Paragon

Paragon
Paragon was once the largest, yet most secretive resistance faction in the world. Spread out through several of the main cities are a series of large bunkers, containing living quarters, information centers, bunkers, military training facilities, and so forth, with the headquarters in an unknown location. The leader of Paragon, Leannah Santiago, referred to as Criterion to lower-ranked members of Paragon, largely stays stationed in her hometown of Neo X, overseeing a majority of the operations throughout the North-Eastern regions. Each region is overseen by a chief of regional operations that reports directly to the Paragon leader.

The Paragon facilities offer full living facilities for its members. Due to the need for secrecy, very few operatives are allowed to live outside the facilities, and those who do usually have their memories altered temporarily so as to avoid psychic infiltration from those outside Resistance influence. Memory is restored upon returning to the facilities. All operatives are also evaluated in physical prowess, and, if needed, are trained in self defense and acrobatics, enough to get out of a sticky situation. Everyone is allowed to leave the facility as they wish, but are placed under distant surveillance and have an unseen bodyguard to keep track of them. Safety is of the utmost importance at this time.

Paragon is only one of many resistance factions in the world, and, due to its startling size, they are often attributed with terrorist acts they are not responsible for. Their focus at this time is in information gathering and building up defenses, as well as extraction for individuals caught within Empire confines. Great expense is taken in keeping everyone's identities a secret when performing missions in their region, including covering their eye color, installing psychic interference, and so on.

The faction is, for the most part, passive, but only due to lack of an amassed military force at this time. However, their campaign to recruit more combat-ready allies has become more aggressive, and more hard-hitting missions against the Empire are taking place, from extracting money from their budget, to sabotaging weapon shipments, to targeting specific high-ranking soldiers sabotaging their own abilities.

Criterion's own identity is relatively unknown outside of Paragon, so much so that even those within it do not actually know her real name. Contact with other regions and operatives is made via transferring her own speech and text into a computerized voice.

Notes regarding tech and procedure within Paragon:

The technology utilized within Paragon HQ is heavily electronic, using advanced recognition software and minimizing physical media wherever possible. Panels take the place of desks in many places -- though many offices still utilize older-form methods of office arrangement and layout. Each room can customize the information that is fed through the panels, including weather, news, daily tasks, diet regimen, video playback, and more. Each room is also linked to a headquarters-wide emergency broadcast network, in the event of disaster or catastrophe. Much of this technology is thanks to Forge, who works tirelessly on creating and improving nearly everything in the HQ.

The name "Criterion" has shifted; While Leannah still goes by this name amongst other Paragon facilities around the world, the name has also been applied to her elite task force, members of Paragon who are the top of their field in their respective powers. This group is largely responsible for field recon and interception, and while they are not primarily a combative force, they are trained expertly in a variety of martial arts, focusing more on incapacitation than deadly force.