The Rise of Zeon

[ketaro]

Still waiting for this to start ._.

[shinaobi]

For people looking for definable changes, (geez, whaddya want, progress!?!?? Jerks. >__>) the most notable is the addition of a good and proper description for the ship all you Spearmen/women will be floating around on.

[Ninmast]

So nothing has really changed? Okay, then, when are we starting?

[shinaobi]

Next Fridaytimies, maaaybe earlier if I actually do something that doesn't start with pro- and end with -crastinate.

(And by Fridaytimies, I CLEARLY meant July 9. <_< >_> )

[Ninmast]

You mean prolariacrastinate? That's not good, man. You should get that looked at.

[shinaobi]

Well, you see, it's just so embarrassing, I don't want people to know about it.

[Teh Donut]

Well, good news. I found the profile I was working on.

Bad news, I still need to finish it. Shouldn't take much longer, though...mainly just appearance and some other minor details. Any cut-off date for when someone can jump in?

[shinaobi]

No, not really; just give me a heads-up for when the profile's ready, and I'll give you an opening; unless you take like, three weeks or something, I can't imagine it hitting a no-return point (I have an ending planned, yeah, but the middle bit is still being drawn out)

[Teh Donut]

By the way, I saw in the RP you guys talking about the ranks. Figured I'd list them for reference. Military rank fo the Space forces on both sides are, practically identical. Remember, the organization of the Space Forces are similar to a Navy:

Enlisted Rank:
Deckhand
Specialist
Petty Officer Third Class
Petty Officer Second Class
Petty Officer First Class
Chief Petty Officer
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer
Warrant Officer

Officer Rank:
Ensign
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lt. Commander
Commander
Captain
Commodore
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral

Also, regarding Maria's rank, just today's fighter pilots, only officers piloted Mobile Suits. Ever. Remember, even mass-produced Mobile Suits represented a significant investment, just like today's aircraft, and they just wouldn't hand them out to any greenhorn who could hold a gun. However, it wasn't too rare for enlisted personel to receive battlefield commissions just to they could pilot (the most famous example from the UC era being Amuro, a civilian, who was given a commission as Ensign just so he could be a legitimate Federation pilot).

So, most likely, if whatever Zeon force needed a pilot and Maria was available and capable, regardless of her previous enlisted rank, they probably would have given her a battlefield commission to either Ensign or Lieutenant JG.

[shinaobi]

No, you guys, really, check this out right here. Call them silly, but EF & Zeon rank structures go like this here thing.

Earth Federation Space Forces

Zeon Space Attack Forces

For reasons likely relating to those which cause them to end up embroiled in costly, spectacular wars every 2-3 years, enlistment/commission doesn't appear to be much of an issue. The differences probably relate to what they let you do (initially) when you enter the forces, and/or how likely you are to end up piloting a shiny new supermegaprototypekillblasterpewpewpewmachine.

[Teh Donut]

No, take another look at the Space attack force ranks. Copy, paste, and compare to the ranks of the EFSF. They are...*drumroll*...identical.

Enlisted ranks did not pilot combat mobile suits, ever, in any canon. That duty is left to the professionally trained pilots of commissioned-officer (that is, 2nd Lieutenant/Ensign and above) ranking. The only time a non-commissioned officer ever piloted in combat was either 1) by necessity, such as an NCO piloting a suit to simply fill in the ranks, or someone who already has been allowed by his Commander to pilot suits but whose commission hasn't yet been approved by the brass, or 2) a test pilot who either found himself in combat or, more often, was ordered to replace someone on the front line.

That's not to say all officers were pilots at some point, simply that all pilots were officers.

[Ninmast]

Anyway, thought I'd mention, Rock-Splitter (Ross) wants in here on the Zeon side, an old veteran piloting an older Zaku.

[shinaobi]

Link to profile?

[Ninmast]

It's not up yet, Shinaobi. I was letting you know that he's working on it.

[Alex-065]

Name: Eddy "Nose" Nossa

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 49

Alignment: Neutral Good

Power Level: High-tier Low (3)

Timeline: Futuristic (Universal Century)

Appearance: Lt. Commander Nossa, callsign Nose, is an imposing figure in uniform. The man has a face you could cut a roast on; hard and flat. Dark and narrow eyes set above an impeccably groomed deck brush of a mustache. He wears the close cropped hair of a former enlisted man, now turned silver with age. Carrying his ox-built frame in full gravity has become difficult for him due to a steadily worsening case of arthritis he tries hard to hide from the flight surgeon, and from his comrades.

[d]Personality:[/b] Nose keeps many secrets about himself, but his integrity and loyalty to Zeon are beyond reproach. A rather taciturn fellow, his interactions with the crew are strictly professional as he takes his duties as a senior commanding officer very seriously. Nose is distant, yet very hands on; as if in the crew but not of the crew. He spends much of his time aboard ship supervising mobile suit maintenance and pilot training. The latter is what Nose sees as his most sacred duty, both to Zeon and to the young men and women who trust him to lead them in combat.

History: Nose seemed to have appeared aboard the Asphodel almost overnight. One morning there was another mobile suit standing by in the hangar and an hour later the crew mustered there to have the Captain introduce them all to their new squad-mate and chief mechanic. What little they would eventually discover about the old man came from the Lou sisters, the Asphodel's spritely twin yeoman.

Their capriciousness got the best of them when they were handed a very old, very thick service record with Nossal's name on it. Turning the pages with bated breath, the twins uncovered numerous citations and awards for valor, as well as after action reports from the dozens of ground and space battles the former Ensign Nossal had been engaged in.

He had been in the first wave of earth drop operations as a Z'gok pilot, landing first in Australian waters in support of operations there before participating in the capture of the Federation's California base. He had become an ace within his first two engagements, and had been lucky enough to survive the ill-fated airborne assault on Jaburo when so many other mobile suits were destroyed in midair by AA fire. Though Nose fought bravely in support of Char's infiltration team, the mission to destroy the Federation's headquarters ultimately failed. It was to be the last Zeon offensive of the war.

The battleground had shifted to space. The rapid retreat from earth forced Nose to abandon his amphibious Z'gok and adopt a Zaku II rated for spaceflight. The dime-a-dozen war machine served him well through engagements leading up to the Battle of Solomon. Records showed Nose had refused to switch to the newer Rick-Dom and even turned down the chance to pilot a Gelgoog before the Battle of A Baoa Qu. The clues as to why were written up in dozens of request chits for mobile suit parts. All kinds. Not just Zaku but Gouf, Gyan, Rick-Dom and others. Upgrades for the Zaku whom Nose had named Jenny.