[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Why pick that as a useful cover? I've never heard of them and would be quite surprised to see a team of 4-6 individuals in such a role carrying even sidearms.

Largely because their actual black ops work will be an extension of the mission of the APHIS. They are dealing with a non-compliant biotech event and some would even maintain that their work has to do with an invasive species. In accordance with the Animal Damage Control Act of March 2, 193, they'll carry out investigation, demonstrations and control of “injurious animal species” (mammalian predators, rodents and birds).

The FBI or US Marshals are not expected to investigate reports of animal cruelty or deploy with scientific equipment. They would raise some eyebrows if they requested of local law-enforcement to be allowed to quarantine the area around a crime scene and exterminate all animal life within it, taking the carcasses with them in biohazard containers.

The non-compliant biotech event in question was carried out by the Department of Defense, consisting of questionably legal experiments with a variety of nootropic substances, ergogenic aids and neurostimulation. The last known experiment by the DOD, Project Jade Serenity, was closed down in 2000, largely due to concerns about the legality of it and the potential fall-out of disclosure. Any findings did not justify continued experiments, in any case.

Due to major crimes committed by a federal prisoner* on the base used for the experiments and his subsequent escape, the DOD was unable to prevent other federal agencies from becoming aware, in general terms, of the experiments. The local Assistant US Attorney was made aware of the matter and in the continuing search for the escaped felon, several agencies were involved.

Two organisations that managed to build up a lot of intelligence on the escaped felon and suspected accomplishes he may have had were under the Department of Justice, the Criminal Division for the Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs Section and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. This information had several points of contact with the people behind Project Jade Serenity and revealed some troubling aspects. No charges were filed against the people behind the program, however, though several people lost their security clearances and/or resigned.

As the Director of Project Jade Serenity was using the local FEMA representatives to cover up some of the less legal aspects of the experiments and some of his drug trials were apparently unknown even to his superiors, the Office of the Inspector General of FEMA carried out an investigation that inevitably revealed to those involved a lot of what the experiments had been about. Except against two FEMA employees found guilty of misappropriating funds and falsifying recordfs, no charges were filed there, either.

Some time after 2012, however, someone within the United States government became aware that former test subjects of Project Jade Serenity (and upon investigation, other similar DOD programs), were exhibiting erratic behaviour. The Office of Criminal Investigation for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) got involved after they received information from a source that managed to conceal his identity that several murders and suicides were connected to drug trials that went on some decades ago.

Some former test subjects exhibit significant physical changes, either neurological or physiological. Subjects have been reported to have shown extreme cognative improments, heightened sensory acuity and exceptional physical condition. Test subjects in their forties and even up to their sixties show little or no physiological degeneration and several who are still active duty military personnel are performing at a level that equals or surpasses their physical capabilities as operators in their 20s. Some evidence suggests that whatever causes these changes might be inheritable or even communicable.

At the start of play, someone, somewhere, has established an organisation to carry out Onyx Rain, a program designed to locate, secure and investigate the subjects of Project Jade Serenity and other similar programs. They would prefer to do so by offering a contract for medical services and salary, but will not hesitate to use other methods. Our characters were brought in as former Project Jade Serenity subjects or scientists. We start with only a limited role, we are just meant to go to a facility and talk to a person we knew well in Project Jade Serenity, in order to convince her to cooperate willingly.

The DOD undoubtedly has their own internal investigation going on, but for whatever reason, our handlers do not trust the DOD. That may have to do with the Special Forces Operational Detachment-Bravo that was sent to Mexico to contact their former comrade in arms, the escaped prisoner former CWO Raul Vargas, and convince him to turn himself in and accept medical assistance. Instead of bringing Vargas back, the whole team is now AWOL. Many team members were formerly part of Project Jade Serenity. Our handlers at Onyx Rain are apparently convinced that the DOD either never stopped the experiments or has restarted them after 2012.

It seems that our immediate handlers might be from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. At least, that's the badges they showed. Someone from APHIS injected us with a microchip like the ones used to track animals. We talked to doctors from the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), Chemical and Biological Defense Division, and the Office of Health Affairs (OHA), probably from the National Biosurveillance Intergration Center. They poked and prodded us a lot, drawing blood and scanning everything that could be scanned. The competent, decisive woman who acted like she was in charge introduced the lead physician as a good man... and thorough. She wasn't lying.

It is entirely possible that Onyx Rain has no official sanction and is a conspiracy set up to counter or frustrate a hypothetical DOD conspiracy around the secret experiments. If not, it at least represents a Department of Homeland Security response to a perceived threat to the US and is sceptical of close cooperation with the Department of Defense.

*Raul Vargas was a warrant officer in the US Army who was arrested for drug-related offences and looked set to be convicted and sentenced to the USDB at Fort Leavenworth. The director of Project Jade Serenity was able to arrange a delay of his court martial in order not to lose experimental data and the accused continued to participate in the drug trials, albeit under similar security arrangements as applied when the experiments were performed on service members convicted at court-martial, in exchange for reduced sentences, in the earlier stages of development.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Wikipedia says 5000 field inspectors or something like that but with responsibilities to cover multiple shifts at busy ports you probably won't hit the 100 agents per state implied by that number.

It'd make more sense to me to pick a big agency that usually has armed agents like the FBI and carry I.D. for some obscure unit of it. Treating DHS as "one big agency" at a functional level would be probably not be good. The DHS structure is more of a thin layer of roofing put over pre-existing agencies.

If and when we get ID that proclaims us members of APHIS, it won't be to deceive anyone connected with that agency or maybe not even any Federal employees. It will be to justify strange requests from us in the field, usually made to local law enforcement. We might also get OIG badges from DHS, if we are ever that trusted.