Silhouette (Deus Ex) - National Secessionist Forces

National Secessionist Forces

The National Secessionist Forces (NSF) was formed in 2031 as the Northwest Secessionist Forces. A year prior to the formation of the NSF, a major earthquake sunk most of Southern California into the ocean. With the United States government focusing on the disaster on the ex-West Coast, the needs of the other parts of the country went unmet. In 2031, Utah announced its intention to secede from the United States, declaring its independence and annexing what was left of Arizona and Nevada. Inspired by Utah's example, fringe groups in Texas declared independence as well. Shortly afterwards, various paramilitary groups in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming united with Utah and Texas to form the NSF. All of these attempts to secede failed, though martial law continues to exist in some portions of these states. The NSF went underground.

In 2042, new gun control legislation in the form of the Sporting Weapons Act was passed, and the NSF appeared again as the National Secessionist Forces. The new NSF was composed of individuals who refused to give up their rifles, grenades, land mines, and other "collectibles" prohibited by the Act. Led by Leon Woods, the goal of the NSF was to violently overthrow the U.S. government and restore the right of the nation's citizens to bear arms. Originally based mainly in the Western United States, the movement spread eastward, eventually creating a large support base in major eastern urban centers such as New York City. While the United Nations and the U.S. government classified the NSF as a terrorist group, many people saw the NSF as liberators from an increasingly authoritarian U.S. central government. Leon Woods was killed at his infamous last stand in 2045 at Squalnomie Square, but the NSF continued on gaining more and more strength, as well as gaining support from Silhouette (the resistance movement against the French government), the Luminous Path Triad (a mafia group in Hong Kong), and X-51 (a group of former Area 51 scientists). Dissident computer scientists and programmers, said to be based in Seattle and San Francisco, aided the NSF in setting up a highly encrypted communication network, eroding the edge that MJ-12 and UNATCO had due to their control over the Aquinas network and ECHELON. At this point, the United Nations declared war on the NSF.

In the year when Deus Ex takes place (2052), the NSF discovers that the United Nations and the U.S. government are deliberately restricting poor people from accessing Ambrosia (the vaccine for the disease known as the Gray Death) and are under the control of a secret organization called Majestic 12 that is intent on gaining absolute control over everything in the world. To give the lower class the same chance to survive as the upper class and employees of the U.S. government, they steal Ambrosia vaccines and send them to Luminous Path Triad scientist Tracer Tong to be synthesized, making the NSF popular with the lower classes. The state of Texas, which unsuccessfully tried to secede in 2032, is described in an email as being in a state of constant warfare between the NSF and UNATCO and the U.S. military.

In an attempt to reduce support for the NSF, UNATCO framed the NSF and their allies for many terrorist acts, including the bombings of the Statue of Liberty, as well as smuggling illegal drugs and immigrants (although the Luminous Path Triad, being a mafia group, is involved in such smuggling activities). When the NSF started running out of troops during their assault in New York City, however, they began to desperately take hostages in order to stall for time and delay UNATCO, despite a policy discouraging hostage-taking.

After the events of Deus Ex, most of the organization seems to be crippled but not destroyed. This is partly due to the actions of the player, whose short tenure with UNATCO saw the capture of several important bases, including the NSF New York headquarters, capture or death of several commanders, including a prominent NSF leader and financial backer, Juan Ivanovich Lebedev, and the failure of a critical operation in New York City.

However, the organization remains largely intact, though with a reduced strength in the East Coast. This is probably due to the sending of the NSF distress signal by JC at the New York headquarters in Hell's Kitchen, which allowed other NSF bases and resistance groups in Europe to take necessary counter measures. Several prominent members from the New York Section remain at large, probably waiting to reform the organization in New York; indeed, this is evidenced by the fleeing of NSF commanders Decker Parkes, Erin Todd, and Wayne Young to Europe. During the game, an NSF brigade is conducting operations in Paris under the command of Chad Dumier, leader of Silhouette and the Illuminatus Morgan Everett. Morgan Everett, in conversation with JC, mentions their still-operational HQ as being a few hundred miles north of the X-51 base at Vandenberg. In Paris, JC Denton overhears a man asking his wife to come with him to America as he has been contracted to work with the NSF.