The World of Tom Clancy's The Division is the meticulously crafted result of a partnership between Dark Horse books and Ubisoft Entertainment, offering readers a unique insight into the chaotic and dangerous world of the hit games. Don't miss this opportunity to learn all there is to know about the tactical methods, the high-tech tools, and the all-important mission of The Division!
”
"Incisive lore and detailed art in a cunningly designed hardcover that will bring readers into the ravaged streets of New York City and Washington, D.C. as seen in Ubisoft's record-breaking videogame series!"
On Black Friday, a deadly biological attack was thrust upon the populace of New York. Within weeks, millions lay dead, and the city was placed under quarantine. The only force with any hope of restoring order are the embedded agents of the SHD--more commonly known as The Division.
Despite the quarantine, the infection continues to spread across the country. Amidst a ruined government, a shattered infrastructure, and an eroding civilization, The Division is now called to action in Washington, D.C.--but if the agents fail, the capital will fall, and the nation with it.
Civilization is never more than three days of missed meals away from anarchy. ANCIENT ROAMAN EXPRESSION
As the Romans came to understand, the more advanced a society, the more fragile and vulnerable it can become-an unsettling hypothesis confirmed once again by the grim events of the past year. Before the Variola chimera pandemic was unleashed in New York City, our technological modernity had created a complex, interconnected world. As it turns out, we'd also created a state of denial.
Before the outbreak, the following facts were true:
Grocery stores typically carry at most a three-day supply of food for surrounding communities.
Hospital stocks also depend on "just in time" production, and have a limited autonomy of 3 to 8 days, depending on the specialty and the size of the hospital.
Production of an established vaccine gener-ally takes between 6 and 36 months.
A flu virus can remain alive on a dollar bill for seventeen days.
Today, one man's megalomania combined with another's expertise in virology has forced major cities to their knees, crippled our federal government, and sent shockwaves of fear around the world. The situations in New York and Washington D.C. are the stuff of disaster genre films. Civil society has collapsed with terrifying speed.
But going forward, it is important to consider the bigger picture.
Our species, historically resilient and adaptive, sits at the apex of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. For the length of that epoch, multicellular life has been under assault by viral infectious agents literally every single day. Intelligent life has survived innumerable waves of contagion. We will survive this one as well. One reason is the Strategic Homeland Division.
This handbook presents a thorough overview of that agency, including many classified aspects of its internal structure and training protocols. Be assured that today the Division is deployed to ensure the survival of civil society, and to save what remains.
PREFACE SITUATION REPORT & TIMELINE Page 11
PREFACE SITUATION REPORT & TIMELINE[]
SITUATION REPORT NEW YORK CITY[]
NOTE The outbreak within the U.S. resulted in other countries closing their borders to the U.S. to delay spreading of the disease, having significant impact on overseas commerce, military missions, and the movements of American citizens.
With a population of 8.5 million, New York City is the most populous city in the United States. Comprised of five separate administrative units called "boroughs"-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island-the city has long been a global epicenter of finance, commerce, and culture.
But in recent decades, this status has made New York City a target of bitter resentment and retaliation by international terrorist organizations. To date, America's showcase city has been Ground Zero in the two most devastating terrorist strikes in
modern American history: Al Qaeda's commercial jet attacks of September 11, 2001, and last December's devastating "Green Poison" bioweapon attack.
Quarantined after the initial surge of smallpox outbreak, New York quickly shut down its bridges and tunnels, and ushered in federal troops to help city police quell growing panic. With their airspace closed and a naval blockade cutting off all waterways, New Yorkers soon felt isolated, trapped, even abandoned. Civil unrest began to spiral out of control.
Image.png
CURRENT SITUATION
Vaccines created for Variola major (the standard smallpox virus) have proven ineffective against Variola chimera. But as of this writing, the pandemic virus has run its course in most neighborhoods, and a new vaccine is in early stages of testing. Meanwhile, the Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency (CERA) is aggressively treating any contaminated locations remaining within the city with newly developed disinfectants.
