Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Alliance Characters

Gunter Von Esling
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It can be said quite accurately that Von Esling was the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War for the Alliance. Field Marshal in the Imperial Aselian army when the first Voshkod tanks rolled into Aquila, Von Esling was propelled rapidly to the chief figure of the Reichswehr when the Voshkod executed a series of devastating decapitating blows against the Aselian High Command. Taking control of all the forces he could get his hands on, Von Esling lead his forces on a brutal counterattack, the famous blitzkrieg that fractured the unified front of the Voshkod offensive into dozens of smaller groups, disrupting the pace of the invasion and preventing the Voshkod from fully organizing to push past Imperial Aselia.

A master of logistics and force deployment, Von Esling managed to take on ten thousand Voshkod tanks and more than four million soldiers with less than eight hundred Panzers, a handful of half-tracks, and a hundred and fifty thousand men and hold them off for over six months while the rest of Hawke mobilized. Such was his brilliance that it is frequently speculated that a driving force in the formation of the unified Alliance Army was giving him a command position, and it is thanks to him and to the skill of the soldiers under his command that the Alliance doctrine is so heavily influenced by Aselian tactics and strategy.

Towards the end of the war, Von Esling had gained considerable notoriety in Voshkod ranks, and many attempts were made on his life. Knowing that the Voshkod would go out of their way to ensure his death, he used this to his advantage to overcome the Krakow Flak Complex in early 1955 V.C. Cracking the complex was almost impossible; more than fifty bombers had been destroyed by SAM sites during attempted attack runs, and several units had been decimated by its artillery, large garrison, and compliment of Hind helicopters. Moving to personally command the operation, Von Esling had his Bluejay transport helicopter shot out from under him, leaving him badly wounded.

Here, he formulated his last plan. He set out from the wreck with a radio and openly broadcast his location, prompting Voshkod forces to rush into the surrounding countryside to find him, practically abandoning the complex, allowing the surrounding Allied forces to close in and take over, turning the local V2 launch sites around to bombard Lwów. Von Esling managed to evade capture for several hours before being hunted down by a flight of Hind helicopters, though his body was later recovered and buried in his hometown in one of the largest military funerals in modern history.

Von Esling helped to spur the creation of the Peacekeeping Divisions, and though he died prior to their formation he is considered their honourary supreme commander to this day. Two of his grandchildren serve in the Alliance Forces, including the head of the Experimental Division.

Nikos Stavros
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The son of a wine grower, Nikos Alexandros Stavros had a reputation as an intelligent but lonely boy, whose temper problems led him to a problematic youth. He found his call when enlisting in the military, where he quickly rose in the ranks. He fought successfully against the Central Powers in the Hawke War, although this didn't stop him from forming a close friendship with Aselian commander Von Esling during the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War, when Stavros was personally selected by Von Esling to become the second in command of the Alliance militaries.

Stavros was a skilled commander who supervised the defence of southern Hawke, preventing the Voshkod from destroying more than they did. The attack on (Greece) turned the war personal, which fuelled Stavros into fighting personally at the front for two months while still commanding, which he received heavy criticism for but still managed. When Von Esling died, he took over the position of Allied Supreme Commander, signing the peace treaty with the Voshkod, until his death by lung cancer in 1961. Although he is not as iconic as Von Esling he is fondly remembered by most (Greeks), and despite the Syndicate influence in (Greece), the attempted removal of the Stavros Memorial in (Athens) met with protests so large that the monument had to be left, a lone symbol of the Alliance in the Acropolis Sprawl.

Robert Bingham
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Born Fereldan, Bingham is the current supreme commander of the Alliance military forces. It is often thought he wouldn't have reached his current position if he did not have his unique foresight. For Robert Bingham always had a talent for predicting his opponent’s moves, and he exploited it by ordering his most capable commanders to places he predicted would be attacked. That strategy proved to be a remarkable success in the last war, with four Alliance commanders of his choosing pulling off victory after victory. Commander Cullen Rutherford was stationed in the Aquila at the time president Ackerman defected, Commander Lissette Hanley was in control of the Capitol Guard before the invasion of (Switzerland) began, and both Commander Giles Price and Welkin Gunther were in close proximity to (Cuba) at the time the Voshkod attempted to launch a Kirov sneak attack.

Although effective, the strategy proved costly, with three out of four of his ace commanders placed on leave. Currently, Bingham is torn between recommissioning his old commanders, and learning to work with the newer, less experienced commanders.

