ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE SIDEBAR: United States Federal Patrol

[AlexanderHowl]

Why would anyone want a colony on Io? You have to deal with some of the worst radiation in the Sol System (Venus is more habitable).

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Why would anyone want a colony on Io? You have to deal with some of the worst radiation in the Sol System (Venus is more habitable).

It's not a colony, it's a tiny territorial outpost. Basically a handful of small towns and a surrounding loop of ground. Io in my future world is a strategically important planet, most of Earth's major powers have bases and outposts there, and some of them make extensive land claims. But they make extensive use of automation and the actual total human population is tiny.

[AlexanderHowl]

But why is Io strategically important (what does it have the justifies the enormous expense of sustaining human life under those conditions)? If you want antimatter, it is probably easier and cheaper to cover the equator of Mercury with solar collectors and antimatter generators than to use the Io Torus. There is likely nothing on Io that you could not acquire more easily and more cheaply elsewhere in the Sol System.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

But why is Io strategically important (what does it have the justifies the enormous expense of sustaining human life under those conditions)? If you want antimatter, it is probably easier and cheaper to cover the equator of Mercury with solar collectors and antimatter generators than to use the Io Torus. There is likely nothing on Io that you could not acquire more easily and more cheaply elsewhere in the Sol System.

Well, for one thing, in my world Io has a biosphere (long story). It's a source for several expensive or useful things, mostly because of that biosphere. Some of them are useful, some just scientifically interesting.

One of them is a luxury product. By the early 2100s, the ease of synthesis of traditional gemstones has made them cheap. For a while the gem industry was able to keep up artificial demand with irrational things like a preference for 'natural' gems over artificial, but since the artificial ones were just as good that could not be sustained. By the early 2100s, in my world, diamonds, emeralds, etc. are just not that expensive.

The gem industry partly offset with this effect with artificial gemstones that were still hard to make and lacked a natural version, but they hit the jackpot on Io. The Ionian biosphere produces, as a by-project, gem crystals that are unlike any native to Earth, and which cannot (as of 2120) yet be synthesized. (Which is not to say that it's impossible, only that it hasn't yet been successfully achieved.)

The very rarity of them, and the cost of transport, actually add to their allure, there are plenty of wealthy people who will pay a premium for beautiful gems that are not available to the hoi polloi. The fact that the gems are exquisitely beautiful only adds to the effect.

They're also well worth smuggling, and expensive enough to be worth killing people over, which is part of why the Patrol is active on Io.

[Johnny1A.2]

UNITED STATES FEDERAL PATROL continued...

RECRUITMENT and TRAINING:

R&T is a separate division of the Federal Patrol, responsible for most of the recruitment of personnel and training that personnel. More or less, R&T could be called the 'human resources' of the Patrol, but also more than that.

R&T recruits Patrol personnel from various sources. Some are young people recruited directly from school, especially for the uniformed branch. Some are former State or local law enforcement personnel, some are retired military, who are valued for certain specialties. R&T maintains liaison offices with most major law schools as well, because the Patrol has a substantial and active legal division.

R&T also runs the major training facilities of the Patrol. Exactly what training a Patrolman receives depends on his background, and the specialty he is being prepared for in the Patrol. The wide range of responsibilities assigned to the Patrol means that the training regimens vary wide as well.

The largest R&T facility is the Federal Patrol Personnel Training Complex (FPPTC) in Kansas City, Missouri, usually just called 'the' Academy. It would remind most people in 2020 of a substantial university campus, a campus that would happen to include live fire training ranges and bomb disposal training areas and where many of the professors routinely carry guns. Every year, over five thousand people train in the Academy. Depending on the specialty, previous experience, and the branch, training might last anywhere from one year to five. Additionally, there are always older experienced Patrol personnel revisiting the Academy for specialized training of one sort or another, or refreshers, or other 'non-traditional student' activity.

Subjects that are touched on by various students at the Academy are enormously varied. Weapons and tactics, how to arrest and how not to do so, escape and evasion and the counters to such, chemistry and physics, history and political science, engineering and mechanics, electronics and law, finance and corporate organization, medical training, languages native and foreign, orbital mechanics and artificial life support, SCUBA and wilderness survival, encryption and public relations, search and rescue and hostage negotiation, those and many others are taught in a dizzying array of combinations and permutations.

R&T also maintains other training facilities, with specialized purposes, across the United States. These range in size from smaller versions of the main Academy down a few offices in a Regional Headquarters. Most Regional and sub-Regional headquarters contain at least a few classrooms and training centers run by R&T.

R&T also maintains specialized training programs which involve sending trainees to other nations, other planets, and occasionally other star systems.

Along with recruitment and training, R&T in its capacity as 'human resources' also handles retiree pensions, medical reimbursements, etc.

To be continued...

[Johnny1A.2]

UNITED STATES FEDERAL PATROL continued...