SITUATION REPORT WASHINGTON D.C.[]
Washington D.C. is an ethnically diverse, cosmopolitan, mid-size capital city. Before the outbreak it had a native population of seven hundred thousand, although commuters from the surrounding Virginia and Maryland suburbs would swell the D.C. population to well more than a million inhabitants during the workweek.
Since the Green Poison pandemic swept through the federal district last year, the
population has plummeted. After the initial outbreak, CERA set up refugee camps to house the large tourist population stranded in D.C. with nowhere to go. But smallpox and mob violence has slashed the number of residents and refugees by at least two-thirds. Many surviving civilians banded together to build small settlements that held together despite power outages, predatory raiders, and bouts of malnutrition.
Image.png
CURRENT SITUATION Citywide, D.C.'s infrastructure continues to collapse. Neighborhoods overrun by militias and other hostile factions have fallen into anarchy. Civilian settlements are being systematically overrun by criminal mobs.
SITUATION REPORT THE UNITED STATES[]
CURRENT SITUATION Nationwide, the Variola chimera virus is emerging in far-flung areas, but CERA's first-rate rapid response teams have kept a lid on the contagion and limited the panic. Shelter-in-place restrictions are proving quite effective in less urban areas. Despite this fact, local militias and vigilante groups are rising up to "protect" many rural and even suburban communities. Some of these crews are imposing strict, authoritarian agendas. A new kind of terror is spreading.
The amount of travel in and out of New York City means many major American cities suffered some exposure to the smallpox virus. However, other than Washington D.C., none have been afflicted on the same scale as New York. yet. Smaller cities and rural communities on the Eastern Seaboard have reported sporadic outbreaks, but overall, the contagion has been largely contained.
Nationwide, however, fear is spreading faster than the virus. With a national state of emergency declared and federal travel bans in effect, martial law and mandatory curfews are now the norm almost everywhere. Infected citizens must report to temporary field clinics to keep existing hospitals clean and open for other medical emergencies. Lethal force has been authorized to maintain quarantine lines.
But even with local police working closely with U.S. Army and National Guard units, protection is spread thin. Social unrest is growing. Rigorous enforcement of travel restrictions has resulted in the establishment of refugee displacement camps for people unable to return to their homes. Such camps have become natural hotbeds of turmoil.
SITUATION REPORT: GLOBAL[]
Cases of Green Poison smallpox have emerged all over the world. Some countries are struggling to quarantine their hotspots due to local factors like population density, climate, culture, and geography.
Most regions outside the United States received enough advanced warning to coordinate with WHO (World Health Organization) and other international emergency-aid groups to fashion a relatively effective response. Global contagion control efforts are ongoing, and news that a vaccine soon may be available is a heartening development. But the imminent collapse of the United States federal government has the rest of the world on edge.
image.png
CURRENT SITUATION With command and control of more than four thousand nuclear weapons at stake, the emergency reclamations of New York City and especially Washington D.C. have the global community watching the efforts with bated breath.
TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS THE OUTBREAK[]
image.pngNOVEMBER, BLACK FRIDAY Banknotes coated with Variola chimera-a highly contagious smallpox strain now called "the Green Poison"-circulate in New York City on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year. Packed crowds moving in frenetic, wide-ranging patterns spread the infection quickly. With a seven-day incubation period, the deadly virus remains undetected as shoppers, tourists, and other travelers carry it away from Ground Zero.
image.pngDECEMBER 1-5 Disease symptoms begin to emerge and within days a first wave of the contagion rages across the city's populace. The initial surge of cases quickly swamps local medical facilities. As a result, the federal government's Disease Control Division (DCD) and other federal authori-ties step in quickly and declare a state of emergency.
But the spread is so fast that contain-ment is impossible. The National Guard is summoned, and New York City is locked down. Troops and local authorities block roads, suspend public transport, and prohibit crosstown travel. The populace is ordered to shelter in place and stay in their homes. All businesses close. The next day, New Yorkers awaken to an eerily silent city.
image.pngDECEMBER 6-10 U.S. President Lawrence Waller orders U.S. military forces to surround and seal off New York City, including all waterways via naval blockade.
The Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency (CERA) begins mass vaccinations using existing stockpiles. The initial focus is on first responders in the primary contagion vectors. But soon health workers are inoculating the public at large at clinics, workplaces, parking lots... wherever CERA can reach people.
In this strange calm, city life seems to shift back toward normal. Stores reopen for limited periods, with people allowed back on the streets between strictly enforced curfew hours. CERA establishes field clinics throughout the city, distributing supplies, antiviral medications, and personal protective equipment.
CERA also sets up a mass treatment facility for advanced smallpox cases inside a central section of Midtown Manhattan-a sealed-off "sick zone" inside the quarantined borough. A number of Manhattan's most iconic landmarks inhabit this neighborhood: Carnegie Hall, the Empire State Building, the Plaza Hotel, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and Trump Tower. Medical personnel begin to round up and bus infected citizens into this sector, Construction of a reinforced perimeter wall begins.
Within days, two sad truths become clear. First, the existing smallpox vaccine does not work against the new strain of the virus. And second, the relaxation of movement restrictions has allowed the disease to spread faster and farther. Thousands of new cases spring up-and the first horrifying wave of deaths sweeps across the city.
image.pngDECEMBER 11-14 The World HealthOrganization (WHO) officially declares the outbreak a pandemic. The president invokes martial law nationwide.
In New York, food and supplies begin to run low. Black markets and smugglers begin to flourish. The first signs of civil unrest appear: looters break curfews and threaten hospitals and stores. Fear and anarchy start to spread like a new contagion. Panicked New Yorkers, trying to escape the city, clash with troops enforcing the quarantine lines. Streets grow increasingly lawless.
Heavily outnumbered and rattled by mob violence, security teams begin to with-draw from certain chaotic neighborhoods. Surviving police and military units consol-idate to form the Joint Task Force (JTF).
The JTF locks down all five bor-oughs and restricts travel between them. Although this makes citywide safety management easier, it also puts immense pressure on teams operating in the dens-est and hardest hit borough: Manhattan.
The pandemic reaches Washington D.C. and spreads quickly. Lurid media coverage of New York City chaos spurs D.C. resi-dents to react with panic, and civil unrest spreads almost overnight. Public services break down within seventy-two hours.
Image.png
NOTE ON D.C. NATIONAL GUARD When DCNG assistance is needed, the mayor, or the HSEMA director acting as the mayor's agent, must coordinate the request through the commanding general of the DCNG. The commanding general notifies the under secretary of the army of the request and its nature. The under secretary consults with the attorney general and the secretary of defense on the request. The attorney general establishes policies to be observed by military forces in the event they are used for military support to civil authorities in the District. If approved by the under secretary of the army, the commanding general advises the mayor of the decision and commits resources as necessary to assist within the parameters established by the under secretary and the attorney general. If advance coordination is possible, HSEMA will coordinate with the DCNG military support officer.(WIP)
Image.png
DECEMBER 15-17 Federal authorities desig-
nate new containment zones in Manhattan to control crowd migration across the island. Military engineers begin erecting makeshift perimeter barriers called Dividing Lines at 14th Street and 58th Street. These split the borough into three distinct sections: Lower, Midtown, and Upper.
The sealed-off central Midtown "sick zone," where CERA has been busing and detaining smallpox victims, is becoming increasingly dangerous. Raging mobs, violent escape attempts, and other lawless activities are get-ting worse. As JTF units suffer heavier losses, they begin to leave entire blocks unpatrolled.
In Washington D.C., the U.S. Capitol Police and Metro Police lock down the entire District of Columbia. National Guard units are sum-moned to provide extra protection for federal workers and government officials.(WIP)
Image.png
DECEMBER 18-20 President Waller invokes National Security Presidential Directive 51 to ensure continuity of the federal government in the face of this growing crisis.
Boarding Marine One, POTUS is evacuated from the White House to Camp David in Maryland along with his family, cabinet and senior staff.
The president immediately activates the first wave of Strategic Homeland Division agents embedded in New York City.
