Crimson 1

We’re going by our TAC names for the duration of this contract. [...] If you break it, it's on your ass. You know how bounty hunters are if they have a name. Dismissed.
This article's name is a callsign, a codename, an occupation, or a nickname. There is no known real name for the subject.

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Crimson 1
Tailcode	IC-01 00001EXPERIMENTAL01 HWID-001.1.13
Biographical Information
Other Nick/Names/Aliases/Callsigns	Unknown
Date/Place of Birth	Unknown
Date/Place of Death	August 23, AC 432 Duel over Presidia (Presidia, Cascadia)
Nationality/ies	Federal Cascadian
Relative(s)	Unknown
Affiliation(s)	Pacific Federation Federation Military Forces Federation Air Force Federation Peacekeepers Crimson Team †
Equipment	Sk.37 Decimator-B † PW-Mk.I †
Physical Description
Gender	Masculine
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Hair Color	Unknown
Eye Color	Unknown
Skin Type	Unknown
Blood Type	Unknown
Actor(s)
Voice	Wayan Vassilopoulos
Appearances
Project Wingman Project Wingman: Frontline 59

"At the end of the day, you're just a criminal looking for your next handout."

― Crimson 1

Crimson 1 was the leader of Federation Peacekeeper Squadron Crimson and the archnemesis of Sicario top ace Monarch during the Cascadian Conflict. He was reputed as the top ace of the world and a poster boy of the Federation Air Force.

He led his squadron in various battles in the civil war, being humiliated at almost every turn with the Crowned Mercenary by losing his wingmen. After losing all of them, he sought revenge by destroying Presidia and shooting down all of Monarch's allies to draw him into a duel, but was killed. His actions, as he admitted, were putting vengeance above his own Federation and, along with Monarch's, were its undoing.

He is the main antagonist of Project Wingman.

Biography

Oceanian War

Crimson 1's source of fame appears to be his service during the Oceanian War, where he served with Cascadian National Guard units such as the Marine Black Eagle Division. He was indispensable to thwarting the Mercenary Cabal's scheme to "rewrite the world."

Cascadian Conflict

First encounter with Monarch

"Crimson Squadron is on station. AWACS, is this them, the mercenaries?"
"Affirmative, drive these mercenaries out of the airspace, Crimson 1."
"Roger, tally ho, let’s chase these dogs off."

― Crimson 1 arriving at Apodock

After returning from out of country in the early days of the Cascadian Conflict, Crimson Team was redirected to curb an incursion by Cascadian Independence Force-aligned mercenaries and pilots as they attacked a cordium refinery in the Yellowstone Exclusion Zone. They were short on fuel and ammo due to another deployment, and despite their best efforts, Crimson was unable to reach the refinery in time to defend it, and instead pursued the fleeing mercenaries as they tried to leave the airspace, sparingly targeting them due to their scarce energy and maintaining momentum.

Crimson was unable to catch the mercenaries and decided to break pursuit. Crimson 1, noticing Sicario's Hitman Team leader Monarch's performance, expressed discontent at his future archnemesis' presence.

Crimson 1 was forced to call off the pursuit after seeing one of his wingmen taking heavy damage from Sicario's Hitman Team leader Monarch, who somehow outmaneuvered their superior aircraft. Crimson 1, on the way back, brushed off his future archnemesis as having "got lucky."

Descent into obsession

"If I had killed you over Yellowstone, this war would be over by now. It was a mistake, I intend to correct that. You know, they used to call me obsessed. Now, they call me their solution."

― Crimson 1 to Monarch

Following the Apodock encounter, Crimson 1 busied himself warning his allies of the mercenary threat, especially Hitman Team and Monarch. One of them included the Federation Intercept Specialists, two of which engaged Hitman over the Briggs Range and found out for themselves. He also had Regional HQ send bulletins about them.

Crimson Team was next deployed to a large air battle over the Bering Strait as the Federation's last hope in winning the engagement. During this battle, Crimson 1 ordered all planes to focus on the mercenaries and once again engaged Monarch, the same mercenary who stared him down and survived. After a long battle, Crimson Team suffered serious losses and withdrew across the international dateline under Federation High Command's orders against Crimson 1's own protests. Halfway into the retreat, however, his squadron, now completely depleted of ammunition and bingo fuel, became the prey of the mercenary Thorn Rose Gang, and he cursed his predicament. His squadron was saved by Division K-9, but he expressed disdain at simple reservists covering their backs, though he later appeared to commend their combat prowess in after-action reports.

