Gideon Tréjan

Player name: gundamoutlaw
English language proficiency: Native
Character number: 2
Faction: Neo Zeon Remnants (Sleeves)
Have you read the site rules? Yes

Full name: Gideon Tréjan
Alias/Title: The One-eyed Phoenix, Immortal Tréjan, Eon (pronounced Aion)
Age: 27 (born: 7/30 UC 0069)
Gender: Male
Race: Oldtype
Place of Origin: Side 3, Mahal (Bunch 38)
Citizenship: Palau


Height: 6'0” (182.88cm)
Weight: 180 lbs. (81.65 kg)
Body Type: Lean and athletic
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Dark brown
Hair Style: Unkempt medium-length shag, reaches down to the base of the neck
Identifying Marks: Gideon has a long scar going diagonally across his face which reaches from his right eye to his left cheek. In addition to that he is also missing his right eye and is forced to wear an eye-patch to cover for this.
Handiness: Left-handed


Combat Preference: Years of hard won experience have taught Gideon to be an analytical fighter, utilizing all available data to formulate a profile for his opponent and then devising a strategy to play off of their weaknesses. When this can not be accomplished via reconnaissance or spycraft, he will instead resort to a series of trial and error type feints in an effort to gauge probable responses. Much like how one sometimes handles a game of chess or a fencing match. The training he received as a youth allows him to accomplish such feats with startling speed, sometimes seeming as if he can see the future and almost seeming as if he’s making this stuff up on the fly. And while he is capable of the pure gut-level improvisation that would be required for that sort of pure dynamic planning, it is not his strongest skill by a long shot. Some have mistakenly confused this talent for Newtype awareness, but the talent is nowhere near keen enough for that to be the case. This style of combat also holds true when he finds himself back in the cockpit of a mobile suit, engaging opponents in a minimalist combat form until he has picked up on their tells and can eliminate them at his leisure.

Close Combat :: 65%
Mid-Ranged Combat :: 75%
Long-Ranged :: 60%

Personality:
One could almost say that you can tell everything you need to know about Gideon by looking at his face. In a time when prosthetic components and cosmetic surgery could more then compensate for the injuries he received in his youth, it would seem quite unusual for someone to appear the way he does. But Gideon has refused such treatments on numerous occasions, saying that his markings keep him grounded in the reality of the moment. This is indeed the case, but there is a deeper meaning to his choice as well. The scars he bears, both mental and physical, serve as a reminder of the dangers overconfidence and poor discipline can create for someone who has chosen the warrior's path. Proving to both himself and those around him that anyone can make a mistake, no matter the level of experience, and that such things can be very costly indeed should the one making the error be ill equipped to handle the consequences of their action. It is because of this that he is not overly sensitive about his appearance either, but in most cases he won't go into too much detail should he be asked about the story behind the injuries in question. In spite of the actions that led to his disfigurement, Gideon still very much loves and respects his late father, and because of that does not like discussing the man's last folly. He has only shared his story with the small handful of people whom he considers close, and an even smaller group of young pilots whom he felt needed to hear the story lest they repeat the same mistakes.

Born into the pre-war era Zeon aristocracy, Tréjan was instilled with a strong independent streak early in life. This was partly due to his need to break away from his studies periodically in order to achieve the high academic standards he wished to pursue, and also because of the turbulent times in which he was raised. As a result of both of these factors he has developed a devilishly keen mind, capable of dissecting and troubleshooting most strategic and tactical problems with astonishing speed, and able to retain copious amounts of data with superb recall ability. Both of his parents sought to train him to focus his energy on observing the world, and using what the information he gathered to generate new ideas and possibilities. His mind is constantly gathering information and making associations about it. As a result he is tremendously insightful and usually very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest was not in his ability to understand a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. As a result he doesn’t always follow an idea as far as it can possibly go, seeking only to understand it fully as he is driven to come to conclusions about ideas. His genius and upbringing have not been without their drawbacks however, as it has been known to lead to some degree of social and emotional awkwardness between him and those who would seek to be his peers. Years spent isolated by his social status and with his nose stuck in a book or behind a computer screen caused him to miss out on a fair chunk of his developing years, thus resulting in only a limited skill set when dealing with the opposite sex or with awkward situations. He tries to cover for this by giving off a somewhat cold and detached attitude toward everyone except his closest friends and coworkers, finding this not only to be a useful way of hiding his potential handicap but also a means of maintaining the supposed “isolation of command” that his father always told him was necessary to lead effectively.

