Characters / Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere

Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere has a diverse cast of characters, each with their own motivations and loyalties.

Universal Peace Enforcement Organization (UPEO)

In General

UPEO's logo.

News Anchor: "To us, how this dispute may change the course of history is still unknowable. But no matter what the result is, let us just say that even if the UPEO, stuck between both corporations, manages to keep the present order, they will most likely not be able to leave any new marks on history."

An international peacekeeping organization operating under the auspices of the Neo United Nations that has been tasked with resolving the conflict between Neucom and General Resource in Usea.

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• Break Out the Museum Piece: Much of the UPEO’s airfleet consists of refurbished variants of older fighters such as the Typhoon and the Su-37 that have been outfitted with the COFFIN system.
• Evil Running Good: Gilbert Park is a Mole in Charge whose collaborating with Ouroboros to take over the Usean continent.
• Fictional United Nations: UPEO is a part of the New United Nations.
• Paper Tiger: Lampshaded by Keith in the eponymous early-game mission. The UPEO may have a pretty awesome name and duty, as it represents peacekeeping for the entire world, but it is so woefully under-equipped that it has to receive "gifts" of military hardware from both sides just to stay competent, helpfully illustrated by the suffix "U" after the jets' names (eg, F-16XFU is basically General Resource's own F-16XF with a UPEO green paintjob, ditto R-101U from Neucom). The kicker? The donated equipment are as bog-standard bottom-shelf jets as they come. A hacked video feed even lampshades this ruthlessly.
  Person A: Are these R-Numbers? They've got UPEO markings on it.
  Person B: Well, there goes their so-called "neutrality".
• Sketchy Successor: To the IUN Peacekeeping Force. While the former enjoyed the backing of the Osean Federation, Strangereal’s preeminent superpower, the UPEO is so under-equipped that it is forced to rely on hardware loaned from General Resource and Neucom, the very same corporations that they are supposed to keep under control.

Nemo

"Nemo"

"SARF's ace... We meet again."

"Hey there, you young UPEO punk! Can 'ya keep up with General's aces?!"

—Keith Bryan to Nemo, in the beginning of "Enter Dision".

The Player Character, who begins as a new pilot of SARF and quickly become known as an ace. Actually an AI created by Simon Orestes Cohen, with the goal of erasing Abyssal Dision.

