'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

[jason taylor]

IISS Survival Archive: This is a library containing a collection, from various sources of writings on survival technique that date as far back to the Ziru Sirku. Aside from the articles on general methods they include the results of surveys of various worlds and areas of space. Most are open to the public to download as a general service but some parts of the Archive are forbidden namely those dealing with classified information: worlds that are still Red Zones, or clandestine surveys especially of worlds in rival astralcracies. The other area that is cordoned off is articles that have not yet been released for publication and are still under review.

The articles contained here are often produced by IISS personal. That is not a requirement and submissions from civilian services or even rival geostrategic intelligence agencies are welcome. The JTAS has submitted many contributions as has the AAB. There is often an exchange in that regard with such groups. The criteria for inclusion is whether the article, "seems right" and fits with the other sources available though authors must be willing to publish their identity (much as the US Army published German field manuals of the Eastern front after the Terran Second World War but made a point of identifying the source).

Copies of the results are sent to Imperial Consulates. They are given to Imperial Citizens for free and to non-Imperials for a nominal purchase price as part and parcel of the Imperium's avowed status as protector of interstellar commerce and travel.

The headquarters of the Archives is the archival section of the Order of the Arrow. It has an entire wing devoted to it and the decor is similar to the rest of the Order's complex, containing art and ceremonial objects representing cultures from various parts of the Imperium as well as exhibits of events and famous people of the history of exploration. The most famous exhibit is a series of full size portraits of Lorette Strider in her grand tour of Hawaii to visit and lecture at the Observatories and Traffic Control Stations of Mauna Kei, Spaceport Hawaii at Keeau, and the old Wet Navy base and spacer recovery station of Pearl Harbor. Reproductions of this are widely available and often used as screensavers or skins for handcomps.