Whether he is on or off the battlefield Gideon’s personality comes across as that of a quiet, calculating, and dutiful soldier. He believes that while teamwork is a vital tool, every competent warrior should be more than capable of handling situations on his or her own without necessarily enjoying the support of others. This belief of course does not necessarily hold true in every situation, but is more of a general rule by which he lives. Years of service have allowed him to craft his professional persona while under fire into a magnified version of his personal one, seeming to come across as cold and emotionless, almost what some would call unfazable, regardless of what may be going on beneath the surface. This ability and the beliefs that go along with it come not only from his own family traditions, but also from the strength he draws from the various warrior codes he was forced to study growing up. He was especially enamored with the warrior texts of Asia, and the ancient samurai code of bushido in particular, as it was one of the few systems to not only promote honor in battle but also the aesthetics of civilian life. Taking that concept to heart, he has tried to make himself as well rounded a person as humanly possible by taking on various hobbies to stimulate the different aspects of his psyche. These past-times include fencing (to stimulate the body), cultivating bonsai (for manual dexterity), playing the violin (to soothe the soul), and playing real-time strategy games (to expand the mind). In addition to these diversions, he is also an avid reader and has even been known to write a poem or two from the privacy of his own home. The latter is unconfirmed however, as no one has ever read any of the works he may have produced in his spare time.

Like his father and so many other famous commanders of the past, he has come to hold the belief that to know one fully, you must engage them on the field of battle. His years of studying ancient warrior cultures and the various philosophies behind them have allowed him to look past the the obvious parts of their strategies and see the psyche of the man that lies beneath. To him the art of war is not about attack or defense, but is more akin to a high-stakes game of chess which can also be viewed as a form of self-expression. Possibly even a means of communication similar to art or music. This is not to say that he views people as pawns, far from it in fact given his past experiences. Its just that he has come to realize that engaging a person in battle is possibly one of the few means by which to truly know someone, a pure form of expression where words are swept away, allowing for action to reveal the true nature of the people involved. In watching how one handles the responsibility of command, or even the way in which they handle their own life, he feels you can learn a lot about the nature of a person and how they view the lives of others. In his mind, combat between two skilled opponents is capable of saying more than several hours worth of talking. A truly useful ability indeed for one who has to make life and death decisions on the fly. He has come to see that there is a certain purity in the way combat techniques and strategies are used in battle, almost as if it were more like a well orchestrated dance instead of a fight to what could possibly be their death. This has made him quite an effective leader now that he has found himself in such a role, as he is able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and is adaptable enough to change things which aren't working well. He has become a supreme strategist - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against their current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.

Loyalty and honor are both very important to Gideon, and as such the former is not given out by him lightly. The exception to this rule are the subordinates placed within his care, as he will do anything within his power to protect them and ensure that they come home safely, despite whatever his cool exterior might suggest. He also enjoys when he is able to help cultivate someone else's career, offering subtle support from behind the scenes in order to help them gain the necessary experience to attain whatever standing he feels they deserve. He is constantly taking in information about the people around him and the situations that are personally important to them, and storing it away for later use. This tremendous store of information is usually startlingly accurate, because of his exceptional memory. Because of this its not uncommon for him to remember a particular facial expression or conversation in precise detail years after the event occurred. This ability allows him to read his people like an open book, cultivating their best qualities and bringing them to the foreground in an effort to enrich their quality as a person.

