Army of Eastern Kamijing

The Army of Eastern Kamijing is an independent militant faction founded in SY 97 by Akira Ueshiba during the Freitaika Rebellion. The AEK played a vital role in the Solar War and disbanded during the early Twilight Age.
All members of the AEK voluntarily join and cannot leave the organization. Members pledge their entire selves and all of their efforts for life. They take a personal oath to both the organization and to the current Warlord.
At right is the AEK flag. The word "Kamijing" is displayed in Solari. It integrates one of the common flags of the Confederacy to display the AEK's loyalty to the Confederacy. 
== History ==
=== Roots ===
The Army of Eastern Kamijing was formally organized during the Freitaika Rebellion by Akira Ueshiba, a second Japanese colonist on Kamijing and direct descendant of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido and a teacher of the Ōmoto-kyō Old Earth religion. Akira was heavily influenced by his ancestry and was taught martial arts by his parents growing up. 
He was born in SY 62. Both of his parents were Earth expatriates to the Main Belt. While he was young, he was attracted to the oral teaching of Faithful missionaries from the Rim and both him and his parents were converted. He was given a liberal education by his parents and read widely in Old Earth literature.
Akira had begun developing a martial art specifically for use and practice in space. He called this art Kami Do, or the Way of Spirit. In the early SY 80's, he began teaching this art to a small group of students. In SY 92, his first group of trainees graduated and were bestowed with the authority to teach the art themselves. That same year, Akira and his newly commissioned teachers opened a formal academy on Kamijing and by SY 94 had several hundred students.
=== Organisation ===
In SY 97, the Freitaika Rebellion began. Akira Ueshiba successfully argued to the Second Confederate Congress that an army raised only in times of crisis would demostrate loyalty only to their commanders and potentially pose a threat greater than the one they defeated. The last piece of legislateion the Second Congress authorized was the Military Creation Act which legalised the continued existence of the AEK as well as allowing individuals to enlist in standing militias for a period of 2-4 years time.
=== Dissolution ===
After the end of the Siege of Mars, Wu Kenshu committed harakiri. The AEK as a whole entity broke up into a variety of factions. Some of these factions became the roots of later warlord kingdoms in the Twilight Era.
== Organization ==
The AEK is divided into eight principal subsets: Command, Navy, Logistics, Infantry, Medical, Artillery, Artificial Intelligence Corp, and Shock Command. The organization of the AEK was solidified during the Rebellion and changed little since it's inception.
=== Ranking System ===
* Shogun (Warlord): Inherited by the most senior Daimyo.
* Daimyo: Only eight AEK members possess this rank. They are hand selected by the Shogun.
* Kyunin: Officers personally commissioned by Daimyo to serve in specific capacities.
* Samurai: Belongs only to the Shock Command division. Highest active combat rank.
* Kachi-Gashira: Commissioned officers in either the Infantry, Navy, or Medical divisions.
* Kachi-Ashigaru: Most common AEK rank. A member in any of the divisions may possess this rank.
* Kachi-Chugen: Lowest rank. Members in training. 
* Hinin: Employed by the Logistics division. Not considered part of the AEK. 
=== Command ===
The AEK's command structure is based on traditional Japanese feudalism. A single Warlord is the supreme executive authority and commander in chief of all AEK forces. Eight Diamyo serve under him. Each are hand selected by the Warlord and normally serve in that position for life. If a Warlord dies in battle, the most senior Diamyo becomes the new Warlord. In this fashion, the position has transitioned from Warlord to Warlord since the office's creation. 
Each of the eight Diamyo lead one of the subsets within the AEK. The most senior Diamyo acts as the current Warlord's right hand man and possesses authority to relay the Warlord's orders to the rest of the organization. 
Within the Command exist Kyunin, specially commissioned officers pulled by Diamyo from existing officers to act in specific command capacities within a division. 
=== Navy ===
The AEK began with only a single spacecraft. At the time of the Solar War, the AEK has a fleet of one flagship, seven carriers, and seventy five fighters.
