Special Service

Special Service (特務部隊), shortened to SSU by Funimation in their English subtitles, is a spy faction formed by Schmelman Bach during the Abandonment War 300 years ago. Only the Red Barons, King of Athea and the highest rank Althea Royal Guard soldiers know of its existence.

History
The Special Services was founded and created by the seventh Legendary Red Baron, Gespenst Zerlegen 300 years ago during the Abandonment War to specifically handle missions and assignments from the shadows, in polar opposite from the other six Red Barons, who were all primarily sent to the front lines of battle.

During this time, the Special Services handled various missions pertaining to assassination of enemy leaders, espionage and spying on enemy activities and the gathering of insider information on the enemy operation and movements, all done directly under Schmelman Bach, who had been the main benefactor of the organization since its founding.

And eventually upon the War finally reaching its end when Althea and the Abyss were created, the Special Services continued to do its shadow operations and began focusing its efforts in maintaining the new "utopia" of Althea, directly under the supposed guidance and orders of the newly minted Althea royal family, but its been implied that they themselves had little control over the Special Services actions or even possessed any reliable information on their activities. Furthermore, despite the mistrust between the two factions, the Special Services became the primary keepers of at least four of the Original Ballots while the Althea Royal Guard/Family kept the other three and only brought them together to make the vote to maintain Althea.

Eventually during the course of Althea's 300 years of history, only the Special Services remained aware of Althea's true origins and state as a floating land mass and the Abyss' true nature and became the primary faction in charge of maintaining the secrecy of both the country and the Abyss' true nature from the general public and the majority of the Althea Royal Guard, as seen where they primarily maintained the secrecy of the Abyss' true nature and massacred entire towns and villages when the local populace see anything revealing the true nature of the "Abyss".

Recruitment
The overall recruitment and background of the Special Service agents seems to fall under two categories; either they were recruited from Althea Royal Guard and scouted out due to one of their loved ones being sent to the Abyss or they were originally raised up and conditioned to join the Special Services by being raised in one of the many orphanages owned,staffed and maintained by the organization used to cultivate its future, possible recruits.

Organization
The Special Services have been shown to be large enough that the group itself possess multiple division catering to different needs and purposes.

White Special Service
Also known as "High-Division Special Service", this subdivision of the Special Services is revealed during the return of Licht Bach as the new Colonel General after being convinced by Herz Vaalheit and her group of defectors and supporters after Schmelman's acceptance of the Blink Baron's deceleration of war from the Abyss.

This subdivision of the Special Services have marked themselves as distinct from the rest of the Special Services by wearing a white version of the typical uniform worn by the Special Services to differentiate them from the defectors and mark them as Schmelman's personal soldiers.

Defectors
After Schmelman accepted Sakai Tokikaze's deceleration of war from the Abyss and his subsequent actions of attacking high ranked Special Service agents and Schmelman seemingly hiding out instead of facing him. Herz Vaalheit and a large group of fellow Special Service agents have chosen to take matters into their own hands and chose to approach former Colonel Licht Bach to once more lead them in the new conflict against the Blink Baron as their new Colonel General, successfully convincing him upon offering to return his original Ballot Replica, having initially come to him due to believing he had the best chance of defeating or convincing the Blink Baron from war, while still being somewhat loyal to Schmelman.

However upon Schmelman's treachery and malice being fully revealed and his sanctioned attack against Licht while using the New Class A clones, Herz and her men have now fully defected to Licht's side and has now joined the new "Non-Killing Army" in opposition of their former leader after realizing how malicious Schmelman truly is.

New Class A
This hidden secret division of the Special Services compromises of the artificially drug created clones of Schmelman's former students of Class A during his time teaching in the 13th Special Military Forces School created by Firenda 300 years ago during the Abandonment War. With the clones themselves being kept in suspended animation in test tube vats during these three centuries until finally being let out upon the new war against the Abyss and his former students and colleagues.

The clones themselves are regarded as the hidden aces of the Special Services due to all of them having "inherited" the originals immense fighting skills and being given Ballot Replicas and being transformed into the new next generation Red. Barons by ingesting the newly created Red Baron's Drug, granting all of them monstrous power surpassing the original Red Barons and a count of 500000. This and the obvious psychological damage they can inflict on their designated targets makes them Schmelman's ace in the hole during the new war.

Scientific Research Division
As stated by Herz, a division of the Special Services exists that still continues the study and advancement of modern science and technology thought to have been abandoned during the end of the Abandonment War and the creation of Althea. This division in particular is said to have been mainly focusing on the study and research of restoring the destroyed and ravished surface of the planet and once again return the earth back to its previous habitable state and finally put on an end to the continued conflict between Althea and the Abyss over resources.

However despite this initial positive project, its been revealed that this division of the Special Services also focus on other,less idealistic projects. With Tsukina Farrow and Firenda having been implied to have worked on the development of the Red Baron's Drug that immediately grants however ingests it a count of 50000 for military use among other projects.

It also noted that the Special Services is one of the two factions capable of freely giving Ballot Replicas to their personnel, hinting that the Scientific Research Division are the ones responsible for creating them and have been implied to be capable of mass producing these Ballots for their agents personal use.

Orphanages
The Special Services are also known to own and operate several orphanages or churches across Althea that raises their potential recruits and future soldiers that mainly handles the operation of psychologically conditioning, training and raising them for their future roles. Schmelman occasionally visits these orphanages to read books to the children.

Infiltrators
Although the majority of the Special Service members serve in uniform, there are also a number of members who blend in with the civilian population and the Althea Royal Guard to gather intelligence or for easier assassination.

Current Members

 * Schmelman Bach - Field Marshal
 * Licht Bach - Colonel (300 years ago), Colonel General (Ch. 45~)
 * Gespenst Zerlegen - Colonel General
 * Douan Taketora - Major General
 * Sonohara Mizuka - Major
 * Herz Vaalheit - Captain
 * Riguel - Major General
 * Darle - Lieutenant General
 * Nikola - Second Lieutenant
 * Firenda - Scientist
 * Robert Du Vanvich - Unknown
 * Ichinose Saki (Clone) - Unknown
 * Akui Genji (Clone) - Unknown
 * Suda Kyouhei (Clone) - Unknown
 * Sumitani Asumi (Clone) - Unknown
 * Narumiya Kyouka (Clone) - Unknown
 * Sechs - Unknown
 * Sieben - Unknown

Former Members

 * Alexandrov Grigorovich - Unknown
 * Sakai Tokikaze - Lieutenant Colonel
 * Nana Bassler - Major
 * Tsukina Farrow - Scientist
 * Ichinose Saki - Unknown
 * Akui Genji - Unknown
 * Suda Kyouhei - Unknown
 * Sumitani Asumi - Unknown
 * Narumiya Kyouka - Unknown
 * Helshaft - General
 * Rafale - Lieutenant General
 * Feyon - Lieutenant General
 * Adagra - Major General

Trivia

 * For unknown reason, almost all of Special Service members shared the same "smiley" face. This has even been joked on Chapter 61, where the Royal Guard's soldiers wonder if the Special Service love this "smiley" face or not.