In her 6WA pic (p 95- Year 2068), she's got a strange pyramid pin on her collar. That could be a hint that maybe there was something shady, as we old INWO fans know that triangle could both be an in-joke or a symbol of shady affiliations.
System Failure, page 106
Standing behind the podium was a steel-haired woman in her mid fifties, wearing the dress uniform of a UCAS general. Two stars graces each shoulder, and around her neck was a small silver medal shaped like a pyramid. Haeffner knew that honor well-he had awarded it only a year ago.
I think the author intended it be a Seattle Arcology Service Medal.
Heh, well to be honest, I was in conspiracy mode, I used to play INWO so "spot the pyramid" is still implanted in my subconscious... It's also done on like a collar pin (minus any other say flag pin or UCAS Military insignia) so it just looks... odd there. You're right, the artist prolly goofed a little and just stuck it on halfway just to try and back up that it was Colloton in that picture.
My Question 3 was indeed a question - my bad in not making that clear (should have left off the 3, i suppose). Seeing as how Ares has lost out post-Haeffner, I'm inclined to agree that Knight/Ares are more unlikely.
Tossing in Rinelle was just as a possibility, given their relative proximity to Seattle. Hell, Brackhaven is just as much a suspect because Nadia is an Elf in UCAS power (big no-no, according to Humanis et al). I just looked up the 6WA entry, it says that Nadja survived an assassination attempt. So that's on record, as is her status as Acting President. But there's nothing to say she was sworn in. A pro tem President and Colloton are supposed to have gotten things back from whatever brink.
The attempt could very well be Chaemera, like was suggested (a little retconning or at least making the shadowtalk to be the usual half-truth). As far as the pro tem, while it doesn't mention who it was in the original 4e book, in the 20th Anniversary (4A) it clarifies that Najda was in fact that President pro tem that told Colloton to declare martial law until things got settled down. That could mean that she might not have disappeared until 2068 when Colloton was elected. Why this suggestion is put into force is a) the pro tem deal probably could have been applied due to the suspended UCAS elections, which were not held again until '68 (unlike the CAS elections which went on the next year after the coup), which means that Nadja could have been P-pt until then as there has been no mention of a missing president.
However, I will admit that there is a semi-hole in that theory, as the writeup carried over in 4A was that "when elections were held again, we had little choice but to elect a President who ended up being nothing but a tool of the corps for his entire term". Which implies that there may have been elections SOME TIME between '64 and '68. I'm going on a limb here and thinking that since the UCAS and CAS elections were usually held on the same day, as they had been since at least 2060, that some time around 2/10/65 there was a UCAS special election like there was in the the south. It may have been accidentally left off of the writeup for '65 (not like that would be the only entry to make a oops typo in there), so we got some nameless prez in for 3 1/2 years instead of Najda, though she would have been eligible. This could in fact imply that she disappeared some time after she had Colloton declare martial law, since she was certainly popular enough to be elected President Daviar (being that Haeffner got overwhelmingly reelected in '60, and usually surviving veeps of assassinated presidents get that little extra oomph when people think about them at voting time). That she didn't get elected/didn't run is usually backed up by mentions of her being "former Vice President".