Preserving the Finest. Abandoning all Else. Building a Stronger Society on the ashes of Today.

--Team Phoenix Motto

"I tell yah, " Hard Corpse said leaning back in his chair until it groaned under his weight, "I ain't never seen nothing like this." He took another swig of Estro-gin, then set the bottle down hard.

"There were two of them, boosters both... I guess Deathmonger and me were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We spotted them sneaking out of the second story of the Bureau of Vital Statistics. One had a thin, black courier tube slung across his back. Death thought it might contain something interesting, something we could sell - whipped out his MegaGat and began firing. Put a bullet in the first one's skull, but the second slipped back inside and began ripping.

"I don't know what kind of gun that was - a bulky, brickish thing by its looks, but it tossed enough ammo our way to keep us hopping from cover to cover. After a few seconds, I got bored with the scene, yanked out my grenade launcher and took out the whole wall. Me and Death went over to stake our claim. Death lifted the auto-pistol from the first corpse and showed it to me.

"'Custom job, ain't got no marks,' he said, then pointed it dawn an alley and squeezed the trigger. Next thing I know, I'm tossed across the street, half deaf and scorched from the explosion. When I looked back, Deathmonger lay sprawled in the opposite gutter the right half of his body missing. I figure the gun had some sort of booby trap, but like I said, I ain't never seen nothing like it."

Thin Red Line was one of the first generation of boosted soldiers. At the age of nineteen, a latent genetic deficiency manifested, impairing her body's ability to replace lost cells. An otherwise degenerative, incurable disease made her the ideal candidate for Allied Mayhem's genetic experiments. Red hesitantly volunteered, seeing the procedure as her only chance to live a somewhat- normal life.

While her thin frame limited her usefulness as front-line infantry, her naturally quick wit and nimbleness suggested other possibilities. Vastly increasing her intelligence and perceptive abilities, Allied Mayhem turned her into a highly effective intelligence agent.

In return, Thin Red Line spent two tours hopping from one hot spot to another. Once in country she would begin evaluating the society's stability - carefully noting any weak spots or keystone elements. AMI execs. then used this information to plan appropriate covert actions. Thanks to Red, many countries fell into chaos after a single, surgically precise attack.

As her tours passed, Red became an expert in entropy, chaos and social disorder. Her predictions became increasingly accurate - almost precognitive. She intuitively knew where a society was headed, what forces drove it and what held it together.

Then ten years ago, Thin Red Line mustered out. She planned to return to the States, hoping to build a civilian life, but her years in the military continued to haunt her. Her experience-hardened instincts found the signs of deterioration and collapse spreading throughout her own country.

For months, she examined every detail of American society, studying the growing trends toward violence and apathy. After checking and rechecking her results, she came to one inescapable conclusion - the United States had less than twenty-five years of life remaining. The Great Collapse, as Red named it, was unavoidable. We had crossed a threshold and cannot go back.

But AMI trained Thin Red Line to find opportunities in any situation. The great collapse was not the end, merely a change. A new society would arise from the ashes. If she prepared hoarded resources, archived human knowledge perhaps she could shape that society.

To this end, she created Team Phoenix: A secret intelligence organization dedicated to gathering and preserving the best aspects of her world. Team Phoenix focused on hoarding technology, information and resources to rebuild a better, stronger society. Since the Great Collapse is inevitable, Thin Red did not concern herself with improving or maintaining current condition. In fact, many Team Phoenix projects directly contribute to the worsening of the world.

Officially, Team Phoenix proposes the creation of a government in which boosted, non- boosted and pre-frontals have the same rights and responsibilities. Not that all are created equal - clearly some people's abilities (natural or otherwise) far exceed others. Still, everyone will have their place in the new society, and they will all be treated equally under the law.

Unfortunately the organization's emphasis on boosted vets has cast a shadow on those ideals. Most of the leadership is boosted, and many of Team Phoenix's operatives openly believe in the supremacy of the Homo Superior. Some even sympathize with movements like Eugenix. In addition, Thin Red Line plans to create an army of boosted operatives once the Great Collapse begins. Several prominent non- boosted members have accused Thin Red Line of organizing a Homo Superior coup. Of these people, most remain loyal - hoping for their own genetic enhancement.

