The IISS is comprised of the Scout Headquarters, located on
Capital and seven Offices, each of which has subsidiary branches which perform specific missions. The Offices themselves are organized into two groups, the
Bureaucracy, comprised of the
Administration,
Operations,
Technical Services and
Detached Duty Offices, and the
Field, comprised of the
Exploration,
Survey and
Communications Offices.
Bureaucracy Offices
The Bureaucracy is typical of other Imperial agencies, governed by rules, regulations and hierarchy, primarily at the thousands of Scout Bases throught the Imperium. These offices manage budgets, plan projects, and maintain all the facilities and ships that are used by the Scout Service. The Bureaucracy values conformity and success means advancement in rank.
Administration Office
The Administration Office manages all the resources of the Scouts, from socks to Scout Bases. Administration is fairly small for the size and swcope of the Scouts and its mission and use sophisticated computer resources for most of its record keeping and even formulating policy. Administration is divided into the
Personnel,
Finance, and
Procurement branches.
Personnel Branch
This branch is responsible for managing the Service's people, recruiting scouts, as well as hiring and assigningother support personnel. It manages the career of every scout, peer review, transfers and retirements. Administration are very careful screening recruits for temperament, skills as well as arranging mentorships with more experienced scouts, training and selecting people for teams and missions.
Finance Branch
The Finance Branch oversees the budget for the Scouts, working with the Imperial
Ministry of the Exchequer for funding and makes payments for everything purchased by the Service as well as paying salaries, bonuses, and pensions.
Procurement Branch
This branch is responsible for purchasing all martials, equipment and services used by the Service and writes all contracts with these suppliers.
Operations Office
This office directs the construction, maintenance and operation of all IISS bases and vessels. It assigns missions and evaluates the results an information collected by Field scouts. It is divided into four branches,
Maintenance,
Security,
Base, and
Fleet.
Maintenance Branch
Maintains and repairs all the installations, ships, and equipment owned by the Scout Service. These services are also available, at cost, to scouts who are in posession of a detached vessel. Scout Bases have a high reputation for quality work, and despite inter-service rivalry,
Imperial Navy captains are usually happy to send their smaller ships to Scout Bases for maintenance and repair.
Security Branch
Security Branch provides security for all scout bases, installations, and offices. They serve as a military police force on IISS property and as light marines on IISS ships. They are responsible for law enforcement as well as internal security. Security personnel tend remain in this branch for their entire career.
Base Branch
This branch is responsible for the operation of hundreds of IISS installations throughout the Imperium. They are fairly mundane jobs like ground crew, stevedores, drivers, technicians and clerks. The Service tries to recruit Base personnel locally whenever possible. This is not only cost-effective, but also allows many people to engter Imperial service.
Fleet Branch
This branch consists of all space ships and star ships used by the Scouts. The Fleet supports scouts in the field by providing the ships and crew necessary to reach and accomplish their missions. On paper the Fleet is organized similarly to any navy, most of their ships are detached to other offices for operation.
Technical Services Office
This office is responsible for scientific research and technical development and education within the Service. It is divided into the
Education Branch and the
Research and Development Branch.
Education Branch
This branch is responsible for providing training to all scouts and Service members. Education Branch disseminates information to Service members and ensures that library databases on Scout vessels and bases are kept up to date. This branch also develops courses of study for scouts to learn new skills and develop old ones. Education Branch is responsible for recruiting experts on various subjects from inside and outside the Service to develop curricula and courses. Finally, Education Branch also develops and administers standards for technical expertise in the Service.
Field personnel are not only allowed but actively encouraged to take training courses that have nothing to do with their official duties to keep them occupied and motivated. However, Bureaucratic members must justify every course they take as relevant to their jobs. Field duty is highly prized because of the opportunities for essentially free education in a wide array of fields.
Research and Development Branch
R&D Branch is responsible for scientific investigation of data acquired during IISS operations and for the development of new equipment and ships for use by the Service. R&D has earned a reputation for being on the cutting edge of new technology and scientific discovery. Many of the Imperium's best experts in physics, astronomy, planetology, sociology, linguistics, shipbuilding, and computer science work for R&D Branch. Many scouts who become experts working in the Field transfer to R&D in their later careers which gives R&D a reputation for being to most freewheeling section of the Bureaucracy.
