Dearka Elsman

Dearka Elsman (ディアッカ・エルスマン) is a fictional character in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Dearka is the pilot of the stolen Earth Alliance's GAT-X103 Buster and engages the assault ship Archangel as a member of the Le Creuset Team throughout the First Bloody Valentine War. During the Second Bloody Valentine War he is assigned to the Joule Team, commanded by Yzak Joule.

Dearka's father, Tad Elsman, is a member of the PLANT Supreme Council (representing the PLANT Febuarius) and a supporter of Patrick Zala during the First Bloody Valentine War. Dearka's initial negative view of Naturals are shared by his father.

Personality & Character
Dearka has a humorous and somewhat arrogant personality, especially towards Naturals, who he reffered to as "weaklings" with his usual sarcasm. Commander Le Creuset indirectly refers to Yzak and Dearka not being model soldiers, which is why he prefers them to Nicol and Athrun. Being a lot alike, especially in their views towards Naturals, Dearka often backs his more verbally direct teammate and friend, Yzak, in any quarrels amongst the four of them. After Destiny, however, Dearka begins to act less of a stimulant for Yzak's temper and attempts to calm him when he loses his temper, especially towards Athrun.

After his first-hand experiences aboard the Archangel, especially with the CIC officer Miriallia Haw, Dearka re-evaluates his opinions towards the Naturals and realizes that all human life is equally worth protecting.

Skills & Abilities
Dearka is an extremely skilled pilot, as he is a ZAFT red and a member of the elite Le Creuset and Joule teams(Later promoted to Black uniform). He specializes in long range combat, using mobile suits with heavy weaponry such as the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam. He has some close range abilities as he is seen piloting his custom black ZGMF-1001/M Blaze ZAKU Phantom and defeating a number of mobile suits and battleships. He is able to match highly skilled pilots such as Mu La Flaga and Yzak Joule. He is also able to hold his own against extended pilots. After his Buster is damaged during the Bloody Valentine War, he switches to a ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior which is also a long range mobile suit. In the last phases of the Second Bloody Valentine War he switches to a black colored ZGMF-1001/M Blaze ZAKU Phantom.

Gundam SEED
During his time at the military academy, Dearka had got third place in the Le Creuset team. The Le Creuset Team infiltrated the Orb colony Heliopolis. At a Morgenroete factory, they locate the five Earth Alliance mobile suits. Dearka took the Buster and escaped back to the Vesalius. However, only four of the mobile suits were captured; the last one, the Strike, unknown to them, was being piloted by an Orb Coordinator named Kira Yamato.

Battles with the Archangel
With the Buster Dearka took place in multiple battles with the Archangel. Most of the time Dearka stood toe to toe in battle with Mu La Flaga. In the Artemis base Nicol used Mirage Colloid to sneak into the base and destroy the lightwave barrier generators. When Dearka and Yzak joined him together they destroyed the base. When the Archangel was going to descend to earth the Le Creuset team intercepted the Archangel with the 8th Fleet. Dearka and the others destroyed multiple battleships when the Archangel descended to earth. When Kira Yamato launched in his GAT-X105 Strike Gundam Yzak chased him until they both got caught in the Earth's gravitational pull. Luckily they both survived. They both were sent to the "Desert Tiger" Andrew Waltfeld. They took part in the last battle with the Archangel in the desert. In the sea Dearka and Yzak reunited with Athrun and Nicol. Multiple battles took place against the Archangel until the battleship docked in the Orb Union.

On the Archangel
After an unsuccessful search for the Archangel in the Orb Union, the Le Creuset team continue to fight Kira Yamato and his GAT-X105 Strike. After his Buster Gundam was damaged by Mu La Flaga's FX-550 Skygrasper and with the Archangel's main guns locked on him, Dearka was forced to surrender. Dearka is then held captive on the Archangel, until the ship defects to the Orb Union. During this time he befriends Miriallia Haw and though she attacked him in anger, when she saw Flay Allster wielding a gun and preparing to kill Dearka due to her hatred for Coordinators, Miriallia tackled Flay and saved his life. Later after seeing how both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT had become controlled by corrupt people, Dearka retakes his Buster and fights with the Archangel against the Earth Alliance attacking Orb. After they failed to protect Orb they headed into space.

During the Battle of Mendel, he confronts his close friend Yzak Joule, who accuses him of betraying both ZAFT and the PLANTs. Dearka admits he really is not betraying them, it is just that after being in the Archangel's brig he learned to gain some respect for the Naturals after befriending Miriallia when she saved his life. Dearka knows he can't return to ZAFT because of Patrick Zala's current goal of exterminating all of the Naturals since he has now decided to refuse to follow orders of killing Naturals indiscriminately. Although Yzak refused to believe it and thinks that Dearka is being deceived, Dearka responds by questioning who among the two of them is truly being deceived. During the Second Battle of Jachin Due, Buster is heavily damaged in battle, but survives thanks to Yzak who got him back to the Archangel. Rather than rest in the medical bay, Dearka decided to observe the remainder of the battle on the Archangel's bridge. After the war, Dearka decided to return to ZAFT now that the PLANTs were under stable leadership again.

Gundam SEED Destiny
Dearka reappears in Phase-05, as Yzak's right hand man upon the Nazca-class battleship, Voltaire. The Joule Team was sent to demolish the ruins of Junius Seven, which were on a crash course to Earth due to the tampering of extremist believers of Patrick Zala. Dearka was sent out to lead the rest of the Joule Team in setting Meteor Breakers up all around the destroyed colony. The Minerva was sent in to aid them, and was at the time carrying Athrun Zala on board, and they're bombarded by said extremists.