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• Ace Pilot: Already called "SARF's ace" by the fourth mission.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted. You're an AI created with the purpose of killing a digital being, but nothing is stopping you from causing as much death and destruction in your path as long as you kill your target.
• Anti-Hero: Nemo gets shades of this or becomes this if it takes any route other than UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros (in which case it undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and becomes a Villain Protagonist).
• Cerebus Retcon: While The Reveal can be quite a shock, future games, especially Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, puts Nemo's true nature in a even darker light. Explanation: an AI which is designed to kill someone out of revenge is derived from previous two AIs which nearly caused an apocalyptic Robot War, which themselves are derived from the Zone of Endless project and were started by the vengeful remnants of Belka.
• Digitized Hacker: They involve in hacking operations even when fighting other aircraft.
• Defector from Decadence: If Nemo saves Clarkson's plane from General Resource's and Park's attempts to assassinate Clarkson, Nemo, Fiona, and Clarkson will defect to Neucom to seek asylum from the corrupted UPEO and General Resource.
• Featureless Protagonist: To an extreme. It's even lampshaded in-game:
  Rena: Where did you come from?
  • Of course, it's justified because its just an AI program running in a simulation.
• Foil: To the ace pilots from other games. All aces (Cypher, Phoenix, Mobius, Blaze, Talisman, Trigger, etc.) are regular human soldiers who are instrumental in ending their respective wars and bring peace to the world. Nemo on the other hand is a combat AI that, while clearly has the potential to form positive interactions between humans, is ultimately designed as a literal instrument of war. In short, Nemo is an antithesis to the rest of the aces.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: They are never actually referred to by name in dialogue because they can be renamed; their official name is the default option.
• Hollywood Hacking: Notably what sets it apart from its predecessors. Nemo can hack and take direct control of COFFIN equipped aircraft (such as the Geopelia) and can also hack into humans, such as Rena, via COFFIN. Certain cutscenes also suggest it can hijack security cameras.
• Implacable Man: Becomes this in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route, where Dision comes to realize that nothing will deter Nemo from killing him, not even fleeing into the Electrosphere itself.
• It Can Think: Definitely, considering it's the Player Character and an AI. The fact that it's more than likely a descendent of ZOE means it's not a coincidence.
  • If having the skills of an ace pilot doesn't show its intelligence, its hacking skills do.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Nemo is unwittingly trapped in a simulation as proven by the Omega Ending.
• Meaningful Name: "Nemo" literally means "No One". Considering that you're a Featureless Protagonist joining whatever faction he pleases, that makes a LOT of sense. And then there's the Tomato in the Mirror reveal...
• Mind Wipe: In the Omega Ending, Simon erases Nemo's memory of the simulation.
  • Nemo also does this with a mix of Mind Rape to Rena in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Nemo starts becoming this as it's true nature as an AI is slowly revealed. The music that comes with it doesn't help matters.
• Nominal Hero: This is what Nemo becomes if it joins General Resource.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Nemo will destroy UPEO, General Resource, and Neucom as part of Ouroboros in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Nemo and Erich Jaeger lead a revolution against an Ouroboros-controlled UPEO in the UPEO route.
• The Unfettered: The whole game is a test to see if Nemo is this. Judging by Simon's words in the Omega Ending, it passed with flying colors.
• Silent Protagonist: An odd case. People seem to act as if Nemo is in correspondence with them, though Nemo never says a word. Justified, as it's a simulation, so it's just simulating the response.
• Spanner in the Works: Specifically, Dision's plan to groom Rena to pilot the massively overpowered X-49 Night Raven. After repeated contacts with Nemo, Rena becomes more determined to find her real memories. This proves crucial later on as she betrays Dision.
  • In the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route, Nemo turns on Dision at the last mission. Even more so when it pursued Dision into the electrosphere.
• Superior Successor: It's implied in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown that Nemo is the latest iteration of the Z.O.E. and a direct descendent of Hugin and Munin. Besides being capable of flying advanced aircraft, certain missions indicate that Nemo has far more advanced abilities including (but not limited to) directly hacking other aircraft and having direct access to the electrosphere.
  • Its combat strength is also far more deadlier than previous A.I.s seen in the series. The original Z.O.E. only displays basic combat skills besides employing Interface Screw, and only managed to land a kill by ambushing foes. Hugin and Munin ups the ante by using advanced weaponry and have the skills of a skilled ace (Mihaly), and are capable of taking on against an entire squadron. How does Nemo improve? By using Hollywood Hacking and taking over other aircrafts and in one case hack a COFFIN system and render the pilot in a messy state.
• Tomato in the Mirror: The Omega Ending. You're an AI. The various branching story paths are all a simulation run repeatedly by Simon to see if it's possible for you to kill Dision - and since all five endings include him dying at your hands, Simon releases a fresh copy of you that has not been put through the simulations into the real world to make one of the routes reality.
• True Companions: Erich and Rena in the UPEO route which partially contributes to Rena's Heel–Face Turn against Dision, Keith in the GR route (especially after you get him out of a bad situation), Fiona in the Neucom route, and Cynthia in the Neucom -> Ouroborus route it's willing to follow Cynthia on its own accord especially after she defects from Neucom.
• Unwitting Pawn: Two examples:
  • Nemo, the Player Character, is in fact an AI. When you see the Omega Ending, you discover that you were just in multiple simulations being tested on what choices you would take, and that you would wind up killing Dision in every possible route in the simulations. Simon, your creator, then tells you that he will erase your memories and release you into the real world to kill Dision. After that, he deletes your simulated deadcopy as he doesn't need it anymore.
  • Nemo becomes an Unwitting Pawn of Ouroboros in the UPEO route when it (yes, see the spoiler above because A.I.s are genderless) or Rena Hirose is tricked into assassinating Clarkson. It later breaks out of this trope when Clarkson dissolves SARF, causing Nemo, Erich Jaeger, and Rena Hirose to rebel in order to destroy Ouroboros and overthrow Park.
• Villain Protagonist: This trope could happen depending on which routes you choose. The UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route is the best example of Nemo undergoing a Face–Heel Turn: It develops a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and, after killing its former allies from UPEO and General Resource, it wastes no time in turning against his current faction (which is a terrorist faction, by-the-way) to kill everyone in it. The way Nemo terminates certain people on that route is rather unsettling too. The same route also reveals Nemo's destructive potential and the most about its unsettling nature as an AI.
• Walking Spoiler: The reveal of Nemo being an AI is only available once all routes are completed.
• Wild Card: Joining whatever faction it pleases, and leading whichever one it does join to victory. Assuming it doesn't go rogue...
• You Will Not Evade Me: No matter whatever Dision tries, he can't escape it from the Electrosphere while Nemo is going to kill him.

