This secret governmental group is a notable example of
why Dominic allows Asmodeus to conduct Renegade hunts
without real interference. Simply put, it's a cult of
genocidal nihilists - and the brainchild of a Renegade
of Death and a Renegade of Infernal Fire.
Project SHIVA was, at the start, just another deniable
black project started in the middle of the 1950s. Its
purpose was macabre, but legitimate enough, in a
horrid sort of way: as both the USA and USSR had begun
stockpiling nuclear weapons, with the intent to use
them if pushed to the brink, it would be advisable to
work out how to use them best. After all, if one were
forced to destroy the planet (in order to save it from
communism), the entire point of the exercise would be
moot if said attempted destruction was incomplete.
The project members were thus charged to analyze
intelligence reports, geographical studies,
statistical analyses - in short, look through all the
data on Russia (and later, China), the better to find
an optimal way to blow the two countries to Hell.
Unfortunately, this sort of job is fairly rough on the
average person's long-term sanity. Trying to find
people who wouldn't crack on the strain was difficult,
but eventually the government was able to refine their
selection procedure. They were looking for
well-adjusted sociopaths, frankly, and they succeeded
beyond their wildest dreams: one of their analysts
turned out to be Gregory, Renegade Balseraph of Fire.
Why Gregory went Renegade in the first place is
actually a bit of a mystery: he certainly was
committed to the service of Death. Possibly he was a
bit too committed, or possibly Saminga just fudged the
paperwork when Asmodeus started asking questions. At
any rate, for a while Gregory was quite pleased to
hide out and work out the perfect way to incinerate
hundreds of millions of people outright, then slowly
poison the rest. After a few years, though, he
started to become impatient with waiting for the Bomb
to drop. He decided to switch from planning to
implementation.
The first step was to recruit the rest of the project.
It was easy enough: most of them were by now
subconsciously fascinated with the idea anyway. The
next step was to use his new converts to the worship
of Death to seek out key members of the US military
and government who could be similarly corrupted. The
plan was to wait until a time when tensions were high
- inevitable, given the international situation at the
time - then push things just enough to trigger a
nuclear war.
Gregory had such high hopes for the Cuban Missile
Crisis: it seemed a perfect scenario for his plans.
In fact, it nearly was. If it wasn't for a couple of
alert members of the National Security Council, a few
broadminded members of the Central Intelligence
Agency, and a whole lot of luck, his plan might have
succeeded. Stopping the cabal required everything
from assassinations to an armed assault on a nuclear
missile silo: rooting out the conspirators took over a
year. Gregory himself was not killed until the very
end, during an attempt to assassinate the Governor of
Texas (one of the primary supporters of the
investigators). Ironically, an unfortunate side
effect of the botched operation was the assassination
of John F. Kennedy (who wasn't even a target): this
embarrassment, coupled with the sensitive nature of
the situation, meant that the US government felt it
necessary to completely suppress all facts in the
case.
When the various celestial groups were belatedly made
aware of the crisis, they conducted their own
investigation - a even more thorough one than the
government's - and ferreted out the Renegade's
involvement. The end result was a reaffirmation of
Dominic's decision to permit Asmodeus to hunt down
Renegades: for every one that wanted Redemption,
twenty or more were simply going to run amok. The
risks weren't worth it.
Unfortunately, what none of the investigators (human
or celestial) had discovered was that Gregory had a
backup vessel stashed in a Body Bag. When he came
out, he spent the next few years building up a
suitable Role - and started to insinuate himself into
the US government again. This time, he had acquired
an ally (Jerome, Renegade Habbalite of Infernal Fire),
who would shape the new cult's development.
The two are, by now, very high placed government
bureaucrats who have carefully vetted their pawns over
thirty years of observation. The cult, for the most
part, believes that they have been chosen by agents of
God to bring about the Final War. Jerome is very
ecumenical when it comes to what God he says he's
serving: there are Project members from every faith
that incorporates a belief in the End Times. Very few
Project members know of each other, and no one is
certain about just how many co-conspirators there are.
Nuclear annihilation is somewhat less likely now,
what with the generally poor condition of most ICBMs,
so Gregory and Jerome have branched out into
biological research. They're sure that eventually
they'll be able to get the talking monkeys to push the
buttons.
Solving this will require the service of Revelations,
Judgement or the Game (and this is one time where a PC
just might be able to get away with using resources
from the Other Side). Failing that, there are still a
few people alive who remember the old Project SHIVA
crisis: actually, the PCs should instead try getting
the ones who are dead. The ones in Heaven will
probably enjoy the chance to come back down and play
on Earth again. The ones in Hell can't leave, of
course, but that's not an issue if one has a spare
demon handy to accept the new Ethereal Forces. With
their native guides, the PCs can then navigate the
bureaucracy, no doubt uncovering all sorts of
half-forgotten black projects along the way, until
they can trace the head of the conspiracy. However,
even with the two Renegades soul-dead, the Project
might still continue: it all depends on whether or not
your players seem to be enjoying being the Celestials
in Black...
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