SRW OG Plot Overview Part 1.5

SRW OG MASTER OVERVIEW, PART 1.5
Part 1: https://pastebin.com/5Kv0wqGv
Part 2: https://pastebin.com/MJUk3wKa
Part 2.5: https://pastebin.com/xhk6rQDA

The OG1 overview is painted in broad strokes, with only a few key players mentioned by name. However, there's a lot of important people that I didn't name or give distinction to, and they deserve a bit of expositing. Starting in OG2, the plot becomes much more character-driven in general, so there will be a lot more name-dropping. With that in mind, I'm going to do a quick post-OG1, pre-OG2 overview of who to know.

THE EARTH FEDERATION GOVERNMENT
The unified governing body that rules over Earth and the moon. It consists of an assembly of representatives and a president. After the Federation's capital in Geneva is destroyed, they build a new capital in Paris, where they appoint Brian Midcrid to be interim president following the L5 Campaign.
	Brian Midcrid - Remember this guy? The president of the United Colonies who got deposed when Maier took over? Yeah, he's back as president of the Earth Federation this time. He makes no bones about his role as a figurehead, however. He knows that the real power lies with his advisor, Graien Grassman, and he has few illusions about the nature of his chief aide, Nibhal Mubhal. At Graien's urging, the figurehead president makes the Tokyo Proclamation, the Federation's official acknowledgement that aliens are real and very hostile. This serves as setup for a later power play by Graien.
	Graien Grassman - AKA the Wizard, President Midcrid's chief advisor. He's plotting in league with DC remnants to turn the Federation into a military dictatorship under his rule, a plot that ultimately succeeds in OG2.
	Nibhal Mubhal - A secretive man with many friends in high places. Before the Antarctic Incident, he was the main liaison between the EOT Council and the Guests. Now he sticks around as an aide to whoever's in charge on the Earth Federation side, while secretly furthering the agenda of a certain Mr. Steinbeck who won't come up for a long while.

THE PRINCIPALITY OF RIKSENT
A tiny Mediterranean monarchy granted special autonomous status by the Federation Government, whose impressive stores of gold make it an early target of the DC remnants in their invasion of Europe. It is ruled by Princess Shine Hausen, who took on the duties of head of state at a young age following the deaths of her parents. Shine carries her family's hereditary gift of precognition, something that makes her a target of Adler Koch in his efforts to push his Advanced Children project. After getting rescued from a Valsion Custom where she was subjected to the Geim System's control, Shine returns home safely, where she quietly places a special order with Mao Industries.

THE EOT COUNCIL
Ostensibly a council of ranking officials overseeing matters related to EOT, this group is actually a cabal of the most powerful figures in the Earth Federation Government. In OG1, they were effectively shadow oligarchs manipulating events behind the scenes to further their own interests. Starting with the Antarctic Incident, they experience a massive number of setbacks, eventually culminating in them attempting to take the Shirogane, a Space Noah-class vessel, to approach the Aerogators in hopes of selling out the Earth to save their own skins once more. This turns out to be a fatal mistake, however, when Viletta Badim leads an Aerogator force and personally destroys the Shirogane's bridge to eliminate them.
	Karl Stresemann - The chairman of the EOT Council and the architect of the Elpis Incident, a calculating man who is always looking out for #1. He dies when the Shirogane's primary bridge is destroyed during an attempt to flee the Earth.
	Albert Grey - The ambassador appointed as plenipotentiary for the purposes of negotiating with the Guests. He and several other EOT councilmen get abandoned and left to die during a DC remnants attack on Geneva, while Karl gets away.
	Renji Isurugi - An associate and friend of the EOT Council and the head of Isurugi Industries, one of the main arms of the DC's military-industrial machine. He dies with Karl when the Shirogane's primary bridge is destroyed.

