This is a list of characters in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. A list of characters exclusive to the Zombies gamemode can be found here.
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United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA)
An Earth-based political organization uniting all nations on the planet, the UNSA was formed after Earth's natural resources were depleted due to human population overgrowth and the expansion of industry, in charge of all manners of trade, travel and territorial claims. Additionally, the UNSA also puts efforts into space colonization for the Solar System, setting outposts on other planets and asteroids to mine for resources. To protect Earth-born citizens from insurgent militants like the SDF, the UNSA is defended by the Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO), its primary military force; Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR) operators are but a small part of SATO.
Tropes common to the UNSA, SATO and SCAR include:
- Ace Pilot: SCAR operators are primarily trained for aerial combat and reconnaisance.
- Catchphrase: "Peace to the fallen."
- Cool Plane: The "Jackal", equipped with unique VTOL properties.
- Do-Anything Soldier: Justified with SCAR; pilots in SCAR are trained as special operations commandos in addition to being combat pilots, and are used by SATO for boots on the ground operations as much as aerial ones.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Special Combat Air Recon. SCAR operators aren't simply pilots, but they're also trained for infantry combat and infiltration missions.
- United Nations Is A Super Power: Infinite Warfare's United Nations not only governs and defends the Earth but all of its remaining colonies. The real U.N. is simply a peacekeeping organization and also does not have a space program or a military.
- United Space of America: Downplayed. The UNSA is explicitly an international operation, but primarily draws inspiration from Western militaries, in particular the US.
Special Combat Air Recon (SCAR)
Lieutenant (later Commander) Nick Reyes
Fair winds.
- Voiced by: Brian Bloom (English)noteCallsign: Raider
The Protagonist and primary Player Character of the game, a SCAR pilot-turned-ship commander during the war against the SDF.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: After a Field Promotion, he becomes the Captain of the Retribution and the Commander of the SCAR Team, making him the highest ranking playable character in a Call of Duty campaign. And he still continues to engage in combat missions, both on foot and in flight.
- Bash Brothers: Male/female example with Salter, who has been his wingwoman for over ten years at the start of the game.
- The Captain: Reyes receives this rank after his promotion to Commander and Acting Captain of the UNSA Retribution following Captain Alder's death near the beginning of the game. He is also the Commander of the SCAR unit for the Retribution prior to this.
- Character Development: The crux of it is his transition from his firm belief in The Men First, even at the cost of defeat, to being willing to sacrifice the willing men and women under his command if the mission demands it.
- Determinator: Like many Call of Duty protagonists before him - his final moments before death serves as an example, since Reyes hopes to stay alive despite the unlikelihood of being in the midst of a barrage of missiles and space debris from an exploding shipyard.
- Face Death with Dignity: As his helmet breaks and he starts losing oxygen, Reyes calmly accepts his fate and gazes into space for the last time in the final mission.
- A Father to His Men: Deconstructed; Reyes' inability to prioritize mission success over the lives of soldiers under his command turns detrimental. In several instances of the campaign, his forces narrowly lose due to his poor decision-making in an attempt to minimize casualties. Ultimately, he comes to terms with his responsibilities as captain and sacrifices most of his crew in order to ensure victory over the SDF.
- Field Promotion: When Captain Alder of the Retribution is killed after ordering the ship to plow into the Olympus Mons, Reyes arrives on the bridge and takes charge by virtue of being the highest-ranking officer on the ship. He's officially promoted by Admiral Raines to Commander and assigned a captain's billet in order to formally command the vessel.
- Foil: To Admiral Kotch - Kotch considers the lives of everyone serving him to be ultimately expendable; Reyes cares about his men to the point where it can interfere with the mission. Kotch fights from the bridge of the Olympus Mons; Reyes takes the fight to the frontlines alongside his men.
- Frontline General: Justified; even after his promotion to Commander of the Retribution, Reyes joins the contingent of Marines on the frontlines partially by his own initiative, but also because of a shortage of skilled SATO pilots.
