"So you're my lawyer. Why would I need a lawyer, Gaijin?"
The pudgy, and rather sloppy Bretonian sat down heavily, opposite to his client, and responded with a voice which betrayed no patience whatsoever with this arrogant young Kusari commander.
"This is Bretonia, so you are the Gaijin here, and watch your attitude lad, seeing as I'm the only friend you have in about 5 lightyears."
"As to why you would need a lawyer, I'll describe briefly to you the rather serious situation you are in. You know the HMS Thames?"
At that name the young Chujo looked up and nodded. "It was a training Dunkrik we inadvertantly destroyed in the operation to invade Leeds. That was a tragic accident of war. The death of its crew is a stain on Kusari's honour. I know. I was there."
The pudgy lawyer was silent for a minute. Then he spoke slowly in a soft voice.
"You were not only there. The ship you so recently commanded, the Goju Ryu, which now floats in space near Stokes in about a million pieces, fired the fatal blow into the hull of the Thames. The Crown's position is that you deliberately destroyed that ship, knowing it was essentially defenseless, with malice aforethought. In short, they are to hang you as a war criminal, and I am tasked with the wellnigh impossible and thankless job of defending you."
The prisoner was livid with rage, but silent. His lawyer continued.
"As a Bretonian, I could not care less if you hang, and in fact relish the prospect. My niece was onboard the Thames. She was 18."
The prisoner stood and faced his council, who backed off, taken aback by the young man's intensity.
"The fault", the Kusari snarled, "of the death of that ship, lays with her commander, who should NEVER have taken her into battle with limited strength, and with an inexperienced crew, against an experienced Destroyer task force! It was all over before we even knew it! Four salvos was all it took! FOUR! Two of mine, and two of Chijin's! Find that idiot commander's corpse and put HIM on trial for incompetence!"
The lawyer looked at his client and gave him a tired smile.
"I do believe you, you know. But truth is the first casualty of war. The Crown has selected its scapegoat. You know that word?"
The prisoner nodded, resigned now.
"You will likely hang. I will be honest with you. I do not care. But as your lawyer, believe it or not, I will do my best to defend you. We are like that, lawyers. Actors in a play, sometimes, where the outcome is almost predetermined, but we dig in our heals, and fight, and sometimes we win on a technicality. Maybe I'll find one in this case, though I doubt it."
The lawyer picked up his satchel with a shrug. He left some papers on the desk and gestured at them.
"We can meet again later. If you wish to contact me, tell your guards, and they are obliged to relay your wishes to me. Review those papers."
He left.
Chujo John Miyagi sat staring blankly at the papers in front of him for a very long time.
----------------------------------------
"Visitor", the guard announced.
"Tell the fat bastard I haven't finished looking at his documents. He can come back when I ask him."
"I'm not particularily fat, and my parents were married."
The Kusari rolled out of his bunk, and looked up at his visitor. He was tall, thin, and was wearing a black tunic, with an odd insignia on the epaullets.
"Who are you?", he asked tersely.
The visitor smiled, and sat. "I'm somebody who knew your father."
At those words, Miyagi tensed, then stood. "You're a Mandalorian. I've met some of you. In the cockpit." His tone gave no illusion of goodwill.
The visitor ignored his attitude, and continued. "Your English is excellant. Your mother taught you?"
John nodded slowly. "I'm not interested in small talk. You are my enemy. I understand the difference between chivalry and familiarity. Or do you typically engage in meaningless blather with your sworn enemies?"
The Mandalorian smiled. "Of course. Let me introduce myself. I am Dha Piruna. Your father made me Mandalore when he returned to Kusari. A position I held for some short while, before it was taken from me, in our manner."
He sat and turned to face Miyagi. "You are, believe it or not, a Mandalorian. You are son of a former Mandalore, and like it or not, you are one of us. Under our tradition, you do not even have the right to reject your heritage."
Miyagi started to smile, then laughed for quite a while, but bitterly.
"You MUST be joking. I was born with two ancestries, opposed to each other in a brutal conflict, and now YOU propose to add a third? What's next, do I have another visitor from Rheinland claiming I am his heir?"
Dha Piruna looked sadly at the Kusari, then pulled a bottle from his tunic and threw it to the prisoner.
"Got that past the guards. Its an excellant single malt Scotch. It was your fathers. A birthday present he never got to drink."
