User:NewOriginalSchwann/Sandbox

YELL AT DAVE TO UPLOAD THE IMAGES ONTO THIS ONCE EDITING IS DONE The traditional emblem of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations' security services. The gold represents the police and security personnel shielding the Alliance from danger, while the sun represents the Alliance. The sun is blue to signify that justice views all in a neutral, unbiased light.

Policing and security in the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations is managed by a Byzantine mass of bureaucratic agencies and regulations which, in some cases, date back to the Alliance’s founding in 2140 -- making some Solarian security agencies older than every other human (and most non-human) nations in the Orion Spur. The oldest of these agencies is the massive Solarian Interstellar Policing & Crime Prevention Agency (SIP-CPA), a system-spanning organization with millions of employees that is responsible for coordinating inter-system policing in the Alliance. Other similar agencies include the Solarian Interstellar Security Agency (SISA), a more recent agency formed for the purpose of domestic intelligence, and the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau (SIIB), a much older agency that serves as the Alliance’s highest security authority.

History

The history of interstellar policing and security in the Solarian Alliance is as old as practical human space travel itself, although it only became formally institutionalized with the formation of the Solarian Interstellar Policing & Crime Prevention Agency in 2140. Prior to this point interstellar policing had primarily been carried out by individual countries and organizations based upon on Earth, which had become increasingly impractical as humanity branched out first into the Sol System and then beyond it with the advent of practical warp engines in 2130. The SIP-CPA proved itself to be significantly more effective than the smaller agencies that had preceded it and this success would eventually lead to the founding of its sister agency, the Solarian Interstellar Security Agency (SISA), in 2157.

But these two agencies would eventually find themselves overworked and overtaxed by the rapidly expanding Alliance as the 22nd century ended and the 23rd began. The Alliance’s push to expand its borders had clearly overcome their capabilities by the mid-2220s, requiring the creation of an entirely new agency in 2228: the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau (SIIB), an agency tasked solely with ensuring the security and stability of the Alliance’s distant colonial frontier. Due to the increasingly shaky control of the Alliance over its distant colonies the SIIB was given nearly unlimited authority and almost no oversight in its mission to ensure security and stability, and the Bureau almost immediately turned to what it referred to as “strong methods” in order to ensure loyalty to Sol remained. While the SIIB -- despite its methods -- failed to prevent the outbreak of the Interstellar War and subsequent formation of the Coalition of Colonies it remained active due to its deeply-seeded intelligence networks across the Coalition, effectively proving its usefulness to the Solarian government despite any moral qualms they may have had over its techniques.

Following the Solarian collapse after Violet Dawn the Alliance’s security, policing, and intelligence agencies remain as valuable and important as ever for the now-shrunken Alliance, though they now find themselves scrambling to deal with the aftermath of Violet Dawn even a year later. The Alliance’s security -- and its future -- may very well depend upon them, and none wish to be found wanting by history.

Domestic Agencies

While much of the Alliance’s day-to-day security is managed by local planetary policing agencies such as the Venusian VPPF and Callistean CMPD situations often arise that go beyond the authority a planet or system and require greater authority to resolve, such as issues with piracy and smuggling in the Middle and Outer Rings before the events of late 2462.

Solarian Interstellar Policing & Crime Prevention Agency (SIP-CPA)

“Empires run on information, y’know? Starts at the bottom, then gets funneled up through all the layers until the powers that be can act on it. If you think the only thing the Sippies are doing with that budget and manpower pool is helping planetary cops talk to each other, you’re [censored] delusional.” - Anonymous conspiracy theorist posting on the /sol/ board of 64tan, 2460.

Founded in 2140, the Solarian Interstellar Policing & Crime Prevention Agency (SIP-CPA) is the eldest of Sol’s intelligence agencies, and the one most overlooked by Solarian media. Primarily concerned with rear-echelon administrative and management duties, it lacks the glamor and fame of “field” organizations like the SISA, but loses none of its importance. Without the analysts and number-crunchers of the SIP-CPA its sister branches, and numerous local agencies, would have no reference from which to direct their own talents.

