United Galaxies Council.
United Galaxies Council.
Office Of The State.
United Galaxies Council.
United Galaxies Council.
The UGC Office Of The State (OOTS) Office Of The State, often referred to as the State Office, is the UGC federal executive department responsible for relations with systems not yet part of the UGC, equivalent to the foreign ministry of previous empires.
History.
The Plenipotentiary Council itself was established as a mission of the United Earth Government's Interplanetary Affairs Office, with the simple task assigned to broker a permanent peace treaty with the Tiresian Empire. Unbeknownst to them, the Tiresians had already launched a mission, though of a very different character and nature, to Terra, and their empire, what was left of it, had fallen to the Invid. Had the Tiresian's plans come to fruition, they could have returned and reclaimed their empire, but this did not occur, and the Tiresian/Terran conflict proved devastating for both parties.
The Plenipotentiary Council, as a de facto Earth Government-In-Exile, assumed political leadership of Terra upon its return- A assumption not welcomed by all. It took many years to regain control of earth, during which the Plenipotentiary Council fought TWO wars in the Local Group and had begun a third (the Atorian War).
Having won, by diplomacy, war, and intelligence coupes a historic union of Terra, Fantoma-Tirol, and the Sentinel Worlds, The Plenipotentiary Council's members literally voted themselves out of office and into office with the new union, which was named at the time the Inter Planetary Alliance.
With this new empire came the need for the usual bureaucracy; One element of this was an office to reach out to other empires with which the IPA might want to conduct business. Thus was born the Office Of The State.
Under the State Office is several agencies not entirely appropriate to "happy relations," most especially what was then called the Office Of Strategic Information, now the Galactic Information Bureau.
The State Office alone has the power to dispatch diplomats to unaligned states; However, Fleet Admirals are often frocked as diplomats by the State Office, with standing instructions as to what terms are and are not acceptable; When the admirals are unable to make an acceptable arrangement, State Office staff are sent. The State Office alone holds ownership of every PROMETHEUS-Class Diplomatic Ships and BABYLON-Class Diplomatic Stations.
The State Office's headquarters are the Harry S Truman Building in Sevite, Tirol, a painstakingly faithful reproduction of the original building on Terra (long since destroyed). Around the buildings' walled perimeter (the only deviation from the original plan, which has since been torn down) was built Reinhardt, a glorious city who's only purpose is to support the State Department; Even the conscience stores are there at the convince of the State Office. The decision not to build an office in or for that matter near Tiresia, nominally the capital of Tirol, over security concerns; The State Office would be a target, as would the Tiresian capital, and as such the Inter Planetary Alliance chose not to put all their eggs in one basket.
Duties And Responsibilities.
Within the Chairmanship, the Office Of The State is the lead UGC foreign affairs agency, and its head, the State Office Seat, is the Chairman's principal foreign policy advisor. The State Office executes the UGC agenda in the galaxies, chiefly among them to encourage as many systems to join the UGC as possible, even bring whole empires in whenever possible (example, the annexation of the Steinarian Empire by treaty). Not every entity entering the UGC as a body politic has been a state in the traditional sense; The Geh ''Dai for example are an order, not a state, holding but one planet, and that under that auspices themselves at that time of the Rakatan Galaxy's ruling body the Second Galactic Republic.
Other duties includes:
  • Protecting and assisting UGC citizens living or traveling abroad;
  • Assisting UGC businesses in the international marketplace;
  • Coordinating and providing support for international activities of other UGC agencies, official visits overseas and at home, and other diplomatic efforts;
  • Keeping the public informed about UGC foreign policy and relations with other countries and providing feedback from the public to administration officials;
  • Providing automobile registration for non-diplomatic staff vehicles and the vehicles of diplomats of foreign countries having diplomatic immunity in the UGC.
    Organization.
    Seat Of The Office Of The State.
    The Seat of the State Office is the chief executive officer of the Office Of The State and a member of the Board that answers directly to the President of the UGC. The Seat organizes and supervises the entire agency and its staff.
