The Beatification of Blessed Saint Leonard (part 2)

Yeah, it's me again, your favourite infocast host here to do some deep probing... gods, that sounded weird. Let's try that again.

So before I end up lingering on that too long, let's get started. Today we're going to continue with the amazing career of Anatole Leonard, a man that was so stupid that he nearly cost us the Earth. And yet, he's also become a magnet for chuds who will loudly shout 'Leonard did nothing wrong' all while citing the same xenophobic rhetoric. Now you'd think that if there was anyone you could point at and go 'not like this' it'd be ol' Leonard, but I guess some people are just that clueless.

Where we left off at the end of part one, Leonard had managed to war crime his way across the world and be rewarded for it by the UEG by being bought into the fold. On January 1st, 2019, the Army of the Southern Cross formally became a part of the UEDF, legitimizing Leonard and his army of thugs. This was likely due to the actions of Leonard's good buddy, Wyatt ‘Patty' Moran, who at this point was ascending to the peaks of the reborn UEG, and would have had plenty of reasons to put his old chum in charge. That they both were members of the same extremist fundamentalist sect was just one of them.

Of course, I also have to wonder just how much influence our old pal T.R. Edwards had over this whole process as well. It'd do a lot for his own plans to put an incompetent xenophobic moron into a position of power, after all.

The next three years sees Leonard and Moran ascendant. By the time the Pioneer Mission is gearing up to leave in 2022, Leonard has been appointed commander in chief the UEDF, with the mandate to protect the Earth while the UEEF is off trying to prevent another war. Not that Leonard was going to keep his trap shut by any means. Instead, he makes the final expeditionary force press conference all about him, basically accusing the Hunters of abandoning Earth, leaving it defenceless and all but calling Exadore Formo a spy while he was at it. Leonard basically threw his own army under a bus to make a point.

Of course, as soon as the UEEF was underway, Leonard made his own play. Moran becomes Prime Minister in 2023, giving Leonard carte blanche to do what he wants. A sweeping series of reforms, all obstinately coming out of Moran's office, effectively rebrands the UEDF as the new Army of the Southern Cross. Everything is recast in Leonard's image, from the flag to the uniforms to their overly elaborate armour suits. The guy is even given the oh-so-subtle title of Supreme Commander. He also makes sure to stuff the command staff with his own people that he knows will be loyal to him and not question him at all, forcing out a lot of the UEDF old guard.

There are two exceptions to this purge. The first is Rolf Emerson, a capable and popular officer who had been a part of the UEDF dating back to the Macross Island days. Emerson is made Chief of Staff, effectively second in command of the Southern Cross. I suspect this was a play to ensure the loyalty of the UEDF veterans and give them the illusion of being represented within the Southern Cross' command. After all, Emerson was going to be a hard person to get rid of, especially given his connections to both the Sterlings (who were Leonard's personal enemies during the uprisings) and the Grants.

The second was GMP Commander Nigel Aldershot. An old-school UEDF member who had basically built his career off hanging around Henry Gloval on the SDF-1, he'd managed to thrive through his popularity with his subordinates and his own web of influence. Aldershot being given command of the GMP was based as much on his background in intelligence and security operations as it was on the fact that he was politically powerful and influential. Aldershot didn't like Leonard, but his position made him hard to remove. And with Aldershot being the spider he was, I wouldn't be surprised if he had dirt on Leonard as well.

Finally, it needs to be said that Leonard came into the orbit of one other powerful figure left behind on Earth, being none other than our favourite red-light warning, Doctor Lazlo Zand. Yeah, I know, we're headed into the deep crazy here, and I'll try to keep it out of the weeds, but once Zand comes into the scene I can't promise you anything. Zand and Leonard were connected, but I couldn't tell you if it was because they were buddies, because Zand had some leverage on Leonard or if Leonard was being manipulated by him without knowing. Or, given that it's Zand, all of the above.

