9th Nekommando Battalion

Officially the "9th Demi-Human Special Unit", the 9th Nekommandos are one of two demi-human brigades under Editi's Special Solutions Division, with the other being the 8th Gernadder Heavy Infantry Battalion under the brigade of the same name. It was active between late 2017 to mid 2019. Following the Dokuritsu Insurrection, the unit is considered destroyed. Tora Riutene considers herself to be the only survivor, but unbeknownst to her a handful of other nekommandos survive under the watch of Farkas Horvath of ARHK.

The Nekommandos primary task lay in counter-terrorism and urban warfare operations, with their overall mission being to resolve threats to the Engineers from within Japan itself. Whereas the Gernadders fulfilled the role of a shock army in case of war, the Nekommandos were intended to operate in small and specialized units; a comparison between the two being that of a hammer and a scalpel. The secrecy by which the Nekommandos operated, coupled with their counter-terrorism operations against Japanese insurrectionist cells, became the root of rumored "catgirl deathsquads" perpetuated by the Dokuritsuha.

All demi-human members of the unit were female, and due to all being genetically related, individual catgirls considered one another to be sisters, with Editi being regarded as their mother as well as overall commander. Nekommandos lived and fought together, and were likewise expected to die together.

The 9th Nekommando battalion was trained by, and largely considered a successor to, the pre-war JGSDF Special Forces Group, though their role was more ultimately more analogous to the Japanese Police's Special Assault Team due to greater emphasis on domestic counter-terrorism operations. This was considered a mark of pride and testament to the quality of their training, and as result they were allowed to retain the symbol of the rising sun in their unit emblem; something the Dokuritsuha took particular offense to.

Senior command positions beyond the rank of captain were filled by humans. This was done for several reasons, one of which was to provide experience and oversight to the on average no more than two years old catgirls. This also allowed Nekommandos to circumvent the Engineers' genetic geas that normally prevented the use of lethal force by having a commanding officer on hand with sufficient authority delegated to them by Editi to permit such actions on a case-by-case basis. The only other times this geas could be circumvented was in self defense, or directly in defense of TE personnel or property; both occasions which would require the Nekommandos to be on the defensive rather than acting in their intended proactive role.

## Organization

The battalion consisted of thirteen companies; a reserve training company, and 12 operational companies each with about 200 commando catgirls active at their peak. Senior positions of authority were held by humans, generally former members of the pre-war JGSDF Special Forces Group or police force's Special Assault Team. The highest command that could be held by a catgirl in the battalion was that of captain, giving her authority over three lieutenants each commanding platoons of three squads of five catgirls.

## Equipment

The Nekommandos, like all other Engineer-sponsored paramilitary and military units, initially utilized caseless 10mm weaponry, but the impracticality of such weapons saw them quickly revert to more proven tools at the recommendation of their human commanders, drawing from already existing armories of the JGSDF and police forces. H&K P9, H&K USP, S&W M3913, Glock 19, Glock 20, Glock 40, SIG P226 and Baretta 92s were all available as sidearms. Submachine guns counted the MP5SD6, MP7, P90, and PM-9. For assault rifles, the Nekommandos had access to M4A1s, Type 89s, G36s, and HK416s, with the HK417 and FN SCAR selected as designated marksman rifles. For sniper rifles, the Remington M24, Howa M1500, L96A1, and PSG1 were used. Tora herself heavily favored balanced armaments in the G36 as a longarm and SIG P226 as a sidearm. The Glock 20 she used to shoot Editi's Avatar and later Mark Wolfe was taken from the TEHQ armory after she lost her original weapons.

Nekommandos were issued utility knives as part of their kit, rather than combat knives, the reason being that most catgirls would opt to use their claws in hand-to-hand combat rather than knives.