| “ | The Demon Lord of the Round Table. A warrior who soared through the Belkan War, inspiring both fear and admiration. His presence filled the skies for but a few short months before he disappeared. Apart from that, nothing is known about him. | „ |
| ~ Brett Thompson about Cipher. |
Cipher, also known by his callsign Galm 1, is a protagonist in the Ace Combat video game series, serving as the unseen main protagonist of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. He was a mercenary pilot serving in the Ustio Air Force during the Belkan War alongside his wingman Pixy, and was also involved in the conflict with the organization "A World with No Boundaries". His presence inspired both fear and admiration, but whether Cipher acts as a noble knight, only engaging in fair fights, or a pragmatist ready to resort to dirty tactics and even war crimes for higher reward, depends on player's choice.
Biography[]
Belkan War[]
Cipher's first recorded battle took place a week into the Belkan War, when he and Pixy, known together as the Galm Team, were tasked with shooting down Belkan bombers sent to attack Valais Air Base, in which they were successful. The two pilots took part in other crucial missions as well, including the liberation of Ustio's capital Directus, dogfights over Airspace B7R, "The Round Table", where they confronted many talented Belkan aces and the destruction of Belka's super-weapon Excalibur, often being the ones to secure the victory for the Allied Forces. In the final days of war, Cipher and Pixy witnessed the indiscriminate bombing of Hoffhung by the Allied Forces. While Pixy was shocked by their disregard for human lives, Cipher's reaction remains unknown. Four days later, while on their way to assist the ground forces in a battle, they came across a Belkan bomber unit loaded with nuclear weapons flying towards Ustio. While the Galm Team managed to shoot them all down in time, Belkans detonated seven nukes on their own soil in a last-ditch attempt to stop the Allied advance. In the ensuing chaos, Pixy defected, attacked Cipher and fled the area to join up with fellow defectors from the Allied Forces, thus Galm 1 had to fight off enemy reinforcements himself.
While the Belkan War was over, Cipher's job wasn't finished yet, as a group of Belkan soldiers refused to accept defeat and had to be eliminated by him. Due to Pixy's betrayal, Patrick James Beckett, known as "PJ", was assigned to be Cipher's wingman.
Fighting A World With No Boundaries[]
In late December, the anarchist organization "A World With No Bourdaries" had surfaced, and attacked the city of Lumen with an airborne command cruiser XB-0 Hresvelgr. Cipher and PJ destroyed Hresvelgr before it could do any more damage. They were eventually sent to storm the Avalon Dam and prevent "A World With No Boundaries" from launching the V2 missile in their plan to rid the Earth of its borders. Cipher destroyed the launch control systems there, but the terrorists had a contingency plan. Pixy arrived in a prototype aircraft, ADFX-02 Morgan, and attacked the Galm Team with a laser beam, but only managed to shoot down and kill PJ. Cipher then engaged in a dogfight with his former comrade, avoiding Morgan's super-weapons. Pixy then activated Morgan's secondary V2 launch system, launching the nuke anyway. Luckily, Cipher hit Morgan's weak spots, sending it crashing down and making the V2 missile self-destruct in the air, avoiding casualties. Although Cipher is known to have survived the battle, he eventually disappeared from the skies without a trace.
Legacy[]
In 2005, an OBC reporter Brett Thompson started filming his documentary about the Belkan War. To learn all he could about Cipher for the sake of his project, he went through the declassified documents related to the war and interviewed its veterans, including Larry Foulke, who survived the encounter with his former comrade and had joined the ISAF forces by that point. At the end of his interview, he left one last message for Cipher: "Yo, Buddy. Still alive? And thanks friend. See you again."
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- A popular fan theory stated that Cipher and Mobius 1, the main protagonist of Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, are the same person. It has, however, since been debunked by Kazutoki Kono, who confirmed that they were two different people.
- In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, during the final mission, a pilot by the codename "Galm 1" is mentioned on the radio and is ordered to shoot down an enemy ace. Assuming it refers to Cipher instead of a different pilot using the same codename, it makes the Emmeria-Estovakia War the second conflict he is known to have fought in, although due to the line mentioning Galm 1 having no corresponding subtitles, it's unclear which side he fought for, since both sides had at least one ace in the air (although the Estovakian ace only spawns under certain conditions and doesn't engage in fights, further implying that Cipher was on Estovakia's side).
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