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Commander Gaes was the commanding officer of Lorica in the Alliance Fleet and served under Admiral Bloch, Captain John Geary and, for a short time, Captain Francesco Falco.

Gaes was promoted to command the Lorica sometime prior to the battle in the Syndic Home System, probably because of the huge losses caused by the war. Like most of the fleet, she valued fighting spirit above tactics and fighting smartly, and was presumably angered by Captain Geary's new approach to fighting and dealing with prisoners, as she later joined the mutiny led by Falco.

After the mutineers were defeated in the Battle of Vidha, Gaes was the first officer to accept responsibility for her actions. Having seen so many people killed at Vidha, she resolved to help Geary, delivering him important information about saboteurs attempting to kill Geary and his most loyal supporters. Unfortunately, when the saboteurs found out, they targeted the Lorica. Captain Kila sabotaged the Lorica resulting in the death of Gaes and all her subordinates.

Biography[]

Early Life and Career[]

Little is known about Gaes early life and career, except that her training would have been short and her promotion to commander quick. Gaes served under Admiral Bloch, who placed an emphasis on bravery and courage rather than tactics.

She, like most of the Alliance, hated the Syndics for their brutality during the war, and was taught to be just as brutal in retaliation. She saw taking prisoners as a weakness, instead believing that all enemies should be killed. It is unknown how much experience Gaes had, though, like most of the fleet, it was probably little due to the high death rate in the war.

First Battle of Prime[]

99 years after the beginning of the Alliance-Syndic war, Gaes accompanied the Lorica to the Syndic Home System after the Alliance gained a Syndic hypernet key, allowing a bold and reckless strike at the heart of the Syndicate Worlds.

Whilst travelling through Grendel, the Fleet, led by Admiral Bloch, found Captain John "Black Jack" Geary, whose last stand at the Battle of Grendel had become legend. Because Geary had been promoted posthumously nearly 100 years ago, it made Gary the second most senior officer in the fleet (after Bloch himself).

The fleet then attacked the Syndic Home System, where it became apparent that the entire operation had been a Syndic trap to defeat the Alliance and end the war. Despite this, Bloch led a suicide mission, only to be cut off from the hypernet gate by the enemy ships. This meant that most of the fleet, including Gaes and the Lorica, were trapped with no way to get back to the hypernet gate.

Admiral Bloch attempted to negotiate a ceasefire with the CEO commanding the Syndic fleets. Gaes would receive a video showing Bloch's execution by the CEO, who called on the Alliance fleet to surrender unconditionally. Despite this, and further calls by the CEO, Gaes, along with every other officer in the fleet, refused to surrender, instead placing their faith in Operation Overture, a desperate flee for a nearby system jump point under the cover of preparing for another battle.

Gaes followed Geary's orders and made it to the system jump point to Corvus.

Disillusion with Geary[]

After the initial shock following the massive battle at the Syndic Home system, the fleet started to split into two factions, one which supported Geary, and another which opposed his leadership. Whilst it is unknown whether Gaes believed in the "Black Jack" legend, she soon became angry with the way he ran things.

Geary upset many people by taking the fleet further into Syndic territory, using new tactics, releasing prisoners instead of executing them and refusing to engage enemy ships in Corvus. It was probably a combination of many of these things which led to Gaes' anger with Geary.

At some point before the battle of Vidha, Gaes joined Captain Kila's conspiracy to overthrow Geary and replace him with Captain Caligo. Like the rest of the conspirators, Gaes was usually quiet in the fleet conferences, and preferred to spread dissent secretly, leaving most of the obvious rebellion to Captain Numos and Captain Faresa.

After Captain Falco was rescued from a Syndicate POW camp, he refused to accept Geary as fleet commander, and led a mutiny. Geas joined the mutineers when they abandoned the rest of the fleet at Strabo, though she did receive Geary's message "Ilion" before she left with the rest of the mutineers for a risky attack on Vidha.

Battle of Vidha[]

The attack on Vidha was a disaster. The mutineers lost two light cruisers and a destroyer on the way to Vidha from mines, and when they arrived at Vidha thay were immediately confronted with a mined jump exit. They lost another four ships to mines as Falco led a foolhardy charge against the enemy.

When the Syndics attacked the mutineers in force, Falco (already suffering from long term mental problems) was sent insane. Gaes and the other officers constantly asked Falco's flagship Warrior for orders, but Falco was not in the right mind to send them, and Warrior's commanding officer, Captain Kerestes, did not reply. Lorica and the other ships began to flee when the battlecruiser Triumph decided to hold the Syndics off. Despite Triumph's sacrifice, Invincible was badly damaged, and Lorica fell back to protect her.

Lorica and Invincible made it to the jump point for Ilion, where they met Geary's force. Despite the Furious mining the jump exit behind them, and the arrival of two large Syndicate forces, Gaes refused to abandon the badly damaged Invincible, protecting her even as they were chased. Geary's fleet eventually defeated the Syndicate forces.

Gaes watched the arrest of Falco, Numos, Faresa and Kerestes at a fleet conference. She also told Geary he should hold her and the other mutineers "accountable for their actions", willing to hand command over to her executive officer. Because of this, and her protection of Invincible, Geary let her and all the other officers who had joined Falco's rebellion off. Gaes became very loyal towards Geary because of this.

Supporting Geary[]

Gaes' support for Geary was very obvious in the fleet conferences that followed. She spoke out against Commanders Casia and Yin, who were secretly taking orders from Caligo and Numos, and she also used her contacts within Kila's conspiracy to help Geary stay ahead of his enemy.

After discovering a plot to use an illegal subnet to plant worms in the fleet's ships, Gaes warned Geary in private and saved the ships Dauntless, Furious and Illustrious, all commanded by captains in support of Geary (Captains Desjani, Cresida, and Badaya) with Geary himself aboard the Dauntless. Geary didn't tell anybody that Gaes had given Geary the information.

This warning allowed Lieutenant Iger to continue monitoring the subnet, which allowed him to prevent another worm from being uploaded.

Death and Legacy[]

One of Captain Kila's conspirators discovered that Gaes was passing information to Geary, and had a worm uploaded that destroyed Lorica in Padronis. With no warning and no time to escape, Gaes and her entire crew were killed instantly. A message, triggered by the destruction of the Lorica, was sent to Dauntless, providing evidence that Kila was behind the attacks.

The rest of the fleet, now fully supportive of Geary, expressed outrage that the Lorica had been destoryed.

Personality[]

Gaes was somewhat reckless, preferring to charge at the enemy without formulating a plan. She also resented Geary's control over the fleet, and his insistence that aggression could not always win battles.

However, she also felt pain at the death of so many officers at Vidha, despite her lifetime of pain in the seemingly endless war. She became very loyal to Geary after Vidha, and proved herself to be brave as she passed critical information to him. She also became "haunted" following Vidha, horrified by the death and destruction. Because of this, she was very sorry to have abandoned Geary, and defended him when accusations were made against him.

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