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Diary of Kyou Ausoi.
Thursday 29-09-819.
The one wise word father ever gave me was encouraging me to keep this journal. Well, here it is. That fat, ignorant baka has been a pig-headed fool in every other regard though. Seeing as this is the first entry, I had better start from the beginning - for posterity's sake - hai? My name is Ausoi, and I had been groomed from a young age to inherit my father's business, and his ship the Uraraka Uri, upon his passing. The Uraraka Uri is a Drone, and ancient. It belonged to my father's father, and his father before that. To ensure I would be able to take my inheritance as the eldest son, I was inducted into the higher school of Kyushu's Nichinan City. Later I was schooled at Nichinan Flight Academy, at the same time as my younger brother Isamu.
After we passed, father volunteered me for naval service. I did not know he'd done this until the shuttle arrived to take me. My brother went to the State Police. I served on the Nagumo in a Dragon for three months. That was a training assignment, fighting Outcasts and the occasional Golden Chrysanthemum in the dust fields. After that, my wing was assigned to the Yamaguchi. When we left, I was considered a veteran by the newer recruits. They'd had less than a month of training before departing, and were greener than Rheinland's flag. Most of them died in the first few weeks, so others were rushed up to replace them. After a month of blockading the Tau 23 gate and skirmishing with Bretonian scouts, I was promoted to Kaigun-Chūi and granted a Chimera. Under Kaigun-Shōsa Li, I was transferred to a new wing, participating in the siege of Harris.
That was hell. They had us penned inside the minefield, so each time we advanced it was like walking down a shooting range. For every one of them we killed, they took two or three of us in return. Those Gaijin bastards were honourless dogs, and there was no low they would not stoop to, if it would allow them to murder one of the Emperor's samurai. Despite that, they were brave. They would not break or retreat. We had them against the wall, and they knew it. Hai, did they know it... Somehow I survived that assignment. Better men than me died. Kaigun-Shōsa Li, hero of the Taus, first through the breach into Leeds... He fell and died screaming. He was due to return to New Tokyo for R&R the week after his death. He left a wife and one young child.
After a full year in the Navy, I was promoted to full Kaigun-Daii and transferred again. This time I was moved to the very front, the Nagasaki. In Seto, the death toll on both sides was horrendous. We'd launch wings at the Planet that were repulsed, then they treat us to the same at Stokes. It's a stalemate, and has been for the last however many years. Attrition. I was just another prime cut of steak, being transferred from one abattoir to another. I lasted maybe 2 months out there. Two wings of Templars caught my unit as we were on patrol around LD-14, probing their defences. They cut us to bits before reinforcements could be dispatched. I ejected for the first time, but the pod was faulty.
By the time I was pulled out, my legs were ruined. They had to be amputated just below the knee. You can't fly a fighter without legs, so the Navy abandoned me. I was given my $120,000 for a debilitating amputation, then sent home to Kyushu as a ruined man. I've heard the children at home call me The Rōnin now; the warrior who lost favour with his master. Hai, it fits. I'll take that name and wear it as a badge. The news says LD-14 fell to Kusari not so long ago. That satisfied me, to an extent. But that's enough for now, dear diary. I'd hate for you to think I'm a bitter and twisted man. I'll let you know the rest later on.
In service of the Emperor, if not of his servants.
-Kyou Ausoi.