SPECIAL ABILITIES and APPLICATIONS (SAA):

The Federal Patrol Special Abilities and Applications division is more commonly known, both in and out of the Patrol, as the Espercorps. Of all the suborganizations of the Federal Patrol, the SAA is without question the one with the greatest amount of nonsensical rumors circulation about it, the one looked upon with the most doubt and uncertainty (and no little fear in some quarters) by the public and much of the government, and also possibly the most well known to the general public (at least in so far as their existence is well known).

The SAA is the division of the Federal Patrol that is made up of psionically active personnel, and support staff for their activities. The SAA is not extremely large, but it commands considerable influence within the Federal Patrol and its services are used by all the Regional Commands. The SAA itself, however, is independent of the Regional Commands, answering to the Commissioner of the Patrol directly. On the day to day level the SAA is run by a Director and a supervisory board appointed by the Commissioner.

The SAA is headquartered in the Academy complex in Kansas City, both for convenience in testing recruits for psionic potential and because of the convenience of extensive training facilities close at hand. The SAA is based out of a non-descript set of buildings and underground facilities on the southwest side of the campus. (It is an entirely unofficial but common practice among Patrol personnel to refer to this site as the 'Rhine-land'.)

The psions employed by the SAA are of fairly high power levels, as mortals go, their skill levels varying enormously with training and experience and native talents. The most common abilities sought by the SAA are telepathy and extra sensory perception, and these abilities are possessed by most of the active psions in the SAA. Psychokinetic abilities are valued for field agents, and biopsionic psions are assigned to medical support work in for other Patrol branches. By far the rarest ability in the SAA is teleportation.

The fears and controversies amid the general public regarding the SAA are also held by no few government officials, and there are a number of laws and restrictions in place regarding what the SAA personnel are allowed to do and when and why they are allowed to do it. There is an extensive and strictly enforced special code applied to the psions, and violations can carry extreme penalties. Enforcement of the code is challenging, but technological and practical methods are often effective.

There is also an 'internal affairs' subgroup within the SAA, charged with enforcing the codes. The SAA is divided into separate teams and competitive branches, the rivalries and competition encouraged as a check on the potentially enormous power and the enormous potential for the abuse of power inherent in an organization such as the SAA.

The SAA is also controversial among psions, because they make use of techniques that can be dangerous to the mental and physical health of their personnel. Psi-boosting drugs, mechanical amplifiers that are not entirely safe, and psychologically dangerous gestalting techniques are all in regular use among the psions of the SAA. The SAA does not 'draft' personnel, and the participants are informed of the risks beforehand, but injuries and mental damage, and occasionally worse, side effects do happen. [1]

Another source of controversy among psions regarding the SAA involves 'public relations'. There are those psions who believe that the SAA and its activities undercuts public acceptance of psions, especially when scandals break. Because of this, relations between the SAA and other organizations of psions in 'civilian' life are sometimes fraught.

Privacy advocates also fret about the potential for surveillance inherent in the SAA and its large numbers of telepath and espers. This is another reason that the SAA has its own dedicated public relations team that works with the overall Patrol public relations branch. [2]

The SAA maintains its psionic personnel, in spite of the very real risks of the work, through a combination of very high pay and other rewards, access to training and resources 'civilian' life would not afford, appeals to patriotism and sense of duty, and (very occasionally) less savory methods. Outright illegality or true coercion is rare, because a disgruntled psion could be more dangerous to the SAA itself than their opposition, but sometimes various pressures are applied in special cases to particularly important or desirable psions.

One area where the SAA is particularly important to the Patrol is dealing with psionically active criminals and other opposition. In some cases, the SAA is the only part of the Federal Patrol capable of capturing particularly dangerous or elusive psionically active criminals and suspects. In rarer but very dangerous cases, the SAA is the only part of the Federal Patrol able to kill certain powerful threats to public safety.

To be continued...

[1] Actually, the SAA is supposed to gain informed consent from their personnel, and they usually do, but exceptions, and scandals, have happened.

[2] The privacy fears are not entirely groundless. The SAA has a much greater surveillance potential than it publicly admits to, and the potential for abuse is real.

[warellis]

Is the SAA sort of like a nicer Psi Corps from Babylon 5?

It makes me wonder if psions there have their own specific culture compared to the wider outside world.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by warellis

Is the SAA sort of like a nicer Psi Corps from Babylon 5?

In some ways, yes.

Psi doesn't work quiet the same way in my world, even a strong telepath can't do certain things that Psi Corps can, and it's easier to defend against. The Espercorps does not secretly run the country or the world, they're still mostly answerable to proper authority. Still, telepathy and ESP are easy to abuse, and scandals happen.

Their power is balanced by other groups of psions, both in and out of the USA, too. The U.S. Army has its own psionic teams, for example, and so do some State Governments, and the Empire has an extensive psionic corps.

Also, Espercorps lives in a world where it's public knowledge that certain beings exist that are vastly stronger than they are. Even a high-power high-skill Espercorpsman would be well advised to avoid getting into a psi-battle with Zadatharion or Aradel, for ex.

It makes me wonder if psions there have their own specific culture compared to the wider outside world.