However, these values, in addition to his years of service are what have led him to become somewhat disillusioned with the Neo Zeon movement in the wake of their past conduct. He is still a firm believer in the spacenoid cause, but believes that they may have lost sight of their true objective in all of the chaos and become blinded by an overzealous need for revenge. This is why he has taken it upon himself to do his best in educating the members of this newest incarnation, making a valiant effort to make sure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated yet again as his people move towards open war with the Federation.


Family:

- Alyssa Tréjan :: Mother :: Deceased :: Zeon/Neo Zeon Starship Captain
- William Tréjan :: Father :: Deceased :: Zeon/Neo Zeon Flag Officer

Biography:
Gideon Tréjan was born on July 30, UC 0069 to William and Alyssa Tréjan, two loyal members of the Zeon aristocracy and prominent leaders within the budding military program of their homeland. Both William and Alyssa hailed from families with a strong military tradition who had been serving their nations since the peak of the “black powder” navy days back on Earth, and had in addition held commissions in the Earth Federation Forces prior to Zeon's break with Earth. It was because of this level of training and experience that they were considered invaluable assets by the Zeon military. And it was also due to these traditions and a strong sense of loyalty to their home in Side 3, that there was only one logical course of action in their eyes when the call to arms went out from within the Principality. The Admiralty embraced their decision with open arms and immediately awarded them prominent commands within their newly commissioned space forces.

During the opening weeks of the One Year War Alyssa and William were deployed to take charge of one of the battle fleets assigned to undertake the campaign against the Federation's space capitol at Side 1. Their success in this theater of the war would lead to their subsequent deployments across the Earth sphere, and as a result the Tréjan fleet would be represented at most of the major space battles of the war up until the final battle at A Baoa Qu. Following the battle they were forced to fall back to the Axis mining asteroid along with a significant portion of their allies, accepting the offer of amnesty they were offered and becoming absorbed by the Axis Defense Forces. This is where the fleet would reside until 0083 when they would be part of the force secretly sent by Axis to reinforce the Delaz fleet during Operation Stardust. Knowing that their role was supposed to be primarily a supporting one, and thus not likely to see much in the way of live fire, William saw no reason not to bring his teenage son along in order to give him the chance to observe a battle from a position near front lines. He believed that this would be an invaluable educational experience for his heir and protege, as there are so many things one can learn without experiencing them first hand. Had he known what was in store for him during this operation however he may have felt differently, as the reality was quite different from what had been planned.

While providing back-up for Delaz's forces, William's fleet was ambushed by an advance team of Federation battleships. Admiral Tréjan was killed early in the ensuing battle by a lucky missile hit to the bridge of his flagship, resulting in the decimation of his command post and authority being transferred to his much less competent second in command. Gideon fought to regain consciousness as his father's task force was being destroyed around him, coming to amongst the rubble of the ship's battle bridge and discovering that the faceplate of his normal suit had been severely compromised and was currently repositioned to be a part of his face. The only reason he had not been killed out right by the blast was because he had been inadvertently shielded by a computer console which had been knocked free by the attack, and was currently pinning him to the far wall and crushing his leg. This console had served as an improvised bomb shield, and been able to hold his unconscious body in place long enough for the emergency shutters to seal the compartment off from vacuum. In exchange however it had also allowed him to catch a face full of shrapnel, costing him the use of his right eye and leaving him permanently scarred. Fueled by a strong self-preservation instinct and the surge of adrenaline one usually experiences when their life is on the line, he was able to lever himself free of the console and escape the remnants of the shattered command center. From there he was able to make his way to a secondary command post, where he was able to learn of the current horrid state of the battle. Realizing that this fight was lost and that the fleet would be completely destroyed if left in the hands it was currently in, he put out a call to the remaining ships and ordered a general retreat. He then left a localized message for all those remaining on his father's vessel to abandon ship and make for their allies. Due to the poor quality of the transmission because of the ship's damaged communications equipment, Gideon's strong likeness to his father, and the emergency patch on his mangled faceplate obscuring part of his features, the remaining Axis forces believed him to be their lost commanding officer and immediately began carrying out his orders. Having theoretically saved his father's legacy, he then proceeded to make his way to the hangar and was able to escape the dying command ship with the last of the crew aboard one of the few surviving lifeboats.