- Heroic Mime: He is the first Infinity Ward Player Character to avert this for an entire Call of Duty campaignnote .
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- He orders the Retribution to escape without him from the attacking Olympus Mons over Saturn's moon Titan, due to his Jackal getting destroyed, despite knowing that being stranded in space will doom him to a slow death. Subverted when Captain Ferran and the UNSA Tigris come pick him up.
- Played straight in the finale, when his helmet is breached by debris and exposes him to space, after he orders Lieutenant Salter to have their captured SDF destroyer fire on the SDF spaceport he's still on, in order to sink it and stop them from re-building a fleet at the cost of his own life.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He looks almost exactly like Brian Bloom.
- It's Personal: Reyes forms a grudge against Kotch over the course of the game for the amount of people he personally cares about getting killed by the Olympus Mons.
- The Men First: Deconstructed, as his care for his men at all costs has a tendency to cloud his greater judgement, causing many a loss because he prioritizes minimizing if not outright eliminating casualties on his side over mission success.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Reyes and Salter have served together in the same SCAR unit for years without any hint of romance between them.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni
- By default, Reyes is the blue to Salter's red: her comments on disrespecting Admiral Raines, wanting to go after Sergeant Omar, torturing The Mole following the terrorist attack on Geneva, and her insubordination report (which can be read in the Captain's quarters on the Retribution) makes her clearly a hot-head compared to Reyes, who advocates respecting authority and going into the real fight rather than going after one man.
- Inverted during missions: Reyes tends to be the far less pragmatic one compared to Salter, who's better at focusing on the mission at hand.
- The Stoic: Only three points in the campaign occur when Reyes goes Not So Stoic - when Omar is left behind to die because Salter refuses to go back for him, when the Olympus Mons destroys UNSA headquarters and kills Raines, and when ETH.3n pulls his own Heroic Sacrifice for Reyes to proceed into the control room of the SDF shipyard.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A man with an overwhelmingly protective instinct towards his soldiers may not be as fit for a command position when he prioritizes their lives above mission success; it nearly costs them victory in the war. Lampshaded by Salter - after one mission, she states after all Reyes has been through where he can miraculously survive, his luck will eventually run out.
- Tempting Fate: Near the beginning of the game, after players gain control of Reyes, he comments on a SATO memorial wall about how it's relatively empty. At the end of the game, his name is etched onto the marble slab alongside those of many others who perished with him.
- True Companions: It should come as no surprise Reyes and Salter play this straight, having fought alongside each other for the past ten years before Infinite Warfare begins.
Lieutenant (later Executive Officer) Nora Salter
Hell or highwater.
- Voiced by: Jamie Gray Hyder (English)noteCallsign: Fever
Reyes's wingwoman and second-in-command aboard the Retribution.
- Action Girl: Called the "nuclear option with a ponytail", Salter fights on-screen for the entirety of the campaign, making her the biggest, most prominent female character in a Call of Duty installment to date. Tellingly, Salter's one of only four crew members from the Retribution to survive the campaign, elevating her badass credentials.
- Bash Brothers: Male/female example with Reyes, who has been her wingman for over ten years at the start of the game.
- Deuteragonist: Salter follows Reyes into combat in all missions, making her the second most important character in the story behind Reyes.
- Field Promotion: Promoted to the position of Executive Officer at the same time of Reyes' promotion to Acting Captain. She briefly becomes captain as well when the final survivors of the Retribution escape from the SDF shipyard, leaving Reyes behind.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Salter makes a quick escape from an exploding mining station about to fall into the Sun without ensuring Sergeant Omar is aboard because he was lagging behind with a wounded personnel. Even though Reyes gave a direct order for her to stay for as long as possible, Salter reasons it's either Omar or all of them aboard the Drop Ship.
