AERIEL // COMMAND // SECURITY & COUNTER-INTEL
COUNTER-INTEL WATCH ACTIVE ·
Command · Operational Security

Security & Counter-Intel

The discipline that keeps the League invisible. Protecting the separation between the public conservancy and the fleet beneath it — comms, vetting, classification, and the standing assumption that someone well-funded is always looking.

Doc Control AE-SEC-0001 Revision A Owner Security & Counter-Intel Last Review 2091-02-28 Classification RESTRICTED // TIDEWATER-EYES-ONLY
The existential risk. One credible link between GreenSky Aquatics and League direct action ends everything — the funding, the front, the freedom to operate. Exposure is not a setback to be managed; it is the failure condition. Every rule below exists to prevent it. — SEC-0001 Article I

The Front / Back Separation

GreenSky Aquatics is real. It heals, breeds, and teaches in the light, and it must be able to survive any audit, any journalist, any disgruntled hire with no knowledge that AERIEL exists. The League lives beneath it on a strict need-to-know compartment boundary. Personnel, finances, vessels, and records that cross the line are mirrored under separate cover identities; nothing in the public organisation should ever resolve to a League fact.

Compartmentation

Separate ledgers

Conservancy funds and fleet funds reconcile only at the Admiralty. No public document ever references a League operation, vessel role, or target.

Cover identities

Two faces, one hull

Dual-role assets (the RV Tidewright, gyre platforms) carry a clean science cover that withstands inspection independent of their command function.

Records hygiene

Nothing in writing

Admiralty matters and Restricted-tier disposition are answered in person only. Speculation in writing is itself a security incident.

Comms Discipline

Most leaks are not heroics — they are habits. The League's comms doctrine is built to make the careless message impossible rather than merely discouraged.

  1. Tier your channels. Public, operational, and Restricted traffic never share a path. A target name on an open channel is a reportable breach.
  2. Minimum necessary. Say only what the recipient must act on. No context, no colour, no names that the task does not require.
  3. NEREID-brokered routing. Sensitive tasking flows through the AI ops layer, which strips identifiers and enforces tier on every relay.
  4. Assume capture. Author every message as if an adversary will read it tomorrow. Nothing said aloud relies on the channel staying private.
Habit beats intention. The undisciplined message sent in a hurry has unmasked more clandestine work than any infiltration. Discipline is a system, not a virtue. — SEC-0001 Article IV

Classification Scheme · TIDEWATER-EYES-ONLY

The League's standing banner resolves into a tiered access scheme. Each tier defines who may hold the material and what kind of fact it covers.

TierWho holds itExamples
PublicAnyone — conservancy staff & the worldGreenSky breeding programs, education, ethical-stock catalogue
OperationalCleared League personnel on a taskActive target dossiers, fleet tasking, Observe/Document field logs
RestrictedSenior command & cell leads onlyDisrupt/Direct-Action authorities, source identities, vetting files
TidewaterFleet Admiralty — in person onlyAbyssal Holding contents, Siren's identity, front/back reconciliation

Insider Threat & Vetting

The League's gravest exposure walks through the front door with credentials. Vetting is continuous, not a hiring gate, and it is owned jointly with People & Crew.

Layered clearance

Earned access

Clearance rises only with demonstrated discipline. New personnel see the conservancy long before they ever see a tier above Operational.

Continuous review

No standing trust

Behavioural and access patterns are reviewed on cycle. Anomalous reach into compartments triggers a counter-intel hold.

Legal interlock

Binding cover

Cover, conduct, and exit obligations are structured with Legal & Compliance so that the separation survives a departure.

Exit discipline

Clean separation

Departing personnel are stepped down through compartments. Knowledge held does not become knowledge spoken.

Operating Against Well-Resourced Adversaries

The League's enemies are not amateurs. A chemical giant under a multi-year exposure campaign has lawyers, investigators, and a powerful motive to unmask us first and litigate the rest into silence. They would love nothing more than to convert "eco-conservancy" into "criminal conspiracy" in a single headline. We assume, always, that we are being looked for.

Assume the adversary is competent. Treat every operation as if a funded counter-intelligence effort is already underway against it. The day we believe we are safe is the day we get careless — and careless is the only way we lose. — SEC-0001 Article IX

Counter-intel posture is therefore permanent and proactive: monitor for surveillance of conservancy sites and personnel, harden the dual-role assets against inspection, and rehearse the assumption of compromise. The goal is not perfect secrecy — it is to ensure that nothing an adversary finds ever resolves to a League fact.