The prisoner looked sadly at the bottle. "Thank you, but I don't even drink." He attempted to hand the bottle back to Dha, who waved it away.
"Then start drinking now. Prison is a good time to start. Or trade it for something. I don't care. I just thought it was something you should have."
The Mandalorian stood, to leave, but then he walked close to the Kusari, so he could not be overheard, and leaned down to where Miyagi sat on his bunk, and spoke quietly.
"The Thames was not your fault. The Mandalorians know that. A good many of the Bretonian Armed Forces know that. But the Crown will press for a propoganda victory with this trial of theirs, and the deck WILL be stacked against you."
He leaned even closer now, and spoke in a harsh whisper.
"Know this. The son of John Cabot will NOT hang as a scapegoat. We WILL not permit it. On that you have my word."
The Kusari looked up and saw the grey eyes of a hardened killer, and knew Piruna spoke the truth.
The Mandalorian said no more, but left quickly. The guard closed the door, and pretended not to see the bottle.
Miyagi looked down at his father's Scotch, and reflected on his three heritages. Two in conflict.
Incoming transmission...
ID: Akira Kumura
Subject: An unwelcomed guest
Today, a Boarder Worlds Transport was asked to leave many times, becuase it had a Junker IFF. It went from Kyushu, to New Tokyo, and back to Kyushu. After the last straw, we decided that there was no other way to remove him from Kusari space besides force. I followed him for about 120 kilometres until I decided that it would be better to break off and wait for him to return to a jump hole. He, much to my surprised, reveled his location, and one of our gunboats went and destroyed the foolish Junker.
Incoming transmission...
Name: Daisa Alex Sasaki
Subject: Re:An unwelcomed guest
------------------------------------------------
To make things clear, i wish to make one final note on the above report and disclose that the gunboat in question was the one i currently command, the Hiroto Katsuo.
I believe it makes more sense to have full and complete details of where credit is due. However all ships involved were a great help. I'm sorry i do not have a full list but my records were lost.
I can't make a very specific report about saturday's mission, but I'm gladly to inform that I took down one of the BAF pilots.
Yesterday, I launched my bomber for first time. I started patroling Kusari territory, but as it was very quiet, I moved to the TAUs, where I found a trader carrying engine components to Bretonia from our territory, after I warned him to stop, he keeped trying to get on cruise speed, he jumped to TAU-31, and almost escape from me, he was going to take the trade lane, and I was too far to disrupt it with my main guns, but, he didn't count on using the SNAC to disrupt the trade lane, which worked very good. I quickly got him with the TCD, and destroyed him, and his cargo.
PS: The callsign on my bomber is now fixed, don't pay attention to the one on the following records.
Incomming Transmission
Comm ID: Daii Byakuya Kuchiki
Subject: Returned
I'm happy to say that my mission was a succes. For those who don't know, i was on a Classified mission, signed, by himself the Emperor, wich is obvious i could have not refused.
It's been a long time since i gave a sign of life but as soon as i got back i was eager to hop up into my ship and give it a spin. The day started pretty...boring...I encountered in space our newly promoted Daisa Alex Sasaki( new to me thus i was not here when it happened, and congratulations to him and the others), he was helping the new recruit Takeshi-san setting into Kusari, and he asked me for a little "help". After it was done, they headed to the Hiroshima system for some training, and i remained patroling in Kyushu. I don't know what exactly happen back there but they didn't seem to be fighting, cos on my radar i read that only Takeshi-san had remained around, probably the Daisa had some important matters to attend. It wasn't long after that and the new recruit was trying to get back in New Tokyo, when he sent me a distress call, that he is beeing attacked by a Corsair(Vybz_Kartel). Before he could finish the message he was down. I rushed there as soon as i could, but his pod was already took by the navy patrols. I contacted him, he was fine, just few injuries so i went after the corsair, i searched all the lanes in New Tokyo and finally reached him near Yokohama shipyard. I told him to cut his engines, and he did but before i could talk to him, the navy patrols almost got him. he ran away severly damaged and he provoked me to a duel. He was in a bomber i was in my gunboat. I accepted the proposal and went to the coordinates he gave me. As planned i went there and began the fight...at first he got the upper hand, but in few minutes i was all over him, and it didn't took much for me to take him down. In the meantime the Daisa started the training with the recruit so i joined them in Hiroshima system to watch the fight. The recruit put up a pretty good fight, but he wasn't enough for the Daisa.
