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 mystery surrounding the ETAK device made Alliance Command decide to use Special Operations Command to know more about the device. Lieutenant Commander Snipes recruited three pilots for this mission, one of them Alpha 1. The plan was to stooge into one of the NTF Fighter squadrons and scan the NTF Iceni. Admiral Khaffe, despite knowing the operation being carried out near the Iceni ordered an assault on the Iceni, therefore risking the operation and 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 considered a traitor.
The next operation was not going as planned as well. The NTF squadron the SOC pilots spied was ordered to defend an Argo-class transport, the NTT Sunder. The cargo and goal of this transport was classified which led to the conclusion it had something to do with the ETAK. A sabotage strike sapped the NTF fighter escorts and Alpha 1 and Snipes managed to hijack the Sunder by 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 blocked the communication within the area of the Sunder. The NTF detected the Sunder being lost on sensor and deployed a handful of forces to find out what had happened. However, the NTT Sunder successfully reached the Regulus system and went int othe hands of the GTVA Intelligence, the GTA Hawako was destroyed and the SOC operation was uncovered. Snipes and Alpha 1 had a close escape: they barely made it out alive.
Short before Capella went supernova, the SOC launched a dangerous mission to rescue the NTT Grall and Commander Snipes, who later volunteered in an other dangerous SOC operation deep within Shivan territory. He was rescued from an intesively ionized area of the Nebula. To compensate the SOC for his rescue, he volunteered to take part in the mission to discover and enfilade the area behind the Second Knossos subspace portal.
Behind the portal, they found numerous Sathanas juggernauts mustering around the Capella sun, as well as a major 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 mission, the SOC volunteers were galvanised to continue their reconnaissance duty by inspecting a device yet unknown for the GTVA. It later turned out to be a Shivan communication device. There were four 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 canon information about the SOC and its operations
