Back to The Lost Fleet Character Index
Current and Former Military
General Hyser Charban
An emissary of the Alliance government sent with the fleet on its mission to enigma space.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Nobody in the fleet trusts him when he first joins them in Dreadnaught, but by the end of Leviathan he's become a trusted advisor and friend to Geary, and Desjani outright says she thinks the Alliance would be fortunate to have him as a politician.
- Frontline General: Charban led from the front in many battles during the Forever War with the Syndics. This has had a negative effect on him.
- Giving the Sword to a Noob: He becomes the first person the Dancers develop a liking to and start communicating with, to the surprise and sometimes jealousy of the academic experts sent with the fleet.
- Nice Guy: He's polite, humble, helpful, and isn't above smiling at Interservice Rivalry jokes.
- Old Soldier: He survived the war long enough to retire, and he freely admits to having seen too much combat and death for his liking.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He resigned his commission after a battle in which half his division was slaughtered taking a worthless moon from the Syndics, only for it to be abandoned two weeks later. As he tells Geary, he couldn't lie to himself any longer about the war effort.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Introduced as a respectful and fairly competent advisor/observer, but is also a stranger to the fleet, and a soldier with political aspirations who joins the fleet at a time Geary is suspicious of political forces within the Alliance. He ultimately proves to be a man with noble goals whom Geary is able to understand and sympathize with.
- Spanner in the Works: In Guardian, he tells Geary that he believes this is why he was sent with the fleet, since he's has no background in politics and had no way of knowing what they'd encounter. Fortunately for the fleet, he knows his limitations, lets Rione take the lead when she needs to, and proves to be more adept at communicating with the Dancers than anyone else except for Lieutenant Iger.
- Survivor Guilt: He is clearly grappling with this, wondering why he survived the war when so many others didn't.
Colonel Galland
The aerospace forces commander for the Adriana Star System.
- Ace Pilot: Commands the local star fighters.
- Determined Defeatist: She says that her fighters could take on a battleship, but that it would be a Suicide Mission with low odds of success. She also adds that she is fully prepared to engage the battleship if there's no other way.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Galland is quick to help Geary and advise the best official way to communicate with the local authorities.
- Shout-Out: She is named for Adolf Galland
, a Luftwaffe fighter ace from WWII.
Lieutenant Nadia "Night Witch" Popova
One of Galland's pilots.
- Ace Pilot: She's a formidable aerial combatant and doesn't mind showing off fancy maneuvers.
- Red Baron: Night Witch.
- Shout-Out: Her name and callsign are references to the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, an all-female unit of the Red Army during WWII. Her namesake, Nadezhda Popova, was named a Hero of the Soviet Union for flying over 700 sorties during the war.
General Sissons
Commander of Adriana's ground forces.
- The Neidermeyer: He communicates with his subordinates exclusively by yelling and threatening, and he even tries to push Geary around.
- Never My Fault: Stubbornly refuses to admit having made any mistakes in weakening the system's defenses and not telling the civil authorities.
- Skewed Priorities: He cares more about keeping his career intact and ducking official blame than helping with Adriana's defenses or solving the refugee crisis.
- Token Evil Teammate: He's the only Adriana leader to obstruct Geary and show more concern for saving his own skin than the system, even deliberately assigning Geary a unit that is suffering from high rates of PTSD for the mission.
Major Problem
An Alliance officer stationed at Ambaru station.
- Unfortunate Name: Unsurprisingly. Her subordinates comment that she should really try to get promoted or demoted to colonel or captain.
Colonel Kim
The commander of the Adriana System's garrison.
- Military Brat: Her mother was a military logistics officer.
- Perpetual Smiler: Always cheerful, even in cramped and stressful conditions.
- Soldiers at the Rear: While relatively senior, she hasn't seen much combat, openly acknowledges this and does her best to observe and learn.
Colonel Voston
One of Sissons's subordinates.
- Cannon Fodder: Sissons views him and the men assigned to help Geary with him as doomed and worthless. Voston is determined to prove him wrong.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: He was on the frontlines of some costly, and failed, attempts to push into Syndicate space and has the look of a man who has seen too much war.
- Spanner in the Works: He tells Geary that he believes this is why General Sissons selected his unit to accompany Geary's task force on the repatriation mission. He explains that his troops have been pushed too hard for too long, and some of them are marginal enough that they might start shooting with little to no provocation. This would reflect badly on Geary and ruin his goal of a peaceful repatriation. Fortunately for everyone involved, this doesn't happen.
Captain Holmes
A Marine captain stationed at Unity.
- Consummate Professional: He saves Geary’s life during an attack by xenophobic terrorists and then bothers to apologize (with a comically straight face_ for yelling "Get down, you fool!" at a superior officer.
- Go Through Me: Holmes places himself between Geary and the line of fire during an assassination attempt, although he survives.
