Famous Persons in Blue Planet

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

The central figures of the Blue Planet universe are listed here. Please note that this article spoils the content of the Blue Planet campaigns.

Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius

Philip Corey

A pilot for the 222nd Nightwolves aboard the GTD Orestes, he flies on Samuel Bei's wing during the 14th Battlegroup's expedition to Sol.

Mina Taylor

A pilot for the 222nd Nightwolves aboard the GTD Orestes, she flies on the wing of Samuel Bei during the 14th Battlegroup's expedition to Sol. Her family came from San Francisco (or the San Francisco Bay Area).

Bei Wen Jian

The GTVA admiral who commanded the 14th Battlegroup aboard the GTD Orestes during its expedition to Sol. During the Second Shivan Incursion in 2367, he was with the GTVA 3rd Fleet in Capella, commanding the GTCv Arifiel. His family consists of his son Samuel, and consisted of his wife and his daughter-in-law Eriana before they were killed when Shivan bombers destroyed their transport during the evacuation of Capella.

After Samuel Bei's failure to defend his wife's transport, Bei Wen Jian estranged himself from his son, not speaking to him until Samuel reported to the Orestes as pilot in 2385. Relations were frosty and strictly professional between them until Samuel Bei, assisted by the Vishnans, saved the Orestes from the SD Lucifer in the Sol system. Admiral Bei himself had gotten communications from the Vishnans, like Samuel did, but kept them to himself.

After the events of Age of Aquarius, he was reluctant to carry out the 14th Battlegroup's original orders to invade Sol. when pressed, he quit his command, absconded with a shuttle, and defected to the UEF, but not before informing the battlegroup of their true purpose to coming to Sol (as this was kept secret).

Orestes Control

Voiced by Dekker

What is known to most pilots serving the Orestes simply as "Orestes Control" is personified by this man in his late twenties. Matter-of-factly and to the point, "Orestes Control" conveys orders from GTVA Command and the Commanding Officer of the Orestes to all pilots under the Orestes's charge in the most efficient and accurate manner that is humanely possible.

Katashi Iwakura

Squadron leader (and presumptive CAG) aboard the GTD Sanctuary. It was she, along with Commander Tell, who made first contact with the GTVA 14th Battlegroup in the N362 system, allowing the Sanctuary to escape the N362 nebula and return with the 14th Battlegroup to Sol. She presumably defected to the UEF, along with the Sanctuary, when the 14th Battlegroup began the GTVA's invasion of Sol.

Blue Planet: War in Heaven

Lorna Simms

Leader of the interceptor squadron aboard the UEFg Indus. She is one of the squadron's two surviving original members. She has served as the de facto CAG for the Indus since the original CAG became a psychological casualty.

As with many Martian unit commanders, she prefers to build morale and rapport with her subordinates on an interpersonal basis, involving them in games and hand-to-hand sparring matches. After three weeks of her squadron taking a 400% casualty rate in the course of the war, she becomes dangerously detached from her pilots, dehumanizing them by only giving them numbers instead of callsigns and forbidding the painting of names aboard fighters. This has detrimental effects on the unit's morale. Simms is eventually snapped out of her grief-fueled death spiral by Noemi Laporte and Karen Ng'Mei.

She is attracted to Noemi Laporte, but regulations forbid a relationship between them.

She suffers from radiation poisoning at the end of Part 1 of War In Heaven. It is unclear whether she survives.

Manuel Brie

Squadron leader for the UEF's 170th Fighting Navajas aboard the UED Solaris. A fighter pilot for over two decades, the war between the UEF and the GTVA has worn down his nerves, and his reflexes aren't what they used to be at the beginning of his career. After Admiral Steele's blitz of Earth's orbital stations, Brie decides to retire from the front lines, transferring to a position on Earth-orbit Rheza Station training fighter pilots.

He is the uncle of Noemi Laporte.

