Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Truthseekers, Ziva Khalan.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: General Research Unit (GRU).
Classification: Military intelligence service.
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori, General Devotion, The Inner Circle.
Organization Symbol: Two circles, one inside the other with a horizontal line through both to make it look a little like an eye.
Description: The General Research Unit, more commonly known by its abbreviation GRU, is a branch of the Firemane military responsible for military intelligence and counterintelligence. Organised into various branches, it is tasked with counterintelligence, military intelligence, force protection, electronic and information warfare. Thus it is responsible for detecting, investigating and analysing threats to Firemane Industries and House Kerrigan-Alcori. It has assumed responsibility for communications security, informations systems security and other fields associated with intelligence security management. Thus it is tasked with the protection of Firemane communications networks and information systems. It carries out data collection activities on a broad scale, which for instance involves physically bugging electronic systems.
The agency is treated as a branch of the military. It reports directly to the Firemane General Staff and Lady Siobhan Kerrigan, Firemane's autocratic CEO. Reports are also sent to the Board of Control, though the CEO has the power to withhold information from the board if she deems it necessary. House Kerrigan-Alcori has had issues with infiltrators and traitors in the past, so internal security is an important focus of the GRU's work.
Thus the Truthseekers, an Order of Fire unit of Force-Sensitive investigators, special agents and inquisitors, fall under GRU's umbrella. GRU agents are embedded in Firemane embassies and residencies. The General Research Unit performs counterespionage duties, weeding out spies and infiltrators within the ranks of Firemane and the vassals of House Kerrigan-Alcori. However, they need a warrant from high-up before they can investigate a high level employee, though their usual monitoring activities can uncover things. It is important to have watchers, but even more important to keep an eye on them. The agency keeps a watchful eye on the great houses of the Eldorai Matriarchy, including the royal family, but also on dissident groups such as the Shadow Knights. A special section of GRU is responsible for vetting the members of Siobhan and Tegaea's personal and household staff, including their 'personal attendants'.
GRU has been active on many worlds Firemane operates on or has operated in the past, such as Kaeshana, Tygara, Atrisia and Tephrike. GRU is headquartered on the Arx, but has a presence in various Firemane outposts and stations. In addition, it also maintains listening posts, prison facilities, black sites and research outposts. Large military assets are not assigned to GRU because it is unwise to give the watchers too much power, just in case they use it in ways you do not approve of. Besides, parallel armies make things awkward. GRU has guards to protect its installations, and some Firemane starships have been assigned to it. However, it is not an army.
Unlike say the Imperial Security Bureau of the First Galactic Empire, GRU agents cannot commandeer military assets such as warships or units of soldiers. Nor are GRU members authorised to act as Political Commissars or 'loyalty officers'. Its strength lies in information and precision, not brute force. Likewise, the gendarms who police the inhabitants of Firemane worldships and space habitats answer to a separate chain of command. The same applies to the military police.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Arx Aeternae
Domain: The GRU does not control any fixed planetary domain or lay claim to a certain area. It is present in areas Firemane operates in.
Notable Assets: No major industrial facilities or similar. They are funded by Firemane. The GRU has access to spy satellites though. Moreover, the agency operates a number of safe houses and black sites. A few agents have access to X-70B Phantoms, though these are very rare. Furthermore, the agency can utilise spy ships such as the Prowler and Ferret Class Reconnaissance Vessels. Moreover, the Truthseekers can use the Investigative Reaction Unit as muscle.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: The head of the organisation has the title of Director. From an office aboard the Arx Aternaea, the Director of the GRU controls a small army of special agents and bureaucrats. The Director is appointed by the CEO of Firemane, with input from the Board of Control and the Great General Staff.
The agency has a top-down hierarchy. The Director determines strategic direction and policy, which is passed on to the branches. The head of the agency is assisted by a Deputy Director, who are appointed by the Director. The agency is divided into several directorates, such as Analysis, Operations, Science and Technology, Military Counter-Intelligence, Economic Counter-Intelligence, Signals Intelligence and Communications Interception and the Protective Service. The last is tasked with protecting high-ranking Firemane officials. Other departments include personnel, finances, legal affairs, technical support staff, archives and administration.
