Vaos
From FABT
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Active: |
16 February 2223 CE - present |
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Civilian foreign intelligence service |
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Size: |
1.4 million employees (at its height) |
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Motto: |
"Relentless in duty, unfaltering in loyalty." |
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Commanders: |
Director Horparth Zaeheo (current) |
- "Relentless in duty, unfaltering in loyalty."
- — Vaos motto.
The Vaos (Sia name that means "guardian" or "protector") is the civilian intelligence service of the Federation of Alpha, and formerly of the Alpha Republic and Galactic Sanctum, officially tasked with gathering, processing and analyzing national security information from around the world, using interpersonal intelligence, covert action and black operations in order to protect the interests and national security of Alpha. Formed in early 2223 CE from members of the raloi DFS, as well as agents from the former OSS, STG, RBI and the ISD, the Vaos served as an official successor to the defunct OSS, intended to function as the intelligence service of both the Alpha Republic and Galactic Sanctum, with operations spanning from domestic to foreign, tasked with counter-intelligence against Prometheus and the Circle of the Redeemed (its Dominion and Covenant rivals respectively), as well as the protection of the Sanctum and Alpha Republic's national security, rooting out dangers to their citizens and working alongside the raloi's DFS organization towards this goal. Operations used by the Vaos include interpersonal intelligence, using agents on the ground to gather intelligence either as spies or covert operatives, operating within Dominion/Covenant territory or within their borders towards various goals and objectives. Vaos also uses other divisions that specialize in signals intelligence, imagery intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence. Unlike the operations used by their rivals in Prometheus and the Circle, the Vaos largely refrained from the direct action and wetwork operations favored by these organizations, choosing to focus on internal security while their foreign and more clandestine operations are used to observe and spy on their neighbors, using actionable intelligence in order to protect the Sanctum's interests rather than to find weaknesses in their enemies. The goal of Vaos was "that of an observer, rather than an aggressor", as the first director of Vaos, Haekall Fuyor, called it. While the Vaos would eventually form a dedicated wetwork division in 2240 CE, it was developed as a contingency as the threat of war loomed over the Sanctum, formed as part of a directive ordered by Sata T'Loak to prepare for any and all possible scenarios in the event of a war with the Dominion or Covenant, which included the training of a paramilitary arm of the Vaos known as Section Two in order to counter the Promethean Blitz Corps and the Leviathan Knights. Regardless of these newly militarized divisions, the Vaos remained dedicated in its goal to remain a largely domestic intelligence agency, with its foreign operations taking a lower priority.
During the "Sanctum era" of the organization's existence, Vaos would only ever be involved in two major operations: one was Operation TOOTH AND NAIL in 2231 CE, where it doubled its efforts to hunt down and expose a Covenant spy known only by their Vaos codename "Mirage", although this would be abandoned by 2244 CE where it was concluded Mirage never existed and had been the product of a Kasi'teh-13 misinformation campaign. The other was Operation FREEZERBURN, which consisted of the contributions the Vaos made to their joint operation with the Alpha Peacekeepers to hunt down and capture the five Covenant Sentries involved in the Palace of Eden bombings in 2252 CE, and it was thanks to Vaos intelligence that their Section Two division and the Peacekeepers were able to capture four of the five Sentries involved in the bombings, although all four would ultimately die in Peacekeeper custody as a result of suicide, despite warnings from Vaos. In late 2253 CE, Vaos was placed on a heightened state of alert when the Dominion Civil War broke out, with their foreign operatives embedding themselves in the Dominion Dissident Front to monitor the war effort and provide intelligence to the DDF through third party sources, allowing them to maintain full deniability: internally, the Vaos raided numerous Promethean safe houses they had been monitoring for years, arresting the operatives present and agreeing to extradite them back to the Dominion. In early 2253 CE, when Dominion loyalists violated Sanctum sovereignty by trespassing on their territory in order to invade Covenant space, Section Two was deployed alongside Vaos observation teams to monitor the Dominion's progress and report their numbers, strategy and movement to the Sanctum military: it was thanks to this intelligence that Vaos collected that the DDF were able to locate and engage the Dominion quickly enough at the Citadel to stop the loyalists from deploying the Citadel-Ark with impunity at the Battle of the Citadel-Ark, therefore meaning the Vaos actively contributed to the DDF's ultimate victory at the end of the war.
After the Dominion Civil War, the Vaos would survive the dissolution of the Alpha Republic and the Galactic Sanctum, ultimately going on to become the civilian intelligence service of the Federation of Alpha. It would go on to provide actionable intelligence for the Unified Galactic Republics during its conflicts with the Covenant and Dominion remnants, as well as the numerous wars fought by the UGR against threats both internal and external. Vaos intelligence would prove pivotal in bringing a quick end to the Battle of Turvess in 2677 CE, halting any possibility of an escalation of the conflict and providing pivotal intel and troops that helped the UGR forces to act quickly enough to defeat the invading migrant fleet of the Khottoi. They continue to operate to this day.