- Informed Attribute: The flag on her uniform would indicate to her being Lebanese (and thus Arab) even if she speaks English with an American accent, bears an Anglo-Saxon name. Her character model is based on her actress Jamie Gray Hyder who is an American of Lebanese descent.
- The Lancer: Salter isn't just Reyes' most trusted confidante, she's also his Number Two.
- Number Two: Officially and unofficially; she's promoted to being the Executive Officer of the Retribution at the start of the game, and is Reyes's Lancer and most trusted confidante.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: She somehow managed to get the hijacked SDF ship and three members of her crew back to Earth safely, despite being horribly outnumbered and outgunned and taking heavy fire in the ship, at the end of the game as she escapes the SDF shipyard after successfully destroying it and losing Reyes.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Played straight with Reyes - Infinite Warfare does away with any notion of romance between them entirely.
- Sole Survivor: Almost. She is one of the only four Retribution crew members to survive the final mission, according to the mission report.
ETH.3n
- Voiced by: Jeffrey Nordling (English)noteCallsign: Metal-1
Pronounced as "Ethan", this prototype UNSA robot soldier with highly advanced mental functions puts him beyond standard drones.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Players briefly gain control of ETH.3n during the last level as he works to overload the SDF shipyard's core. Justified in that it's Reyes controlling him through a hacking module.
- Benevolent A.I.: ETH.3n is the first robot designed to be entirely sentient, display human emotions, and respond like any soldier would, making it one of the SATO's best troopers. Lampshaded by Sergeant Omar when the Drop Ship is heading onto the surface of Titan.Omar: "As far as ETH.3n goes, I will personally vouch for this stiff, metal motherfucker: he's one of us. ETH.3n, what's the Navy's official policy for a gunfight?"
ETH.3n: "Send in the Marines!" - The Comically Serious: Adding to his Ridiculously Human Robot traits, ETH.3n's dialogue throughout the campaign is composed of situational updates and Deadpan Snarking.
- Deadpan Snarker: His off the cuff quips are uncannily both frequent and good that he may well have been specifically programmed to be more charismatic than a human ever could be.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Uses his Self-Destruct Mechanism in order to open the path to the shipyard's command center for Reyes.
- Number Two: Whenever Reyes pilots a Jackal, ETH.3n is his co-pilot.
- Pick Your Human Half: The amount of programming in ETH.3n's AI effectively makes him human. Lampshaded during his introduction to Reyes and Salter - ETH.3n loosely simplifies himself as a person who physically happens to be a robot.
- Robot Buddy: Serves as a loyal, friendly squadmate to both Reyes and Omar.
- Southern-Fried Private: Downplayed, his synthetic voice has just the right amount Southern twang to evoke this trope.
- Undying Loyalty: Next to Salter, ETH.3n is the most loyal soldier to Reyes. Exemplified when Reyes is left stranded above Titan - he does what he can to ensure Reyes survives as long as possible, even though his suit has ruptured and is leaking oxygen. In the credits, ETH.3n's recorded voiceover explicitly states he came to see Reyes as family.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: ETH.3n considers himself an expendable piece of military hardware. His comrades disagree.ETH.3n: I'm hardware, sir. Ultimately expendable.Reyes: No no. You're my brother, Ethan.ETH.3n: Your talking robot brother?Reyes: Affirmative.
Petty Officer First Class Dan "Wolf" Lyall
- Voiced by: Deniz Akdeniz (English)note
Commander of a three-man SCAR operation unit sent to Europa in the prologue alongside "Sipes" and "Tee".
- Awesome Aussie: Implied due to Wolf's Australian accent, given his voice actor is an Aussie.
- A Father to His Men: Invoked when Wolf and his team are captured by the SDF, asking Admiral Kotch to provide medical aid to his teammates. Unfortunately, Kotch doesn't agree with Wolf's concept of "care" for one's men.
