In his Emperoros Secret Service

[mbrinkhues]

Since the days of Flashman and Bond, Empires needed Spys. Both against the enemy and to keep the nobles in check. So if 007 or Sir Domenic ever end up in the Traveller Universe, what Agency would they work for? What official agencies are around?

From my memory I only get

+ Ministry of Justice (FBI-clone)

Do they contain a two person department for special and unexplainabel cases?

+ Naval Intelligence

What else is there in canon? Where do we stash the Ex-Rampart pilot turned lawyer and his former Sylean Rangers Boss?

 

[Pickles]

Not canon, but I remember a couple of secret service careers in the old White Dwarf - I'll have to llok them up when I get home.

 

[LordVince]

ISS - Imperial Secret Service
SOTE - Service Of The Empire

And it's "His Imperial Majesty's Secret Service"

 

[Vargas]

If I recall correctly, the following Imperial organizations perform an intel function:

Imperial Navy Intelligence (perhaps the leader in the field)

Imperial Army Intelligence (see Adventure 13, Signal GK)

Imperial Interstellar Scout Service

Imperial Ministry of Justice (I think it's more inferred than stated).

 

[BlackBat242]

Issue #34 of Challenge Magazine (official GDW magazine which replaced JTAS) had an Intelligence career for MT...

IRIS (Imperial Regency for Intelligence and Security)

 

[Arthur Denger]

Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
Since the days of Flashman and Bond, Empires needed Spys. Both against the enemy and to keep the nobles in check. So if 007 or Sir Domenic ever end up in the Traveller Universe, what Agency would they work for? What official agencies are around?

...

SORAG. Maybe SolSec.

As every Imperial schoolchild knows, the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service never engages in spycraft. Tsk, tsk, such a dirty business.... Covert intelligence gathering (spying) really would be quite contrary to the official IISS mandate.

~ Denger

 

[Darkhstarr]

A old edition of Dragon magazine had IBIS (Imperial Bureau of Investigative Services). Not canon, but it figured in a lot of local campaigns I ran or was a character (1 game my wife & I played twin IBIS guarding our 55 year old scientist nephew AS HIS NEPHEWS

I lost that issue, but fortunately I photocopied the article & it is still in my campaign book.
My first long campaign featured my wife playing a IBIS agent named Gelt, a black sheep Imperial diplomat name Miranda, & a doctor named 'Bugs' Moran all happily aboard a medical scout called the 'Carson Oma'.

 

[Hemdian]

Searching canon and non-canon print sources I find:</font>

• In addition to the INI (Imperial Naval Intelligence), there was the Office of Naval Information ... started by Lord Santanocheev as a direct rival to Naval Intelligence in the Spinward Marches prior to the 5FW.</font>
• Imperial Army Intelligence</font>
• The Intelligence Branch of the IISS includes clandestine agents.</font>
• IRIS</font>
• JSB - Ministry of Justice, Special Branch</font>
• Tavrchedle' - Zhodani internal security</font>
• SORAG - Zhodani spies</font>
• IBIS</font>
• SolSec - Solomani spies</font>
• Trasilon - Private spy network of Archduke Brzk of Antares</font>
• Vemene - Agency of Tukera Lines</font>
• Naasirka, Sharurshid, and Makhidkarun also have their own agencies</font>

Regards PLST

 

[BlackBat242]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
is a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, variously translated as "Who will guard the guards?", "Who watches the watchmen?", "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?", or similar.

The essential problem was first posed by Plato in the Republic, his work on government and morality. The perfect society as described by Socrates, the main character of the work, relies on laborers, slaves, and tradesmen. The guardian class is to protect the city.

The question is put to Socrates, who will guard the guardians? or, who will protect us against the protectors? Plato's answer to this is: they will guard themselves against themselves.

We must tell the guardians a noble lie. The noble lie will inform them that they are better than those they serve and it is, therefore, their responsibility to guard and protect those lesser than themselves. We will instill in them a distaste for power or privilege, they will rule because they believe it right, not because they desire it.


It appears, in Traveller, that the answer is: multiple sets of Guardians, who will watch each other as well as everyone else.

 

[vegascat]

It seems that there is no true analog for the Praetorian Guards, whose duty was to guard the Emperor from threats to the Emperor and guard the Imperium from the Emperor, by replacing him as necessary.

