Special Operations Command
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Special Operations Command (abbreviated most of the times as SOC) is the heart of Terran intelligence gathering, thus played a pivotal role in the defeat of both the Neo-Terra Front and the Hammer of Light.
During the NTF Insurgency, Special Operations Command faced a large pressure from Allied Command, who encouraged them to launch as many missions as possible to know as much about the NTF as feasible. Because of this reason, elite pilots often volunteered and most of the times never returned to their squads.
When such dangerous operations succeeded, the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance knew enough information about the enemy to launch tactical strikes against any Neo-Terra Front targets. These accurate and co-ordinated strikes played important role in the Battle for Deneb and Regulus. SOC Missions were carried out deep withing enemy territory, thus demanding stealth and discipline; when their presence got revealed, withdrawal was ordered most of the times to avoid needless casualties. As the NTF grew stronger and began to win engagements at Deneb, even the SOC operations were focused on making as much damage as possible with minimal casualties from GTVA field of view.
Specific actions
Not much is known about the operations of Special Operations Command, only what Alpha 1 flew during the main FS campaign.
The mysteries surrounding the ETAK device made Alliance Command decide to use the Special Operations Command to learn more about the device. Lieutenant Commander Snipes recruited a pilot for this mission, Alpha 1. The plan was to infiltrate one of the NTF Fighter squadrons and scan the NTF Iceni and acquire any additional data possible. Admiral Khaffe, despite knowing the operation being carried out near the Iceni ordered an assault on the Iceni, risking the safety of the operation and the lives of the volunteers. The SOC opertives had no choice but to fire on the GTVA forces, not wanting the Iceni destroyed. The Iceni successfully reached the jump node to Epsilon Pegasi and Admiral Khaffe was branded a traitor and court-martialled.
The next operation did not going as planned, either. The NTF squadron the SOC pilots had infiltrated was ordered to defend an Argo-class transport, the NTT Sunder. The cargo and goal of this transport was highly classified, which led to the suspicion it had something to do with the ETAK. Snipes, with the help of the crew chief of the squadron (also a SOC operative), installed overload devices to destroy the remainder of the squadron. Alpha 1 and Snipes then attempted to hijack the Sunder with the help of a GTVA agent piloting the transport. It was at this point where secrecy was most important, to deploy a new tactical weapon, the GTA Charybdis, the GTVA's AWACS cruiser. This vessel jammed communications in the area, allowing the operation to remain covert. NTF fighters responded to a partial message warning of a reactor core breach, and raced to aid the NTT Sunder. Alpha 1 and Snipes, aided by the pilots of the 99th Skulls SOC, successfully hijacked the NTT Sunder, repelling NTF forces sent to aid in the recovery operation. Blowing up a decoy Argo-class transport, Snipes managed to successfully pin the blame on another NTF commander, who was court-martialled and executed. The NTT Sunder successfully reached the Regulus system and was recovered by GTVA Intelligence.
Snipes was reassigned, and the NTF began to suspect Alpha 1 of being a GTVA operative. Sending Alpha 1 on a suicide mission, they ambushed the fighter pilot and attempted to have him executed in the field. Once again, the 99th Skulls saved the day, and recovered the pilot, as well as sensitive data that had been stashed in the fighter's computers.
Short before Capella went supernova, the SOC launched another dangerous mission - using Alpha 1 and three additional pilots to rescue the NTT Grall and Commander Snipes, who had ended up stranded deep in the Nebula. He was rescued from a highly electrictally-active, Shivan-infested area, along with the crew of his ship.
Alpha 1, Snipes, and two others then volunteered to take part a mission to infiltrate the area behind the Second Knossos subspace portal, which had been discovered by a Vasudan patrol. They flew specially-modified Mara-class fighters, captured by SOC earlier, and modified for Terran use. Behind the portal, they found numerous Sathanas Juggernauts, heading towards the portal to the nebula, as well as a large fleet of Shivan cruisers and warships. This expedition's main goal was only to gather intelligence and this succeeded as soon as they gathered information about the true strength of the Shivan Fleet. During the mission, the SOC volunteers inspected a device never before seen by the GTVA. It later turned out to be a Shivan communication device. There were three such devices and all of them were destroyed by the SOC pilots.
After the destruction of these devices, they rushed back to the jump node back to the nebula and escaped.
After this mission, there is no cannonical information about the SOC and its operations
