Twenty-Five O'Clock: A Brief History of FEAR

A Brief History of FEAR

The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) was established in the 1950s by the Department of Defence (DoD). It’s purpose then and now is to gather information on the strength and capabilities of the enemies of the United States. At that time, the international penetration of the CIA and other intelligence operatives was minimal and information regarding the military strength of the Soviets and their allies was considered absolutely vital. The absolute failure of the CIA to prevent or control the Bay of Pigs situation ten years later led many to conclude that the DIA would always remain the superior operating force. A small rivalry developed over the decades, as well as moves to distinguish each body from the other. In particular, the DIA prefers not to work undercover or use human spies, relying instead on visual and audio evidence (from their own equipment or overheard communication), code-breaking and information tracking. They also rarely have an intervention strategy, preferring to gather information for the application of the military, rather than stopping threats when discovered.

The most significant difference between the CIA and the DIA however is that the CIA’s charter specifically prohibits it from pursuing suspects and threats within the United States itself. The DIA has no such restrictions and from its inception worked in parallel and at times alongside the FBI in identifying and uncovering threats from within the population. The DIA was not interested in domestic terrorists of course but foreign sleepers and agents provocateur.

The intelligence information liberated from the Nazis and acquired from the British indicated a threat of precisely this nature, and was therefore immediately handed to the DIA. The intelligence indicated Individuals of an inhuman nature and certainly alien loyalties were operating unseen within the general population of Europe, with unknown levels of organization. The possibility of a covert inhuman nation-state becoming allies with the Russians was terrifying. So it was that the heads of PROJECT CROPDUST, Roosevelt’s occult taskforce, directed the DIA to create Department 13 to deal specifically and covertly with this issue. Note that D13 was under the DIA’s umbrella but until CROPDUST was disbanded, also answered to them.

For the first two decades of its existence Department 13 operated a forceful process of detection and elimination of supernatural threats, under the RID protocol: Recruit, Imprison or Destroy. However, it was eventually discovered that although there were organized groups of the supernatural, none of them were operating with a sufficient level to present a credible threat. Instances of a true inhuman threat were too random to indicate an invasion. Several occult organizations had ties to the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers and other counterculture movements but the CIA and FBI were able to deal with that situation. As the savagery of the 70s faded and the Cold War ebbed, D13 was seen as less necessary.

During the Carter administration, several Cold War operations were curtailed. As part of this, D13 was reduced and reclassified and given a new directive. This protocol was dubbed ORCA: Observe, Research, Catalogue and Archive. ORCA represented a much less hostile approach to inhuman entities and recruiting at this stage was much more friendly. D13 conducted several thousand interviews with various individuals to improve its knowledge in the field.

However, things were happening that demanded solutions. Zombie hordes were rising in Uganda, the Yorkshire Ripper was conducting sacrifices and Jonestown agents killed a US Senator. After the Three Mile Island incident, Carter created the Federal Emergency and Medical Association (FEMA) to deal with exigent situations with a sweeping mobility and transferable authority – to wit, they could be called in by anyone, to deal with anything dubbed as an emergency. The legislation to create FEMA included a clause which permitted “the creation of similar bodies to deal with situations of a similar level but of a different classification”. This rider was inserted to create and fund FEAR, a smaller reflection of FEMA dedicated to solving supernatural problems. One of their early actions was the elimination of the Jonestown problem as covertly as possible.

FEAR worked alongside D13 for the next twenty years. With Rumsfeld and his hawks in power, FEAR reignited some of D13’s old Cold War ways but less overtly and with less prejudice. Then another event occurred: the attacks of September 11, 2001. After this, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS is an umbrella agency, with an extremely wide-ranging and ill-defined remit, allowing it to commandeer and supersume the actions, resources and authority of hundreds of security organizations under the generalized banner of the defense of the nation. The DHS quickly decided that the chief threat to the United States were Islamic fundamentalism and Middle Eastern rogue states. The vast majority of the DHS resources and those of all the agencies they controlled were directed to this problem.

This effectively bankrupted FEAR and D13. FEAR’s international officers were shut down, several field teams were retired and much of their resources were dismantled. For eight years, FEAR was all-but forgotten. However, with the election of President Obama, this has begun to change again. Although doing nothing to alter the power or scope of the DHS, he has encouraged more transparency and the reinstatement of each organizations domain and authority. FEAR got a budget again. Investigations began again. A new helicopter was purchased. Two new field teams were created. Yours was one of them.

Jargon: “Past Midnight”
Dept 13 is named for the old Navy tradition of ringing 13 bells to indicate a storm warning. In military (or “zulu” time), 13 o’clock would be 25 hundred hours. Thus D13 situations are sometimes dubbed “25ers” or “two-fivers”. Other coded phrases for such instances reference things being “one hour past” or “past midnight”.