Reyla Cooper

Reyla Cooper is a secondary antagonist in the third book, The Fall, and the main antagonist of the spin off book, The Terran.

History
Like the quasi totality of the Red Light's generals, she initially worked as an officer in the RLSA before her shining. She, like many of the other former RLSA officers, was caught up and shined during the Siege of Venus in 2714. Although not as high ranked as the other RLSA generals turned Red Light, she distinguished herself during the siege of Venus and earned a place amongst the top brass of the Red Light.

The Invasion of Earth
Reyla was chosen as one of the generals leading the invasion of Earth. She was placed in South America. After the invasion failed and the Red Light troops retreated to Mercury, Reyla deliberately stayed on Earth in an attempt to subdue the planet, or at least some parts of it, on her own terms. Although she claimed to attempt to take over the entire planet, she knew it was impossible, and hoped to hinder Earth and the Liberators as much as possible, and holding South America as long as possible, before retreating to Mercury using whatever leverage she could find against the Liberators.

After the Red Light officially gave up on Earth and the chain of command was broken, Reyla used the few remaining Red Light soldiers left and extended her operations upwards, towards North America for some time. She even managed to take back RLSA-Earth and use it as her base of operation for a short period of time. Soon, as the Terran armies, under the leadership of Ben Liberator, pushed the remnant Red Light forces back. Reyla eventually lost RLSA-Earth and eventually lost most of South America. By then, when all that was left of her occupied territory was the southern part of Brazil and parts of Uruguay and Argentina. That was when she discovered Ben Liberator's Daughter, who had been vacationing in Rio de Janeiro before the invasion. She kept her hostage, stopping Ben's approach in South America. While the rest of the Red Light remnants on Earth were wiped out, Reyla's small territory in South America was left unviolated for the rest of the duration of Ben's liberation of Earth.

Reyla eventually struck a deal with Ben, to allow her to retreat to Mercury, in exchange for his daughter's freedom. Ben agreed, which allowed Reyla to escape Earth. She, however, violated the terms and murdered Ben's daughter in order to cripple him.

Although her occupation proved to short lived, she did manage to hold Brazil long enough for the Red Light scientists to gather the information that allowed the discovery of Tark.

The final days of the War
Reyla was one of the rare Red Light Generals involved in the failed Invasion of Earth, to have survived and lived on afterwards. While Reyla was busy on Earth, the other two: Jasmine Moon and Ludvan Holtz, spearheaded the Red Light's involvement in the final days of the Colds' invasion of Saturn, with Jasmine personally leading a reconquest of Venus. Although the three of them had been considered disgraced by their failure on Earth, Jasmine and Ludvan were considered to have cleared their names because of their recent victories. Reyla, however, was still shunned and belittled by the two other generals despite her further involvement on Earth. Reyla was left with a desire to prove herself, which furthered her ambition.

When it became known that Alex and Lorraine had been hiding in the deep system, Reyla stepped in and offered to capture the two and going so far as to engage the Aquaterrans. Her plans failed and she was caught in an attack while positioned in orbit of Aquaterra. After retreating back to Tark, she began to show her distrust towards the Red Light's administration and her hostility towards the Warms. She volunteered to be sent to Jupiter, under the pretext of wishing to aid the Warms in their crusade against the Colds. Secretly, she was plotting to weaken the two parties and assume control of the Gas Giants. She was, while not aware, backed by the Lunaregnum Empire, which provided her with over a thousand men.