THE EARTH FEDERATION MILITARY
The military arm of the Federation Government. It does not have separate army, navy, or air force branches, instead putting everything under one big EFM umbrella. For that reason, I default to mostly air force rankings for the translations of Japanese military ranks in this hierarchy. The different regions where the military is stationed are referred to as "Branches" in OG1, and "Brigades" in OG2 and all subsequent titles. We'll go over some of the key commanding officers here, then go into the smaller key groups. I'm leaving out some minor groups like the Octo Team because they don't meet my criteria for relevance.
	Major General Norman Slay - The architect behind the Earth Sphere Defense Plan that prioritized manufacturing giant robots as the new workhorse of the military. Killed in action during Operation SRW.
	Major General Greg Pastral - Commander of Langley Base in the EFM North American Branch. He goes down with the base when Langley is attacked by the DC.
	Commander Laker Randolf - The man in charge of Izu Base in the EFM Far East Branch, a mild-mannered and capable old man.
	Lieutenant Colonel Hans Viper - A commander at Izu Base, a cutthroat officer who makes it his personal mission to screw over anyone who crosses him. He is responsible for an incident where he ordered Kyosuke Nambu to pilot the Wildraubtier and transform it even though its transformation mechanism hadn't yet been perfected, a deliberate ploy to wreck the machine in order to gain leverage over its manufacturer, Mao Industries. The Wildraubtier crashed and burned, but Kyosuke miraculously survived, earning him a permanent spot on Hans's bad side. As it turns out, Hans was an agent working for the DC all along, and he defects in spectacular fashion by abducting Shine Hausen and bringing her to Adler Koch at the Earth Cradle. After that, he is killed in action when Kyosuke destroys the ship he is commanding.
	Major General Kenneth Garret - The new commander of Langley Base, a loudmouthed and egotistical officer who is secretly in league with Graien Grassman's faction.
	Lieutenant Colonel Daitetsu Minase - A veteran ship captain, currently in command of the Hagane. A pragmatic officer who is often willing to look the other way and indulge the quirks of the Hagane's very eclectic crew. Keeps a stash of contraband sake in his ship quarters.
	Captain Tetsuya Onodera - A military rank captain, not actual ship captain (we'll get to that), who serves as Daitetsu's XO aboard the Hagane.
	Lieutenant Colonel Lefina Enfield - An inexperienced ship captain newly appointed to command the Hiryu Custom, she quickly proves why she graduated top of her class at the Astro-Military Academy and earns distinction for herself and her crew during the DC War and the L5 Campaign.
	Major Sean Webley - Currently Lefina's executive officer on board the Hiryu Custom, he also served on the same ship with Daitetsu Minase years prior, back before its overhaul. He masks his appreciation for women only thinly behind a high-brow demeanor.
	Lieutenant Colonel Lee Linjun - The newly appointed hotshot captain of the Shirogane. He is a stickler for adhering to regulations and respecting military authority, and his favorite catchphrase is "Do X, at the cost of your life if need be." He graduated the Astro-Military Academy summa cum laude (top of the class) in the same class as Tetsuya Onodera, who graduated magna cum laude (second place). He holds a bitter grudge against Daitetsu and Tetsuya because of the Hagane's failure to defend Beijing from alien attack, resulting in the deaths of Lee's family and his SO, Cynthia.

