This fanfiction article, UNSC Directorate of Naval Intelligence Operations, was written by RelentlessRecusant. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
- "Of course, Supreme Commander. Asphodel Meadows is a major UNSC colony in the Middle Rim, and is home to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Almost all ONI departments and operations are run from Asphodel Meadows [...] An attack on ONI Headquarters at Asphodel Meadows would disrupt ONI operations across the galaxy."
- ―Admiral Kawika Son, prefacing the Battle of Asphodel Meadows[src]
The UNSC Directorate of Naval Intelligence Operations, colloquially known as the "Black Tower", was a division of the UNSC Central Directorate of Naval Intelligence (Section Zero) of the Office of Naval Intelligence, principally responsible for the command and control of all Naval Intelligence operations across the Milky Way Galaxy. It was a senior command, held by the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, and had a substantial responsibility of galaxy-wide coordination of ONI operations.
The division would become infamous for its colossal and mile-high skyscrapers that would become its lair on Asphodel Meadows in the 47 Ursae Majoris System; as ONI continually ascended in galactic influence, its domain of black citadels would continue expanding across Asphodel Meadows's surface, and eventually, the black balustrades of Naval Intelligence Operations would earn it an infamous moniker, the "Black Tower". All four major ONI directorates, the Directorate of Fleet Intelligence (Section One), the Directorate of Domestic Intelligence (Section Two), the Directorate of Special Intelligence (Section Three), and the Directorate of Strategic Intelligence, were responsible for reporting directly to Naval Intelligence Operations for deployment of agents and materiel, and for the prosecution of all operations. Operations that were not referred to Naval Intelligence Operations were subsequently investigated by the Naval Intelligence Department of Internal Affairs, therefore forcing all ONI subdivisions to adhere to the Black Tower as a central coordinating organ.
The invaluable content of ONI's operations, all stored within the Black Tower, forced exceedingly high counterintelligence and counterespionage elements to be in place on Asphodel Meadows to secure the confidentiality of ONI's galaxy-wide operations. Eventually, an entire echelon of the UNSC Second Fleet would be stationed in orbit, largely to safeguard the Black Tower from orbital attacks.
The Directorate of Naval Intelligence Operations would earn a bitterly-won sense of cruel infamy, as a massive, gargantuan dark creature that laired on Asphodel Meadows, its serpentine tentacles reaching across the galaxy, manipulating galactic affairs and leading to strangely-timed deaths. The Black Tower complex that was originally built to house Naval Intelligence Operations eventually even became the place of the formal office of the Director of Naval Intelligence, accruing even more power to its name. Its reign of cruelty would eventually be promptly abrogated in 2605, when Galactic Resistance forces, directed by Kawika Son, would launch a cunning attack on Asphodel Meadows, with the intent of disrupting or destroying the Directorate of Operations. They would become vastly successful, using asteroid fragments to incinerate the Black Tower, leading to the deaths of countless high-ranking ONI officials and disrupting ONI operations across the galaxy for months.