ARGENT

''Stories of events, beings, and items of unexplained behaviour have existed since the dawn of man. As humanity stepped forth from our caves and began exploring our surroundings, we shine our lights into the dark to discover a world ripe for our harvest. We turned raw dirt into farms, we tamed the wild beasts, we built cities, and we claimed we had conquered all the was to be conquered and learned all that there was to be learnt.''

''And yet, some shadows evaded the light of our modern science. Some creatures refused to be tamed. Some events failed to be explained. Some items confounded our greatest engineers. These were not the rule - but the exception. These were, in the truest sense, Anomalies.''

''From the cities and factories and the very heart of civilization, came an organization to pick apart these shadows. This group, a great monolith of order and logic, would never be seen by the public. It would never be announced by any nation, and its actions would be left from any history book. This would be the Anomalous Research, Gathering, Exploitation, and Neutralization Task force.''

History
ARGENT traces its origins to the early occult groups - both those run by governments, and those run by criminals - that, over the course of the last century have begun to coalesce. The earliest records of ARGENT as a task force, however, go back to the Auroran struggles of 1482, and the pre-War escalation that enabled governments to dedicate a constant budget towards the suppression of the occult.

Full Members
Currently, Ta'aroha, Lathadu, Alero and a handful of smaller nations are all active and contributing members of ARGENT, although the level of commitment varies wildly.

Collaborating Members
Currently Salia and Riyata are holding the posture of "one-way" cooperation - that ARGENT is only to be utilized when required.

Disbanding
Currently only is calling for the disbanding of ARGENT, in favor of more localized, smaller-scale management of anomalies with an international information system only.

Structure
ARGENT is composed of multiple closely-knit but ultimately independent Divisions.

ARES Division
ARES Division (Advanced Research, Exploitation, and Support Division) is one of the core areas of ARGENT. It's responsibilities are primarily focused around the Scientific side of ARGENT. As such, they are responsible for the development and procurement of specific Methods of Containment for all anomalies; similarly, they're also responsible for extracting usable technology from contained anomalies. ARES Division assets are present at - and typically oversee - all sites under ARGENT control.

Given that the tasks, responsibilities, and requirements of each site can vary drastically, there exists only on paper a framework for the ARES Division standard pattern. In reality, positions are created and removed as often as they are filled. Still, ARES Division maintains manpower to complement approximately 60 sites worldwide.

BFG Division
BFG Division (Ballistic Field and Garrison Division) comprises the seven primary Area Task Forces (ATF-1 through ATF-7) overseeing human and physical security, as well as deployment of groups within their designated area of operations. Area Task Forces are structured almost identically between the 7 areas, although the exact equipment varies widely in order to suit the specific needs of any given theater or threat.

In total, the seven ATFs comprise approximately 45,000 members, distributed as follows:

█████ Assaulters

████ Specialists

███ Researchers

████ Pilots

████ Officers

████ Supporters

As well, since 2004, each ATF Area includes an attachment of ████ members, most of whom are Anti████████ Specialists to combat ████████████████████████████████████████████████.

███ Division
The ███ Division is responsible for all command, support, and coordination required for ARGENT.

Technology
Full Article: Technology

ARGENT makes use of a wide variety of technologies that would, with common physics, be impossible, in large part due to the ARES Division's concerted effort to ensure that humanity will always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.

Equipment
Due to the nature of what is developed, much of this equipment is restricted to ARGENT use, although much of it is widespread with BFG Division forces and disguised so as to appear non-anomalous. A good example of this, is the SCRMB-L - the Self-Contained Recognitive/Memetic Bypass (Light).

Visor, Memetic Filter, Personal NSN 9920-00-135-3300

A helmet-mounted visor covering the eyes and ears capable of automatically expunging most known memetic anomalies with 99% effectiveness. First tested by MAST T4-4D in 2003, many of these are fitted with optional shell that makes them appear to be a modern helmet with night vision gear and headset. As such, leaked images of operators wearing the SCRMB-L is of little concern to the overall clandestine nature of ARGENT.

Known Anomalies
Full article: Anomaly Reports

ARGENT makes use of a system of filing referred to as AIRs - Anomalous Individual/Item/Incident Reports. The format of these is relatively constant - with individual reports being initiated by the BFG Division, developed by the ARES Division, and once neutralized, archived by the ███ Division.

The naming system is, conventionally, broken into four parts - the Prefix, Type, Suffix, and Assigned Number. Using these four pieces of information, a researcher can quickly and easily get level II knowledge of a given anomaly, sufficient to allow initial containment protocols to be enacted without raising the risks of a memetic leak.

The Prefix is a single letter designating the difficulty of containment for a given anomaly.

The Type is a single letter designating the nature of the anomaly. As there are a wide number of possible descriptions, this is often more arbitrary than the other parts of a designation, and often times this letter changes multiple times while the understanding increases. As such, there is no set-in-stone dichotomy but rather it is left to the decision of the Entry Director to dictate what the official title is.

The Suffix is a single letter designating the danger or risks of the anomaly, if it were to breach containment. Since the actual specific effects of different anomalies vary widely, some with less clear positive and negative impacts, the dichotomy for the suffix is primarily focused on loss of life.