Secure Empire Agency

The Secure Empire Agency is the overarching intelligence agency for the Holy Tekkelien Empire. They are responsible for protecting the Empire against threats to national security by the collection of information about potential violent or criminal actions against the country and eliminating them before they can happen. They are tasked with both internal policing of particularly severe or organized crimes as well as foreign surveillance of military operations and intentions, and counterterrorism. While its job is not typically to take direct action against the enemies of the Empire, they occasionally do employ highly-skilled teams of operators to eliminate imminent threats in the early stage only.

## Secure Empire Agency

### Leaders

Director-General Alexei Patel, Director of Operations Daniel Balandin

## Organization

### Mission

The Secure Empire Agency's mission statement is "to proactively and preemptively ensure the stability of the nation and its people's rights."

More specifically, the Agency states its spacewide goals for the 29th century as follows:

* Ensure the Tekkelien Empire's military edge against potential enemies
* Maintain a clear and accurate picture of foreign adversaries' capabilities
* Protect informational security against foreign espionage and cyber threats
* Eliminate governmental corruption and abuse
* Eliminate multinational criminal organizations
* Prevent acts of terrorism or large-scale violent crime
* Provide useful information for law enforcement partners
* Lead the development of intelligence tactics and security technology

### Structure

The SEA is a massive organization whose responsibilities involve a wide range of threats. For how many planets and territories they have to cover, many consider them underfunded with a budget of approximately 60 billion guild.

The biggest distinction within the organization is that between the Interior Department and Exterior Department. The Interior Department focuses on threats within the borders of the Empire, committed by or at least in league with Imperial citizens. The Exterior Department focuses on surveilling foreign adversaries, monitoring their movements and capabilities during wartime, and defeating enemy espionage attempts. They are also professional advisors who assist friendly countries with counterterrorism or informational security measures.

Politically, the SEA is highly autonomous and answers only to the highest levels of the Ministry of Defense. Even though they cooperate with local law enforcement and occasionally participate in domestic policing operations, they only consider the crimes that are serious and large-scale enough to be considered a threat to national security. They have wide authority to execute operations outside normal jurisprudence and concerningly little oversight.

### Assets

The vast majority of SEA employees work very mundane lives in offices, usually working on a need-to-know basis with compartmentalized pieces of information to analyze. There is an extensive use of data mining and collection, since there are so many billions of people to monitor. Even most field agents go their entire careers never putting themselves at any serious risk, tasked with collecting evidence and building a case against prominent criminals before they are able to do anything.
Since the SEA is expected to act as a policing force, they employ a sizeable force of armed operatives trained in security work.

#### Field Agents

Field agents are people of authority, assigned to specific cases pertaining to a single threat. New agents may be assigned to specific criminal leaders while senior agents may be tasked with studying an entire country's military. They compile the majority of their work in offices, sourcing intelligence from many different second-hand sources and databases. Once they have a solid picture of the threat environment, they usually lead operations directly to present a case against the target for arrest. In espionage operations, they may go undercover themselves and meet with key people, or direct a lower operative to do it.

#### Collection/Enforcement Teams

For missions where an immediate threat discovered by SEA intelligence and is too strong for conventional operators, the SEA operates a paramilitary rapid-response force called Collection/Enforcement or C/E. These teams train like special forces and are trained to raid criminal and terrorist strongholds with military-grade equipment and weapons. There are specialized field agents for C/E teams who are experienced in combat and know how to plan operations in areas with heavy resistance.

Little is known about C/E teams since their mission scope is very narrow and there are only several thousand of them across the entire Empire. They typically only operate when there is either no time to contact law enforcement or the military, or if the nature of the information would compromise SEA assets and needs to be kept classified within the organization. Many C/E operators are infantry combat veterans.

#### Local Collaborators

The SEA is known to outsource their foreign intelligence to local citizens of the country. These collaborators are able to blend in with the country's culture in a native way that draws little or no suspicion. Usually, a combination of bribery and blackmail of compromising materials are used to motivate these chosen operators. Still, it is inherently risky using an unvetted person outside the organization with no loyalty to the Empire, and they are usually only tasked with low-level information that isn't classified by itself such as patrol routines or locations of interest.

## Equipment

### Firearms

For overt operations that involve confronting domestic suspects, SEA operatives are given standard policing equipment. The TT-80 Carpathia is the service pistol of choice among them along with law enforcement and military. For more dangerous situations, teams are given a wide array of military weapons from shotguns to sniper rifles, but the SEA's favored long rifle is the CR-34 suppressed carbine. It is small and lightweight--ideal for the indoor raids they typically engage in. For overseas missions, the SEA locally sources common weapons of the region.

### Uniforms and Kit

SEA agents normally only wear semi-formal business clothes at work. For formal occasions, the SEA has a dress uniform with a black double-buttoned jacket and an insignia badge over the pocket. In domestic field operations, SEA operatives wear a dark dress shirt and tie underneath a bulletproof vest with their acronym in large letters. C/E operators wear a randomized digital green and grey pattern. Its purpose is not to actually provide concealment, since they almost never participate in open battles, but rather to intimidate the suspects. For foreign operations, most agents and operatives wear clothes typical of their host nation.

The signature weapon of the SEA is the multibaton. It is a weighted steel baton that is thin enough to conceal easily, however it also can launch taser barbs, store a flash drive or written message, and has a concealed 4-inch blade inside.