- Intro-Only Point of View: Wolf serves as the Player Character of the Action Prologue for Infinite Warfare.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On top of losing oxygen from a suit rupture, SDF Captain Bradley Fillion beats him to death.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He and his squad are killed by the SDF at the end of the prologue to establish the looming SDF threat for Reyes to handle.
Solar Associated Treaty Organization (SATO)
Admiral Fredrick Raines
- Voiced by: John Marshall Jones (English)note
The overall commander of the UNSA's military forces and Reyes' commanding officer and SCAR mentor.
- Frontline General: When the SDF attacks Geneva, Raines' first instinct is to pick up a rifle and fight alongside Reyes until he can reach a suitable command center.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: He's killed by the Olympus Mons when it obliterates UNSA HQ, right as he's in the middle of ordering the Retribution to get Jackals in the air.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Dies when the Olympus Mons arrives in Geneva and destroys UNSA headquarters.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Raines is aware the Space Cold War with the SDF will eventually devolve into a full-blown conflict, yet his hands are tied down by UNSA leadership and politics. Once the war actually kicks off, Raines gives Reyes basically a blank check to do whatever needs to be done to keep the SDF away from Earth.
Staff Sergeant Usef Omar
- Voiced by: David Harewood (English)note
The commander of the Marine detachment aboard the Retribution.
- Character Development: Pretty quickly goes from despising ETH.3n to being buddies with him after going into combat with him a few times.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Omar is initially distrustful of ETH.3n due to him being a robot, but after the latter saves his life after liberating the lunar spaceport, Omar is insistent that ETH.3n accompany him on every mission, even being the first to chew out anybody who questions ETH.3n's qualities as a soldier.
- Sergeant Rock: This SATO Marine Sergeant Major won't hesitate to even yell at Reyes for his blunders.
- Senseless Sacrifice: While trying to evacuate from a mining station falling into the Sun, Omar stays behind to try and help a wounded engineer reach the Drop Ship. Neither of them make it when Salter is forced to leave without them.
Corporal Sean Brooks and Private Todd Kashima
- Voiced by: Jason Barry (Brooks) and Eric Ladin (Kashima) (English)note
Two Marines under Omar's command assigned to the Retribution.
- Amazon Chaser: Kashima has a romantic interest in Salter; occasionally in the campaign, he will ask Reyes if he can set her up with him.
- Butt-Monkey: Kashima is often the target of jokes by the rest of the squad due to his relative inexperience with combat. This stops being funny when he dies later on.
- Field Promotion: After Omar is Killed Off for Real, Brooks is promoted to Sergeant.
- Fighting Irish: Brooks's heavy Irish accent can be heard in his dialogue.
- Those Two Guys: Brooks and Kashima will almost always be seen with each other during on-foot missions with Reyes.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Along with "Boats", Brooks' survival isn't confirmed, but unlike all the other named characters he's not listed among the dead either. It's probable that he and "Boats" were 2 of the 3 other survivors of the Retribution other than Salter.
Captain Maureen Ferran
- Voiced by: Claudia Christian (English)note
The Captain of the UNSA Tigris.
- Big Damn Heroes: Saves Reyes after he and ETH.3n's Jackal is destroyed and are stranded above Titan.
- Combat Pragmatist: Justified; Ferran explicitly makes it clear she saved Reyes not out of compassion, but because the UNSA can't afford to lose any more good ship captains - if the Retribution falls, Tigris is unlikely to stay afloat.
- Killed Offscreen: She dies along with the entire crew of the Tigris when the Olympus Mons attacks them while the Retribution is occupied with the near-Sun asteroid.
- Leave No Man Behind: She disobeys orders from STRATCOM and sends a rescue ship to rescue Reyes and ETH.3n after they are stranded above Titan.Ferran: We are a fraternity of two, you and I. A 50% attrition rate's not gonna fly.
