Admiral Harold Grey

Harold Grey
"Sit down boy, and let me show you War."
Gender	Male
Nationality	Solar Alliance
Occupation	Alliance Military Leader
Rank	Admiral

Admiral Harold Grey is a major character in Sunrider

One of the top brass of the Solar Alliance fleet, Admiral Grey’s name is uniformly respected throughout Alliance space as a military strategist and a man of honor. The Grey family has retained a powerful position in Alliance politics even centuries after the legendary exploits of Madeline Grey, the famed admiral who unified a hundred worlds against the New Empire’s war machine. Today, centuries after its birth, the Solar Alliance is a massive space democracy which accounts for most of humanity’s sciences and commerce, and it owes most of that to the Grey family. However, the glory days of The Alliance seem to be waning as the war machine of PACT looms over the horizon. Whether the Admiral be a critical supporter of the Sunrider’s lone mission against PACT, or whether the Admiral intends to make the Cera vessel a pawn in his own deadly political game against the Alliance government is unknown.

He leads the powerful Emerald Fleet, formally known as the Alliance's 1st Fleet. Due to this he was, together with Captain Shields, the main victor in the Battle of Far Port, when he arrived just in time to launch a flanking attack against the disorganized and leaderless PACT fleet, successfully destroying most of it.

After that battle, Grey received the command of the Alliance's Combined Fleet - a grouping of various space fleets that make up a large portion of the Alliance's total military strength, with the objective of defeating PACT and reconquer the Neutral Rim. Despite a misstep at Ongess, Admiral Grey continues that campaign with success, hoping to quickly destroy PACT's forces and maybe even go beyond the Neutral Rim and capture most of PACT's space. However, the next target of his campaign into PACT territory - the formally neutral world of Cera and the homeworld of Kayto Shields - will be the defining point of the advance, for both the war and the crew of the Sunrider.

Appearance

Tall and very fit for his age, Admiral Gray is described as being "classically handsome" and having the aged gracefully. His short-cut hair and neatly-clipped beard are white from his age and his face is fairly well-lined, but his stance is still as crisp as when he was in his prime and his dusk-brown eyes still carry a sharp, penetrating gaze that reflects his years of experience. Even a relative newcomer to the military world like Kayto Shields was able to tell at first glance that the Admiral was not someone to take lightly. He is usually dressed in the white and green colors favored by the Alliance Navy - a majority-white uniform with green shoulders, cuffs, stripes down the arms & legs and accents with black trim at the cuffs and edges of the coat. the left breast of his uniform is emblazoned with a plethora of medals and awards alongside his ranking as an Alliance Admiral, representing his long career in service to the Alliance.

Bio

NOTE: WARNING - Spoilers for Sunrider: First Arrival & Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius ahead. Read at your own risk!

Career and Disillusionment

Like most in his family, Harold Grey enlisted in the Solar Alliance military when of age, and went on to distinguish himself as a class above the rest when it came to his military exploits. Having served with the fleet for presumably most of his life, he earned both the respect and loyalty of his troops, officers, peers and superiors alike, and his heritage as one of the effective founding families, if not the central founding family, of the Alliance likely helped secure his position in the military, eventually reaching the rank of Admiral. At some point, he met the Alliance conscript Kryska Stares - a recruit from outside Alliance space - and she became a First Lieutenant under him, during which the Lieutenant was taught the values of Alliance discipline and duty.

However, as time went on, the rebel faction that had overthrown the last of the New Empire - reforming themselves as the People's Alliance for Common Treatment, dubbed PACT - began aggressive military expansion into the Neutral Rim, becoming all too much like the very empire they had stove to overthrow, and while PACY grew stronger, the Alliance's political influence began to wan. Well connected political interest groups now controlled most of the Solar Congress rather than elected officials, and the Alliance had a string of weak Presidents who had all uniformly failed to establish any sort of uniform national policy, with the most recent - President Alythe of the Progress Party - attempting to make appeasement offerings to PACT with no success. The Solar Alliance generally turned a blind eye to PACT’s invasion of the Neutral Rim, and did not recognize the Veniczar as a legitimate threat – even though the might of PACT’s fleet grew by the day. Political gridlock became a characterizing trait in the Solar Congress, and President Alythe's intent on a negotiated settlement with PACT ultimately allowed PACT’s power to explosively expand almost overnight.

