Raiden (organization)

World Alliance Military is an international human military faction that serves as a main heroic organization in Raiden series. It is a manufacturer of their successful fighters called Raiden MK. II and its blue counterpart with "Beta" letter at the end of another title. Before the war with Cranassians, they will scramble their predecessor and later fighters such as Fighting Thunder ME-02.

Historical events
In the first raiden they were created about year 2090 A.D. to repel invading Cranassians. The alliance was responsible for creating Raiden Mk. II and its blue counterpart. With many Cranassian weapons destroyed, Earth made use of the aliens' technologies, to create new military forces, which used Cranassian-based weapons, thus forming a stronger military power. With the two newly created starfighters The alliance managed to thwart Cranassian invasion twice in Raiden I and II.

Events Revealed in Raiden V
Starting from Raiden III, MOSS, the new creator of Raiden series when they took over the series' distribution right from Seibu Kaihatsu, used the concept of story not revealing the enemy forces outright, but slowly revealing them as the series progresses: That was why Raiden III and IV had little, if any, story.


 * 2080 A.D.
 * May: A legion of gigantic meteors of unknown origin have struck all over lands of Earth.
 * November: A series of unexplained explosions occurs all over countries' military facilities. Immediately after weapons and arsenals began to move themselves without humans piloting them. They have all mysterious crystals embedded in them. These enigmatic crystals in turns out, can also infest into power reactors. This is dubbed as 'Crystal contamination Phenomenon'.
 * December: Military weapons from all over the Earth simultaneously went on rampage and triggering a devastating global war of attrition between humanity and out-of-control war machines.


 * 2084 A.D.
 * August: Uruguay's armed forces, government and infrastructure are completely annihilated by the massive invasion of Crystal-infected arsenals.
 * September: Uruguay's neighboring nations joined forces and successfully repelled Crystal-infected arsenals and reclaimed Uruguay after several months of bloody and savage battle. Watching this fight, the world proceeds to establish International Peace Defense Force.


 * 2086 A.D.
 * October: International Peace Defense Force is renamed and reorganized into World Alliance Military. Its mission is to purge all the infesting Crystals of Earth and is to cooperate with UN. 12 major cities of the world and 6 more countries fell victim to destruction caused by Crystals prior to the birth of the new organization.


 * 2089 A.D.
 * April: To avoid a pointless and exhaustive war of attrition 'Project Fighting Thunder' was announced. Under the theory of Department of Weapons Development, World Alliance Military sets out to create new starfighters capable of accomplishing missions under any and all circumsyances.


 * 2092 A.D.
 * March: Three years after the Project Fighting Thunder was announced a new starfighter capable of fighting in battle is completed in Russia. Not long after two more new starfighters capable of fighting in battle are also completed in USA and Japan. The performance of the three starfighters achieved desired results for the World Alliance Military.


 * 2093 A.D.
 * February: In order to boost the efficiency of the Fighting Thunder's operation, Vanquish Crystal Defense (VCD) unit was established. Raiden starfighter trio and their pilots belong to thin new unit.


 * 2097A.D.
 * February: VCD Mothership Bellwether completes her launching ceremony.
 * November: Crystal Contamination occurence at the northern American city reported: the contaminated weapon is World Alliance Military's latest spaceship. New mission to Bellwether and Fighting Thunders to destroy the Crystal-infected weapon is ordered.

Welcome to the Crystal War.

Richard Maxwell
"Fighting Thunder. Why even bother with that name. Hey "Raiden," do you hear that? It's a little late, but hurry and make your way to the battleground. I'll transfer each of you the info. Too much blood has been shed, but we will do what we can to stem the flow."

- Richard Maxwell

Richard Maxwell, nicknamed "Max", is one of the main protagonists of Raiden V. Max is voiced by Xander Mobus, who also voices Akira Kurusu and the Super Smash Bros. announcer.

He is the captain of the Bellwether, the airborne aircraft carrier where the Fighting Thunder fighters reside. He despises war and often questions why he has to fight or why he is a soldier, having lost so many comrades in battle. Outside of battle, he spends most of his free time drinking coffee or solving jigsaw puzzles. He is 42 years old of American heritage. Whwn he was young he joined US Air Force in hopes of flying the sky, but retired when he constantly carried out missions involving numerous deaths and destruction. Maxwell is forced back into service when he is ordered by his air force superior to command USAF's latest spaceship Bellwether.

He was also the man behind the codename "Raiden", as he didn't liked the name Fighting Thunder.

Eshiria Portman
Eshiria Portman is one of the main protagonists of Raiden V. She is voiced by Rina Hoshino. In the game, she serves as an operator aboard the Bellwether, and she often assists the player in giving information on the enemy crystals and judging him or her by their performance in the game.

Portman is 26 years old and is of Romanian heritage. When was a child, her house was close to air force base. Portman dreamed of joining the ait force despite her parents' objections. She had a brother 3 years older than her who became the air force pilot. When she became 15, she turned on the state-owned television to hear about the situation of the Crystal War: what she heard was not of glorious triumph, but her infuriated brother raging at his superior for a mission went horribly awry, resulting senseless deaths of all his compatriots. Portman made decision to go to university majoring in communication. Some time before the events of Raiden V Portman joined VCD unit, and was given her task at Bellwether commanded by Richard Maxwell who is famously known as 'The Death'.

Helga Lindenbaum
Helga Lindenbaum is a 54 years old woman from Germany. She lived a life of ordinary housewife until a mysterious Energen Crystal dropped on top of camping site, resulting deaths of 50 people. Among the dead was her husband.

But her suffering did not end there: a month later her son joined World alliance military to participate in the Crystal War, only to be killed in action a month later. For the next several months Helga went into a state of deep depression, but ultimately she overcame her grief and entered the world of politics. Helga turned out to be surprisingly gifted at politics: she later went to become UN representative of Germany and is subsequently promoted to a member of UN Peacekeeping Committee.

She is voiced by Laura Post.

Trivia

 * They are likely based on the real-life United Nations, considering that it is also an international organization with most of Earth's factions as its members.
 * Plot inconsistencies between Raiden and Raiden V occur: In the first Raiden the Crystal War occurs in 2090 A.D. But in Raiden V Crystal War had occurred a decade prior to that year.