Greystar Shades

The Greystar Shades are a unit of specialized infiltrators and counter-intelligence agents founded to combat internal threats. They were formed as a direct response to Monarch and the Church of Benevolence, with planned used and work extending beyond the crisis for which they were founded to combat.   The Shades are hand picked by the director and a small body of Greystar's most senior agents taking the cream of the crop from senior field agents, analysts, technicians, psychics, and other support personnel. Appointment to the rank of Shade is done via unanimous agreement by the entire directorate staff, and those selected are often sent to the frontiers of the polity. It is unknown how many Shades are currently in service, but estimates do not believe there are more than several dozen operating at any one time. The shades are formally based on Suha in the shadow of the former Suha gun site only a small fraction of the Shades are present there, taking shifts between training and refitting, and the field work necessary to fulfill their duties.   Upon selection and elevation to Shade even senior agents undergo a grueling months long series of courses in survival, weapons training, interrogation and interrogation resistance techniques, code breaking, and clandestine communications. There is a strong focus on performing these tasks with only primitive means as technology could be compromised or fail. Those that emerge from Shade training are given their badge of office, the trust of the polity, and the pride that comes from being endlessly resourceful while remaining hard to kill. Those who wash out and return to their previous duties struggle to remember much about the experience or their time on the Suha campus.   Most often Shades work alone, or in small cells to perform their highly specialized tasks but there are times when the job before them is too big to be handled by a small group no matter how specialized they may be. In these instances, Shades have authority over non shade agents, military forces, and fleets though with this great decision making power comes the knowledge that to abuse it is a swift path to a trial for treason. Those subordinate to the authority of a shade are expected to perform their duties to the greatest extent of their ability. To fail these most dangerous of missions is to fail an order from the voice of the Greystar Directorate itself.