It first and most pertinent duty is to coordinate, assist, and facilitate the operations of planetary and system police forces across the member states of the Alliance. The first of these tasks is the one for which the Agency is most well-known, and it occupies the largest single chunk of its quarterly budget and manpower reserve. Across the Alliance many thousands of clerks, couriers, and routing staff are in constant communication on behalf of their local departments, both within systems and between stars, transmitting case files, wanted notices, and endless quantities of paperwork through the informational spiderweb tying the Alliance's law enforcement agencies together. This focus on coordination also applies to the planetary police agencies of the Alliance, with SIP-CPA coordinators being found in nearly every large-scale joint security operation.

Beyond this primary duty it is responsible for ensuring the Alliance’s member state police forces are up to standard in training, equipment, and in their internal accountability. When a given member state cannot provide sufficient funds to their force it will send supply and material requests up the chain to the Department of Justice, which will fill requests as needed -- though sometimes this replacement material can be old, or out-of-date. Should a department’s performance or behavior prove insufficient, it provides the training personnel and opportunities needed to improve them. And if an officer should betray the law they swore to uphold, it is called to serve as a neutral arbitrator in the case pending referral to judicial authorities. These tasks have given its personnel a somewhat mixed reputation, especially on planets far from the Jewel Worlds, where some independently-minded security forces resist what they see as bureaucratic meddling from the Sol System.

Much less well-known is the SIP-CPA’s third function, that of the largest intelligence-gathering network within the Alliance. Where SISA focuses on targeted investigation and direct action, it instead utilizes a “wide net” strategy of passively acquiring as much information as is possible. Webcrawlers, bugs, and paid informants are only a handful of the methods used by the Agency in the course of its operations outside the public eye. All the while, as is a (legal right of the SIP-CPA, all of the data acquired in partnership with planetary security agencies is dutifully collated, copied, and dispatched to Sol for further categorization and analysis, then distributed back to the same law enforcement agencies through the Inter-Alliance Criminal Information Network (IACIN). While the Agency rarely acts on this information itself, actionable intelligence collated by the SIP-CPA has served as a stepping stone for the other members of the Intelligence Trinity more times than can be feasibly counted.

Outside of Sol it maintains campuses and facilities across nearly every Solarian member world, though with a higher density of infrastructure within the Jewel Worlds. Universally located near command centers of local police units to facilitate rapid communication, SIP-CPA intelligence campuses are typically compact but vertically developed, often including high-rise buildings entirely dedicated to the clerical work which encompasses much of its mandate.

The leader of the SIP-CPA is Director Almir Fazlić. Originally from Novo Igman, Fazlić has led the agency since 2463, when he replaced a Frost-aligned director, and seen it through the upheaval of the Solarian Civil War and its aftermath. A lawyer by training and innately familiar with Solarian federal criminal code, and many local codes, he is a conservative leader who has done little to change the agency's mission and a great amount to ensure its capabilities have remained effective. He was retained by PM Strom after the recent election and is expected to serve as director for the remainder of Strom's term.

Solarian Interstellar Security Agency (SISA)

“Protecting The Nation, Upholding The Law, and Securing The Future.” - Motto of the SISA.

The Solarian Interstellar Security Agency, or SISA, was founded as the “action” counterpart to the SIP-CPA. Where the SIP-CPA performs intelligence gathering and administration on the strategic level, SISA was created with the intent of directly assisting and supplementing Alliance member police forces on the ground. As the only member of Alliance Intelligence Trinity to have official law enforcement authority, it serves at the long arm of Alliance domestic security, operating armed field offices on nearly every world in the Alliance. It holds jurisdiction over the Alliance's federal crimes and maintains both the Solarian Alliance Terror & Extremism Watchlist and the list of the Alliance’s most wanted fugitives.

The most commonly seen units of SISA across the Alliance are its Special Agents, federal law enforcement officers entrusted with the rights to conduct investigations, serve warrants, and make arrests, regardless of Solarian jurisdiction, in the case of federal crimes. They are granted significant legal authority in the pursuit of these objectives, being permitted to install wiretaps, search property without notice but with reason, and assume full control over a case should it be deemed necessary. Crimes which will merit the involvement of SISA include terrorism, large-scale drug trafficking, sapient lifeform trafficking, and serial murder, among several others. As a general rule, an intervention by SISA means that a case is of serious importance to both the local jurisdiction and the Alliance as a whole.

