The IISS's answer to special forces; essentially scout personnel dressed up in combat / battle and trained on TL14+ weapons to extract personnel when the big three (army, navy, marines) can't help.
IISS Special (Combat) Rescue
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Hmm, I dunno.
I get the impression the OTU Scouts would operate more like Lewis and Clark with the psychology of their airgun demonstrations, are short on heavy resources and operate more on wits, sensors and intel.
Kind of more like MacGyver, Texas Ranger- one hostage situation, one scout, JOTing their way to victory.
Their intelligence branch with 1000s of detached duty scouts poking in unexpected corners is probably the wild card the Emperor keeps in play to keep the regular Imperial forces/LE and dukes honest, I could see a reaction team per sector for their duties, but I don't see them doing a lot of SWAT/HRT work.
Could see edge of the frontier stuff where they are the only ships in the subsector and are called upon to uphold the flag and rescue someone, but again a very adhoc JOT sort of affair rather then huphuphup battle dress scouts.
I get the impression the OTU Scouts would operate more like Lewis and Clark with the psychology of their airgun demonstrations, are short on heavy resources and operate more on wits, sensors and intel.
Kind of more like MacGyver, Texas Ranger- one hostage situation, one scout, JOTing their way to victory.
Their intelligence branch with 1000s of detached duty scouts poking in unexpected corners is probably the wild card the Emperor keeps in play to keep the regular Imperial forces/LE and dukes honest, I could see a reaction team per sector for their duties, but I don't see them doing a lot of SWAT/HRT work.
Could see edge of the frontier stuff where they are the only ships in the subsector and are called upon to uphold the flag and rescue someone, but again a very adhoc JOT sort of affair rather then huphuphup battle dress scouts.
have to agree, though I could see them doing long-range pre-planned ... "fixing" or even pro-active "prevention" of one classification or another. where the navy or marines typically operate as a team under color, the scouts typically operate alone and uncelebrated in hostile conditions and thus might be a natural source for fixers and preventers.
IISS Security Branch
CT: Book 6 Scouts, p. 6
CT: Book 6 Scouts, p. 6
GT: First In, p.7
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kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Ok sure, think an MI team type outfit, more Peter Graves style then Tom Cruise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
And yet they still arrest Congressmen, highly-placed businessmen, etc.
Likewise, civilian NCIS/USACIDC/etc (Naval Criminal Investigative Service/United States Army Criminal Investigation Command) agents arrest Admirals/Generals (even though those agents may be former enlisted men or college graduates from poor families).
It is the authority they represent (The Badge) that matters, not their personal status.
Likewise, civilian NCIS/USACIDC/etc (Naval Criminal Investigative Service/United States Army Criminal Investigation Command) agents arrest Admirals/Generals (even though those agents may be former enlisted men or college graduates from poor families).
It is the authority they represent (The Badge) that matters, not their personal status.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
The social standing would kick in prior to the investigation as in 'you better have this right Agent Spaceguy', during when the noble would be pulling in markers to avoid prosecution, and after with sentencing and political/budgetary retribution if the noble was arrested 'wrongly'.
He's a representative of the Emperor, the noble's own overlord. Besides, legal status is more important than social status. (That's actually one of the few things we know for sure about how the Imperium functions; there's a CT statement about nobles being subject to the law exactly like everybody else).
Hans
sometimes our friends from overseas complain that traveller is "yanks in space, with nobles". this is definitely an example of "yanks in space, and the nobles are just high-powered yanks". with nobles, the status IS the authority. the scout inspector does not represent the emperor, the nobles do.
oh yeah, they just waltz right in and slap on the cuffs. in the movies maybe, but not in real life. and note, congressmen and trumps are NOT nobles, not in any way shape or form, not in the slightest (much as they might pretend or as americans might forget ....)
at minimum.
which brings up an interesting point. does the imperium itself - not the member planets with their jurisdictions, but the imperium proper - maintain a court system? likely mora and trin and glisten would have such courts should they exist, but would there be an imperial holding facility and court on, say, planet podunk?
I would say no. the nobility themselves are the ultimate law and court system. that's the whole point of having nobility.
I've always seen it more as "19th Century brits in space". 19th Century Britain had a nobility who ran the country, but the nobles were still subject to the law.
He represents Imperial Law. And only the high nobles represent the Emperor. The honor nobles have no authority that isn't conferred by a position in the Imperial bureaucracy or one of the services. If they don't have a position, they're just private individuls. (Very rich individuals, true, but still equal before the law).
Yes. There are various references to Imperial courts. The judges are quite likely to be honor nobles, of course.
Hans
I expect that the easiest way the Social Standing interferes with Law Enforcement re. the Imperium is that low SS investigators simply don't get access to the people they are trying to investigate - or have to go through, layers of underlings before they do.
Who can basically answer a question or two and then "have other business to do" - making the investigatory process exceedingly time consuming.
I seem to recall something about nobles (of some rank) having he right to be tried by a jury of their peers. The social politics of that alone suggest to me that the investigatory agency in question probably has a couple of "gentlemen" (SOC 10) or even knighted fellows who always catch the cases that involve nobles simply to cut through some the simple social barriers to interacting with them.
Alternately, that may also be the source of at least some the rank nobles (hit a certain level of rank in the "Imperial Patrol" (or IISS or whatever) and you can expect to get knighted or become a baronet). It's a nice reward, insures that you have a stake in or at least understand the system, and also insures that "the right sort of people" are investigating the nobility.