Upon returning to Axis Gideon and the other survivors were debriefed by the Admiralty. The leaders of the Neo Zeon military were seriously displeased with the results of their role in Operation Stardust, and sought to lay the blame for the debacle on the late Admiral Tréjan's shoulders. Heartfelt testimony from his surviving officers throughout the grueling posthumous inquiry that followed in conjunction with the few surviving records from the battle, and the Admiral's previous record up to that point were enough to keep his name clear however. Instead the blame was laid on his incompetent vice-commander who had almost led the fleet to its demise despite its superior numerical strength. The role of Tréjan's son in the whole affair wasn't revealed until the final days of the inquiry, and was deemed to be best kept a secret outside of the highest levels of command for reasons of order keeping and morale. This seemed to be an odd decision given the various important roles under-aged pilots and officers had held during the One Year War, but Gideon and his mother saw no reason to question the inquiry board’s decision at this point. If they wanted to pass up the chance to create a poster child for the next generation, then that was their own business. If only they knew what was waiting for him in the future, they probably wouldn’t have been so nonchalant about the oversight.

A couple of years after this incident Gideon enlisted in Axis' limited military training program as a mobile suit pilot trainee. The years he had spent studying under the watchful eye of his parents allowed him to quickly move to the head of his class, and in some cases even skip ahead to a few of the more advanced training courses. This was of no surprise to anyone of course, as he had been groomed for this sort of role since he was old enough to read, but it was still nice to know that their efforts had paid off and that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. In particular he showed a talent for strategic and tactical analysis, in addition to advanced problem solving. Both traits that he had inherited from his father and that had been strongly cultivated over the years. Upon his early graduation from the program he was transferred to the 101st Mobiles Suit Division, or “Stryker's Wolfpack,” under the command of lieutenant commander Nathaniel Stryker.

The Wolfpack was the spiritual successor to the Midnight Fenrir Corp which had been sponsored by Lady Kycilia Zabi during the One Year War, trained as a primarily covert-ops unit and stationed aboard the Axis warship Cereberus under the command of Gideon’s mother: Captain Alyssa Tréjan. Unlike their predecessors however, the 101st had been trained to excel at both land and space combat, and also was intended to serve as a normal combat team when not performing their primary role as special operations. This dual role was primarily due to the small amount of trained mobile suit pilots and personnel available to the Neo Zeon movement at the time, forcing them to place a majority of their specialist forces into double duty roles that weren’t necessarily suited to their training or talents. Stryker's team would be based on the Cereberus for the duration of the Gryps Conflict, serving on the front lines against both the AEUG and Titan fleets until their destruction and the loss of their flagship during the AEUG's Operation Maelstrom. Gideon was the only surviving member of the team and was found adrift in his Gaza-D's escape pod amongst the debris of his mother's battleship. This would become the seed that would eventually blossom into his reputation for being immortal. But this defeat wasn't the end of the Wolfpack however, as the unit would be reformed under the command of Nathaniel's younger sister: lieutenant Naomi Stryker.