Two days later, a rolling blackout strikes the sealed-off Midtown "sick zone." The sector-now a death trap filled with piles
of infected corpses, fires burning unchecked, and predatory gangs-soon acquires a new name: the Dark Zone. At night, the streets turn into a grim "no man's land" of disease, death, and feral savagery.
Within twenty-four hours, the JTF and all medical personnel are forced to abandon the Dark Zone's mass treatment facilities and beat a hasty retreat south. They pull back to the James Farley Post Office in Midtown Manhattan, a massive building that occupies two full city blocks (eight acres) and serves as a critical base of operations for both CERA and the JTF. (WIP)
Image.png
LATE DECEMBER The first wave of Division agents deploys into the Dark Zone to set up an outpost, seeking to quell the violence and restore order. Their disturbing reports suggest an almost unimaginable level of chaos, more primitive than anywhere else in the city.
Over the next several days, JTF base dispatchers gradually lose contact with the entire Division team. None return. Meanwhile, rioters threaten to overrun the James Farley Post Office.
As the New Year approaches, New York City is in the vise grip of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Preliminary counts suggest more than two hundred thousand citizens have succumbed to the contagion or violence. Many more have been displaced and linger in shelters or clinics. All basic civic services have shut down.
A mass breakout from Rikers Island, the New York City Department of Correction's four hundred-acre jail complex on the East River, releases thousands of violent, des-perate criminals into the diseased cityscape. Many convicts band together to form a powerful gang called the "Rikers." Like urban warlords, they start taking brutal control of neighborhoods. (WIP)
image.png
JANUARY 1-5 The president activates
Division agents in the District of Columbia, where food and gas shortages combined with widespread power outages have triggered large-scale rioting and looting.
High level government officials begin to relocate to secure sites around the country.
Following the precedent set in New York City, all military and the law enforce-ment agencies in Washington D.C. are combined under a single command called the Joint Task Force.
The National Park Service helps CERA establish a quarantine zone for D.C.-area infected patients on Theodore Roosevelt Island, the 88,5-acre national memorial site on the Potomac River.
CERA also establishes a sizeable refu-gee camp inside the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. Known as "the Castle," the camp is created as a safe haven for out-of-towners stranded in southern D.C. after the early evacuations.
JANUARY 6 POTUS activates a second
wave of Division agents in New York City. Despite suffering key losses during the airlift into Manhattan's harbor district, the new team moves swiftly to dispel rioters and lift the siege of the James Farley Post Office.
Once the Manhattan operational hub is secured, the JTF (with heavy Division sup-port) begins to expand its presence across the stricken borough, block by block.(WIP)
image.png
JANUARY 7 President Waller dies from cardiac arrest. Rumors spread that he succumbed to the virus, triggering a new shockwave of panic. Vice President Thomas Eliezer Mendez is sworn in as POTUS. He refuses to leave D.C. for a remote location.(WIP)
image.png
JANUARY 10 The Joint Task Force pro-
motes the head of the Maryland National Guard, Colonel Antwon Ridgeway, to JTF field commander, Southeast Region, with the new rank of general. Ridgeway begins a merciless crackdown on mob violence in the capital.
LATE JANUARY Civilian communications in Washington D.C. go mostly offline as the city's infrastructure crisis continues.
Sizeable National Guard camps and field distribution centers help maintain order in the southern part of the district. But continuing gas shortages trigger riots north of Pennsylvania Avenue, and fierce gang fighting spreads across the northern neighborhoods.(WIP)
EARLY FEBRUARY As the situation in
Washington D.C. worsens, the U.S. military is thrown into crisis. Many units are crippled after suffering from a broken chain of com-mand, a rash of desertions, and widespread deaths-both to smallpox and the attrition from multiple uprisings in metropolitan areas.