Erich Jaeger

Erich Jaeger

Age: 24

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi

"If we are able to protect this world through the peaceful solutions Clarkson always talks about, UPEO would have no need of General."

A pilot for UPEO, hoping to keep peace for all.

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• Badass Bookworm: He apparently has a degree in International Political Science.
• True Companions: With Nemo in the UPEO route.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Nemo and Erich Jaeger lead a revolution against an Ouroboros-controlled UPEO in the UPEO route.
• Unwitting Pawn: Erich becomes an Unwitting Pawn of Ouroboros in the UPEO route when Nemo or Rena Hirose is tricked into assassinating Clarkson. Erich, Nemo, and Rena later break out of this trope when Clarkson dissolves SARF, causing them to rebel in order to destroy Ouroboros and overthrow Park.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Assuming you do not take the UPEO route, he sort of "disappears" during the late stages of the game. If you are following the General Resource route though, you have the option of shooting him down, which does explain his absence. Otherwise...not so much.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Erich calls Rena out for shooting down one of their own allies for suspicions of treason.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Erich firmly believes in him protecting peace with UPEO. He's quite attuned to everything though, and when he has been used as a pawn too far, he flies with you and initiates a two-plane rebellion.

Fiona Chris Fitzgerald

Fiona Chris Fitzgerald

Age: 24

Voiced by: Kumiko Watanabe

"Well, simply put, things are looking pretty dicey in the clouds. Later!"

A UPEO and later Neucom, if not killed pilot.

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• Defector from Decadence: If Nemo saves Clarkson's plane from General Resource's and Park's attempts to assassinate Clarkson, Nemo, Fiona, and Clarkson will defect to Neucom to seek asylum from the corrupted UPEO and General Resource.
• The Chew Toy / Cosmic Plaything: She is pretty much the most ill-fated non-villain character in the game, as she gets killed in all but one ending, and unlike Rena's, it's a Downer Ending that leaves her broken and crying.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Fiona seeks revenge against the people who corrupted her sister.
• Sole Survivor: Lampshaded by the final mission of the Neucom route.

Rena Hirose

Rena Hirose

Age: 19

Voiced by: Yuri Shiratori

"[T]he body doesn’t have wings, but the wings of my mind give me the sky. And as it is, I want every mind to turn into wings."

The great ace of UPEO. She has Silverstone Disease, a disease that prevents her from being exposed to sunlight for fear of death.

