[info post] Ad Meliora
An operation which is a kind of open secret. Run by the UN, its headhunters recruit peoples from all nations in order to combat the growing threat of the extraordinary happenings and provide damage control. While it's not exactly secret, it's not exactly open either - the agency's location is secret and the agents are forced to sign a confidentiality agreement when they join, making sure they don't blurt out details of cases. Those who do will be kicked out and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, as well as completely blacklisted from all UN countries.
The headquarters of the agency is located in Victory, a small town of only around a thousand people in the state of Washington, a stone's throw from Mount Baker Wilderness. Here, it poses as the headquarters for a local bank, Victory & General.
In reality, once you get past the door which says "STAFF ONLY", it opens up to reveal a whole new world, a new exciting point of view. Five floors of high-tech, fully functioning office space, with enough supplies to sustain a population of one hundred for two months in the case of attack - and the ability to shut itself off completely from the outside world.
There are several roles people who are members of Ad Meliora can fulfill.
IT
The basement is where all the IT workers are kept - usually there is a small number (kept to around seven to ten) of highly skilled hackers and crackers working at any given time. They keep AM's machines running, program and reprogram agent's phones and pagers to perform other tasks (anything from receiving email anywhere to changing the ringtone, taking away the need to top up or adding instant messaging). They also monitor AM's systems, keeping everything that runs via computers running smoothly.
Occasionally, if AM finds themselves dealing with something like a computer virus, a code or an encryption, an agent will be partnered with an IT guy to work things out.
Research and Development
Have you ever wanted to be a mad scientist? Or Q from James Bond? The research and development guys did, and wow did that turn out well for them!
The best scientists and inventors, hand-picked from labs all around the world, the research and development team here at Ad Meliora spend their time doing every nerd's dream: making dangerous and unstable weapons for secret agents. Bombs, guns, phones you can use underwater, a plaster which fits over your thumb and changes the fingerprint temporarily, cameras which fit into your glasses discreetly, machines which fit into your nose and purify poisoned air before it hits your lungs, research and development has invented all of these things and more.
Each scientist usually has his or her own pet project - although occasionally they work in small teams of three or so on the bigger things. They have a special area for "lucky" agents to test out their machines - usually they can pick their own favourite agents to test things out on revenge of the nerds but it's not unheard of for agents to volunteer to test out the cooler things, like invisible body paint or chocolate guns.
R and D is on the ground floor, but closed off from the casual looker by several six inch thick steel doors and a complicated security system involving retina scans and DNA testing. Think Edna Mode's place in The Incredibles.
Living Area
On the first floor is the living area, where agents can pretty much relax. Here is where a lot of the socialising gets done - there's a space for just chilling out (the staff room) containing several chairs and sofas and a tv. During terrible events (or sporting events), this room is usually packed with agents. It's the only tv in the first four floors of the Agency. Plus, widescreen HD.
There's also a large cafeteria, a (locked to anyone without the appropriate keycard) pantry and about twenty five private rooms for sleeping in - usually containing two single beds with two single chests of drawers. In the case of an emergency where the agents are locked into the bank, it is policy that they will take turns sleeping - in fact, this is covered in the basic training for actual Agents. There's also a small gym and a bowling alley.
There's also a room with the materials to make proper coffee and tea - although vending machines are available on every floor.
Labs
The labs are located on the second floor, although there is an elevator which goes straight from the labs to research and development.
Here are what you might deem the CSIs of the investigations - the lab technicians examine evidence taken back from the scenes of extraordinary accidents and events and analyse everything from bone to dirt. Here, dead bodies are taken to be autopsied, and everything that you ever saw on CSI or Bones is made real. Some Lab technicians will work with research and development teams on items which will have direct effect on biological creatures or the environment, whereas some will occasionally be taken out into the field to assist Agents - however, those who go out often usually have to complete Agent basic training and fill out several health and safety forms. Others will work on cures for mysterious illnesses with the medical team or biological weapons and others still will offer their expertise to headhunters who need help searching for other skilled scientists.
These technicians are a very diverse bunch. Again, their labs are behind just as much security as the research and development team's.
Medicine
Oh yeah, there's an entire floor for the medical staff. The third floor, to be precise.
Again, hand-picked from the top medical universities, doctors take care of agent's medical needs. Each agent, from every department, needs a full physical at least once a month, more depending on how contagious or dangerous the work they're doing is. The doctors and nurses (usually around five working at any given time) also handle any injuries agents receive and take care of things or people found in the field. Here, you'll find people whose powers became too much for their bodies lying in comas, with doctors working to stabilise them.
Here too are the psychologists. They handle any deep seated traumas or problems, but can also be counted on for helping with compulsions or fears, as well as analysing the mental welfare of any victims of strange happenings brought back by Agents or providing a psychological consult to anyone who needs it.
