When everyone was dismissed, Ichiro stayed in briefing room, demanding to speak with his commander, wishing to hear more explanations. Normaly, as every soldier with his attitude, he would have been grounded, but this time, a twinkle in commander's eye could be seen. He invited Ichiro into his private quaters. Young warrior recieved more he bargained for.
Every military vessel of Kusari Naval Forces has flight recorder and a camera as a build-in standard. The commander possesed complete record of last Ichiro's flight, in which he murdered 14 gallic pilots. It was certan that for these acions he would have been brought into a court martial by Kempentai officers, but commander proposed certain agreement. This video also showed warrior's formidable skills, wich were in valuse for the ones, who were supposed to gain power, and to lead Kusarian people to "prosperity and development". If Ichiro agreed to work for them, his "criminal" episode would have been forgotten.
Ichiro realised, that the man in front of him, was the very essence of corruption his ancestors pledged to get rid of. A military commander, one of the most trusted Emperor's man, was conspirating against him with the ones, who were trying to gain power since 500 years by any means necessary. He was the one who has left his cousins to die from overwhelming force. A man, in who they trusted their lifes, was in fact their truest enemy. Raicing thoughts have taken over young warrior's head. Ichiro just have realised, what his ancestors failed to do so, failed to see that their war ... has been lost. Crowded thoughts pierced young warrior's head. He was very aware that the events, which he has just witnessed, were markings of the beginning of the darkest hours for him, and for whole nation of Kusari.
Common man, wishing for his life to be spared, would have agreed for the traitor's proposition, but Ichiro was not a common man. Mixed fellings haunted him, but one thought was still clear, he was facing his enemy, thus, he decided to treat him like one. With no emotion on his face, he grabbed his blade, and, in a matter of secounds shoved it down the commander's throat, before he was able to even draw his sidearm.
From now, there was little choice for him, but to escape.
"It is better to reign in hell, than to serve in haven..."
Escaping a military vessel is a challenge, one of the supply freighters was still docked, so he could sneak past the guards and enter a container, but as military wields advanced scanning technology, he would have been detected even before leaving the ship. Escaping in one of the fighters seemed like an option, but it's recognition codes would uncover his true identity too fast. Ichiro found a way. When freighter was empty, he slipped in inside the cockpit, and fired up it's engines. He placed the ship they way it's nozzles were facing the hangar door, letting the plasma exhaust to melt them. As docking point was not sealed, almost a whole ship suffered carastrophic decompression, killing a dozen of crew members and sucking out to space every fighter on landing deck, thus giving Ichiro more time before Naval forces started to chase him. His destination was his home on Kyushu. Ichiro was not looking for a safe place to hide there, he was rushing to warn his family.
For now he could enter the jump gate to Kyushu easly. No military patrol found any irregularities. Thus he could reach the planet safely, and safely reenter it.
He finally arrived at his home. Landing pad was empty. Doors were not even locked. Ichiro entered mansion, nobody was there... It was a mess. Garments were all over the floor, an unfinished breakfast was lying on a table, even the TV set was still on-line. It seemed like someone was in a hurry to leave. He searched everywhere but not a single trace, leading to where they might be gone, could be found. He decided to look for it in uncle's personal computer, yet there was no single piece information aswel, even his private messages were deleted. Some of you may ask why he did not simply called them... Don't forget that Ichiro was on the run, and signal could be very easly tracked. He could have brought trouble not only for himself, but for whole Raionno familly then. As he was surfing the web, an information popped up on one of the portals. Ichiro Raionno, has been placed on Kusarian most wanted criminals list.
He was now a fugitive, a public enemy number one. There was no time for him, as his house would be the first place where Kempentai would start looking for him.
He packed all the food, clothes and family ornaments he could find, and launched to space.
"It is better to reign in hell, than to serve in haven..."
Ichiro was now on the run. Patrols were now looking for him, every station and ship would shoot his freighter on sight. Coming to Kyushu, except of using a chance to escape further into Tau systems happened to be a big mistake for him, as every jump gate was now guarded by heavy force, and jump holes were swarmed with criminals, not to mention that he did not know their exact location yet, and fuel was too precious to waste now on searching for them. He was alone, trapped in spider's web. Yet still, he did not surrender. His mission now, was to escape Kusari space, and start looking for information concerning his family, but an obvious priority was his survival.