Beneath management level the organisation has a network of agents, computer specialists, handlers, informers and black ops operatives. To broaden the scope of its operations,the GRU also works with all manners of contractors. Of course, they are only given restricted access. However, the GRU does not operate in a vacuum. Rather it is part of Firemane's security infrastructure and answers to Firemane's central leadership. Officially, it is a department of Firemane High Command. Firemane Vice President Kaylah Danton takes an active role in supervising GRU and often receives reports from it due to her background in MICO, the defunct Omega Protectorate's intelligence service. The Board of Control has a sub-committee charged with keeping an eye on the intelligence services.
Membership: While they will use anyone considered reliable and useful as a source or informant, becoming a real member of the GRU is a difficult process. Obviously its intended purpose for a recruit makes a big difference in when and how someone is inducted, as a bureaucrat or analyst will face different challenges than a field agent. Many members of the group are recruited from Firemane's forces, especially field agents or black ops operatives. The GRU also actively recruits persons of interest to act as spies or agents of influence. The agency maintains its own academy to train agents. It employs several slicers and electronic warfare specialists. Members of another branch of Firemane's armed forces can also apply for a transfer to the agency if they possess the required skills. New recruits to the organisation are required to complete the standard training programme of the military.
The agency maintains its own cadre of Force-Sensitive operatives, who are recruited via the Order of Fire, Firemane's Force-using branch. Most Force-Sensitive GRU agents are specialists who lack flashy powers but are highly skilled interrogators, snipers, pilots, telepaths or stealthy infiltrators. Most are proficient in using the Force to enhance their memory. Few of them have any notable skill with a lightsabre or the Core Powers. In addition to the Truthseekers, the GRU also has the Tecuanimeh, an order of Xioquo assassins, at its disposal. All GRU agents undergo a thorough screening process to weed out the disloyal and potential infiltrators. Senior agents with a high clearance level and black ops operatives must go through a ruthless mental battery with Order of Fire mentalists to learn how to steel their minds against mental manipulation and intrusion.
When it comes to recruitment, there are no racial or gender barriers. However, the agency has many Falleen employees. Their natural resistance to mind tricks and ability to emit pheromones make them skilled interrogators or spies. Epicanthix and Toydarians are also valued due to their natural unconscious talent for shielding themselves from Force-based mental manipulation, while Clawdites and Shii'do are sought for as infiltrators, commandos and field agents. Despite their obvious skills as infiltrators, GRU is reticient about utilising HRDs. The reason for this can be found in Siobhan Kerrigan's personal experiences. Siobhan fought in the Clockwork Rebellion and later had to contest with the organic-hating duo of Maelion Liates and Moira Skaldi, two murderous HRDs who targeted her for assassination and stole a sample of her DNA to create a clone.
Climate: As can be expected from an organisation like this, the GRU has a strict and formal working environment. Daily life in it is defined by rules, regulation and secretiveness. Members are expected to adhere to security protocols, especially regarding confidential matters, such as those labelled top secret. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations that goven the GRU can be punished with various forms of penalties, depending on the severity of the offence. They can range from a simple written or verbal notice, demotion, reassignment, court martial or, in the most extreme cases such as treason, capital punishment. However, there are no random purges, 'accidents' or similar. Broadly speaking, it is like working in any corporate or military environment that requires a high security clearance.
Reputation: Varies, as it is a clandestine agency. The galaxy is huge, so many people would not know about. For those that do it depends on their opinion of Firemane. Within Firemane opinions can vary. Some have no strong feelings on the agency, others see it as a necessary institution and no different from other agencies of this nature employed by other corporate entities and governments. Firemane operates on a galactic scale and has many far-flung outposts. So there plenty of people within its power structure who might have never heard of the GRU or only possess a basic understanding of what it does. Naturally there are those who are distrustful of it, believe it is too intrusive and lacking in transparency. The clandestine nature of many of its activities has provided ample fodder for conspiracy theories, ranging from the possible to the plain absurd.
