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| The Osaka Twins The Yakuza, or Zaibatsus, or whatever you want to call them, bumrushed the West Coast Mafia when General Kawanaga parked his battalion on the Golden Gate bridge and said "Mine!". The Italians generally had their hands full with the crazy Ruskies, and vice versa. So when the corporate funded Zaibatsus stepped in with a thousand Imperial Marines watching the streets protecting "Japan's Assets" you can bet who won. Some would argue that the infection of the Japanese Zaibatsu was stopped cold in its tracks in Detroit when the rabid American-Loving public (not to mention the black sheep of the Yakuza, the Seoulpa Rings) kicked them out, but I'd like to think that here is where they really stopped. Perhaps from being too fat off their riches. The Zaibatsu's are of wide girth and large appetites in the Treaty City, so best watch your mealtickets. Now, the structure of the Zaibatsu's is a little different to what many Godfather fans are used to. There's not really the Don, and the Underboss, and the made men and underlings. Its a bit different. Infact, the Zaibatsu's (I use this and Yakuza interchangably) are more like a corporation than a gang. And like any modern day corporation, they're all trying to one up each other. You see, chums, the Osaka Twins were originally the Osaka triplets, three businessmen from (Duh) Osaka, Japan, who came in just after the first boatload. They ripped along the West Coast with their Zaibatsu buddies, devouring everything. Good times, there was always more to conquer. So once the Osaka Triplets got enough assets together, they made a joint bid and split from their counterparts, aiming to stake a claim in Denver. Unfortunately, when they got there, they found Aspanu had a head start on them and a lot of SanFransisco stragglers had swollen his ranks. The battle here was bloody, especially so because not only were they fighting each other, but their ranks were turning on on another at the same time, sometimes planned by the opposition, sometimes not. A couple of clever ploys by Aspanu using the Mexicans (and Aztech) cause the Osaka Triplets to gang up on each other. Of course, two on one fighting can only last so long before someone gets hurt, and in the end one of the Triplets was assassinated via a nasty little drug hidden by some carcerands. Neither of the surviving two admitted to bumping him off, even though it was clearly an inside job. Not that it mattered, they both absorbed the dead guys assets and now there's a balance of power, with no third party to gang up on the other. So three became two, and the Oaska Twins have pretty much carved a healthy chunk out of the FTZ. Yakuza personell in general are given better technological support, the Zaibatsus supply higher grade tech to them, so their heavies are more than likely to be fast /and/ heavy. Not a good combination for the street meat. The Osaka Twins have been cooperating mostly in recent times, and their joint efforts are geared primarily towards vices...mainly pharmacueticals and chips. This alone brings them in quite a chunk of cred, and between them they control about half of the FTZ's drug and chip trafficking. They also do matrix work, and have been raising a healthy stable of deckheads inside their own ranks, eliminating the need to hire freelance deckers for their jobs. Be warned, the better deckers in the Zaibatsu's rate with the best in the biz, mainly because they've got some pretty sharp gear and arent shy about using it. Finally, they also hire their muscle out to third parties...somewhat mercenary. Sort of like contracting Knight Errant to protect your shipment, but with less paperwork. |
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