Fiction:Icrix Institute

"Many fear what Vaxal's Gift of Sin can unlock in a person, and with good reason; No warhead, tank or battleship can match the versatility and destructive potential of a single Zazane who has quite literally tamed his demons."

The Icrix Institute is a classified black operations organisation withi nthe that facilitates in fostering the Descension potential in Descended  in order to create tactical operatives that have mastered the Vardashakudalikra or "controlled demon state".

Founded and funded in 2797 by the praetor Lucraesia Sataria Ediravius, the Icris Institute is an unofficial offshoot of the Alcanti Royal Academy's Mantra Program. Unlike the Mantra programme, the Icrix Initiative's focus in regards to understanding Descension energy is harnessing it in soldiers. The organisation is kept highly secret due to its questionable operations and is largely unknown within the Imperium with only a few select individuals within Draconid Zazane society knowing about it. Because of its highly clandestine nature and the influence of the praetor that founded it, the Icrix Initiative has already been questioned for its motibes and methods, ranging from harsh training to intentionally promoting the path of unlocking a Zazane's inner Sin.

Named after a Koda that was once companion and bodyguard to the legendary Zagdala Breek, the Institute sees itself as a guardian force that protects the against more supernatural or impoosible-to-subdue threats, acting as a private military  alternative for Zazane who may have been denied permission to serve in the Talon Aetheral Body.

History
The beginnings of the Institute are hard to locate, but the earliest signs of the project originate from from research into an effective method of mastering a Zazane's awakened sin by the Alcanti Royal Academy in the late 2780s and early 2790s. During a visit to a Descension clinic, Lucraesia Sataria Ediravius took note of the potential that its patients were displaying and kept note for a future reference. Over the course of three months she worked with her aides to assemble a framework organisation that she would keep fro mthe public eye, with a dream of creating a new generation of guardians for the Draconid Imperium.

One of the Institute's first soldiers was the Kodathargo Zazane Skarlthrax, one of the first Zazane to achieve the Tamed Demon state under the program and a benchmark for new trials. Skarlthrax reluctantly joined the program, assembling a team of similar Zazane to him of his own choice. Because of his experience with the Mantra program, Skarlthrax worked partly as a field instructor before more were recruited into the institution. By the dawn of the twenty-ninth century, the the institute had managed to gather over a hundred Zazane o nthe brink of unlocking the Tamed Demon state, with half of them fully achieving this mental state and graduating from the institute's first academy.

The numbers swelled in the first few years of the new century as rumours of singular Zazane on crisis settlement operations were spotted. While originally a few dozen, the institute grew into a sizeable network to support the slowly growing numbers of formidable Zazane that had pledged themselves to it.

Organisation
As a black ops institution, Icrix operates using a network of cells that are linked though their handlers to higher levels of command. All field operatives are presently Zazane. Their ranks consist of tactical teams of Descended beings between five and ten strong, all are backed both in numbers and substitutions with cadets; Descended Zazane who have yet to control their Demon Forms.

The vast majority of the organisation however is less rigid on what species it admits. Aliens of all kidns rank among the growing support teams that include logistics teams, handlers, trainers (a position that is also numbered with Zazane), intelligence agents, middle-men, doctors, bureaucrats and equipment engineers. Occasionally the support teams are occupied by Descended Zazane who are deemed by higher authorities to be unfit for field operations and are confined to a number of operations bases scattered thoughout Imperial space. The institute's field operatives and associated support staff are organised into cells. The clandestine nature of the Icrix Institute's actual activities makes everyoen kowing all operations a highly dangerosu prospect. And while it is known that mroe is known the higher up the chain of command you go, cell adminsitrators generally do not know what cells in more distant sectors of the Imperium are doing.

