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Anti-Terrorism Unit Specialist Operations Branch 13 (shortened to SO13 in common conversation), formerly known as the Extraordinary Counter-Terrorism Unit (ECTU), is the youngest of the three orgs comprising the United Kingdom branch of the Coalition, which it generally serves as the 'military arm' of.

(For the real-life SO13 organization, see Anti-Terrorist Branch.)

History[]

Formation[]

Like many of the various organizations that make up the Coalition, SO13 was created for thoroughly mundane purposes. First formed within London's Metropolitan Police (or Met) in 1971 to deal with left-wing terrorists protesting the UK government (most notably the Angry Brigade and IRA), SO13 spent the first three decades of existence managing ordinary mortal terrorists within London.

Things began to change in the wake of the London Bombings in 2005 when SO13 under Detective Inspector Ishaq Khan responded to a series of violent incidents in central London. Suspects behaved like rabid animals and demonstrated incredible strength and resilience. Drug use was given as the official explanation. This theory was given additional credibility by the almost supernatural capabilities of the Mumbai bombers in 2008, widely known to be under the influence of psychedelics and stimulants.

Internally this theory was questioned, as leaked forensic reports highlighted several anomalies, particularly that some of the suspects had already been reported dead for some time. Similar cases were witnessed by personnel attached to an initiative aimed at exposing illegal human trafficking in London called Operation Maxim. Khan made sure to approach and recruit personnel from this and a handful of similar operations. The anomalous suspects became known as “Blanks” when through concerted surveillance it was established that key suspects did not register correctly on thermal imaging cameras.

ECTU[]

When the city's Blanks began to strike back at SO13 in order to suppress knowledge of their existence, attacking the loved ones of its leadership, those who had been made aware of this new kind of terrorist were only further galvanized to enact vengeance upon them. When the Met’s SO13 was reorganized in 2006 to form the new Counter Terrorism Command unit SO15, Khan was approached covertly by senior officers in the Met who were aware of his work, and who similarly shared his concerns. Together they formed their own dark operational unit internally dubbed the Extraordinary Counter-Terrorism Unit.

The unit, consisting of veterans from Ishaq's old SO13 squad and a handful of new recruits, was wholly dedicated to hunting and intercepting priority suspects, which they labeled Blanks, Nulls or IC0s (Identity Code 0, pronounced "I see zero" or "I see null"). In 2006 ECTU consisted of a tiny team held together by Ishaq's charisma and grim conviction. For years it operated on what scant funding its supporters could covertly skim from the generous counter-terror budgets of the Met and Scotland Yard.

Operation Antigen[]

In 2009, the leadership of the JTRIG, who had just been themselves made aware of the inhuman beings infesting London, contacted Ishaq and his allies in order to clandestinely discuss the limited information that they had collectively scraped together regarding the Blank menace.

Just a few weeks after the meeting, the ECTU launched their first major operation internally codenamed “Firebrand”. With Ishaq now concentrating his efforts on protecting his team from interference from corrupt forces in the MET, the active team was spearheaded by Lt. Paul Richards, Sgt. Gabrielle Ellis and forensics expert Francis Ward. The operation played out in the shadow of the massive G20 protests in April of 2009 and was considered a resounding success, despite public outrage over collateral damage during one of the strikes secretly targeting Blanks involved with the protesters. Two IC0s were eliminated, and the identities of several more were uncovered.

With this initial success in their pocket, the ECTU, JTRIG and newly-formed Newburgh Group spent the next three years laying the groundwork for the legendary Operation Antigen. Reinforced by SAS commandos and Royal Marines when necessary, and protected by GCHQ and the Official Secrets Act, ECTU “slayers” burned out virtually every haven in London. In November 2013, SO13 discovered the resting place of Lady Anne of London herself, with predictable results. A photograph of Captain Khan holding her severed head remains iconic among both the Camarilla and the Coalition to this day.

