Tactical Operations Bureau / TOBU

Founded: 2558
Official Designation: 特殊作戦部隊 (Tokushu Sakusen Butai) / 特部 (Tokubu)
English Translation: Tactical Operations Bureau (TOBU)
Headquarters: Fujin City, Saisei — Centauri System
Flagship: Idris-P known as Godmother

2558

The Messer Mandate

In the aftermath of the First Tevarin War, the UEE found itself victorious but shaken.

A noteworthy 2558 Quantum Obelisk Computer analysis of infantry actions during the First Tevarin War resulted in a flurry of changes to organization and tactics, chief among them the need to disassociate the Advanced Special Operations Unit from the Army’s command hierarchy. The ASO was reorganized into the core of a third spatial service. From this point on, the Marines would act fully independently of the Army. A number of smaller Navy organizations, including the Space Combat Team and the Naval Future Weapons Office, were rolled into the newly-christened UEE Marines.

During the military restructuring, allocation of budget went towards research and development groups to increase the research rate on Tevarin’s shield and stealth technology through captured Prowlers in order to counter and utilize. Among them was 特殊作戦部隊 or Tactical Operations Bureau (TOBU) which was founded and began its operations in the Centauri system, headquartered in Saisei, Fujin City. The Centauri system was chosen due to it and the Idris system being the frontlines of the war. The Messer regime also allocated a Flight 2 Idris as TOBU’s flagship.

All Tevarin territory were annexed by the UEE and displaced Tevarin populace were assimilated, willingly or not, into the culture of the UEE. Initially forbidden from living on their home planet, this caused mass frustration and dissent. However, humanity was confident that the Tevarin threat was considered completely neutralized. Humanity was wrong.

The surviving Naulle, elite Tevarin infiltrators capable of breaching capital ships undetected, continued their fight through sabotage and small skirmishes, particularly in their home system Kaleeth’ala, renamed Elysium. Although all military branches across the UEE began training their own elite units, the Messer regime wanted something that the public would never see, never question, and never trace. The regime did not want to further shake the public with news of Tevarin dissent so instead of sending in the military, the government expanded TOBU’s roles to not only research and develop, but to militarize and train in order to utilize the new technology to counter the Naulle and completely neutralize any remaining hostile Tevarin, all with the side objective of not attracting any media attention.

Eliminate threats that could not be acknowledged.
Conduct operations that could not exist.
Win battles that could never be written into history.

TOBU recruited First Tevarin War veterans, specifically ex-freedom fighters from the Greys who were survivors of occupied Idris IV, now known as Locke. This provided experienced, boots-on-ground training for TOBUs operatives by seasoned instructors. TOBU field uniform colors are grey and black, in honor of the Greys.

2603

The Second Human-Tevarin War

However, without the full military might of the UEE, Tevarin unrest grew further as the guerilla warfare raged on until by 2603, a new Tevarin warlord, Corath’Thal, emerged. He expanded the guerilla war from being contained within Centauri, Idris, and Elysium to touching every corner of the Empire making the war last 7 years (3 years more than the First War). With the UEE’s military at the forefront of the Second Human-Tevarin War, TOBU’s focus shifted their fight specifically against the Naulle. With experience against Tevarin’s guerilla warfare tactics, the organization’s roles further expanded into sabotage, intelligence gathering, and datarunning.

2605

Operation Oberon

In Mid-April 2605, TOBU submitted the report out of Oberon describing an attack on Uriel that wasn’t a typical hit-and-run operation. Tevarin forces captured a major landing zone on Uriel and TOBU officials feared this meant that the Tevarin had entered the next phase in their war strategy, taking land away from Humanity and using the existing infrastructure to establish resupply points. TOBU analysts feared that a Tevarin base on Uriel could be used for Tevarin attacks against Vega and Bremen, or even advances through the Perry Line. It was feared that this could lead to a Tevarin-Xi’an alliance. Rather than a massive joint strike, Marine General Russ Adachi encouraged the High Command to accept a surgical strike operation (lead by the 1st Marine Combat Battalion assisted by TOBU operatives) known as Operation Oberon.

Although TOBU operatives were already on the ground to assist, the Marines knew they would be outnumbered and outgunned. They needed to get to the planet without alerting the Tevarin. This involved waiting days until weather conditions provided enough cover for the deployment of “Nails” to quickly and covertly deliver the troops planetside where TOBU operatives would meet them. The Marines spent several anxious days waiting aboard a ship in Vega until TOBU sent word in the middle of the night that conditions were right. Their transport set out for Oberon, cautiously evading Tevarin patrols buzzing around the planet.

In the early hours of June 24, 2605, Marine commandos touched down on Uriel where they met TOBU operatives near a decommissioned maintenance enclosure that provided access to the subterranean tunnels connected to the quantum fuel refinery. The strike team believed that eliminating the facility’s strategic importance would drive the Tevarin to abandon the landing zone, so they advanced toward the refinery’s control room intent on destroying it.

The first stage of the mission went as planned. The team carefully avoided engagement until they entered the control room and killed all the Tevarin inside. While setting explosives, a contingent of Tevarin soldiers approached and engaged. The ensuing firefight and ever growing number of Tevarin troops prevented the strike team from planting the final charges. Seeing no alternative, they resorted to an improvised demolition strategy as they fled.

The team raced through the tunnels to their secondary exfiltration point, assuming that their original entry point had been compromised. They successfully reached the planetside only to receive word that Tevarin ships had engaged and chased away their approaching rescue ship. They were now stranded.

Filled with uncertainty regarding the success of their mission and unsure if they would ever leave Uriel, the team fled through the snow-covered mountains surrounding the landing zone to TOBU’s old cavern safehouses. Thus beginning an epic and often unbelievable journey across harsh terrain with better supplied Tevarin forces nipping at their heels. When military analysts received word of the situation, they put their chances of survival at 3.8%. Despite the drastic odds, this incredible journey through Uriel’s mountains would become legendary and inspire generations of young soldiers to sign up. Yet, the truth behind what actually occurred is even more unbelievable than the stories would lead you to believe. All of them being classified documents stored in TOBU’s database at their headquarters in Fujin City, Saisei of the Centauri system.

2610

The Purge and Preservation