Strategic Analysis of the TSAB

by Wysp

The TSAB has made itself known to Earth, with an offer: disband and disarm, and join the Administrated Worlds. However, many countries do not like this, and America is chief among them. Gearing up for war, they formulate a Strategic Analysis of the TSAB.

CLASSIFIED SECRET

STRATEGIC EVALUATION OF TIME-SPACE ADMINISTRATION BUREAU

PART I

TSAB POLITICS

Summary

In recent days the world has become aware of an extra-dimensional superpower known as the "Time-Space Administration Bureau". Upon their making themselves known to us, they requested that we disband and permit Earth to become part of their Administrated Space.

Not only is this an affront to American sovereignty, it would invite several unacceptable civil rights violations, detailed in the "Political Background" section.

Upon sending a group of diplomats to learn more about the TSAB, we have gained valuable insight into their technological, military, political, and cultural status. From this information, combined with classified data obtained by operatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, we have compiled a report on the feasibility of resisting assimilation by the Bureau.

General Capabilities

Our diplomats have observed several feats of technology unrivalled by anything available on Earth. Among these are devices capable of pulling matter (such as clothing and weapons) out of apparently nowhere, and interdimensional warships with firepower unrivalled by feats of Earth technology, most likely beyond the largest nuclear devices.

They also have technology permitting high-ranked "mages" to devastate multiple city blocks in a single blow and, in the most extreme cases, shear a starship (they do not seem to distinguish between space-faring and interdimensional vessels) in half.

Their resources are extremely large, as they have at least sixty-one member planets (Classified as Administrated Planets) and at least ninety-seven Unadministrated Planets (Earth is the ninety-seventh. While we have been unable to attain their full rosters, the way they treat this operation it seems like it has at least some form of established protocol, suggesting that there are many more planets out there of which they know.) They also seem to treat planets (both Administrated and Unadministrated) the same as Dimensions. In short, it seems that they treat interdimensional travel as we would treat space travel, but without the complications of faster-than-light travel.

Their standard weapons have exhibited guided capabilities for the most basic projectile weapons (however, their larger attacks seem reliant on saturation rather than accuracy), and commonly take the form of a melee weapon (spears and staves seem to be the most common). However, they have also been seen to manifest as jewelry (especially in their deactivated form), and are therefore exceedingly capable of stealth missions as well as combat deployment. This "inactive state" has manifested as gems, cards, and even a reinforced glove in a few cases. However, to cast most "magic", they seem to require activation, transforming into a more recognizably weapon-like shape, such as the aforementioned staves and spears, which are often used like guns, limiting their ergonomic capabilities in that manner. However, the guided qualities of their projectiles allow them to reach around cover to damage hidden enemies, and they have also shown themselves to be capable of deploying reconnaissance drones measuring only a few inches in diameter. These capabilities make the "Device" a versatile weapon, paying for it in one, extremely important respect: lethality.

History documents that our diplomats were granted access to indicated several periods of upheaval in the ancient past, the most recent of which was directly responsible for the foundation of the Bureau. While our sources are not entirely clear, one of these ancient civilizations (either the most ancient, known as Al-Hazred, or the most recent, known as Ancient Belka, similar to our Rome) used what the TSAB classifies as "mass weapons", defined as any weapon which utilizes mass to effect its goal. This includes all of Earth weaponry throughout its known history. After the massive loss of life which was the result of this ancient war, the TSAB outlawed all mass-based weaponry, rather relying on the notably less lethal magic Devices. Even starship-destroying blasts are nonlethal, although they do cause a significant amount of pain. Magic weaponry is also capable of rendering a target unconscious after a significant amount of damage. However, they do utilize one extremely notable weapon, known as the "Arc-En-Ciel", a starship-based weapon capable of destroying "defense programs" (created by an autonomous magic tome created in Ancient Belka), which had previously shown themselves to be impervious to the strongest infantry-based weaponry available to them at the time. (This incident has been linked to an unexplained flash of light and energy spike observed on December 17th, 2005. Cleared personnel may refer to NASA report for that month. SETI has also logged that incident for their records.)

In summary, the TSAB, while extremely technologically advanced in regards to civil technology, has a culturally ingrained aversion to lethal weaponry, and so will not be capable of forcing our Armed Forces to stand down. However, they are capable of causing extensive property damage, which is capable of destroying our infrastructure, both military and civilian. Therefore, if we opt to resist, they will be able to deal us damage.

