Former US Intelligence Assets in the New American Wasteland

## Brain Drain - The Former US Intelligence Community and the Birth of a Continent-Wide Espionage War in the New American Wasteland.

The 2020s was a period of intense civil strife in Old America. Government incompetence across different theaters cast mitigated doubt in most Americans on the certainty of leadership in the country. Indifference to impending climate disaster, incompetence in handling a global pandemic in its own borders, Unprecedented election outrage by bad actors, and military failures abroad brought the whole status of the US’ capacity for solving any problems into question. No louder was this asked than in America’s intelligence community. How were they unable to prevent these things from happening? How did they miss the threats to the country that attacked it from the inside, as well as out? The answer is still up for speculation, but their mobile response to The Withdrawal has made their intentions suspect.

The collapse of the United States of America happened rapidly over the course of a decade between the mid-2020s and 2030s. While the dissolution of the US and subsequent chaos that followed was a shock to most, the nation’s intelligence community had actually projected such a situation to happen, and commenced contingencies to protect their assets and retain power. As a whole, the integrity of the American apparatus was not necessarily a priority for the agencies. Their greater objective was the projection of power, and the perception of said power. In that regard, the US intelligence community performed commendably. But, as with all the other sectors of the government, greed and stagnant prestige had poisoned the institutions. Their goal inevitably became protecting their power for its own sake.

## Writing on the Wall

The US foreign intelligence sectors actually anticipated the withdrawal of the federal government from its Western territory, and had developed plans to preserve themselves if the worst truly came to pass. While the world was captivated by foreign affairs and rising tensions in Europe and the Pacific, the domestic agencies had knowingly observed and infiltrated most of the rising extremist groups flowering across the continental United States. Infiltration of said groups can be traced back to as far as the 1970s. The surprise came with the alarming cohesion said groups had developed, which had reached a boiling point in civil relations.

The intentions of the US government had already been brought into question when it was revealed that the National Security Agency had been monitoring and collecting data on American citizens through their phone and computer correspondence. Despite this revelation, the public soon grew apathetic to the violation, willfully settling for security at the cost of their liberty. This allowed the NSA to continue monitoring the citizenry through social media, and further data was collected on extremist groups organizing to undermine the authority of federal institutions. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was brought into the situation to infiltrate these groups with undercover assets. Their objectives were ultimately to sabotage these plans and prosecute malefactors. Barring that, they operated with a goal to at least undermine their developing measures. Into the 2020s, FBI raids grew in intensity, arresting leaders of so-called enemies across the entire political spectrum. These operations came to a head when the agencies were undermined by bad actors in Congress, and their leadership was replaced by complicit loyalists.

When agency power began to deteriorate, the domestic operations of the Central Intelligence Agency secretly planned emergency measures, preparing contingencies for if, or when, the leadership of the United States began acting in bad faith against their operations, and further compromising their foreign power. To many agents across these organizations, individual contingencies were also put in motion. A minority of compromised loyalists had already begun to infect the lower echelons of the agencies, and they would seek to offer their services to the growing extremist groups. These agents would go on to provide surveillance services to corrupt law enforcement groups that proceeded with hunting and arresting declared enemies of their New Orders. Such actions would cause the upper echelons to initiate their emergency plans.

## Changing Tides

A collection of mid-tier assets across the intelligence community sought to compromise with the growing powers of the MegaCorps. Serving as consultants, these agents would go on to provide internal security for corporate operations in their new territories, utilizing past tactics to effectively undermine labor groups and assist security forces with locating union organizers. These players would help nurture the tactical lethality that corporate forces had grown in the absence of US oversight.

The upper echelons of career agents across the community had also planned for such threats to their power, and began to set in motion a proverbial migration of their assets to safe harbors around the continent and the world. Comprehensive operations were committed to ensure the safe dissemination of assets and agents be transferred to allied agencies. The majority were to seek amnesty with allied nations under the Five Eyes (an intelligence alliance between the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) and other EU allies. Other token assets were also safeguarded with Mexico’s CNI. This migration was a closely-guarded secret known only to the most vetted of agency operators, and other actors were quickly neutralized when their intentions were made aware that some had planned to defect to the Russian FSB and Chinese MSS.

