The @United Terran Authority (UTA) maintains an extensive network of intelligence and security organizations. Their responsibilities include counterintelligence, foreign espionage, domestic surveillance, political security, information control, and covert operations.
The Directorate of Strategic Intelligence conducts many of the Authority’s most sensitive operations. Officially, it protects @Terra from foreign interference, terrorism, organized crime, and technological threats. Unofficially, it also monitors political dissidents, manipulates foreign factions, and conceals information considered dangerous to public stability.
Most UTA @Agents believe that secrecy is necessary. They operate in a solar system where a leaked military project, uncontrolled technology, or false public panic could cost thousands of lives.
This belief allows nearly any action to be justified as protection.
Internal divisions frequently compete for information and influence. Agents may carry out missions without knowing that another UTA department is pursuing a conflicting objective. Some secrets are protected from enemy powers. Others are protected from the Authority itself.