Admiral Grey was one of the few in the Alliance leadership who truly recognized the threat that PACT poses to the galaxy, as they continued to take planet after planet. But the old Admiral, while respected by his men and his considerable support within the Alliance, is regarded with weary eyes by thee civilian leadership, who fear his growing power over the military and aggressive push to take action against PACT - and he ultimately decides to do so, without the support of the Congress. During his many pushes to help maintain stability in the Alliance and push to covertly hassle PACT, Grey eventually met the mercenary Icari Isidolde - a talented Ryder pilot and contract killer with a sizable grudge against PACT - who became a frequent go-to for the Admiral when it came to working "behind the scenes" in tipping the scales in the Alliance's favor, from sabotage and infiltration to assassination and reconnaissance.

First Arrival

Sparking the Flame of War

After the Invasion of Cera and PACT's decision to begin bombing colonized worlds wholesale, Grey decided he could not afford to wait any longer, as every moment the politicians debated was another moment where more and more people would be sacrificed to PACT's war of conquest. Later, Grey drew up his own plans as the Progress Party attempted to launch an appeasement effort to try and appeal for PACT to release their conquered worlds - or at the very least cease their unrestrained invasion forces. When a team of Alliance diplomats sent to the world of Versta were unable to convince the world to join the Alliance, Grey realized that the planet would be steamrolled by the PACT fleets without Alliance protection - and if the diplomats were unable to escape the system and were slaughtered by the PACT forces, it would be indisputable evidence of PACT aggression, which not even President Alythe would be able to ignore.

To this end, after it became predictably obvious that PACT would invade Versta, Grey hired his favored mercenary, Icari, for a single mission - once he sent out a token rescue force to give the impression of having made an effort to save the diplomats, Icari was to ensure they failed and that the diplomats were either captured or killed by PACT. With the wheels in motion, he then searched for someone he could use to send on the token effort to save the diplomats and found what he seemed to consider an ideal candidate - the Sunrider, last remaining ship under the flag of the Cera Space Force, and well-known for having survived and berated the PACT fleet for weeks on end. Making contact with it's Captian, Grey gave them the mission they were never meant to complete, and they were sent to Versta on their decoy task, instigating what could very well be considered the foundations of a coup as Grey worked to personally kick off a war with PACT in order to halt their invasion of the Rim.

However, things did not as planned - first, the Sunrider proved to be far more capable then expected by not just defeating the PACT ships but Icari as well. Second, it turned out that the Admiral made a tactical mistake in apperently not informing Icari of the "rescue ship" being a vessel from the now-defunct Cera Space Force, as the mercenary attacked the ship under the assumption that it was a conscripted PACT ship, losing her Ryder's warp-capable booster ring in the ensuing fight. And finally, the Alliance diplomats, in a desperate attempt to try and evacuate members of the Versta colony and save them from PACT bombardment, had taken on over six-hundred children aboard a provided civilian liner, the Agamemnon. The result was that the operation effectively fell apart, with Icari hastily working to salvage the mission in the wake of the many unexpected developments - and ultimately, the aftermath ended up not mattering, as the political deadlock in the Solar Congress would keep the Alliance from any formal declarations of war until PACT's betrayal and invasion of Ryuvia Prime ultimately proved once and for all that Veniczar Arcadius would never honor any compact made with him.

Leading the Emerald Fleet

In the wake of the Alliance finally declaring war against PACT, Admiral Grey was given command of the First Alliance Fleet - renamed the Emerald Fleet - and once again reached out to the Sunrider for assistance. In spite of the debacle at Versta, the Sunrider was ultimately the best choice for Grey to call upon, as the ship had survived weeks in PACT space and hampered them more then any other lone vessel ever had - especially in the wake of their rescue of the Ryuvian Princess. As such, the Sunrider had more experience facing PACT then any ship in whole of the Alliance - making it quite possibly the only choice to lead the defense of the Alliance's gateway world of Far Port in Admiral Grey's place as he worked to gather up the Alliance's forces.

In order to facilitate this - and ensure that all operations the Sunrider undertook would be in his ability to predict from now on, as a precaution against a repeat of Versta - Grey assigned one of his personal advisors to the ship to serve as a liaison; First Lieutenant Kryska Stares, who was not only one of his top Ryder pilots and confidantes but very likely an Alliance Black Ops specialist. Ultimately, Grey's choice in selecting the Sunrider pays off at the Battle of Far Port, as as Captian Shield's unorthodox strategies allow him to defeat the fleet's commander - Veniczar B. Cullen - and leave the PACT fleet leaderless and disorganized. Grey's fleet the arrives with over two-hundred fresh vessels just as Kayto's own are scattering to draw out and stymie the invasion forces, leading to a swift flanking operation by Grey's forces that destroy the majority of the six-hundred vessels PACT had brought, forcing their retreat and striking a decisive victory for the Alliance.