The flagship Kamikaze is a custom built craft created in the Main Belt by Confederate engineers in SY 108. This is the permanent home of the Warlord. Each of the Daimyo maintain quarters on the Kamikaze as well. It is the most heavily armed of the fleet and possesses two nuclear warheads engineered from spacecraft motors. It is the only ship in the AEK fleet to utilize primitive energy shield technology that can deflect many energy based attacks. 
It has an identical twin called the Yellow Dragon that would serve as the command center should the Kamikaze be destroyed. 
The seven carrier ships act as mobile command centers. Each are named after important figures in Asian history: Mencius, Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu, Confucius, Jimmu, Gautama, and Ashoka. They are Confederate designed freighters modified to include weapons systems. In times of peace, two of them will patrol the Main Belt and provide transport between the Confederate systems while the rest remain docked at Freitaika or Kamijing. This duty is rotated out regularly. 
Both the Kamikaze and the carrier ships possess a wide range of weaponry including tight beam lasers, microwave cannons, kinetic weapons, railguns, chemically propelled rockets, and ion guns. 
Seventy five small fighters modified from Consortium Iota-class craft allow single pilots to make attack runs on enemy space craft. These are armed with a tight beam laser, two chemical rockets, and kinetic weapons. Thirty of these are stored on the Kamikaze. The remaining fighters are unevenly distributed across the carrier ships. These fighters use primary H3 engines and methane RCS systems. 
In addition, the AEK contracts with some independent merchant freighters to provide permanent on-board security in exchange for resource payments. One of these is the General Tso, a Main Belt merchant freighter famed for it's on-board restaurant of the same name. Some of the life of the General Tso is detailed in the fix-up series Tales From General Tso's Freighter.
The AEK Navy is distinctive in that every ship possesses a thin metal sail designed to replicate the appearance of an Old Earth Chinese junk. The sail is actually a solar panel that catches the sun's fleeting energy.
=== Logistics ===
The logistics division is responsible for the daily supply of the AEK and the entirety of Freitaika. Ownership of several farms and manufacturing industries on both Freitaika and Kamijing belongs to the Logistics division. In addition, the Logistics Daimyo conducts trade for the AEK and organizes transport for the fleet to and from other Confederate systems.
Additionally, the Logistics division employs several thousand people as independent contractors. These people are not considered members of the AEK and may belong to any one of the other Confederate militias or not at all. Many of them are members of the Freitaika Free Forces. These independent contractors run the agricultural and industrial projects for the AEK.
=== Infantry ===
Every new AEK member is sorted into the Infantry division for basic training. All infantry men receive the rank of Kashi. The Infantry division is further sorted into Ashigaru (enlisted), Gashira (officers), special operations, and heavy support. Enlisted men are regular infantry and do not require any education other than basic training. Officers form the basic command structure of the Infantry division and engage in at least two years worth of personal tutelage under one of the Daimyo. Special operations members are trained for irregular warfare and may receive training in anything from guerrilla war to cybersecurity. Heavy support learn to use demolitions and the heaviest transportable magneguns produced by the AEK.
Each Infantry man wears an armored space suit and comes to regard the suit as an extension of their own body. They are armed with a magnegun, a plasma rifle, and a traditional style katana. The sword is rarely used in battle and is largely ceremonial. 
All of the AEK's arsenal is produced by it's own industry.
=== Medical ===
The Medical division provides service both to the AEK and the civilian population of the Confederacy. It has a standing contract with the Confederacy to provide free medical care to any Confederate citizen. Because of this, many citizens who can afford to travel will come to Freitaika or Kamijing for their medical care rather than use a local doctor.
=== Artillery ===
The Artillery division carries a small arsenal of heavy ordnance weapons designed to punch holes in enemy space craft and make surgical strikes on platforms. During the Solar War, these weapons were deployed on the surface of Mars to devastating effect.
=== Artificial Intelligence Corp ===
The Artificial Intelligence Corp division is the smallest and is usually reserved for the most junior Daimyo. It commands a series of suicide drones armed with various weapons. In peace time, some of these are used in mining operations. They were developed from ad-hoc weapons used during the Rebellion.
