OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a fundamental unit for the Sovereignty Office of Naval Intelligence.
- Image credit: [Interstellar Marines concept art, posted in a development article here.]
- Role: The unit will essentially be standing in as "faceless mooks" for SONI, bringing an NPC that can be used in all sorts of threads as a storytelling device.
- Links: [Faction].
- Unit name: SONI tactical-level operatives (TLO).
- Affiliation: The Sovereignty, namely the Office of Naval Intelligence.
- Classification: Intelligence special operations infantry.
- Equipment: SONI operatives have almost unrestricted access to the broader Sovereignty armory, which are used depending on operational requirements. Equipment used includes: [SCOBA-8 Armour]; [CFOU-1]; [COC-1]; [COW-2]; [SMW-5]; [A-400 Blaster Rifle]; [SHB-12].
- Availability: Rare.
- Deployment: Limited.
- Strengths and weaknesses:
⤷ Elite: Almost all tactical-level operators are hand selected from already elite units within the Sovereignty, even before undergoing TLO training. They are some of the highest skill soldiers that the Sovereignty has to offer.
⤷ Clandestine: The existence of TLO's, much like the rest of the inner workings of the office, is a closely guarded secret. They operate as deniable assets, often without insignia or other identifying features, allowing them to execute tasks - such as those under international sanctions and regarded as atrocities - without drawing responsibility to the Sovereignty.
⤷ Expensive: Between the many years of training and experience alongside the cost of kit and identity protection, each individual TLO is worth a wealth of credits. They are few and far between, while the cost to deploy them - let alone lose any of them - would bring a tear to the eye of many none-the-wiser senators.
⤷ Brief: A lot of the kit used by TLO's is difficult to maintain, normally requiring more complete facilitates like those found on ships and in bases. Over long deployments, their kit begins to falter and fail, limiting them by operational policy to short-term deployments. - Description: SONI tactical-level operatives were created shortly after the christening of SONI itself, created to fill the tactical-level gap in the organisations operations. While rumor would suggest that the organisation deals mostly in thrilling escapades of espionage and infiltration, the reality is that the brunt of the work is conducted through scans and feeds, followed close behind by wetwork executed by tactical-level operators. The duties and responsibilities of TLO teams include: providing protection details to locations and persons of interest, providing liaison operatives to other Sovereignty special forces units where sensitive intelligence is concerned, intelligence acquisition, intelligence destruction, acquiring and potentially eliminating persons of interest, and other similar functions.
Tactical level operators are recruited from preexisting special forces groups within the Sovereignty, where the highest performers are plucked away by the office in exchange for extensive benefits. There are a variety of training regimes depending on what special forces group the operator was recruited from, designed to fill the gaps and bring operators up to the SONI standard. While most special forces training covers the four bases already, other specialist fields such as desensitization training and advanced enhanced interrogation resistance are introduced to the program at the SONI level.