Mask of Arcadius

Admiral Grey returns in Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, as one of the key figures in the war against PACT and as a critical component of the 'Alliance President' sub-plot.

Power Play

After the Battle of Far Port, Admiral Grey was promptly handed full control over the Alliance Military, in order to direct a swift and organized counteroffensive against PACT's forces, leading a powerful charge into PACT space and succeeding in driving them back world by world in an uncompromisingly potent response to PACT's own conquests. Consolidating several of the Alliance's key fleets into a single mass - the Alliance Combined Fleet - Grey began assaulting PACT's holdings in the Neutral Rim, drawing their forces out of their space and forcing them to commit to conflict in the foreign territories in order to keep from being pressed back into their own worlds. As PACT consolidated forces around Ryuvia Prime and Cera, the Alliance began wresting planet after planet away from the opposing faction, culminating in the five-day long Battle of Ongess where hundreds of ships and presumably as many ryders were lost in the bitterly-contested fight for the Neutral Rim's most valuable mining world. Ultimately, PACT pulled out of Ongess and the planet was taken control of, with orbital platforms being established.

But this was not the only battle that Grey would decide to wage - on the political front, Admiral Grey was also on the move in a potent forward surge, placing his own name in the ballet for the next Alliance President after Alythe's term reached it's conclusion, as the current president was unlikely to be re-elected after his disastrous failures in trying to appease PACT, with the odds of anyone from the Progress Party that Alythe came from providing the next president being rather low. Grey advocated himself as a man of action who could get more done then the bickering politicians ever could, and used his victories against PACT to help cement that point as the Alliance Military effectively became the driving face of the Solar Alliance as the war with PACT progressed. While the Admiral himself stayed on the front lines, his presence in the political circle was unmistakably profound, and the civilian government began to fear that the military might simply take full control and abandon the democratic process entirely, as Grey seemed to favor decisive action over debate or even making any effort at finding another way, and the election became a heated debacle.

Meeting the Sunrider

Some time later, Admiral Grey began experiencing issues at Ongess, as the local forces - spearheaded by the pirate Cosette Cosmos - began hindering the Alliance support and relief efforts to the planet as well as their mining and use of the planet's ongessite. As such, Grey invited the Sunrider to meet with him at Ongess, as the vessel had markedly more experience in dealing with Cosette. After the ship arrived, Grey came aboard himself, finally coming face-to-face with Captian Kayto Shields and toured the vessel personally - the end of which was marked by an attack by Cosette on one of the Alliance's orbital stations, severely damaging it and seemingly underlining Grey's desire to have Cosette be removed.

Shortly after this, Grey's liaison Kryska takes Kayto to Ongess's surface to try and assuage Kayto's potential concerns about the Alliance setting up a permanent presence in the Rim and that his world Cera might lose it's independence to the Alliance if freed from PACT. However, Cosette captures the pair, and Grey promptly puts together a rescue team to free them - however, as the pirates are entrenched in one of the civilian sectors, it becomes a bloodbath as multiple civilians end up killed in the crossfire between Alliance marine and pirate guerrilla, with one - a Young girl - being gunned down right in front of Kayto's eyes after an Alliance soldier sees her pick up a knife and mistakenly assumes her to be a hostile insurgent.

The Necessities of War

After Kayto and Kryska are rescued from Ongess, the Admiral personally debriefs Kayto over a communication, apologizing for the Alliance's failure in protecting Kayto from capture. However, Kayto is only focused on one thing - the number of civilian casualties that were caused during his rescue, which Grey replies is unclear since there is not always a clear distinction between aggressor and bystander on the crime-ridden world, with even children becoming murderers under Cosette's influence. When Kayto inquires about the girl that was gunned down, Grey expresses that crossfire between opposing forces will always lead to loss, preventable or otherwise, which in turn leads to Kayto warning Grey that the people of Ongess simply don't care what the Alliance offers them with their relief efforts - so long as their ongessite is being mined, they will see the Alliance as an invading power and resist, both on and off the battlefield, in a neverending spiral that will cause much more crossfire and needless death if the Admiral persists in believing such things are just a matter of course.