Coalition membership[]

With London officially “cleaned,” the ECTU (having reclaimed the title of SO13, albeit now hidden from the public) turned its attention to other British cities and began seconding teams of investigators — and occasionally slayers — to Second Inquisition operations in other parts of Europe and elsewhere. The Newburgh assets within GCHQ had long since connected with their NSA counterparts. As two of the Five Eyes partner nations, the U.K. and U.S. routinely combine intelligence and information culled from the ECHELON program of global electronic surveillance. Felicity Price happily added JTRG to the FIRSTLIGHT distribution list, and Price and Sir Simon Newburgh soon identified like-minded partners in the other Five Eyes countries: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Their own hunter-slayer teams burgeon on the SO13 model, funded by the IAO or by seized Kindred treasuries.

Operations[]

Despite its current iteration being one of the youngest first-party organizations in the Coalition, SO13 has more confirmed blankbody eliminations than any other organization inside the Coalition save the eight-century-old Society of Leopold. The commingled ashes of London’s once powerful vampire court now rest in a dented tin urn, forgotten in the bottom drawer of a desk at SO13’s headquarters. While the Vatican’s Entity admires their zeal, the rest of the Coalition recognizes SO13 as the most vocal element of the conspiracies’ eradicator faction. To SO13’s headhunters blankbodies are an undifferentiated and monstrous mass that corrupts humans by proximity. If they had their way the Coalition would expand its mandate to capture or kill ghouled blood slaves, so called thin-bloods, and even members of a vampire’s herd. Their adoption of decapitation as a terror tactic, coupled with their ubiquitous use of face masks, has made it difficult for the leadership of the Coalition to sign off on expanding SO13’s methods into the rest of Europe.

While technically not a major voice in the Coalition, SO13’s great success in London means that its eradication policy is pointed to as a possible model for the conspiracy as a whole. While many in SO13 would love to see their methods enacted globally, their personal loyalty to Ishaq Khan and distrust of “softer” conspirators within the EU make them reluctant to share the details of their operations. Of particular concern to SO13 is the use of ghouls and thin-bloods by FIRSTLIGHT and the GRU. Headhunter squads usually destroy these larval blankbodies when they are encountered to prevent them from metastasizing into more potent threats in the future. While SO13 loans what manpower they can to operations outside the UK, Headhunters would likely revolt if forced to work alongside a vampire or former ghoul.

SO13 Hunters[]

SO13 operatives assume that any blankbody is a potential daywalker and they never capture targets unless directly and specifically ordered to do so. While on a mission they use incendiary ammunition and thermite grenades, but operationally confirm hits by collecting the heads of vampires and ghouls they’ve destroyed. Their penchant for displaying these heads earned them their grisly 'Headhunter' nickname.

Battering rams are a favorite tool of UK police forces, and SO13, having grown out of such organizations, is no different, knowing rams as Enforcers.

Similar to the SAD and ESOG, the two other pioneers of UTR combat doctrine, SO13 makes liberal use of robotic aids in their hunts, such as small multi-legged spiderbots to recon havens and other hard-to-reach areas and seek out blankbody resting places, and "Spot" robotic dogs to send mounted XScopes into dangerous areas.

References[]

Witch-hunter orgs
Coalition orgs USA: FIRSTLIGHT/SAD/IAO · Brazil: BOES/PMEX · Russia: GRU-N58/Akritai/Unit 242 · UK: Newburgh Group/JTRG/SO13 · Vatican: La Entità/Society of St. Leopold · Bureau IX · Calcédoine · G-Kontoret · HSP · TID · Unit 8211
Academic orgs Arcanum
Corporate orgs Chopra-wafadar · Fada · Monster-X · Neo Albion · Orpheus Group · Re:Venge · Strike Force Zero
Government orgs DAAE · Division Six · GSG 10 · Manila DoJ-SRP · Project Twilight
Religious orgs Ikhwan al-Safa · The Judges · Nails of Christ · Order of the Rose · Society of St. George
Vigilante orgs Cog Conspiracy · D-Club · Duffy Family · ECLIPSE · Mortician's Army · Toussaint Brigade

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