International trade shuts down, knocking local economies across the globe into a tailspin. This exacerbates the food and security crises that are arising as a result of the contagion as it inevitably spreads from region to region.(WIP)
FEBRUARY 14 In D.C., several major crimi-
nal gangs fighting viciously for control of the region north of Pennsylvania Avenue call a truce and form a council. This meeting unites the murderous factions into a loose con-federation called the Hyenas who employ insurgent-style tactics.(WIP)
LATE FEBRUARY General Ridgeway's
overzealous and increasingly lethal measures in support of the forced quarantine leads to reprimands and eventually arrest, a court martial, and incarceration. But loyal mem-bers of his JTF unit break him out. Under Ridgeway's leadership, the renegade force forms a highly trained and well-equipped militia known as the True Sons. Their aim: to establish territory and dominate the populace.
Military and paramilitary operatives are suddenly recalled from their deployments worldwide, and are quietly installed into quarantined areas within the U.S.(WIP)
Image.png
EARLY MARCH Spring eases some emer-gency situations that were worsened by winter weather, and communities nationwide begin adapting to the new reality. But in Washington D.C., the collapse and with-drawal of the JTF cedes much of the city to gang control.
Bitter survivors of a forced quaran-tine on Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River overthrow the camp to form a vengeful faction calling themselves the Outcasts. Led by the charismatic Emeline Shaw, the faction sets up its stronghold in the Potomac Event Center and starts push-ing eastward from the Potomac.
A CERA refugee center in the University Yard at The George Washington University just west of the White House begins to achieve self-reliance and self-defense. Residents build the area into a settlement community known as the Campus.
In the east, General Ridgeway's True Sons militia seizes control of the U.S. Capitol Building and establishes its headquarters there: a powerful symbolic victory.
LATE MARCH Desperate civilians seeking
refuge from savage street fighting in north-east D.C. continue to gather in historic Ford's Theater. Led by former Division agent Odessa Sawyer after the death of the settlement's previous leader, the residents fortify the structure and build a self-sufficient settle-ment referred to simply as "the Theater."(WIP)
Image.png
(WIP)
(WIP)
Chatper 1 What is the Division? Page 31 (WIP)
The Strategic Homeland Division (SHD)-better known simply as "the Division-is a decentralized, autonomous entity endowed with executive powers and rules of engagement unfettered by legal constraints. Trained to operate in deadly CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) environments, the Division is mandated to bring order, stability and justice to communities shattered by catastrophic events. The agency also pledges active support to classified Continuity of Government plans should a widespread national disaster cripple normal governing functions.
Origins[]
The core concept of the Strategic Homeland Division-ie, embedding highly trained sleep-er agents in local communities, ready to rise up in times of disaster or invasion-has deep roots in modem history.
WORLD WAR II 1940, the German blitz-krieg swept across the countries of western Europe in just six weeks. Hitler established a military administration to rule over the occupied territories, and then turned his sights across the English Channel. The British government fully anticipating a German assault, created a corps of covert Fighters called GHQ Auxiliary Units-the first organszed resistance movement ever formed. In the event of session, these units were ordered to resist by whatever means necessary.
Embedding secret operatives behind lines in a country's own tentary was called "stay-behind operations" Recruited from all walks of life, British GHQ agents trained rigorously in the arts of "irregular warfare" assassination, sabotage, demolition, unarmed combat and propaganda in the event of a German invasion. GHQ service was considered so dangerous that the projected life expectancy of an Auxiliary Unit member was just twelve days. If capture by accupying forces seemed likaly, GHQ operatives were ordered to either shoot each other or, preferatly, use explosives to kill themselves along with their would-be captors.
THE COLD WAR After World War II ended, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) adopted and refined the "stay-behind" doctrine during the subsequent hairy with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. With The deadly new specter of nuclear holocaust looming over intemational affairs, the United States developed secret plans to ensure "Continuity of Goverment" (COG)-the ability to conduct essential operations in the event of a catastrophic event like a nuclear exchange. Measures included national martal law, underground reserve governments, and other highly classified measures.
THE AGE OF TERRORISM AND NON-STATE ACTORS In 2001, two important events triggered further refinement of the Continuity of Government concept in the United States, In June of that year, federal agencies conducted a high-level simulation called Operation Dark Winter to test the nation's ability to respond to a widespread bioterrorist attack. The exercise featured a mock release of smallpox virus targeting Oklahoma City and two other locations in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The purpose was to evaluate national-emergency response protocols and the U.S. healthcare infrastructure in the face of such a lethal threat.