Because of being unable to land anywhere, a freighter has become his new home. First few days passed smoothly on the Kyushu sun high orbit, but supplies started to run short...
Ichiro never really wanted to do that, but death of starvation was not a plesant feeling too. His ship was armed, and Ichiro himself has been in Naval forces in past, thus it gave him the advantage he needed in case he wanted to ... extract supplies from civilian ships passing by. Ichiro has lowered his orbit, set course for nearest trade lane ring, and feeling ashamed and disgusted of himself, fired his weapons at it, disabling it. Finally, fortune smilled upon Ichiro, as the first ship he caught was filled with Kyushu rice. Pilot refused to drop his load, thus Ichiro had to use the force. Accurate burst from his cannons burned a hole in freighter's cargo bay, venting his cargo to space. Ichiro tractored it and once again set course to high Kyushu sun orbit.
When he has escaped, he went to cargo bay check his loot. Rice bags he tractored had sutured Raionno house farms emblem on them...
"It is better to reign in hell, than to serve in haven..."
His first atempt of piracy has been succesfull, and encouraged other acts of this kind. Now, as he had a source for fresh supplies of food, fuel and water, he gained more time, wich was precious for his observation of the gate, in order to rush trough it when it is the least guarded. Waiting, along with multiple piracy attempts on civilian vessels, lasted for 5 weeks. Finally, the escape day has come.
Gate's security has been lowered,and most of the patrolling units were redirected into central Kusari. This was his only chance. As soon as he gained situational awareness, young warrior rushed into the gate.
Unfortunately, since Kyushu is a system with relatively low piracy, his actions did not go unnoticed. Footage delivered by victims of his piracy acts revealed that the freighter, wich attacked them, was the same ship, in wich "one of the most dangerous criminals of Kusari" had escaped, leaving one of the Naval Forces flagships crippled. Law enorcement was trying to pinpoint his possible location, without any effect. Suddenly, he appeared on Battleship Nagumo's scanners. Kempentai units were launched immedetly.
Ichiro has fallen into a trap. 4 Fighters raced his way. He would be able to avoid battleship fire, and a blockade formed of common military units, but these fighters belonged into highly trained professionals, trained into capturing fugitives like himself. His only choice was to go back. Luckly, the freighter was equipped with countermeasuers, allowing him to escape. He knew that they are not going to drop the chase becaouse of him simply flying off the plane.
Ichiro was forced to do something he allways avoided doing at all costs, to enter a nebula.
"It is better to reign in hell, than to serve in haven..."
Suprisingly, even that did not stop his chasers. For 3 hours, Ichiro was flying blind in cloud praying fo any rescure. Yet, his prayers were answered. Suddenly, a jump hole appeared on his radar. Ichiro turned his ship into its direction, and entered the hole without shutting down cruise drive, yet even that hadn't stop the chasers. Ichiro was not even aware wich system he entered. Time was short and Kempentai were getting closer and closer. He eyeballed the nearest nebula he could find, and flew right into it. Chase was so intense, that young warrior completely missed the radar warning about unknown installation in it's vicinity. He was more focused on fuel gauge, which was getting lower and lower every minute.
Ichiro was going straight all the time, so finally, he reached the cloud's border. His fuel gauge was close to zero, thus he knew that the ship won't be able to keep cruise drive for a long time. He felt that this... was over. Days of his fugitive life have been counted. First time in his life, his personal mission failed. World he was living in was torn apart, and not a single piece of his previous life could be restored. These were last minutes of his life, and he found that a warrior would never spent them running like a criminal. If the memory was the only thing supposedly to be left of him, he wanted it to be best. Young warrior stopped his engines, deactivated escape pod's eject mechanism, turned his ship backwards, and activated freighter's weapons...
But to his surprise, Kempentai units have dropped the chase. Confusion possessed his mind.
He was not aware, that his ship ventured too close to the Kayo Cloud...
Unknown contacts appeared behind him. Low, emotionless voice was heard from the comms:
"You... You are coming with us."
"It is better to reign in hell, than to serve in haven..."