The Agency

From Stormravengaming

Current revision as of 20:12, 29 January 2007

The Agency is a U.S. government subunit responsible for some of the most secret technologies, capabilities and investigations of the U.S. government. Its activities are too secret to be categorized under any classification scheme; and too dangerous to be part of any conventional bureaucracy (although The Agency usually operates under several layers of "cover" bureaucracy, and has been part of many major or minor agencies of the Executive Branch). Its activities are coordinated by a supreme bureaucrat known as The Official, who usually reports directly to the President (though from 1945 to 1976 the President was unaware of The Agency and The Official reported to no one at all).

History

The first incarnation of The Agency was established in late 1893 under Socrates Poole, after the crisis involving John Bly and the Orbs. Secret Service Agents under Agent Brown betrayed the United States and tried to take control of an Orb for their own purposes. After this incident, President Cleveland realized that an "even more secret service" was required, and directed the recruitment of the people responsible for stopping Agent Brown and his men into federal service. The first two Agents were bounty hunters Brisco County, Jr. and Lord Bowler.

Bowler, County and Poole continued to serve the general cause of law and justice, in addition to their federal assignments, for some time. Conflicts arising from County's marriage to Dixie County (née Cousins) led to him leaving federal service and settling somewhere in Oregon. Bowler served a very long time in federal service, being an active Agent well into the 1930s. He also trained the next generation of Agency Agents, and in general established much of the no-nonsense, results-over-procedure culture that would mark the Agency.

World War II

The Agency was created to deal with small-scale, high-powered exotic threats. The World War was effectively prosecuted by other capabilities within the government while The Agency pursued its own prosecution of domestic and external threats. This period also brought the worst crisis in The Agency's history, when it was infiltrated by an esper in Soviet employ named Priscilla Baxter (codenamed Rasputin). The Official was killed, and one of The Agency's senior agents, Nate Reynolds, briefly served in that capacity while tracking Baxter down and neutralizing her. He was also responsible for taking The Agency into its deepest cover, severing contact with the White House (Harry S. Truman, and indeed no President until Ford, was aware of it).

Until the Project Quicksilver period, not much is known about the activities of The Agency. Nate Reynolds severed his own connection with the Agency while tracking down Rasputin, to make sure that he could do no damage in the event of his capture or compromise by the powerful mentalist. It's known that The Agency was active during this period, but didn't "resurface" from the perspective of the rest of the government until the beginning of Project Quicksilver in 1976.

Project Quicksilver

The resources required for Project Quicksilver necessitated informing then-President Ford of the plan to develop the capability to make invisible government agents. Although Project Quicksilver met with some success, it did not result in the production-friendly invisibility power that was sought.