=== Shock Command ===
Shock Command troops receive universal special training to act as single units rather than the squad based training of most infantry. They are trained to penetrate enemy lines and exist in deep cover for potentially standard years at a time. These are the only troops to receive the title of Samurai and is the most coveted position in the AEK. They are the highest non-command rank within the AEK.
During the Solar War, a subset of Shock Command becomes the Mars Korp, responsible for the orbital jump during the Second Battle of Mars.
== Basic Training ==
Every AEK member is given twelve standard weeks of basic training that includes vigorous daily exercise, introduction to the use of AEK weapons, and the art of Kami Do. During this training period, individuals receive the lowest rank of Chugen and will retain this rank for the next two standard years.
About ten percent of those who go through this basic training are not accepted into the AEK and are instead employed by the Logistics division, becoming Hinin. The remainder endure an additional period of forty standard weeks. This includes focus on Kami Do, the study of the classical texts of Asian philosophy and lifestyle, and live combat training with other AEK members. Upon graduation of this basic training period, the trainee is confirmed as an AEK member.
Throughout their lifetime a member of the AEK will receive additional training in a variety of skills martial, agricultural, and industrial. Each AEK member is required to work as a normal civilian in addition to their AEK duties, following the original example of Akira Ueshiba. 
All members of the AEK regardless of branch are given a universal basic education that includes several years of instruction in Kami Do, training in the use of the electrostaff as well as magneguns in both personal and military grade varieties. Integral to their education is learning the history of the AEK, mastering the ancient classical texts of Old Earth civilization from Asiatic culture, and are also taught at least one trade if they do not know one already. 
Full graduation to Kachi-Ashigaru ranking is marked ceremonially with the gift of an extraordinarily valuable hand-crafted traditional katana forged from the raw material of asteroids. 
Because of the relatively long and intensive training process of an AEK soldier when compared to other similar-purpose units, the standard AEK soldier is pound-for-pound both much more capable on the battlefield and that much more valuable. 
== Wargear ==
* Electrostaff
* Magnegun
* Teslablade
* Dragon's Breath -- an AEK invention wielded by Shock Troops, Heavy Support, Artillery, and the Navy in various permutations of the original prototype. First seeing battlefield use in the Solar War, it is a high powered electrical weapon that utilizes electrostatic technology to project and instantly-upon-contact fuse a mixture of highly caustic acids and flammable material to the target, regardless of what the target material is. The high voltage causes it to ignite the target and reduce it via simultaneous melting and burning in a matter of seconds. Personal-use Dragon's Breath weapons have a large external power pack and can project 15 m. The largest varieties are utilized by the Navy and are combined with kinetic weapons technology to produce an armor-piercing anti-personnel missile that destroys a target spacecraft from the inside out, requiring only a single well placed shot.
* Plasma rifle
* Kinetic weapons
* Chemical weapons
== Tactics ==
During the Solar War, the AEK was known to employ shock troopers outside of regular combat skirmishes in the mid and late war periods against both Technocracy and Consortium forces. Armed with Dragon's Breath and flame-retardant spacesuits, these shock troops would set themselves alight and remain continuously on fire for a period of up to twenty minutes. These attacks became more frequent as the AEK sustained heavier losses towards the end of the war. Only volunteers could perform these attacks and it carried a 50% fatality rate and averaged a 351% enemy casualty rate. Considered a terror tactic by the Consortium.
== Religion ==
Main Article: Faith
As a whole, the AEK practices a version of Faith taught by Akira Ueshiba called Eastern Faith by most. The One is called Ichkami and is heavily influenced by Shinto practice. It holds the spiritual experiences on Kamijing detailed in Breath as being canonical, unlike most Rim Faithful. 
Some non-AEK citizens on Kamijing practice Eastern Faith.
== Notable Members ==
* Akira Ueshiba: Founder of the AEK, first Warlord, creator of Kami Do
* Wu Kenshu: Warlord during the Solar War
* Moriyoshi Mirimoto: Daimyo that piloted the Defiant in the Siege of Mars
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