Ha-eun Zaya

Ha-eun Zaya
67th President of the United States
In office January 20, 2149 – January 20, 2157
Vice President	Joaquin Vega
Preceded by	Cora Fabian
Succeeded by	Dom Terragno
Born	January 14, 2081 Loltun, Xibalba, Gaynamede
Nationality	American
Political party	Union (2129-2153), United Progressive (2153-present)
Profession	Soldier Politician
Religion	Buddhism
Military service
Service/branch	United States Space Force
Rank	General of the Space Force
Unit	Planetary Task Force India
Battles/wars	Guardiola Incident Third Mexican War

Ha-eun Zaya (born January 14, 2081) was the 67th President of the United States from 2149 until 2157. She was a five-star general in the United States Space Force during the Third Mexican-American War and served as Supreme Commander of Planetary Task Force India. She was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of China in Operation Stardust in 2136 and the successful invasion of India and Indonesia in 2137 from Orbit.

Zaya was of Chinese Mongol, and Korean ancestry, and was raised in a large family in Xibalba by parents with a strong Buddhist background. She joined the Planetary Guard while at New Venice University's School of Military History before being deployed to fight in the Guardiola Incident. After the conflict, Zaya earned her Ph.D. and published her thesis, World Conquerors: A History of the Mongol Invasions .

Zaya entered the 2148 presidential race on the Union Party ticket, and won in a landslide, defeating Conservative candidate Adel Navarro. Zaya's main goals in office were to keep pressure on the still consolidating Free Associations and address the growing number of militias in the O'Neil colonies. This would culminate in the Eternal Spring Revolt for which Zaya was credited for resolving with minimal loss of life.

Zaya's two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a brief recession in 2156. She achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, and is consistently remembered as a great President. She is also remembered for being the first President born outside of Earth and the first President born on Ganymede. Her election marked the the transition of political power moving away from Earth and to the former planetary colonies.

Early life and education

The Zaya family left Inner Mongolia for the Jovian system in 2057, first settling in the Galileo colony on Callisto, and in the 2070s moving to Ganymede's Loltun colony in Xibalba. Zaya's father, Tabin Zaya, a first generation colonial and architect met Ji-eun "June" Park, a colony planner and Zaya's mother. The two married in 2077, having Ha-eun Zaya in 2081 and her younger sister Nari Zaya in 2086.

As a child, she was involved one of the worst colony accidents in history when a glacier ruptured, temporarily depressurizing Loltun, costing her younger sister her right leg to frostbite; she later referred to this as an experience teaching her the need to be protective of those under her. Zaya's parents would play a significant role in repairing Loltun, and her mother would rise to be a leading figure in the restored city council of the colony.

While Zaya's mother was a more pacifist, it was her father's collection of Mongol heirlooms that first sparked Zaya's early and lasting interest in military history. She studied the history of these trinkets from Earth, discovering their ties to her ancestor's empire and became a voracious reader in the subject. Other favorite subjects early in her education were mathematics and botany.

Her parents pushed Zaya into calligraphy courses, martial arts, the study of Modern Buddhism. The Zayas' home served as the local temple for Loltun's small population of Buddhists from 2082-2095, though Zaya eventually began to avoid services over personal disagreements with her much more traditional mother. Her later decision to join the Planetary Guard and study at the School of Military History led to a lasting schism between Zaya and her mother. Zaya would continue to study modern Buddhist principles and remained close with her father, though she seldom saw her mother after joining the military.

At NVU Zaya relished the emphasis on tradition and sport, and joined the school marshal arts team achieving her black belt in Hung Ga Kung Fu. She was also a regular violator of the more detailed regulations, and finished school with a less than stellar discipline rating. Academically, Zaya's best subject by far was History, and she excelled during her undergraduate coursework. One of the more significant relationships Zaya made while at NVU was her friendship with the Dean of Military History, former Space Force General Joseph Loveridge, who Zaya looked up to as a mentor during her first years at NVU.

Guardiola Incident

Zaya requested early assignment with Loveridge in 2099 when the Planetary Guard forces were called to join in the defense of the Cislunar Colonies. Loveridge tentatively accepted her on as his personal assistant aboard the flagship. While Jovian Planetary Guard forces did not reach Earth until after the worst of the fighting had ended, Zaya took part in half a dozen battles aboard Loveridge's flagship, and earned high honors for her actions. During the final battle on the Moon to push the last remaining Guardiola fighters off the surface, Zaya took temporary command of the ship's drone forces through neural link after the ship's flight officer was incapacitated from surface fire. For her actions she received the Planetary Guard Medal and was given a field promotion to First Lieutenant for her actions, and placed in temporary command of the ship's drones for the remainder of the conflict.

