The Sector Plexus

Sector Plexus is the communications and information backbone of Imperial Intelligence. It is the most dispersed of the Intelligence bureaus and handles the overwhelming majority of the organization’s internal traffic. In a single standard day the Plexus encodes, categorizes, transmits, stores, receives, and decodes more messages than most planetary communications networks transmit in centuries.

Function

Sector Plexus stations are deliberately small and widely scattered. Their modest physical presence conceals the volume of data they process. The primary method of security is concealment of location rather than heavy fortification. Each station is equipped with advanced communications computers and operates as a node in a galaxy-spanning network.

When a message is sent through the Plexus it is copied and transmitted along multiple parallel conduits. This redundancy ensures delivery even if individual stations or links are compromised. After a message reaches its intended recipient the system continues to circulate copies, making it extremely difficult for an interceptor to determine the original sender or final destination. When multiple versions of a message arrive, some of them possibly damaged, Plexus computers compare the copies and reconstruct a near-perfect original.

Agent and Office Identification

Sector Plexus is responsible for assigning the code numbers and transmission sequences used by every agent and branch office. It also generates and distributes the Phasecycle sequences (PSEGs) required to send, receive, and read Imperial Intelligence scandocs. Field agents typically hold a small number of active PSEGs. Branch offices hold thousands. Senior bureau officials may hold more than a million. These sequences are regularly updated according to a complex security algorithm maintained by the Plexus itself.

Relationship to the Rest of Intelligence

Sector Plexus serves as the principal channel of information between the central bureaus and the System Cells that operate at the local level. It does not formulate strategy and does not conduct field operations. Its sole mandate is the secure, reliable, and untraceable movement of information across the Empire so that every other component of Imperial Intelligence can function.

By remaining deliberately decentralized and technically specialized, Sector Plexus provides the quiet infrastructure upon which the rest of Imperial Intelligence depends.