Sometimes, doctors, lab techs, and r&d will come up with some new medicine while working together to improve Agents, to make them superhuman. The effects of the last time they tried this can be seen in the swollen body of the Agent they tested the serum on, who is currently lying in a forced coma at the far end of the hospital area. Experiments to "improve" the human body are not banned, but are now very carefully supervised by someone higher up.
Occasionally, doctors or nurses will go out into the field with agents, especially if the cases they're investigating feature people who may still be alive. However, once again, they usually need to recieve basic training and thus only around half of them are fully qualified field agents.
Agents
I bet you were wondering when we'd get to these guys.
Here we are on the fourth floor. The investigating arm of the agency, the Agents themselves are mostly young, fit and usually either clever or with enough street smarts to bluff their way through things. They're the ones who'll meet any threat head-on (usually) so they generally have to be.
After being chosen by agency head hunters, trainee agents have to go through rigourous basic training. Intensive team building, survival training and nutritional lessons along with hand to hand combat lessons, stealth, training in weapons such as tasers and hand guns and diplomacy lessons. Though the diplomacy can usually be handled by human resources, making it slightly less important to active Agents.
Once they graduate basic training (which takes about six weeks of intense work), their training isn't over. Labeled trainee Agents, they're often paired up with more senior Agents as a learning tool and are asked to shadow them on their missions. Their training usually continues, with more choice - they can choose which weapons or hand-to-hand combat styles to specialise in and time is spent running liaison with the other departments to help out. Often they run liaison with departments whose area of expertise they might know something about - for example, someone who was cherry-picked whilst doing a biology degree might be asked to liaise with the lab for ease of communication.
After about six months, they usually graduate again to becoming fully-fledged General Agents. These guys are more independent, with the ability to ask to join teams or specialise in certain missions, such as damage control or investigation. Usually they form small teams under a more seasoned Agent, which are then disbanded, but it's not unusual for a particular group of Agents to prefer working with each other in a team. These guys will usually be the ones with new weapons to test out from the R&D. Less likely to panic if something goes wrong than rookies, less valuable than seasoned Agents.
Seasoned Agents are the ones who liason with Human Resources and take on serious missions. These guys head up teams and generally run things on the Agent floor. They're the ones in charge of making sure things go right and while they aren't as high-up as Human Resources, they're usually the ones who will be on the ground barking orders in case of an emergency. When it comes to seasoned Agents, it's not unusual to see a few who are closer than man and wife - these are usually ones who have partnered up regularly since joining the force; their shared experiences bring them together. They're also in charge of Agent welfare and will usually be assigned about five to eight general and trainee Agents to look after and check up on the medical and psychological health of. When they form teams, they don't have to use these Agents - they're just the camp counselor to them.
On this floor are offices for the seasoned Agents as well as a staff room with a pool table and sofas, ten rooms with single beds in them for any Agents pulling an all-nighter, more coffee machines, a target practice area which is muffled so nobody can hear what you're doing outside of it and a large common room filled with desks and computers as well as a white board for the posting of new missions upon. All new missions will also immediately be sent to the Agent's Blueberries (AM's modified version of the Blackberry), but it's nice to put it up somewhere like that.
Human Resources
The mysterious Human Resources are on the fifth floor.
These guys handle any connection AM may need with the outside world. They doctor newspapers and bribe reporters, they follow news obsessively (there are ten tvs all showing a different 24 hour news program, from BBC 24 to Al Jazeera as well as a projector connected to a computer showing a feed of all major breaking stories and a computer which checks every single newspaper for stories using certain words) liaise with secret services the world over, they negotiate with the UN for extra funding (some of these people used to be top hostage negotiators) and they take it in turns pretending to be bank tellers in the building downstairs to keep up the front. In the case of an emergency, it's these guys who will be giving the orders and they're also the ones who assign missions.
They are split into two, bureaucrats and head hunters.
The headhunters have the more glamorous job: searching out potential agents and sniping them before anyone else can. They travel all over the world in search for useful skills and talents, often taking other experts along if they aren't quite sure of what to look for. There is a slightly unglamorous side to this line of work though; they have to scour and research many places before they can find someone who might be recruitable. And then, they have to research this person in detail - usually headhunters know more about you than your mother by the time they are done.
This area has more restraining orders and court cases than the rest of AM put together.
The bureaucrats handle just about everything else, from money to news to people. They're the oil which keeps the company moving, paying the agents, ensuring they have free board, spying on their conversations, making sure everyone is working correctly. These are the ones assigning missions and telling the IT department to fix anything broken.
Older Agents usually move into this area.
There isn't a particular dress code, but neat is a specification for Human Resources.
Everyone who works for AM is an agent, but the actual Agents are Agents.
Everyone who works for AM is assigned an apartment by HR in an AM owned building close to the bank, mostly for the protection of numbers - some of the technicians are targets because of the knowledge they hold. With Agents there too, it's harder to snatch them.
All agents are equipped with a pager and a modified Blackberry known as a Blueberry - it can receive texts and emails anywhere, as well as play high quality video and audio files and record audio and video - all without the use of credit necessary.