新的威胁NEW THREATS20世纪80年代末,在没有暗影(SHADOW)和噩兆(MENACE)的情况下,一个新的恐怖主义威胁浮出了水面,困扰着全世界:Overthrow,一个由欧洲恐怖组织组成的恐怖组织联盟。这些反社会的无政府主义者和政治极端分子在德国发起了一场爆炸和暗杀行动,这很快蔓延到了法国、西班牙、意大利和希腊,并最终蔓延到了东欧乃至于美国。
Overthrow强烈反对全球化和其他推动经济共同发展的市场的力量,其隐藏自身的技巧能与它们的攻击的恶毒程度相匹配。1999年,UNISON主管圣地亚哥遇刺身亡,次年,他们又暗杀了他的继任者,一位名叫哈里·史密斯(Harry Smith)的极具实力的牙买加人。2002年,英国的珍妮佛·埃利斯被任命为UNISON的主管,她成功地躲过了来自Overthrow的炸弹和Overthrow暗杀者的子弹——这并非Overthrow没有对此进行尝试。
除了来自Overthrow的威胁之外,UNISON还在2003年击退了格鲁人(Grue)的入侵,UNISON派出了联合风暴(UniStorm)——在 Terminus Invasion后建立的由10艘具有太空作战能力的重型战斗机组成的编队。这只小型独立太空舰队的存在令安理会成员感到震惊,并引发了关于UNISON在地球防御方面作用的激烈辩论。到目前为止,埃利斯一直在保护着她的组织不受削弱其独立军事能力的企图的影响,这在一定程度上要归功于UNISON的几位密友,诸如达卡纳的金·巴拉(King M’balla)(他秘密支持联合风暴计划)、原子家族和自由联盟等等。
亚特兰蒂斯一直对UNISON来说是个问题,因为世界大国们在多年前就已经意识到,亚特兰蒂斯人只会接受让UNISON作为一个独立监测机构存在。在与亚特兰蒂斯进行了漫长而艰苦的谈判后,他们最终同意让UNISON在大西洋上被亚特兰蒂斯声称拥有主权的海域的50公里范围内拥有3个监测站。但由于亚特兰蒂斯的技术,这些监测站被证明在追踪亚特兰蒂斯的活动这一方面几乎毫无用处,但这并没有阻止它们在最近与海底帝国的僵持局面中三次被亚特兰蒂斯人或不隶属亚特兰蒂斯的野蛮人攻击。
对UNISON的另外一项重大考验是——2004年,西非国家Côte de Liberté试图让UNISON参与到控制其内战的行动中来。UNISON作为联合国维和部队的先遣部队进入了Côte de Liberté,并参与了几场与叛军组织的交火。然而,UNISON拒绝推进部队进行攻击,也拒绝卷入一场内战。在死亡人数上升后,UNISON受到了严厉的指责与批评,但在幕后,他们设法通过谈判达成了一直持续到今天的停火协议。克制力和外交手段的有效结合,一直是埃利斯担任主管期间的标志之一,但就连她自己也承认,她是“如领深渊,如履薄冰”。。
剧透 - :
In the late 1980s, a new terrorist threat surfaced to trouble the world in the absence of SHADOW and MENACE: Overthrow, an alliance of European terrorist cells organized into a terrorist super-organization. This misfit collection of anarchists and political extremists began a campaign of bombings and assassination in Germany, which soon spread to France, Spain, Italy, and Greece, and eventually reached Eastern Europe and even America.
Vehemently opposed to globalization and other market forces driving economies together, Overthrow’s skill in hiding itself from sight was matched only by the viciousness of their attacks. In 1999, Overthrow assassinated UNISON Director Santiago, and the following year they assassinated his successor, a capable Jamaican named Harry Smith. In 2002, the UK’s Jennifer Ellis was appointed director of UNISON, and has managed to avoid Overthrow bombs and assassins’ bullets—though not for lack of trying on Overthrow’s part.
In addition to the Overthrow threat, UNISON aided in fighting off the Grue invasion of 2003, fielding UniStorm, a fleet of ten space-capable heavy fighter craft UNISON commissioned after the Terminus Invasion. The existence of a small independent space fleet came as something of a shock to members of the Security Council and sparked intense debate on UNISON’s role in planetary defense. So far, Ellis has managed to defend her organization from attempts to cripple its independent military capacity, thanks in part to close friends of UNISON like King M’Balla of Dakana (who secretly backed the Uni-Storm program), the Atom Family, and the Freedom League.
Atlantis has been a problem for UNISON, as the major world powers realized years ago the Atlanteans would only accept UNISON as an independent monitoring agency. After long and grueling negotiations with the Atlanteans, they finally agreed to allow UNISON to maintain three monitoring stations within 50 kilometers of claimed Atlantean territories. Due to Atlantean technology, these stations have proven nearly useless in tracking Atlantean activities, but this hasn’t prevented them from being targeted three times by Atlantis or unaffiliated Atlantean barbarians during recent standoffs with the undersea empire.
Another big test for UNISON came in 2004, when the West African nation of Côte de Liberté attempted to get UNISON involved in controlling its civil war. UNISON went in as an advance force for UN Peacekeepers and became involved in firefights with a number of rebel groups. However, UNISON refused to press the attack or otherwise become involved in a civil conflict. After the death toll mounted, UNISON was heavily criticized, but behind the scenes, they managed to negotiate a cease-fire that has held to this day. The effective combination of restrained force and diplomacy has been one of the hallmarks of Ellis’ term as director, but even she admits that she is only one misstep away from a major disaster.
今日的谐和UNISON TODAY如今的UNISON有些“人格分裂”。UNISON的目的因其所在地区的不同而有所不同,因此它在那些没有强大军事存在或中央政权的地区更具侵略性。在其他地方,他们是应对 Overthrow 这类国际威胁的调查员。他们成绩斐然;然而,它们几乎每个季度都在接受着严格的审查。
Overthrow 已经被证明是UNISON的挫败感的主要来源。UNISON已经捣毁了许多Overthrow的小分支,阻止了数十起阴谋,但他们未能打击到该组织的领导层,也未能发现其资金背后的秘密。多年前,珍妮佛•埃利斯曾认为,必然有一个强大的世界舞台参与者在为Overthrow提供资源和情报。经过了长时间的调查,埃利斯排除了世界主要政府的嫌疑,除了Overthrow可能与Dr. Sin.有关之外,她没有收获到丝毫有用的证据。击败Overthrow几乎成了她的一个心病,但她还没有意识到Overthrow背后的更大的威胁。
剧透 - :
Today, UNISON has something of a split personality. Because its objectives vary depending on the part of the globe in which they are operating, UNISON is much more aggressive in areas of the world that don’t have a strong military presence or central authority. Elsewhere, they are investigators who deal with international threats like Overthrow. Their record is excellent; however, they are under intense scrutiny from nearly every quarter.
Overthrow has proven a major source of frustration. UNISON has broken up numerous small cells and stopped dozens of plots, but they have failed to hit the leadership of the organization or discover the secret behind their funding. Years ago, Jennifer Ellis figured Overthrow had to have a powerful player in the world scene supplying it with goods and intelligence. After a long investigation, Ellis has ruled out major world government backing, but has no evidence, except for the possibility of a connection with Dr. Sin. Defeating Overthrow has almost become an obsession with her, but she is as yet unaware of the greater threat behind Overthrow.