Well funny you should mention those.
Because the SOE are, in this book, part of the the All Weather Combat Corps which is actually the other focus of the book.
The AWCC on paper is a Royal formation, so equipped with all the latest toys, but they also have here, a slew of non-standard Mechs, ones that were either not accepted for widescale deployment, or were undergoing testing as well. The idea being that the AWCC's various units would be spread out to act as a quick reaction force to get to a situation as quickly as possible, and that having non-standard stuff would be an advantage against the Great Houses or Periphery states who wouldn't know what the suddenly unknown Mechs they're facing are or their capabilities.
And hidden in the AWCC is the SOE formation, totally and utterly separate of course, the SOE is more akin to the ultra-specialised special forces that we have today (Seal Team 6, special squads in various militaries etc) who are tasked with dealing with a threat quickly and quietly, or going for decapitation strikes and the like. Operation GLASS HOUSE is an example of this. The Kuritans got their hands on some SLDF royal aerospace fighters that were grabbed by 'pirates', and to stop the Kuritans getting their hands on the advanced tech, the base they're at is hit by an SOE squad and is levelled with the personnel killed and any data there destroyed. Some evidence might point fingers at the lyrans or Suns, and whilst the combine might suspect House Cameron/SLDF, there's no evidence to say otherwise.
And its the same if there was a buisness exec caught selling secrets, and the head of SL Intel (appointed by the Director General) or the Director General themself thought that this person could escape punishment in the courts, then there's a terribly tragic accident, or a brutal mugging and that problem is 'dealt with'.
The Hegemony and SLDF are often remembered as veritable saints of great morale fortitude and strong leadership (that laughing you can hear is from the Periphery) but they were human, and the Director General is a dictator. They have the courts, and senate, but at the end of the day, they are the one with all the power, and will do what is needed to ensure that power is kept and secure. And so the SOE is very much the idea that A knife in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn. And for bigger ops, they'd operate behind hostile lines, going for critical targets (HQ's, strategic weapons etc)