The results were sobering. Decision makers at all levels were remarkably unprepared. Woefully inadequate "surge capacity" in the healthcare system meant hospitals were quickly overwhelmed. According to the official post-exercise report. Dark Winter also exposed major "fault lines" between local state, and federal authorities, as well as between public and private sector responders. Key agencies such as the National Security Council failed to determine the origin of the attack or contain the spread of the virus. Response times were too long, with a complex web of legal concerns slowing down logistics. Poor messaging and coordination with media outlets accelerated the panic, speeding the simulated transmission of the virus.
Such fallures would likaty produce devastating real-world consequences. The outcome scenaries included massive civilian casualties, large-scale breakdown of basic services, and widespread mob violence.
Again, Dark Winter was just a sinuLation. But on September 11, 2001, a small band of armed terrorists with an improbable plan executed attacks that killed thousands of Americans, paralyzed the U.S. government, shut down the country's aviation grid for days, and deeply rattled the national psyche. As the 9/11 attacks unfolded. U.S. President George W. Bush, fearing additional attacks, initiated COG measures and activated the old Cold War protocols. A reserve government, hidden in a secret location, was on constant readiness in case a decapitating strike wiped out federal leadership.
EXECUTIVE RESPONSE:PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE S1 On May 4. 2007, President Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD 51). This mandate claimed the executive power to invoke and direct continuity of government procedures in the event of catastrophic emergency. NSPD 51 construes such an emergency as "any incident, regardless of location that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
The unclassified portion of the directive was posted on May 9 to the White House website with little fanfare and no press briefing. But NSPD 57 also included a set of highly classified continuity annexes, undisclosed to Congress or the general public for what the executive branch deemed "national security reasons. One of those annexes ordered the establishment of the Strategic Homeland Division.
Created as a direct response to the Operation Dark Winter findings, the Division reports directly to the president and is tasked with maintaining order in extreme CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) environments in accordance with continuity of government plans. Once Directive 51 has been invoked, the president can activate the Division's highly trained corps of sleeper agents embedded across the nation and immedately commence operations.
Note The lack of mainstream media coverage of NSPD 51 was shcoking and somewhat unexpected, given that the directive allows the executive branch to define what constitutes a "Catastrophic emergency" nad then bypass Congress and the Supreme Court to speed up decision making during the self-declared crisis.
The nonclassified elements of Directive 51 specify that, in the event of a catastrophic emergency, all governmental power will be transferred to the president, top advisers and a committee including
Vice President
National Security Advisor: senior ade
in the executive office of the president serving as the thief in-house adviser to the president on national security issues National
Continuity Coordinator (NCC) the directive specifies that the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism will be designated
as the national continuity coordinator ONCC-cumently Thomas P. Bossart) The NCC would be tasked with ensuring the continuity of all national essential functions (federal, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations) through a National Continuity Implementation Plan (NCIP)
Continuity Policy Coordination Committee (CPCC) the CPCC is to be responsible for coordinating the NCC'S NICP It's to be chaired by a senior directar from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the NCD
CENTRALIZATION OF POWER
Prior to Drective 51 a catastrophic, emergency would have been handlied according to the National Emergences Act (NEA) The NEA allowed the president to declare a state of emergency but also gave Congress the power to modify, rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority," if it deemed that he'd acted rapprogramly
However Director 5t effectively super sedes the NEA. through the apponsment of the NCC, without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position. It also negates any equirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists, Furthermore, the US Constitution states that the tree man branches of the federal government executive, legislative and judicial) must be kept equal and with no single branch coordinating the others. Under Directive St. the executive branch effectively takes a Inading rate, coordraned by the president.