Same old same old, upon the reunion with Athrun; Yzak calling him a bastard, telling him not to order him around since he was the commander now, something all too familiar with Dearka because nothing's really changed at all. Fighting in his Gunner ZAKU Warrior, they manage to stop the attack of the extremists and Phantom Pain, but not quickly enough to finish the demolition of the Junius Seven ruins. They fall to Earth, causing mass destruction of the planet, and as the Minerva descends to Earth along with it, Gilbert Dullindal boards the Voltaire to be escorted back to the PLANTs.

The Earth Alliance launches a preemptive attack on the PLANTs after these events, and the Joule Team joins in the mass defense against them. As they hold one team off, the Alliance sneaks a second team in from a different direction, armed with nuclear missiles. Shocked, Dearka and Yzak rush in to try and stop them, but are unable to make it. Luckily, ZAFT was armed with a new weapon, the Neutron Stampeder, which took all of the ships out.

Pretty soon, Athrun was facing indecisiveness at Gilbert's offer to allow him back into ZAFT, pretty new mobile suit and all. He gets a visit from Dearka and Yzak, and he explains that if he wants to go out, his stay was still considered a visit by someone from a foreign country, and with recent events it was a precaution of sorts, so they were sent for that reason, also because somebody ( most likely Chairman Dullindal) knew about the relationship between the three.

They go to visit the graves of Nicol, Miguel and Rusty, and talk about the events that have just taken place in the world. Dearka and Yzak explain that it can't be helped that ZAFT had then declared their right to aggressive self-defense, because the Alliance attempted to destroy the PLANT's with nuclear weapons. When Athrun is asked to return to ZAFT again, it's explained that both Dearka and Yzak faced a number of problems after the first war, but Gilbert stood by them and said that youths such as themselves shouldn't be punished for the actions started by their leaders, and that because of what they've been through, that they should be the ones entrusted with the future. Dearka explains that's why he's still in ZAFT, because he knows he could make something of it for the sake of the PLANTs and his friends, just like Yzak does.

In the early 20s, Miriallia Haww suggests that she can't stand it when people try to nitpick and complain about the choices she makes with her life, and that she would dump anybody who tried it. Seeing as she mentions dumping Dearka within five minutes of saying that, obvious signs as well as a Newtype article point to that happening between the two, who had dated sometime between SEED and Destiny. In the mid 30s, when LOGOS is pronounced as the background cause of all of these conflicts by profiting on the economy of warfare, Yzak is visibly irritated by these events. When he snaps at a group of soldiers taking the situation lightly, Dearka tries to calm him down and remarks that his head is going to explode one day, with his temper.

Around the time that Lacus Clyne finally reveals herself to the world against Meer who had been impersonating her up until then, ZAFT forces are sent out to battle against the Alliance, who had deployed strange, cylinder shaped things toward PLANT. Dearka launches with the Joule Team determined to destroy these things that the Alliance are trying to protect. They turn out to be part of the Requiem, a giant laser on the moon that then fires and destroys six PLANTs; four direct hits, two more from the impact of the four. Dearka and Yzak barely make it out of the way of the Requiem's beam, and then watch in helpless horror as over a million and a half people are killed in front of their eyes. Dearka and the Joule Team passionately follow Yzak's order to take out the Gounods before the Requiem can fire again at all costs. When ZAFT launches a counter-attack, Dearka and the Joule Team fight as hard as they can.

In the final battle, Dearka playfully asks Yzak what they were doing, and if they planned on launching and getting themselves killed. Yzak calls him stupid and tells him that he shouldn't have launched if he's going to think like that, and then follows him out to the battlefield. They run into Athrun again, and Dearka tries to calm Yzak down, who is angry that he came back like this again and explains that they were all out there and aiming to do the same thing; destroy the relay station, so it doesn't matter what he's doing out there, and they should go and just do it together. And they do.

Yzak orders Dearka and his team to defend the Eternal, stating that it was a ZAFT ship, and warns them away from the Messiah's line-of-fire. As they protect the ship, we get a small revisit of SEED's Phase-50, Dearka-gets-attacked and Yzak screams-his-name, but luckily Dearka is safe. When the battle comes to an end, and once everything settles down, Dearka stays aboard the Voltaire and watches the ship while Yzak escorts Lacus Clyne back to the PLANTs. At the end when Lacus is escorted into the council room, one of the soldiers in line is Dearka in his black uniform.

Miriallia Haw
Dearka started in bad terms with Miriallia when he said, "Maybe you get a weakling boyfriend that died in this war" which caused Miriallia to try to kill him. Later, when Flay Allster tries to shoot Dearka, Miriallia saves him. After Dearka told her that he was not the one who killed Tolle, Miriallia becomes more friendly towards him.

In the beginning of Gundam Seed Destiny it is said that Dearka was dating Miriallia. But they broke up after 5 months.

Yzak Joule
Yzak is Dearka's best friend. Dearka and Yazk would agree on mostly everything and Dearka would often go along with what Yzak was doing. When Dearka joined the Clyne Faction, Yzak thought Dearka was a traitor and he was being deceived. Dearka answered that with saying, "I wonder which one of us is really being deceived"  which during the final battle of the war opened Yzak's eyes on what was really happening.