THE LEADERS:
Nozomi Taro, 太郎 望実, "The Tiger", Consul of the Systems Alliance
Nozomi Taro took the oath of the Consul of the Sword in September 2172, after leading the Labour Party to its first electoral victory. Before her Alliance career, she had served as the Japanese Defence and Colonial Affairs Minister, a job she handled extremely well by all accounts. As of the end of the Reaper War, she is the only human consul thus far to hail from a small nation of Earth. Her stature in the history of the galaxy is one equally of infamy and legend. Her anger and hatred towards the batarians for their actions is famous for its intensity. Initially overshadowed by her predecessor, Anka Gasperi, and the huge achievements of humanity under the previous administration, Taro faced a huge challenge from that political angle alone when she came to power. These problems were compounded by the fallout from Mindoir, which had still not been resolved almost two years after the attack. Consumer confidence, military capability, colonial investments, and the morale of the people had continued into a slump for that time. Taro pledged to reverse these trends, and her promises were to be kept. Her success would be attributed to what some would call a Machiavellian doctrine of political action.
As her predecessor was known for compassion, Taro would be known for complete ruthlessness, both politically and militarily. Every action was calculated for effect, and she regarded resistance as close to treason. She would avoid most of the negative aspects of this reputation through small measures of reassurance. Taro spoke with energy and passion in public, and always wore traditional Japanese dress. This behaviour granted her celebrity status even before she was elected to the Alliance parliament, and she was likened to a mother tiger protecting her cubs. The nickname came about and stuck, and the consul embraced it by placing the extinct Siberian Tiger on her personal military standard.
Her co-consul was Franco Nivash, who had the unflattering nickname of "The Snake". Nivash was an ex-union organiser and EU High Commissioner for Offworld Economic Development. He was devoted to Taro's cause, but unpopular. His skills and contacts were of great use to the administration as the political fights to change the Alliance began. Opposition from within the political left was suppressed with ease by Nivash's cohorts, giving Taro the breathing space required to bring her radical agenda to realisation. Opposition from the right was strangled with wildcat strikes and occupations by workers against companies that backed it, though these were rare, as most of the policies brought in by the new government were easily justified by national security concerns.
Consul Taro's first step was to counteract the batarians preference for proxies and mercenaries. The Alliance started a major pirate suppression campaign within a month of her taking office, and pirates that fled outside of Alliance jurisdiction were met with privateers and mercenaries, as well as ships under the new "Corsair" programme. This policy was extremely controversial within the ranks of her own party, as most opposed the use of private military contractors and sought to ban them outright. These complaints were ignored, the ability to attack the pirates outside of Alliance jurisdiction was considered too valuable to be abandoned for ideological satisfaction.
Another concern was the division within humanity itself. The Alliance was seen as a necessary evil at best to most citizens, even as it stood as their protector. The human "identity" did not generally exist, save for colonies and outposts with heavy alien contact. Consul Taro saw this as a critical political weakness, and she acted to turn the situation into a strength. She proclaimed that humanity was a single nation, and moved to make her declaration a reality. A number of measures were taken to increase loyalty to the Alliance itself. It was given a flag, the golden eagle was made the official animal, the consuls were given personal banners, and a system for honouring both citizens and colonies was created, with the "Star of Terra" at the top as the highest award for bravery or service. In 2175, "The Battlecry of Freedom" was given new lyrics, and sung at the annual opening of parliament as humanity's anthem, reflecting their disdain for batarian slavery and their resolve to destroy it.
Taro knew that war was coming. The largest military spending packages ever proposed by the Alliance were passed by huge majorities in parliament, funded by new colonial taxes and loans from the Volus. Not one aspect of the Alliance military was to be left untouched. New ship classes of every type were designed, laid down and launched. Army equipment was upgraded, and the principle of every Alliance soldier having a personal kinetic barrier system was instituted. The "Eight Fleets and Fifty Legions" programme between 2172 and 2176 caused ship and troop numbers to nearly double under Taro's leadership.
