Tales of the Mandalorians

[Dieter Schprokets]

Flight deck, BAF Base Imperatrix, New London

John Cabot looked up at his Kusari destroyer. The ship was an old friend, a relic beaten up by age and more close calls than he could count, but still capable. Every hour of flight requires several of maintenance (Spare parts for Kusari vessels being a bit hard to come by in Bretonia, for obvious reasons), so the Goju Ryu is now largely just a ceremonial vessel for the Mandalorians.

The ship had been acquired as a gift for John from a grateful Kusari Admiral Chojun Miyagi. While employed as a low-ranking bodyguard for the Admiral, the young Bretonian proved his loyalty to the Admiral by taking a bullet through the lungs for him during an assassination attempt. After recovering, he was given command of a Kusari Gunboat, and eventually worked his way up through the ranks by merit, becoming the first non-Kusari to command a capital ship, the Destroyer Goju Ryu. She was even then an old girl, but a servicable one, with an excellant, experienced crew.

John stooped down to fix his boots, and his eyes hardened as he recalled the reason he now had the vessel, in a Bretonian port. When war between Kusari and Bretonia broke out, the Admiral learned that the Kusari State Police intended to arrest and execute the Bretonian. He had warned his friend, and John escaped with the destroyer still under his command, but just barely. He had a piece of shrapnel in his head, and a scar there, to remind him of the day he nearly lost his life, and lost a good friend. For his loyalty to John, the Admiral Miyagi was executed by the Kusari.

Some things are never to be forgiven, John thought. Some of the Kusari crew he had brought with him. They had helped him willingly on that fateful day, and had chosen loyalty to friends over loyalty to their nation. John knew he owed them a debt that could never be repaid. When the war was over, maybe they could return home, depending on how it goes...

In the meantime, there were business opportunities available. And some certain Kusari needed to die.

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