Harold Shepherd Roth
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Harold Shepherd Roth | |
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| Born | 15 February 1961 Randgriz, Commonwealth of Gallia-Bruhl |
| Died | 17 March 2050 Hotel Gandia, Selucid Rumania |
| Allegiance |  Gallia-Bruhl |
| Service/ | Royal Gallian Army |
| Years of service | 1984 - 2050 |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | The Troubles X924 (1998) Second Lucis Civil War Imperial Crisis Chalcedonic War Neocon War Deseleni War |
| Awards | Military Medal Legion of St. Georgius King's Volunteer Reserves Medal King's Commendation for Valuable Service Badge of Honor National Medal |
| Relations | Georg von Damon (best friend) Kiriya Kitagawa (close friend, later betrayed) Karl Kretschmann (close friend, later betrayed) Johnny Lupo (suboordinate) Benedict Kitagawa (godson) |
Harold Shepherd Roth (15 February 1961 - 17 March 2050) was a Gallian military commander and officer who served in the Royal Gallian Army. He was one of the progenitors of Gallia's modern special forces.
Roth is known for being one of the closest friends of Kiriya Kitagawa and was instrumental in the establishment of one of the first Allied Task Forces, Task Force 141, and later establishing Task Force 142. Kiriya placed full trust with Roth's abilities. This allowed the Allied Task Forces, including Task Force 219 and Task Force 853 to be one of the best and distinguished allied special forces formations during the Imperial Crisis. When his best friend, General Georg von Damon was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, he vowed to avenge von Damon, and secretly was beginning to plot against Kiriya when the time came. Despite this, Roth continued to show a friendly gesture towards Kiriya.
During the Deseleni War, Roth was beginning to become disillusioned with the war as the Allies continued to lose battles, including even the Task Forces that he once helped Kiriya to build could not overcome the enemy. Despite the tide beginning to turn against the Selucids in 2044 with the Liberation of Nihhon-koku, Roth secretly began to plot against the Allies, and wanted to have the Selucids regain the upper hand as the Allies would begin to land troops in the Asianna landmass.
He would launch his ambitious, Case Silver, which called for the unconditional surrender of the Allies in favour of the Selucids. However, this would end in a humiliating failure for the Selucids and himself, as he met his death with a sniper's bullet as he was about to sign the instrument of surrender.
Early Life
Military Career
Case Silver: Roth's Betrayal
By early Autumn of 2049, Roth began his move against Kiriya, with relaying information to Selucid Abdul Rashid with various information on Allied Task Forces through his suboordinate, Gallian businessman and tycoon Johnny Lupo. To further increase Rashid's focus on Kiriya, he would mention that Kiriya is the reason why the Allies managed to land forces in Joyonghea, along with the destruction of the CONCORBO. While Rashid did not trust Roth, he used Roth's abilities to further his abilities against Kiriya and the Allied Task Forces. Roth would use his godson and Kiriya's own nephew, Benedict Kitagawa to his own advantage, spilling nearly all secrets that Kiriya had to hide. He used Benedict's dream to his advantage and turned him into a pawn for his and Rashid's plans to assassinate Kiriya.
Unbeknownst to the two however, Kiriya knew how bad of a person Johnny Lupo was, and often disagreed with Benedict in having a friendship with him. However, Benedict continued to defy his uncle and continued to build a relationship with the former. Roth would inadvertently reveal his betrayal when Kiriya planned an "operation" in Bethausia, with Kiriya and Thieu's men encountering Deseleni spec ops as if they knew they were coming. Kiriya continued to feed Roth with information as if they were still close friends. He would send his son, Naoto Kitagawa to go after Benedict and Roth. Naoto brew a close relationship with his elder cousin, but only as a plot for him to get close enough to Benedict for him to spill the truth. In the New Year's Eve Celebrations of 2049, Naoto would discover that Benedict indeed had a part in the role, as he was close friends with Johnny Lupo. This would put the final nail in Roth's attempts and betrayal. Kiriya and Thieu immediately moved against him. Benedict was to be spared until Roth's death and with the war's end.
On 15 March 2050, at the 115th Anniversary of the start of the Second Europan War and the 15th Anniversary of the start of the Deseleni War, Roth's clandestine special forces arrested and kept several Allied leaders hostages. This signaled Rashid to send in Diamantina Sarkatou, also known as Medusa, to assassinate Kiriya. However, unknown to them, Kiriya already had a double in place of him. The following day, Medusa and a handful of Selucid operatives raided Fort Daidoji. The personnel stationed in the vicinity were also aware of the attempt and pretended that they were taken by surprise.
Medusa successfully "assassinated" Kiriya and escaped unharmed despite Erebonian Military Police personnel attempted to shoot their plane down. Following this, Rashid accepted the fact that Roth had "succeeded" and was taken into his offer of unconditional surrender. On 17 March, two days after Case Silver, Roth, along with his puppet staff met with the Deseleni commanders, including Abdul Rashid to sign the instrument of surrender. However, Kiriya was fully aware of the location of the summit and immediately sent Task Force personnel to assassinate Roth and raid the Hotel Gandia in the Sasso Alpine Mountains in Selucid Rumania. To a shocking turn of events, a sniper's bullet entered and exited Roth's head, killing him instantly as Task Force personnel raided the Hotel. While Rashid and other Deseleni commanders escaped unharmed, Rashid would realise that Medusa had failed to carry out the assassination, and that Kiriya was still alive; Outsmarting him, Roth, and the entire personnel involved in the plot.
The news of Case Silver's failure took the Selucid Government's guard down as insurrections, rebellions, and revolts exploded throughout Selucid-occupied territories.