Infinity Patrol Missions

The Patrol has many duties,
including:
• Enforcement: Inevitably, some
Homeline governments, corporations,
and individuals use timelines in unac-
ceptable ways: exploiting the natives,
wasting resources, importing merce-
naries and equipment for military
adventures, and so on. This happens
constantly, despite the I-Cops’ best
efforts. But the Patrol keeps trying to
stop it. This is the job of the Justice
division
of
Intervention,
but
Penetration Service agents often
notice the problem first, when a “new”
timeline turns out to have uninvited
guests.
If an unauthorized penetration is
discovered, the I-Cops go into action
immediately. The policy is to shut
down the penetration instantly if The
Secret seems likely to be breached . . .
but otherwise, to infiltrate the pene-
tration in order to roll up the entire
gang – not just the foot soldiers. An
experienced Time Tours guide or
retired scout might be approached for
such a mission.
• Homeline Security: The Security
division of Intervention is focused on
monitoring and stopping crosstime
infiltration of Homeline. It works
closely with the Intelligence division
of Penetration – and with the intelli-
gence agencies of major world powers
– to detect and neutralize threats. A
major part of this job is keeping tabs
on conveyors and projectors.
• Outtime Security: A pillar of
Infinity’s policy is that no timeline out-
side
Homeline
(and
obviously
Centrum) is to learn that crosstime
travel even exists – let alone use it –
except under close control. The
Penetration Service works to discover
which timelines are edging toward
this technology (or any other means of
dimensional
travel),
while
the
Intervention Service takes action to
ensure that individuals and govern-
ments do not breach regulations, and
punishes those that do. When neces-
sary, Intervention uses extreme meas-
ures to keep The Secret (see p. 540).
• Defense vs. Centrum:
This
includes counterespionage against
Centrum spies, espionage to learn
more about the enemy, and the
most “romantic” job in the Patrol:
defending echoes against sabotage.
Penetration and Intervention work
together at these tasks. Penetration
engages in surveillance, espionage,
and
counterespionage,
while
Intervention handles active police
work and special-ops missions to
counter Centrum operations once
detected.
• Rescue: There are many reasons
why crosstime travelers might fail to
make it back on time, ranging from
the trivial (conveyor blew a fuse) to
the disastrous (eaten by dinosaurs,
taken hostage by renegades, or burned
as witches). It’s also possible that they
interfered with history and caused a
timeline shift (see p. 544). So when
travelers fail to check in, the Patrol
sends out a rescue mission.
Who goes on the mission depends
on who was lost – and where. On a
“safe” timeline, the response might be
two junior Penetration troubleshoot-
ers with a tool kit . . . but they’ll be
armed, just in case. For dangerous
timelines, it might be an armed con-
veyor full of I-Cops.
In all cases, the Patrol’s top priority
is to safeguard The Secret; therefore,
retrieving or destroying a lost convey-
or can be more important than getting
missing travelers out alive! For this
reason, the Patrol often isn’t called
immediately if the missing party
belongs to a group other than Infinity.
Many crosstime corporations (such as
Time Tours) have their own reaction
forces. Other governments have their
own security forces, too – some more
competent than others. And in
extreme cases, ISWAT (p. 536) might
intercept the call and quietly take over
the mission.
A rescue mission is a good, and
potentially violent, adventure. And if it
takes place in an echo, there is also the
danger of causing an inadvertent
quantum shift . . .