Colonel Webb
The commander of a ceremonial honor guard (really disguised special forces bodyguards) assigned to a diplomatic mission in Outlands.
- Colonel Badass: Colonel Webb is a stern, confident veteran of close quarters special forces missions.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Webb is rumored to have been involved in some very high risk and shady covert operations.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Webb virulently dislikes the Syndics, hates the idea of peacefully retiring, views Geary through cynical lenses, and shows some distaste for the Alliance’s alien allies. However, he does show respect for a comrade who wants to retire peacefully, and genuinely cares about keeping everyone on the mission safe.
- Knight Templar: Webb is on the side of the heroes, but he frightens or frustrates a lot of people with his willingness to impose tyrannical security measures whenever he feels that there's any danger.
- Redemption Equals Life: Webb temporarily obeys orders to place the diplomatic mission he is protecting under arrest in Implacable. After being convinced that the orders are illegal, he is prepared to die by staying onboard a targeted ship to keep his attackers from realizing that high-priority target Ambassador Rycerz is being hustled to an escape shuttle. The attack is scrubbed, Webb survives, and his fractured working relationship with Rycerz is greatly improved.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Webb tells Geary that he dislikes people doing serious and dangerous actions without proper orders because a friend of his got brought on a Suicide Mission that his friend's overconfident commander never got proper authorization for. Webb doesn't hesitate to insult the late commander's intelligence and morals, saying there was a good reason the plan didn't get official authorization.
- Wake Up Fighting: A sailor who goes to wake Webb up by shaking his shoulder is briefly manhandled.
Christopher George
An old friend of Iger's who is stationed on the Boundless in an undercover role to monitor the diplomatic mission.
- Implausible Deniability: He tries to deny his true identity even after being directly confronted and identified.
- Two First Names: Christopher and George are both first names.
- Unwitting Pawn: Geary suspects that the politicians who want the mission to fail put George on the Boundless just to get him caught spying (since Iger can recognize him) and cause disruption and paranoia.
Colonel Duncan
A veteran on Glenlyon.
- Ambiguously Related: Duncan shares a surname with one of the Glenlyon Marines from The Genesis Fleet.
- Cool Old Guy: Duncan is a Retired Badass who is charming and friendly when he meets Geary at a banquet, while also expressing appreciation about how his home world's greatest hero resisted the temptation to become a dictator.Duncan: The military has enough trouble trying to march and talk at the same time. It'd make an awful mess of trying to run the Alliance, wouldn't it?
- Rugged Scar: Duncan has a battle scar on his neck that not even futuristic cosmetic surgery has been able to fix.
General Wallach
A ground force general stationed at Unity.
- The Chains of Commanding: Wallach observes that command of his defense sector has gotten "really complicated" since Geary exposed so many corrupt officials, and his uniform is rumpled in his second scene.
- Inter-Service Rivalry: Wallach discusses the traditional army-navy rivalry and amusedly notes that it kept the ground forces from getting involved in the dark fleet fiasco that got many naval officers arrested.
- "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: Wallach half-jokingly notes that he never managed to impress his teenaged kids until they learned that he just met Black Jack Geary.
Sergeant Tyminska
One of Webb's Special Forces soldiers.
- Mr. Exposition: She briefs Geary on the weapons and strategies of Kaliphur, The Spook, after Kaliphur's arrest.
- Odd Friendship: Despite the general lingering anti-Syndic feelings, she gets along well with ex-Syndic Rogero due to appreciating how he's a veteran of battles against both the Syndics and the Enigmas.
General Arnold Julian
An infamous Ground Forces commander in charge of a horrific Pyrrhic Victory that would have been less Pyrrhic without his incompetence. He seeks to expand the Alliance's influence in ways that put him into conflict with Geary.
- General Failure: He is eager to embark on an absurdly ambitious and aggressive campaign against every non-Alliance government while being certain it will succeed, and he undermines the morale of his command with arrogant and heavy-handed decisions. Granted, he is a Ground Forces officer with no experience commanding warships, but his track record on the ground also includes at least one infamous Pyrrhic Victory.
- General Ripper: He made a name for himself at a bloody Pyrrhic Victory where he happily embraced the use of We Have Reserves, wants to commit genocide against any alien race that won't share their advanced technology, orders the arrests of officers who disagree with him, and eventually gives the order to fire on his own people. It is also all but stated that he forged orders from the Senate to authorize his brutal actions.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- His General Ripper and General Failure moments at the Battle of Malphas made the Alliance desperate enough to authorize Admiral Bloch's mission, which resulted in Geary’s revival. While this leads to Julian’s government winning the war (which he likes), it also puts him on a collision course with an opponent who loathes his action and is strong enough to take him down.
- His Bad Boss intolerance of any dissent from his subordinates makes most of them join Geary.