Enabren Kassim

A pilot for the UEF's 170th Fighting Navajas aboard the UED Solaris. Although initially possessing bravado and machismo, grief over the deaths the deaths he inflicts as a fighter pilot eventually consumes him, and he takes to drinking heavily to dull his pain. Eventually, he is found drunk in his cabin during the GTVA's blitz on Earth's orbital stations, leading to his immediate court-martial and psychological discharge. He is sent to a government-run psychiatric facility.

Karen Ng'Mei

Leader of a gunship squadron aboard the UEFg Yangtze. A good friend of Lorna Simms', she encourages Noemi Laporte to snap her out of her guilt-fueled death spiral after three weeks of very heavy casualties in Simms' squadron take their toll.

She is presumed killed at Saturn when the GTD Imperieuse ambushes the Yangtze, along with the other frigates of TF Wargods, as they were attempting to destroy the GTD Carthage's battlegroup.

Robert Byrne

Admiral Robert Byrne is currently serving as Commander In Chief, UEF Home Fleet. While he is an able Commander in the field, his true area of expertise lies in the administrative side of his duties. During his first tenure as CO of 1st Fleet, and continuing through his stint on the Space Policy and Warfare boards, his efforts were instrumental in streamlining the UEF Navy's procurement and logistics support. His greatest achievement, arguably, was the successful approval and subsequent completion of the Solaris project, which marked the return of the Destroyer ship class to Sol space. However, while he was a respected, if not exactly liked, CO during peacetime, his shortcomings as a leader during combat make themselves felt as a notable slump in 1st Fleet's Morale. His subordinates fear that his apparent passivity, especially when compared to 3rd Fleet's Admiral Calder, or 2nd Fleet's Admiral Netreba, will eventually lead to a defeat-in-detail of the Federations' armed forces.

Kyle Netreba

Kyle Netreba is the current Commander In Chief of 2nd Fleet Mars. Among the triumvirate that commands the UEF Navy, he is the least "military" officer. Originally trained as an engineering specialist (software subspecialty), he switched to the command track after he demonstrated good leadership skills during an incident in which he had to take command of a frigate after its command staff died during combat. His market-based algorithms for logistical handling earned him the praise of the Council of Elders, a lasting relationship with scientist-elder Svetlana Henriksson, and eventually a place in the Admiralty.

His leadership style is unorthodox. He has structured his command less like a traditional fleet, and more like a design bureau, hand-selecting 2 Fleet's ship captains for their ability to think and act independently. Yet the outbreak of the war saw an abrupt shift in his disciplinary approach, including crackdowns on traditionally lax Martian standards. Some suspect Netreba sought advice from Admiral Calder on wartime conduct.

During the war against the GTVA, Netreba found himself in a difficult position. Calder and Byrne used his fleet as a reserve asset pool for their own very different priorities, and Netreba feels increasingly dissatisfied with this position. His cooperation has not always been rewarded, either in terms of assets for his own OrBat or rest and repair time for his crews and ships. Between having to guard assets that are nominally in 1st Fleet's remit, and supporting offensive actions by 3rd Fleet, his own command and the abilities of the people within it are being wasted, a state of affairs that he feels threatens 2 Fleet's effectiveness as a unit.

While the Admiral is unsatisfied with Admiral Byrne's strategic directives, and much more comfortable with Admiral Calders' aggressive strategies, his ability to work with Admiral Calder is limited. Given their vast differences in command styles, this comes as no surprise. Where 2 Fleet relies on each element acting independently in support of a broad strategy, the Jovian Rim Fleet relies on detailed pre-battle planning and pre-rehearsed maneuvers that can be executed with a minimum of forethought. Whether or not the two commands can overcome these structural differences and produce results when acting in concert will probably be one of the deciding factors in determining the wars' outcome.