    Ambassadors.
    The Seat Of The State Office appoints ambassadors to regions that the UGC has interests in; The nominees must be fluent in the language and customs of the region. As such, non-UGC citizens have been appointed to this duty, though rarely.
    Consulates.
    Consulates are generally where UGC citizens go to receive assistance from the Council, and werher forgien parties go to begin either immigration or entry status. Most UGC Consulates have a L'egion 'Etrange're desk.
    Missions.
    The UGC maintains two types of missions, the ground-based facilities, usually centered around a PROMETHEUS-Class Diplomatic Ships and the space based BABYLON-Class Diplomatic Stations. As a general rule, the UGC's Ambassadors will reside at the ground-based facilities, while the host state's ambassadors reside at the space based facilities. Most shipments of goods in trade depart from the space based facilities, but the deals to get the goods to move usually start on the ground. This is not a hard and fast rule; In the Rakatan Galaxy, there is only one mission, on the temperate world Achion, a ground-based facility, while in the Goa'uld Galaxy there is a handful of space-based facilities, but no ground facilities.
    General Information
    Name: Office Of The State.
    Director: The Seat Of The Office Of the State; Often called "The State Seat."
    Assistant Director: Deputy Seat Of The Office Of The State; Often called "Deputy State Seat" or, dismissively, the "Little Seat."
    Duties: Oversee UGC interests beyond the UGC's borders.
    Size and Orientation: Super Agency (200)
    Features:
  • Flag Of The Office Of The State.
    A: Outfits: None (0); The closest thing to "outfits" the agency provides is a dress code.
    B: Equipment: Cheap Gear (2); Even computers, etc are based on lowest bid.
    C: Weapons: Armed Agents (5); There are (very rare) occasions they deploy armed agents, but typically if there's violence expected they send someone else to do that business for them.
    D: Bionics and Robotics: Basic Systems (10); The agency might pay for cybernetic replacements for injuries suffered on-the-job, but tries to get out of it whenever possible.
    E: Vehicles: Fleet Vehicles (10)
    F: Communications: Secured Service (10); They can also tap into other service's comms systems to some degree.
    G: Offices, Hideouts and Distribution: Regional (25); At least one small office can be found in every system the UGC controls.
    H: Military Power: Security Guards (5); However, most of these are unarmed contract guards, rather than agency-employed guards.
    I: Super Powered Agents: None (20); In theory, they shouldn't need any such thing.
    J: Sponsorship: Government (0)
    K: Special Budget: Small Potatoes (15)
    L: Administrative Control: Rigid Laws (0); In fact, this is an agency created by and for attorneys, and absolute adherence to the STRICTEST interpretations is, in their view, absolutely critical.
    M: Internal Security: Lax (5); Even their 'secret' activity is known, in so far as the general direction of the agency is known; For example, while the agency is keeping a secret about exactly what and how they intended to address a given piece of property, everyone of any intrest in the matter will know they intend to buy it, sell it, declare it a refuge, etc.
    N: External Infiltration: None (0); Legally they can't. And this is an agency created by and for attorneys.
    O: Intelligence Resources: Cheap Resources (2); They get the news, other agencies can pass information they might find useful, etc, but that's about it.
    P: Agency Credentials: Recognized (30) and not always well-liked.
    Q: Salary: Good (30).
    Headquarters: Harry S Truman Building in Reinhardt, Sevite, Tirol.
    Assets:
  • The Office Of The Council had its headquarters on XXT-5K, giving it an EXTREMELY close relationship with the Galactic Information Bureau; Too close for some. (The offices were actually on the lesser moon XXT-5K Beta, but that's still too close.) They also have full-time access to any information generated by the Galactica-Class vessels and the Galactic Survey Agency;
  • PROMETHEUS-Class Diplomatic Ships;
  • BABYLON-Class Diplomatic Stations;
  • DÆDALUS-Class Export Battlecruiser.