Watch

The Watch is the intelligence agency of the Clans. Founded by Nicholas Kerensky to spy on the 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 percieve 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 though actually help the efficiency of the Watch because of the additional expirience of the warriors.

The current (3057) head of the Watch is Kael Pershaw of Clan Jade Falcon.

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.

• Clan Jade Falcon: 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 genious 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 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 these informations. So, they were caught offhanded in 3060 when major Inner Sphere warship-forces showed up during Operation Bulldog and Operation Serpent.

• Clan Wolf: It was Clan Wolf, which used the Watch right from the start, it was Clan Wolf, which suggested sending Wolf 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 expirienced 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-Exile: 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 sizeable 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 scooled 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.

References

• 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.