"I did. Some of the older KNF generation pilots had their escape pods deactivated. They rather preferred ... death above getting into enemy hands. Fortunately the new generation does not insist on it anymore. It was waste of many lives but it was their decision."
Ichiro sighed.
"Once I was forced to shoot my own friend. He had some kind of defect on his oxygen mask. First I did not notice anything unusual but then he started reporting things that couldn't be clearly truth. He had hallucinations and we got attacked by small Hogosha fleet. I got order to neutralize him because there was risk that he could turn onto us and we hoped we will get him safe. Before I could recover his pod one of the Hogosha fighters fired on it. Some time it was hard to not blame myself for it."
He stopped for a moment again and looked out the window.
"As I said I grew up on the New Tokyo. But I lived in shantytown. Lot of gangs fighting for their bit of power. Usually those fights between them were no more than bruises and some scratches. But then in one night we've been attacked by one of the new gangs. I was attacked by a man with knife who did not even know how to use it..."