All of these measures were popular, but the cost to the human economy was increasingly deemed excessive. This became more galling to the public as more time went on without war breaking out. With the destruction of the SSV Amaterasu, this anxiety turned into anger when Taro refused to declare war, stating that the Alliance was not ready for war yet. The name of the ship was an irony not lost upon the consul, and she knew that she had to wait for the latest ships to be launched in sufficient numbers for a counterattack to work. A vote of confidence was called against both of humanity's leaders. The attempt was barely defeated. Hardliners within Taro's own party, of which there were many, were reassured that a war would be declared within the lifetime of the government. The opposition was threatened in a number of ways, particularly with regard to messy assets investigations of their corporate backers. Alice Dennison, the leader of the opposition, ordered her party to back off.
With her position weakening, Taro knew that the final phase had to be pushed forwards. Planning for total war began in secret, and the necessary intelligence work was carried out. Any major batarian attack was to be met with a swift counterattack against a major colony. The consul would have preferred to attack first, but she assumed that the Citadel Council stood in the way of such a move. Luckily, it was soon clear that a batarian invasion of Elysium was under preparation. The enemy was coming, and the Tiger was ready for him.
Kesrak Ar'dra, Arch-Hegemon of the Batarian Hegemony.
The leadership of the Hegemony passed to Ar'dra in 2171, in the aftermath of his successful plot to enslave the people of Mindoir. Thousands became his personal slaves, and were paraded yearly on Khar'shan as a continual reminder of his success and good fortune. These unfortunate souls would be joined by others, taken from smaller colonies and outposts in lightning raids across the Verge. Ar'dra took particular pleasure in the chaos he had unleashed within humanity's political system and society, as they remained unable to retaliate further with the turians in the way. However, he did not forget the nuclear annihilation of the three batarian colonies in the aftermath of his glorious victory, and he did not forgive. More than ever, he believed that providence was on his side, and that the batarian species was on the ascendant.
It was Ar'dra who had hatched the scheme to force the Citadel Council to declare the Skyllian Verge as a zone of batarian interest. The turians' presence was reluctant at best, and with no permanent settlement of the conflict over the region on the table, the new hegemon looked to capitalise on the vacuum. He regarded the Citadel Council as aloof or even stupid, cowardly dupes that would do his bidding because they lacked the backbone for warfare. This assessment was entirely off the mark. The salarians soon learned of his true purpose; to use the Verge as a jumping off point for the subjugation of humanity. The request was denied, and Ar'dra was sent into a spiraling rage. He withdrew diplomatic ties with the Citadel, against the advice of the vice-hegemons and against the interests of his people.
Opposition within batarian space steadily grew, and in response, the hegemon turned to more oppression. In 2172, around the same time that humanity was voting for its next leaders, Ar'dra declared himself Arch-Hegemon, dissolving the Council of Greaters. Colonies were to be ruled by governors that he appointed himself, and Khar'shan was to become his personal fief. The loyal vice-hegemons were reappointed to the planets they had ruled before, while the rest were purged without mercy. Similar purges were conducted in the castes and the military, particularly hitting the batarian naval command ranks, which had never been loyal to him personally. Many of his opponents and the subordinates of purged officers escaped to the Terminus Systems, ending up in independent colonies at best or joining criminal gangs or mercenary companies at worst. By 2176, nearly thirty million batarians left Hegemony space to escape the regime, and many more wished to.
Ar'dra began to rely on a select group of commanders and pirates that he had confidence in. Among these was General Gadnalak, the victor of Mindoir, and Elanos Haliat, the turian who would plan and lead the attack on Elysium. This group coordinated and planned the terror campaigns against humanity, which met with enough success to bolster the newly minted Arch-Hegemon's ambitions. A turning point came when news of the destruction of the SSV Amaterasu arrived on Khar'shan. The result of a carefully planned strategy of both Haliat and Gadnalak, Ar'dra began to believe that the time had come for another major attack. The turians were withdrawing, and another great victory would secure his rule forever.
Gadnalak attempted to stall his leader, aware as he was of the changes that humanity had been making. He warned Ar'dra that the Alliance they would face was an entirely different beast to the creature they had faced in 2170. Haliat, an ambitious person at the best of times, argued the opposite, that the Hegemony was never stronger. The batarian fleet was the largest it had ever been, and their ties with the Terminus Systems provided resources that the humans couldn't match. Or so the argument went. It was exactly what the Arch-Hegemon wanted to hear, and he ordered Haliat to begin preparations for an invasion. Reluctantly, Gadnalak gave in to the will of his overlord, and pledged his own External Forces to the attack. Ar'dra would have his attempt at glory once again.