Detached Duty Office
The Detached Duty Office's primary missions are to keep track of all scouts on reserve status , control all IISS ships on looan to reserve scouts, and collect all information and reports of reserve scouts. It is comprised of the
Records Branch and the
I(ntelligence Branch.
Records Branch
This branch maintains records of all reserve and retired scouts so they can be quickly reactivated in time of war or emergency or to find scouts who have badly-needed skills. Scouts who are loaned Scout ships are actively monitored on a continuing basis while others are simply checked from time to time to stay in contact. Records Branch personnel are primarily administrators with cimputer skills.
Intelligence Branch
Intelligence is the covert operations branch of the Service. It openly acknowledges interviewing all scouts and any other volunteers to gather information on events and people both inside and outside the Imperium. It also maintains intelligence assets (spies) in areas where information is most needed.
Naval Intelligence is primarily concerned with gathering military intelligence, but IISS Intelligence is concerned with gathering political, technological, scientific and economic intelligence. Most of this is gathered from open sources and from interviews with scouts who have visited foreign polities. Sometimes, however, Intelligence sends in scouts undercover as merchants or other civilian occupations to gather intelligence from outside the Imperium. Other missions involve covertly jumping ships deep into foreign terrotory to collect signals intelligence, often with the Exporation and Fleet Offices.
Field Offices
The Field Offices are unique among Imperial institutions in that they hold no rank and teams are much more ad hoc for missions since scouts in the field are often alone or in small groups far away from support or control of the Scout Service or any other Imperial organizations. The Field operate ships in deep space or far beyond the Imperial systems, explore new worlds, make maps, carry vital messages and information. The Field relies more on personal expertise and initiative to complete missions.
Exploratiojn Office
Exploration Office is responsible for exploring new regions of space. Once the largest Office in the Service, it has been reduced greatly since Imperial borders have met those of other galactic powers. It is composed of the
Exploration Branch and the
Contact and Liason Branch.
Exploration Branch
This branch actually performs the exploration of uncharted systems, compiles data on planets, studies life forms on those planets, and compiles and distributes information about hazards to people and vessels. This branch is most active in the
Spinward Marches and the
trailing fringes of the Imperium. On occassion Explortaion Branch will mount expeditions hundreds of parsecs out into unexplored space that is unclaimed by any of the local interstellar governments. While expensive and hazardous, these expeditions are considered an investment in the future of the Imperium.
Imperial Grand Survey Office
Properly named the Survey Office, this branch is responsible for producing and maintaining maps and astrographic data of the Galaxy, individual star systems and planets. This office is divided into the
Internal Mapping Branch and the
External mapping Branch.
Internal Mapping Branch
This branch maintains the Imperium's navigational charts and databses of star systems and their worlds. It also deploys and maintains beacons and navigational aids necessary for system and interstellar travel. It also works with the Technical Services Office to develope starships and equipment for survey work.
This is also the Office that is responsible for mounting comprehensive surveys of its soverign territory, and maintaining up-to-date information on the Imperium between these Grand Surveys. Even today, Survey will send ships to Imperial systems to perform detailed verification of orbital data.
External Mapping Branch
External Mapping is responsible for maintaing maps and data on areas outside the Imperium. These maps are used for navigation, colonization or economic planning during peacetime. During wars this information is essential for military operations. External Mapping operates openly when surveying territory of client states or in deep space surveys where there are no interstellar governments. They also survey territory of other interstellar governments using ships designed around stealth, self-defence and long range independent operation. External Mapping also works with Intelligence Branch and Naval Intelligence on astrographic data.
Communications Office
One of the Imperiums most important functions is as a "postal union", providing and protecting the flow of information and good between its member worlds and the various offices of Imperial government. This office is comprised of the
Express Boat Service and the
Imperial Courier Service.
Express Boat Service
This branch operates express boats, colliquially called
Xboats, and tender ships, operating a network of routes providing electronic communications throughout the Imperium and its client states. Xboat routes are laid out so that Imperial systems are generally 3 or 4 parsecs from an Xboat station. Its members are trained in an odd and specific meixture of navigatio, engineering and communications, and Xboat pilots have a reputation for self-reliance that is unusual even for the Scout Service.
Imperial Courier Service
The Couriers carry cargoes of small packages and important personnel that cannot travel by Express Boat. ICS generally travel between the Xboat network and the outermost worlds of the Imperium. This service also manages and operates all of the communication links to the Imperial diplomatic missions to other governments.
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