The Global Inquest Liaison Taskforce

The Global Inquest Liaison Taskforce began a century ago as a galactic conduit between the Global Administration and the colonies on other worlds. Its job was simple – to ensure that those colonies who were part of Terra’s government adhered to its laws even from many systems away. The military were strained with the effort, and it was as much a diplomatic position as enforcement. The agents were sent to the colonies and assisted the local governments in upholding Terran law.

A decade after GILT was formed, the department shifted slightly. A new Director was hired, one Arthur Clay, who immediately began asking for more authority in the affairs conducted by the Department. Director Clay was granted these provisions, and immediately started looking into what he believed to be a potentially dangerous area – colonial governments forming alliances outside of Terran political channels. While such a practice was not illegal, he warned that such alliances smacked of unionization and could have harsh consequences for Earth.

His concerns were validated a few years after his becoming Director. Three colonies – Onil, Ivy-In-The-Hills, and Jove, all on separate planets in the same system – formed a political alliance and declared their intention of invading Earth. It wasn’t too great a threat, as their military up ‘til then had been part of the GAF and most immediately defected back there. But it was the fuel Director Clay needed to feed the flames of his crusade.

For the rest of his career, Clay spent his time turning the agents of the Inquest Liaison Taskforce into elite diplomats and police. They were sent all over the galaxy to uncover those who would suckle at Terra’s teat while plotting against her. And while nothing the size of the Tri-Colony Conquest ever occurred again, there were many incidents of more distant governments bending, if not breaking, Terran law for their own benefit. Clay was seen as a hero, as a white knight. He retired at the age of sixty-four to scores of accolades and praise.

Clay’s successor, a man named Beau Rieve, took everything to another level entirely.

Director Rieve began separating GILT more and more from the tether to the Global Administration. The department answered less and less to the Administrator, and became increasingly autonomous. It didn’t help that the Administrator at the time wasn’t exactly the most moral man. Rieve added vast numbers to his agents, who he renamed ‘Inquisitors’, built four training compounds to rival those of the military, and began to pull GILT out of the public eye and into the shadows.

Twenty years into Rieve’s tenure as Director, another circumstance bolstered his power. Rieve was a Gaian, and believed Earth was Mother to everyone. To defy her, to spit on her love and protection, or to want to conquer and subdue her was the greatest blasphemy one could commit in his eyes. His views resonated with Gaians all over the world, and some of them formed their own branch of the faith supporting GILT. They considered GILT to be the true defender of Mother Earth, in a way the military could not understand or fulfill. Wary of being accused of religious persecution, the Global Admin further withdrew their authority over GILT.

All this, from inception to Rieve’s empire, took a century to come to fruition. Had it been overnight, likely it would have been stopped. But the changes were so slow, so well-timed and so fortunate in circumstance, that by the present day, GILT was known only cursorily by the public, and seen as a strict authority on colonial conspiracy and crime.

And if there were whispers of something dark going on…well, it was happening so far away, on distant colonies no one had ever been to, anyway. What did it really matter?