OVA
Description
Greg Gates is a Danish mercenary pilot serving at the remote desert airbase known as Area 88 in the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Aslan. His past includes service as a pilot in the Danish Air Force, from which he was dishonorably discharged alongside a comrade named Bugsy Malone following a relatively minor infraction. After leaving the military, Gates began operating a covert air taxi service, smuggling defectors from Eastern Bloc countries across the Baltic Sea. This career came to a violent end during an operation involving a famous violinist and her daughter. After a confrontation where he killed a Soviet agent, Gates was forced to flee to Aslan and enlist with the mercenary forces at Area 88 to escape Soviet retaliation.
Greg Gates is defined by a personality that contrasts a gruff, straightforward, and sometimes apathetic exterior with a deeply resilient and capable interior. He dislikes cumbersome formalities and has a preference for heavy, powerful armaments, a taste reflected in his choice of aircraft. His demeanor is often the source of comedic relief, as his actions and remarks can inadvertently escalate tensions or create complications for his comrades and commanding officers. Despite this role, he is widely recognized as an exceptionally skilled pilot, possessing a reputation among the other mercenaries as the only person who could not die in combat, a testament to his extraordinary durability and calm under fire. His flying style prioritizes toughness and adaptability, often making use of older or unconventional aircraft to devastating effect.
Gates is motivated primarily by survival and a pragmatic acceptance of his circumstances. As a fugitive from Soviet justice with no homeland to return to, service at Area 88 provides both a haven and a source of income. He lacks the personal vendettas or romantic entanglements that drive some of his fellow pilots, instead approaching his work as a dangerous but necessary profession. His loyalty is reserved for the close circle of friends he has made at the base, and he proves willing to take significant risks to protect them.
Within the story of Area 88, Greg Gates serves as a steady and reliable presence, often acting as a foil to the more tormented or idealistic characters. He is consistently ranked among the base’s top aces, holding the highest success rate for ground-attack missions, with his combined air-to-air and air-to-ground success rate rivaling that of the leading pilots, Shin Kazama and Mickey Simon. His reliability is such that he was one of the few people trusted by the base commander, Saki Vashtal, and he briefly served as acting commander when Vashtal was away. During a critical mission, a speech he made to regular soldiers, reminding them that they had a homeland and a future to return to while the mercenaries did not, had a lasting impact, influencing those soldiers to later side with Area 88 in a decisive battle for the capital.
His key relationships are defined by deep bonds of friendship and mutual respect formed in the crucible of war. He maintains a particularly close friendship with Bugsy Malone, a fellow Danish exile who followed a similar path to Area 88. He is also a close friend and trusted wingman to pilots like Mickey Simon and Shin Kazama. Gates is a member of the original core group of mercenaries recruited to Area 88, and over the course of the war, he becomes the sole surviving member of this initial group as his friends are killed one by one.
The character of Greg Gates develops through his consistent demonstration of resilience and his subtle but profound influence on the conflict. While he does not undergo a dramatic personality shift, his eventual fate provides a poignant commentary on the random and often senseless nature of war. In the battle preceding the final engagement to recapture the capital, Gates is shot down. While being transported to safety in a jeep driven by a civilian, he comforts a crying young girl who has lost her mother. The frightened child accidentally fires a handgun, shooting Gates in the abdomen. Refusing to let his fellow soldiers harm the girl, he reassures her with a smile and dies from the wound, a skilled veteran mercenary killed not in a blaze of aerial glory but by a civilian child’s panicked action.
Greg Gates possesses notable abilities as a pilot, excelling particularly in ground-attack roles where his aggressive and resilient style shines. He is known for his physical toughness and his ability to survive extreme situations, once treating his own gunshot wound in the field using a bayonet and gunpowder, and on another occasion, flying a burning aircraft back to base, patching his own bleeding head wound, and immediately re-arming for another sortie. Throughout his service, he pilots several different aircraft, including the A-4 Skyhawk and OV-10 Bronco, but is most famously associated with the heavily armored A-10 Thunderbolt II, a plane that perfectly matches his preference for survivability and heavy firepower.
Greg Gates is defined by a personality that contrasts a gruff, straightforward, and sometimes apathetic exterior with a deeply resilient and capable interior. He dislikes cumbersome formalities and has a preference for heavy, powerful armaments, a taste reflected in his choice of aircraft. His demeanor is often the source of comedic relief, as his actions and remarks can inadvertently escalate tensions or create complications for his comrades and commanding officers. Despite this role, he is widely recognized as an exceptionally skilled pilot, possessing a reputation among the other mercenaries as the only person who could not die in combat, a testament to his extraordinary durability and calm under fire. His flying style prioritizes toughness and adaptability, often making use of older or unconventional aircraft to devastating effect.
Gates is motivated primarily by survival and a pragmatic acceptance of his circumstances. As a fugitive from Soviet justice with no homeland to return to, service at Area 88 provides both a haven and a source of income. He lacks the personal vendettas or romantic entanglements that drive some of his fellow pilots, instead approaching his work as a dangerous but necessary profession. His loyalty is reserved for the close circle of friends he has made at the base, and he proves willing to take significant risks to protect them.
Within the story of Area 88, Greg Gates serves as a steady and reliable presence, often acting as a foil to the more tormented or idealistic characters. He is consistently ranked among the base’s top aces, holding the highest success rate for ground-attack missions, with his combined air-to-air and air-to-ground success rate rivaling that of the leading pilots, Shin Kazama and Mickey Simon. His reliability is such that he was one of the few people trusted by the base commander, Saki Vashtal, and he briefly served as acting commander when Vashtal was away. During a critical mission, a speech he made to regular soldiers, reminding them that they had a homeland and a future to return to while the mercenaries did not, had a lasting impact, influencing those soldiers to later side with Area 88 in a decisive battle for the capital.
His key relationships are defined by deep bonds of friendship and mutual respect formed in the crucible of war. He maintains a particularly close friendship with Bugsy Malone, a fellow Danish exile who followed a similar path to Area 88. He is also a close friend and trusted wingman to pilots like Mickey Simon and Shin Kazama. Gates is a member of the original core group of mercenaries recruited to Area 88, and over the course of the war, he becomes the sole surviving member of this initial group as his friends are killed one by one.
The character of Greg Gates develops through his consistent demonstration of resilience and his subtle but profound influence on the conflict. While he does not undergo a dramatic personality shift, his eventual fate provides a poignant commentary on the random and often senseless nature of war. In the battle preceding the final engagement to recapture the capital, Gates is shot down. While being transported to safety in a jeep driven by a civilian, he comforts a crying young girl who has lost her mother. The frightened child accidentally fires a handgun, shooting Gates in the abdomen. Refusing to let his fellow soldiers harm the girl, he reassures her with a smile and dies from the wound, a skilled veteran mercenary killed not in a blaze of aerial glory but by a civilian child’s panicked action.
Greg Gates possesses notable abilities as a pilot, excelling particularly in ground-attack roles where his aggressive and resilient style shines. He is known for his physical toughness and his ability to survive extreme situations, once treating his own gunshot wound in the field using a bayonet and gunpowder, and on another occasion, flying a burning aircraft back to base, patching his own bleeding head wound, and immediately re-arming for another sortie. Throughout his service, he pilots several different aircraft, including the A-4 Skyhawk and OV-10 Bronco, but is most famously associated with the heavily armored A-10 Thunderbolt II, a plane that perfectly matches his preference for survivability and heavy firepower.