Team Phoenix Organization

Team Phoenix consists of four main branches: administrative, data/resource, research and operative. The administrative branch directs the actions of the organization as a whole. Data/resource maintains and stockpiles technology and information. Research develops new technologies, and the operatives act as security, field agents and black marketeers. Historically, admin and D&R have been the most powerful branches of Team Phoenix; however, a growing emphasis on research has allowed that branch to usurp D&R's position.

The operative branch remains the weakest of the four, despite its direct involvement with outside events; however, its proposed expansion during the early days of the great collapse will cause it to overshadow the other three.

Team Phoenix organizes all its branches into cells of one to twenty members, seven being the average. Cells act individually or communally, depending on the security needs of the area. For example, new operative cells often report to a single individual whose identity remains concealed, while most research cells work with multiple partners across the world. This flexibility allows each branch and region to adapt the basic structure to their exact needs.

Individual cells report to either a local admin. cell, or a regional base. Regional bases form the center of operations for the admin branch. Headed by a regional director, they are the worldwide hubs for gathering and disseminating information, technology, equipment and other resources.

Thin Red Line controls the South-West Coastal Region (consisting of most of California, some of Nevada and a bit of Arizona). Technically, all other regions are subordinate to South-West Coastal; however, each region maintains a large amount of autonomy. Thin Red's control over the whole organization has shrunk to monitoring the network of information between regional bases, thus keeping apprised of Team Phoenix's actions on a global scale. She reports the status of the organization, issues long-term goals and organizes occasional, multi-region operations.

Other than Thin Red's limited directorship, Team Phoenix has no true center - most decisions grow out of the communal effort of all regional directors. This guarantees that Team Phoenix will survive the destruction of any one regional base.

Similarly yet separate, the D&R branch maintains hidden data/resource caches, scattered across the United States. While D&R readily provides needed information and equipment, they keep the locations of their caches secret. Each D&R head, the leader of one cache, will know the location of a few other caches. No one knows them all.

Six years ago, D&R issued standing orders that all Team Phoenix operatives must record their missions for future reference (using a program like Pueblo Commando). This information has become the mainstay of the D&R branch. Hundreds of data technicians sift through these recordings, compile the most vital information and make it available to the regional bases. This gives most cells access to database programs that lists vital information on boosted and important, non-boosted people in their area (similar to Pablo's Snitch, but with a 30-50% chance to recognize people).

Finally, operatives and researchers work strictly at the cell level under the supervision of their local admin base or cell. Still, these two branches are not without representation, as ex- researchers and operatives make up the bulk of the admin. branch.

Thinking Globally

Despite its original, American focus, Team Phoenix has grown into an international organization. While the bulk of its cells still operates in North America, a number now exist in Central and South America, Europe and Asia. Over the last ten years, Red's original theory has expanded to include the world as a whole. Even if the other countries survive their own problems, the destruction of the United States will surely signal their downfall. When the US collapses, it will drag the North American Confederation with it. This will destabilize world trade and trigger the fall of the Far East Collective and the European Common Market.

Team Phoenix Technology

While originally specializing in information gathering and storage technology, Team Phoenix's research has spread into other areas. As the organization grew, Thin Red Line hired scientists and acquired entire businesses to ensure the technical knowledge necessary for her vision. Today, Team Phoenix's research branch focuses on three main areas: genetech, computers and "wet wiring".

Each regional base maintains their own collection of genetic engineers, with labs rivaling those of the military corporations; however, a special emphasis in Slumberland and reconditioning makes Team Phoenix's creations less susceptible to Magnetic Feedback Trauma (in game terms, they spend $7,000,000 on reconditioning, giving a counselor skill of 14). Currently, Team Phoenix produces very few boosters, due to the risk of discovery. Full-scale production will begin during the early stages of the Great Collapse.

Team Phoenix also experiments on boosting animals. Besides producing enhanced guardians, this research also stretches the bounds of genetic surgery. Several labs currently experiment on extending the genetic alterations to the subject's "germ" line (the genetic traits that pass to the subject's children). Others have begun enhancing fetal animals. The fetal research has shown promising results on dogs. It sim. plifies the genetic surgery, eliminates the need for Slumberland reconditioning and automatically alters the subject's germ line.

Unfortunately, fetal alterations do not allow the surgeon to tailor the enhancements to the subject's natural abilities.