Political Background

The background of the Time-Space Administration Bureau has been touched on in the General Capabilities section, but not yet explain in-depth.

It seems that, after a great upheaval several centuries ago, known as the Sankt Kaiser war, the TSAB was founded to enforce order on the war-torn planets held by Belka. While this has no direct analogy in Earth history, the TSAB seem to incorporate several functions into only a few branches.

The Ground Forces seem to function as extremely light infantry, lacking in both firepower and armor, as well as Military Police, enforcing law and keeping order. However, their lack of any meaningful firepower seems to preclude them from front-line combat except as cannon fodder. This seems to be the dumping ground for the worst of their troops, as even small magically-capable organized crime rings were able to stand up to them.

The Air Force carries a large number of the TSAB's better mages, not as many as their Navy but a far vaster amount than their Ground Forces. They are almost always deployed as front-line troops, and operate similarly to our Special Operations units. Their most famous squad was the now-disbanded "Riot Force Six", which was used as a special operations team for the duration of the "Jail Scagletti Incident" (see TSAB documents 03-05 for further details).

The Navy is the most securely-classified of the three branches, and American intelligence operatives have yet to attain much meaningful information about them. It is know that they have the highest firepower of any of the TSAB's branches, and therefore it seems likely that they ascribe to the "Battleship" method of combat. Our suspicions are that their "Navy" is analogous to a science-fiction space navy, and that the "Asura" mentioned in several declassified reports is part of that Navy. (Note: the Asura is an outdated ship, recently disarmed and turned over to a museum, although the inside was not available for exploration and/or mapping. This ship was the vessel which carried the only known Arc-en-Ciel. There is a chance that they have developed an even more powerful weapon. Precautions should be taken against this chance—see the "Rods from God" program as a possible option for orbital defense).

There are several notable parts of the TSAB that are among our primary reasons for rejecting their offer of assimilation.

Weapons of Mass Destruction are available to the highest-ranking combatants to use at their discretion.

Mages of S rank and above have routinely shown their ability to level entire blocks of a city at a time with little strain, and SS rank mages have been shown to easily freeze over an entire airport to stop a fire. While a city block or an airport is not nearly enough to qualify for a WMD, the ease with which these feats were accomplished displays that those mages have much more firepower at their disposal—potentially enough to level a city, if the fighting was wide enough. In addition, this demonstrates their predilection for massive overkill. Also, the Arc-en-Ciel carried by their warships could potentially erase a city from the map, leaving nothing but a large crater, and may be used by the Captain of the ship at his discretion. In addition, there is nothing preventing a rogue Captain from firing his Arc-en-Ciel against orders, as there is no failsafe against firing and the firing mechanism itself is simply a key placed into a keyhole and turned. Our nuclear weapons, by comparison, are secured by two separate keys, their keyholes more than a man's arm-width apart. This is complemented by a code which is not available to our submarine captains except during DEFCON-1. Only once all three of these have been passed is the actual firing mechanism accessible.

Child soldiers are a common and acceptable resource, and at least three have achieved hero status among their colleagues, two at the age of ten, and another (during the same incident) at the age of six.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 38, declares that "State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." Deployment of children under the age of fifteen is a war crime, and compulsory service of children under eighteen is also a war crime. Nonetheless, the TSAB has not only deployed children on the battlefield at the age of ten, but has taken custody of children and trained them in military functions, in at least one known occasion, since the age of six. While the child soldiers do not express any dislike of their situation, this is a typical reaction from children who have grown up as soldiers.

A state religion exists, which goes against the founding principals of America.

When the TSAB was founded, a religion based around the hero-worship of a "Saint King" or, in the original Ancient Belkan "Sankt Kaiser" (notice the similarity to German) known as Olivie Segbrecht. The relation between the Church of the Saint King and the TSAB is analogous to that of the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire (which was, incidentally, based in modern-day Germany.) The Church is closely tied to the politics of the TSAB, and no other religions have been observed in the TSAB, although they seem tolerant enough of atheists.

The line between armed forces and law enforcement agencies has been blurred beyond recognition.

