The Office of Special Warfare

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The Office of Special Warfare

 

Intensely secretive, and shrouded in mystery, the Office of Special Warfare is the official name for the division more commonly known as "The Pathfinders". Operators, or "Pathfinders", within the Office of Special Warfare (OSW) are highly skilled and exceedingly lethal soldiers, trained in numerous forms of warfare and hundreds of styles of combat. The OSW is the Federation's covert special forces branch; Operators being deployed to conduct operations that a traditional military is unsuited for or complete actions that the rest of the Federation as a whole need not, should not, or cannot know about. Rumours circulate regularly through the various branches of the Federation military regarding the subject and objective of the assignments carried out by Operators of the OSW. Assassinations, political upheavals, and system-wide destabilizations of regimes deemed unsatisfactory by the Federation are amongst those rumours, though none truly know if any of these hold true, as the Operators of the Office preserve the Top-Secret nature of their work with intense zeal and loyalty.

 

 

Selection

The selection process is one of the most regularly talked about points of interest, rumours of seemingly impossibly high standards, and large casualty and drop-out rates are abundant. The selection consists of several stages; an existing member of the OSW or a trooper's commanding officer puts them forward for selection, then the OSW determines whether the candidate matches the physical and mental standards dictated by High Command. It is said that the standards of fitness required to get through even the first stage of selection are so high that only roughly five percent of Mobile Infantry troopers meet this level. Unwavering loyalty, strict emotional parameters, and a clean record also dictate a trooper's successful selection. Once a trooper has been chosen, they are sent for their second stage of selection. Previously held on Terra, the second stage of selection is now held in similar climates and conditions on other worlds, due to the current status of the Sol system. The second stage of selections is eight weeks long, starting with a 'build-up' week on an assault course in an arctic environment, specially designed to test all aspects of agility, fitness, and resilience. This is then followed by a long distance endurance march across a mountain range, the hopefuls forced to trek across the inhospitable terrain wearing heavy gear and sometimes wearing oxygen restrictors. Their rest times are heavily restricted and they are kept on a strictly controlled diet, pushing them to their very limit. This march lasts for five weeks and weeds out roughly ninety percent of the applicants due to the physical requirements. The last two weeks consist of a rigorous set of testing, covering physics, chemistry, biology, history, philosophy, tactics, warfare and many others. This is followed up by psychic-evaluations, performed to get a better understanding of a trooper's emotional state and personality. A limited number of places are available in the next stage of training, so applicants that pass the testing and psychic-evaluations, now around one percent of the original group, are then selected based on the highest scores.

 

 

Training

Once selected, the troopers then begin actual training. It is rumoured that the training is ten times as hard as the selection process, however, there is no longer a choice to leave or wash-out. In truth, the trainees are expected to excel at every opportunity, though the men and women that have made it this far are driven, dedicated individuals at the peak of physical and mental ability. The troopers are put through training which takes sixteen weeks to complete, consisting of an intensive period of instruction and assessment of tactics, techniques and procedures, standard operating procedures and use of equipment specifically available to OSW operators. The trainees spend eight weeks learning from instructors before they are moved into the next stage, a "combat and survival stage", where trainees are placed into a thick, hostile rainforest for five weeks, completing combat and survival based exercises in under hostile conditions. Troopers pain responses are regularly tested due to the aggressive nature of the flora and fauna within the rainforest. The "combat and survival" exercise is followed by a Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract program which lasts the final three weeks. The trainees are let loose twenty miles from the outskirts of a city located in a hilly/mountainous region during adverse weather conditions. This gives the trainees the opportunity to evade capture in a variety of environments as they are hunted down by a squad of OSW Operators. The trainees are invariably captured fairly swiftly and are then subjected to interrogation training at the hands of the OSW Operators and Ministry of Paranormal Warfare psychics. All manner of techniques are used, including sleep and sensory deprivation, starvation, non-invasive torture techniques such as waterboarding and stress positioning, as well as psychic methods such as mind-probing, memory alteration, and false imaging. This is also the time the trainees receive their first psychic imprinting and baseline. Imprints and baselines are to establish the mental and emotional stability of an Operator. They help psychics to administer treatment to a mentally or emotionally unstable Operator by being able to correct and rectify faults and flaws found within their personality.

 

Final Stages

After going through the grueling training of the Office of Special Warfare, the Operator trainee has one final barrier to entry to break through. The Operator must perform a two-mile swim in full armour, carrying a Morita. The objective is not only to cross the two miles, but also to ensure the Morita stays dry. Once the Operator reaches the end of the swim, his assessors disassemble the Morita to look for moisture ingress. Provided none is found, the trainee is finally granted the Winged Spear badge and beret and assigned to an active Office of Special Warfare detachment. 

 

The Structure Of An Office Of Special Warfare Detachment

Within each of the many fleets of the Federation, a detachment of Operators of the Office of Special Warfare resides. The detachment, dependant on the size, is invariably led by a captain, major, or colonel. The commanding officer presides over the various Operator teams within his detachment and directly liaises with Military Intelligence and, often, the office of the Sky-Marshal. They deal with the operations handed down by high-command, ensuring the correct assets are available and in place, as needed.

 

The executive officer is typically one rank below the commanding officer of the detachment, therefore typically being a lieutenant, captain, or major, though it has been known for a Warrant Officer or Chief Warrant Officer to take the position. The executive officer typically deal with the teams directly, briefing and handing out the CO's orders as and when requested.

 

Staff-sergeants act as squad leadership, leading the fireteams of Operators on their small-scale missions, executing reconnaissance, hostage rescues, assassinations, and sabotage, among other things. They delegate orders that come down from the command staff to the Operators in their fireteams and are responsible for the day-to-day welfare of everyone under their command.

 

Sergeants form the rest of the detachment, each Operator starting out as an E-5. Operators are responsible for maintaining their own gear and look after their own schedules, allowing them a great deal of autonomy. They are however expected to maintain a minimum level of fitness and perform a set routine of training each week. Each Operator is assigned a personal 'coach' that ensures the Operator is continuously meeting the correct levels of fitness and completing their training goals.