The loss of his mother and the last of his remaining family was a severe blow to the now only surviving Tréjan. Being the only member of his bloodline remaining in this life, it was now up to him to represent his family in the war effort, but his psychological state in the wake of his recent near death experience just wasn't up to the task. The pain of his loss caused him to sink into himself, becoming almost catatonic as he did his best to avoid the tragic reality of his current situation. Unsure whether he would ever be fit to return to duty, the doctors aboard the hospital ship where he was recovering arranged to transfer him back to Axis for evaluation and a possible Section 8 discharge. Upon hearing about Gideon's miraculous survival and possible discharge however, lieutenant Stryker rushed to the military hospital where he had been transferred in order to see things for herself. She had heard a lot about the boy from her brother in the correspondence they had been trading during the Gryps Conflict, knew about the all of the potential he possessed and of the high hopes that Nathaniel had held for the boy. Because of this she wanted to do her best to honor her late brother's memory by saving the career of the child that he had held in such high regard, and bring him out of whatever funk he was trapped in that was tearing him up inside so badly. Working against the clock she brought in a friend of her's from the medical corp who was a psychological specialist in order to help reach the root of the problem quickly. They were forced to fight a battle of two fronts as they tried to help Gideon, one against the severe mental trauma which he had suffered, and another against the medical and military establishments who wanted to just write him off as someone who had failed to live up to expectations and cut him loose. Or worse yet, send him off to one the research labs for reprogramming and possibly undergoing the dangerous experimental transformation into a cyber-newtype. In the end Naomi would be the one to win out, bringing Gideon back to his senses in time to speak at his own discharge hearing and prove that he was more then qualified for active duty. A fact that the review board was more then willing to accept in spite of their previous position due to their desperate need for experienced pilots and officers. He owed Stryker a debt of gratitude that he would never be able to repay, but he vowed to do his best to make amends anyway and would serve as her second in command to the best of his ability.

Following his recovery and the reformation of the Wolfpack, Gideon and the rest of his team would be deployed to Earth as part of the Neo Zeon's terrestrial invasion forces. Their initial deployment took them to Africa, where their help was essential in pacifying the continent and eventually securing the Federation Assembly in Dakar. Upon completion of that assignment the 101st was transferred to the European continent in order to aid in the campaign being carried out there, thus missing the retaliatory strike by the AEUG by only a matter of hours. This enraged Gideon to no end, as he felt that had his unit been allowed to stay on hand, they might have been able to hold Dakar given the small force the AEUG and their Earth based counterpart: Karaba had been able to bring to bear. The only reason Axis had lost the battle was due to their poor training and lack of experienced pilots, a weakness the Wolfpack most certainly did not suffer from. After three months of intense fighting across Europe, the 101st would next be called upon to help secure the city of Dublin in Ireland. They initially believed that they were merely there to help serve in a blockading operation, and in a way they were right, just not the way they had expected. Upon learning what they were really doing in the region the members of the Wolfpack were outraged. They felt that there was no good reason to drop a colony on a completely strategically insignificant city like Dublin, and especially with only the flimsy excuse of wanting a show of force. In a bold showing of honor and courage, lieutenant Stryker ordered her team into the city in order to help as many civilians as possible break the blockade and make a break for safety. They stayed until the last possible moment in order to ensure a maximum number of survivors before the colony impact, and in the end were lost in the resulting explosion. Gideon's suit was recovered days later from amidst the rubble of a fallen skyscraper. The only reason he had survived was because one of the underground service ways had given out under the weight of his machine, causing it to be trapped underground as the buildings above him had collapsed and shielded him from a majority of the blast. Once again however he was the only survivor from his unit and was thus the only one left to face the military tribunal for his commander's actions during the battle. In the end however it was decided that he was only following orders, albeit illegal ones, and so he was let off with a heavy demotion and returned to the frontlines in order to bolster the Axis' already greatly diminished armed forces. He had no idea whether he had been let off so lightly due to some misplaced sense of loyalty to his family from the members of the inquiry board, due to a general feeling of regret over the Dublin incident, or whether they were just trying to send him off to die in order to cover their misdeeds. And in all fairness he didn't really care either. They were letting him return to the fighting so that he might help defend his people, and that was all that he really cared about despite a growing feeling of discontent at his core.

Mere weeks after his return to the battlefield the Neo Zeon forces found themselves divided between two leaders and in an all-out civil war. This conflict came to a head at what would later be called the Battle of Axis as the Toto Faction attempted to ram the capitol of Neo Zeon into the recently acquired Core Three. Incised that someone would resort to such underhanded tactics yet again, Gideon fought with the forces of the AEUG and the Karn Faction to try and stop the catastrophe before things got out of hand. Going so far as to even infiltrate the asteroid in an attempt to take over its command center and kill its inertia before it reached its target. Their efforts were only partially successful however, and the cost that was paid for it was far too high. Following the battle Gideon would go into hiding in an attempt to retire from the battlefield and wash his hands of the dirty deeds that had been carried out in the name of independence. He would be presumed KIA and not be seen again until he was found by agents of the “Red Comet” several years later.

