintain strongman body types, such as to maximize the intimidation factor they present to everyday civilians. Similarly, they usually don't recruit troops who are only just at-age for military enlistment.

RC has been shown to exercise less restraint than their softer policeman counterparts, in the context that they worry less about (non-lethally) roughing up a suspect or suspects when they deem necessary. This is especially true when RC is deployed to areas of active protest. The topic of restraint has been one of constant debate in many circles since the corps' inception.

When patrolling or otherwise on-guard, RC employs a strict "battle-buddy" system, where two troops partner together and stay close to one another as they walk their beats and constantly scan their surroundings through their AR visors. It can be observed that one man of the pair carries mostly less-than-lethal ammunition and equipment (rubber bullets, flash/stun grenades), while the other carries traditional lethal ammo and equipment.

When it comes time to react to a particularly dangerous event, RC's habitual response is to be swift, shocking and overwhelming. There has not been a time in recent memory that RC has been outmatched in terms of armament plus numbers. Interestingly, there have also been times where RC has shown to be more covert and cunning than most would expect of them. This can be attributed to some warrant officers teaching their men less brutish ways of resolving a situation.

Special Equipment

There isn't much equipment that is in use by Riot Controlmen that isn't also readily available for use by other government agencies. However, there are certain specialized accessories that are rarely seen deployed in any agency besides RC. The most obvious of special RC equipment is the AR (Augmented Reality) visor attached to their helmets, of which bystanders cannot see through. Another, less obvious piece of equipment are glove contacts and vest data buses.

Augmented Reality Visor

Main article: Augmented Reality Visors

These visors are a highly bullet-resistant, opaque, matte, and slightly spherically curved tablets of metal, inside of which is a suite of various sensors and imaging equipment. The individual outputs of these sensors are taken in by a relatively simple onboard processing unit, which then outputs its data to a wide-frame monitor. This monitor is what Riot Controlmen view the their surroundings through when on duty. Software embedded in read-only memory overlays pertinent real-time visual information atop the real-life imagery taken in. This is what is known as augmented reality, hence AR visor. Care is taken as to not crowd an RC's visual field such that they can still see clearly despite viewing overlays and pointers.

Just by itself, an RC's visor is capable of displaying time, coordinates, heading, directions to a destination, range to a point within line of sight, and approximate positions of distant gunshots. ARVs are also capable of multispectral imagery, capable of acting as a body camera, an action log, capable of object recognition, facial recognition, and cross-examination with the Identification Bureau.

The ARV sensor package includes the following:

eXtreme Accuracy Accelerometers (XA²s)
Laser rangefinder
Visible Light Cameras (VLCs)
Ultraviolet-Sensitive (UVS) "Starlight" cameras
Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) cameras
Visible Light Intensification (VLI) "Starbright" cameras
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers
Acoustic Level & Positioning Sensors (ALPSes)
Wireless transceiver

The major layers of RC's AR visors ordered from external to personnel-facing are (1) External metal shielding, (2) Sensor & imaging suite, (3) Data buses, memory, & central processing unit, (4) Very high refresh-rate (VHR) monitor.

Glove Contacts & Vest Data Buses

Glove contacts are data interfaces between personnel's gloves and an object that they hold in their hands. This requires specialized contacts to be placed on or built-into objects to interface with, as well as into gloves to send and/or receive data between the contacts. This allows a person to interface with an object at a digital level through physical interaction.

The most common example use of this is in the embedding or layering of accelerometers and read-only memory into and/or onto weapons. The interface contacts for these components are most often placed on the grips of these weapons, with multiple places there for redundancy and error checking purposes.

These glove contacts are connected to potentially any number of other accessories or interfaces through vest data buses (VDBs). These are simply physical wires connecting a person's gloves and/or other digital equipment, usually hidden in and/or under their vest. VBDs can also transmit power at appreciable voltages and currents.

System Integration

The system of weapon-mounted glove contacts, vest data buses, and AR visors extends an RC's visual display such that they can see exactly where their own weapon is pointing at in realtime, and at all times that they are holding onto it. In an RC's ARV, it is displayed to them as a straightforward ballistic arc stemming from the muzzle of their firearm, which can change depending on angle of the firearm and its caliber.

With the ARVs' wireless capabilities (which can be selectively turned on or off or variably powered), visors can exchange encrypted data packets such that information available to one can be securely sent to another. This allows personnel to see where partners' weapons are pointed as well, among other exchangeable information.

A potential plethora of other technologies can be interfaced with ARVs wirelessly or through VDBs or through direct connection, providing a large number of beneficial info for both the individual and the gestalt.

