Kusari Liberation Army - Recruitment - |KLA\

[Solo Wing Sagume]

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Name:
Akatonbo (Red Dragonfly) - Rika Takanabe (only known to confidants)

Date of Birth/Age:
01/01/807 / 29

Place of Birth:
Planet Kyushu, Kyushu system

Gender:
Female

Give us a summary of your background:
Born on Kyushu into a family of wealthy landowners, Rika was raised strictly conservative and expected to be the feminine voice of reason. Her younger brother was the protege and sole inheritor to their families prized assets, while Rika would be a token marrying into another family for her family to leech onto more monetary gain.

Rika spent most of her days shut in reading about the worlds she could never experience for herself. She read about beauty and vast open spaces, with the freedom to explore these wonders. Things that she would never be able to experience from within her gilded cage. This allowed her to connect with Sirius on a philosophical level, and challenged the hubris that had been foisted onto her by her upbringing to that point. Reading heroic tales and poems of space pilots, it inspired a sense of justice in her, reminding her of her father’s background as a naval officer.

Takanabe's dissatisfaction with her father’s plans and strict authoritarianism made her disillusioned. She ran away with the help of her former servants, which became her new role models and confidants. In gaining independence, she could no longer see the good in her father, only someone who compromised his morals for excessive personal gain.

She navigated the world all alone, hiding from her family's thugs on the lookout. Travelling the world not trusting her sorroundings, she found help from the locals providing for her. The people's kindness inspired Rika to have faith in others. It was the first time she formed a connection with people, free from transactional relationships, which made her see what it meant to live in a community. Not money or proving one’s worth, but cooperation and pure love for the people.

Rika’s experience wasn't always easy however. She scored her first black eye for being
blunt, haughty and inquisitive and found herself in many fights. However, the law of the street required sheer pragmatism, leaving little room for bickering. This meant Rika was forced to learn to compromise, which made her more resourceful. Still, she was constantly vigilant of others uncovering her secret. One such person attempted to dig into her past, and mysteriously vanished. Rika would use their documents and ID herself to enroll at the Kusari Naval College on New Tokyo.


With Rika's enrollment into Naval College, she began sporting blonde hair, a symbol of her rebellious spirit. Her new appearance served to match her falsified documents, protecting her identity. She worked hard to earn top grades in her class, which led to her being transferred to the Space Fighter Forces. In the SFF she displayed competent physical abilities and keen leadership by applying skills she learnt on the streets. However, not all of her peers were moved by her charisma and would try to keep Rika in check.

Competing with her rivals was tough, but earned her special skillsets. Despite her best efforts, the Admiralty favoured her rivals for reasons outside her control. Rika realized her efforts meant nothing if she didn’t meet the superficial standards that are deeply rooted in classism, sexism and blind following of kusarian warrior traditions. Rika found herself in her old world, where hungry sharks in gilded uniforms plotted against each other for control. When she confronted the Admiralty about this corruption, their snide rebuttals reminded Rika of her father, who would share their reactionary rhetoric.

With her diplomatic approach falling on deaf ears, Rika began investigating this corruption to bring systematic change on her own. As a student, Rika spent her time gathering evidence, excelling in her classes and building trust with likeminded classmates. She wasn’t doing this for herself, but for all of her peers. Her devotion to her friends made her dream of a brighter future subsuming the old order.

Upon graduation, Rika was commissioned as acting Sub-Lieutenant overseeing command of the 343rd Teaching Fighter Division. With her grades and leadership skills suggesting otherwise, Takanabe wasn’t interested in joining the pristine ranks like her rivals. Instead Rika focused on her mission to denounce the corruption within the Naval Forces. Committing to her students, unlike her superiors. Her students regarded her as an honest and charismatic teacher, seeing eye to eye with her beliefs.

With Rika’s older peers joining the flock, they began priming the students for a mutiny. Rika diligently performed her responsibilities to position herself as a reliable officer amongst the crew. On that fateful day, Rika revealed the evidence of the admiralty's corruption in a fiery speech. The crew, inspired, or perhaps coerced by the circumstances, overwhelmingly supported the mutiny. Those opposing the mutiny were locked in a separate compartment below the deck. This way, Rika ensured their safety of the dissenting crew staying unharmed, if the mutiny failed.