He would be able to stay out of the spotlight for four years, remaining unnoticed as a pseudonym based author until his return as a junior starship commander under the flag of Char Aznable's reborn Neo Zeon. This fourth miraculous resurrection would earn him his nickname as the “One-eyed Phoenix” or “Immortal Tréjan,” as he seemed to have the unique ability to cheat death on an almost regular basis and always seemed to be present at the biggest “hotspots” of any war in which he participated. In truth he found those titles to almost be insulting, as they belittled the memories of his former teammates and family in addition to making his miraculously dumb luck out to be some sort of super power or divine protection. He knew however that this was mostly a propaganda play by the small cadre of remaining Zeon admirals who had known his parents and were trying to boost morale by playing on the memory of his family name, so he said nothing about the nickname despite not having wanted it. He instead allowed them to build up his reputation and turn him into one of several poster boys for the brewing rebellion, deciding that it was best to just let the “armchair admirals” do their own thing while he focused on the more important tasks. He was sorely disappointed by the second incarnation of Neo Zeon however, as he found that they seemed to employ the same dirty tactics that had disenfranchised him to the original movement. His initial hope had been that with the leadership of an original son of Deikun things would have been different this time around, and it was only his personal sense of honor and loyalty to the spacenoid cause that prevented him from once again withdrawing from the fight. It did not prevent him from ordering his ship to fire on Axis as it fell towards Earth however, aiding the joint Federation and Zeon attempt at saving their mother world from its sentenced fate at the last minute.

In the aftermath of the second Neo Zeon war Gideon and the remaining Zeon forces would withdraw to the colonies and go into hiding. Realizing that the Palau mining asteroid was not going to be able to be fully self-sufficient for several years to come given the sudden increase in population, he organized a small task-force out of the remaining Neo Zeon ships and sympathetic forces in the area. Refitting several civilian vessels into Q-ships, or armed merchantmen, and beginning a small-scale commerce raiding campaign headed by his own Musaka-class cruiser: the Valhalla, in order to help support the colonists who were allowing them to use their home as a base of operations. The idea having proven a success, it has slowly begun worming its way into other Neo Zeon units, most famous being the Garencieres, which was involved in the Laplace Conflict. This also allowed him to supervise the training of a new generation of pilots and officers as the Neo Zeon forces reorganized themselves for yet a third time. Making sure that this crop of soldiers were up to real military standards and more then capable of holding their own should a need arise for them to return to the battlefield. He has also done his best to instill in them the same sense of honor, loyalty, and fair play that he holds so dear. Doing his best to lead by example in the hopes that the mistakes of the past can be averted this time around.

Since the creation of his improvised task force and fall to piracy, he has earned himself quite the reputation as a space pirate and rogue amongst the Federation citizenry. Unlike most of the common scum who turn to pillaging helpless freighters though, he is well known for treating his victims with the utmost care and respect. Never using more force on them then is necessary to accomplish his goals, and always making sure to keep the loss of life to a minimum. There have even been a few rumored instances in which he actually reimbursed the crew for damages incurred on their vessel by some of his overzealous pilots during the pursuit of their cargo. As with some of the other rumors circling about his name over the years, these stories are only that: rumors. As there have been no witnesses forthcoming to confirm their occurrence as either fact or fiction. This attitude towards those who have fallen into his sights has actually resulted in a sort of unofficial fan base in some circles outside of the Sleeves’ sphere of influence. His image becoming overly romanticized in much the same way some of the pirates from Earth’s wet navy days were, and further fueling the headache that he feels over his so-called “illustrious military career.”