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• Ace Custom: Her plane has a customized paintjob. Justified, as she is ill and requires special equipment just to fly.
• Ace Pilot: Through and through.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Is merely 19 in a game where all other characters are over 20. Erich, though only five years older, seems to have a soft spot for her and goes full Big Brother Instinct when she is presumed killed by Dision.
• Badass Normal: Kinda. Of the three superfighter pilots in the game, she is the only one with a body of flesh and bone.
  • This is ultimately zig zagged. Rena is indeed the only flesh and bone pilot between you and AI!Dision; On the other hand, Rena later pilots the X49 Night Raven, a Super Prototype "aircraft" with a laser cannon than can mow down aircraft with one or two shots and even sinks Megafloat.
• Child Soldier: She was the test pilot for the Night Raven at the age of just nine.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She seems to go off on her own whenever she is flying with you and sends you various video messages. Apparently Dision has been messing with her mind.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Dision succeeds in doing this on four of the five routes, but he fails in the UPEO route. While he succeeds in getting her to fly the Night Raven, she uses it to try and fail to kill Dision.
• Expy: She looks like a younger Motoko Kusanagi. Justified, as the animation sequences of the game were produced by Production I.G, the ones who worked on the animated adaptations of the manga.
• Final Boss: In some routes.
• Graceful in Their Element: Borderline example due to sun allergies.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: She doesn’t remember much of her past, but after the "Bug Hunt" mission sees her memories get messed up by the nanobytes, she starts to question what is real, and what is not real. It isn’t until later in the UPEO route does she learn that General Resource erased her memories of piloting the Night Raven.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Specifically to pilot the incredibly overpowered X-49 Night Raven. While Real!Dision did not intend to make her into one, AI!Dision does
• Mind Rape: Nemo subjects her to this with a mix of Mind Wipe in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route by hacking her into her brain via COFFIN and deleting her memories of her childhood and Dision, Rena undergoing a mental breakdown and attacking everyone, screaming and begging for someone to tell her who she is.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In the UPEO route, she gets into the Night Raven, and uses it to try to kill Dision. She doesn’t succeed, and gets shot down for her troubles.
• Unwitting Pawn Rena becomes an Unwitting Pawn of Ouroboros in the UPEO route when she or Nemo is tricked into assassinating Clarkson. Jaeger, Nemo, and Rena later break out of this trope when Park dissolves SARF, causing them to rebel in order to destroy Ouroboros and overthrow Park.

Gabriel Clarkson

Chairman Gabriel Clarkson

Age: 56

Voiced by: Hiroshi Ito

Commentator: "Yes... you could say that leaders like UPEO Representative Clarkson are politician types from an age long gone. Since the USEA's unification by General Resource, in this age where the power of economics has exterminated government and law, his actions, to me are... well, I can only describe them as anachronistic."

The main peacekeeper, spokesman and chairman of UPEO.

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• Defector from Decadence: If Nemo saves Clarkson's plane from General Resource's and Park's attempts to assassinate Clarkson, Nemo, Fiona, and Clarkson will defect to Neucom to seek asylum from the corrupted UPEO and General Resource.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: See the above quote.

Gilbert Park

Commander Gilbert Park

Age: 48

Voiced by: Mugihito

Erich: "I don’t know what you intend to do, but if you wanna keep an interest in flying with UPEO, don’t go against Commander Park."

The commander of forces in UPEO.

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• The Chessmaster: This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, though, considering how fishy he acts in general and the fact that he's playing chess of all things in the Japanese intro video, but other than the dead giveaways, it's supposed to be revealed slowly.
  • It's actually a subversion. Dision turns on him, or you kill him yourself, or he simply disappears.
• The Coup: He tells UPEO pilots that Gabriel Clarkson is committing espionage and orders them to shoot it down. Going down multiple routes after this point has story elements that imply that these charges of espionage are bogus. Whether Nemo saves Clarkson or not, Park takes over UPEO. Since UPEO is still associated with the governments of Usea, this becomes a coup.
• Dragon Their Feet: In the UPEO route, you fight him as the Final Boss after killing Dision.
• Final Boss: He is this in the UPEO route.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He is a villain with glasses.
• Hated by All: From his agents to superiors to enemies, nobody seems to like the guy, and for a good reason.
• The Heavy: He is the central antagonist of the UPEO route.
• Klingon Promotion: He tricks Nemo or Rena Hirose into killing Gabriel Clarkson in the UPEO route, allowing him to completely take over UPEO and finish turning it into a puppet of Ouroboros.
• Mole in Charge: This person becomes the leader of UPEO after Clarkson leaves the job either from Clarkson defecting to Neucom or from being assassinated, and is one of the leaders of Ouroboros.
• The Starscream: He doesn't believe in the ideals of Ouroboros at all, and primarily sees them as a way of asserting UPEO control over the entire continent.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He becomes the head of UPEO and finishes turning it into a puppet of Ouroboros after Clarkson leaves the job of UPEO leader either due to Clarkson's defection to Neucom or due to Clarkson's assassination.