Regardless, even though you'd think that he'd gotten all that he wanted, Leonard can't seem to keep his hands clean. In 2025, there was a series of crashes that were officially ruled as accidents, but end up grounding the ASC's entire Alpha fleet no less. Terry Weston, a disgraced former pilot, looked into the matter (with Emerson's backing) and ended up tracing it back to the Giles Academy. Said Academy was a prestigious private military school run by Dr Henry Giles, an associate (and by that I mean 'disciple') of Zand's, and helped produce candidates for the ASC. He found that Giles had developed a system that allowed a user to remotely hijack control of a Mecha, and was responsible for the crashes. Realising that the gig was up, Giles sent a Hovertank to try and kill Emerson, but was stopped by Weston. With no option left, Giles killed himself.

An investigation of the matter traced it all back to Joseph Petrie, who had been Leonard's right hand since the Brasilia days. Petrie took the hit, claiming full responsibility for all that happened. While both Leonard and Moran ate a lot of criticism for the whole mess, there was officially no connection between them and what had happened. Of course, behind the scenes it all makes sense. Leonard sets the program up for his own benefits, but then makes sure that that Giles and Petrie take the fall when it all goes bad. Emerson being killed by a 'rogue' agent would have also worked well for him by removing his biggest critic in the command staff. And Petrie ended up with a cushy job at the RRC in Tokyo working for, you guessed it, Lazlo Zand.

Less than a year later, Leonard is at it again. He'd made an ally in Doctor Eldin Frost, a wealthy off-the-grid scientist who spent his time engaged in less than ethical research. And by that we mean grave robbing, harvesting organs from Zentraedi and even his own line of horrific experiments aimed at god knows what. Frost had made himself a powerful figure in Monument City's Gauntlet district, and was using that power to stage pit fights to find recruits for his 'research'. And for whatever reason, Leonard was discretely backing Frost in exchange for his findings. Frost ended up dead courtesy of one of his victims, Lyss Gruaca (a Zentraedi veteran of the UEDF 23rd Squadron turned vigilante) and his research was lost. Sadly for us, Leonard managed to walk away from this clean.

Now I have to ask myself, what was Leonard getting out of funding this madman? If I was to hazard a guess, I'd imagine that he was looking for some sort of magic bullet or doomsday weapon, something he could use to kill Zentraedi en-masse without affecting humans. It might sound out there, but it'd fit Leonard's xenophobia to a tee. But sadly Frost was very good at hiding the evidence. And no, I couldn't find any connection between Frost and Zand. But at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised either.

Behind the scenes it seemed that Leonard and Moran had some degree of falling out, with Uncle Patty becoming more publicly critical of Leonard. Aldershot got wind of this and, seeing the opportunity, joined in the criticism of Leonard, his leadership and whatever else he could think of. Not that the head of the GMP was doing this for any remotely altruistic reason of course. He was engaged in his own back-room deals to build support for removing Leonard from power by force if needed. For me, this strikes me as a real mixed deal. I mean, yes, anyone would have been a better leader than Leonard, would anyone here really have wanted the GMP to have unlimited power? Look at how quickly Aldershot was willing to give himself emergency powers and declare martial law after the Second Robotech War and you figure this would not have ended well regardless.

As a part of his play, Aldershot tried to bring in Rolf Emerson. On paper, it made sense. Emerson was second in command of the Southern Cross, was a popular and well-liked officer and was also a known critic of Leonard. However, Aldershot also didn't figure on Emerson's loyalties; yes, he didn't like Leonard, but the guy was loyal to Earth and the UEG, rather than any one personal agenda. He wasn't going to depose the Supreme Commander or be a party to it just because Aldershot was having a bad day.

Also, you know, Aldershot really screwed up by sending a fresh graduate junior lieutenant as his representative to Emerson. In retrospect, it was not a smart move.

So Aldershot's coup fizzles on the launch pad. He finds that Leonard is ready for him, and that a lot of his supporters suddenly have cold feet, both within the GMP and outside of it as well. There's a little bit of backroom blood-letting, however, with a number of Aldershot's allies being forced into retirement while Leonard comes out of it more or less unscathed. And added to all this, there's enough of a cover-up that the public never knows what happened; officially, the ASC and GMP were engaged in 'exercises'. That involved pointing guns at each other. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Oh, and a GMP Colonel by the name of B.D. Andrews vanished during the whole mess. But that kind of flew below the radar.

Thus Leonard's power was assured, which put him in the perfect position to get the Southern Cross slaughtered by the Masters a year later. But that's for next time.

Until then, you know what to do.