THE SRX TEAM
One of the two central protagonist teams in early OG, and the central focus of OG1. While they were mentioned only in passing in the OG1 overview, much of the story takes place from their perspective. The SRX Team is the product of Project SRX, a top secret military project to develop mobile weapons that heavily utilize EOT. In particular, Project SRX emphasizes the use of pilots gifted with natural powers of telekinesis, and the culmination of the project is a massive combiner robot called the SRX that brings together the power of telekinesis and tronium, an EOT metal capable of generating incredible amounts of energy.
Note for the Moon Dwellers crowd: Any time you see "Nendo" in MD, pretend it says "Telekinesis" or just "TK". You're welcome.
	Master Sergeant Ryusei Date - A civilian scouted for Project SRX through a popular mecha fighting game called Burning PT. As it turns out, Burning PT's controls are suspiciously similar to those of a Gespenst, and Burning PT itself is a secret recruiting tool for people with piloting aptitude. Ever see the Last Starfighter? It's like that. Ryusei thinks this form of scouting is incredibly messed up on several levels, but he grudgingly agrees to join the team when Ingram promises to cover his hospitalized mother's medical bills. He turns out to have tremendous natural telekinetic aptitude, and he becomes the designated main pilot of the R-1 and later the SRX. He's also a mecha anime nerd who likes to spice up his attacks with made-up names. Later promoted to second lieutenant following the L5 Campaign.
	Second Lieutenant Raidiese F. Branstein - The youngest of Maier V. Branstein's two sons and the only non-telekinetic member of the SRX Team, he left his family in bitterness following the death of Cattleya, his sister-in-law who was like a real sister to him. He changed his middle name to Fujiwara, Cattleya's maiden name, in her honor. He lost an arm in an incident while test piloting a Hückebein, so now he's got an artificial hand like Luke Skywalker.
	Captain Aya Kobayashi - Kenzo's daughter, a potent telekinetic and key member of the SRX Team. She openly admits that her rank of captain is mainly there for security clearance purposes, with the amount of secret project information she handles. She had a thing for Ingram, and his betrayal hit her extremely hard. She used to be Kenzo's test subject at the Advanced Neuroscience Institute, and she's still coming to grips with her past, but she and Kenzo have a caring relationship.
	Major Ingram Plissken - One of the founding members of Project SRX, formerly commander of the PTX Team. He assembles the SRX Team himself and leads them from the front, taking the field with them in battle. During the L5 Campaign, he betrays the team and leaves with the enemy, revealing himself to be one of them. He is killed in action during Operation SRW, where he makes cryptic remarks about his nephesh being freed from this fake body. Don't worry about it.
	Captain Viletta Badim - The new commander of the SRX Team that signs on after the L5 Campaign. She comes in from working in the private sector at Mao Industries, but she was actually an Aerogator double agent before her enlistment. She is a female clone of Ingram, and she served as his closest confidante and right hand. She's chosen to pick up where Ingram left off and nurture the SRX Team's development.
	Dr. Kirk Hamill - The lead developer of the Hückebein series of EOT mechs and a contributor to Project SRX. He is also the ex-husband of Dr. Marion Radom, and the two of them often butt heads when they work together.
	Dr. Robert Ohmiya - The lead developer of the R-Series, a set of three machines that combine into the SRX. It's no secret that he's a mecha anime nerd just like Ryusei is, and they bond over their favorite anime, Burnblade 3.
	Dr. Kenzo Kobayashi - A leading researcher of the phenomenon of telekinesis. He has taken in two test subjects as his own daughters, Aya and Mai. While he has a history of extremely unethical research, he's had a change of heart in the past several years, and he's been working to make things right by contributing to the SRX Team and helping his daughter.
	Master Sergeant Kusuha Mizuha - A childhood friend of Ryusei Date who doesn't really get the appeal of super robots. Originally a civilian like Ryusei, she gets "hospitalized for observation" following the attack where Ryusei is first forced to pilot a Gespenst, and during this stay, she is identified as a strong telekinetic. Ingram arranges things so that she gets encouraged to volunteer with the Federation as a student medic, after which she gets diverted into a piloting program, the true end goal. Despite some setbacks like being captured and mind-controlled, she comes into her own and flourishes as a super robot pilot. She's a caring and kindhearted girl with a steely determination to do what's right. She's also obsessed with health fads and brews health drinks so gross that they make most people pass out. Later promoted to second lieutenant following the L5 Campaign.
	Mai Kobayashi - Formerly Levi Torah, priestess of the Judecca and penultimate boss of OG1. Parts of the "White Death Cross" (the Federation's codename for the Judecca) do not burn up entirely in the atmosphere, and its core is located on the ocean floor near Aidoneus Island. Kenzo Kobayashi oversees its excavation and examination, and what they find inside is Mai Kobayashi, partially replicated from the Judecca's systems. Since the replication was never fully completed, she has none of her old memories except fragments that manifest in nightmares. Kenzo and Aya are quick to treat her as family and help her to recover from a trauma she doesn't fully understand. She goes on to become a full-fledged member of the SRX Team in OG2, striking up a friendship and slight crush on Ryusei.

