You don’t have to be on the front line to play an important role in the battle. The following soldiers have over a hundred years of combined service in the COG. Though they may not be able to keep pace with the young guns of Delta, their remote support is invaluable—that is, when they can be contacted…
Bernadette Mataki
Bernie, a South Islander, is a veteran sergeant. A specialist sniper, she enlisted in the Royal Tyran Infantry during the Pendulum Wars and saw action in its key battles, including Aspho Fields.
Bernie’s bushcraft and survival skills earned her a place training Gears commandos. Badly wounded near the end of the Pendulum Wars, she returned home but her isolated island was cut off from the mainland on E-Day. The islanders escaped the Hammer of Dawn strikes that scorched most of Sera, but it was a long time before news reached Bernie that Gears were still fighting in Jacinto. She made her way back to rejoin her regiment, a harrowing journey by sea and on foot that took years.
Bernie is easy-going—even when Baird calls her Grannie—but don’t be fooled by the gray hair and sympathy. She takes lethal revenge on anyone who harms her or her comrades. And when food’s in short supply, she’s been known to eat cats. Her forty-year friendship with Victor Hoffman has had its ups and downs.
Victor Hoffman
Hoffman is a pragmatic, intelligent soldier and decorated veteran. Given a choice between sitting at a desk and wading through waist-deep mud to kill Locust, he’ll take the Locust, thanks.
Victor Hoffman is a natural warfighter who rose from the ranks to earn a commission, and he made his name as a new lieutenant thrust into command at the Siege of Anvil Gate. He has no interest in desk jobs. He’d rather grab his rifle and drop a few enemies than chair meetings.
When the Locust onslaught began, Hoffman already had a reputation for putting himself in the thick of the action. His willingness to fight on the front line endears him to his Gears, but his outspoken and abrasive manner upset politicians in the past and cost him further promotion. That suits him just fine.
Richard Prescott recognized him as a man willing to take tough decisions, and made sure he had him at his side. Now that the most senior commanders have been killed or have disappeared after years of war with the Locust, Hoffman has effectively become the COG’s chief of the defense staff—not a post he enjoys or wants. But he’ll do his duty.
Richard Prescott
Prescott is the charismatic leader of the COG who’s prepared to make tough decisions and make himself unpopular if it means saving humanity.
Chairman Richard Prescott is the leader of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, a gifted speaker from a dynasty of politicians. Since the COG military and government are virtually synonymous after Emergence Day, he’s responsible for strategic decisions, such as the Hammer of Dawn strikes and Operation Hollow Storm. Colonel Victor Hoffman, with whom he has a tense working relationship, normally advises him.
Prescott isn’t squeamish. Unleashing the Hammer of Dawn to stop the Locust advance was his personal decision, and he lives with the millions of deaths that it caused. He leaves the day-to-day operations to Hoffman and a team of senior officers while he focuses on the long-term plan to keep the COG’s beleaguered survivors fed, housed, and protected. He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the human race survives on Sera—even if that means conscripting Stranded who hate his guts and doing deals with criminal gangs.
Richard Prescott learned hardball politics at his father’s knee, and he’s not the trusting kind. He never shows all his cards and he always has a Plan B up his sleeve. Need to know? If you don’t, then Prescott won’t tell you.