Giles Price II.
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Perhaps the finest air marshal serving the Alliance, Giles Price II is a man born to fly. The son of a Hawke War pilot the Royal Air Corps, Giles grew up listening to his father's stories of how the sky was the last true honorable battlefield. Following in his father's footsteps, Giles joined the Royal Air Force just in time for the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War, first flying Nimbuses and later Hawker jumpjets. During the war Giles quickly became the Royal Air Force's best pilot, and by the end of the GVAW held the record for most downed enemy aircraft of any pilot of the war. During the interwar period Giles remained in the military, and while still a pilot at heart, he gladly accepted a command positon and with the outbreak of (WW3) was put in charge of Von Esling Airbase at Keflavík, (Iceland), but later was called back to assist when the Voshkod attacked Fereldan, his home country. He was also present at the attack on the Voshkod base in (Cuba). Citing his relatively advanced age, he rejected the offer to be the first pilot to fly the new Achilles fighter. Regarded as one of the most successful commanders during the war, Price has now temporarily retired to write a book on his experiences, citing a need to relax after four years of constant warfare.

Giles Price's intelligence officer is Lieutenant Halldór Eiríkurdóttir. Eiríkurdóttir is currently on leave along with Price, as she will be reactivated if Price returns to service. Currently, she is running a charity for orphans and widows of Alliance pilots that have died in the line of service.

Lissette Hanley
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The position of Commander is not one of strategic acumen. The Commander is instead sent to trouble spots around the globe and is given complete tactical control of an entire battlefield. Strategic operations are left to other officers. Therefore, complete military training is not necessary, and Commanders can come from many occupations, like scientists or spies. The only necessary qualifications, other than extreme top tactical skills, are the knowledge of operating battle-control computers. This system has revolutionized warfare but is not without criticism, which nowadays points at the case of one Commander Lissette Hanley.

The details of Agent Hanley's life and recruitment are classified by the ACIN and are sealed until 1992 V.C. By reputation, however, Agent Hanley was one of the most capable of ACIN's agents. While, like all spies, she could do about anything, her specialty was charm and seduction. Her playful attitude could make enemy spies underestimate her, while her ability to sexually attract men (and the occasional woman) would make a Satyr blush. She apparently foiled many Voshkod plots and stole many secrets, but her career was cut short when photos surfaced of her in bed with one Agent DuBois, who was easily identifiable by his trademark balaclava. Lisette was fired for her illicit affair; Agent DuBois was never caught due to his custom of wearing a balaclava.

Hanley was not done with serving the Alliance yet, however. Her labyrinthine mind and ability to read people also translated well into figuring out what enemies would do on the battlefield, and she was promoted to Commander, trading in her catsuit for an officer's dress. Even though she had learned her lesson in not having affairs with fellow soldiers, she still displayed several eccentricities. One famous example was her impressing everyone around her by often speaking in the accent and language of their home country; Welkin particularly received most of this, being talked to exclusively in her Gallian-accented English instead of her "real" Orlaisian. She was just as capable in a military HQ as she was in the backstreets of Hawke cities, and when (WWIII) came along, she excelled in many early battles and perhaps won the war altogether. Unlike many of her fellow Commanders, she responded better under the pressure of hopeless odds, having pulled herself out of worse before. Her reputation made her Field Marshal Bingham's favorite commander and earned her a place in several high-profile battles, including the invasion in (Switzerland) and the Battle of Ullthuan.

However, the pressure of those battles, the war itself, and a pre-existing condition caused a mental breakdown in the once-reliable commander. She began to exhibit odd, sometimes violent behavior. The short bursts of rage and instability were overlooked by Alliance command, who were not planning to send one of their most valued commanders to rehab just yet. Eventually, they were forced to; An incident that included several borrowed Cryocopters freezing and towing civilians and POWs to Shiba park (her command post in Ulthuan) was uncovered by Interpol. One of the spies from the Cannes operation was brought in to disable a thumbprint-accessed lock on a small building in the park (apparently regular engineers were unable to hack it). Inside, several Peacekeepers apprehended Commander Lissette, who was admiring her newly found collection of frozen statues. She was relieved from her duties and sent to an asylum in her hometown where she is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and violent outbreaks. Some Alliance officers, including Bingham, are debating if she should be allowed to rejoin her position in the Alliance military once her mental illness has been cured.

Lisette Hanley's intelligence officer is Lieutenant Amita Basanti. Basanti claimed to know nothing of her superior officer's illness, a likely story proven right by the thumbprint lock installed on the "garden" door. Basanti is currently awaiting reassignment.

