Penn-1

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"...my father died choking on screams, trying to beg the man who led the war that kept him from my youngest years. He was begging that man to stay.That man was a famous man, a charismatic leader of men, but he proved he was no soldier. When the bets were called and his duty was to try, he blinked and ran off to his tent to sulk, leaving his nation, and ours, abandoned and bereft before a thousand enemies."Dinh "Dean" Levin-Ngo, 2791
"Kentares was easier for everyone to grasp and remember than Elbar, so Jinjiro Kurita managed to insert himself into history as a monster on par with the men who ran the Running Deer Mountain organ-legging operation. My oldest son, and the remains of his father's units, were lost on the way there, intercepted and destroyed in an otherwise empty system along the route by the Draconis Combine Admiralty as they recharged. The information I've gotten, is that they got within two jumps, and would've been there in time to stop maybe twenty percent of the crime committed at Kentares IV… but someone told them he was coming."President (Later Duchess) Marjorie Sithers-Ngo, 2797
"To be honorable, your promises must weigh more than your threats. Because it's easy to destroy and it's hard to build, because it's easy to attack, and it's hard to defend. When you swear the oaths of a soldier, you’re making a promise, that no matter how bad it gets, you will TRY. My father's generation was made of such men. And they were burned in the depths of interstellar space, because their fathers made a promise, and they went out to uphold that promise… The Star League Defense Force under Kerensky abandoned that oath, that promise. They did it because it seemed hopeless, and maybe it was. But they made that promise and when it came due? They were nowhere to be found. They had time for revenge, but not for duty…"-Agatha Ngo-Deen (2790 to 2831), 2804 (age fourteen)
==Chapter 1 - Pennants==
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Two Jumps from Kentares
Kowloon Republic Coast Guard Ship Fatiama (Pinto class, ex-Rim Worlds)
2797/02/01
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"Jesus ******." Commander Anh Li Cu'ong stared at the scopes in frustration. "We're boned."
"Who is it?"
"DCA Musashi, DCA Shokaku, and their escort groups," she almost spat. "They knew we were coming. And when to hit us, while we can't run."
"The Musashi? Isn't that-"
She nodded, "Kaneda's ship. Used to be SLS Miyamoto Musashi. They worked with us during the drive on Rigil Kentaurus. Hell, if Kaneda's still aboard, he knows some of our tricks, and more than a few of his own."
"Can we beat their fighter screen?" Dean asked.
"No," she stated bluntly. "The Shokaku's one of their Samarkand class heavy carriers. DCA pilots are good, and out here they don't have to shadow ground troops. They can use their full maneuver on us."
"You're saying we're going to lose." Dean plainly stated
She nodded, "Yep. That's what I'm saying. Someone told them we were coming, so they laid out the good silver. Our whole group in escort might be able to take out their escorting corvettes and destroyer, but between that McKenna class and the Sammie, we're ******. And not in the fun way."
"How long before anyone can jump out?" he asked.
"Two days," she asserted. "They'll have closed on us by this time tomorrow, and that's if they don't bother to hurry." Her eyes kind of misted, "Get back to your JumpShip, Colonel. Tell Phan and Rocky to put the engines in redline burn for the outer system. At one fifty percent total rated thrust, those station-keeping mills can build up a decent velocity. Mission is to get you ground pounders out of the way of that Combine fleet and headed home if possible. I'll take the Escort Group and we'll… play delay games with our new hosts… And leave the nuclear arsenal with us. I'm going to have to hurt them if we're going to keep them off you guys long enough for the regiment to escape."
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DCS Miyamoto Musashi, McKenna Class Battleship
2797/02/01
Kaneda Toshio was an old man now. He'd not been a young man when he'd last seen the markings on the target ships.
But back then, they'd been allies. Fellow combatants fighting to scrub the poison of Amaris from the Star League.
"The Pinto there, that's the Fatiama. I remember being there when they took it from the Rimjobs over Elbar," he said casually. "I wonder if Annie Cu'ong is still in command, or if she's finally retired."
He'd been a mere O-6 Captain back then. XO to Admiral Rauthfoss before that man's injuries took him out in the drive to Terra. And he'd had a respect for the insurgents from Kowloon, their absolute obsessive commitment to the Amaris War.
Almost, but not quite, like Samurai. Especially their naval people.
"Their DropShips are firing engines."
"Yes, they would, and the JumpShips as well," he said quietly. "Anh's over there. She knows what we can do, and how we do it. So she's going to try to delay us, deceive us, escape."
"But we have a massive superiority, would they not be more inclined to surrender?" The younger officer had grown to manhood as a cadet during the Amaris war. He'd never seen these people fight. He didn't know.
"No. They will fight, or run, but they will not surrender," he instructed his junior officer. "These are Kowloonese. Their history taught them that to surrender to anyone, ever again, was worse than death. They will fight, they will retreat, but they will not allow anyone to take them in bondage again. Tell the ISF officer you report to that the sources were correct. That the rusty ghost of the last war is, indeed, coming to honor a pledge long after the SLDF had abandoned them." He straightened. "The impalers of Elbar have come over the actions on Kentares, and we are here to stop them. Helm, ahead thirty percent. Commander Air Group, begin with a combat air patrol, and prepare strike wings. We sink them here in this system before they can escape to trouble the Combine."
"What should we load, Tai-Sho Kaneda?"
"Alamos for the anti-shipping strikes, they are already preparing to do the same in kind. You see, there is no civilian habitation here, in this system. So they will not be concerned at the risk a stray shot may pose to civilians within seventy five thousand kilometers. And either that group is commanded by Anh Cu'ong, or it is commanded by officers she trained. They will use heavy anti-ship ordnance as quickly as they can, to try and reduce the odds against them. We, must do the same."
I will give you the best death I can, my former brothers in arms.
Sixty light years away, soldiers of the DCMS were committing a crime that was, in a sense, both a confirmation of Bushido, and a repudiation of its basic principles.
And he had been sent to stop the people coming to put an end to it.
Honor is not just in what we do, but how we do it. But his heart was not light.
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