Characters / Wings to Fly

The characters sheet for Wings to Fly. Canon characters are covered when their personality changes are sufficent to warrant it.

SMS 22, Lightning

Lucrezia Noin

SMS 22's current squadron leader; Commander in the Preventer Space Navy. From the canon.

• Ace Pilot: Largely a Plugger in the canon because of her equipment disadvantage, Noin in the story basically adopts whatever style of fighting seems most advantageous at that moment in the story, switching fluidly between them based on the situation.
• Anti-Climax: Noin's firing on Tallgeese III and Zechs during Jink Low is deliberately played down; Noin doesn't really decide as such, but rather instinctively reacts to defend her wingman.
• Break Them by Talking: Noin's abrupt harshness towards Zechs during Jink Low has such an effect on him that he briefly loses control of Tallgeese III, and if he had been a little slower he may have been killed before he recovered.
• Family Honor: Her father says that it is good to see the family lauded for its martial achievements again, and Noin is embarrassed enough to point out her unit is not quite the Victorious Third yet; both are descended from Emanuele Filiberto, who commanded the undefeated Italian Third Army during the First World War.
  • Ami Nagano observes to her that her branch of the family did not have to come back to Italy when the original main line of the House of Savoy was killed, but did so out of duty.
• Last-Name Basis: Famed for it in-story. Noin has actually been known to take offense at people who use her first name, even close friends. The only person who she has allowed to refer to her as Lucrezia so far was her father.
  • Noin is notably uncomfortable referring to her subordinates in any way besides their last name, feeling it implies an unprofessional relationship. She is visibly discomforted two out of three times she refers to Lucille Forsythe as "Lucille".
  • Dyer uses Noin's first name as a means to provoke her at one point. During a conversation afterwards, he actually requests permission to call her Lucrezia on a one-time basis.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Noin followed her father's career of military service and stands to inherit his titles as the elder child.
  • Subverted quite literally at the same time; Word of God is that the Noin's family line descends from one of the two daughters of the 3rd Duke of Aosta, and that the main line of the House of Savoy was killed in an unspecified manner at some point, resulting in Noin's grandfather becoming King of Italy; her father's brother is the current King.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Noin at one point tracks a Deathscythe Guilty's movement behind a building and shoots it through a pair of windows that line up, doing it serious damage.
• My Greatest Failure: Noin could have shot Zechs in the back in Episode 47, which could have stopped the Libra drop attempt in its tracks and prevented anyone from having to risk their life to do so. That she did not even think to do it is something that Noin regards as the greatest moral failing of her life. No one else knows she had the opportunity, at least until she confesses to Dyer in Any Landing You Walk Away From.
• No Accounting for Taste: Noin is so used to people reacting this way to her relationship with Zechs that she genuinely doesn't believe Dyer's refusal to judge her over it, pressing him to admit he doesn't see why she's into Zechs. She gets the complete opposite of what she expected; Dyer says he is awed and shamed by Noin's ability to live up to the Catholic ideals of forgiveness, calls her a better person than him for being able to forgive Zechs, and begs her forgiveness for his (Dyer's) own inability to do so.
• Parental Substitute: Duo says she's the closest thing to a mother he's ever had, and is consequently somewhat protective of Noin. Noin herself doesn't quite understand it.
• Real Women Love Jesus: Noin is openly and obviously Catholic, wearing a medallion with the image of Saint Joan of Arc (ever-popular with female soldiers) on one side and Saint Joesph of Cupertino (the patron saint of pilots and space travelers) on the other.
  • After Focht and Willem are killed, Noin pauses to say a prayer for them, and for the rest of the squadron.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: "Her Grace, the Duchess of Apulia, Commander Lucrezia Noin." She's rather modest about the title, noting to a reporter that it gives her no lands or special privileges; it merely designates her as the third backup to the King of Italy.
  • Based on the end of Bolter and Wufei's outburst after the KKV strike on Rome, it's very likely she's now "Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Aosta, Commander in the Preventer Space Navy, Princess Lucrezia Noin."
• Tomboy Princess: Zechs implies this when thinking of Noin, noting that her apparent hierarchy of self-description is "combat pilot, solider, Italian noble, woman" in order of importance. However, given that Zechs is in the process of badly misjudging Noin on other matters as he thinks this...
• Woman Scorned: Her reaction to Zechs' defection to the Outer Colonies comes with definite shades of this, compared to her previous depression over their "soft" breakup.