Not only does this disrupt their military capability, but it also has the effect of, essentially, permanent martial law. The highest-ranking known TSAB official is the Admiral, a military position. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that the TSAB is run by a military junta, a dangerous proposition to the people under its control.

Potential eugenicist programs.

During our diplomats' stay on Mid-Childa (the capital of the TSAB), they did not see a single non-Caucasian person, save for a few Oriental people of Earth origin. This, along with the general populace's highly prejudicial treatment of Artificial Humans/Combat Cyborgs (a highly illegal program. Several people were killed in its enforcement, and the before-mentioned child soldier trained since six was removed from his family due to his being an Artificial Human), suggests that the TSAB is not only very racist, but also follow similar eugenic programs as Nazi Germany (again, note the relation to Germany.)

The fact that the TSAB has Earth-recruited mages suggests covert operations on Earth. The CIA is investigating overseas operations in concord with Mossad, SIS, and the DGSE. The FBI is rooting out TSAB operations within America itself. In addition, if we can capture any Devices, we may look into putting them toward a military application.

The capital of the TSAB is Mid-Childa, a planet similar to Earth, but functionally like that of the Eastern Seaboard—a large amount (although by no means all) of the TSAB's forces are based there. The feasibility of erasing the TSAB leadership by wiping out Mid-Childa is discussed in Section Three.

The TSAB seems exceedingly feeble in the intelligence department, as DGSE and SIS agents have been unable to find even a hint of intelligence organization of any sort on Mid-Childa. No attempts have been made to hinder their efforts, and the Mid-Childan embassies in Paris and London have made no effort to acquire British or French secrets.

In addition, there is a good chance that the TSAB uses extremely stringent background checks for its officers—there are only two recorded instances of corruption in the TSAB—once during the "Book of Darkness" incident, where an Admiral (at the top of the chain of command, and therefore able to stop any investigation into himself) planned to imprison the Book of Darkness (an Ancient Belkan weapon treated similarly to Earth nuclear devices) in interdimensional space until a suitable solution to its problem could be found. While a laudable goal, this would have resulted in the likelwise imprisonment of nine-year-old Hayate Yagami, the girl that the Book of Darkness had chosen to attach itself to at the time. A group of non-TSAB mages (later to join the TSAB as part of Riot Force Six) were able to disable the Book of Darkness' defense program and their assistants were able to teleport it to the targeting zone of an Arc-en-Ciel on the orbiting ship, Asura. This removed the hostility of the Book of Darkness and enabled Miss Yagami to use it as an ordinary magic tome. After the Admiral's conspiracy was uncovered, he was retired to a house in England, accompanied by a pair of maids. He has since been placed under covert observation by the SIS.

The other instance of corruption was discovered several years later, during the "Jail Scagletti Incident". It was discovered that the founders of the TSAB were manipulating the organization from the shadows since their retirement hundreds of years before, and had existed as brains in preservations jars for some time. This is an extremely valuable technology and it should be a priority to get our hands on it.

The founders were murdered by an agent of Jail Scagletti, and the conspiracy was discovered in the aftermath of the Incident. It is unknown whether this was viewed as acceptable or not.

Current Political Climate

According to our operatives, the TSAB is propagandizing the impending assimilation of Earth as a positive event, and apparently an important one, as what records we have seen able to attain do not indicate any such assimilation occurring in recent years. The people support this action immensely and we cannot expect any support if we commence a retaliatory strike on any major scale, and our undercover units will have no support network but that we lay ourselves, an enterprise which will take some time. Mossad has already deployed several operative teams along with its diplomats, and we have done the same. The SIS have established an embassy with the TSAB on Mid-Childa, along with all requisite staff and the accompanying spies. They have been exceedingly helpful with supply operations. The French government has done the same, and intends to make peaceful overtures to the TSAB. The DGSE has moved in comfortably to the French Embassy.

PART II

LOCAL POLITICS

Summary

The invitation to assimilation has been extended to the entire Earth, not just America, and while the majority of Earth does not agree with us on a variety ideological stances, many nations have decided to hang together with us instead of allowing assimilation.

Europe

Great Britain is, and has been for some time, one of our staunchest allies. They have chosen to refuse assimilation, but have chosen a much more low-key path of resistance, since their military capabilities are not as large as ours. The French have done the same, establishing embassies on Mid-Childa and running espionage activities there. Thanks to them, our ability to undertake black-operations should be extremely great on Mid-Childa. However, it may be slightly more difficult to arrange transportation to other worlds.

