Briefing on SLATE THUNDER (Chaos Insurgency Orientation)

NOTICE: This is an archival copy of a document currently in the main Foundation database. The original can be located here.


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Good morning, folks. Help yourself to coffee and bagels.

For those of you who don't know me already, I'm Colonel Neil Hornby, Senior Supervisory Intelligence Officer for the Foundation. It's my turn to give the Chaos Insurgency Orientation. In the folder in front of you, you'll find a non-disclosure agreement. This briefing is classified "sensitive compartmented information", so if you're staying, you're signing. Otherwise, grab a bagel on the way out.

Yes, labcoat and glasses.

I know you signed a non-disclosure agreement when you joined the Foundation, and each time you got promoted. You're what, an El Three? You must be new to the whole intel side of the Foundation. I know you're used to the whole El Zero through Five security clearance system. The eggheads (no offense, my dad was an egghead, so I don't have anything against you sciencey types) came up with that. It works well enough if you're handling Ess See Pees. Foundation Intelligence works a little differently. We still use that, kinda the way the US has confidential/secret/top secret, but that doesn't mean El Fives can read whatever they feel like getting their grubby paws on. We operate on "Need to Know." While you over in R&D and the guys in containment and acquisitions get killed if you don't have information widely shared, in our side of the house people die if information falls into the wrong hands.

So, like I said, sign the NDA in front of you, or leave.

Everybody signed? Great. Ms. Buyanova will trade each of you your NDA for a SLATE THUNDER packet.

Sweater vest in the third row, fire away.

"Slate Thunder". That's the codename for this sensitive compartment. As for the packet itself, it contains the information I'll be presenting, so feel free to follow along. I don't really care if you read or listen. If you have anything you need to ask, don't keep it to yourself. This information was compiled by Professor Greg Lewis, who is the Foundation's leading expert on the Chaos Insurgency. He's been studying them since before most of us were born, myself included.

So, the Chaos Insurgency. They are one of the Foundation's oldest enemies. What do we know about them?

Yes, they're self-serving and ruthless, though that could also describe the Foundation or most governments, if you think about it. And they are political, there's no doubt about that, but I'm not sure I'd say the Foundation isn't. I mean, back in the - actually, you're not all cleared to know about that. Let's just say that the Foundation plays politics when it has to.

No, they're not just what the highers-up call personnel who go off the reservation. The Foundation does, occasionally, "purge" people, and while you really don't want to become such an unperson, that (generally) doesn't involve the Chaos Insurgency.

"The same things as the Foundation only for profit"? I'm not sure I'd have worded it that way, but I s'pose it fits - sort of, at least.

Correct, many of their operatives are just guns for hire. This makes our job harder, actually, since keeping track of which PMCs, mercs, thugs, guerrillas, and criminals are working for them and which ones aren't straight is no easy chore. The CI - that's "counterintelligence", not "Chaos Insurgency" - guys have a whole analytic task force devoted to just separating the wolves from the dogs.

Suit in the back - give that legal pad to Ms. Buyanova! None of you are allowed to take notes, nor are you allowed to remove your packets from the room. I'm sorry, I thought you all knew better than that. Anyway, the packets are numbered, and we'll be collecting them at the end.

Anyway, red shirt in the second row. No, they're not "terrorists" per se, rather "insurgents", though you can be forgiven for mixing the two terms up - most people do these days. A terrorist uses terror as an end in and of itself: you crash a plane into a building, a lot of people die and even more people get, well, terrorized. Your motivations may vary, but at the end of the day, the act itself is the end. An insurgent, on the other hand, uses many tools and tactics, including terrorism, in order to elicit a response: you crash a plane into a building and a lot of people die, but then the government cracks down to try and stamp you out, which always - always! - results in innocent people getting caught up by the authorities' net, which upsets the populace, which does more damage to the government and society than your plane crash ever could. Nine-Eleven was an act of terror, but the strategy was almost certainly one of insurgency, rather than terrorism. Anyway, I digress.

Most of you have no idea what really happened when the Chaos Insurgency first formed. No, I am serious. If you look at the first inside page of your packet, you'll see the Official Party Line: small group of agents goes absent without leave in '24 with several useful SCPs. That's the Official Party Line, that's what you've always been told up until now, and that is what you will continue to tell people who aren't cleared into SLATE THUNDER. Period, end of sentence, or else we toss you in a dark hole for a very long time - a dark hole which is, if you're lucky, empty. If not…

Anyway, the Official Party Line is on par with saying the major political powers had strong words with each other during the Forties, or that Hurricane Andrew was a light drizzle. Unless someone has violated security protocol big time (in which case, tell me who so I can personally toss them in a dark hole for a very long time), you'll have never heard of the Triad before.

Blank looks. Excellent.

The Triad was what the Chaos Insurgency was back before it was an insurgency. You see, between 1924 and 1926, the Foundation had a civil war.

Yes, miss, you heard correctly, the Foundation Civil War.

Of course there was a cover up. This organization protects people by keeping dangerous secrets from traumatizing people. Don't tell me you thought we didn't do that internally.

In the Foundation Civil War, we had the Loyalists on one side, the Triad on the other. Eventually, the Triad lost, and the handful of survivors formed what would become the Chaos Insurgency. We came up with that term, "Chaos Insurgency", by the way. They co-opted it; they're good at co-opting things.

Anyway, if you'll turn to the next page in your packet…


CLASSIFIED MATERIAL


Sensitive Compartmented Information: SLATE THUNDER


This document contains information affecting the security of the Foundation within the meaning of the Foundation General Security Protocol 02, Section 183. The protocol prohibits its transmission or the revelation of its contents in any manner to an unauthorized person, as well as its use in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the Foundation or for the benefit of any unauthorized entity or the detriment of the Foundation. It is to be seen only by personnel possessing Level Five clearance and/or especially indoctrinated and authorized in writing to receive information in the designated control channels. Its security must be maintained in accordance with regulations pertaining to SLATE THUNDER Controls.

Unauthorized viewing, possession, replication, and/or dissemination of this document is grounds for punitive actions detailed in Foundation General Security Protocol 18, Section 2381.


Alright, so, that brings us up to 1933. As you can see from the summary at the bottom, most of the more modern activities of the Chaos Insurgency are classified in other sensitive compartments. Since I know for a fact many of you are here for different reasons, we're not going to cover any of the more recent goings-on right now.

Any questions?

Alright. Ms. Buyanova and I will now collect your briefing packets. Be sure to remember to toe the Official Party Line with anyone not read into SLATE THUNDER, or you'll be spending a very long time in a not-necessarily-empty dark hole.

We still have leftover bagels, help yourself on the way out.

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