One of the final contingencies to be put in effect was committed by the internal leadership of the CIA, including former directors and their interior committees. With them, entire divisions of assets, including intel dossiers, classified documents, contracted and enlisted strike forces, safehouses, foreign contact data, and sizable bank accounts  were collected and transferred in a plan dubbed “Operation: Gold Rush”. The internal strife in California was reaching a boiling point between civilian insurgents and state authority. The federal government had already begun to withdraw its assets out of the West, and actions were made to intercept key withdrawing resources. By 2032, the last vestiges of capable intelligence assets had migrated seemingly undetected to safe harbors all across the American Southwest. As revolution had broken out, key assets were deployed to ingratiate or infiltrate prominent groups involved.

## New Order

### In California

With the ejection of the old state government and the birth of the United California Republics, An entire suite of new agencies was being prepared to begin conducting vital intelligence and security operations on behalf of the new government. In the UCR, these agencies would develop an infamous recognition as California’s new Intelligence Services (colloquially known as “The Services” or “The Sirs”). Agencies of law enforcement, internal security, foreign surveillance, and intelligence gathering popped up to quickly bring about stability in the region. An entirely new internal law enforcement agency was created, dubbed the United California Marshals Service. These new agents, or Rangers, would serve as a state-wide law enforcement agency, providing action that the new Constabulary had been relinquished of, such as direct force. Local assets of the DEA and ATF were reorganized into the Drug Enforcement Service and Contraband Enforcement Service. California’s FBI assets were restructured into the California Investigation Service, and the CIA had established itself as the new Office of Intelligence Services.

The restructuring of the law enforcement and intelligence community was made public knowledge, to offer the perception of transparency to a new stable order among its citizens. Previously discharged agents and veterans of the revolution were recruited to staff these agencies. Operations were commenced almost immediately to combat the rising Cartel threat in the Southwest, and to purge Dominion holdouts from its territory. Once all was said and done, the former United States attempted to retaliate, but had been subsequently neutered of domestic projection by its withdrawal and the brain-drain of its most vital and seasoned resources. The damage wrought is still lasting, and the power dynamics are still being assessed.

Furthermore, a new dynamic in political power is being felt across the New American Wasteland. The realms of the Dominion, who had previously gone unopposed during their rise to power, are now having to contend with newly-armed resistance groups in their territories. Corporate dominance in their production zones are continually being undermined by sabotaged production lines. Resources once unseen outside the high technology sectors are now being found in the most remote of regions in Old America, giving substantial advantage to the insurgents plaguing the warlords and overseers elsewhere in the continent.. These isolated events don't appear to have any particular pattern, but they do bear a common thread of upsetting the new balance of power. These instances play out with acts of espionage, subterfuge, and conflict not seen since the brush fire conflicts of the Cold War. The main players in North America may have changed, but Statecraft has not.

### Other Intelligence Agencies

While the Dominion has no cohesive government, it still has access to limited intelligence services to conduct surveillance on their people. These teams are composed of veteran agents and turncoats with limited intelligence experience. One such group unofficially speculated by vassals of the Dominion are the Watchers. The Watchers are an obscure collection of veteran agents that utilize PsyOps tactics to observe potential dissidents and abduct them for questioning. Their current strength and resource pool is unknown, but they likely have access to whatever facilities and services are at the Dominion's disposal for their missions. Another even more obscure group has been colloquially referred as Brother's Keeper, a quasi-official secret police to the Dominion municipalities that occupy the few major cities they control. They conduct regular home inspections for contraband with Dominion military forces for muscle.

Although never officially acknowledged, a disproportionate number of Mormons have been known to serve career postings within the Central Intelligence Agency. When the Mormons were recalled to the Dominion of Latter-Day Saints in 2028, several agents, en route to the West with Operation: Gold Rush, diverted course, and established themselves in Salt Lake City. From there, the LDS Dominion uses these new intelligence assets to monitor their immediate national concerns. Despite no official acknowledgement, It's highly speculated that this relationship provides the Mormons a back channel to communicate with California, concerning mutual concerns that would otherwise never be publicly announced.

Besides the Dominions, a sizable representation of private intelligence companies have been conducting business in American corporate states. These companies provide intelligence and internal security services for the corporate administrations that oversee their workers. Groups like Rolston Detective Agency is currently under investigation for alleged violent union busting in the Midwestern zones. Van Owen Group is a Private Security Company that provides security and intelligence forces for clandestine missions on the corporation's behalf. They have been reported to commit search and seizure missions of any citizens squatting on land the corporations wish to exploit. The more prominent zones like The Dome and Idaho proper have contracted Emerald Analytics to survey their working force and intercept any and all union organizing found on their private citizen network.