- Sacrificial Lion: Ferran and Tigris fight alongside Retribution during the first two main missions before splitting up, and are Big Damn Heroes after the mission on Titan. The off-screen loss of Tigris with all hands cues a shift in tone as Reyes declares it's time to "raise the black flag and start cutting some throats."
- Tempting Fate: Her quote that a 50% attrition rate wouldn't fly is one of her last lines in the game prior to her death.
Lieutenant Victor "Gator" Diallo
- Voiced by: Omid Abtahi (English)note
The helmsman for the Retribution.
- Ace Pilot: A capital ship version - Gator is able to pull off extremely accurate Faster Than Light jumps even when the ship is heavily damaged.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Dies pushing Reyes out of the way of a hail of gunfire from an SDF gunship towards the end of the campaign.
- Mission Control: Serves as this for Reyes over the course of the campaign.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Implied in his ending credits dialogue - his daughter isn't born yet while he was fighting the SDF.
Warrant Officer Maynard "Griff" Griffin
The armorer of the Retribution.
- Fan of the Past: According to a conversation with Reyes which can be heard on the Retribution's captain's computer, Griff feels like he should have been born in ninth-century China, when gunpowder was first invented.
- Handicapped Badass: Used to be a sniper until his vision worsened; he also has a prosthetic arm.
- Heroic Bastard: His death recording in the credits reveals he was born out of wedlock and joined the Navy out of a desire to connect with his father, a Silver Star recipient, whose identity he discovered shortly before enlisting.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He stays behind with the Marines to defend the entrance to the space elevator and prevent the SDF forces from following the assault team, and is later confirmed to have been killed-in-action.
- Hold the Line: During the final mission of the game, Griff and several Marines stay back to prevent Reyes's group from being followed as they board the space elevator to head for the SDF shipyard.
- Southern-Fried Private: Downplayed; Griff holds the rank of Warrant Officer, but he hails from Tennessee with a slight Southern accent.
Chief Engineer Audrey McCallum
- Voiced by: Claudia Black (English)note
The chief engineer of the Retribution.
- Action Girl: In the final mission she picks up a rifle and fights alongside the rest of Retribution's surviving crew, even leading her own squad into combat.
- The Engineer: It's her job to make sure the Retribution remains in optimal condition; McCallum also develops useful gadgets for Reyes to use throughout the campaign.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Seals herself inside a Drop Pod full of hostile drones mid-way up the space elevator and blows it up to prevent them from attacking Reyes and Salter.
- Mama Bear: She was mostly motivated to join the military in order to protect her children.
- A Mother to Her Men: She admits to Reyes that she turned down an opportunity to become a ship's captain because she ended up caring too much about her subordinates, fearing it would compromise her ability to make command decisions.
- Mirror Character: To Reyes. Many years ago, McCallum was once a ship's captain who cared too much of her subordinates that she is unwilling to sacrifice them for the greater good. These are the struggles Reyes has to face throughout the game.
Junior Lieutenant Ebele Yedite
One of the flight deck officers aboard the Retribution.
- Character Death: She's gunned down by SDF forces moments after landing in at the entrance to the space elevator.
- Straight Gay: She has a partner named Marta, though this only comes to light upon listening to her farewell message during the credits.
Lieutenant Laura Gibson
- Voiced by: Misty Lee (English)
The flight deck officer for the Retribution, generally known as "Boss" by Reyes and Salter.
- Ace Pilot: Was originally a SATO pilot before becoming a flight deck officer.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Gets shot down by an SDF Skelter Ace Pilot during the space battle portion above Mars.
- Nerves of Steel: Keeps an even tone even while she's getting lethally shot down.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Gibson hasn't flown for over a decade. When she dramatically gets behind the cockpit again during the Retribution's desperate last stand, she gets shot down in just a couple minutes despite having been a highly regarded ace in her prime.
Nunez
A female Marine of indeterminate rank under Sgt. Omar's command.
- Action Girl: As a Marine, naturally.
