Heimdall (organization)

This article is about the secret organization. For the tank, see Heimdall (Combat Vehicle).

Heimdall
Organization Profile
Type	Intelligence Agencies
Parent Organization	Lyran Alliance

A self-described "loyal-opposition" movement within the Lyran Alliance. Heimdall, named after a Norsk mythology dwarf who guarded the Bifrost Bridge, is covert and works to defend the people's liberties whenever it feels that the government has overstepped its bounds. Heimdall's genesis and growth appear to have occurred at the same time as the worst crimes and excesses of their main opponent, Loki, as Heimdall often acts as self-appointed guardians of the Lyran people. But they also strongly defended the Commonwealth against any outsider enemy.

History

Heimdall's origins are shrouded in myth and rumor. Their numbers, goals, training and methods are unknown. Even its existence appears to be, for most people, like an urban legend, and very few appear to believe they're real. Only their members and those fortunate to have been aided by them can attest to its very existence.

Alessandro Steiner said they were founded by a group of nobles to fight against the Lyran government's excesses. Rumors about the group appears to paint them as terrorists and enemies of the Archon. However, as a member of Heimdall has never been captured alive, very little information is known about the organization. The size and influence of the group is a mystery as well.

In 3004, a Heimdall cell on Poulsbo thwarted Loki agents assassination attempt against Katrina Steiner and cousins Morgan Kell and Arthur Luvon. At least an agent of Heimdall, named Grison, sacrificed his life to ensure their escape, after blowing a control tower of a spaceport. Grison's daughter later received funding and a new identity, entering the Nagelring academy with the name Jeana Clay.

In the year 3025, a cell of Heimdall operating in Combine space, on a mining asteroid in the Styk system, help the mercenary Gray Noton to hijack a DropShip, the Silver Eagle, causing the Silver Eagle Incident. The group, led by Danica Holstein and Clovis Holstein, had been performing jobs for Noton to finance themselves, and their presence was at least tacitly accepted by Kuritan authorities, as they were Lyran dissidents.

However, after uncovering the presence of the princess Melissa Steiner aboard the Silver Eagle, they changes sides and sacrificed their lives to protect her against the assault on the asteroid by ISF and Genyosha assault. But only the timely intervention of the Kell Hounds mercenary group allowed the rescue of the princess and the last survivors of Heimdall.

In 3029, they installed on Lyons in the Isle of Skye, founding a small colony there, named New Freedom, with the Hounds assistance. But after the Fourth Succession War, the Kuritan unit Third Dieron Regulars attack the planet, targeting the colony. The colonists were slaughtered except for Clovis, a woman and a group of children. After uncovering that the Kuritans had been manipulated by Skye duke Aldo Lestrade to launch the attack, Clovis poisoned the duke, killing him despite the fact he was his biological father. The same year, in 20 of June, Jeana Clay, who had taken the post of double of Melissa Steiner on Tharkad, sacrificed her life to save Katrina Steiner from an assassination attempt, also launched by Aldo Lestrade.

During the FedCom Civil War, Katherine Steiner-Davion repeated the same mistakes of Alessandro Steiner, using her Loki teams to deal with her enemies, kidnapping, torturing, bombing and murdering at will, and, as it did 65 years earlier, Heimdall blocked their terror campaign, with both group teams attacking each other, effectively siding with Victor Davion. Heimdall compensated Loki's advantage of training and equipment with their advantage of numbers and the reach of their organization. By 3065, Loki was on the defensive.

From their initial contact in 3064 until the last stages of the Civil War a group of Heimdall operatives assisted a group of agents loyal to Victor Steiner-Davion, in their search for proof of Katherine's complicity in her mother's assassination. In particular they sheltered Valerius Symons, the art forger behind the Bloody Princess series.

In 3150, a Heimdall cell, based on the Clan Jade Falcon–held world of Pobeda assisted an LIC team to launch Operation Black Ice, to attack and weaken the Falcon hold on that world.

Organization

Very little is known about the group's organization, but it appears they were divided in sleeping cells distributed everywhere. One of them was in Poulsbo and another bigger group, with their own JumpShip, the Bifrost, operated from a hidden base in an asteroid, in Kuritan space, on Styk, financing themselves realizing independent works.

Usually, Heimdall remains dormant until forced to activate. They act quickly and vanish when the threat is removed, without leave any trace of their existence. How they can do it is a mystery, but it suggest their operatives have superior training techniques and a high level of coordination. As they were the loyal opposition, ironically, Heimdall members were some of the most loyal defenders to the Lyran state, receiving assistance and funds from sympathizers, like Simon Johnson, leader of the LIC and the dukes of Donegal and Arc-Royal respectively, Arthur Luvon and Morgan Kell. Many experts suggest than between their members are highly members of the aristocracy, business sector and even the Estates General.

Known Members

• Arthur Luvon, Duke of Donegal and husband of Katrina Steiner.
• Simon Johnson, Chancellor of LIC.
• Morgan Kell, Duke of Arc-Royal and leader of the Kell Hounds.
• Danica Holstein.
• Clovis Holstein.
• Jeana Clay.
• Albert Tompkins, 24th Lyran Guards (implied)

Bibliography

• A Guide to Covert Ops
• Endgame
• FedCom Civil War
• Handbook: House Steiner
• Intelligence Operations Handbook
• Tamar Rising
• Warrior: Coupé (novel)
• Warrior: En Garde (novel)