Lydia Winters
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The slightly improbable career as a top Alliance military officer started for Ms. Lydia Winters when she took a job as a receptionist for Bell Laboratories, which had just been granted the Nobel Prize for its research into solar technology. Born as a middle-class child in southern Fereldan, Lydia Winters and her family had moved around Hawke for ten years, resulting in her being able to speak six languages more or less fluently, before settling in (New Jersey) where she went through her higher education, studying information technology at the Rutgers University. Her father was an officer interested in military tactics, which she would absorb unconsciously during family dinner discussions.

Taking an interest in the company's research, she studied solar technology in her spare time and listened in to the company scientists' meetings. In 1956 V.C., when they were discussing the efficiency problems of the solar cells preventing practical usage on large scales, Lydia made an off-hand suggestion of deploying the solar cells in space. After being questioned about the details of her idea and her general knowledge of the matter, which was later discovered to surpass that of even some of the scientists, Lydia was quickly offered a place in the team working on solar technology. She would prove instrumental in the designing of the future Athena Satellite Uplink Network.

Content with her work, Lydia took up studies in military tactics while working for the newly founded Angstrom Defense, pioneering the usage of a self-programmed primitive text-based "computer game" to practice field tactics. Showing skill, she applied for the Allied officer program and rose through the ranks. While not a major player during World War III, she provided tactical advice to several fellow commanders. Post-war, she has primarily been assigned to tutor junior officers in satellite combat.

Emmet Brown
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Emmet Brown is known for two things, the first is that he was the grandson of the late Gunter, the second is that he was as a close associate of the late Albert Einstein. Though Einstein believed his technology should primarily be used for peaceful purposes, Emmet has set out into the field to show that it is essential to weaponize Einstein's technology in order to protect the free world.

Though a scientist at heart with a reluctance to kill. Emmet is known for fighting in some battles piloting the "Zeitgeist", a massive craft that wields some of the Alliance's most advanced chrono-technology. He can bombard enemies from a great distance with a cutting edge weapon that creates a small, unstable chrono vortex. With the famous battle of (insert) giving him the nickname "Siegfried" after the Aselian hero.

But Emmet would face his final mission towards the end of the Mental Omega Conflict. When the first Paradox Engine, of which he also commanded, got ambushed and wrecked by Libra as Yuri's Mental Omega Device began activating. And in a last-ditch effort to prevent the activation of the global mind-controlling device, Emmet piloted Paradox Engine to ram the Mental Omega Device before crashing into the ground, significantly damaging the massive construction and killing everyone inside including Emmet. But his sacrifice would buy the ADI enough time to target their Ion Cannon and destroy the Mental Omega.

Seraina Lar
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The last one to picture Seraina Lar as a military officer before the war started was probably herself. Born to a family of doctors in the Gallian city of, Seraina showed talent for science and biology even as a child. Graduating with top scores from the Gallian "elite schools" founded before 1962 V.C., and as one of the few girls to do so, she went on immediately to become the first woman to study Biology and Molecular Biology at the same time at the University of (Vienna), doctoring in Medicine. Instead of enrolling as a doctor, which she could easily have done, Seraina decided to continue her studies abroad.

After two years of Physics studies at the University of (Cambridge), Seraina got involved in a project on particle physics endorsed by the Alliance. Her dedication to the project served a vital role in producing the blueprints to what would become the Particle Expeller. Allied military elements took note of her, and Seraina was persuaded to leave her studies to work for the Alliance. When the war broke out, she joined the Experimental Division, working on various experimental projects. Her devotion to personal equality and freedom motivated her work for the Alliance, and also led her to campaign for the abolition of the elitist school system. It was also her work in the Experimental Division that she met her would-be husband Emmet Brown.

As the Alliance Experimental Division's technologies began to be employed with increasing frequency, Seraina committed herself to see that the powerful technologies she worked on were used properly, and to this end, in the wake of her husband's sacrifice in the Mental Omega Conflict, enlisted in the Alliance Commander program, undergoing education in battle tactics and strategy, and graduating from the training course as a full Commander. During the (Alpine) campaign, she commanded the experimental units sent to assist the regular Alliance forces, which proved themselves invaluable in the recapture of (Merano) and (Innsbruck).

An inherently masterful multitasker, Seraina is an active commander of the Alliance Experimental Division, and is currently educating junior officers in the use of the experimental units employed by the division. While talented, she is still new on the field, and strives to learn more about the arts of combat, the human mind, and quantum physics; any subject she comes across.