- Killed Off for Real: Is fatally wounded by incoming fire from the Olympus Mons in "Operation Burn Water".
- Mauve Shirt: She's probably the most notable and oft-mentioned of the game's random allied Mooks.
- Only One Name: Just Nunez.
Settlement Defense Front (SDF)
Main antagonists of Infinite Warfare, the SDF are a brutal insurgent group of space-born colonists aiming to overthrow the Earth and dominate the Solar System, having broken away from the UNSA from a previous secession war. Since then, the SDF has established a tenuous stalemate with the Earth; any hostilities will likely trigger a full-scale war. At the start of the campaign, the SDF launch a surprise attack on Geneva, crippling the SATO fleet on Earth, making them poised for a planetary invasion.
Tropes applicable to the SDF are:
- Always Chaotic Evil: Not a single SDF member is portrayed in a sympathetic light in the campaign.
- Blood Knight: Nearly all dialogue heard from SDF Mooks are regarding bloodshed and warfare, with some of them saying aloud about how they hope they will get the chance to kill Earth-born people before the war ends.
- Child Soldiers: A loading screen states each SDF male must serve 15 years in their military, starting at age 12.
- David Versus Goliath: The SDF controls more territory in the Solar System and is far better equipped in manpower and material than the UNSA and SATO, forcing the latter to resort to surprise attacks to even the odds.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: At least in the racial sense, the SDF are just as diverse as everyone else is in the future; gender-wise, they're alarmingly regressive when compared to the UNSA and SATO.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Voice communications tend to sound deep and distorted.
- Ironic Name: Despite being called the "Settlement Defense Front," implying that they're a defensive army, they're waging a war of aggression against Earth.
- Keystone Army: Subverted Trope. It seems that the death of Kotch would be the end of the game, but it barely takes away their command, as they continue to fight even after his death and even against the Olympus Mons itself.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: The SDF support aggressive, expansionist warfare, mass murder, and consider Earth-born bloodlines to be inferior to their own. In case you forgot they're the bad guys, they have a white, red and black angular insignia and their combat helmets resemble Stahlhelms with glass shields. To really hammer the point home, at least one of the quotes from Salen Kotch displayed on the loading screen is a paraphrase of a Real Life quote attributed to Adolf Hitler. The "Dire Battalion" mentioned on the Most Wanted board, a penal battalion made up of the most depraved and evil criminals of the SDF, also appears similar to the Nazi's Dirlewanger Brigade, mention is made on the loading screens and during Operation Burnwater of forced labour camps, and one vice admiral is said to be "protector of Bontrey and Morovia", referencing Reinhard Heydrich whose position was protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
- N.G.O. Superpower: Although classified as a militant, terrorist group, the SDF have an enormous army and armada to back themselves up, and are the governing body of Mars.
- Pretentious Latin Motto: Mars Aeternum.Translation
- Proud Warrior Race: Martial skill is valued above all, to the point where owning a firearm is considered mandatory in SDF-controlled territory. Fittingly, their headquarters is situated on Mars.note
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their uniforms incorporate a lot of these colors, their HUDs use primarily red and orange, and they're a villainous faction.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The SDF believe their best way to air out their grievances with Earth is through genocide. Lampshaded by Reyes in the opening narration of the campaign."The Settlement Defense Front built an army and broke away from the Earth with blood and violence. They aren’t revolutionaries. They want absolute power. They raid colonies, take resources, and control territories by force. They use their fleet to block us from raw materials we need to survive. Their mission is to erase everything Earth born."
- Stay in the Kitchen: Compared to the UNSA and SATO, their leadership and soldiers are primarily male. (Some female voices can be heard over public announcement systems on their capital ships, indicating women may at least be permitted to serve in a support role.) One loading screen points out the SDF deliberately maintain a 4:1 male-to-female birthrate.