Following the engagement, Crimson 1 fell deeper and deeper into his obsession with Monarch, furious that a mercenary could best him, and was subsequently noted by others for it, though they would also accept him as the solution for their mercenary problem. To fulfill his objective, Icarus Armories finished the Project Wingman program, flew its end result to the mainland, and transmitted necessary combat data from Klara Rask's data pod, which absorbed records of her fight with Hitman Team.

Crimson Team helped push rebel forces off Magadan during their ill-fated invasion's retreat, routing their invasion fleet after their leader overruled Captain Flowers solely by authority. They were busy covering Federation retreats as they started losing the war when the Prospero Disaster and the Cascadian Calamity Event occurred.

When Hitman Team attempted to move troops through the area near Prospero, Crimson intercepted them yet again. Blaming them and the CIF for driving his superiors into setting his own country ablaze, Crimson 1 ordered his wingmen to "avenge [Cascadia]." During the furball, he went on a rant proclaiming his righteousness over the mercenaries, and promised to take everything away from them in time, even declaring the world will "prove them wrong" on them being "sheepdogs who herd the sheep to slaughter." Peter Kennedy, one of Monarch's wingmen, verbally fought back, telling him to shut his mouth and fight.

Eventually, he was the last one to go down with his entire squadron, and he was the only survivor. The loss of his entire squadron, coupled with the imminent defeat of the Federation, took a huge toll on Crimson 1's sanity; relatedly, J. Griffiths lamented Crimson 1 being "a waste of a pilot." The disgraced top ace proceeded to form an association with other supposed Federation actors, securing the now-complete PW-Mk.I and a number of cordium warheads.

Retribution and demise

"Monarch, when you hear the thunder...when the storm...comes for you...remember me."

― Crimson 1's last words

Crimson 1 destroying Presidia

During the final battle of the war, the capital of Cascadia, Presidia, was recaptured by the rebels. Just as orders came down the chain of command that the upper command echelons of both sides of the war had agreed to a ceasefire to put an end to the costly hostilities, Crimson 1 arrived over the capital on his own initiative and unilaterally and unintentionally violated the ceasefire by detonating his warheads at the capital.

The resulting detonation leveled most of the city center and killed millions of soldiers and civilians on both sides, and he took care of the rest by shooting down every operational unit in the area except Monarch, who began a final duel with the renegade Federation ace. The heated duel was a test of skill between two of the world's best pilots, during which Crimson 1 ranted furiously at the mercenary, blaming Monarch for his fall from grace and everything that happened in the war and taunting and mocking his own losses, also hinting at somehow knowing of the Deal by stating it was "[a fight] for Cascadia's soul" and that he cannot back out from it after throwing away his chance to.

Despite his technological advantage, Crimson 1 was shot down for a final time, monologuing cryptically to Monarch before his prototype aircraft's damaged cordium engines caused it to detonate in a huge explosion in the skies above the burning city.

Crimson 1's demise

Personality, traits, and relationships

"If you’re unable to fight, disengage, I don’t need mercenary trash getting a lucky shot off."

― Crimson 1

Crimson 1 was the typical Federation/Cascadian soldier who despised mercenaries. He called them "trash" and "wild dogs" who loved fighting and war and cared only about personal gain. To his wingmen, he cared about them a lot and authorized them to disengage and avoid casualties. He was fanatical to an end, believing that world peace can only be achieved by enabling the Federation to take over the world.

He was also highly devoted to the Federation and saw his unit's brutality as a demonstration of Federation power, even looking down on less influential fellow pilots like the Reserve Divisions. The special military authority granted to him, surpassing even national leaders like the Khan of Ulaanbaatar, may be a factor to this superiority complex. He did not, however, relish in having to fight and kill his own countrymen.

As the conflict dragged on, he developed an obsession with Monarch and blamed the mercenaries for causing the war to be as destructive as it was. He regretted not killing Hitman Team at Yellowstone, and by the time of the war's end, he went completely insane, blaming Monarch for his downfall and everything that happened to this point, even to the point of making a lot of assumptions on Monarch's psyche and personal goals and goading him constantly to kill him.

