E.U.

Biodata

Background / History

The E.U.’s origins lie in the revolutionary transformation of Europe. In this world, Napoleon won the Battle of Trafalgar and counterattacked Britain, forcing its queen to retreat to Edinburgh, where revolutionary citizens pressured her into abolishing the monarchy. Although Napoleon eventually went to the guillotine, his victories enabled the early integration of continental Europe. At its territorial peak, the resulting European power controlled most of Europe and extended into Siberia and North Africa 1.

By Lin Cuo’s arrival, the E.U. retained substantial population, industry, railways, and military strength, but its decision-making was obstructed by regional vetoes, financial conglomerates, factional bargaining, and overlapping institutions. Its eastern territories were being lost while politicians disputed elections and military contracts. Lin Cuo rejected it as his starting faction because of this political paralysis 1.

Territory and Regional Blocs

Government and Politics

Forty-Person Committee

• Name and membership: The committee takes its name from the forty delegates who helped establish the union system after the Great Revolution. By the contemporary story, it has more than two hundred members representing member districts, financial conglomerates, trade associations, dominions, and special political groups 124.
• Administrative chain: Orders pass through the Three Commanders, the committee, regional treasuries, federal military departments, and local assemblies. Each layer can obstruct implementation 58.
• Political ideals: The E.U. publicly upholds freedom, equality, popular sovereignty, and democratic government. Leila defends these principles while arguing that they do not justify avoiding responsibility for delayed decisions 58 124.
• Regional bargaining: During the Kashgar crisis, Free Iris sought immediate relief and technical missions, Ironblood attached security conditions to aid, the Royal Isles feared weakening Atlantic defenses, and the Northern Union demanded attention to its existing front 102.
• Accountability disputes: Leila calls for institutional reform rather than simply transferring power to a general, arguing that soldiers’ survival cannot be separated from politics 151.

Provisional Government

• Central military authority does not eliminate regional bargaining: Ironblood demands independent technical-maintenance rights, while Free Iris seeks formal compensation terms for combat losses 190.
• Public debate continues over the Paris coup, Smilas’s alleged dictatorship, the provisional government’s legitimacy, and Leila’s ability to represent the E.U. 192.

Military and Technology

The E.U. possesses industrial capabilities comparable to Britannia’s, but struggles to convert those resources into centrally coordinated deployments 190.

Training and Reform

• Tournament assessment: E.U. pilots demonstrate competent use of distance, obstacles, ambushes, and coordination, but struggle with sustained high mobility, aerial combat, shield reconstruction, and multisensor fusion 171.
• Lost institutional experience: The regular officer system fails to turn W-0’s elite combat experience into military-wide standards before its personnel leave 171.
• Reform pressure: Leila orders the tournament findings published and demands that the Military-Industrial Commission stop delaying reforms supported by combat data 171.
• Technical contributors: Charlotte brings machine-upgrade technology, Cecilia secures Royal Isles Consortium funding, Tatenashi Sarashiki brings Northern Union companies into standards negotiations, and Laura Bodewig contributes recognized operational ability 180 191.

Area 11 Refugees and Citizenship

• Initial restrictions: Refugees from Area 11 are confined to quarantine zones. Military service offers the possibility of citizenship through merit, rather than guaranteed recognition 58.
• W-0 recruitment: Refugee soldiers undertake missions with casualty risks that E.U. citizens are unwilling to accept. Leila opposes treating them as disposable manpower and requests regular military status, family benefits, and attainable citizenship 58.
• Pressure from Goryeo: Within ten days, more than six hundred refugees across seventeen quarantine zones apply to move to the Great Han-protected Area 11 settlement. The committee initially declines to recognize the Government-in-Exile and leaves W-0’s organization unchanged 58.
• Approved transfers: During the Kashgar crisis, the committee authorizes refugees to leave freely and permits W-0 members to apply individually to the Goryeo Exile Army 102.
• Implementation uncertainty: The subsequent delegation appointment again leaves recognition and W-0’s freedom to transfer for later meetings, despite the earlier approval 125.
• Change of allegiance: W-0’s core combat personnel acquire Area 11 and Great Han Community citizenship, with military transfer pending to the Red Lotus Separate Division’s Special Assault Squad 131.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Kashgar Crisis and Observer Mission

The E.U. fails to establish a unified expeditionary force for Kashgar. It instead authorizes an advance delegation consisting of Leila, Anna, and the Alexander technical team. The authorization arrives too late for the delegation to observe the Kashgar Campaign itself 102 124.