Said intervention is not always appreciated by the local forces SISA is ostensibly supporting and agents have developed a somewhat mixed reputation among the Alliance’s holdings. More Sol-skeptical forces see them as haughty know-it-alls who take command over cases and assert their authority at the expense of the local police unit they are assisting, while pro-government individuals see them as Unity Station stepping up to the task of enforcing the Alliance's federal laws. This issue is further compounded by SISA agents often rotating between posts across the Alliance, leading to a degree of separation existing between them and planetary agencies. While the SIP-CPA strives to smooth over such conflicts wherever they arise, a level of distrust still exists between a number of Middle Ring security forces and SISA personnel.

Like the SIP-CPA, recruiting for SISA agents is a pan-Solarian process, though it places much higher emphasis on physical fitness and practical skills than the SIP-CPA. Once accepted, prospective recruits are transported to one of several expansive training centers within the Jewel Worlds to be educated in the fine art of federal law enforcement. Modeled after the Solarian Navy’s own “Alliance-Wide” system, this method of centralized training is designed to instill loyalty to SISA and the Alliance over one’s homeworld, along with standardizing the training and education of SISA’s personnel. That this method also serves to maintain the gap between SISA and its planetary charges is viewed as an unfortunate necessity in the eternal struggle to guarantee the safety of the Alliance.

The current leader of SISA is Director Andrii Savchuk. Born in New Odesa, Luna, Director Savchuk is a lifelong Department of Justice bureaucrat who became director in 2463 when his predecessor was arrested for public corruption following the anti-Frost coup. He is known to be exacting and demanding in his private and personal life, sleeping very little and spending most of his time at SISA's headquarters in New Odesa, where he is rumored to sleep. Slow to praise, twice-divorced, and quick to criticize anything he perceives as wrong, Savchuk is not a popular man, but is a very effective director: under his leadership SISA has arrested thousands of criminals and handled multiple major domestic incidents, ranging from a major hostage crisis on Visegrad to the capturing of Lycoris' Solarian Restoration Front-aligned governor. He is known to always wear a suit and maintains strict personal grooming standards he has attempted, with some success, to disseminate to the rest of the agency: suits, ties, and cleanly-shaven faces.

SISA - Counter-Terrorism Response Group (SISA-CRTG)

"To Save Lives and Uphold the Law" - CTRG motto.

One of the most decorated and experienced tactical units fielded by SISA, the Counter-Terrorism Response Group (CRTG) specializes in hunting down the most dangerous criminals the Alliance and neutralizing them by any means necessary. It has secured an operational success rate and mission count unrivaled by any other non-military force in the Alliance through a combination of high-end equipment, exacting training standards, and intelligence superiority. It is often said CRTG's trainings are danger-free operations and its operations are dangerous trainings. Over the course of its half-century and counting existence it has proven instrumental in neutralizing major criminal threats across the Alliance, from Martian separatists to Visegradi nationalists to the stay-behind units of the Solarian Restoration Front to triad members in Ton Gwai Pei, New Hai Phong. Despite this record of success it has attracted controversy for its apparent lack of oversight, as the SISA director can make the call on when and where they go in without consulting local authorities -- a measure to guard against insider threats, per the agency -- and a track record of violence towards non-human residents of the Alliance, such as tajara (prior to 2462).

One of its most notable recent operations was its campaign against the Tajaran Revolutionary Army (TRA). Following the New Hai Phong bombings of 2460, which made the TRA the agency's top priority, CTRG was the spearhead of the agency’s subsequent effort to wipe the TRA from the face of the Alliance. Given a blank check by the Frost administration to prosecute and neutralize, “any and all responsible parties,” the CTRG performed hundreds of raids on suspected TRA safe houses and collaborators, often with few arrestees, little evidence, and many bodies. Most of the records for these operations were -- conveniently -- lost in the chaos of the Solarian Civil War, leaving the exact number of casualties unknown, though rumors hold that many of the “terrorist targets” were in reality unaffiliated tajara communities struck as part of the Frost administration’s virulently xenophobic agenda. While very few CTRG operatives sided with the SRF during the Civil War, a widespread purge of its ranks carried out by the provisional government has led some to suspect it was more ATLAS-adjacent than the Department of Justice stated in its 2465 review of the team.

The Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau (SIIB)

"To Grant Freedom Through Truth. - Official motto of the SIIB

Originally created as the SISA and SIP-CPA’s counterpart in the Solarian frontier (now the modern Coalition of Colonies), the SIIB has since become the Alliance’s primary intelligence service for external concerns. As a result of this role the Bureau is shrouded in deliberate secrecy and few outside of it itself, and the higher echelons of the Solarian government, understand the extent to which it operates within other nations -- or within the Alliance itself. While it is known to operate in the Republic of Biesel you should not play an active or former SIIB agent as a non-antagonist on-ship character, as Bureau operatives often work directly against the interests of NanoTrasen and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate.

Due to its role the Bureau has never had significant oversight, which has led to it developing and adopting a variety of quasi-legal methods in order to achieve its ends. These are typically described as its “strong methods,” in official documents released to the public. The “strong methods” the Bureau employs have contributed to its controversial history, which dates back to before the Interstellar War and its original purpose as an organization designed to ensure stability in the Alliance’s colonies. Its shadowy nature has only enhanced the reputation of these strong methods and much of the information on them is still classified, which has led to rumors about what the exact methods used in its interrogation rooms are.

Over the years of its mandate, it has subsumed much of the authority for overseeing Alliance informational security and data classification. The only branch of the Bureau to be granted explicit permission to perform operations within Solarian territory, SIIB-INFOSEC enforces the sanctity of the Alliance’s classified materials, and was responsible for the creation of the Alliance’s modern six-tier data classification system. Unique among the SIIB’s components for its law enforcement authority, INFOSEC is charged with identifying and prosecuting breaches in the Alliance’s data security, both against internal thieves and foreign hackers. They are responsible for maintaining all ROMEO VERMILLION classification material, which is the Alliance's highest level of classification. Reportedly, only a few individuals outside of the prime minister and the SIIB's director are aware of all romeo vermillion material.

Despite the well-known reputation of its interrogation rooms, its primary day-to-day work is centered around gathering intelligence through passive interrogation and observation alongside active infiltrations, which it has become adept at since the Interstellar War. It is rumored to have nearly completely infiltrated the government of the Republic of Biesel on almost every level despite efforts by Biesel’s local authorities to stop and is alleged to have had a hand in many of the crises the young Republic has suffered, up to and including the infamous Clandestine Incident of 2462. The governments of the Coalition of Colonies and Republic of Elyra are said to be similarly infiltrated, as is the nearby Empire of Dominia, where rumored SIIB agents are reported to have met with officers of the Dominian Imperial Intelligence Directorate. While operations in the Human Wildlands by the SIIB have not been officially confirmed by the Bureau or by the Solarian government, rumors of meetings between officials of the SRF, SSMD, and SPG and unknown actors in Solarian-produced ships can be found across social media. While the SIIB's purpose in the Wildlands is not currently known, it is doubtlessly heavily involved despite its lack of official confirmation.

The Bureau’s infiltration efforts do not stop at other human governments and it has influenced non-human governments across the Orion Spur to further Solarian interests, with its skrellian and tajara branches being the most prevalent of its non-human intelligence wings. The SIIB’s Nralakk Federation branch is the eldest and most built-up of its international establishments, having been created shortly after first contact with the Federation in 2332. Cooperating extensively with the Federation’s various Enforcer organizations, the SIIB’s centuries-long relationship with the nation has been extremely productive for both parties, with ongoing intelligence and technology sharing agreements keeping their relations warm. The tajara branch, however, is no longer present on Adhomai, though its influence can still be felt.

The skrellian branch is widely-known throughout the Bureau for its creative approaches to hiding classified information from a psionically-capable species. Bureau facilities (and some facilities that are not affiliated with them at all) are generally aluminium-lined to prevent nlom field interactions within classified areas such as interrogation rooms, and the skrellian branch was responsible for the creation of the first practical mindshield shortly after first contact. While similar corporate mindshields exist, Bureau mindshields are highly-classified and exclusive to the agency itself. Rumor has it that they are capable of turning the psionic energies of a skrell onto the skrell themselves but they, like much of the Bureau, are shrouded in rumors and falsehoods.

