Saru Hen'i-Tai

SHT is a freakshow, and even the rest of the special forces for To'a know it, they avoid the division if at all possible. It's commander, Lt. General Kato, prefers it that way. The SHT, the 'Mutant Apes', are truly bizarre and horrific soldiers that Kato and his pet scientists have created, and they use them in throw away missions. Why he has such freedom, and suffers no consequences for his actions bothers many. It is wise to keep such things to yourself. The Emperor himself has granted Kato personal audience several times, as well as having bestowed on him the Defender of Yamato medal, and the Order of the Chrysanthemum. Kato can do anything he pleases, and he knows it. The cocky bastard.

Kato, Defender of Yamato

Lt. General Kato is a large and imposing man with dark hair, a steely gaze, and an air of power and confidence. He is without a doubt a patriot of Nippon, and a devoted servant of the Emperor. Most of his record and files are sealed, but it is known that he served for nearly a decade with the Imperial Navy, and then another decade in the Diplomatic Corps. After that, he started working in the intelligence and special forces divisions, and his record completely vanishes.

Kato carries the Emperor's favor, but he is chased by ghosts. You can see them, in his face, when he is tired or lets his guard down. He has done terrible things for the homeland, and only he knows how many have died at his hand, at his order, both enemies and allies alike. That's the dangerous thing about patriots and heroes, they will do what they think is right, regardless of how many men and women they send to their deaths.

The Nekkikyu Kawashima

The Nekkikyu Kawashima is one of the few aerostats floating above Nippon, and is currently situated above the Hiroshima Arcoplex. The complex houses a few dozen scientists and engineers, Kato and his personal staff, and the barracks and other facilities for Kato's 'Mutant Apes'. The facility itself is registered as scientific/industrial with biological and military applications. As the aerostat sits at fairly high altitude, most people give it no mind, there are typically much more impressive things running the straight, like the Red Sun cargo ships, and the ships of the Imperial Nipponese Navy, and rarer Pacific Rim Coalition Ships.

The Hiroshima Memorial Center is a public aerostat that hangs above the city, specifically above the site where the first atomic bomb was detonated against Nippon. The aerostat sits at the point of detonation, making it quite close to the ground, and easily visible from most anywhere in the arcoplex. It is a memorial to not the people who died in the explosion (that memorial is on the ground) but the to defeat of Japan, and the submission of the Emperor, and what many people feel, was the cultural dark period for the home islands. As the islands reemerged as Nippon, with western democracy swept away and the Emperor reinstated, the memorial was raised as a 'Never Again' gesture.

The Saru Hen'i-Tai

Also correctly known as the Mutant Apes, the Saru Hen'i-Tai are a small group of special forces commandos trained for counter-intelligence and clandestine warfare. There are a number of other groups involved in the same area, but the Saru Hen'i-Tai differ in that they are all clones, genetically engineered and grown to purpose for their tasks. The clones are all psychotronically intimated, have cybernetic upgrades and modifications, and are technically not considered reliable. The majority of the Mutant Apes require constant supervision and regular medical monitoring. Their modifications are high.

There are three ranks of augmentation and engineering; Reliable, Sustainable, and Unstable. Reliable augmentations can go weeks or months with nothing but routine upkeep, very similar to visiting the doctor once or twice a year. The majority of augments are required to be Reliable by law. Military and Intelligence ops can circumvent this with more cutting edge augmentations. The Sustainable augmentation requires regular care, typically weekly or every few days, to ensure that everything is optimal. These augments have embedded weaponry, arcanotech implants, parapsychic modifications, and so forth. Unstable augments are the rarest as they require hourly care to keep in functional range. These augments and clones are typically kept in hibernation, hooked to dreaming machines, until they are needed. Then, they are woken, briefed, sent into action, and quickly retrieved.

The Mutant Apes differ the most from all of the other divisions in that all of their clones are copies of other people. The Mutant Apes are dopplegangers and body doubles of powerful, influential, or otherwise important people within Nippon, and a few from without. The majority of these body clones come from former or still serving military personnel, especially those who have accomplished significant things in the name of Nippon or the Emperor. A number are of personal importance to Kato, and are replacements for some of the people that he has lost under his command.

They are biological clones, that is all. Their minds are their own, as they are gestated in the tanks. We don't intimate the minds of those we've cloned. The important thing is physical condition, clarity of mind, purity of soul. The makings of greatness aren't in our experiences but in our DNA and souls. Replicate the body, the spirit will fill it. The Mutant Apes are copies of great heroes, and they will fight for the Emperor and Nippon again, and again, and again.

The Emperor and Kato

Kato and his Saru Hen'i-Tai are one of the Emperor's personal interests. The Mutant Apes push the envelope of what can be done with cybernetics and cloning technology, often to freakish results. The unfreakish outcome of these experiments is Nippon's position as a leader in biogenetics, and the Emperor's ability to influence the very genetics of his sworn people. Nippon's supersoldiers are also superior to the rest of the world's sundry programs, even if their numbers are much lower. Certainly not least, the Saru Hen'i-Tai are exceptional at completing the missions given to them, often moreso the stranger the missions become.