Duo Maxwell

Former Gundam pilot and current lieutenant with the Preventer Space Navy; leader of SMS 22's Three Flight. From the canon.

• Ace Pilot: Bushwhacker/Steamroller. Duo's first attack will be by surprise, but afterwards he'll keep pushing a target without respite until he gets a kill. Rinse and repeat.
• Parental Substitute: Noin, who he sees as the closest thing to a mother he's ever had. He is openly protective of her as a result, and tends to volunteer himself to escort her. Noin herself is confused about how this happened.
  • At one point Duo hits Zechs, partially because he regards Zechs as just being the sort of guy everyone should hit, but mainly because Zechs angered Noin.
  • He similarly asks Wufei Chang if the other Gundam pilot wants to just throw down right there when Wufei disrespects Noin, explicitly referring to the squadron as his family and Noin as his mother.
• Evil Former Friend: How he appears to regard Wufei Chang, after the events of Endless Waltz. The fact Wufei, like him, is currently a Preventer doesn't appear to change his opinion; Duo no longer trusts Wufei after his turn with the Mariemaia Army.
  • Duo has an impressive blowup in an argument with Wufei on the flight deck of the MMWS Athena.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Duo's "formal introduction" to Zechs Merquise involves tapping him on the shoulder and then hitting him hard enough to overcome Phobos' gravity. It really is his actual introduction to Zechs; they've never met face-to-face before.
• Military Salute: Duo's adherence to military protocol is noted to be somewhat sloppy, which occasionally makes the ex-OZ Noin grimace or otherwise react visibly. The Specials and OZ were sticklers for proper uniform and correct protocol.
• You Are Number...: Fourteen, originally. Thirteen, after being posted to command Three Flight when he and Hilde swap places.

Hilde Schebeiker

Ex-OZ Colonial Miltia, among other things, and Duo's something. The two are close and other characters note that one of the reasons Third Flight, One Section fights so well is that it's Duo and Hilde as team.

• Ace Pilot: Plugger/Bushwhacker. In a duel she only has to last long enough for Duo to kill her opponent, while as Duo's wing she can usually rely on the fact that Duo will be consuming nearly all the enemy's attention via his maneuvering skills and aggressive style.
• Shipper on Deck: She describes a long mock-dogfight/demonstration maneuver session between Dyer and Noin as their first dance. Noin is rather uncomfortable with this description because it actually makes some sense to her.

Lucille Forsythe

Ex-United Earth Sphere Alliance Space Forces pilot; cut her teeth in Space Leos. Twenty-six. One of the two original pilots from SMS 22 on the roster of the modern version of the squadron. A Lieutenant, and Noin's wing until her injuries invalidate her from flying in Crash and Burn.

• Amicable Exes: With Dyer, who still describes her as a close friend and demonstrates some worry about the fact she was unwise enough to make a pass at her CO.
• Misguided Missile: Lucille has a bad habit of putting herself in front of missile volleys in the hopes of drawing some of them off-target. It works too well in On Burner and her Taurus eats a pair of missiles, but she survives.
• Wing Man: To Noin.
• Put on a Bus: During Crash and Burn her injuries as a result of shrapnel from the missile hits her suit took during On Burner invalid her from flying for six months. She stays behind when the squadron goes to Mars.
• You Are Number...: Two.

Gerhard Focht

Ex-World Nation pilot. His first combat action was during the Eve Wars, where he took down multiple Virgo II mobile dolls with a Space Leo. Something similar happened against Mariemaia's Serpents during the Mariemaia Coup. The resident piloting genius and a Lieutenant Commander/squadron XO. He lead Two Flight until his death.

Focht was killed when he opted to hold a 900-kilo bomb in place against Tallgeese III to detonation, while he was grappling with it. Because of how badly his suit was damaged in that scene, it's possible he deliberately chose a suicidal course of action rather than letting the rest of the unit try to rescue him.