- Stupid Evil:
- Every single aspect of the SDF seems designed to make them look evil, which can lead to them coming across as incompetent; The aforementioned 4:1 male to female birthrate would lead to depopulation real fast, having every man serve in the military for decades would severely impact the workforce, only recruiting men would leave out at least one fourth of the population for no reason, and most of all declaring war on Earth got them curbstomped within a day.
- Salen Kotch himself demonstrates this in his very first appearance, when he executes one of his own men to prove how far he's willing to go to secure victory. Not only is this a completely pointless waste of manpower, but he could've gotten the same point across by killing Wolf and his men, which he ends up doing anyway.
- Major Nicholas Rado, one of the Most Wanted Targets, is said to have trained his men by pushing them out into the vacuum of space with minimal oxygen and a leaking suit, seemingly taking Kotch's ethos even further by actively trying to get as many of his men killed as possible.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Radoslav Barkov's "Dire Battalion" was formed out of SDF prisoners; also, certain members of the SDF were already considered criminals by the UNSA before they joined the former.
Admiral Salen Kotch
Care clouds judgement.
- Voiced by: Kit Harington (English)note
Leader of the Settlement Defense Front and Big Bad of the game.
- Asshole Victim: His death is slow, painful, and extremely well deserved.
- Ax-Crazy: In a few occasions in the story he shows his instability and disregard for human life clear by killing his own men or ordering the indiscriminate massacre of civilians simply for being in the way.
- Bad Boss: Has absolutely zero compunctions about shooting his own men to prove a point."Care clouds judgment".
- Bait the Dog: His first scene has him initially pretending to be a respectful, caring officer who helps the suffocating Wolf by providing him with a respirator. He then reveals himself to be an utterly evil piece of shit who murders one of his own men to make a point, then takes away Wolf's oxygen again before having him and his SCAR team brutally executed.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of Infinite Warfare.
- Catchphrase: "Death is no disgrace."
- Disc-One Final Boss: There are still a few missions left after he dies.
- The Dreaded: Kotch's flagship Olympus Mons is considered the most dangerous ship in the Solar system; for most of the campaign, the Retribution is forced to flee or distract it long enough so they can retreat every time it shows up.
- Establishing Character Moment: Upon meeting him for the first time, players will see Kotch speaking of how loyalty to one's men makes a warrior weak. He proceeds to casually murder one of his own SDF Mooks to convey that. To a man he was about to kill.
- Evil Brit: Speaks with an English accent, and he's plenty evil. His wiki page lists him as being "British-Cydonian".
- Evil Counterpart: To Reyes. He's a cold and uncaring conquerer who couldn't give two shits about his underlings, sending them on suicide missions if it means killing some of his enemies.
- Face Death with Dignity: Unsurprising for a tyrannical warmongerer who's motto is "death is no disgrace." After he's fatally wounded by a hacked C6, unless the player jams a knife into his throat he will remain composed and proceed to spend his final moments verbally spitting in Reyes' face, taunting the captain for his losses and uttering his aforementioned motto one last time.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar going across his right eye.
- Hero Killer: Every time Kotch shows up, someone in the UNSA tends to die - he orders the execution of Wolf's entire squad, destroys the remaining SATO fleet after the initial Geneva attack save for the Retribution and Tigris, routs the Tigris with all hands onboard while the Retribution is occupied on another mission, and kills Admiral Raines during the SDF's second attack on Geneva by having the Olympus Mons destroy UNSA headquarters.
- The Heavy: While the SDF still remains a large threat even after Kotch dies, it was his actions that kickstarted the entire plot in the first place.
- Improbable Age: He's the de facto supreme commander of the SDF despite not having hit thirty; he is said to have been born soon after the SDF gained independence three decades ago.note That being said, Napoleon Bonaparte was 30 when he became ruler of France, so it can be considered a case of Reality Is Unrealistic, especially considering this is a non-Earth nation.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He looks almost exactly like Kit Harrington.