In service to generals

After the war, Zaya transferred to the Space Force Academy at Colorado Springs to complete her undergraduate coursework, like many veterans of the Guardiola Incident, her service record during the Incident was not accepted as battlefield experience, because the US never recognized the Incident as a war. Zaya spent the next 2 years at Colorado Springs where she graduated as a Second Lieutenant. She returned to NVU School of Military History where she was promoted to First Lieutenant by General Loveridge. Zaya completed her doctoral coursework by 2105 and was promoted to the rank of Major upon graduation, a rank she held for the next 10 years. The major was assigned in 2109 to a Planetary Guard task force under General Hellena Lerman conducting war games using the Jovian system as a simulated solar system. Zaya was nearly court-marshaled for carrying out a mock invasion of Earth during one such wargame, having been earlier reprimanded on multiple occasions for similar actions in simulators.

From 2110 onward Zaya served under a succession of talented generals – Vix Banning, her old mentor Joseph Loveridge, Rohan Mustafa and Erin McCain. She first became executive officer to General Banning in the Asteroid Belt, where she served until 2116. Under Banning's tutelage, she gained a greater appreciation for military theory, and later cited Banning's enormous influence on her military thinking. Banning would later comment on Zaya, "She is one of the most capable, resourceful and loyal officers I have ever met." On Banning's recommendation, in 2117-2118 she attended the Space Command and General Staff College at Locke Space Force Base, Texas, where she graduated first in a class of 95 officers. She then served as a squadron commander at Grove Station, Mars until 2122.

During the 2120s Zaya's was assigned to the effort to eliminate the piracy problem in the Asteroid Belt. Zaya was promoted to Colonel and given command of the Jovian Planetary Guard's 9th Expeditionary Squadron out of Herculina. Zaya organized over two dozen operations against the Belt Pirates between 2122 and 2127 before returning to Fort Knight, Ares. At Fort Knight she was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and given special assignment to lead a series of simulated war games in anticipation for the next war. In 2130, she participated in putting down the Bradbury Riots and was promoted to Major General in recognition for her administration of Planetary Guard forces combating MSIF forces around Mars.

Third Mexican War

After the Southwest seceded, Zaya was assigned to the Planetary Guard General Staff in Bradbury, where she served until June 2136 with responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Mexico's proxies in Asia. As a key figure in the creation of the Colonial Fleet, Zaya was given a priority transfer to the Space Force when the Fleet was acquired by the Federal Government, and promoted to the rank of General to oversee preparations for the Colonies entry into the War.

At the end of November 2134, Zaya accompanied General Erin McCain, commanding general of the Planetary Guard's Terrestrial Forces, to Armstrong to assess the effectiveness of the theater commander in Cislunar Space, Gen. Loretta E. Lanning. She returned to Bradbury on December 1 with a pessimistic assessment, stating she felt Lanning and her staff were "patently ill equipped" to defend Luna from Mexican Vacuum Commandos.

Supreme Commander Task Force India and Operation Stardust

In February 2135, President Halvidar decided that Zaya – not Banning – would be Supreme Commander of Planetary Task Force India. The following month, she was officially designated as the Supreme Commander of the Task Force India, and was promoted to General of the Space Force, the third person in history to receive such a title, along with her two former commanders Rohan Mustafa and Joseph Loveridge. She was charged in this position with planning and carrying out the Colonial invasion of China in August 2136 under the code name Operation Stardust, the defeat of Mexican proxies in China and the invasion of India.

Zaya and the other Supreme Commanders had originally planned to reach on Earth by September 3, 2136 with the first wave as part of Operation Stardust. However, upon Mexico's attack on the United States Capitol, the first wave was reduced by 25% and launched 4 days ahead of schedule. Zaya commanded the Heinlein's Light and the rest of her squadron to push their ship's reactors to the point of redline to save precious hours to get to Earth. At 1:14 am, Zaya's squadron reached Earth Orbit and entered into combat with the Mexican Orbital Diaz. Upon the arrival of General Mustafa's squadron, Zaya withdrew and burned toward the Earth with Mustafa, who had left half of his forces to capture Diaz. Zaya and Mustafa coordinated their attacks to clear a path for the Marines to deploy to Washington.