• Ace Pilot: Even among the group of people that compose SMS 22. Focht's not only surviving but scoring kills against vastly superior suits at the start of his career marked him out as something special. During the story he solos at least one Gundam Sandleon, and describes a pair of pilots using Zero Systems (who are admittedly in the middle of a Zero-induced breakdown, but even in such a condition Trant Clark still fought off Duo Maxwell in the canon) as "chumps".
  • His particular style seems to be largely Steamroller, but like Noin he adopts other styles as the mood strikes him and the situation calls for it.
• Ensign Newbie: The spirit if not the exact dynamic. Focht admits openly he's not as experienced an officer as some of the squadron's lieutenants, and tends to lean heavily on Richard Dyer for support and ideas.
• You Are Number...: Seven.
• Culture Clash: Focht, like Noin, doesn't always understand Americanisms, though he seems to generally do better than Noin does.
• Heroic Suicide: Given that Focht's Taurus is described as "not flightworthy" in his death scene, it's very likely he seized on the bomb as a way to ensure none of his unitmates were lost trying to rescue him.
• Taking You with Me: Focht elects to hold an errant bomb in place against Tallgeese, in the full knowledge that anything which will kill Tallgeese will also kill his Taurus and he is very unlikely to survive it.

Richard Dyer

Ex-United Earth Sphere Alliance Space Forces pilot, and the leader of SMS 22 when it was still an Alliance unit. Now a lieutenant, noted for both his leadership skills as the XO's right-hand man and his calm demeanor. Gerhard Focht's wing, until he's transferred to be Noin's wing during Crash and Burn.

• Ace Pilot: Somewhere between Plugger and Bushwhacker. Dyer's gunnery is more than capable, but his evasive and defensive maneuvering is on another level. He will often try to tempt an enemy pilot into following him through a sequence of defensive maneuvers, confident they'll lose track of him and give him a chance to attack while they don't know where he is. The only pilot who shot him down in simulated combat deliberately refused to chase and instead took potshots at him from range.
• Affectionate Nickname: Dyer is the first person in the squadron to call Noin "Skipper"; it catches on from there.
• Badass Bookworm: He has some kind of engineering background, enough that he apparently holds a small number of patents. Part of the party drafted into disabling Epyon during Unstick.
  • Later he examines the setups of the various MS gantries, and tells Noin it's professional curiosity on the engineering.
• Bayonet Ya: Dyer isn't much of a beamsaber user normally and one of the less-skilled in the squadron when it comes to swordsmanship, but give him one mounted as a bayonet and the Implausible Fencing Powers types had better watch out.
• Cultured Warrior: In addition to his obvious ability to hold forth on topics related to Western religions, he recognizes and finishes a quote from a Greek philosopher that Noin began.
• Had to Be Sharp: "Alliance Space Forces. If you were easy to kill, the Mobile Dolls got you long ago."
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Subverted; his father was an MS officer, but Dyer follows the traditions of his mother's side of the family in naval aviation, having adopted her lucky charms and small rituals.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Dyer was dating a pilot in the Specials before Operation Daybreak. Forsythe killed her, essentially at Dyer's request, during a dogfight. None of them were aware of the identity of their opponents, but Dyer reacted as if he'd asked Forsythe to do this when he eventually found out. The guilt was enough to kill the intimate part of his relationship with Forsythe.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Dyer can cite scripture and will earnestly discuss religious matters such as sin and absolution. He calls Noin a better person than him because she was able to forgive Zechs Merquise his sins where Dyer cannot, and regards his inability to forgive the woman who killed his mother as a major personal failing.
  • Dyer apparently recites Psalm 144 every time he powers up his mobile suit.
• The Stoic: He tends to speak calmly in combat and typically doesn't have much of an expression unless he's speaking. It's implied he has attachment issues because of the loss of most of his family during Operation Daybreak, and many of his pilots during the Eve Wars and before.
  • Not So Stoic: He comes out of his shell somewhat around Noin, including actually laughing at one of her jokes at the end of Crash and Burn. During Any Landing You Walk Away From he puts considerable effort into trying stabilize Noin's feelings after her breakup with Zechs, including making a number of very emotionally revealing statements to her.
• Wing Man: To Gerhard Focht at first, then eventually to Lucrezia Noin starting in Crash and Burn.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Dyer worried aloud that he'd do something stupid and overly aggressive if he had to fight Zechs Merquise, and make an already difficult situation for Noin harder. He should have been worried about Noin being overly aggressive.
• You Are Number...: Eight, until transferred to be Noin's wing, when he becomes Two.