Curios: Members of the GRU receive identification chips and unique code cylinders in order to identify themselves and receive access to locations, systems and so on. A tamper-resistant Ghost-Wave Communicator is often issued to agents.
Rules: The agency regards itself as an instrument of Firemane policy and of House Kerrigan-Alcori. Secrecy is paramount. Cover identities must be maintained. It is a matter of principle not to blather about one's work. Loose lips sink ships and so they must be silenced. Trust is good. Control is better - and real control is surgical. It interferes only when necessary. One must always remain vigilant against the enemy withing as well as the enemy without. Above all, members of GRU are expected to do what must be done to ensure the security and continued prosperity of Firemane, which is regarded as a progressive force of order in an uncertain, chaotic Galaxy.
The organisation dislikes cowboys, maverichs and mindless sadists, but its ethics are consequentialist and utilitarian. If it is believed that the ends warrant it, GRU interrogators will resort to what is euphemistically called enhanced interrogation and coercive techniques. The organisation shirks the limelight. Flamboyant operatives who race around in luxury speeders and cause huge explosions are held in disdain because they are seen as unprofessional. Members of GRU do not wear fancy uniforms that make them stand out from other members of the armed forces. The group wants steady professionals who can do their jobs with minimal fuss, not showoffs who are attracted by dreams of fame, glory and glamour. Members of the agency sign non-disclosure agreements.
Goals: To ensure the security of Firemane, obtain valuable information and detect, analyse and eliminate threats. Also expand its influence and increase its budget, like every bureaucratic organisation.
MEMBERS
Ziva Khalan. Ziva received her education at the court of a Falleen noble family. Deeply cynical and detached, she is a clinical, precise woman. In her youth she was a pawn in the struggle for power between competing noble families on her homeworld. Manipulated by her teacher, she had to witness the destruction of her family at the hands of its rivals. After poisoning him, she fled to learn the ways of the Force. One day she returned to exact vengeance. But rather than claim her inheritance, she left Falleen behind after she had got her revenge. Having worked with many groups, she eventually ended up with Firemane. Now she runs the Truthseekers, a special branch of the GRU.
She and Colonel Kuwahara, do not get on. Ziva is a very precise, clinical, exact person. She respects discipline and self-control, and looks down on more openly passionate persons who cannot keep their emotions in check. Like with all Falleen, she is able to exude extremely powerful pheromones. However, she does not use them to seduce others into her bed and satisfy sexual urges, but very scientifically to gain an advantage. She is in fact asexual.
Her view of sentient beings is a grim one: "Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him." There is nothing more seductive than freedom, but nothing more burdensome either. In fact, people are all too eager to find someone they can hand over the freedom they were born with so that they can escape the responsibility that comes with it. That is why sentients prostrate themselves before altars and are anxious to find ideas, religions or leaders to worship. People crave an authority to submit themselves to, though they will shirk any responsibility the moment their idols fail. Ziva is a follower of the Dark Side, though she has charted an independent course outside of the holy wars between competing Force cults. She does not care for religious crusades. Instead she treats the Force as a source of strength. In that regard her outlook is rather secular.
Mikako Kuwahara: Kuwahara is a Firemane Colonel and the Director of the GRU, a branch of the Firemane military responsible for military intelligence. Hence it is responsible for detecting, investigating and analysing threats to Firemane Industries and House Kerrigan-Alcori. In this capacity, it is also tasked with the protection of Firemane communications networks and information systems. The agency is treated as a branch of Firemane's military.
Kuwahara reports to the Chief of the Great General Staff and Siobhan. Reports are also sent to the Board of Control, House Kerrigan-Alcori has had issues with infiltrators and traitors in the past, so internal security is an important focus of the GRU's work. The agency needs a warrant from high-up before it can investigate a high level employee, though its usual monitoring activities can uncover things. Vetting the members of Siobhan's personal household and conducting black operations also falls under GRU's purview.