- Villainous Breakdown: It mostly takes place off-screen, but as more of his ships start refusing to follow his orders, his orders become more violent and shortsighted, and he looks like he has been too stressed to sleep for a while during his arrest.
Strasser, Wanasinghe, and Gerasimov
Three of Julian's most elite, and amoral, subordinates.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Gerasimov dies of "heart failure" after a skirmish with Webb's unit, who have no desire to take him alive.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: They have committed many crimes (shooting civilians for fun, rape, attempted murder, drug use, an Unfriendly Fire incident, etc.), which would have gotten them executed or sent to prison for life if not for certain shady Alliance figures wanting to keep a few particularly Sociopathic Soldiers around. All three are killed by Colonel Webb and his men during the skirmish onboard the Implacable after committing still more atrocities.
- Red Shirt: All three are Mooks who get no dialogue and die in the chapter where their names and backgrounds are given.
- Unfriendly Fire: Wanashinge shot her sergeant during a battle due to the sergeant's disapproval of her drug use.
Sergeant Hayden Quinn and Corporal Riley Quinn
Two of Webb's men.
- The Cracker: Hayden hacks into a surveillance feed during a commando raid.
- Hero-Worshipper: Riley is among the many people to view Geary with godlike awe.
- Sibling Team: They are twin brothers in the same special forces unit.
Black Ops spies
Maxwell Kaliphur
A waiter onboard the diplomatic vessel 'Boundless who turns out to be a spy and assassin loyal to sinister elements of the Alliance.
- Beneath Notice: It's only described secondhand, since he serves on a different ship than the POV character, but his job as a waiter keeps people from paying attention to him and lets him disappear for long periods of time while he's supposedly delivering food to cabins. This helps his spying efforts a great deal.
- The Spook: He's a creepy and efficient special ops soldier who takes extremely morally ambiguous jobs on behalf of unknown parties.
- Stealth Clothes: He wears a suit of armor which makes him appear invisible and uses it for sinister activities like trying to kill Geary.
- The Stoic: He doesn't betray emotion, even when he's being held prisoner for committing treason and attempted murder.
Scientists and Other Academics
Doctor Setin
An expert on the study of extraterrestrials, who is sent with the fleet in Beyond the Frontier.
- Cynicism Catalyst: It's not too overt, but he grows a bit more withdrawn after Geary's battle with the Kicks at Honor, and when the Dancers choose to communicate with Charban instead of him.
- Meaningful Name: Setin, as in SETI, the scientific organization dedicated to seeking out the origins of life in the universe, and which is an acronym for "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence".
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Hopeful of peaceful contact with the aliens.
Dr. Shwartz
One of Setin's team.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: More insightful than Setin, and communicates more easily with the military.
- One-Steve Limit: Geary meets a General Shwartz in Adriana Star System. She doesn't believe they're related.
- Shout-Out: She works at the University of Vulcan.
Dr. Jasmine Cresida
Commander Cresida's estranged sister and a scientist specializing in hypernet technology.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Jasmine sings a powerful and moving aria to communicate physics terms to the Dancers. As a result, they consider her an "elder" (they associate complexity of rhythm and pattern with maturity).
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: Jasmine is initially rude, aloof, and disrespectful of her sister's memory (feeling she wasted her potential by joining the military and betrayed their ethics by studying the military potential of the gates). She gradually warms up, especially after finding out Jaylen’s actions were meant to save people from being killed by nova explosions.
- Science Hero: She is sent to get around Syndic efforts to block the hypernet gates. She succeeds, and also thwarts an attempt to blow up Midway's hypernet gate and kill everyone in the system.
Dr. Kottur
The head of the scientific mission into Dancer space, and a hypernet expert.
- Affably Evil: Kottur is a remarkably pleasant man with a monstrous agenda. He's a closet xenophobe who is utterly convinced that the Dancers must be evil aliens plotting against humanity, causing him to attempt to destroy the Midway hypernet gate and kill everyone in the star system to stop an expedition into Dancer territory. While preparing for this, he tries to avoid meeting the people he plans to kill. Right after triggering his (unsuccessful) plan, Kottur tries to poison himself and leaves behind a recording laying out his motives and apologizing for their deaths. He also begins his recording with a line out of a detective novel, and pauses to add that he always wanted to say that.
- The Alleged Expert: Dr. Kottur is the head of a high-profile mission to link the Alliance and Phoenix Stars Hypernet gates, but he knows more about the big picture principles than the technical workings of the devices.Jasmine Cressida: Kottur wasn't that good at coding. His scientific skills were mostly in the area of academic politics.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kottur wholeheartedly (yet incorrectly) believes that killing a couple of billion people is the only way to prevent a genocidal alien invasion.
