Watch

The Watch is the intelligence agency of the Clans. Founded by Nicholas Kerensky to spy on Clan Wolverine, the Watch originally answered to the ilKhan only. Later, and especially after the failed invasion of the Inner Sphere, the Clans began to understand the value of an intelligence service, so every Clan got an arm of the Watch. Still, since the Clans perceive spying as un-Clanlike, the Watch is considered weak even in comparison to SAFE.

Only members of the Warrior, Scientist, and the Technician Caste serve as the Watch operatives. Many warriors serving in the Watch are considered old and useless by the Clan standard, whose only other choice would be serving in a Solahma unit. This circumstances actually help the efficiency of the Watch because of the additional experience of the warriors though.

The command of the Watch arms of all Clans are their respective Loremasters, except for the Clan Fire Mandrill, where the command is shared with the ilChi, and the Clan Nova Cat where the Oathmaster Minoru Novacat is the current head of the Watch.

The current (3057) head of the All-Clan Watch is Kael Pershaw of Clan Jade Falcon since he is also the Loremaster of the Clans.

Clan Watch Commands

Clan Blood Spirit

• Loremaster Bayle Campbell

The isolationist Spirits have a defensive oriented watch. The normal work was the analysis of the Chatterweb and information from their allied ilChis. The recent activities lead to a more offensive course and a closer cooperation with the Fire Mandrill's agents.

Clan Cloud Cobra

• Loremaster Eleni Riaz

The Cloud Cobras use the normal resources for information gathering, like Trials and the Chatterweb. The Cloisters give them an opportunity to infiltrate other Clans with minimal work. It is believed that agents are operating in the near Periphery and surrounding Clan space.

Clan Coyote

• Loremaster Clarissa Jericho

The task of the branch is to gather information from the Chatterweb and from diamond sharks merchants combined with a few field operations on the ground.

Clan Diamond Shark

• Loremaster Semi Kalasa

• The Sharks role as merchants for the clans and as founder of the Chatterweb give them a dominant role in the clan-wide intelligence play. Heavily influenced by the merchant caste, the orientations are quite different. In many operations economic goals are the primary mission. In many cases the Watch is a match for IS agencies.

Clan Fire Mandrlll

• Loremaster Drew Tanaga and ilChi Jas Keller

• Every Kindraa has its own watch branch. This makes it difficult to cooperate within the clan as a whole. The cooperation with the Spirits give them something like a central command and the Spirits a greater access to the world outside their own clan.

Clan Ghost Bear

• Loremaster Laune Tseng

• The Watch received an improvement through rasalhaghian operatives. The former Tyr resistance movement is now part of the watch and gives it a superior edge about the other invasion clans.

Clan Goliath Scorplon

• Loremaster Kyrie Ben-Shimon

• In the past limited to discovering lost Star League artifacts, the branch is now more offensively orientated. The seeker movement gives them the cover needed for missions in other Clan territories. Rumors suggest a close cooperation with Clan Snow Raven and Blood Spirit.

Clan Hell's Horses

• Loremaster Temuchin Amirault

The invasion of the Ghost Bear Dominion had shown that the Horses were adapt to the use of elite commando-squads. This commando teams make preparations for the invading force through information gathering and sabotage.

Clan Ice Hellion

• Loremaster Jonas Cage

• The Hellions use reactivated dropships equipped with sensor to improve their operation. The improvements still need to show. Most operatives hail from the technician caste.

Clan Jade Falcon

• Loremaster Kael Pershaw

• In 3060 Loremaster Kael Pershaw is head of their Watch. In 3064 Khan Marthe Pryde used the Jade Falcon Watch to steal information about pirate jump points of Lyran systems. This knowledge was used in the assault on Melissia. Although the Jade Falcon Watch is among the best of the Clans - due to a progressive Khan and the genius of Kael Pershaw - their distaste for covert operations leaves the Watch with mostly intelligence gathering and analysis work through conventional sources and scouting. Currently, lots of monitoring activity of the Jade Falcon Scientist Caste hints to some kind of an internal conflict.

Clan Snow Raven

• Loremaster Klaus Harper

• The domination in the naval field give the Raven an unique insight view in the strength, political orientation and future developments of other clans. The Machiavellian manuvering in the politics make them a special opponent. The Snow Raven internal rivalry hampers sometimes their own success.

Clan Star Adder

• Loremaster Dagmar Lahiri

• The absorbtion of Clan Burrock give the Star Adder a deeper inside look in the working of the dark caste. As a result the anti-bandits mission are successfuler and are more effective. The personal of the watch contains at the moment more former Burrock warrior than original Star Adders. The watch are on pare with the branches of other Homeclans.

Clan Steel Viper

• Loremaster Artrhur Stoklas

• The Steel Vipers are traditionalist in every way and as a result put little resources in intelligence operation. The Vipers were forced to restructure their watch after their touman was suprised by the Jade Falcon counterattack, which lead to all loses of IS terretories to the Jade Falcon.

Khan Perigard Zalman's efforts to improve the work of the watch have little influence until now. The normal agents are washed out or solhama warrior with little support through technicans.

