| Katsuko Komatsu
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| Profile
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| Origin
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 Kusari
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| Occupation
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Military Pilot
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| Gender
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Female
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| Height
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5'6"
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| Hair color
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Black
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| Eye color
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Dark Brown
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| Affiliation
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Gallic Royal Navy, Légion Étrangère
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| Rank
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Lieutenant
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| Status
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Active Duty
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| Born
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May 7, 793 A.S.
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Background
Katsuko Komatsu is an ex-Hogosha turned Gallic Royal Navy officer. Exiled from Kusari during the Democratic Party's coup, she has turned to the newly-arrived Gallic crown and has sworn herself to the King's service. To her, Gallia's victory seems inevitable, and Katsuko is determined to be on the winning side. She aims to carve out a somewhat respectable military career for herself, that she might retire comfortably to a new home once Gallia's conquest is complete.
Katsuko dislikes the new Kusari government, hating how they backed down instead of fighting Gallia to the end. She blames Bretonia for not intervening sooner, believing that the House should have helped aid her homeland instead of fortifying its own position, despite the long conflict between Kusari and Bretonia. She harbours intense feelings of dislike towards the remaining Hogosha, feeling that the organisation hung her out to dry during Kishiro's takeover of Kusari. Likewise, Kishiro itself is not viewed in a favourable light. However, Katsuko remains somewhat amiable towards Samura and the Hogosha's long-standing allies, the Artisan Farmer's Alliance. The Kusari Exiles, however, are despised by her. In them, she sees the cause she should be fighting for; yet she believes that Kusari can never go back to its old ways. They are unpleasant reminders of the life she once had, and she loathes them for it.
New Tokyo Days
Born in Sendai District on Planet New Tokyo, Katsuko was a spirited young lady. Never one to conform to conventional Kusari views about women, she struck out to defy the restrictions tradition placed on her from the moment of her birth. Patriotic to a fault, carrying the intense national pride Kusari is known for, Katsuko wanted to help her House any way she could. She graduated Sendai District University with a degree in Interstellar Design.
Now out in the real world, Katsuko briefly entertained notions of joining the Naval Forces or State Police. However, she soon found she had more of a knack for smooth-talking and brokering deals than she did scoring high on the flight sims. Unfortunately for her worried parents and brother, though, Katsuko's knack for diplomacy found her in the one place they'd rather she never visited: Kabukicho Depot.
Hogosha - "Protector"
Although not unheard of, women in the ranks of the Hogosha were certainly few and far between, and Katsuko's arrival on Kabukicho in a small, battered Startracker was received with a suitable amount of scepticism. Despite the hoops she'd already had to jump through to make it this far, it still took a lengthy interview process, carefully prepared speeches and pledges and more than a few credits to change hands before she was formally inducted into the organisation.
Once on board, Katsuko took her duties as Hogosha - "protector" - literally. Now flying around Kusari in either her Black Dragon fighter or Bumblebee transport, she patrolled tradelanes, extorted the odd gaijin transport, dispatched unwelcome pirates and other miscreants, sweet-talked and bribed the right State Police officers, smuggled goods to curry favour with the necessary people, and generally did her best to help Kusari (and herself) prosper, in ways no lawful pilot could ever have dreamed of.
For Katsuko, this state of affairs was idyllic, the kind of adventurous life she'd always wanted. While her House was at war, all the news from the front was encouraging, and Kusari was going from strength to strength in the Tau Campaign. Unfortunately, things changed for Kusari in the blink of an eye.
Fall from Grace
It seemed to happen overnight. One day the Imperial Fleet was poised to strike at Planet Leeds and had practically won the war against Bretonia already, the very next day reports of the entire Kusari Navy being decimated by Gallian forces in Tau-31 shocked the entire nation. Popular support for the Kogen regime plummeted in a staggeringly short timeframe, and in no time at all the Democratic Party, backed by Kishiro Technologies, had seized power in a coup.
While all this troubled Katsuko greatly, the reality was it meant little to her day-to-day work. Things within Kusari continued on mostly as normal, and the worrying news of governmental crackdowns against the Farmer's Alliance and Hogosha never had any direct effect on her until the day when she docked her Black Dragon in the normal spot, hopped out of the cockpit, and wondered why everything had gone black. The next thing Katsuko knew was all a blur: the list of charges shoved in front of her by a smug-faced policeman, the quick processing of her case through the judicial system, and the cold metal floor of the X-Shuttle bound for Freeport 6.
Exile stung more than any prison sentence ever could have. At that moment, the pride Katsuko had always felt for Kusari was gone forever. She had given years of her life to protect her home, and this was her reward.
Étrangère
The Freeport was no New Tokyo apartment, nor was it even up to Kabukicho's standards of accommodation. Yet, with nowhere to go and nothing to call her own, Katsuko had no choice but to stay on the station for a number of long, miserable months. Months which seemed even longer when you had nothing to do and no real prospects at the minute. Whoever heard of a freelance pilot without even a ship?
Desperate to find purpose in her life again, a certain holoposter caught her eye. A tiny, wry smile formed on her face as she pondered the ludicrous idea. It was unheard of, this idea of a Foreign Legion. Even if the advertisement was genuine, could she really go through with it?
The question would run through her mind for the rest of the day, no matter how hard she tried to lose the idea. Unthinkable, to sign up with the Gallians. And yet...
Not a week later, she found herself behind the controls of a Lynx, gulping nervously as the Battleship Villeneuve's launch bay hummed with activity. For better or for worse, Katsuko had went through with it. Only time would tell if she'd made the right decision.
Diplomacy (official)
Diplomacy (personal)
Kusari
