T H E - D E P A R T M E N T - O F - S H O C K S

This was inspired by a discussion on the World of Progress Facebook Group, related to the 1st Edition Errata.

Long-serving Operatives will note that an older version of the Organisational Chart once listed a department known as 'Shocks, Shares and Bonds'. Soon after the chart was published, it was swiftly amended to 'Stocks', which many have assumed was simply a spelling correction. This is wrong.

The Department of Shocks has existed for some time within the SLA hierarchy, as a semi-clandestine sub-department working alongside Communications and Misinformation, reporting to Cloak Division and Head Office. This Department more than any other employs Heavy Support/'Death Squad' Operatives for its missions. BPNs require at least one Operative with this training package, and are quietly issued by the department; Operatives taking on these assignments usually report to Stocks, Shares and Bonds and are directed from there by a specially-assigned liaison to report for briefing with a Shocks representative, creating an administrative dead-end.

Its function is rapid dominance; the use of a myriad of tactics employing administrative power and spectacular displays of force designed to paralyze an enemy's perceptions and destroy their will to fight. While this was originally a function restricted to War Worlds, it was decided by Head Office to create a sub-department capable of operation on civilian worlds where Soft Companies and Rival Companies are seeking to undermine SLA's control.

While Shocks does not advocate for collateral damage (due to the potential for an enemy to use this to fuel propaganda against SLA), their operations involve the controlled shutdown of means of transportation, food production, water supplies and other aspects of infrastructure within civilian boundaries. They may also employ direct overrides with other departments such as Transport and Engineering, resorting to bringing in Operatives for particularly hazardous instances.

They are also tasked with surgical decapitating strikes designed to take out the leadership of enemy organisations and cells; notably DarkNight cells and some streetgangs.

The threat and fear of action will effectively shut down an area, rendering an enemy's ability to fight useless, short of complete physical destruction, by creating a perception of total vulnerability in enemy forces while at the same time, reinforcing SLA propaganda in an image of total invulnerability.

Shock's operations are designed to leave an enemy force stripped of the will to resist, to induce physical, mental and psychological exhaustion. Taken to its logical extreme, this can mean the use of expertly-placed demolitions to eliminate large amounts of infrastructure; in these extreme cases, their operations are carefully labeled in the media as 'terrorist strikes'. The targeted destruction that Shocks causes leads other departments to be able to move into affected areas taking on the role as the saviours of the civilian population; this is reinforced in turn by selective Silver BPN's issued by 3rd Eye News for Operatives to assist with 'relief efforts'.

(Rumours that the Dept. of Shocks was conducting operations during the fall of Salvation Tower have been officially labeled as spurious and unfounded, and all other information has been locked down under SCL2.z D-Notice)