Clan Wolf

• Loremaster Katya Kerensky

• It was Clan Wolf, which used the Watch right from the start, it was Clan Wolf, which suggested sending Wolf's Dragoons to the Inner Sphere to report to the Watch. It surprises not, that Clan Wolf has got a strong Watch arm, second only to Clan Wolf-in-Exile. Hardened by years in the occupation zone, the Wolf Watch is experienced in information gathering, analysis and commando-style operations. Clan Wolf Watch especially tries to infiltrate the Clan Jade Falcon and the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces for military intelligence gathering. During the Jade Falcon incursion of 3064 Khan Phelan Kell of Clan Wolf-in-Exile recognized a Clan Wolf Watch agent and sent through him a message to Vlad Ward. The current head of the Wolf Clan Watch is Loremaster Katya Kerensky.

Clan Wolf (In Exlle)

• Loremaster Daphne Vickers

• During the Jade Falcon incursion of 3064, their Watch cooperated with the Lyran LIC and ComStar's ROM to deliver the best possible intelligence to the defenders of the Lyran Alliance. Since Khan Phelan Kell brought a sizable part of the already very able Clan Wolf watch to Arc-Royal and used his family contacts to augment it further, the Exile Wolf Watch is considered the strongest Watch agency and is schooled not only in intelligence gathering, but also counter-intelligence work and even commando missions. Loremaster Daphne Vickers is the head of Clan Wolf-in-Exile Watch.

Clan Nova Cat

• Oathmaster Minoru Nova Cat

• Through their new Oathmaster the Nova Cats received a boost in intelligence operation after their reloacation to the Inner Sphere. The order of the five pillar are support and assisted the Clan watch secretly. This is a sign of future cooperation with the Draconis Combine.

Clan Smoke Jaguar

• Their Watch was fully aware of the growing Warship-programs of the Successor States and the re-fitted Warships of ComStar. But for unknown reasons, the warrior caste simply discarded this information. So, they were caught offhanded in 3060 when major Inner Sphere warship-forces showed up during Operation Bulldog and Operation Serpent.

Alterniv roots

Created on the decision of the Grand Council to spy on the Successor State, the former Intelser (founded 2980) are the predecessor organization to all Clan watches. For the Warden Clans it was a way to delay the Invasion with the reason, the enemy is unknown (strength,technology and so on) and a task force (Wolf Dragoons) must send to them undercover , with the mission for information gahtering. (see also Dragoon Compromise) The task force now konow as Wolfs Dragoons defected to the Inner Sphere with their own goal to protect it against their former brothers. The next decades the appparatus stand still and was reactivated during the Invasion as response to anti-clan activities on conquered worlds by guerillas forces (financed by Successor States).

TODO: add information from the Guide to Covert Ops. --Dunkelfalke 12:45, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

done --Dunkelfalke 19:16, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

The Watch as it exists today formed during the Clan 'nvasion as a response to anti-Clan activities by Inner Sphere intelligence agencies. Though once more conceived as a blanket service for all invading Clans, each Clan was responsible for maintaining its own semi- independent Operation and even the non-invading Clans formed their own programs in anticipation of possible action against Inner Sphere forces. Lacking both resources and a suitable model from which to proceed, the Clan Waten blundered through its early years, focusing the bulk of its efforts on weeding out enemy agents infiltrating the Occupation Zones. Regarded as a necessary evil—with the stress on evil-the Clans staffed these agencies with the dregs of their warrior caste, supported by merchants and technicians. Infiltration of opposing factions was negligible and the gathering of data was largely limited to eavesdropping on local newsvids before launching an attack. Lacking sufficient analysis capabilities, the Clans simply did not know how to put the scant information they gathered to use. resulting in numerous intelligence failures that only heightened the Clans' scorn for such Operations. Though some Clans, notably the Wolves and the Jade Falcons, took steps to Upgrade their intelligence apparatus, the Clan Watch branches remained sub-par throughout much of the ComStar truce. When the invasion was ended in 3060, the Watch miraculously endured, though now fragmented between the surviving Clans and lacking any central authority. The invasion and the aftermath of its failure spurred some Clans to modify their own Watch programs, gradually bridging the gap between their inexperienced Operations and those of their Inner Sphere counterparts. Though their current rate of improvement is still quite limited and irregulär, with some branches developing better in select areas than others, the overail effectiveness of the Clan Watch appears sufficient for most military Operations. THE CLAN WATCH BRANCHES The Clan Watch, loosely organized on the order of the ilKhan during the Start of the Clan Invasioa diverged after the Tukayyid truce and in subsequent years. Never abolished but now lacking the centralized authority of a war leader, the Organization has fractured along Clan lines and each separate branch has already developed unique characteristics under the leadership of its Claa Nonetheless, the obvious division between the Watch programs of the Invading Clans versus those of Home Clans is striking. Exposed to more of the turmoil and cloak-and-dagger of Inner Sphere politics and rival agencies, the Invading Clans have been forced to adapt at breakneck pace lest they be shattered like the Jaguars. The Home Clans, still stuck in the pre-lnvasion ways with little to worry about save the threat of neighboring Clans, remain woefully underdeveloped in areas of intelligence analysis and covert Operations. While it remains true that none of the Clan Watch programs measures up to any Inner Sphere organizations, some do come dose in specific areas and all remain dangerous to the overconfident operative. The designator for someone within the Watch is a simple black ring laid behind the daggerstar.

Bibliography

• Betrayal of Ideals, Blaine Lee Pardoe, BattleCorps story
• Operation Audacity (novel)
• Sword and Fire (novel)
• Shadows of War (novel)
• Randall N. Bills et al, A Guide to Covert Ops. FanPro, 2004.