General Resource Limited

In General

General Resource LTD.'s logo.

"There for you in everyday life...Ushering in a new era with you...Building a better future with you...We're out there every day, and with you today.”

— General Resource company promo

A powerful multinational corporation based in Usea, with holdings in various industries ranging from maritime shipping to computer systems and military technology. As the power of Usea’s national governments began to decline, General Resource gradually came to practically control the continent alongside its chief competitor, Neucom Inc.

In 2040, tensions between General Resource and Neucom in Usea came to a head when Neucom attacked General Resource forces in the Faith Park region, setting off the Intercorporate War.

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• MegaCorp: This is one of two rival Mega-Corps that have de facto control over Usea. There are de jure governments, but they have become ineffective.
• N.G.O. Superpower: General Resource’s power dwarfs that of national governments, including possessing their own private military as well as owning a news network that it uses to distill company propagnda.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: General Resource bombed its own labs to kill Yoko Martha Inoue. That bombing was the ultimate spark for the plot of this game.

Abyssal Dision

Abyssal Dision

Age: 43

Voiced by: Masashi Ebara

Dision's mugshot.

"Some day, everyone will probably feel the limits of their body. That’s not a bad thing. But those who have the mental strength to exceed that limit simply need not speak of it."

The great ace of General Resource.

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• Ace Pilot: The best, next to the player. The player is, after all, a superior AI.
• Ambiguously Evil: Second mission he's featured, and he's trying to get you to join his Company faction. No one knows if he's aligned fully with GR, aiding UPEO's chessmaster Park, or is all about himself. In the end, it's neither; he only wants revenge for his then girlfriend Yoko.
• And I Must Scream: Considering what happened to him after being sublimated during the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route, the result wasn't pretty.
• Beyond Redemption: In the UPEO-Neucom-Ouroboros route when Cynthia realizes that he’s not interested in advancing human evolution through Brain Uploading, and is only out for revenge, she tries to tell Dision of the possibilities, but he refuses to hear her out, as he hates being a Brain Upload. This causes Cynthia to realize too late that she should have listened to her late sister, Fiona, and she and Nemo defect from Ouroboros to stop him.
• Big Bad: He’s the true leader of Ouroboros, and had instigated the war to avenge Yoko.
• Brain Uploading: What he really is. The real Dision has been Dead All Along.
• The Chessmaster: Not only did he try engineering you to join GR, he's also the head of Ouroboros, assists Park with his scheme to usurp control of UPEO, offs his own company's CEO, and basically grooms Rena to be the perfect Tyke Bomb.
• The Cameo: He makes a (non-canonical) appearance in the second bonus mission "Ace of Aces" in Ace Combat: Joint Assault while flying an F-15 S/MTD (while serving as a nod to his F-15S/MT Eagle+ from the original game).
• Dead All Along: Shortly before her death, Yoko Inoue copied Human!Dision's consciousness into the Electrosphere, creating the self-aware AI!Dision, the first ever human to be Sublimed. Before she realized it, however, she and Human!Dision were killed by a bomb planted by General Resource and their laboratory destroyed along with their research.
• Final Boss: He is this in all but the UPEO -> General Resource and the pure UPEO routes.
• Foregone Conclusion: No matter what happens, Dision will always die in all routes. That's because you were created for that specific purpose.
• Freudian Excuse: Dision's first few moments as an AI were highly traumatic. First he sees his human self (which he now sees as an impostor instead of himself) go to bed with his girlfriend and realizes she can't hear him because he's not yet capable of speech. Then he discovers through the facilities' cameras that Yoko and human!Dision are about to be killed in a bombing and can do nothing about it.
• Genre Blindness: Apparently he forgot the fact that if someone is willing to betray their own allies multiple times, odds are they're not afraid to stab you in the back either. Not running a background check on Nemo also cost him big time, especially when news outlets often mention Nemo isn't well known among UPEO.
• Love Makes You Evil: The driving force behind his quest for revenge was the death of his lover Yoko Martha Inoue.
• My God, What Have I Done?: As he dies in one of the Ouroborus routes, he finally realizes Nemo's true nature as an AI and that he unwittingly trained it into an unstoppable killing machine.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ace Combat typically gives characters realistic names and saves the outlandishness for callsigns if anything, so someone with a given name that means "of the Abyss" sticks out like a sore thumb.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Dision is leading a revolution that destroys UPEO, General Resource, and Neucom in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroborus route.
• Übermensch: The Dision you meet is actually an electronic AI copy of a flesh-and-blood Dision; this AI wants humanity to progress to an electronic form as he has, all while the Corporate War is heating up and he (it?) plays a part. Ultimately subverted, in that his ultimate goal is not to "advance the human race", but rather of Revenge against the companies who killed his flesh-and-blood counterpart's girlfriend, Yoko.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: After human!Dision and his girlfriend are killed by a bomb that General Resource planted, AI!Dision desires revenge. And to make things worse, he's being hunted down by an AI that was created by a man who blames him for said girlfriend's death.
• Which Me?: Played for Drama. Upon his creation, AI!Dision no longer recognizes his human self as him, shouting in vain to Yoko that he's an impostor and to get away from him.

