Black Research
Black Research is a department of Raven dedicated to investigating, containing, and occasionally exploiting anomalous artefacts, which may have originated from other dimensions or The Precursors, and bear intrinsic reality-altering properties. The department is one of the only Raven divisions that is completely secret and kept from public knowledge. Most of its staff members are high-profile ex-corporate or ex-IRTO researchers. Its tagline is "Guarding the Unseen".
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 18 June 2101 |
| Headquarters | Sector R (Research), The Descent, Black Mountain, Dunwich City, Northern European International Zone |
| Motto | Guarding the Unseen |
| Department executive |
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| Parent Organisation |  Raven |
| Child agencies | |
It includes a large number of sub-divisions, or laboratories, such as BRL-1 (Dimensional Physics), BRL-3 (Entropics), BRL-7 (Infohazards), BRL-11 (Substratics), BRL-12 (Containment), BRL-15 (Nanotech), and BRL-17 (Special Technology). It also houses the extremely secretive BRL-26 division, which has no official name, and SPIKE, which is responsible for conducting field research operations. The BRL-31 division, which existed to create and weaponise sapient anomalies, was destroyed during the post-collapse period of the department's mutiny and was not restored after the department was rebuilt. The “BR” prefix is usually dropped when divisions are used in conversation, i.e. L-17.
History
Creation
Black Research was one of the first Raven departments to be created as part of the organisations's transformation in the Dimensional Security Accords. It originated with the small team of scientists that were tasked with using the substratic technology provided by the Aegis Institute to solve the First Incursion, and initially remained secret to hide the true nature of Raven’s benefactors. As the years went on, Black Research rapidly grew, expanding into a massive internal organisation with many sub-divisions.
Dissent
From the department's inception, tensions always existed with the other branches of Raven and the High Council. Many researchers viewed strict project risk assessments as an unnecessary amount of red tape that only slowed the department down and actually created more risk by delaying its intervention in exophysical calamities. Formerly, Reality Control was intended to approve all Black Research projects through an internal pipeline; in practice, this policy was impossible to enforce, as Reality Control scientific oversight personnel did not possess the clearance required for most of its projects.
In the 2200s, under the oversight of Director Shannon Taylor, Black Research began outright concealing project facts and entire programs from the High Council. This resulted in several high-profile incidents, including the Vertex Revolution and the failure of Project Alderon, but the department tactfully deflected blame on both counts to external contractors; to Metatron Robotics in the former case, and CORE Nanotech in the latter. Later in the century, however, Black Research began to experiment directly in the creation of sapient anomalies after the failures of both the Vertex and Alderon programs had forced its hand in developing a new counter to exophysical threats. This represented a flagrant violation of the Dimensional Security Accords.
Mutiny
In 2386, Black Research, led by incumbent Director Shannon Taylor, attempted a takeover of the High Council after Raven realised the department (specifically, the no-name BRL31 division) was creating and weaponising sapient anomalies to use as weapons under Taylor's direct supervision. The Research sector of Black Mountain was laid under siege for nearly a week, as Taylor threatened to unleash her anomalies on the rest of facility if the Council did not immediately cede control. Taylor, however, was killed by her own revolting anomalies inside the sector. After her death, numerous arrests were made throughout Black Research, and much of the department was razed and rebuilt from the ground up.
Secrecy
While Black Research's existence is not public, it is also not much of a secret internally, with all personnel with an Epsilon or higher clearance able to view the full department tree that includes Black Research. Even in public, Raven is assumed to possess its own research arm, though there are many theories on what it is called. Raven's official position is that its mandate is limited strictly to security as per treaty law, and that IRTO is responsible for all scientific matters.