Bafiktuy Intelligence Directive

Overview

The Bafiktuy Intelligence Directive (BID) was the Imperium’s covert espionage and “dirty tricks” organization. If the Empiror wanted it done and prefered nobody found out about it, the BID is involved. While being the “official” covert organization, it still involved itself in its historic profitable enterprises. This allowed it to function without needing to appear in any governmental budgets.

History

The BID’s history began during the early years of the the First Decline and throughout the decline was known as the Bafiktuy Executive Decisions Committee. It was founded by a powerful corporation as a corporate espionage organization. During the Krezil Stock Market Crash, the corporation went bankrupt. Hostile takeovers resulted in the corporation being split into various companies and sold. The BID was not officially on the books, so the “Firm” (as it likes to be called) established itself as a secret mercenary espionage organization.

During the years leading up to the Imperium, the BID was covertly working for so many different organizations that it was frequently spying on its clients for other clients. This access to information only helped to make them more powerful. They also were involved in “hostile” corporate and other organization takeovers, assassinations, and sabotage.

They helped serve the Imperium early on in helping to drive a hermit insane and compel him to form the Alaerian Cult. It is surmised that their torments helped to fuel the need for an Imperium. While he was spouting off about the Great Satan, the pro-Imperial factions were lobbying for controlling “unstable” forces within the Republic. Eventually, the time arose for them to turn off their psychological operation. They captured their tormented puppet and tortured him to death. Unfortunately, they had not planned on creating a martyr.

Organization

The BID’s structure is true of many covert organizations. Their exact structure is unknown and hotly debated, as are their numbers.

Management

The “Board” was a small group of leaders who guide the organization’s overall operations. The exact number of “Board Members” was never accurately documented, but the Library of Karnomin† had files that suggested the number was between seven and thirty. Speculation suggests that the number may have been based on the number of worlds within the Imperium–one Board Member per system (planet or colony station). The assumption here is that a “godfather” controled a planet or station and runs his organization similar to the legendary Mafia of ancient Earth.

From there, there was a second echelon of cadre (called “Executives”) who helped keep the various sub-organizations organized, under control, and working. Some of these cadre had direct communication with their Board Member, while others may have run other Executives. There were some Executives who have never met another Executive or a Board Member, but have communicated only via dead drops, etc. Those “Dead Executives” were recruited into the organization and managed to be promoted ahead of their recruiter; sometimes at the untimely demise of the recruiter. There are even rumored Executives who operated totally autonomously of the BID for many years before the were “returned to the fold.”

Cells

The basic sub-element of the BID was the cell. A cell comprised between four and six operatives of varying skills. Typically, only one or two members of a cell knew of any other BID operative or executive. The cells tended to be organized by specialty. Some were designed to function as couriers, others as financiers, weapons and logistics, espionage, sabotage, smuggling/piracy, combat and enforcement. The cells themselves tended to operate fairly autonomously, but with rather clear marching orders from above.

Couriers, Smugglers, etc. These cells tended to smooth the flow of commerce in one way or another–legal or not. At one time they had enough combat space vessels to rival proper governmental navies, but were obviously never organized well enough to work collaboratively, except for the Witi Emplaser Incident when the BID sought to subdue a government during the First Decline.

Financiers either worked as liaisons between the BID and their various clients, or worked to acquire funding via quasi-illegal to illegal methods, running the gambit from fake charity organizations (including soliciting funds for various factions of the Alaerian Cult) to kidnapping. At least one rumored story involved a finance cell that had managed to kidnap and recieve payment for that hostage, only to be rooted out by another Finance cell working with an Enforcement cell, who collected the reward. In the end, the BID earned both ways.

Enforcement cells were the internal security of the BID. Many times they were used to control or eliminate rival organiation operatives, but were just as often employed against BID cells. This may be due to abject paranoia–assuming if an organization could be found by this hunter-killer cell, then it was ripe for exposure by a rival organization and should be eliminated.

Recruiting

The general consensus amongst researchers is that many operatives for the BID began working for the BID without knowing it. They might have had “a friend” who asked for a bit of help, or needed a bit of information. After they had been exploited enough times, then the recruiting cell might have decided to reveal itself to the dupe. Sometimes these recruits had been covertly bumped through several jobs (the BID has powerful friends) to train them for their eventual roll. There are no reports of an individual refusing recruitment, but it may be due to an otherwise accidental death preventing them from going public.

The personality type the BID recruited was as varied as one might expect of any corporation. There were some action junkies who just wanted a chance to do something exciting. But, through research points that there was no one personality characteristic that defined them as a whole.

References

† (Unfortunately, the library was firebombed shortly after this Scholar began researching those files, although he did manage to rescue some earlier historical documents before the mainframe was destroyed)