While smaller than its counterpart the tajara branch has a long history of clandestine activities on resource-rich Adhomai stretching back to the First Revolution, where it was initially active through the use of long-range observation equipment. The People’s Strategic Intelligence Service, the main intelligence organization of the People’s Republic of Adhomai, was trained by the Bureau until the start of the Second Revolution, with the Bureau’s instructors leaving shortly before the war began. While President Hadii’s assassin was a PSIS agent, and did assassinate him with a rare energy weapon, the Bureau has repeatedly denied that it had any role in the assassination or chaos that followed. With the breakdown of normal relations between Sol and Adhomai the Bureau’s presence on the planet has allegedly lessened yet some on Adhomai still believe it operates in Crevus under the cover of the city’s non-tajara population, still manipulating events on the planet from behind the shadows.

The leader of the agency is Director Shufen Feng, who has led it since 2463. A veteran of the Department of State's Foreign Service Officer Corps, Feng has spent much of her life abroad and was recalled by Frost in 2461, at which point her activities become unknown until she was appointed Director by the emergency government. She was reportedly present on Unity Station during Frost's assassination but has never confirmed if she was present or what she was doing there at the time. Like most SIIB directors Feng is an extremely private woman with little known about her career or private life. What is known of her career -- postings across the Coalition and Elyra as a FSO -- is so unexceptional and dull that it has led to rumors she has always worked for the agency and her entire history is simply a fabrication and cover for one of the first SIIB case officers to become agency director.

Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau - Special Activities Branch

“Your faces have been erased. Your names will be forgotten. Only your deeds will endure,” - SIIB Director Shufen Feng, concluding a speech to a newly inducted cadre of SAB operatives, date unknown.

Charged with utilizing the information acquired by the Bureau for the good of the Alliance, the Special Activities Branch (SAB) is the long arm and closed fist of the Bureau, exerting influence and force abroad. Conducting direct action missions such as raids, sabotage, and targeted killings, it is the paramilitary force of the SIIB and one of the Alliance’s most effective irregular warfare units. The latter speciality also makes the SAB one of the go-to detachments for clandestinely rendering aid to pro-Sol governments and insurgent groups, such as the Alliance’s reported involvement in supporting the Mictlani Samaritans and Founding Movement. It may still be active on Mictlan, though the Alliance has denied these rumors. In any situation where the Alliance wishes to directly and deniably involve itself outside the public eye, the ever-reliable SAB is tasked with addressing the issue.

Though the Bureau has been working in the Alliance for over two centuries, the vast majority of the SAB’s operational records remain heavily classified. Their most notable recent campaign (that is available to the public, at least) remains the Bureau’s participation in the Solarian Civil War. As the Alliance’s central government worked to rebuild itself, its agents were the first to re-establish contact with surviving Solarian statelets in the Human Wildlands, escorting Bureau personnel as they performed clandestine meetings with those Solarian patriots who still held out hope for a united Alliance. From 2462 until the defeat of the Front on Lycoris, the SIIB was working to shore up support and strength within the Sol-aligned states of the Middle Ring Shield Pact, with SAB units on the ground ensuring the steady flow of weapons, supplies, and expertise that would allow them to hold out against the onslaught of the Front and League. Persistent rumor even holds that operatives of the SAB can be seen in active combat at various points in the Xanusii News Service’s acclaimed reporting saga of the war, though the Bureau has declined to comment in this regard.

Given the extremely sensitive nature of their missions, personnel of the Special Activities Branch often operate without uniforms. The only known standard uniform used by the SAB are sets of unmarked grey Solarian Army fatigues and accompanying body armor, which their agents have been observed wearing in the scant few operational recordings publicly released by the Bureau.

Courts and Law

“Military deep state confirms the military deep state does not exist after giving the Supreme Court to the military deep state," - Headline of the satirical newspaper Fish News following the Solarian junta’s packing of the Supreme Court, 2462.