In computers, Team Phoenix engineers and programmers continue to outpace commercial products--partially due to their habits of wholesale plagiarization. They take the best stuff on the market, tear it apart, clean it up and piece it all together. Team Phoenix also maintains many impressive machines - most boasting five or more bio,drives.

Each phoenix regional base has at least four computers, and many cells have at least one. Computer engineers have built even larger data. base compilers for the D&R branch.

Finally, with their usual willingness to ignore the law, Team Phoenix continues to improve wetwiring techniques. By wet-wiring rats, mice and other urban creatures (in combination with the more-traditional hawks and eagles), they have developed thousands of nonhuman spies. Fear of discovery limits their potential use, but many cells keep five to ten wet- wired rodents as information gatherers.

Team Phoenix Industry

Team Phoenix's research facilities have not remained limited to the strictly scientific. To fund the organization, Team Phoenix has converted many o t it research cells into legal and illegal industries. One of their most profitable (and most controversial) is the sale of black market arms.

Besides providing stolen military hardware to the general public, Team Phoenix makes and markets its own weaponry. About five years ago, Thin Red Line bought Hardcore Munitions Experts, a gun company focusing on bleeding- edge technology and made-to-order weaponry. Hardcore continues to make money for Team Phoenix, but more importantly - it gives Team Phoenix unparalleled (and unregistered) weapons.

Hardcore's top-of-the-line material is only available to Team Phoenix operatives. To ensure their technological edge, they equip these guns with a dead-switch, guaranteeing the weapon will explode before falling into someone else's hands. This allows Team Phoenix operatives to enter any combat zone, comfortable in the knowledge that their heat, is the hottest around.

Other Phoenix industries range from designer pharmaceuticals and entertainment to real estate and agriculture. Their diversification guarantees sufficient funds to keep the organization running, while providing a broad foundation for their new society.

Phoenix Setbacks

Over its ten-year history, Team Phoenix has had its share of setbacks and disasters. The two most infamous are the X-wheat dust bowl and the grand rampage.

X grains are a Team Phoenix creation - grains genetically engineered to produce all nutrients necessary for a balanced diet. Furthermore, their hearty nature allows them to grow in all but the poorest soil. X-grain distribution throughout the third world could drastically cut or even eliminate hunger and malnutrition. While Team Phoenix has perfected several varieties of X-grains, they continue to withhold distribution until after the Great Collapse. These grains will become another bargaining chip to insure loyalty and security in Thin Red's new society.

Four years ago, during the field testing of X- wheat 4.3A, the plant so aggressively drew nutrients from the soil that it left a 100-acre (and spreading) patch of sterile dirt. The resulting dust bowl eventually caught the attention of the USDAGAP (United States Department of Agriculture - Genetically Altered Produce).

Their analysis of the organic traces left in the soil quickly verified the presence of unstable, genetically altered plants. Further investigations threatened to uncover the existence of Team Phoenix. The Midwest Region scrambled to cover its tracks, an operation later known as the Scapegoat Maneuvers. Their operatives planted a false trail that led the USDA-GAP investigators to an innocent research group working on nitrogen- binding bacteria. The resulting arrests briefly caught the attention of the worldwide media, then slipped back into obscurity.

The second setback occurred when a Phoenix- built Homo-Superior suffered severe Magnetic Feedback Trauma inside Chicago's thirty-story hyper-mall. After the local police subdued him (involving an estimated loss of 176 lives, five police officers and $13,453,200 n damages), the coroner tried to identify the responsible military corporation by analyzing the Homo-Superior's genetic signature - discovering that the signature matched no known enhancement labs.

Fear of an unknown and unregulated enhancement lab prompted an investigation by the FBI. Though the investigation has gone nowhere, it continues to this day.

Use In Your Game

Team Phoenix has many potential uses in your Underground game. For example, Team Phoenix could recruit the characters as a new operative cell-working nearblind, receiving orders and reporting to a single, mysterious source. Alternately, they could become staff members in a large, regional base. Here they would have greater access to information and equipment. Finally, Team Phoenix can make a very powerful, well-organized antagonist.

All three examples provide interesting opportunities for roleplaying. Team Phoenix is a morally gray organization: its goals may be worthy of praise, but many of its current actions seem self-serving, antisocial or morally corrupt. Whether the characters join or oppose Team Phoenix, they should be confronted with both aspects of the organization: forced to decide the truth for themselves.

Various Stats