The Unnatural Alliance

Symbol: The Chimera

Credo: "Protecting the Powerless from the Powerful."

Of all the existing secret societies and government agencies, the Unnatural Alliance is the newest, the most altruistic, and the most secret. It was founded at the turn of the millennium by a disparate group well aware of the threats posed by the myriad groups secretly manipulating and preying on the unaware and the innocent. The Unnatural Alliance sought to protect these innocents by bringing together men and women with the Power and knowledge needed to combat those who would plague the Powerless of humanity.

There are currently 75 active members. Some of them were already aware of the power games that governments and secret societies played because they were, or still are, members of those organizations. Some are wielders of great magic or other supernatural powers; some are not even human. Still others are rather ordinary people, save for the fact that they all discovered one or more of the Conspiracies or Terrors that hide from the "agreed" reality the Powerless dwell in. Most became involved with the Alliance when one or more of the existing members aided them against those secret threats.

It is in this fashion that the Unnatural Alliance recruits new members: the Alliance is held together by a debt paid in service. Just as all existing members owe the Alliance for their help, so too do those members now work to help others as they were helped. Moreover, working together ensures a more effective guardianship of the existing members. Many of them might yet still be at risk from those who wish to kill or use people who know too much or have too much Power.

Organizational Terms:

Incident: The term for a crisis or event that members of the Alliance are working on.

Camp: A temporary base of operations for Alliance members that are working on an Incident. This may be a hotel, motel, private residence, or the home of one of the members.

Client: A non-member directly involved in an ongoing Incident that Alliance members interact with on a regular basis.

Lodge: A building (residential or business) that Alliance members use as a safehouse or temporary Camp. Often specifically stocked with equipment Alliance agents would find useful in dealing with an Incident. Highly secret; often used to protect Clients and other victims of an Incident as needed.

Organizational Structure:

The Alliance is not based upon standard corporate organization, for reasons of secrecy and security. Rather it is derived from the cell organizational structure popularized by revolutionaries, guerilla freedom fighters, and some other secret societies. The Alliance has also developed special code terminology to highlight the function of its operatives.

Coincidence: The term for an active cell of four to six people, usually brought together by necessity and a distribution of useful skills for dealing with Incidents. Coincidences are designed to work independently, though occasionally specialists can be contacted for equipment, information, or special services that are not available to existing members of the group.

Phantom: Alliance members that are not attached to a Coincidence. Often they will act as observers, information gatherers, messengers, or sometimes assigned specialists for a Coincidence involved in an active Incident. Not all Phantoms are field agents -- many are just members that are not active unless contacted through certain channels when needed.

Actor: A Phantom who gathers information while working undercover in an organization, especially a secret society or government agency. Actors primarily only deal with other Phantoms directly.

Illusionist: A Phantom that infiltrates government and conspiracy organizations to act as an information conduit. May break cover to assist in a situation where an entire Coincidence may be compromised.

Painter(s): A Phantom or Coincidence which is called in to clean up after an Incident; they cover up evidence of the Alliance's involvement, paranormal activity, etc. Painters are called such because they "Paint A Pretty Picture." Some painters also work with covering up computer records, establishing alternative IDs for members, or relocating discovered Alliance members. These are known as "electric painters."

Stork: A Phantom who is making a delivery of supplies, weapons, or personnel to a Coincidence or another Phantom in the field.

Tourist(s): A Phantom or Coincidence who checks out possible problem situations and reports information back to those more capable of dealing with the possible Incident. Tourists may also act as client contacts to avoid exposing too many individuals.

The Founders: The original Alpha Cell members that formed the Alliance. The Alpha Cell itself is no longer active, some of the original members having since retired. Most still work as advisors or administrators, contacting Coincidences and Phantoms as necessary to provide information, alert members of Incidents, or form a new Cell. Some suspect a few of the Founders are still active as Phantoms and Illusionists.

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is the name for the organization's net server, a highly sophisticated intranet system guarded by "the Minotaur", a near-sentient program (called a Gibson in the technological marketplace) that acts as both user interface and firewall for the Labyrinth. The Minotaur's designer had a rather odd sense of humor, and as a consequence the Gibson is a combination of the Minotaur of Greek mythology and some of the facial features and personality quirks of Groucho Marx. It is meant to confuse the enemy when encountered, but occasionally confuses the membership as well.

The Labyrinth provides databases of information gathered by the membership, and a secure online conferencing function so that members can consult as needed. It also provides email facilities so members can protect their identity from each other, to prevent information falling into the wrong hands. So far, the NSA and the Echelon have been unable to infiltrate or even detect the system, which was custom designed by one of the members of the Alliance. Rumor has it, in fact, that the Minotaur encountered one Echelon Gibson early on, traced it to its originating machine, "Ate" it, then stored the source code as a trophy of the victory.

Internal Security

The Alliance' greatest strength lies in its secrecy, as other organizations cannot act against what they do not know exists. Coincidences frequently achieve this through disinformation management, such as spreading rumors of imaginary conspiracy or government agencies. Occasionally some past Coincidences achieve a certain notoriety in conspiracy buff circles. One of the most "infamous" is the supposed vigilante group "The Pantheon," known to the Alliance as Coincidence #4. The members of this Coincidence used the names of figures from Greek mythology as aliases. Even though the rumors implied they existed outside of any organization (rather like a rogue "super hero" group), the Founders do not encourage this sort of attention, even in the small circles in which it traveled. In the case of Coincidence #4, however, the secret of the Alliance is well-protected, as all the Coincidence members have renounced any permanent public identities in order to protect themselves from discovery.

Only the Labyrinth Gibson knows the identity information for the entire membership. Its security is set up with so many layers of complexity that it would be impossible for anyone to hack it or force it to give up information to someone that was unauthorized -- or even to reveal more than a few names to an authorized member. The Gibson is designed with evasive capabilities to hide or destroy all its data if it is even endangered by an outside agency, and any member or Coincidence that asks for too much data will be reported to the Founders for investigation as a security threat.

Security threats are not usually killed or destroyed. However, if an individual or an entire Coincidence is declared a full security threat that cannot be corrected, they will be targeted and either replaced or moved to a position where they cannot compromise the organization. Rumor has it that some of the Founders have a means to produce a "Schroedinger Effect" which moves an individual out of the normal space-time universe and slips them into an alternate universe where the Alliance does not exist. In such a location, any babbling by them about a grand conspiracy will seem the ravings of someone deranged. This is said to be a costly process, however, and thus to be used only for internal security, not Incidents.

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This article is copyright © Greg Downing.
Cosmic Synchronicity™ and Earth Unmasked!™ are copyright © 1999, 2001 by Joseph Teller and are used with permission.