The Department

The department, or earlier just "the program," is a branch within the Department of Defense that created and supervised agents dosed with ETKC-51.

## History

The department annoys many by never taking on an official name for the auspices of its office, a decision made during the Cold War in order to preserve classified information. Thus it is always just "the department" and is never capitalized. For those who do not know the department's reputation, hearing someone talk about their work for "the department" is often written off as being related to any of the many areas within the Department of Defense.

The program's first director stepped down when it was revealed by an anonymous source that he had allowed the double-dosing of United States military personnel, an act that was not approved by the Pentagon. He was replaced by Director Frederick Irvine, who retired in 1998. Phillip Stroud became Director of the department and is still in that role today.

## Ranking

Under normal conditions, the Director of the department holds the most power and has the highest security clearance available in the United States government, the Special Access Program (SAP).

Within the ETKC-51 agents, there were three ranks:

* **Senior Specialist:** The highest rank among the agents aside from the Director, a Senior Specialist had to qualify and obtain Top Secret Access. They also had to prove themselves in effective field missions: solo, partnered, and team-backed, which required a certain number of years as missions as an active agent.
* **First Class Specialist:** The standard rank among the agents, a First Class Specialist had to qualify and obtain the more standard Secret Clearance, as well as serve effectively in the field for a certain number of years as an active agent. Unlike a Senior Specialist, a First Class Specialist could earn this rank either in leadership roles or partnered (junior) roles to a senior agent, as well as learning how to work with the non-ETKC support staff and military personnel.
* **Junior Specialist**: The first rank among the agents, it differs in that before an application of ETKC-51 is administered, the new agent must sign off on a terrifying amount of NDAs and medical disclosure forms. Then a new agent must qualify for and obtain basic Confidential Clearance before they are given a single dose of ETKC-51.
* **Support Staff**: Among the non-ETKC-51 personnel was support staff for the entire department, along with trained teams that served as military backup for individual agents serving in the field. Each member of the department must sign the same types of Non-disclosure Agreements that Specialist agents are subjected to, and are required to keep their actual jobs top secret--no matter if they're part of a military backup unit or an administrative assisstant. This was a change from previous policy, implemented in the early 1960s when the department realized that they were never going to have enough Specialists to carry out all the tasks that would be asked of them.

## Members

Director Stroud is the most recognized member of the department by DoD standards, though some of the older agents are well-known among officers and staff in the Pentagon. Other members include First Class Specialist Jasper Fox, Junior Specialist Kayin Afolayan, and Junior Specialist Damir Kasun. Agents still on the MIA roster include Lesdi Naidoo and Tamir Berkowitz, both ranked First Class Specialists.

Deceased members of the department include Barry Whitewater, Cecilia Vargas, Hugh Kröger, Abramo Ventimiglia, William Thomas, Giordan Marcus, Ivan Polzin, Black Fox Inali, and Mayamiko Chisomo Mphepo.

Retired (or rogue) members of the department include Django Whetū, Euan Ambrus, Bonika de Lacy, Ziba Banner, and Andi Banner.