THE ATX TEAM
One of the two central protagonist teams in early OG. While they take a back seat to the SRX Team in OG1, they take center stage in OG2. The ATX Team is the product of Project ATX, a project to develop assault-oriented mobile weapons and test out special weapons sent in from other places like the Tesla Lab. While Project SRX emphasizes gifted pilots and supertechnology, Project ATX focuses on Earth-based weaponry that can be used by anyone and doesn't utilize shady alien tech.
	Second Lieutenant Kyosuke Nambu - A career soldier and test pilot who gets recommended for recruitment into the ATX Team when it's first being formed. His taciturn attitude belies his emotional depth, keen insight, and most importantly for the ATX Team, his sense of humor. He was referred to the team by teammate Excellen Browning, who has some history with him that we'll be exploring in OG2. He can carry a grudge like nobody's business, which Hans Viper learns firsthand, but his conduct is largely professional. He takes over as commander of the ATX Team following Sänger's defection, he is appointed field commander of the main White Star strike team during Operation SRW, and he is later promoted to first lieutenant following the L5 Campaign. He is a naturally lucky guy who has survived multiple near-fatal incidents, but he's a terrible gambler who goes bust every time.
	Second Lieutenant Excellen Browning - An upbeat career soldier and moodmaker, and the ATX Team's resident jokester. Despite her antics, she's quite mature, observant, and good at reading a room, and she acts as a supportive big sister figure to many of the younger pilots. She constantly flirts with Kyosuke, who she referred to the team, and they have a close relationship despite their frequent verbal sparring. In the late game Kyosuke route of OG1, she gets captured by the Aerogators and studied as a specimen, and the Aerogators find that her body is comprised of 70% foreign non-human material, a finding that baffles them. When the Aerogators demand answers, Ingram basically says don't worry about it. Eventually she gets brainwashed and subsequently rescued, and everybody forgets the whole thing and never speaks of it again because it's technically non-canon. It's fine, I'm sure that'll never come up again.
	Second Lieutenant Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield - The youngest member of the ATX Team and the most frequent target of Excellen's teasing. In his free time, Bullet studies Jigen-ryu with Sänger Sombold and later Rishu Togo. He develops a huge crush on Kusuha Mizuha over the course of OG1 and ends up going out with her. He's also a giant weeb who loves Japanese culture and samurais.
	Major Sänger Sombold - AKA the Sword That Cleaves Evil (as he is quick to let bad guys know), he is the original leader of the ATX Team and a swordsman studying Jigen-ryu under the tutelage of Rishu Togo. He is known for piloting robots that wield giant swords. He defects from the EFM to the DC when his best friend Elzam invites him over, and he chooses to be a wall for the ATX Team to surmount. Following the DC War and its aftermath, he disappears along with Elzam, though they turn up again briefly to assist the Steel Dragons in Operation SRW.
	Dr. Marion Radom - The lead developer of new Project ATX machines, a snippy engineer who has little patience for people who can't keep up, and even less patience for machinery that runs on what she sees as bullshit alien technology. She is a sticker for purely conventional tech and refuses to come within ten feet of EOT when it comes to developing her machines. She competes with her ex-husband Dr. Kirk Hamill to develop the next main workhorse of the Federation, a competition that she eventually loses when the Federation picks Kirk's mass production Hückebein Mk. II over her candidates, the Gespenst Mk. III and the Gespenst Mk. II Custom, AKA the Alteisen and the Weissritter. This might have something to do with the fact that the Alteisen is a very off-balance machine that can only be handled by a pilot of Kyosuke's calibre. She's quick to take a shine to aggressive, melee-centric pilots.