As Great Han and Britannia begin competing in space, committee members dispute whether planetary defense is a genuine common effort or a pretext for two empires to control humanity’s future. Leila is appointed head of a joint planetary-defense, democratic-oversight, humanitarian-relief, and technical-observation delegation, but funding, rocket cooperation, and formal participation remain unresolved 124 125.

Delegation Detention and Leila’s Abandonment

After Leila departs, Supplementary Resolution No. 1138 changes her mission into a 180-day residency involving joint review and technical exchange. On arrival, Lin Cuo uses the resolution to justify public scrutiny of the delegation. Great Han then disarms its armed personnel, presenting the action as a temporary separation from military orders so W-0 members can choose their allegiance 129 130.

The committee subsequently suspends the delegation’s mandate and freezes Leila’s diplomatic immunity. Free Iris’s pro-peace faction, the Royal Isles’ financial bloc, arms and shipping conglomerates, and the Marukal Family support the arrangement. Britannia promises to postpone offensives against Free Iris and the Northern Union; Great Han offers nonclassified Kashgar data and continued Apollo System contracts. In return, the E.U. stops insisting on Leila’s and the former W-0 personnel’s immediate return 134.

The E.U. authorizes Great Han to hold the delegation in “protective detention.” Great Han personnel separate and coercively interrogate its members, using threats against Anna and technicians to pressure Leila into accepting restrictions on her activities 134 140.

Global Review Tribunal and Paris Takeover

The E.U. pursues a public review intended to place responsibility for W-0, refugee camps, Apollo Chariot, Brain Raid, technology leaks, and diplomatic failures on Leila. Lin Cuo and his communications staff instead use the broadcast proceedings to elevate her public profile and expose the committee’s conduct 149.

During the proceedings, armed forces exploit an Apollo Chariot supplementary commercial-administrative agreement to move through E.U. territory. More than seven thousand iron-gray soldiers, three batches of hybrid Gao Hai machines, and twenty-four IS units gain passage under provisions originally bundled together to avoid another state-level treaty review 152.

Smilas launches an emergency takeover, but discovers that foreign forces outside his control are operating in Paris with E.U. emergency identification codes and routes matching his contingency plans. Lin Cuo suspends the tribunal, detains its judges, and recognizes Smilas’s Office of the Supreme Military Coordinator as the E.U.’s de facto authority 154 155.

Lin Cuo later confirms that Great Han secretly supported the takeover. A provisional constitutional document names Smilas Supreme Military Coordinator and Leila Provisional Prime Minister 157 167.

World Mobile Weapons Tournament

General Andrei Farnese challenges Kallen’s Guren Shen Hu partly to make the E.U.’s technological disadvantage publicly undeniable and force military investment. Every E.U. entrant in the defending-champion qualification challenge loses, leaving none qualified for the Highest-Tier Competition. Leila responds by ordering publication of the results and demanding reform 168 171.

Madrid Landing and Joint Mobilization

A joint interception diverts the third BETA Landing Unit from Bhopal toward Madrid. Leila demands unified theater command and formal deployment approval while Smilas struggles with the authority of regional military-industrial representatives 180.

Iberian garrisons begin fighting and regional troops move independently, but central mobilization remains blocked by railway scheduling, flight permissions, supply arrangements, maintenance rights, and compensation disputes. The First Joint Mobile Group finally departs fourteen hours and twenty-three minutes after touchdown, marking a coordinated deployment without resolving the government’s political disputes 190 192.

Foreign Relations

• Holy Britannia Imperium — Principal military opponent. European Britannia’s Four Great Knight Orders attack from the east under Grand Duke Berance, while imperial forces advance through Arabia and Africa. A later ceasefire bargain helps secure the committee’s abandonment of Leila 58 134.
• Great Han Federation — Industrial partner and source of political intervention. Cooperation includes Apollo System contracts and technology transfer, while Lin Cuo also arranges W-0’s departure, detains the delegation, and secretly supports Smilas’s takeover 131 134 152 157.
• Area 11 Government-in-Exile — Its recognition by Great Han exposes the weaknesses of E.U. refugee policy and provides W-0 personnel with an alternative national and military affiliation 58 102 131.