Rika set things in motion, organizing a patrol down the Trade Lane to Shikoku diverting off to a nearby jump hole. Rika and her supporters marched onto the command bridge hacking into the local communications to upload a pre-recorded message. Arming themselves with rifles they took from the armory, they seized control of the command bridge and took the CO hostage. The message was intended to denounce the corruption and abuse within the Naval Forces admiralty, directly calling out systematic flaws and appealing to the public to join their cause. However, her adversaries were already prepared. They changed the encryption of the pre-recorded message to secure military channels and the Military Police fought the mutiny, who were helped by snitches undermining Rika’s circle.


A video feed opened, Rika, cornered by the Military Police, hissed at the faces of her old superiors revealing themselves. They called out her true identity, making Rika flinch. Disappointed by the traitors who snuck into her inner circle, Rika, unable to continue trusting the mutiny, arranged a deal, also to avoid further bloodshed. Rika faced a dishonorable discharge and erased any backup evidence on the corruption within the admiralty. The admiralty didn’t want to make her a martyr either, but threatened her of the consequences of any information leaking through.


Returning to her home planet, Rika was back where she started, even more disillusioned and apathetic. Rika wandered the streets, barely recognizing her former home. The Kyushun Storm Crisis left her local community in shambles. Broken store aisles, destroyed buildings and ravaged landscapes made up the formerly bright and bustling city. The streets were filled with impoverished people who lost access to basic human necessities. Street gangs emerged, robbing the surviving small businesses. While Samura owned cooperatives fenced off their areas receiving the majority of the humanitarian aid.

Rika, furious by them taking the spoils all for themselves and the neglect of the community, banded with local guerrilla cells, which formed out of protest. Their coordinators informed Rika about the systematic hostile takeover and consolidation of power of Samura backed elements and their history of controlling the food market. Rika was disgusted by these cooperatives making profit from the misfortune of her own people.

This made Rika question the integrity and sustainability of the current capitalist system, where it all came together. Rika decided that the current system was rotten from the core, it was in their interest to profit from the crisis, keeping people in check by alienating them and keeping them low. The entire superstructure was one castle of deceit, where each building brick resembled another fanciful lie.

Convinced by the guerilla’s cause, Rika joined the fight and gathered various insights in asymmetrical warfare. Rika offered her knowledge in training new recruits and organized raids together, redistributing resources to the poor and establishing supply lines. The coordinators, impressed by Rika’s valiant efforts, provided her with a new ship and means to train a fighter wing. Rika flies under the moniker of Akatonbo (Red Dragonfly), an old kusarian nursery rhyme she likes. Rika continues to fight for the resistance to this day, wondering if out there in the stars, she could connect with people fighting for a similar cause.


List relevant experience/skills/connections:
Extensive spacecraft training

Experience in the training of new recruits

Military experience in planning and executing deep-space patrols.

Establishing supply lines and striking hostile forces in planetary combat, diverting and coordinating troops in Combined Arms Engagements.

Reasons for joining the KLA:
I want to challenge your beliefs, if they're really rooted in optimism and desire to call out injustice dictating Kusari, or if I will find myself in another delusion.
Also doing this for my folks back on Kyushu who got me here where I stand now, with expanding secure supply lines we hope to expand our options. Focusing my efforts in fighting for the people from now on, no more shall I be shackled by constructs of deceit.

Branch/specialty you feel best suited for:
When talking with one of your Dragons, they recommended me enlisting in the Revolutionary Guard. Still, I'd like to remain in contact with local resistance cells on Kyushu, aiding their efforts taking on a advisory role.

There are several risks associated with KLA duties, even death or fates worse than. Do you accept this?
I have nowhere to go, other than a gilded cage. I prefer death if it means being able to spread my wings. I accept.

OORP Section
What is your Discord? If you do not want to give it publicly, you can PM the account.
Sagume - You already have it.

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