John Buthelezi

Leads Second Section, One Flight. Former White Fang pilot. Has fewer speaking lines than his wing, Melissa Yin.

• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Buthelezi is at least a foot and a half taller than his wing.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Takes down an Outer Colonies Gundam with a missile snapshot fired without a lock in the middle of a dogfight.
• You Are Number...: Three.

Melissa Yin

John Buthelezi's wing. Former White Fang pilot. Has more speaking lines than her section leader.

• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Other members of the squadron compare Yin to a bulldog; small, tenacious, and not given to allowing escape. She's 5'2" and the shortest person in the squadron.
• Wing Man: To Buthelezi.
• You Are Number...: Four.

Willem

Leads Three Section from One Flight. One of OZ's warrior-engineers, he was an MS engineer at the Lunar factories before he decided he wanted to fly the suits instead. One of only three former OZ pilots in the squadron.

Willem is killed in action during the last Mars mission.

• Badass Bookworm: In the mold of the canon's Oswald Walker. He's one of the people drafted into helping disable Epyon during Unstick, and is an expert on the design, care, and feeding of the Preventer variant of the Taurus; he was part of the design team. He manages to establish fire superiority over a Gundam Derringer Arms despite the fact it has way more guns then he does.
• You Are Number...: Five.

Searcy

The squadron's best ground-attack pilot, and go-to when unguided ordnance needs to be deployed with precision. He's noted to be competent pilot in atmosphere at other things, an excellent pilot in zero gee, and only a mediocre pilot when his mobile suit's on the ground.

• Shoot the Medic First: Searcy was a Combat Search-And-Rescue pilot originally. He transferred to mobile suits because people were shooting at him anyways and he wanted to be able to shoot back.
• Good with Numbers: He does vector mechanics and the other math for zero-gee maneuvering in his head faster than his suit's computers can. Searcy manages to keep his naturally unstable Taurus airborne after its fly-by-wire computers are damaged largely by doing the calculations they did and providing the control inputs to match.

Larishminova

Squadron medical officer; a lieutenant commander. Views her relationship with the pilots of the squadron as basically adversarial because she has to tell them what they can't do. The reader never learns the correct spelling and pronunciation of her name.

• Doctor Jerk: Takes a basically adversarial position in her interactions with the pilots and admits it openly. Buthelezi calls her out on it at one point in Crash and Burn, and Noin accuses her of trying to get court-martialed after she accuses Noin and Dyer of being adrenaline junkies.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: We only know what Noin's attempts to pronounce her name look like, as an early chapter admits that "Larishminova" is neither the correct pronunciation or what's on her nametag.

Chief Ropke

The female, otherwise unnamed, American head maintenance officer of the squadron. Has no speaking lines, but frequently interacts with other characters just offscreen. "Chief" is apparently just a nickname, as Ropke is explicitly stated to be a commissioned officer at one point. At another point she reportedly threatens to hang someone when they get their suit's legs cut off.

Mars Colonial Milita

Ami Nagano

A former aide to Treize Kushrenada, now the Senior Colonel of the Mars Colonial Milita. Pilots a Tallgeese I replica as Specials One. Ami holds Treize's memory dear, a not uncommon position among those in power on Mars, but she can be flexible if truly required. Ami is apparently a lesbian, based on the fact she's married to a female geologist.

Ami is killed by Zechs during the events of Jink High 1.