The other nations of the European Union have followed suit and, therefore, the European continent should be treated similarly to its role in the Cold War—allied, but with an enemy presence. Admittedly this presence is weak, but it exists nonetheless. The other NATO nations have assured us that they will field troops on our side if—or when—the course of events comes to war.

Russia

Russia is still recovering from the fall of the Soviet Union twenty years ago. Most of its nuclear weapons are mission, and it still has a lot of house-cleaning to do. After their reviews of the TSAB's internal security, they have decided to accept the TSAB's offer, and are in the process of disarming and disbanding under the guidance and watchful eye of TSAB officers. Western intelligence agencies have been working to keep any classified information regarding the GRU or KGB out of TSAB hands—no reason to give them ideas.

China

China's extremely nationalist stance and large military power has prompted it to refuse the TSAB's offer, and they have begun a full mobilization of their military resources. They have yet to discuss making an alliance with Western powers.

Canada

Canada's leadership has decided similarly to the rest of the Western world, and they have decided to support us in what limited ways they can.

Australia

Australia has decided to side with the Western powers and has decided to support us in any way they can.

Israel

Israel's extreme conservatism, as well as their religious fundamentalism, has meant that they are opposed to every facet of the TSAB. They have decided to help us in every way possible, and their special operations squads are ready at any time to deploy to Mid-Childa or any TSAB-influenced place on Earth.

Islamic Middle-East

Military overtures against Israel have ceased, since a much greater threat is upon them. The Islamic nations have declined assistance from the Western or Oriental world, and have decided to fight the TSAB the same way they fought us.

Third-World Countries

The majority of third-world countries have decided to join the TSAB, bringing Africa and South America under their control. Even now, the TSAB is constructing large cities on those continents, and importing the luxuries their soldiers are used to. (For example, an entire office building is devoted to the operation of two three-man teams, re: Riot Force Six. In contrast, we operate six- to eight-man teams on a much smaller resource pool, although our costs are high due to the technology involved in arming them.)

Conclusion

Most of the civilized world will be fighting on our side, and so we have an overwhelming advantage against the TSAB on Earth. However, they do still have a foothold here and we cannot ignore that fact. Before we make any large-scale assaults on TSAB-occupied planets, we will need to remove them from Earth itself.

PART III

STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

Given the TSAB's dimensional-faring capabilities, it is obvious that we will need to attain interdimensional craft before we can make a reasonable threat, aside from simply isolating ourselves as a fortress world. However, once that objective is achieved, we will have very little in the way of resistance. Our warmaking capabilities, despite our miniscule resources (compared to those of the TSAB) is vastly superior due to our thousands of years of experience and lack of a cultural taboo against killing.

Action #1: Conventional Warfare

Conventional warfare will be necessary for us to hold any territory against the TSAB, as their Air Force will be capable of fielding large numbers of mages against any large target (re: the Jail Scagletti Incident). Their Ground Forces are usually present in sufficiently large numbers to combat a large intrusion of similarly-capable enemies, and urban operations will most likely be necessary to clean them out. They have demonstrated enormous tenacity in the face of invasion, although this could very well be because the only record we have of them being invaded is during the Jail Scagletti Incident.

It is recommended that a combination of conventional urban warfare and special operations warfare be used to capture TSAB spacecraft, having SOCOM deploy teams to seize hold of a ship while the Army, Navy, and Air Force deploy to capture the location it is landed at, securing it and transporting it to the States for analysis.

It must also be noted that we have an overwhelming superiority against their "Air Force", which mostly consists of mages (due to the common ability to fly) wearing "Barrier Jackets", clothing which commonly accompanies the activation of their Device and shields against magical damage. However, our jet fighters have vast speed superiority over their mages, as well and longer ranges (they do not have the ability to fire beyond visual rage without recon magic to help them target, and this takes several minutes to set up) and more devastating weaponry (their weapons, although the lighter ones are guided and the larger ones are devastating, do not have proximity fuses and therefore it is simple to dodge them). We also have the ability to go much higher in the air, due to our pilot's protection against low air pressures, which is not afforded by Barrier Jackets.