Conceding the point, Grey assures Kayto he will have an internalized inquiry opened into what happened and will not allow child-killers to remain in his army. Kayto however is unsatisfied, protesting that stringer action is needed. Grey then takes the time to explain to Kayto that having an open investigation would not allow them to win any sympathy among the Ongess populace, and that the politicians in the Solar Congress would force the military to cease their relief efforts on Ongess - an act that would not only cost the Alliance their high-grade fuel supply and refueling point to push against PACT with, but would also doom the population to the rule of ruthless pirates like Cosette. Not to mention that Grey's own image would be damaged and thus, faith in his ability to defeat PACT - and Alliance moral in general - would fall, and he could end up losing all power to try and defend the Alliance's people with. The people of Ongess, the populations of the Neutral Rim and the forces of the Alliance would all suffer if a public investigation was opened, not to mention it would strike a blow against the Alliance's image that PACT could use to rally people under their banner by claiming the Alliance is negligent about who dies in their wars - and in order to prevent this, Grey insists that the investigation must be done quietly, and that the ones responsible will be punished without harming the relief effort for Ongess or the war against PACT.

NOTE: (based on what choice Kayto makes, there are two different major outcomes to this)

The Cost of War I - Necessary Evils

NOTE: (These events detail the result of Kayto agreeing with the Admiral)

Kayto, albeit reluctantly, concedes to the Admiral's requests and lets him cover up the truth from the public and carry out an internal investigation into the civilian deaths, admitting that public exposure of the events would escalate uncontrollably and cause more harm then good in the long run. Grateful, Grey tells Kayto that he will make certain that whoever was responsible for the deaths of the innocents will be punished in full. Kayto dispassionately acknowledges this, and the Admiral promptly ends the communication to organize his inquiries.

The Cost of War II - Unacceptable Losses

NOTE: (These events detail the result of Kayto disagreeing with the Admiral)

Kayto, furious, refuses to comply and threatens to go to the media himself with what happened. Grey shoots back that causing a scandal will not provide relief and supplies to Ongess' suffering populace, nor win the war with PACT, but Kayto restates that the girl he saw die was young enough to be Grey's granddaughter, and when Grey protests that tragedy is unavoidable in war, Kayto retorts that this is only true if nobody does anything to try and prevent it. Grey, increasingly frustrated, cites that his family has done everything in their power to protect the Alliance and that whole generations of them have died doing so, proclaiming that he will not let all the good he and his family have done be lost due to the politicians using the scandal to undo him.

Kayto, disgusted, accuses Grey of being a political himself and that it was never about Ongess' people - it was about getting himself elected, and he'd rather cover up the deaths of innocent children then lose votes in the election. Silent for a long moment, Grey finally admits that Kayto is right - neither he nor anyone in his family ever joined the Alliance to hide their actions, and he promises to not only open a public investigation but make reparations to Ongess' people. He also warns Kayto that, while the young man's heart is in the right place, it could lead him to ruin if he is not careful.

The Art of War

A week or so after the rescue of Kayto, a PACT force under the command of Veniczar B. Fontana launches a combined attack alongside Cosette's fleet against the Alliance forces, drawing the Sunrider into a massive ruse-attack while Cosette's forces gather in the orbital habitats, attacking only after the entire Alliance defense force becomes entangled in battle against Fontana's forces. Cosette's bombers destroy dozens of Alliance vessels until Admiral Grey himself intervenes when Kayto is outmaneuvered by Fontana. Fontana chidingly asks if Grey is calling to surrender, but the aged Admiral labels Fontana as both a "punk" and a mere "boy," telling Fontana to take a seat as the Admiral shows him how to properly conduct a war. Using Fontana's own plan of blowing up the Alliance's ongessite stores against him, Grey orders his vessels to target the planet itself with nuclear warheads, threatening to blow up the entire world's deposits of ongessite and render the planet a lost cause to both sides in a mutual loss. Fontana is skeptical of Grey's resolve, but Grey pressures Fontana to be certain of his choice, giving the Veniczar until the count of three to pull his and Cosette's forces back.

