This is the Character Page for Inquisition's Ad Astra Per Aspera Quest. The page is divided into two main sections: one for canon characters, and one for characters who only appear in-quest.
open/close all folders
Canon Characters
Kantai Collection
Kanmusu in General
- Chest of Medals: Most maritime kanmusu jangle in their dress uniforms. They've had the better part of 200 years and three apocalyptic wars to earn them.
- Fantastic Honorifics: In formal documentation, the original ship's prefix is used if one exists as a sort of honorific. For example, "USS New Jersey," "SSV Alan B. Shepard," "HIJMS Nagato."
- Feuding Families: Certain shipgirls have spawned a number of them. Most prominent are the Gotos, the Tukhachevskys, the Hädeckes, and the Mikhailoviches.
- Fun with Acronyms: Shipgirls are officially documented as SME (Sapient Maritime Entities).
- Human Weapon: In fact, they are the the Alliance's most powerful weapon, and one of the main reason why Earth is still independent of the Hierarchy.
- Person of Mass Destruction: One is capable of wiping out an entire military base on her own.
- Really 700 Years Old: Most of the "maritime" kanmusu are centuries old, as they were part of the "first generation" that fought in the original Abyssal War in the early 21st Century.
- Super-Strength: And how. Even the weakest of shipgirls are generally more than capable of turning a human into Ludicrous Gibs with their bare fists.
Vice Admiral HIJMS Nagato
The commanding officer of Yokosuka Station.- Old Soldier: A military woman (er, ship) for 260 years and counting.
Commodore HIJMS Musashi
Founder and director of the Alliance Marine Corps's N7 program.- Weak, but Skilled: Logically, she should be much weaker physically than a fusion-powered starship girl. She's still capable of throwing any of them on their ass.
Fleet Admiral HIJMS Ooyodo (Ret.)
Former Chief of Alliance Naval Operations during the First Contact War and a controversial figure in military circles.- The Scapegoat: Has taken a lot of flack for her handling of the War, although how much of the heavy human losses were her fault is up for interpretation.
Quest-specific Characters
Fourth Squadron
First Lt. SSV Alan B. Shepard
The protagonist, and the shipgirl version of Commander Shepard from canon Mass Effect. Specifically, a Yuri Gagarin-class dreadnought.- Guilt Complex: A pretty extensive one, stemming from her failure over Shanxi, and her failure to save more lives on Torfan.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Alan B. Shepard, the second human and first American in space.
2nd Lieutenant SSV Gdańsk
A Polish Seoul-class heavy cruiser, whose lack of a spinal cannon seems to have made her and her two Seoul-class sisters into thoroughly unpleasant people.- It Runs in the Family: All of her sisters are said to be similarly unpleasant.
2nd Lieutenant SSV Toronto
A Canadian Harare-class light cruiser/frigate leader, and the "mom" for the Fourth Squadron's frigate kanmusu.Ensign SSV Hampton Roads
More often known as "Hamp," Hampton Roads is the name ship of her experimental class of "protected frigates."- Boisterous Bruiser: Likes a good fight, despite looking like a teenager.
Ensign SSV Waterloo
Hamp's Belgian younger sister. More subdued than her Hot-Blooded big sis, but loves a good fight all the same.- Facial Horror: When she takes a mass accelerator round to the face over Torfan, vaporizing her helmet and horribly mangling her jaw.
Ensign SSV Isandlwana
One of the Fourth's two Stalingrad-class frigates, Isandlwana is the Only Sane Frigate in the main shipgirl cast.- Only Sane Man: Compared to Hamp, Waterloo, and Tsushima, Isandlwana is the most level-headed of the Fourth's frigates.
2nd Lieutenant SSV Ursa Major ("Dip")
The "new girl" and the Fourth's first carrier shipgirl.- Came Back Wrong: Her memories are messed up for a so-far unknown reason.
- Meaningful Appearance: Some aspects of her aesthetic (for example, her weapon of choice
) reflect the American Civil War. It's partly a reference to her name.
Yokosuka Station
Lieutenant Commander SSV Yuri Gagarin
Shepard's Russian older sister and the first dreadnought fielded by the Alliance.- The Ace: One of the most effective ships of the First Contact War and survived the entire way through the war. She's essentially the Alliance's answer to the USS Enterprise.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: A newscast shows her casually demolishing a batarian tank with her bare hands.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Colonel Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, first human in space.
SSV Salla
- Absolute Xenophobe: Downplayed. Salla absolutely despises turians, hates batarians and doesn’t like asari, but has neutral feelings towards other alien races.
- Blood Knight: Fighting is what Salla is best at and what she enjoys the most.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Salla doesn’t show it, but she craves for a family, for people that care and acknowledge her.
- Friendless Background: Salla didn’t have any friends until she was transferred to Yokosuka and met Vienna.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Salla has no qualms with using the bodies (or pieces of them) of her living or dead enemies as weapons.
- Guilt Complex: A major one. First for her crew being killed during the Battle of Shanxi, and then for being a “failed” class, which led to none of her sister ships being commissioned.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: There are plenty of things that tick her off, like insulting her skills, calling her a failure, making fun of her class, insulting Vienna…
- Improbable Age: Salla looks like a fourteen-year-old, but serves in the military.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: Salla’s reaction whenever someone insinuates that she and Vienna are more than friends.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: On Tiptree, one of the mercenaries attacked Salla with a knife after overheating her weapon. Salla bit down on the blade and shattered it.
- The Rival: She and Salla are so similar, yet so fundamentally different that they can’t help but hate each other.
- Single Specimen Species: Salla was the first, and only, ship of the Salla-class frigates.
- You Are Not Alone: Said by Vienna to Salla after Salla had a very bad breakdown. Lots of Feels were had that day.
- Younger Than They Look: Salla looks like a fourteen-year-old, but is actually less than two years old.
MSV Night Witch
- All-Loving Hero: Night Witch cares for everyone. Even Gdańsk.
- Almighty Janitor: Night Witch is in charge of all the maintenance and supplying in Yokosuma.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Night Witches is one of the nicest people you can meet. Unless you mess with her kitchen.
- Lovable Rogue: According to Night Witch, this is what her captain, Dash Rendar, was like when she was a smuggling ship. Some of it has rubbed on her as well.
- Married to the Job: Night Witch takes her duties very seriously.
Other Kanmusu
Captain Dame HMS King George V, LG, GCMG ("Georgie")
Captain of the SSV Moscow during the First Contact War.- My Greatest Failure: The crippling and later scuttling of her "baby," the SSV Moscow. Moscow doesn't hold it against her.
- Lady of War: Literally; she has a knighthood and a number of distinctions presented by the British crown.