The only things which the TSAB has in the Air Force which are superior to us are maneuverability (their mages can stop and turn on a dime) and sheer saturation of a target.

Action #2: Orbital Defense

As has been shown above, the most dangerous weapon the TSAB can field (known to us) is the Arc-en-Ciel, an orbital weapon deployed from a starship to eliminate a target as necessary. It has proven itself to be extremely lethal, as opposed to most other TSAB weaponry, and measures should be taken to eliminate any chance of its being used against Earth. There are a number of ways this can be achieved—the first requirement, however, is that we restart NASA's space program, as we cannot rely on the nascent private sector spacefaring industry to deploy satellites for us. The first option is to repurpose the imagined "Star Wars" laser-based missile shield to defend against orbitally-fired weapons like the Arc-en-Ciel, as well as nearby space vessels that the TSAB might deploy. The other is to use the conceptual (and much more modern) "Rods from God" kinetic weapons platform to the same end—the TSAB's aversion to mass-based weaponry could lead to them abandoning supply runs to this planet altogether. This is both a blessing and a curse, because it would deny us the chance to achieve dimensional travel, and it would cut us off from any more space or dimensional traveler that may be outside the TSAB's authority.

Action #3: Technological Research

This is a necessity. If we are to become a dimensional power, or even to mount any sort of offensive against the TSAB to keep them from coming back, we will need to capture a dimensionally-capable starship and reverse-engineer it, if possible. If we do not have the supplies here on Earth to replicate it, we could simply use the ship to deploy troops onto another planet (preferably one necessary to the industrial infrastructure of the TSAB, which would achieve the double goal of acquiring resources and crippling enemy capability), which we could use as a base to build more starships. In the event we cannot understand trans-dimensional drive technology, we can simply use our industrial world's factories to construct it, while we allocate cutting-edge scientists to understand its workings, in essence, using it as a technological "black box" of sorts.

Action #4: Special Operations Warfare

This will be necessary for any strikes on Mid-Childa prior to our attaining of trans-dimensional technology. The SIS and DGSE are capable of smuggling in Special Operations teams from Israel, America, or any other country that wishes to deploy a team on Mid-Childa. We have achieved a small intelligence network there are several safe-houses available as bases of operation. The distinct lack of Mid-Childan internal security or external intelligence forces has made it simple to set up bases on Mid-Childa. However, it should be noted that the local population would be hostile to assassinations, kidnappings, or sabotage, most likely viewing it as terrorism, due to their lack of familiarity with what we define as terrorism. In addition, we would have to leave very little evidence that we were responsible for sabotage, limiting our options to explosives (which they do in fact have, although they are not used in combat, to the best of our knowledge) and hand-to-hand combat. Captured Devices may also be an option, if we can train our own mage corps. If it was discovered that we were responsible for covert actions against the TSAB, it is likely that the British and French embassies would be shut down and they would be returned to Earth, cutting off our only foothold on Mid-Childa. The Mid-Childan populace would probably turn against friendly occupation of Earth, instead desiring to erase us and replace us with settlers or, at minimum, scatter us like the fate of the Jews during the Roman era. In that event, it seems likely that we would be able to fortify ourselves against invasion, but we would not be able to retaliate unless we, again, captured a starship.

Option of Last Resort, #5: Nuclear Warfare

If all else fails, we of course have the nuclear option. If the TSAB is invading America proper and we have no military left to fight them with, we can always deploy our nuclear weapons at valuable strategic targets, similar to the Cold War. While this is exceedingly unlikely to happen, it is always necessary to have a plan of engagement against any enemy. (Top Secret-cleared personnel who are cleared for the appropriate compartments may look into our nuclear plans against TSAB assets and Mid-Childa as necessary.)

Conclusion

If we undertake a prudent and cautious method of engagement, we should be able to remove TSAB influence from Earth with only a modicum of difficulty, mainly provided by the environment (South America is heavily forested, resulting in many opportunities for ambushes, as we learned in Vietnam, and Russia is extremely cold, resulting in a difficulty for any invading force). However, it will be necessary to acquire an interdimensional drive to deploy a retaliatory strike against the TSAB worlds. Once this is mass-producible, it should be simple to assure our safety and prominence in the interdimensional stage.