THE PTX TEAM
The specifics of this team aren't terribly important. Suffice to say that it was a team that existed a few years back and it was commanded by Ingram Plissken.
	First Lieutenant Irmgard Kazahara - A playboy who hits on pretty much anything female with a pulse. He's the son of Jonathan Kazahara, a leading super robot scientist and the head of the Tesla Lab. He's an item with Ring Mao, but they're currently on the outs after Ring caught him having tea with a female employee at Mao Industries. They patch things up in OG2.
	Ring Mao - A former pilot on the PTX Team, currently the CEO of Mao Industries, one of the key robot developers and manufacturers for the Earth Federation Military (and ONLY the EFM, unlike some competitors).

THE AGGRESSORS
The Special Tactical Fighter Training Squad, generally referred to as the Aggressors, was the first group of robot pilots. Their test runs with Gespensts and other models early in the development of humanoid mobile weapons formed the basis for the motion patterns that went on to become widely adopted in many machines.

As a brief aside, MOTION PATTERNS are the series of inputs and movements required to go through specific maneuvers, including firing guns, attacking with sabers, punching with fists, and swerving to evade fire. These are prerecorded sequences that pilots select in their cockpit interface, instead of manually going through every single motion, making them effectively a canonized reason why robots have the same combat animations no matter who's piloting them. This is why people in the setting make a big deal about times when robots with certain pilots have distinctive movements, because it's much more noticeable when they're supposed to always move the same way.

The Aggressors themselves disbanded in NCE 184 after an "undisclosed incident". The incident in question was likely the time that their commander, Colonel Kar-Wai Lau, disappeared during a field exercise.
	Colonel Kar-Wai Lau - The leader of the Aggressors, he was abducted by aliens and reconditioned into an Aerogator soldier.
	Major Elzam V. Branstein - See the Branstein Family entry.
	Major Sänger Sombold - See the ATX Team entry.
	Major Tempest Hawker- See the Divine Crusaders.
	Major Kai Kitamura - An EFM major who goes from a bit character in the OG1 Kyosuke route to a major leading protagonist figure in OG2 onward. He goes on to form the second incarnation of the Aggressors in OG2 and onward. We'll get into that later. He's got a wife and teenage daughter, and he acts as a gruff father figure to many of the younger pilots under his command.
	Major Gilliam Jaeger - An agent in the EFM's intelligence division and dodgeball aficionado. He's got some history and some personal stuff going on. Don't worry about it.