EBOLA 2014 In late 2014, an Ebola outbreak created a significant scare in Dallas, Texas Misstatements on travel documents, misdiagnoses, and other mistakes led to two deaths and a rash of lawsuits, Breathless news reports fanned tears not just in Dallas but nationwide. The incident highlighted the fact that, despite more than $60 billion invested in bioterrorism raediness since 2002, the United States government still struggled to handle a small-scale viral outbreak, and was remarkably ill-prepared to handle a mass-contagion scenario. Also on stark display in the media coverage: how thin and precarious is the line that separates a well-informed public from mass hysteria.
In response to the Dallas events, the executive branch tapped into its top-secret "black budget" (estimated to be 580 lion per year) and reallocated significant funds to increase the operational readiness of the Strategic Homeland Division. In turn, the Division ramped up its covert recruitment and training activites.
Mission[]
The SHD's mission & to protect the populace and secure the conmuation of the United States of America in times of catastrophic emergency, no matter the cost. Acting as the extension of the president, we will assist federal and state actors by providing a unified picture of any national crisis and guide them to decisions that are on the best of the people. Our mandate to take action wherever and whenever to fight rising threats against the security of the nation and its people, to seize back control and to do whatever it takes to save what remains.
Official mission statement, Stratergic Homeland Division
Note The Dark Winter summary report concluded that an actual bioweapon attack would likely trigger institutional collapse, civil disorder, a rapid breakdown of essential services, and massive civilian casualties. As it truns out, this conclusion wars remarkably accurate.
The Division's overarching mission arises directly from the disturbing post-mortem analysis of the Operation Dark Winter exercise of 2001. Conventional, measured responses to the simulated contagion proved woefully inadequate. The official summary report made several key findings, including four points directly related to the Division's mission:
"Political leadership is largely unfamiliar with the character of bioterrorist attacks, avallable policy options, and their consequences."
"Federal, state, and local priorities may be unclear, differ, or conflict, authorities may be uncertain and constitutional or other legal issues may arise."
"To end a disease outbreak after a biofemorist attack, decision makers need ongoing expert advice and extensive feld intelligence."
"The individual actions of U.S. Citizens will be critical to ending the spread of contagious disease: leaders must gain the trust and sustained cooperation of the citizenry."
PRINCIPLE OF PROXIMITY:LOCAL PROBLEMS, LOCAL SOLUTIONS
One cornerstone of the Division's mission is the "local solutions" concept at the heart of the stay-behind movement. Example The D.C. National Guard (DCNG) is the first military responder in the District of Columbia with the responsibility for coordinating and employing all National Guard assets and coordinating with all other uniformed forces operating to support the District.
But Division agents are embedded within their communities. Drawn from many professions with a wide variety of skillsets, they hold regular jobs, use local services, cultivate local relationships, and participate whenever possible in local events and activities. They shop locally, eat locally,
and master the local transportation grid.
Intimate familiarity with local custom, institutions, infrastructure, and geography will prove invaluable if and when a call to action comes. Once activated, Division agenes can move with speed and confidence through neighborhoods they know well.
Sturctures[]
On the organizational chart of the U.S. federal government, the Strategic Homeland Division is formally listed as part of the Department of Homeland Security. However, the Division reports directly to-and only to-the president of the United States. The Division may commence field operations only when activated by the president pursuant to National Security Presidential Directive 51.
OPERATIONAL CORES Led by a board of directors, the Division's internal organization is decentralized, based on the assumption that a major disaster or attack could neutralize a single central facility. To avoid such a decapitating strike, the "Rule of Three" is applied: the agency's headquarters are housed in three identical and independently operated bunker's called "Cores." Located in Texas, Kansas, and South Dakota, these Cores are deliberately redundant and distributed across the nation's heartland to better ensure survivability in case of catastrophe.
Each Core is configured to handle routine management and administrative duties during peacetime but can transition instantly after a Directive 51 activation to coordinate intelligence and logistics across the Division network. Each Core is managed by a director with a set on the board.
SHD
(WIP)
I. M. TUCKER
Director, TEXAS CORE
(WIP)
DEPARTMENTS The Division features three separate departments: Research & Development, Support, and Operations.