 

[tinker123]

Originally posted by the Bromgrev:
Not canon, but I remember a couple of secret service careers in the old White Dwarf

That's right, there was the IISS Covert Survey Bureau. I've still got that article at home. Sadly the damp got at several of my old WDs, and so I lost some of the other pages from that issue.

For those who never got the magazine, e.g. the poor souls who live outside the UK, Andy Slack has kindly uploaded many of his classic articles at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andyslack/ctrrr.pdf

 

[mbrinkhues]

In the 3I there is the right of Assasination dating back to Cleon the Mad (It's even in CT so it's canon). Any high Nobel (IIRC Duke/Archduke) can claim it, shoot the Impi and sit on the Throne

The Emperor itself his protected by rotating Marine regiments

 

[Nick Nova]

Travellers' Digest No. 9 has a very nice article on The Imperial Guard by Terry McInnes, complete with uniform illustrations. According to this source, there are 11 Guard Regiments (only one of which is a Marine Regiment).
It also mentions three other units charged with the Emperor's safety: The Marine Escort Force, The Scout Service Imperial Protection Detail, and the Naval Imperial Escort Squadron.
Taken all together, the Emperor should be the safest person in the universe. Pity about that rule allowing Dulinor to carry a gun in the palace...

 

[Arthur Denger]

Originally posted by Nick Nova:
...
Taken all together, the Emperor should be the safest person in the universe. Pity about that rule allowing Dulinor to carry a gun in the palace...

"It's aways a friend who hates you most."
— Old Terran saying

Duplicity and treachery are difficult to guard against. Indeed, a threat must be perceived before it can be countered. So long as psionics are shunned within the Imperium, there will be intelligence failures.

 

[eclipse]

A whole alphabet soup of agencies.

IMTU, I like lots of competing agencies.

INI, Ministry of Justice, Imperial Army Intelligence, the IISS has several internal groups for gathering intelligence, some Imperial Nobles have their own agents, as do all the MegaCorps.

Same thing in the Solomani Confederation and all the major Aslan Houses have their own agents.

 

[Peter Newman]

Since the days of Flashman and Bond, Empires needed Spys. Both against the enemy and to keep the nobles in check.

No, No, - the best [1] spies _are_ nobles. Read the Vorkosigan saga, Lois Bujold. Not only is the main protagonist a spy [2], a good third (half?) the secondary cast has some intelligence background, although they're not all nobles.

Obligitry Disclaimer - The Vor are 'offiially' a military caste, not nobility. Of course a diference that makes no difference is no difference.

[1] I.e. most amusing.
[2] Or at least used to be a spy.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Or we can take Sir Domenik Flandry, another noble spy. Although he starts out as a commoner with a noble father.

Yes, for quite a few jobs a noble title helps as does the proper education. Quite a few espionage agencies IRL where OldBoy Networks from the right universities.

 

[BlackBat242]

And look where that got the UK's Foreign Office, MI5 & MI6 :devil:

Philby, Burgess, Maclean, & Blunt.

Above suspicion due to their backgrounds, and all communist spies in the 1930s & '40s, (Burgess & Maclean defected in 1951 to avoid arrest), '50s, and early 1960s (Philby defected in 1963 to avoid arrest).
Blunt confessed to "British security services" in 1964, but was not publically acknowledged as a traitor until 1979.

Philby had been SIS (MI6) counter-intelligence chief in the mid '40s, helped prevent the defection of the KGB Middle East Area Chief Konstantin Volkov in 1945, and worked for MI6 even after being "tried" for his involvement with B & M in 1952.

Maclean worked directly with coordination of Atomic Energy (and weapons) programs & information between the US & UK in 1947 & '48.

Burgess worked for the SIS in the late 1930s & early '40s, and for the Foreign Office as personal assistant to the Minister of State (who acted as Foreign Secretary while the FS was abroad or ill).

Blunt had worked for MI5 until 1945.

All passed immense quantities of material to their NKVD/KGB handlers.


All of them "got a pass" for suspect behavior many times because they were recruited from Cambridge, and had "good connections" with the upper classes.

 

[Plankowner]

Guarding the Emperor

What do you think the Imperial Marines are REALLY for? We don't work for the d*mn Navy. WE work for the Emperor!

 

[pendragonman]

What do you think the Imperial Marines are REALLY for? We don't work for the d*mn Navy. WE work for the Emperor!

Damned right!