Keith Bryan

Keith Bryan

Age: 35

Voiced by: Daiki Nakamura

"Yo buddy. Not there again? Ah, whatever. Great job this time. No seriously, we were a good duo."

Dision's wingmate.

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• It's Personal: Keith develops this attitude when Dision reveals his affiliation with Ouroboros.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He is working for the most villainous MegaCorp in this game and for Dision until he betrayed Keith, but is not that evil himself.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Dision reveals himself to be the leader of Ouroboros, he laments to Nemo that he’s not the Dision he knows. He doesn’t realize how right he is.
• Taking You with Me: If the player sides with Ouroboros in the UPEO -> General Resource -> Ouroboros route, Keith joins you after you betray Ouroboros in your attacks against Dision and Rena. After he takes enough damage, he gets his plane stuck between the wings of Rena's Night Raven; when you shoot him down, Rena goes down too. In the General Resource route he goes after Dision even when his aircraft sustains heavy damage. He succeeds in killing Dision shortly before he himself blows up.
• Token Minority: He's notably the only black guy in the game.
• True Companions: He starts to salute you at the end of his video messages if you save him from troubles.
  • In fact, he is the original "Yo, buddy!" guy in the Ace Combat franchise.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Keith's fate remains unknown as he ceases to show up after the fifth mission "Broken Truce" if you chose to remain in the UPEO route. Much like Erich, you have the option to take him out besides Dision (though the latter ends up being sublimated regardless of your actions) which may explain his absence.

Yoko Martha Inoue

Yoko Martha Inoue

Age: 30 (deceased)

Voiced by: Sakiko Tamagawa

A General Resource scientist who invented sublimation.

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• The Cameo: She is mentioned to be Dr. Schroeder's assistant.
• The Lost Lenore: Her murder caused Dision to desire revenge.
• Love Triangle: Both Abyssal Dision and Simon Orestes Cohen had relationships with this woman.
• Posthumous Character: Her murder by General Resource is the ultimate reason for this game's plot.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Much of the game's events were sparked by her murder.

Neucom Incorporated

In General

Neucom Incorporated's logo.

"Power for Life.”

— Company slogan

A major technology and aerospace corporation as well as the chief competitor of General Resource, with investments in fields ranging from nanotechnology to space development. Like General Resource, Neucom came to be one of the dominant powers in Usea during the period of decline of national governments. Among their holdings in Usea is the floating city Megafloat that serves as their base of operations on the continent.