Each cell is given an individual handler who will familiarise himself with the tectical team andgenerally care for their well-being. Handlers hae conections immediately above them but their only contact with other cells is through communication with their handlers via channels authorised by regional adminsitrators whose task includes allocating support teams who will monitor the health, mental state, physical, mental and equipment conditions of the operatives and their equipment. In Institute academies, training teams work with cadets alongside specially-trained Demon Pacification Attendants (DPAs) whose job is to calm a cadet or operative down when they become stressed, agitated or likely to transform. Demon Pacification Attendants have gained a dubious reputation because of a habit of using force to subdue a cadet losing control. COntrary to this reputation however, DPAs will only resort to physical subdual if the cadet or operative is on the brink of lashing out themselves.

Not much is known about the institute's inner circle. What is known is that Lucraesia Sataria Ediravius has surroudned herself with aides and advisors in an attempt to do anything she can to keep the institute a secret to the general public.

Equipment
Because of their nature, the equipment used by Icrix Operatives is more to keep a low profile in their activities or disguise themselves as msot operatives are perfectly capable of calling on their internal energies or strength to use as weapons.

All operatives are fitted with a series of Descension Inhibitors; a network of nanites and bionic implantations designed to limit the potency of the subject. On the surface, these inhibitors minimise the contaminative effects of Descension Energy as it radiates form the host body, minimising the risk of contaminating bystanders or civilians and minimising the chance of unintentionally awakening another Zazne's (either a target or a bystander) Sin. What msot Icrix operatives recognise them for owever, is to limit the amount of power they can control as a means of ensuring the operatives stay reliant on the resources of the Institute. From the very beginning however, these inhibitors were seen as a betrayal of Institute philosophy and infringine on the Zazane cultural idea that bionic implantation makes an individual weak. It is suspected however, that these inhibitors can be turned off by a higher authority, or possibly burned out though inhibition ovelroad.

Because the Institute's goals are about protecting the, Icrix operatives use Essence-impairing yrsalmarus rounds and yrsalmarus-edged blades and blunt weapons when they are not projecting their Descension Energy. The particular designs of these weapons are intended for maximum effectiveness against supernatural targets, particularly targets that are more reliant on Essence for their existence.

Many operatives however prefer to have their inhibitors installed within their combat armour. While the inhibitors here do not affect a Zazane was severely as the internal implants, the armour inhibitors function on a smimilar ground. Retinal contact lenses allow for holograms of information to be displayed in real-time over the operative's eyes. One-way projection also means that an observer cannot tell what the operative is seeing without tapping into the wearer's thoughts and looking though their eyes.

Grading
The Institute has adopted a variety of the Mashshan-Tarenus scale for Descension Potential in order to classify its operatives in their potential. The system is used in order to best assign operatives on missions that suit their capabilities in combat. The scale used by the institution differs slightly from the standard Mashshan-Tarenus scale through the use of a two-figure system displayed as X-Y. Figure X is an estimate the level of potential the subject displays at present while figure Y is used as an estimate of the level of potential the subject could achieve.

Because of the complex factors in estimating this measure and the difficulty in measuring potential, the scale is largely seen by logistics teams and support teams as an estimate on an operative's potential. Because of the high-demand lin eof work, the institute's measurement for the Mashshan-Tarenus scale is much more rigorous and intensive than the tests used by the Alcanti Royal Academy.

Notable Operatives
Skarlthrax=


 * Name: Skarlthrax
 * Codename: Protus
 * Species/Ethinicity: Kodathargo Zazane
 * Grade: 7-10
 * Cell: Alcanti
 * Date of Recruitment: 2796

Skarlthrax was one of the first recruitments to the Icrix Initiative, chosen for the success he displayed i nthe Royal Academy's Mantra Program as one of its alpha subjects. Unlike others members of the institute, Skarlthrax bears no solid ties to the Imperium or the institute, having been recruited from a home the Alcanti Royal Academy had provided him and having gone on record beliveving that a home was where one grew old before passing away, something that as a success story of the the Mantra program he felt he could no longer do. Despite this attitude, Skarlthrax has proven to be a capable asset within the Icrix Institute's ranks and maintains a solid level of professionalism at all times. His opinion of the INstitute itself however is sometimes cast into doubt when he hears of activities he may not be privy to as an unofficial isntructor and senior operative.