Brigadier General Rydia Cooley commands the Fairy Air Force’s Special Air Force, leveraging her prior career as an investment banker to shape her strategic acumen and mastery of internal power structures. Enlisting early in the JAM conflict, she transitioned from finance to military leadership, cultivating a reputation for cold pragmatism and tactical ingenuity. Her composed demeanor masks a propensity for psychological manipulation, exemplified by her exploitation of Rei Fukai’s symbiotic relationship with the AI-enhanced Yukikaze fighter. Under her directive, Rei pilots the experimental FRX-00 Mave while psychiatrist Edith Foss—later revealed as her niece—monitors both pilot and machine.

Cooley’s strategies prioritize minimizing casualties while outmaneuvering adversaries, notably executing a decisive counterinfiltration operation to evacuate FAF forces from Fairy by luring JAM agents into a fatal trap. She navigates bureaucratic tensions between field operatives and high command with calculated precision, blending authoritarian control with adaptive decision-making. Her leadership remains anchored in organizational efficiency, maintaining an aura of detached reasonableness despite underlying manipulations.