Research & Development (R&D) The Division's R&D department builds and supports high-level technical solutions for all agency field personnel. Responsible for the development of proprietary SHD technology-intemally referred to as "Shade Tech"-the R&D group also maintains the agency's arsenal of weapons, field equipment, and custom tac-ops gear. To retain its covert status, (and avoid intrusive political oversight), Division R&D operates out of a consortium of dummy companies. This branch is always active.
Support The Division's Support group handles routine tasks related to organizational management such as communications finance, and human resources. However, Support also performs kay mission-cirtical functions such as inteligence analysis and logistical planning. Basic office administration functions are alweys active, whereas mission support activity ramps up only after a Directive 51 invocation.
Operations The Operations department coordinates the deployment and field work of its cadre of highly trained sleeper operatives known as "agents." Division agents are embedded in civilian communities across the United States. Other than top-secret covert training exercises, agents do not engage in field work until Directive 51 is invoked and the president of the United States activates them.
Operations is divided into three branches: Internal Afiars, Strategic, and Tactical (more on these later).
ACTIVATION[]
When the president invokes Directive 51 and activates the Division a first wave of agents emerges from sleeper status. This alpha team mobilizes at a designated rally point for insertion into the hot zone.
Once activaned and deployed, a Division agent formally outranks all other tactical units in the feld. This superseding authority lets Division teams cut through red-tap and bypass policy restrictions, laws, regulations, and jurisdictiomal boundaries as needed. Agents can freely organize local assets, chillian or military to address local needs.
Once activated the Division's primary task list includes the following:
Restore civil order and prevent societal collapse.
Facilitate ressortion of basic services such as power, water, communication and medical care.
Interdict acts of insurrection, rebellion or lawlessnes.
Provide tactical direction and support for local police and military units.
Collect field intelligence for key decision makers.
Rescue, protect, and/or provide safe escort for high-priority individuals.
Procure, protect and disburse critical supplies: food, water, fuel, medical and military.
Conduct Robust counterterrosim operations.
Coercive operations against certain actors of violence.
Operations to control violence toward other actrs who are not identified and can oppose search for a solution.
Humanitarian operations in favor of the populations
For more on the responsibilities and tasks of agents, see Chapter 2: Division Agents.
COLLABORATIVE FEDERAL AGENCIES[]
DISEASE CONTROL DIVISION
The federal Disease Control Division [DCD protects the nation's health security by finding and tresting new and emerging disease threats Fiest, DCD scntists serve as une detec tives fuiting down the sources of infectos outbreaks. Second, DCD medical personnes depiny directly into identified contagion zones to halt the spread And thend OCD lab research teams evaluate infectious agents and seek cares or vaciones.
In these three coles, the DCD is the natori's first line of defense against bioter romsum attack. In 2001, for exemple, a DCD feld team responded swiftly and decsively to the antes attacks in Washington DC Today, the agency conffrones global deinese threats the the Green Poson smallpox virus by enhancing its work with advanced computing and big-data elysis to tackly find solutions.
CATASTROPHIC EMERGENCY RESPORSE AGENCY
The Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency CERA) in the federal bureau created to deal with large-scale natural and manmade dexacters haricares and other destructive weather events earthquakes, wildlees, or widespread contagious disnese. As an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security CERA's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to any disaster that ovenohelis the resources of local and state authoriti
In the came of a pandemic, CERA deploys directly into contagion hot zones to establish quarantines and set up med ical facilities, supply distribution centers and sale confinement camps for the enfected to protect the wider pupulation.
JOINT TASK FORCE
As the chunrest and chaos escalated in few York City's borough following the Green Poson attack desertions from many law-enforcement and other first responder units became com mon. The shocking street savagery combined with concem for loved ones metuated many deserters to evacuate the city
Chut of necessity, all remaining security trums National Guard NYPD CERA) banded
together to form a single command commer Manhattaning the one Task Force (TF) Led by Captain Roy Benitez av NYPD narcotics officer and one of the first respondens to the 2001 9/11 attacks, the ITF is stessily pushing back the curtan of anarchy in Tarov York. Their mission is to take back neghborhoods black by block, with the Division providing strategic Inadership and tactical support