Hans Maxwell Calder

Admiral Calder, currently serving as Commander In Chief, Jovian Rim Fleet, is the last officer of the GTA. He has served both the GTA and, after the collapse of the node, the Jovian Systems Republic for more than 5 decades. Among the three Admirals that command the UEF Navy, he is the archetypical warrior. He has drilled the people under his command relentlessly, and as a result, 3JRF was able to hold back the GTVA assault for nearly 18 months. Only the arrival of the 15th Battlegroup under Admiral Steele made it possible for the GTVA forces to deal a decisive blow to 3rd Fleet, and force the Jovian Systems Republic to surrender. Admiral Calder is known for his utter disdain at what has become of his once-beloved GTA, and he uses all his knowledge of GTA (Now GTVA) combat tactics and strategies to devastating advantage.

Chiwetel Steele

Admiral Chiwetel Steele is the Fleet Officer of the GTVA's 15th Terran Battlegroup and Commanding Officer of its flagship, the GTD Atreus. Steele is a master strategist and well-intentioned extremist, able to play an unusual game of "subspace chess" with the top brass of the Federation and emerge triumphant, as well as single-handedly dealing with two of the Federation's three fleet Admirals on his own, and makes no secret about his intentions to end disputes as quickly as possible by full-scale attacks in order to minimise casualties on both sides. Steele's competence ironically outstrips his ability to secure the loyalty of his subordinates, who find him unnerving and erratic in spite of considerable personal charm, but in many cases the results he gets have earned him both considerable political clout and significant command credibility.

Cyrus Severanti

Admiral Cyrus Severanti, Commanding Officer of the GTVA 13th Battlegroup, was the first Theater Commander in Sol. Originally deployed to Sol as backup for Admiral Bei's 14th BG, Admiral Severanti found himself in a difficult situation. With the most powerful ships in the fleet unavailable, and with considerable confusion on all levels of his command structure, he nonetheless pursued the mandate given to him by the GTVA Security Council with skill and determination.

Unfortunately, his slow, methodical, by-the-book approach was countered at every turn by Admiral Calder and the Jovian Rim Fleet, who used Admiral Calders' understanding of the GTVA psyche and the system-wide subspace surveillance net to always stay ahead of the Alliance fleet. After 18 months of uphill battles, Severanti was finally in a position to mount a major assault against 3rd Fleet positions, only to have his thunder stolen by the Security Council's decision to deploy the 15th Battlegroup under Admiral Steele in support of the 13th.

Severanti's subsequent actions, taken rashly in an effort to reassert his authority in Sol, lead straight to his flagship being ambushed by a UEF Frigate division, and he had to withdraw to Delta Serpentis to effect the necessary repairs, where he was reassigned to the GTVA Space War College to head the Advanced Tactics Course.

Anita Lopez

Admiral Anita Lopez is the Commanding Officer of the GTD Carthage. She is a veteran of the Second Shivan Incursion, and has been in command of the Carthage for the past 15 years. She is noted for her fierce loyalty to her crew, her ship, and the GTVA, in that order. In sharp contrast to Admiral Steele, her command style is based on her instinctive understanding of interpersonal relationships, and her ability to inspire a genuine esprit de corps among her subordinates. Where the 15th Battlegroup is characterized by fast personnel rotations, the Carthage and her escort fleet are noted for their stability. Under her leadership, the Carthage and her Battlegroup (formally known as Combat Evaluation Detachment 2, 2nd Fleet GTVA, informally as "The Carthage Clan"), although composed primarily of Capella- and even Great War-Era ships have become one of the GTVA's premier front-line forces.

Vicmouth

An agent for the UEF Council of Elders. Evaluated Noemi Laporte's Nagari sensitivity while pretending to be evaluating Laporte's psychological state. A copy of his subsequent report came into the hands of Bei Wen Jian.

Martin Mandho

Originally a college professor in the Federation of African States, he gave a speech in 2350 to the UEF Council of Elders. Sometime between 2350 and 2386, he became a member of the Council. He is friends with the Laporte family, and has known Noemi Laporte since childhood. He is also a friend (or at the very least a colleague) of Elder Taudigani.