Champions: The Atlantaverse - WASP

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WASP OVERVIEW

Classification: WASP is a Criminal Terrorist organizetion and is believed to be the largest and most powerful criminal terrorist organization in the world.

Confirmed Origins: ICICLE can confirm that as of 1981 WASP existed as a mature, global organization.

Unconfirmed Origins: The Strangers claim that WASP is an outgrowth of the fabled International Crime League founded in London in 1887. Various superheroes claim to have fought WASP as WASP as early as 1968.

Name and Meaning: WASP is no longer considered to be an acronym; various internal leaders assign local backronyms (such as 'War, Assassination, Strength, and Power', 'We Always Stand Proud', etc.). The meaning is ultimately unknown.

Estimated Members: Non-combatant: ~1 million. Combatant: ~200,000

Confirmed Structure: WASP is organized into Nests, Cities, Areas, Zones, Regions, Spheres, and the Globe.

Nests: Equivalent to a standard intelligence cell, Nests are incredibly varied in structure, nature, purpose, and visibility. Individual nests typically have senior combat agents or intelligence agents as leaders.

Cities: Cities are groupings of 2-12 Nests within a limited geographic region. Despite the name, WASP cities can be found in rural areas. While most Cities are led by NCOs, prominent or wealthy ones are led by Lieutenants.

Areas: Groupings of 2-5 cities. Almost always led by a (senior) lieutenant.

Zones: Usually these are nations (Spain, Venezuela, etc.) although the smallest (Monaco) are usually included in larger neighbors and the largest (America, Russia) and most populous (China, India) are divided into 4 or more. Led by Captains.

Regions: The 6 inhabited continents.

Spheres: Believed to be the Western Hemisphere; Europe; Asia; Africa & Oceania.

WASP Personnel are divided into four groups called Divisions: Operations, Support, Technical, and Combat.

Operations: Presumed to be the largest group. Operations encompasses WASP’s money-making and criminal activities. Confirmed areas of income from WASP Operations ranges from murder for hire to con games. Cargo thefts, embezzling, blackmail, counterfeiting, larceny, and armed robbery are mainstays. While WASP does occasionally transport drugs for other organizations they are rarely involved in actual illegal drug activities, for unknown reasons. They are more than willing to rob drug dealers and cartels, however.

Support: Size unknown, estimated to be second. These are ‘legitimate’ fronts for WASP. An unknown number of businesses are indirectly owned or controlled by WASP to one degree or another. Past organizations have included tungsten mines, cargo transshipment services, charity hospitals, and hairdressers. Control has been just as diverse from a ‘rogue’ local manager to the entire board of directors. In the majority of cases only 1-12 people involved are WASP members; the rest are simple employees. While these firms primarily launder or generate money for WASP operations some also produce equipment used by WASP.

Technical: Possibly the smallest branch, it is considered the most dangerous overall. WASP’s Technical division does everything from troll the internet for recruits to design their weapon systems. Technical is infamous for stealing technology as well as blackmailing or kidnapping scientists to develop bleeding-edge technology.

Combat: Probably the smallest division, Combat is the most visible. This relatively large paramilitary has a very high level of training, readiness, and equipment on-par or better than the very best available to nation-state military forces.

Nests are sized according to their mission. A Support operation may be a 3 person operation while a Technical research laboratory my have 40-50 personnel. Combat division typically uses a four-person team structure, meaning the smallest group of Combat agents will be 4 people. Other divisions have no such limitations.

WASP Hierarchy: All WASP members have a rank. Confirmed ranks are Agent, Senior Agent, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Colonel, and General. Rumors abound that the generals report to “The Wasp”, but this is unconfirmed.

Every 4-12 Agents have a Senior Agent leader among them. Every 2-6 Senior Agents have a Sergeant commanding them. Every 2-8 Sergeants reports to a Lieutenant, etc. Because of the combination of structure and hierarchy it is strongly believed that there are about 24 to 60 Colonels and 4 to 16 Generals.

WASP Outlook and Philosophy: Perhaps the most disturbing thing about WASP is the iseological front it posts to the world. An odd blend of grievance studies, National Socialism, fringe Libertarianism, upper-middle-class college socialist agitprop, and street-gang resentment of the establishment the running gag in ICICLE Research is that 'Ayn Rand and the Strasser Brother had a child who was raised by Peter Popoff to emulate Larry Hoover'; this is abbreviated to 'Ayn Strasser'.

The brief summary of their recruitment and motivational messages is:

Civilization coddles the weak, soft, and stupid at the expense of the strong, hard, and clever. The people who deserve money and power are cheated of it by people who don't deserve anything. The strong are supposed to rule, but religion, governments, and such are chains forged by sheep to enslave wolves. The worst are the wolves that volunteer to be slaves to the sheep. The only way to be truly free, to build a truly just world, and to get what you really deserve is for the wolves to band together into a pack and put the sheep back where they belong, in a pen. WASP is the wolf pack. Superheroes are the willing slaves. Stop bowing to the 'privileged elite' and take what you deserve.

WASP Recruiting and Training: WASP is one of the most diverse organizations on Earth because of its recruitment style. Prime sources are career criminals, disgraced police officers, disaffected/discharged military, alienated youth, and the poorest/lowest caste in the Third World. WASP recruiters work as everything from PTSD counselors to job recruiters to suicide hotline operators. A cop fired for taking bribes, soldier discharged for fighting, high school student in juvenile for her third auto theft, three-strike loser in prison, third generation refugee in a displaced persons camp, and an Untouchable in Hyderabad – all are ripe for approach by WASP recruiters. After being sounded out the potential recruit is often put through a surprisingly thorough vetting process before being approached; once an open offer is made the potential recruit either joins or dies (in rare circumstances they are memory wiped and framed).

Those that join are sent off to a Zone induction ‘camp’. Here the recruit is carefully screened mentally, physically, and psychologically. Those deemed sub-par are killed while the rest go through initial physical, mental, and ideological indoctrination.

After 2 months of this Induction they are divided into the various Divisions, each of which has a Zone Academy that preps the recruit for life as an agent (criminal skills for Operations; technical training for technical, etc.). Combat division also has their Elite Academy for training sergeants and above.

All WASP agents of every Division are trained in knife fighting (to build aggression and confidence) and with blaster pistols (their almost-ubiquitous weapon) as well as basic fighting. All Combat Division agents also learn the blaster carbine and the core elements of WASP’s own hand-to-hand fighting style (called ‘WASP-fu’ by WASP agents and outsiders alike, the basics are a stripped down version of kickboxing while advanced versions add some elements of judo and karate).

Interrogation of prisoners and examination of the two discovered Academies indicate that the attrition rate at the academies range from 12% (Support) to 33% (Combat); all recruits who fail are killed. A key element of the training program appears to be the mottos:

“The Weak Should Fear the Strong”

“Survival of the Fittest”

“Wolves Rules Sheep”