All this makes Kuwahara an important figure, although officially she is only a field grade officer. The Atrisian spook is very aggressive in expanding the agency's jurisdiction into areas. Her understanding of what constitutes its mandate is rather broad. She is capable of mastering a complex brief and a good manager, but very ambitious. Kuwahara is a rather suspicious woman, as can be expected from a spook. She has a commitment to order, a penchant for secretiveness and a fixation on traitors and spies. Moreover, she has an inner drive to perfection in her profession and in her work.
She has been described zealous with an authoritarian mind set. Making use of dirty tricks is part of her repertoire. Kuwahara has a poor working relationship with Devotion, who strongly dislikes the 'whiteshirt'. In this capacity, she also supervises the Truthseekers, an investigative division composed of mentalists. This makes Ziva Khalan her subordinate. Of the two, Kuwahara is more of an idelogue, while Ziva is the more cynical. The Atrisian subscribes to the dogma of enlightened technocratic despotism, rule by competent professional experts. Unsurprisingly, she is not the most popular figure in Firemane. Kuwahara only rarely does field work, but is a good pistol shot and has significant technical skills.
Her outlook on the world has been shaped by her experiences in the Atrisian Empire. Atrisia reached for the stars, trying to reclaim the glory of the long-dead Galactic Empire. However, this ended in defeat and Atrisia endured repeated invasions and foreign occupations. In those days she was an officer of the Imperial Security Bureau, the Empire's state security agency. Among other things, she worked in the Surveillance and Internal Affairs branches, investigating cases of sedition and crimes against the state.
She had success turning dissenters into double agents through bribery or blackmail. However, Madeline's purges alienated her and she defected. After a Firemane unit turned traitor and defected to the enemy during the Battle of Kaeshana, Firemane carried out a thorough screening of its employees. Kuwahara was an agent who spearheaded the investigation. Feeling dissatisfied with the performance of her intelligence team, Siobhan ordered a shakeup. This led to the foundation of the GRU.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The General Research Unit was founded at the behest of Siobhan Kerrigan in the aftermath of the Battle of Kaeshana. During the course of the battle, a group of Firemane soldiers turned on their comrades, defecting to the enemy. While their desertion occured relatively late - in the midst of Firemane and Alliance troops - and thus did not affect the outcome of the fight, it alerted Siobhan to the danger posed by traitors within the ranks.
Her suspicions grew when Tarissa Cadalthor, an Eldorai Duchess who had once been her ally, tried to exploit the negative outcome of the battle. After returning to Tygara, the Duchess instigated anti-foreigner riots, blaming foreigners in general and Firemane in particular for the defeat. Her goal was to rally the mob and the Eldorai nobility so that she could seize the throne. Her plot was foiled when Firemane and Eldorai soldiers uncovered evidence of her activities. To make a point, Lady Kerrigan personally executed Tarissa in front of the entire Eldorai Council of Nobles, then warned them not to cross her.
Lady Kerrigan announced the creation of the agency at a meeting with her Military Council a day after Tarissa was put to death. The Board of Control, Firemane's nominal ruling group, was informed of her decision later, which may say quite a bit about Siobhan's perception of this body. Apart from the aforementioned events, Siobhan and her wife Tegaea had been confronted by the threat posed by Sith infiltrators in the past, namely the Sith Assassin Kaelin Isandros.
Feeling dissatisfied with the performance of her present intelligence team, Siobhan ordered a shakeup. At first the GRU's remit was limited to investigating the events surrounding the Battle of Kaeshana and carrying out a thorough screening of Firemane employees. Where allegations of treason, Sith sympathies, corruption or hostile associations seemed to have substance, cases were heard by the Star Chamber. This was a military tribunal that convened in closed session and whose members were appointed by Siobhan.