Additionally, he viewed Monarch as the reason and a living example of people being condemned to repeat history. This, perhaps, has links to his feelings of humiliation at being defeated by those of the kind he viewed so lowly and fulfillment at having undone everything Monarch/the CIF fought for, keeping his words at Prospero.

Behind the scenes

Crimson 1's voice actor was randomly found on the game's Discord server, the developers hiring him on the spot during a voice chat.

According to Matthew Nguyen, Crimson 1 (from a narrative and gameplay perspective) is essentially an outsider to the flight genre.

Quotes

Main article: Crimson 1/Quotes

Trivia

• Crimson 1 inherits multiple traits from various antagonists from Ace Combat.
  • He is best known as the polar opposite of Larry "Solo Wing Pixy" Foulke from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. Both eventually go rogue and became misguided extremists willing to use WMDs to achieve their goals, and battle the player in a final, solo duel.
    • However, Pixy is a mercenary who has plans in the long run, wanting to destroy the old world order so a new, united humanity may emerge from the ashes, and his plans are eventually thwarted by the player character (who's also a mercenary pilot). Crimson 1, on the other hand, is a formal military pilot who wanted to preserve the Federation's order and own plans for world unification at all costs, refusing to accept otherwise, and actually succeeds in unleashing WMDs, knowing full well that his shortsighted plans will destroy both his home country and the Federation he loves.
  • Much like Yellow 13 from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, Crimson 1 is known only by his callsign, is the poster boy of the enemy air force, and over the course of the campaign, he develops an interest of the player character which will eventually develop into a full-on obsession. 13 is both the last part of his final aircraft's HWID and the sum total number of Crimson Team members.
  • Much like Detlef Fleisher from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, Crimson 1 has a great amount of national pride and looks down on mercenaries, right down to them both calling them "wild dogs." They also have a similar callsign, with Fleisher's being "Rot 1" (Red 1).
  • Much like Mihaly A. Shilage from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, he flies under the flag of the nation that has annexed his own home country and has served in previous conflicts that established his war hero status.
  • Much like Ashley Bernitz and Michael Heimeroth from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Crimson 1's motives after the WMDs are dropped are largely fueled by national pride and he is not above using WMDs on innocents to get his vengeance.
  • His aircraft's paint job, design, and weaponry during the final battle are similar to Ilya Pasternak's CFA-44 Nosferatu from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
  • Much like Milosz Sulejmani and Varcolac Squadron from Ace Combat: Joint Assault, he and his squadron are fought four times, cannot be shot down in their first encounter, are all shot down in the third, and finished off in the fourth where they fly experimental aircraft. Fittingly, both games have a numbered 21 missions, and the fourth encounter with Crimson is also the twenty-first and final mission, takes place in a San Francisco-like city, and features a similar orange color scheme and timeframe of 1800 hours, much like Varcolac's final fight. Like Sulejmani, he is obsessed with settling a personal score with the protagonist but is defeated for more than once along with his squadron; such frustration eventually drives both of them insane.
• Crimson 1's emblem bears a great resemblance to Monarch's, albeit crimson in color, as it also resembles a crown or a butterfly. Fittingly per the butterfly effect, their actions had huge ramifications for the entire world and the causes they served.
  • Two species of butterfly actually exist that are named Pachliopta hector and Danaus plexippus, respectively better known as the crimson rose and monarch butterflies.
  • The plane signature on Crimson 1's personal emblem has stars trailing behind it, a nod to his PW-Mk.I and its cordium trails.
• Whether it was intended or not, Crimson 1 and Monarch both contain a lot of indirect references to Macbeth, namely that Crimson 1's logo can be taken as a symbolic interpretation of Monarch's (the rightful king) crown, albeit a bloody one as Crimson 1 has killed many in the name of "peacekeeping" much like how Macbeth earned his position through murder.
  • The (possible) Shakespeare references go further, with the final battle being a parallel to Macbeth and Macduff's final confrontation, and Crimson 1's eventual fall to insanity also oddly reminiscent of Macbeth's downfall.