Basic Equipment

Personnel Equipment

Head
- Ballistic helmet, black in color.
- Sometimes a mask to keep the face warm.
Torso
- Thick black jacket with many pockets.
- Plate carrier under jacket with strike plates in front and back.
Arms and Legs
- Simple armor concealed underneath sleeves and pant legs. Thinner and more flexible than strike plates.
Common Weapons Types and Attachments
- Knives — Melee weapon, present on every member of RC. Used only if necessary.
- Handguns — Sidearm, present on every member of RC. Can include stun-revolvers.
- SMGs — High rate of fire, used by close rangers, most common.
- Shotguns — Used by close rangers.
- Automatic rifles — High capacity (45 rounds or more), high rate of fire and intermediate cartridges, used by mid rangers and perimeter guards.
- Sniper rifles — Used by long rangers, quite uncommon to be seen in-person.
- Anti-materiel rifles — Used at checkpoints to forcefully stop rogue vehicles.
- Suppressors — Commonly seen on close rangers, to preserve the hearing of very close civilians in the event of firing their weapon, although supersonic ammunition is still used.
- Less-than-lethal ammunition — Encased in high-visibility blue magazines.
- Lethal ammunition — Encased in high-visibility red (sometimes black) magazines.
- Non-lethal weapons — Weapons intended to incapacitate rather than kill. These weapons include stun batons, flash/stun grenades, pepper spray, tear gas, riot shields, and more.

Personnel Weapons

Members of RC are no strangers to handling weapons that most civilians don't get to see in person very often. The most common of which being the KRISS Vector with Mk1 modular rail system and suppressor. Below is a list of the specific weapons that are commonly outfitted to RC. Do note that this is in fact not an exhaustive list of all possible weapons available to members of RC.

Handguns
- FN Five-seven
- Sig Sauer P320 9mm
- Sig Sauer P320 .45ACP
Sub Machine Guns
- VF VCRB .45ACP w/ rail system & suppressor
- FN P90 w/ suppressor
- PP-2000 w/ 7N31 +P+ & suppressor
Shotguns
- Saiga-12, Benelli Super 90 series and Mossberg 500 series, all with suppressors and many types of shotshells
Automatic rifles
- AS Val and FN SCAR-H
- FAMAS specially chambered in 5.45×39mm
Sniper rifles
- OTs-03 SVU, Mosin-Nagant and VSS
Anti-materiel rifles
- Barrett M82A2
Non-lethal weapons
- Axon TASER X26P
- Flash/stun hand and 40mm grenades.
- Tear gas & oleoresin capsicum spray, hand and 40mm grenades, paintball markers, and shotshells.
- A number of other kinds of shotshells.

Military Vehicles

As is their heavily armed personnel, RC is just as well-known for their operation of military-grade vehicles in their everyday movements. These can be identified separately from proper ASM vehicles by the police cruiser-like paint jobs, lightbars, sirens and train horns. This is also not an exhaustive list of all vehicles available to Riot Control.

Utility Trucks
- Cougar-style MRAP six-wheelers
APCs/AFVs/IFVs
- Heavily modified Stryker-chassis eight-wheelers, including mobile gun systems.
- 2K22 Tunguska (Special purpose)
Helicopters
- Sikorsky family H-60's, including Black Hawk
Tiltrotors
- Osprey-style very-large-transport tiltrotors

Loadouts

Many types of RC loadouts are put together for varying jobs, dependent on multiple factors such as location, vulnerability, and target/objective. Given RC's vast amount of available weaponry and equipment, the number of combinations is practically limitless. In general, individual troops are given one primary weapon, one sidearm, and many secondary items. Below is a list of commonly seen fireteams.

Close rangers — entrance guards, indoor patrolmen, house/building raid teams
- 1 suppressed SMG or suppressed shotgun & 1 non-suppressed handgun of matching caliber (to SMGs)
- At least 150 rounds reserve ammo [SMG], 55 rounds [shotgun], 30 rounds [handgun]
- Flash/stun grenades
- Stun baton
Mid rangers — outer perimeter guards/patrolmen, checkpoint guards
- 1 automatic rifle & 1 handgun
- At least 135 rounds reserve ammo [rifle], 30 rounds [handguns]
Snipers aka long rangers — watchtower/rooftop guards
- 1 sniper or anti-materiel rifle & 1 handgun
- At least 30 rounds reserve ammo [sniper], 30 rounds [handguns]
All troops
- Ballistic helmet
- Torso and limb armor underneath insulative clothing
- AR visors aka HUD visors
- Encrypted radios
- Handcuffs and/or zipties
- Taser
- Pepper spray
- Combat knife