• Ace Pilot: Sniper. Noin herself has great respect for Ami's gunnery skills, saying she'd be dangerous with a Space Leo simply because she's so good at placing her shots.
• Lightning Bruiser: What she, and the rest of Specials Flight, flies. Tallgeese and its progeny have acceleration like no other mobile suit in the setting, hit like a thrown brick, and only Gundams resist damage better.
• Loved I Not Honor More: She directly references Lovelace's poem when discussing why her wife agreed she had to stay behind when the MCM evacuated Mars.
• Spirited Competitor: Defines a battle area small enough to take away most of her suit's advantages in raw acceleration for her mock dogfight against Noin to make it more of a challenge. She apparently never expected to win it either: Ami scolds another MCM member for betting on her against Noin, and compliments Dyer as the most annoyingly difficult target she's ever shot at.
• You Are Number...: Specials One.

Chao Lingshen

A rookie, possibly the only rookie pilot in the story, with the Mars Colonial Milita. Despite her inexperience, she has the physical ability to pilot one of Specials Flight's Tallgeese I replicas. It's implied she was recruited for this reason. After Jink High 1, she is the only surviving member of Specials Flight.

• Expy: A Martian Chinese girl named Chao Lingshen? This is an obvious Negima reference.
• New Meat: Lingshen is, according to Dyer's observations, a rookie. The fact he was able to hold her on his gunsights for a straight thirty seconds during a mock dogfight reinforces this; no veteran pilot would be so easy to keep in the reticule.
• You Are Number...: Specials Five.

Supporting Cast

Trowa Barton

Former Gundam pilot, now commands a mobile suit squadron with the Preventers: MS 138 "Firestorm". From the canon.

• Dead Person Impersonation: Trowa is not the real Trowa Barton, who is dead. However, he's pressing his claim to being the real Trowa Barton, backed by a group of powerful people from Earth and the colonies. The simple reason for this is that the Barton family has tried to Colony Drop Earth twice, and Trowa is someone with a conscience who can bring them to heel.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Like the canon example from Endless Waltz, Trowa demonstrates skills at aiming that defy rational explanation among his peers; for example disabling a Gundam Derringer Arms with a three-second burst that took out its sensors and joints.
• You Are Number...: Firestorm One.

Claire Dyer

Richard Dyer's only surviving family member from his extended family; his sister. Commands Marine Mobile Suit Squadron 2 "Triton" for the Preventers.

• You Are Number...: Triton One.
• I Read It for the Articles: Inverted, as she claims to visit celebrity gossip sites for the pictures of pretty people and not read the articles.

Outer Colonies Federation

Zechs Merquise

Zechs Merquise tried to kill much of humanity. Humanity has not forgiven or forgotten this, and in AC 198 Zechs is something of a wreck; no one trusts him or likes him, and he is at best tolerated. He believes that he deserves this, but at the same time his personal ego and his princely status have conditioned him to a certain level of respect. He will be respected again...even if he has to win that respect at the point of a beamsaber.

• Hearing Voices: Zechs hears Treize's voice almost constantly, and it's usually criticizing or mocking him. Zechs thinks of it as Trieze's ghost, but acknowledges it's probably just his own mind playing tricks on him. Then during To Betray the voice itself is silent in a battle and claims, unprompted, it was advising Wufei Chang. Wufei's considerably more controlled style than normal suggests something was up. It also claims to have tried to speak to Richard Dyer in the same battle after Wufei withdraws, but it isn't sure he heard. Unusually for this trope, despite it's antagonistic nature Trieze's voice is probably a positive influence on Zechs, considering it warns him against suicide and argues he's doing the wrong thing.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Zechs' contrition for his actions as leader of the White Fang is real, but very few people care considering he tried to kill the planet.

Victoria Mannstein

The lone survivor of the Io Militia squadron that was part of the first attack wave against Mars, she's largely responsible for the fact any of the first wave survived by having secured them a safe landing zone with air, water, and a place they could actually sleep. She slides into the role of Zechs Merquise' handler and aide-de-camp as the story goes on.

• Badass Normal: Victoria is a good enough pilot to stand up to Lucrezia Noin and her wing and give as good as she got, while they have uprated Preventer Taurus variants and her own Taurus is completely stock; she is also the only reason anyone in the first wave of the Mars attack force survived.