THE DIVINE CRUSADERS
The group that the EOTI Organization morphed into when its leader, Dr. Bian Zoldak, saw that the Earth Federation Government's leadership was ready to sell the people of Earth out to aliens without giving them a chance to fight. Bian brought in pretty much anybody who was halfway capable without regard to their personal ethics or track record, assumedly because he was planning on being defeated. This mix of unprincipled leadership and zealous followers was a recipe for disaster, as DC remnants have persisted long after Bian's fall, cynically claiming to carry on his will.
	Dr. Bian Zoldak - The commander of the DC, a tragically short-sighted visionary who was killed in action at Aidoneus Island in the final stages of the DC War. He has a daughter named Lüne.
	Dr. Adler Koch - Bian's right-hand man. See the School section for details.
	Dr. Shu Shirakawa - Bian's friend and close confidante. The Cliff's Notes version is that he has a double-digit number of PhDs, he has his hands in a LOT of cookie jars, and he hates aliens almost as much as Masaki Andoh hates his guts. Why? Don't worry about it.
	Major Tempest Hawker - A DC major who swore vengeance on the Federation after losing his family in the Hope Incident, another black mark in colonial history I'm not going to get into. Killed in action piloting a Valsion Custom in the DC War aftermath.
	Tenzan Nakajima - A competitive gamer who beat Ryusei Date in a national Burning PT tournament. He gets scouted by Adler and taken under his wing. He's a cocky gamer stereotype with a bad attitude only made worse by the fact that as a direct report of Adler, he's not subject to the authority of anyone else. Killed in action once piloting a Valsion Custom in the DC War aftermath, then recovered and reconditioned into an Aerogator soldier and killed in action again during the L5 Campaign.
	Ryoto Hikawa - A competitive Burning PT player who also gets scouted by Adler. He is treated as a disposable pawn when his Lion gets rigged with a bomb meant to destroy the Hagane. Following his capture by the Hagane and his disillusionment with the DC, he signs on with the EFM as a pilot. However, his considerable piloting skill isn't where he truly shines. He turns out to be a mechanical genius, and he cobbles together a miniaturized Tesla Drive from spare parts lying around the Hagane's hangar. Dr. Robert Ohmiya is so impressed with his design proposals that he brings Ryoto on board his engineering team, and after the L5 Campaign, Ryoto goes on to work for Mao Industries in the private sector.
	Dr. Wilhelm von Jürgen - An incidental figure that comes up in the Ryusei route of OG1, PS2 version. Development on his ODE System under the DC is suspended after a test where all twelve pilots using it end up killing each other, a setup devised by Adler to ensure that the ODE System's development gets sidelined in favor of Adler's Geim System. He goes on to lose his wife and son in an Aerogator attack during the L5 Campaign, and he disappears, assumedly never to be seen again.
	Colonel Van Vat Tran - A DC commander who distinguishes himself in the North American theater of operations. He is completely offscreen for the entirety of OG1 other than a single back-patting video call with Bian, but he definitely exists and is a person.

ISURUGI INDUSTRIES
	The main mobile weapon manufacturer of the DC, formerly headed by CEO Renji Isurugi. After Renji's untimely death (see the EOT Council section), his daughter Mitsuko Isurugi takes over. Unlike Ring Mao, she doesn't let herself be tied down by little things like moral principles. If there's a market, she's ready to make a sale, regardless of who the client is. In addition to dealings with the DC and the Federation, Isurugi's weapons shipments keep getting suspiciously diverted over to DC remnants.

THE UNITED COLONY CORPS
The Federation Spacefleet was restructured into the United Colony Corps following the independence of the colonies in NCE 184. This group is led by Maier V. Branstein, who works in league with Bian Zoldak to present a trial for the Earth Sphere to collectively overcome. There's a handful of notable faces here, but they aren't relevant to the larger narrative, as the UCC and the colonies in general are largely forgotten following OG1. So this section's characters will be omitted. However, we will be talking about the Bransteins below.

THE BRANSTEIN FAMILY
The Bransteins are a family of influential aristocrats whose family tree goes back centuries. While there is technically no aristocratic class in the United Colonies, they are still revered by the populace as popular upstanding figures, and there are entire branch families devoted to serving them.
	Maier V. Branstein - The patriarch of the family and supreme commander of the United Colony Corps when it launched its revolt. Mainly distinguished by being voiced by Norio Wakamoto. Killed in action at the end of the DC War.
	Elzam V. Branstein - AKA the Black Tornado, the eldest of Maier's two sons, a major in the UCC and former Aggressor. He was involved in the Elpis Incident, in which a group of paid mercenaries posing as terrorists launched a biochemical attack on Elpis that forced Elzam to blow up a docking bay while his wife Cattleya was in it. He and Sänger both side with the DC and disappear following the DC War, but occasionally show up to help out the good guys in times of crisis.
	Raidiese F. Branstein - See the SRX Team.
	Cattleya Fujiwara Branstein - Elzam's late wife, a caring and gentle woman loved by all. Killed during the Elpis Incident.
	Trombe - Elzam's favorite horse, a steed with black hair and a white mane. Elzam customizes all of his personal mechs with a black color scheme and calls them Trombe in his horse's honor.
	Leona Garstein - A second lieutenant in the UCC's elite all-female Treue Unit and member of a Branstein branch family who is captured by the EFM and later enlists with them following the UCC's demise.

