Created by: Garry Stahl, Jay Hailey
Number of Members: Several thousand, no more
Nature of Members: Paranoid elitists. This group is the "Attack of the 1950s". They fear anything new or different. They don't try to control incursions, but seek to destroy them and anyone that saw it.
Organization: Cell. Information is a precious commodity. No agent ever knows more than they must. Cells consist of two and at most three operatives and a cell leader that never physically meets them. Cell leaders are themselves part of cells and so forth. The most any agent can betray are his immediate team members and the existence of the leader, but not his location.
A typical Alpha team will be two agents that work together well. They will have super science tech and magic at their disposal. The usual ride is a fusion powered car that resembles a 1970s boulevard barge, more for the room provided than anything else. Later models are in the SUV category for the same reason.
Alpha cells do not have home addresses. All agents have been stripped of any real identity, they are missing or dead to their former lives. Life is living out of the car, cheap hotels, and diners. They move from incident to incident. Seldom is something so large as to call a number of cells together. In these cases mercenaries will be hired so agents can keep a low profile.
Team Alpha also works to co-opt various extremest groups from racial supremacists to religious intolerance societies in order to continue their work in a more conventional manner. Such groups are usually "informed of the greater threat" and turned loose with no contact to Team Alpha. This will be done in the guise of one of the target group's "true believers" who will leave enough deniable truth to convince, but never enough to prove anything. It is judged that enough of these distractions will prove either fatal to the real targets or a impediment to groups such as Bureau-13 to allow their real work to progress.
Game Role: Provide a dark reflection of Bureau-13.
World Role: Prevent any public knowledge of anything mystical or alien.
Relative Influence: Major. They work in secret around the world. They are never heard of, but prevent knowledge of the alien or supernatural constantly.
Public or Secret?: Secret, the more secret the better.
Stated Goal: Keep the madness at bay.
Relative Wealth: Good resources and super science.
Group advantages: Secrecy. Team Alpha depends on no one knowing they exist. To this end they depend on a classic cell structure.
Special Abilities: Super Science. Team Alpha has access to stuff like atomic powered super cars, ray guns, and other such devices.
Group disadvantages: Secret, and they don't dare stick their heads up.
Special disadvantages: Ridged thinking. All supernatural is bad, all aliens are bad. They also have a high degree of confidence in their own rightness, whether they are right or not.
Those who favor them: Themselves and their secret backers.
Those opposed to them: Bureau-13, and like organizations.
Area of Operation: The entire planet.
Headquarters Location: Secret island base in the Pacific.
Public Face: They don't have a public face.
Notable Members: Howard Hughes: Hughes is the money backing behind Team Alpha. After the Roswell incident Hughes used his connections to see the craft and the survivors. It was Hughes that made them vanish, and the Air Force was left holding the bag. Hughes hired an actor to play him and went underground forming his own shadow government to "Protect the Earth". The real Howard Hughes has not been seen since 1955. His location and fate are unknown.
J. Edgar Hoover: Second in command. Hoover discovered the activities of Team Alpha in the 60s. Hughes himself talked Hoover into joining them. Hoover remained as FBI director it was too useful to Team Alpha. He did end up selling Bureau-13 down the river. It was direct action by the Bureau chief that caused the Massacre of '77 after his death in 1972.
History of the Organization: In 1947 Roswell happened. Howard Hughes learned of this and the possible damage it could cause to the American way of life appalled him. This had to be stopped. Using his vast resources Hughes assembled Team Alpha. Magic was also discovered and added to the list of threats than must be stopped. The organization built quickly, more like-thinking world and industry leaders were brought on board.
An actor was hired to play Hughes, and when the man threated to spill the beans he was poisoned with heavy metals driving him mad first. His Team Alpha handlers keeping him out of sight of the world.
By this time Team Alpha was aware of Bureau-13 and decided their methods were a threat. Hughes recruited Hoover into the cabal, and the purge was instituted after his death. Hoover would not betray agents, no matter what. With Bureau-13 well and truly out of the way Team Alpha could secretly protect the Earth.
Team Alpha seized alien space craft and Team Alpha think tanks reverse engineered the technology as well as they could. The resulting super tech was spread to the agents. Once the world was safe it could be spread to the people of Earth, but not before that.
Team Alpha cells work on only two principles. Never reveal yourselves, and the ends justify the means. Law, morals, ethics? Those are for other people. You do what you must to keep the madness at bay.
Gear[]
Team Alpha cells commonly have the following gear. They will have other items as required, but this is their "always present" stuff.
Car: As mentioned either a 1970s Cadillac or Lincoln look-alike, or an modern SUV of the largest kind. This car is fusion powered (just add water) and capable of speeds over 150 mph. They also have an invisibility cloak that one would be wise to use cautiously. Because you cannot be seen does not mean you don't exist. The cars are environmentally sealed and have bullet "proof" armor and blast protection. It will stop average RPGs and anti-vehicle mines or .50 cal bullets. Lastly the cars VIN can changed at will and the license plate isn't something you can trust. Later models can even alter their own paint color. Depending on the type of car they can be used to sleep in, and many teams live out of their cars most of the time.
Weapons: Team alpha will have conventional weapons which they prefer to use. They will also have super science weapons of the GMs choice. They will only pull these out if their is no chance they will be seen in use.
Magic: There is one item of magic they will always have, a manasink. This device once activated will pull all the magic out of an area a quarter mile across. It will deactivate 99% of magical effects, items, and creatures within that area, but it is like turning off your computer with a blob of C4. You don't get to use it again, or the computer room, or the house. This is a very dangerous item. Team Alpha prefers to avoid the use of any magic.
Miscellaneous: Teams will also have laptop computers and black hat gear for locating open networks, breaking into secure records and various illegal computer activities. They will have a means of altering the memories of witnesses. They need and will have cash by the wad, badges for various police organizations, and IDs to match. All the tools required to look official long enough to get the job done.
Currently[]
Team Alpha was dug out and hit in the early Naughts when information on the organization fell into the hands of the VCPD-SIS via an alien computer a Team Alpha cell was using. It fell into the hands of B-13 agents during the VC Catz affair. Further contact with Team Alpha in the VC Bo Peep Incident that saw an Ane History Scout successfully returned to her people marked the beginning of the end for Team Alpha when the Team Alpha base fired on the Ane starship, it fired back. The island is still in the middle of the resulting volcanic eruption.
The "Day of Reckoning" saw the majority of Team Alpha bases destroyed and their power ended.
The threat of Team Alpha is not gone. Remaining agents missed in the Day of Reckoning have been co-opting various extremest groups from Human Supremacists to Religious Intolerance Societies to continue their work in a more conventional manner. The location and fate of Hughes is unknown.