However, the GRU's duties soon expanded. It did not take long for the new agency to assume responsibility for military counterintelligence and internal security. It also assimilated the the Truthseekers. The agency received an energetic director in form of Colonel Mikako Kuwahara. The Atrisian spook was very aggressive in expanding the agency's jurisdiction. Her understanding of what constitutes her mandate is rather broad. However, foreign espionage remained separate from the GRU. In order to give the GRU and the Truthseekers some muscle, a special task force called the Investigative Reaction Unit was founded. It could carry out surveillance operations and conduct of arrests.
To enhance coordination - and perhaps impose a check on the Atrisian's ambition - Lady Kerrigan appointed a senior Truthseeker, Zhiva Khalan, to GRU's leadership body. It was probably no coincidence that the Atrisian and the Falleen disliked each other. Ziva was an active participant in the post-Kaeshana cleanup by questioning Firemane employees suspected of hostile associations or acts prejudicial. Lieutenant Cross, a Firemane black ops team leader, was enlisted to assassinate the Duchess of Caladan, an Eldorai aristocrat who had belonged to Tarissa's clique. Thus the agency began to assume shape.
Due to recent events, it kept a watchful on the Eldorai royal court, especially House Cadalthor. Although the new duchess Vaena Cadalthor had agreed to pay a very high indemnity to Firemane and wanted to make a break with the reactionaries that dominated her family, Lady Kerrigan strongly distrusted her. Viewing the young, inexperienced duchesss as a weak puppet who would not last long, she instructed GRU to prepare a contingency plan to eliminate the Cadalthors should they become a problem again. In addition to monitoring, the organisation also recruited agents from amongst the members of Eldorai royalist and dissident groups.
The agency went so far to put the duchess and other members of the house under surveillance and attempt to intercept their holonet communications. Moreover, operations were launched to gather intelligence on revolutionary and reactionary Eldorai organisations, including the Shadow Knights and the Society for the Propagation of Ashira's Grand Design and Her Shining and Blessed Path. GRU tried to utilise subversion to weaken and discredit these groups. In one instance, GRU set up a fake anti-Firemane, anti-Venari Dynasty Eldorai rebel organisation in order to attract and identify real radicals and ultranationalists. This was codenamed Operation Trust. However, some of these operations backfired, spawning threats to Firemane.
Aside from warding Firemane against spies and infiltrators, it also took an active role in counterinsurgency operations on Tygara, dealing with Xioquo and Qadiri insurgents. Among other things, the information it acquired helped foil an assassination attempt on Queen Liavondra of the Xioquo. Moreover, the agency set up a division to develop and apply advanced technology that could be used to enhance the security of Firemane, such as spy satellites and modern communications technology. In the aftermath of the Incursion Event, GRU sought to salvage and reverse-engineer Contingency tech. Moreover, agents were dispatched to worlds Firemane had an interest in to embed themselves and acquire information.
The agency suffered a setback when it was caught offguard by the sudden outbreak of a zombie virus in Serenade, an island on the tropical planet of Arkas, a world Firemane operated on. This was a black mark against the director. A joint Firemane/Eldorai force that had been sent to investigate the island after losing contact with the inhabitants found itself assaulted by unusually intelligent zombies, who were able to turn the local defence systems against their builders. Ultimately, the much diminished task force knocked out the settlement's AA defences, enabling Firemane to eliminate the undead by bombing the island. The fact that GRU had been unable to predict this threat was a black mark against the director, though it took a leading role in quarantining the island.
More recently, GRU played an important role in the Exodus from Tygara. With the help of Firemane ark ships, the elves moved into space in search of new homes. Obviously Firemane had to take precautions. So GRU was charged with ensuring that reactionary 'troublemakers' were 'put aside', isolated or banished. GRU has increased its presence on the space habitats to monitor things. Lady Kerrigan has been expanding their ranks with space elves to ensure that she is kept abreast of things, so that measures can be taken if rogue elf factions fight each other or try to sabotage or steal Firemane vessels. Thus for the short term GRU strives to create an information network among the exodites Firemane has assumed responsibility for.
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