By August 28th, 4:21 am EST 11,152 Marines from the Colonies touched down at Washington with drone and micro-artillery support. Zaya coordinated the invasion for 5 hours, providing support fire while Mustafa redirected his ships against Mexican forces still in space. After the surrender of Bautista, Zaya personally landed at the Capital upon which she was greeted by President Halvidar who hailed the invasion as the turning point of the war. Zaya was the first to be alerted to Halvidar's collapse after the fight, and ordered that the men not be alerted to the President's condition. She personally contacted Vice President Fabian and informed her of the situation. After surgeons had managed to stop the bleeding, Halvidar ordered Zaya to return to Orbit and allow Mustafa and Task Force Pacific to handle operations in the Americas as planned. While this was not officially a reprimand, Halvidar felt Zaya's over-zealousness should be kept in check.

The China landings on October 20, 2136, were costly but successful. A month later (November 26), the invasion of Southern China took place, and control of forces in the region transferred to Task Force India. Many colonials thought that victory in Asia would come by summer's end, but Zaya, ever the student of wars in Asia, knew the Mexican backed forces would not capitulate so easily. From then until the end of the war in Asia, Zaya commanded all American-Allied forces in the region, and established military governments . She was ever mindful of the inevitable loss of life and suffering that would be experienced on an individual level by the troops under her command and their families, and thus spent a great deal of time studying and reviewing ancient battles in similar regions to avoid the mistakes of the past. This dedication to the lives of her troops is largely what drove Zaya to be the first Supreme Commander to request the usage of Relativistic weapons during the war.

Operation Vishnu

Halvidar had been reluctant to authorize the use of relativistic weapons, and had hoped to limit their use to the invasion of Mexico city to serve as the killing blow to Mexico, but was compelled to act after the nuclear attacks against colonial forces in China. Zaya felt that relativistic strikes in combination with a bombardment campaign and aggressive troop movements would break the enemies' will to fight. Thus began Operation Vishnu, and the first use of relativistic weaponry of the war.

Post-war

Military governor of China

Following the unconditional surrender of the Yangtze Federation and Yunnan, Zaya was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone, based in Shanghai. She had full responsibility over the provisional governing body established over the zone. Her first act was to allow the press into the mass deprogramming camps the U.S. had set up during the conflict to handle brain-hacked citizens who'd been turned to the enemy cause. Zaya followed the orders laid down by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in directive JCS 9012, instituting the Quantum Economic Model over China bringing in 7,100,000 tonnes of food for civilians, along with medical equipment and supplies to begin the reconstruction of the country. Her actions reflected the new American attitudes of the Chinese people as victims of Mexican infiltration rather than collaborators, while aggressively purging the Mexican operatives.

Zaya's regime in Shanghai would come to be celebrated by the Chinese as the most effective government in living memory. Zaya blended colonial governing systems with her own deep study of historic Chinese governing systems, particularly the Yuan dynasty. She oversaw the reconstruction and expansion of China's infrastructure, encouraged the movement of refugees to Beanstalk and the newly completed Borneo tower where they could be relocated to new colonies being established in the Jovian system and Saturn; and later on Venus.

Election of 2148

Zaya was popular among the Union Party base which felt that Secretary of State Olivia Keyes was too timid to lead the party, and would push the country too far to the left. In one of the great political coups of the era, the Unionists and Conservatives both chose Zaya as their presidential candidate on the first ballot at both National Conventions. Zaya's nomination was seen by many liberal Unionists as a betrayal to the party's founding ideals, and largely contributed to the formation of the United Republican Party. Despite the opposition of liberal unionists, Zaya won the support of many Conservatives thanks in part for her nomination of Colorado governor Joaquin Vega for the vice presidency.

The Progress party nominated former Illinois Governor Axel Mattarella. Their campaign focused mainly on ending Reconstruction and working to integrate South Americans more directly into American society. The Progressives attacked Zaya's support for Reconstruction, with Mattarella calling her, "the Jovian Conqueror." Zaya won the election by 57% on the second ballot.

Presidency

Orbital Colony incidents

Main article: Eternal Spring Revolt

Zaya entered office with tensions between the Federal Government and the Orbital Colonies at an all time high. The Great Mutiny was one of the few black marks on President Cora Fabian's otherwise successful presidency, and Zaya considered it to be an act of high treason. During the summer of 2149 when the Eternal Spring made its formal declaration of war against the United States, Zaya dispatched the whole of the US Space Force fleet and federalized the Lunar and Terran Space National Guards, with the USS Olympus leading the attack against the Spring. The rebel fighters were given no quarter until the O'Neil ship was captured and its defense broken. While some criticized Zaya's decision to take no prisoners as rather harsh, most on Earth celebrated her for taking decisive action in the face of a rogue colony.