Dr. Ken Bron
A member of Dr. Kottur's science team.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: When Dr. Bron realizes that any warnings about the potential hypernet gate collapse won't give the people of Midway or the Alliance fleet time to evacuate, he despairingly wonders if they should even bother broadcasting a warning and filling everyone's last few minutes with terror.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally, a polite, mild-mannered man kicking a longtime colleague who's just poisoned himself and then opposing resuscitating him would be hard to fathom. However, said colleague has just attempted to commit an act of mass murder out of xenophobia. He'd also left behind a recorded confession so he could feel better about himself that would have made Bron and several others spend the last minutes of their lives in desperate fear if the plan had succeeded.
- Oh, Crap!: Bron is terrified by Kotter's recording describing his plan to destroy the Midway system.Dr. Bron: Oh my ancestors, we're doomed.
Dr. Macadams
A scientist sent to accompany a mission to Dancer space.
- The Alleged Expert: Dr. Macadams presents himself as the galaxy's leading expert on extraterrestrial studies, but has a horrible case of
Confirmation Bias and ignores any contributions (no matter how valuable) from people he considers to be his intellectual inferiors. He only got his current job due to his high-level connections and his Hates Everyone Equally attitude making him appear unbiased. - Hated by All: Macadams constantly throws his weight around even after the limits of his authority are spelled out to him. He also uses condescending Insistent Terminology, insults the suggestions of his more competent subordinates, and falsely accuses Geary and his men of making stupid mistakes. Everyone in the fleet hates him, and Geary expresses hope that he'll eventually be able to put Macadams in the brig on bread and water rations.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Macadams gets his position largely because most of the other candidates are too heavily biased toward or against the Dancers.Ambassador Rycerz: Macadams, on the other hand, is hostile to every form of life in the universe, so he couldn't be accused of being particularly biased against the Dancers one way or the other.
John Senn
A historian who specializes in researching possible alien visits to human star systems and accompanies the fleet in the third series.
- Absent-Minded Professor: He comes across as a skilled academic, but he has trouble deciphering a drink menu and takes several minutes to realize he’s talking to Admiral Geary.
- Hidden Depths: Senn's Absent-Minded Professor appearance makes it surprising that he has a second job as a songwriter.
- Uncertified Expert: Played for Drama. Senn’s belief in the existence of aliens kept him from ever getting a doctorate, and this makes the other scientists on the mission view him as unqualified and ignore his valuable contributions for quite some time.
- Who's Laughing Now?: He spent decades studying the possibility that aliens exist and being mocked for it by his colleagues, only to gain a lot of status and prestige once it turned out aliens are real.
Doctors Nkosi and Yarovets
A sociologist and biologist who are part of the mission in the Outlands Trilogy.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After spending two books stuck in a toxic and unproductive work environment under Dr. Macadams, they are selected to be the scientific representatives of the first diplomatic mission between the Alliance and the newly discovered Wooareek species. However, the fact that the Wooareek only talk to them virtually and not in person greatly limits the biological and sociological data they can accumulate during the visit, leaving the pair a bit disgruntled, especially Yarovets.
Businesspeople
Ronald Yangdi
The infamous CEO of a shady Alliance MegaCorp. He interrupts negotiations between the Alliance and the Dancers by traveling to Dancer space with newly discovered jump technology in the hopes of profiting off the deal.
- Accidental Suicide: He blows up his ship with a power core overload while trying to merely threaten to do so to make Marine boarders leave his ship.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: He shows up in Dancer space on a private star liner and broadcasts a fleetwide message to Admiral Geary that sounds as if they are old friends and that he has every right to be there, hoping that this message and his wealth and influence will eliminate any opposition to his arrival. It doesn't.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He is a very famous and wealthy businessman who spent lots of bribes to build his ship in an unsafe way that lets him exert total control over the other cabins (which causes some people to die of thirst), tries to force his way into delicate negotiations with an alien race, may have had his bodyguards kill another passenger on their ship (although the body Geary sees could also be that of a suicide victim on the ship who Yangdi mentions).
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts jovial when he contacts Geary, happily answering questions and trying to flatter him into letting Yangdi deal with the Dancers. Then he casually mentions his unlawful imprisonment of his passengers and crew members, and starts yelling threats and insults when he feels crossed. Granted, he is undergoing Sanity Slippage from being in jump space for too long at the time, but Rycerz indicates that both dishonesty and insincere flattery are normal for Yangdi.
- First-Name Basis: He insists on being called Ron.
- Politically Correct Villain: His comment that one of his assistants "killed themselves" implies that he is respectful of nonbinary people's pronouns (although, alternately, that line could also mean that he doesn't remember anything about that assistant, even their gender, due to his insanity).
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: His corporation is widely believed to have at least one senator in their pocket, and when he feels challenged by Geary, he boasts that he can have powerful friends destroy Geary's career.