That's all for today!
With the Kusari war machine in full operation, technologies and production processes have been streamlined countless times within both Samura and Kishiro. The culmination of this technological prowess, military prestige and graceful beauty can be plainly seen with the construction of the divine Emperor's Yacht. A personification of the Kusari way of life, our pride and our superiority over the foreign barbarians. Yet, despite this, still succeptible to our dispicable deviant Bretonian foes.
With this in mind, the guard Destroyer "ゆれいごろし" is in the final stages of construction and checks before it is officially put into service. Taisho Hikaru Sulu has already approved its commission under request from the Emperor Jien Kogen.
Despite our setbacks in Dundee and the resilience of the Bretonians protecting Planet Leeds, the Emperor demands that we step up our efforts of the elimination of the tumours within Kusari as well as the plagues outside. To this end, the ゆれいごろし was constructed to ensure his safety. The Destroyer is likely the first of many more to serve as the Emperor's protection.
The crew of the ゆれいごろし have been specifically chosen for their qualities of skill and loyalty. Every one of them is ready and willing to give their lives in the service and protection of the Emperor. This commission represents the formation of the Emperor's personal flotilla and another step closer to the elimination of our enemies.
Konnichiwa. Today at least, I stopped a Firefly transport with illegal cargo coming from the Taus to Leeds. He refused to stop, and I neutralized it.
A while after that, another Firefly with the same name came from the Taus, but this time it was escorted by an... outcasts. The Firefly, unfourtanely, escaped, but the Outcasts has been destroyed by my cannonballs.
Patroling near to the Stokes, one member of the AFA, was dueling with a MM merc, a honorable fight is something that must no be interrupted, and I took my place to watch it. The merc made the AFA's pilot ran, and his ship was at %100 functional. We engaged eachother, and when I was about to destroy his ship, he started using what he called "tactics", running in circles, waiting until the BAF patrol destroys me. I was running out of ammo, and the BAF patrol was hurting my hull very bad, so I offered him a withdraw, which he refused, and I got closer to the Stokes, so the gunners there could take those BAFs out of my tail, and they did. The merc, started crying for help to the HMS-Kent, a Bretonian cruiser, but before it arrive, my missiles finished the scramble, and I quickly docked at the Stokes for repairs, as the Bretonian cruiser was inbound.
Today I encountered 2 GC in New Tokyo, near the Honshu JH. I tried to get them to leave by talking to them. but heavens, they are indoctrinated. no logic can reach them. I was joined by Uzo-san and Chiyoko-san after some time. we tried once more to get them to leave. to no avail... it ended with a fight. they both went down. no losses on our side. The GC lost a bomber and a fighter.
Incomming Transmission
Comm ID: Daii Byakuya Kuchiki
Subject: Daily routine
Yesterday started pretty calm. I was first stationed at Shinjuku in New Tokyo, the [KNF]Soukyoku was docked there because of some malfunction i had the other day with it, I launched in space and hovered around for some time until i received some distress calls from some civilians that a Corsair is disrupting the lanes between Shinjuku and planet New Tokyo. I went there a.s.a.p. just to find the same corsair wich i bumped into the other day "Juan.Maldonato" in the same place. He stated again that he was in visit to the Hogoshans. I told him that this was the last time i'd tolerate him and asked him nicely to leave Kusari space and i followed him as he made his way thru the system. I lost him half way to the Yokohama Shipyard. After not so long i received a distress call from the Kishiro trading vessel "Ohara'Soon". The signal was weak but it came from the New Tokyo -> Honshu jumpgate. I headed that direction just too find 2 GC's([Kiretsu]-Kishin & Hanako.Izumi) and the Corsair pirating the tradeship. The GC's the first second i laid eyes on them, disengaged and fled. The corsair remained and I engaged me as he didn't heed my advice in leaving Kusari. Mostly, i was all over his Titan, but i called [KNF]Hiro_Okada to backup me, to take him down cos apparentl;y he wasn't flying a normal Titan(he was lagging as hell). The fight begin and took some time, after alot of fireing he managed to take down Hiro-san, and before i could give him the final blow he fled from the battle. Thus i think we should reconsider about the way we handle the Corsair problem. They are a continous threat to our peace.
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