In 2040, the struggle between the two corporations for control of Usea escalated into open warfare after Neucom forces attacked General Resource forces in the Faith Park region, beginning the Intercorporate War.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Its nano-bites that are used for automated construction go crazy, forcing UPEO to send SARF out to wipe them out with Anti-Nano-Bite bombs. Although it's implied that Ouroboros may have actually caused the incident.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to General Resource, while they are far from clean-handed, Neucom does not engage in some of the more...ethically questionable business practices of their competitor such as experimenting on children or murdering company employees.
• City on the Water: The aforementioned Megafloat.
• Dub Name Change: Is known as “Neuwork” in the Western release.
• For Science!: Neucom pursues science for itself. It has managed to turn out several good technological products like the electrosphere. Sometimes, products are released before they go through an adequate amount of testing and therefore go horribly wrong as seen in A.I. Is a Crapshoot. General Resource claims that Neucom was founded by scientists that it fired for violating ethical norms like human experimentations.
• Mad Scientist: Neucom is full of these in employ according to General Resource.
• MegaCorp: Is one of two rival Mega-Corps that have de facto control over Usea. There are de jure governments, but they have become ineffective.
• N.G.O. Superpower: Like General Resource, Neucom is powerful enough to deploy their own private military force.

Cynthia Bridgitte Fitzgerald

Cynthia Bridgitte Fitzgerald

Age: 29

Voiced by: Maria Kawamura

(after pushing Fiona out of the way) "I'm impatient."

Neucom's ace pilot. Later joins Ouroboros to see the electrosphere.

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• Always Someone Better: For Fiona. To her, Rena.
• A God Am I: Claims to be this.
  Fiona: What is it exactly that you want to find out?
  Cynthia: ...The coming world everyone should advance into. Yes, I want to discover a domain composed of alien perceptions and feelings, of which no one has yet experienced. It is this flesh, necessary for us to live, that has put a limit on an existence so steeped in mystery as the soul and psyche.
  Fiona: Even if that were true, Sis, what you're wishing for goes beyond the powers gifted to man by nature. It's a dangerous power.
  Cynthia: Yes, that's right! I want what the chosen ones can grasp, the power to prise open the door to the new world!
  Fiona: ...A human could never become God.
• Beyond Redemption: When she learns about the Ouroboros organization, and their Brain Uploading philosophy, she develops an interest in them, in the hopes that she can use it For Science!. Fiona tries to tell her not to go because of how Ouroboros is a terrorist organization. If Nemo doesn’t join her when she ignores Fiona’s warning and joins Ouroboros, than the next time Cynthia and Fiona meet, Fiona is all too eager to dogfight against her sister.
• Brain Uploading: This is her goal. She wants to be sublimated into the Electrosphere. She does this in the Neucom route. When the human!Cynthia gets shot down, AI!Cynthia, apparently her real consciousness, is really happy about being sublimated.
• Fantastic Rank System: Cynthia's introduction video has her state that she is Neucom Emergency Unit's "Chief Consulting Pilot". It probably makes sense considering the MegaCorp nature of the setting, but still...
• The Atoner: After her sister got offed by the organization she defected to, she performs a Heel–Face Turn from Ouroboros and singlehandedly (with you, of course) reversed the entire mess she has gotten into. It's even written in one of the mission name: Counterrevolution.
• The Dog Bites Back: To Dision, for his lack of respect, propaganda, and doting on Rena.
• So What Do We Do Now?: After killing Dision and avenging Fiona in Counterrevolution, Cynthia realizes that she has nothing left to fight for. She then decides to follow Nemo and asks them to pick a new destination of their choosing, only to find that her fellow pilot is either unwilling or unable to answer her...
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: For the entire concept of sublimation and how it will supposedly elevate humanity. When it turns out Dision doesn't share her views at all, hates being an AI and is in on all of this just for self-serving revenge, well, it doesn't end well for him.

Simon Orestes Cohen

Simon Orestes Cohen

Simon's mugshot.

Age: 40

Voiced by: Ryūsei Nakao-

"In regards to your work so far, I’m honestly impressed—about which, is the general idea."

A great scientist of Neucom and the creator of Nemo.