- Insane Admiral: He's absolutely nuts in how he is willing to kill absolutely anyone, including himself or his own men, to accomplish his goals.
- Kick the Dog: Kills one of his own loyal soldiers just to prove his philosophy of "kindness equals weakness".
- Killed Mid-Sentence: The player has the option to do this to Kotch as he's delivering his final speech, where it's entirely possible to jam your knife in his throat and kill him as he's in the middle of talking.
- Overranked Soldier: Going by his visual appearance, Kotch can't be older than late 20s to early 30s, yet holds the exceptionally high rank of Admiral and Commander of the SDF.
- Taking You with Me: Attempts to scuttle the Olympus Mons so it will destroy Geneva as Reyes and his forces board it in an attempt to capture it.
- The Unfettered: Proudly shows he will do anything to accomplish his goals, and gives absolutely none of the camaraderie of his foes.
- Villain Has a Point: His Establishing Character Moment has him declare that "care clouds judgement". While Kotch himself takes this overboard to Bad Boss levels, Reyes's character arc is about coming to terms with this very fact, eventually leading him to sacrifice nearly his entire crew and himself to complete the mission to cripple the SDF fleet.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Contacts Reyes and the Retribution multiple times throughout the campaign mainly to tell him how doomed they are and how they should surrender and let themselves get executed by him.
Vice-Admiral Caleb Thies
- Voiced by: Peter Weller (English)
- Advertised Extra: Thies appears prominently in the early "Know Your Enemy" teaser trailer, with many viewers mistaking him for Kotch, but he ends up having minimal presence in the actual game itself, appearing only in the side-mission "Operation Deep Execute". Not only does he have no dialogue, he's assassinated unceremoniously via Deadly Gas.
- Bald of Evil: Sports a suitably, villainous chrome dome.
Captain Bradley Fillion
A defector to Mars back in his 20s, Bradley Fillion is the commander of the SDS Ares Vallis, an SDF carrier.
- Advertised Extra: Like Thies, Fillion (portrayed by Conor McGregor) was advertised enough for audiences to wonder if he might play The Dragon for Kotch. Unfortunately, Fillion's role is no different than any other SDF Mook, and he is Killed Off for Real during the mandatory lunar spaceport mission after Reyes becomes Captain of the Retribution.
- Cain and Abel: His brother, Michael Fillion, is the Retribution's chaplain, though they don't actually interact during the story.
- Hero Killer: While Kotch is the one who orders the deaths of Lyall's squad, Fillion is the one who carries it out, personally beating Lyall himself to death.
- Sadist: The manic expression on his face as he viciously beats Wolf to death implies him to be this. We don't learn much about him to find out if it's actually the case.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Dies from asphyxiation after Reyes blows open one of the windows in the Ares Vallis' bridge.
Akeel Min Riah
A high-ranking SDF officer, Akeel Min Riah was sent to Earth as a sleeper agent to disable the UNSA defence cannons before the SDF invaded.
- But Thou Must!: Trying to shoot him in the leg to stop his escape doesn't do anything. You must chase him down for the sake of the story.
- Dirty Coward: He runs away from combat instead of fighting you directly, not firing a single shot as he hides behind his soldiers. Subverted somewhat however, where it turns out he was simply buying himself time to destroy the AATIS Guns. He then willingly stabs himself in the gut to remove a transponder beacon, an act that causes him to quickly succumb to blood loss and die.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: His fight involves him running away from you while his Elite Mooks stall for time.
- Hate Sink: His limited characterisation boils down to him being a traitorous and cowardly asshole who you can direct your hate towards, as Kotch is too charismatic to loathe.
- The Mole: Gets himself employed by SATO before the events of the game in order to get Geneva's Anti-Air defenses down for the initial SDF attack.
- Villainous Valor: Defeats Reyes in hand-to-hand combat single-handedly, then cuts out the transponder inside of his body himself, even though he knows doing so will kill him.
