The Setting

Hi All,

In 1917, during the Mesopotamian campaign of world war 1, The British Empire discovered an alien device later to be called ‘The Space Bridge’, in effect a wormhole generator which connects to other bridges across the galaxy. It is not successfully activated until 1957, shortly after Britain’s expulsion from NATO and near Bankruptcy. For the next 20 years Britain used this device to explore the galaxy, obtaining enough gold to repay American war debts from both world wars and the loans made after the cancellation of lend-lease as well as gaining new technology, extra -terrestrial friends and enemies alike. At home the UK became swayed by the arguments of the CND and officially dismantled Britain’s  nuclear weapons.

In 1976, the Soviet Union, already in severe decline,  despite existing commitments in Angola, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, decided to show the world that it was still a super power and undertook an invasion of the British Isles, although only East Germany and Cuba actually sent soldiers in support of this effort. The next 4 years of warfare proved costly for the Soviets, eventually they were driven out, with the aid of the Martians (under the Treaty of Woking). The war and occupation cost the Soviets 1 million men and the British over 8-10 million lives and a homeland which resembled the blitz of world war 2, albeit 3 big cities had been destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons.

In 1980 the British officially confirmed the existence of extra-terrestrial life and of the Space Bridge Programme, with the offer of sharing the technology gathered over the past 20 years, with Britain’s ET allies -Mars, Svinge and Byzantine- pledging aid to rebuild Britain, which was expanded to include Venus (which was to be terraformed), a space station, lunar bases and territories within and beyond the solar system. This was all too much for the ‘Roswell Grey’ aliens , called the Kh’ari, who’d been secretly helping both America and the Soviet Union during the cold war . The cold war was in fact set up by the Kh’ari  as a ‘research project’ for one of their universities (Kh’ari society is based around academic study and is de facto a massive collegiate University).  Seeing that the game was up, the Kh’ari withdrew support from the Soviet Union which eventually collapsed in 1986, ending the cold war.

The Edinburgh Committee, named after Prince Philip, was formed in 1980 as an executive agency of the Privy Council as a reaction to the war and to absorb the bits of the Space Bridge Programme that hadn’t been hived off to other government departments. The Committee would be directly accountable to the Monarch and Prime Minister, who would serve ex-officio and 7 other members appointed by the Monarch. The purpose of the Committee was to oversee and set the strategy for a new combined intelligence and special forces agency called the ‘Extraordinary Intelligence & Security Service’ (EISS) or MI9, which would be given an unlimited ‘black budget’ & would focus on ‘extra-terrestrial, paranormal and any other dangerous threats against the Realm’.  The day to day running and tactical performance would be led by a Chief Executive Director (CED), a head of intelligence (Chief Inspector -General) and a head of special forces and operations (Captain- General).

By the twenties of the 21^st century Britain had been rebuilt during a new ‘golden age’, having established herself as a major human power on the intergalactic scene, there isn’t, sadly, a day that goes by that there isn’t still war or conflict either across the globe or in interstellar space and the EISS is needed now more than ever.