THE ELPIS INCIDENT
Let's take a step back to look at one of the many tragedies that occurred in the history of the colonies leading up to their independence. This one was cut for relevance in the OG1 overview, but it will be relevant in OG2.
	In the year NCE 184, the same year as the colonies achieved independence, the EOT Council is trying their best to antagonize the colonies into starting a war that they can use as a pretext to roll over them militarily. Karl Stresemann, the chairman of the EOT Council, hires a team of mercenaries led by Archibald Grims, a member of an aristocratic family that had long since fallen on hard times. The Grims family has a vendetta against the Bransteins that goes back centuries (long story), and Archibald jumps at the chance to hit them where it hurts, their home colony of Elpis.

	Archibald takes over a docking bay in Elpis and takes Cattleya Branstein hostage. While using the hostage situation to stall for time, they set up a fast-acting virus designed to flow from the docking bay to the rest of Elpis, then they lock the bulkheads in the open position so that the bay can't be sealed off. Elzam is the leader of the forces scrambled to stop the terrorists, and he is forced to make the terrible decision to fire on the docking bay with Cattleya still inside and destroy it before the virus can reach the rest of the colony, a decision that will haunt him and his family for the rest of their lives. Archibald gets away scot-free while this is going on, never to be seen again until OG2.

THE SCHOOL
A now-shuttered Federation research facility whose leaders decided that Kenzo Kobayashi and the Advanced Neuroscience Institute were too limp-wristed and caring with their subjects, so they left and formed their own facility, where they doubled down on unethical human experimentation. This particular facility was devoted to trying to cultivate the perfect soldier from child test subjects. Dozens of children (possibly more) were subjected to surgical enhancement procedures, drug therapy, and brainwashing. The products of this project were called Boosted Children. Eventually, the full horrors of the facility came to light, and the Federation swiftly acted to shut it down, but by that point only a handful of surviving test subjects were left.
	Dr. Adler Koch - One of the two head researchers, who later went on to become Dr. Bian Zoldak's right-hand man at the EOTI Organization (and later, the Divine Crusaders). He gave up on the Boosted Children project, instead opting for a new avenue of research during the DC War, where he focused on recruiting naturally skilled gamers like Ryoto Hikawa and Tenzan Nakajima, recruits that he termed Advanced Children. He prized these subjects for their natural combat potential that required low amounts of investment in training. Killed in action during the DC War aftermath.
	Dr. Águila Setme - The other of the two head researchers, she is fully invested in the Boosted Children project even after the School's closure. She believes that the best way to produce a capable pilot is through brainwashing and emotional manipulation, asserting that heightened emotions are what trigger fight-or-flight responses that push humans beyond their normal limitations. She also believes subjects should be given numbers, not names, to avoid developing any pesky attachments.
	Cuervo Cerro - An assistant researcher at the School who feels kind of squeamish about putting children through horrific experiments, so he gives them real names and humanizes them, assumedly to help himself sleep at night.
	Latune Subbota - AKA Latune 11, a former Latune-class test subject (Latune is Russian for brass, and she is the only survivor of her class) who was discovered by Garnet Sunday and Giada Venerdì after a flight test accident. They take her under their wing and treat her like a daughter, giving her a real name (Subbota is Russian for Saturday) and a nurturing and caring environment to help her recover from her trauma. She starts out withdrawn and afraid of people, but over the course of OG1, she comes out of her shell and is able to confront Adler and her own past. She also develops a close friendship and rapport with Shine Hausen while serving as her bodyguard (Remember, she's still an enhanced supersoldier).
	Ouka Nagisa - AKA Aurum 1, the first of the Aurum class and the older sister figure to all the other test subjects. She often looks out for Latune 11, Bronzo 27, and Bronzo 28, frequently undergoing terrible treatments so that they don't have to.
	Seolla Schweizer - AKA Bronzo 27. The Bronzo class of test subjects is designed to function in pairs, and she is paired up with Bronzo 28, Arado Balanga. Covered more in OG2.
	Arado Balanga - AKA Bronzo 28. The Bronzo class of test subjects is designed to function in pairs, and he is paired up with Bronzo 27, Seolla Schweizer. Covered more in OG2.