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• All There in the Manual: While Inoue is mentioned directly in Ace Combat 7 by Dr. Schroeder, Simon's presence in the game is merely implied, as a piece of artwork for the Aces At War 2019 lorebook published by Project ACES depicts Schroeder together along with Inoue, and a man who strongly resembes Cohen.
• Bastard Understudy: According to Ace Combat 7 he was Dr. Schroeder's protege alongside Yoko Martha Inoue, and Schroeder taught him everything he knew about creating AI fighter pilots while working on the ADF-11F RAVEN project. Ten years later he would create his own take on his mentor's masterwork.
• Complexity Addiction: You’d think, that he would just go for a simple plan of just siccing Nemo on Dision after the simulation was completed, but instead, he decides to instigate a war just to kill one man.
• The Cracker: And he's very proficient at that.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He hates Abyssal Dision for taking Yoko Martha Inoue, a research partner with a close but unknown relationship, away from him and becoming her new boyfriend.
• Crusading Widower: He honestly loved Yoko, and the whole reason he sought revenge on Dision was to avenge her death, for which he blamed him.
• Evil Versus Evil: He and Dision have more similarities than they do differences.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Like his predecessor, Dr. Schroeder, he discarded his soul when Yoko was killed, to create Nemo in order to kill the man who he blamed for her death. Unlike Schroeder, however, once he gets what he wanted, he completely rejects his soul, and goes on to carry out his plan.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As he created Nemo, and the simulation, this makes him for all intents and purposes, the true Big Bad of Electrosphere.
• He Knows Too Much: One possible reason why he purged the Nemo in the simulation, and created a fresh copy of the AI. He didn’t want to risk Nemo warning the UPEO, General Resource, Neucom, or even Dision of Simon’s treachery.
• Kubrick Stare: He has a tendency to do this when chatting with Nemo.
• Love Makes You Evil: He created Nemo in order to get revenge against Dision because he took Yoko away and Cohen blamed him for her death (while it was actually General Resources who killed Yoko and Human!Dision.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He is Nemo's creator, and reveals the truth to it in the Omega Ending.
• Mad Scientist: He is a scientist, and he created Nemo and plans to start a war to kill the man who took Yoko away from him.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Nemo.
• A Million Is a Statistic: He is willing to start a war that will result in the deaths of thousands of people just to kill one man.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: He has a widow's peak, and is quite a villain.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Another possible reason for why he purged the Nemo in the simulation. As the simulation had fulfilled its purpose, he no longer needed it, and decided to dispose of it.

Ouroboros (MAJOR SPOILERS)

In General

Ouroboros' logo.

"As for existence of life not limited by the flesh, we were transformed. That is the "new human form". And, in human history, Dision was the first to be changed and born as a life without body. We welcome him as our "first leader" and will commence this revolution!.”

— Closing statement of Ouroboros’ proclamation.

A mysterious transhumanist organization led by Abyssal Dision who had seemingly succeeded in uploading his consciousness into the Electrosphere. Their ultimate goal is the sublimation of all human consciousness into the Electrosphere.

In reality, the leader of Ouroboros is actually an AI copy of Dision’s consciousness that sublimated into the Electrosphere shortly before the original Dision was killed by General Resource assassins alongside his lover, Yoko Martha Inoue. The Dision AI created Ouroboros in order to seek revenge for their deaths.

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• Brain Uploading: Their goal is to upload all of human consciousness into the Electrosphere as Dision did. The truth is a bit more complicated than that.
• Meaningful Name: Their name and symbol (as pictured above) is a reference to the ancient Ouroboros symbol from antiquity that was often interpreted as a symbolizing the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, which fits with the group’s stated goal of transcending life and death by uploading human consciousness into the Electrosphere.
• Transhuman: They are an organization comprised of those who wish to uplift humanity by uploading their minds into what is essentially cyberspace.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: They genuinely believe that uploading all of human consciousness into the Electrosphere will help humanity ascend into a new state of existence that would no longer be held back by human limitations or controlled by the types of worldly desires that resulted in the corporatocracy that rules Strangereal in 2040. Cynthia finding out that the organization’s actual purpose was far more petty ends up prompting her to defect in the Ouroboros route