People of the PACT Arm
Commanders
ZOCU
Lord Lee Dorington
"Euro reinforcements? We might have to postpone tea..."
The genius Londener admiral who secured most of ZOCU's naval victories in the ZOCU War. Died with his steed, the first-run Pallada-class battleship Boadacea, at the climax of the Battle of Aldebaran in September 2187. It is widely believed that, had Dorington survived, the Combined Militia would have retained the initiative and kept the EUSF from concentrating the resources to attack in sufficient strength to defeat the ZCM's numerically-inferior forces.
PACT
Ray Quigley
"They'll probably order a retreat when they notice we've gone on the defensive."
Group Captain Ray Quigley was Oceania's former top ace and the 13th ranked in PACT, and later the commander of Oceania's premier aerospace air wing, known as Pacifica Airgroup. Known as the Gray Fox because of his age and ability to manipulate the battlefield, he was considered one of PACT's most skilled field commanders and a popular figure in NorPac's ANZO bloc, because of his strong belief in protecting the men under his command and ensuring that the fewest number of lives would be lost. Although outmatched and outmaneuvered many times by genetically superior ZOCU commanders, he was never outflanked and was considered a master of the defensive feint.
Although well into his seventies during the war and slowly being eaten apart by neuromuscular degeneration, he continued to serve on front-line vessels through a combination of life extension treatments, cybernetic implants and a top-of-the-line powered exoskeleton that provided critical life support to his frail and failing body. His personal kill score is unimpressive, but forces that fell under his command enjoyed some of the highest survival rates among PACT aerospace wings and has led more aces (few of which earned above 5 kills) than any other commander during the ZOCU war.
During the final stages of the war, he was promoted to the rank of Air Commodore and put in command of ANZOSC's Titania Battlegroup, fought a series of counter-offensives on Hampshiran/ZCM commerce raiders before finally being deployed during the offensive on Rapture. Acting as a rear guard for the NorPac fleet, his battlegroup were pivotal in preventing wider losses in retreating PACT ship divisions.
He later went on to serve as a technical adviser for the Sydney Naval Research Institute when his physical condition finally forced him into retirement.
Aces
The largest influence on the aces produced during the ZOCU War was undoubtedly the weapon they piloted: the mobile suit. The Core lacked a comparable weapon until the very end of the war and moreover had much lower levels of transgenic augmentation among their military forces. As a result, the individual achievements of Core aces generally did not figure within ZOCU. On average, the most successful ZOCU aces were those who transferred early to a Hoplite variant, were heavily augmented, fought extensively during the early days on the EU Arm where the quality of their enemies was generally inferior, and hailed from worlds willing to keep their best pilots on the field as much as possible.
ZOCU
The Top Ten
Geist
ZOCU's #1 Ace.
Y. G. Kruger
The highest-ranked Transbaalan ace and the 2nd highest overall. One of the first volunteers for the Cape Project that created ZOCU alephs, he was primarily active along the PACT arm. He flew virtually every ZOCU mobile suit design in service, with his distinctive brilliant red customized Sarissa Orgia (originally the 3rd prototype) being his weapon of choice both during and after the war. He currently heads ZOCU's Advanced Combat School, though rumors are that he is being considered for a more prestigious position.
Naas van der Wett
Transbaalan, Aleph, #3 Ace
- 4 slot previously Kanon's. Pending determination of what to do about aces.
Jasmine Raz
Haraway's famous Blue Devil, Major (Later Colonel) Jasmine Raz is the World's top scorer and the Fifth Rank Scorer in ZOCU. Jasmine joined the Harawayian aerospace force initially as a test pilot, then went on to fly pretty much all frames used by Haraway during the war, before finally settling down in a modified Sarissa-H in mid 2188, leading the famous Blue Devil squadron from 2186 onwards, initially flying Hoplites before converting over into Haraway's premier all Sarissa unit.
Jasmine survived a confrontation with a Doppelsöldner during the battle of Haraway, scoring the only confirmed kills against the much feared EU orbital frames by Harawayian a pilot.
After the War, Jasmine was promoted to Commodore and took over the mobile suit wing tasked with air defence of the Capital and Landing Island. She is married to superstar pop singer turned politician Emma Lan, though she prefers to stay out of politics.
- 6 slot previously Kanon's. Pending determination of what to do about aces.
Krotoa Vorster
Transbaalan, Aleph, #7 Ace
- 8 slot previously Londo's
- 9 slot previously Kanon's.
Alana Reseld
The Harawayan army's top scoring Ace, Alana Reseld flew in numerous ground and space battles, but always retained her army rank even when serving in aerospace force units. A red caste country girl from the outskirts of Landing Island, Alana joined the army in 2183, at age 17, and quickly showed a natural aptitude for flying which after a stint in flight school gained her a position in one of the army's Peltast units and severed in several notable battles in the ZOCU war, seeing action at Blue Trees and gaining her first air to air kills (a pair of British Whirl Wind ground attack aircraft).
In 2186 as the war on the ground was beginning to wane Alana was seconded to the Haraway aerospace force where she served with the Blue Devil Squadron until 2187 before transferring to New Mercia as part of Task Grouping Tethys where she flew a Masamune in numerous atmospheric and orbital engagements.
Alana ended the war on New Mercia, but has since moved back to Haraway with her New Mercian wife Elena Rossthorn. She is now commandant of the army mobile suit academy at Ignis Sound.
Other ZOCU Aces
Emmanuel Isley Churchman
God-fearing Legionaire specialist hailing from Ophen. Shot down and injured seven times through the war. Is a major ace both in the starways of the PACT arm and on the ground at Kanon, Choson, and Suzumiya. Presently still serving and highly decorated in the Ophen system militia. Infamous for entering battle with a cowbow hat rather than regulation helmet. Has the most warship kills attributed to any specific individual (three).
PACT
Other
Syene Shana
The most famous of several Kanonian propagandists, 'Syene Shana' (real name Shiba Eiko) was a near-contant presence on Kanonian broadcast airwaves for almost the entire duration of the war. While originally broadcast in support of Kanonian troops, by the end of spring her twice-daily shows were focussed almost entirely on the Japanese troops that had landed on Kanon. A typical broadcast would include attempts to persuade allied forces troops to defect or surrender, popular anti-war songs primarily sourced from Japan along with lists of soldiers capture or killed, interspersed with occasional 'human interest' stories of the ghoulish sort; these typically involved announcing the divorce or breakup of a soldier's marriage or a death in the family. Good news was occasionally also presented, in the context of soldiers rotated out or otherwise not involved would recieve good fortune.
Declassified information details how the Kanonian intelligence services had a small unit tasked with feeding news from Earth and Tensai to Syene Shana via untraceable hyperwave, the ultimate source for many of the myths of omniscience she acquired over more than two years.
Kismet Cassan
SIYAN's primary propagandist for the war, Dog Star Radio ('Kismet Cassan' became the allied nickname) was a group of four to six female broadcast personalities with extremely similar voices. Combined with postprocessing they could give the impression of being on air and live in perpetuum and in essence DSR was one continuous broadcast show, approximately seventeen months long. Aimed at allied forces ship crews and civilian spacefarers, DSR broadcasts were passive (non-executable) audio and visual transmissions that originated from cheap, mass-produced radiofrequency transmitters regularly dropped in open space by ZOCU stealth ships and seeded across more than thirty star systems.
Natively broadcast in English, they were simultranslated to other allied force languages including Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portugese. Broadcast contents were broadly similar to other propagandists, with light entertainment interspersed with discussions, news and casualty figures/names for allied forces.