THE TESLA REICH INSTITUTE
Named after inventor Nikola Tesla and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, this private facility originally founded by Dr. Bian Zoldak is the place where many of the big super robots get developed, such as the Grungust series. Called the Tesla Lab for short.
	Dr. Jonathan Kazahara - The head of the Tesla Lab and father of Irmgard Kazahara, he's almost as bad a womanizer as his own son. He is the man responsible for the Grungust series of super robots with cool swords and chest beams.
	Rishu Togo - An old, experienced swordmaster who teaches Jigen-ryu to Sänger and Bullet. He works at the Tesla Lab and provides motion pattern data for many of the sword attacks that the lab's super robots use. He's also a descendant of the Togo line which has connections to Chinese robot lore, but that's neither here nor there.
	Major Filio Presti - A former DC developer, the man behind the Lion series. He now works for the Tesla Lab doing development on Project TD, his pet project to develop a small fighter-sized cruiser capable of interstellar travel.
	Sleygh Presti - AKA the Crimson Comet, Filio's younger sister, a former Treue Unit candidate who turned down a spot to join Project TD instead.
	Ibis Douglas - A former DC pilot who is now a member of Team TD. Dubbed the Silver Shooting Star by Sleygh for her penchant for crashing and burning spectacularly.

THE EARTH CRADLE
Part of Project Ark, a secret government project to preserve the seeds of humanity in the event of an earth-shattering disaster. This facility is a heavily armored dome capable of burrowing underground, and it has its own life support systems and production facilities for machinery and mobile weapons to serve as defenses. It is run by Dr. Sophia Nate, an altruistic scientist with a distaste for human conflicts, and her right-hand man, Dr. Egret Fehu, a far less altruistic scientist on friendly terms with the DC remnants. Sophia submerges the Earth Cradle following the last resistance of the DC Remnants before the L5 Campaign, going into artificial hibernation for the indefinite future. The indefinite future will last about 5 minutes before Egret backstabs her in OG2.

MASOUKISHIN CHARACTERS
These people don't fit well in other categories but are worth a quick mention.
	Masaki Andoh - The pilot of Cybaster, a teenager with a fiery attitude and a woefully bad sense of direction. He has two cat familiars named Kuro and Shiro, and he really hates Shu Shirakawa. There's a bunch of Masoukishin story stuff with him, but it mostly happens offscreen and isn't really relevant to OG.
	Lüne Zoldak - Bian Zoldak's daughter, who comes back to the Earth Sphere from Jupiter following the death of her father. She challenges the Steel Dragons to fight her in her Valsione (a girly-looking machine that is a Valsion in substance), gets her ass kicked, then immediately turns around and goes "Ahh, that's much better!" and offers to join them. Turns out she never agreed with her father's vision, but she had to vent her grief somehow. She moves on from this and becomes a mainstay helping the Steel Dragons out. She also has an obvious crush on Masaki and bickers with him constantly. Her distinguishing feature is that she is secretly Domon Kasshu; She uses a knockoff mobile trace system called DML (direct motion link), and she can deflect bullets with her hands (she wears specially reinforced weighted wristbands for just this purpose).

I think that just about covers who to know, for now. There are certainly many other characters that exist, some of them even people that get key scenes like Tasuku, but this isn't an exhaustive guide, and it's already too big as it is. Strap in next time as I start unpacking OG2's plot, which is considerably more expansive than OG1's.