D.
Who can basically answer a question or two and then "have other business to do" - making the investigatory process exceedingly time consuming.
I seem to recall something about nobles (of some rank) having he right to be tried by a jury of their peers. The social politics of that alone suggest to me that the investigatory agency in question probably has a couple of "gentlemen" (SOC 10) or even knighted fellows who always catch the cases that involve nobles simply to cut through some the simple social barriers to interacting with them.
Alternately, that may also be the source of at least some the rank nobles (hit a certain level of rank in the "Imperial Patrol" (or IISS or whatever) and you can expect to get knighted or become a baronet). It's a nice reward, insures that you have a stake in or at least understand the system, and also insures that "the right sort of people" are investigating the nobility.
D.
A lowly middle class law enforcer will most likely treat someone with the social status of an Imperial marquis (arguably equivalent to that of an Old Earth emperor) with considerable circumspection. But that's not at all the same thing as not having the legal power to arrest him. Lacking the essential guts to arrest him, quite possibly; but not lacking the authority, since Imperial nobles are explicitly stated to be equal under the law. No special legal status for them. Officially, that is.
Hans
Its worth thinking about what kind of crimes the Scout security Branch are interested in.
For most criminal and civil law matters in the Imperium you have the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) agents working with local planetary law enforcement (I've always had the impression that they are an FBI analogue).
Scouts are interested in, intelligence and data, new territory, contact situations, navigation, and communications.
The SSB* is probably interested in frauds relating to the Imperial Census. "It seems your government have underestimated the number of taxable transactions that take place on your world".
Since the Scouts are on the frontier there may be an element of the "frontier lawman" to their job.
Do the SSB have a function in enforcing interdictions? If a smugglers ship runs do the Navy break orbit and pursue it or do they hand over a file to the SSB for them to chase down and arrest the perps.
GT has the SPANNER rules for safe navigation and starship safety and makes the Starport Authority responsible for them but are there rules and regulations related to safe navigation/astrogation that the Scouts enforce in a Coastguard style?
Scouts are also responsible for the X-mail system so are they responsible for detecting and prosecuting "crimes committed through the Imperial Mail"? The US Post Office has an armed investigation and enforcement branch, many countries have customs branches who monitor mail entering their territory. Darker Imperium settings might make the SSB responsible for sifting through all the X-mail to gather intelligence and censor anything thats "anti-Imperial".
GT also lists one of the tasks of the Scouts as being to watch the Navy. By monitoring ship movements and force build-ups they are supposed to provide early warning of a coup by any element of the Fleet.
Widen that out and note that the Scouts are most likely to be able to keep tabs on the movements of "ships of interest" across the Imperium.
Detached Scouts are also supposed to be "human intelligence" sources, giving details of what they've observed as they move about in their detached duty scout ships.
SSB operatives could also make useful guides to other Imperial law enforcement agents, working as cultural guides and interpreters. "You want to arrest this guy? Well first you have to bribe the local High Sheriff. He loves Houda leaf cigars".
*There's a real world organization called the Strategic Support Branch which is interesting as it was a shadowy "human intelligence" gathering organization.
For most criminal and civil law matters in the Imperium you have the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) agents working with local planetary law enforcement (I've always had the impression that they are an FBI analogue).
Scouts are interested in, intelligence and data, new territory, contact situations, navigation, and communications.
The SSB* is probably interested in frauds relating to the Imperial Census. "It seems your government have underestimated the number of taxable transactions that take place on your world".
Since the Scouts are on the frontier there may be an element of the "frontier lawman" to their job.
Do the SSB have a function in enforcing interdictions? If a smugglers ship runs do the Navy break orbit and pursue it or do they hand over a file to the SSB for them to chase down and arrest the perps.
GT has the SPANNER rules for safe navigation and starship safety and makes the Starport Authority responsible for them but are there rules and regulations related to safe navigation/astrogation that the Scouts enforce in a Coastguard style?
Scouts are also responsible for the X-mail system so are they responsible for detecting and prosecuting "crimes committed through the Imperial Mail"? The US Post Office has an armed investigation and enforcement branch, many countries have customs branches who monitor mail entering their territory. Darker Imperium settings might make the SSB responsible for sifting through all the X-mail to gather intelligence and censor anything thats "anti-Imperial".
GT also lists one of the tasks of the Scouts as being to watch the Navy. By monitoring ship movements and force build-ups they are supposed to provide early warning of a coup by any element of the Fleet.
Widen that out and note that the Scouts are most likely to be able to keep tabs on the movements of "ships of interest" across the Imperium.
Detached Scouts are also supposed to be "human intelligence" sources, giving details of what they've observed as they move about in their detached duty scout ships.
SSB operatives could also make useful guides to other Imperial law enforcement agents, working as cultural guides and interpreters. "You want to arrest this guy? Well first you have to bribe the local High Sheriff. He loves Houda leaf cigars".
*There's a real world organization called the Strategic Support Branch which is interesting as it was a shadowy "human intelligence" gathering organization.
well, not in public anyway, and not just wet. and legally the cia is not supposed to operate against citizens, only non-citizens and out-of-country. to which rules I can see the scouts being authorized and adhering .... but WITHIN the imperium and against citizens of the imperium, no, that would be strictly planetary, county, and march law enforcement. and especially imperial citizens (nobility) or their interests, that invariably would be special case, handled by the nobility itself, not by jane spacejockey with a badge on her vacc suit and a six-gun on her hip.