More like their own subculture. A lot of them time the psions are at each other's throats, too, they don't necessarily get along with each other any better than any other group of humans do, and sometimes worse. Power sometimes brings on big egos.

[Johnny1A.2]

UNITED STATES FEDERAL PATROL continued...

FRONT LINE PATROLMAN:

In modified GURPS 3e terms, a 'typical' basic uniformed Federal Patrolman, would have a minimum of:

* American citizen with no felony convictions. Certain misdemeanor convictions are also disqualifying, but it is not impossible for a former juvenile delinquent to become a Patrolman. A naturalized citizen must have been a full citizen for at least five years to apply for Patrol membership.

* Both sexes may be Patrolmen, but the majority (about 70%) are male.

* Age twenty is the minimum age for recruitment, and a special allowance is required for recruitment past age 50 for front-line Patrolman. Some Patrol specialties have higher, or no, age maximums, however.

* No stat can be lower than 10, and preferential recruitment means that most front-line Patrolmen have at least HT 11.

* A potential front-line Patrolman must have no serious physical disabilities. Many Patrol specialties are open to individuals with serious physical disabilities, but not front-line Patrolmen, for obvious reasons.

* Certain physical disabilities may be permitted, if the correction is not too difficult, and other qualifying factors make a candidate especially desirable. Correctable bad sight or other such issues fall into this category.

* Certain mental Disads are disqualifying if recognized, such as Bloodlust, Sadism, extreme Phobias, or some Compulsive Behaviors.

An example of a fairly typical front-line Patrolman in 2120:

"Bobby Chang" ~100 pts
Height: 6'0"
Weight 90 kilograms
Age: 28

IQ 11
DX 11
ST 10
HT 11
Speed: 5.25

Appearance: Average
Wealth: Average
Status: 0

Advantages:
Alertness 1
Common Sense
Legal Enforcement Powers (level one Federal Patrol)
Peripheral Vision
Strong Will 1

Disadvantages:
Impulsiveness
Lecherousness at 1/3 level
Overconfidence
5 points of Quirks

Dancing 11
First Aid 13
Judo 12
Pistol 14
Police Law 13*
Swimming 13
Streetwise 13

18 points of Contacts, Area Knowledges, etc.

Bobby Chang would be a modestly experienced front line Patrolman, no longer a rookie but still with a way to go before he either goes into one of the specialist branches or is promoted to command level. Bright and capable, a bit of a skirt-chaser but usually keeps it in check, high stats and a mostly successful academic and career life have left him a trifle overconfident. He's good, but not quite as good as he thinks he is. He has a good chance of a successful Patrol career, if his overconfidence and impulsiveness do not screw things up first.

* Police Law is a subskill, a specialty of legal skill as it applies to police work, especially at Patrol level.

To be continued...

[Johnny1A.2]

UNITED STATES FEDERAL PATROL continued...

SAA Field Operative:

The essence of SAA operations is psionics, and so SAA personnel have (somewhat) less stringent physical requirements. The most useful the psi talents of the potential Espercorpsman, the more allowances the Patrol will make for other problems (though certain things remain unacceptable no matter what).

SAA operatives must be American citizens with no felony convictions and only limited tolerable misdemeanor convictions. However, in very special cases, even felony records will be overlooked for particularly desirable talents. This is done only in particularly unusual cases, however.

Minimum stats for Espercorpsmen are:

IQ 10
DX 8
ST 8
HT 8

Though very low stats (other than IQ) are found in Espercorps, they are not common and usually present only in otherwise very powerful or otherwise desirable candidates. The SAA wants healthy, physically competent personnel whenever they can get them.

An SAA field operative must have at least one of the six standard psionic Powers at a minimum power level of 3 and a minimum skill level of 10. More Powers, higher power levels, and higher skills raise the rank and status of an SAA operative, of course.

An example of a fairly experienced SAA field operate is as follows:

"David Simms" ~125-140 points (depending on fleshing out)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 88 kilograms
Age: 50

IQ 12
DX 10
ST 10
HT 10
Speed: 5.0

Appearance: Average (by choice, SAA prefers average appearance in recruits)
Wealth: Comfortable
Status: 1 (publicly known SAA field operative)

Advantages:
Alertness 2
Empathy
Legal Enforcement Powers (Federal Patrol)
Patron: SAA of Federal Patrol
Strong Will 2

Psionic Powers and Skills:
ESP [5]:
Danger Sense 12
Clairvoyance 12
Precognition 10
TELEPATHY [5]
Telereceive 12
Telesend 12
Mind Shield 14
ANTIPSI [3]
Psi Static 12

Disadvantages:
Bad Sight (correctable)
One Hand (lost in line of duty)
Bad Temper
Code of Honor (Espercorpsman)

Five points of Quirks

NOTE: The missing hand would likely have been an issue at recruitment, but he lost it in a nasty field situation. It can not be regrown even with 2120 tech (because of how he lost it), and the Patrol would finance a high end prosthetic hand, but he has not opted to do that.