With the events of Kayto's rescue still fresh in his mind, Fontana is unable to be sure of whether or not Grey would pull the trigger - certainly not enough to risk Ongess' forty-billion inhabitants for - and gives the order to pull back, forcing a livid Cosette to break off before she can continue her attack. As a result, Cosette is forced to abandon Ongess as the Alliance regroups, and in spite of losing well over a hundred ships - almost a third of the Combined fleet - the Alliance's hold on Ongess has effectively been solidified. Grey denotes that the losses could have been far worse, and that they can indeed not just recover but continue their push into PACT space. Grey also takes a moment to remark that Cera - the planet that now sits on the gateway to PACT space - is not far from Ongess, and that they can continue pushing through to the PACT's core territories right on schedule, implying that simply driving PACT out of the Neutral Rim is only the start of his war against the crimson fleet.

The Future of the Alliance

NOTE: (based on what choice Kayto makes, there are two different major outcomes to the following scene)

The Future of the Alliance I - Force of Change

NOTE: (These events detail the result of Kayto letting Grey keep the civilian deaths at Ongess a secret)

In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Ongess, the Alliance media outlets associated with the military declare it a resounding victory as Ongess is secured and the fleets of both Veniczar Fontana and Cosette Cosmos are effectively broken, and Ongess itself becomes a major component in the push into PACT space with the relief efforts, the clearing-out of criminals and restructuring for the planet all proceeding as planned. Admiral Grey's popularity and reputation increase as he is seen as someone who is able to do what is needed in trying times, much like his ancestor Madeline, and will defend the Alliance and lead it to victory against an enemy power just the same as she did. He gains a clear lead in the election, with his victory and inauguration as Alliance President looking more and more a certainty.

The Future of the Alliance II - Moral Concerns

NOTE: (These events detail the result of Kayto forcing Grey to publicly investigate the civilian deaths at Ongess)

In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Ongess, the Alliance media outlets associated with the Progress Party declare it a bloody massacre with an upwards of three-hundred civilian casualties, between the incursion on Ongess to save Kayto and the damage to the Alliance Combined Fleet when their docking scaffolds were attacked. As such, Admiral Grey's reputation takes an expected hit and his standings drop by four points on the election polls, meaning that, against all odds, the Progress Party candidate Frandall is now in the lead for the presidential race. The Progress Party also starts a bill to have all Alliance vessels vacate Ongess and treat it as an independent world instead of an Alliance fueling depot, though the bill will likely not be addressed so long as there is a war or so long as Alythe remains gridlocked in his office.

Moving the Vanguard Forward

After discovering the PACT flagship Legion is stationed at the remote world of Helion, Admiral Grey sends the Sunrider out to confirm it's presence and discover it's intent in being so far removed from the battlefield. When the Sunrider returns battered and badly damaged by it's encounter with the Legion, it reveals a horrifying truth - PACT has constructed a replication of the Paradox Core used at Diode, having weaponized the black hole generator into a superweapon capable of wiping out entire systems. In order to prevent what could very well be the utter annihilation of the Alliance by such a weapon, Grey authorizes a full-scale attack against the Legion's position at Helion, with Captain Shields insistent on taking his own ship back into the fray.

During the fighting, the Legion and a large massing of both PACT and pirate fleets engage the Alliance in battle, with the Sunrider squaring off against the Legion itself to try and destroy it and clear the way for the Alliance fleet to break through to the Paradox Core. However, Arcadius himself takes to the battlefield - and in doing so, reveals himself to actually be a cadre of identical beings that seem to share a linked mind. But in spite of the Veniczar's confidence in victory, he is defeated by the Sunrider's forces, chief among them being the princess of the PACT-occupied Ryuvia - Asaga di Ryuvia. When Arcadius attempts to detonate the Paradox Core and obliterate everything in the system - his own fleets included - everyone is then left shocked as Fontana betrays Arcadius, disavowing him as PACT leader for such a callous act and revealing to all that the supposed Veniczar is actually a fake using Arcadius' name, and is actually a "Prototype" - a race of genetically-engineered humans that were the brainchildren of Diode. Revealing that the Prototypes have embedded themselves throughout the galaxy and wish to enslave humanity, Fontana executes "Arcadius" and withdraws, with the PACT and pirate fleets scattering as their once-unshakable unity is shattered to pieces, and the Alliance claims the system and now stands poised to continue on a weakened and now-demoralized PACT.

Liberation Day

It is unconfirmed whether or not Admiral Grey will return in Sunrider: Liberation Day, but it seems likely that he will. It is revealed that his forces have captured the Paradox Core in the wake of the PACT fleet's retreat, implying that the system-destroying weapon of mass destruction is now under the control of the Admiral - and, given his personality and desire to defeat PACT, it is possible he may use the Core himself against PACT at some point.