Senator Thai Sho Aiashi Hojo (MSN, retd)

Senator Hojo hails from Akshi in Quadrant 1. His father was the noted Q1 martial arts master and maverick politician Kenji Hatori, whose own career was cut short by his bizarre election-day public suicide in 3170. Hojo still bears the traces of his strict upbringing and his father's militarism. He is outwardly polite, calm, and self-effacing almost to the point of ridiculousness, but many in his long career have made the mistake of seeing only this and not the ambitious, driven and vengeful man beneath. Hojo bears insults gracefully, only for his tormentors to eventually somehow find themselves at his mercy - sometimes years later. As a naval tactician he is regarded as competent but uninspired. As a Machiavellian climber through the ranks he is without parallel. Hojo has not been romantically linked with anyone for as long as anyone can remember. He is an ascetic, living a Spartan existence with a punishing fitness and diet regimen.

He led the Martian Navy in Quadrant 6 during the Exterminator War, and as Q6 Allied commander presided over the Battle of Red Spot in 3200, at which the so-called Exterminator 'deactivation code' provided by the Forerunner AI 'Majordomo' was first deployed. Saving the Quadrant capital at the ealier Battle of Adobe in 3197 had earned him the Association Star, Mars' second highest military honour. During the subsequent formation of the Supreme Humanity Command in Q0 in 3201 it was decided that a Martian Admiral should be overall human commander, and the MSN put Hojo's name forward. He was replaced in Q6 by the infamous Chu Sho O'Hare (who was cashiered after the Douglas Affair in 3206). Hojo was responsible for drawing up plans for the defence of human space and the disposition of human fleets, but he was the subject of continual criticism by the Earthers, and these differences eventually led to Hojo's resignation as Supreme Commander in 3209 and his replacement by Thai Sho Kasei.

Hojo resigned his commission in the Martian Star Navy that year and went into 'retreat' in Quadrant 1, teaching at a military academy and practicing traditional arts of calligraphy, haiku and flower arranging. However, he returned to New Mars in 3212 in time to be considered for the selection process for the MSN's new Senatorial candidate, and many have suggested that the timing was not coincidental. With his characteristic ability to somehow end up on top, Hojo was selected by the Navy to represent them as part of the Senatorial intake for 3214, having completed by a matter of days the requisite five years of absence from the Martian military before taking up a civilian position, and some have even suggested that his political ambitions and not his feuding with Earth dictated the timing of his resignation as Supreme Human Commander.

Hojo served briefly as interim ICC Representative for Foreign Affairs in 3217-18 after the resignation of Senator Banderas, before elections in 3218 delivered a change of government.