An Offworld ISWAT HQ?

[JonnyBoy]

Since ISWAT operations and members are kept secret from the public, would it make sense for Infinity to establish ISWAT HQ on another timeline where it could carry out its business in peace and its more obviously strange/paranormal agents could live away from the eyes of Homeliners?

What type of world would be preferable as an ISWAT HQ? I would think most importantly the world would need to be off-limits or near off-limits to Homeliners with little to no native settlements. Perhaps a native government that could easily be turned into Infinity's puppet would be ok.

[Michele]

I wouldn't want to state the obvious, but... what about Coventry? Nothing is more off-limits than that, and the government is Infinity.

[ericthered]

I think it's canonically on one of the weaker reich worlds.

[johndallman]

There's some discussion here of travel logistics which is worth considering.

[JonnyBoy]

Originally Posted by Michele

I wouldn't want to state the obvious, but... what about Coventry? Nothing is more off-limits than that, and the government is Infinity.

Coventry would work for that. Would there be issues with interactions between the "prisoners" and the ISWAT operatives, especially prisoners who are not happy to be on Coventry? If there aren't strictly defined or guarded ISWAT and prisoner areas perhaps ISWAT operatives pretend to be prisoners as a cover.

Originally Posted by johndallman

There's some discussion here of travel logistics which is worth considering.

Thanks. Logistics is something else that would definitely need to be considered on an ISWAT world.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There's some discussion here of travel logistics which is worth considering.

To this excellent advice in the link I would add that if ISWAT (or any other elite Patrol groups) are off-Homeline they need to be on a Q5 world so they can easily get back to Homeline because that's where the projectors are.

One possible exception would be if the world in question has a convenient Nexus Portal to Homeline or another Q5 world. Nexus Portals are the great wild card in the IW setting. As the swagmen know with the right portal maps you can bypass a lot of "normal" restrictions.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by JonnyBoy

Coventry would work for that. Would there be issues with interactions between the "prisoners" and the ISWAT operatives, especially prisoners who are not happy to be on Coventry? If there aren't strictly defined or guarded ISWAT and prisoner areas perhaps ISWAT operatives pretend to be prisoners as a cover.

It's an Earth-sized world. Australia could comfortably hold all the detention facilities, and even if the detainees were given free reign across all of Australia, but no ocean-going ships or aircraft, it would be hard for them to interfere with an ISWAT base in Iceland.

Indeed, now that I think of it, that's how I'd organize Coventry regardless of the presence of an ISWAT base. Have all the incoming off-world traffic arrive in say Iceland, then have one heavily controlled means (say a handful of passenger airliners) to reach a distant overseas region, say Madagascar, where the detention areas are sited.

The only way for the detainees to give you trouble back on Homeline or anywhere else is to first take control of one of the airliners in Coventry's Madagascar, then to overcome/evade security in Coventry's Keflavik airport, then to take control of a conveyor there in Coventry's Iceland.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

To this excellent advice in the link I would add that if ISWAT (or any other elite Patrol groups) are off-Homeline they need to be on a Q5 world so they can easily get back to Homeline because that's where the projectors are.

My thoughts exactly. Secret's great, but they've got to be able to deploy when they're needed, too.

For that matter, what about a different portion of the Academy's Pleistocene world?

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

For that matter, what about a different portion of the Academy's Pleistocene world?

Sounds probable to me, although what quantum that world is on isn't mentioned. Infinity already has the Madagascar of that world (Mammut-1) set up as "the Farm", where they work on robotic conveyor design.

If we're treating Mammut as Infinity's playground (which makes a lot of sense), the Chilean Andes might be occupied by the launchpad for survey drones in Quantum 5, if they don't don that on Homeline.

Other good locations for ISWAT would be Tierra del Fuego, Southern Siberia, the interior of the Australian Outback, and Papua New Guinea.

[adm]

Wouldn't Hawaii, or Sicily be a more comfortable choice than Iceland?