Cerberus Commandos
From FABT
- "Officium usque ad mortem."
- — Motto of the Cerberus commandos.
The Cerberus Commandos was the primary special operations/black ops unit of the Cerberus Army, and after 2165 CE, the Cerberus Special Forces until its dissolution in 2185 CE. Formed immediately after the creation of Cerberus and the Cerberus Armed Forces, the commandos consisted of defecting members from not just the Alliance military, but the various armies of Earth's nations as well, including many special forces operatives, all of which believed in Cerberus' goals and wanted to fight for humanity, a fight they believed the Alliance was unable to prosecute and that an organization such as Cerberus was required to watch over humanity and make the hard choices the Alliance was unwilling to. Initially divided into ten battalions of 1,000 men each, the Cerberus commandos were the nucleus of the Cerberus Army, trained to perform black ops missions and strike operations that required secrecy, efficiency and precision, with the many missions of the Cerberus commandos ranging from escorting scientists, performing raids on the strongholds of those deemed to be a threat to the human race, assassinating influential figures, and so on. Around 2160 CE however, the Cerberus Army was expanded beyond the commandos, with Cerberus' intended scope requiring more traditional armed forces that would cut down on costs and training expenses, whilst providing the troops necessary to garrison and protect the many installations and interests Cerberus had: in 2165 CE, the transition was made to have the Cerberus commandos made part of their own separate branch with its own command structure, the Cerberus Special Forces, and the size of the unit was expanded from just ten battalions to twenty, totaling 20,000 men.
By 2170 CE, the Cerberus commandos still remained the staple of Cerberus' military, and their presence signified that Cerberus was taking a situation very seriously. Most of the time, commando units were deployed by platoon strength, with the Cerberus Army relied upon as a blunt instrument while the commandos were utilized for more surgical, fragile situations. Despite this, commandos could be deployed in battalion strength when needed, and in these situations a commando battalion would have an armoured company attached to it, although these scenarios were very rare and the Illusive Man preferred not to waste commando resources and manpower on the front lines, and such actions were only taken when overseeing the abandonment of a Cerberus facility, when a Cerberus facility was under attack, or when Cerberus needed to send a message. A permanent garrison of commandos was also stationed at Cronos Station, mostly acting as the personal bodyguard of the Illusive Man, with the task of evacuating the station should it ever come under attack, although such an eventuality wasn't deemed likely. In late 2185 CE, the Cerberus commandos were reorganized into seven new special operations brigades, effectively bringing an end to them as an organization. The commandos themselves were allocated to these new brigades based on both skill set and volunteers, but the Cerberus commandos as a separate unit ceased to exist by the time of the Reaper War.