Under the Solarian Federal Constitution the Alliance operates two primary sets of judicial systems: local planetary law and Solarian federal law. Solarian federal law is solely created by the senate on Unity Station and is binding in all Solarian jurisdictions save the Eridani Corporate Federation. Local laws are instead dictated and enforced solely by the member state in question, and can apply to at most a solar system. In cases where Alliance federal law and member state laws conflict, Alliance law will always take precedence, as defined under the Solarian Constitution's supremacy clause.

Trial by jury is an enforced right of the court system outside of Alliance military mandates, and is generally composed of 13 randomly selected local jurors, though Alliance member states may adjust the exact arrangement for local courts. All judges within the Alliance, regardless of whether they are local or federal, must pass a standardized Solarian bar exam in order to be accredited, which is published by the Department of Justice and updated biannually.

The Alliance Supreme Court, located on Unity Station, is the highest legal authority in the nation, and the head of the Solarian Judicial Branch. The Court is composed of nine justices who serve for life, barring any extenuating circumstances which would merit their removal. Under the federal constitution justices are typically appointed by the prime minister and confirmed by the senate. The Court’s current roster is an exception, however, having been appointed unilaterally by the military junta which ruled throughout the Solarian Civil War. Consequently the current Supreme Court is staffed entirely by former military judges who are near-invariably aligned with the rightward factions of the SPP and SFP -- a boon for the current prime minister.

Correctional System

“Is anyone aware of what 'corrections' the Department is even making? Like, I certainly don’t know anyone corrected by twenty years in a closet-sized metal room!” - Senator Kaylissa Orten (SSUP-CAL), during a speech advocating for prison reform, 2452.

While Alliance member states will typically maintain their own local jails and short-term confinement facilities, all prisons and psychiatric detention centers within the ASSN are managed by the Solarian Department of Corrections (SDOC). As a rule, Alliance prisons are more geared towards confinement and security than rehabilitation, with conditions that can be generally described as “functionality first.” While no Alliance prison will go without running water or electricity, they are austere structures designed to meet federal prison requirements as efficiently as possible in both cost and space. The sole exception to this is found in non-criminal psychiatric detention centers, designed to house mentally ill individuals who, despite having not committed criminal acts, cannot be adequately housed within the broader population. These centers are much more comfortable than typical correctional facilities, often being described as, "a country club you aren’t allowed to leave.”

Though privately-owned prisons made up a significant minority of Alliance facilities prior to the Solarian Civil War, auxiliary bills to the Industrial Reclamation Mandate have seen all such corporate prisons be taken into the custody of the Department of Corrections.

The Alliance also remains one of two major nations in the Orion Spur to practice capital punishment, despite being a signatory of the Luna Accords. Permitted only for a specific list of capital crimes, all executions performed by the Alliance must be authorized by a federal judge and are typically performed via lethal injection, with the firing squad having been prominent during the civil war and its period of unrest. While complaints over this practice have arisen from multiple foreign powers, most notably the Nralakk Federation and the Republic of Biesel, the Alliance has shown no intent of ceasing the use of capital punishment.

Policing in the Eridani Federation

Though officially a member state of the Alliance, the Eridani Corporate Federation’s status as a de facto independent nation inside of the Alliance extends to its law enforcement as well. Due to several provisions within the labyrinthine mess of contracts and agreements nominally binding Eridani to Sol, Solarian federal law enforcement agencies are forbidden from operating within Eridani jurisdictions, save when they are directly requested by Eridani security forces. Instead, every facet of law enforcement within the ECF is handled by its bevy of private security companies and mercenaries contracted to the state’s ruling megacorporations. As a consequence, Eridanian security forces are generally regarded as unrestrained, poorly disciplined, and untrustworthy by their Alliance peers. This reputation is not helped by the tendency for Eridani PMCs to lack the level of oversight their counterparts in the Alliance do, leading to an endemic culture of corruption and brutality among their rank-and-file officers. The special status of the ECF is a source of immense frustration for the Department of Justice and Attorney General Henri Fontenot, which consider Eridani a wretched hive of criminal activity actively worsening the Alliance around it.