Bradley Steele

Painting from before the Japanese occupation

**Bradley Steele (Bradley 3000)** (born June 21st, 1897), Also known as simply the General is he was the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Echain and Commander-in-Chief of the Echaini armed forces until the coup of March 1946, he is now the Governor of Southport

## Early life

Bradley Steele was born on June 21st 1897 in the region of Southport to parents Colonel Adam Steele and Captain Martha Steele (nee. Stewart). Even though his father was a close confidante of the King and a high ranking officer in the army Bradley had a normal childhood for the age. He attended the Ferdinand Magellan School in Southport and always excelled at mathematics and foreign languages becoming fluent in English, Portuguese, German and Spanish.

He was a sickly child at first and often suffered from coughing fits and fever. This would persist until he was 8 years old when he became a lot fitter and started his training for the Royal Guard.

His mother died a week after his 9th birthday which tore his family apart and left Bradley more or less on his own as his fathers military duties meant he spent most of his time in City Central.

## Royal Academy

On his 14th birthday his father, on request of the King, was allowed to send Bradley to the prestigious Royal Military Academy where the sons of Lords and Generals would send their children to learn strategy and leaderships skills but most importantly the most skilled of the students graduated with the commission of Captain.

While there he became top of his class in strategy and often won the war games played by the various students. This changed when the Kings son Prince James (elder brother of the future King Elithin) attended the school much to the surprise of the teachers as the Princes of the realm were normally personally tutored by the Kings most favoured Generals. Prince James and Bradley formed a rivalry over who was the better strategist and would hold numerous competitions against each other which would often prove a draw. Eventually after years of fighting they became the best of friends and travelled with together everywhere recent documents uncovered shows that Bradley actually fell in love with the Prince and vice-versa although this was never professed publicly by either party.

When he was 16, Bradley was sent to England by order of the Academy to learn British tactics. He spent several years there studying modern strategies and getting close to the British officers. During a military game he beat Field Marshal Sir Douglass Haig much to everyone's surprise but as a result of this the Field Marshal quietly arranged for Bradley to be sent back to Echain to avoid further embarrassment. When he returned he studied again and taught the teachers about British strategy.

Toward graduation day there was to be a competition to decided who would win the Captain commission and it came down to Prince James and Bradley. The Prince approached Bradley and told him that he would throw the competition as Bradley had a lot more to gain from this than himself before kissing him and leaving (it would later that day be revealed that the Prince was to be wed as soon as possible). The competition was short and as expected Bradley won the commission which he formerly received at the graduation ceremony.

## Early military service

Bradley was assigned to the 3rd Army (the largest of Echain's armies) under his father who was at that time in his 60's and about to retire. After serving a number of years of service and because of his fathers commission being up for grabs he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and became the Aide-de-camp of General James McGovern a respected General whom had commanded the 3rd Army for a number of years and who had the respect of most of the soldiers.

He would soon find  a challenge in his career when a small rebellion in Plainsdale fostered into a full on revolution. Bradley lead the army in place of the General as he was attending to the King and Queen. The revolutionaries were crushed and with a loss of only 246 men to their 2387 men Bradley was subsequently promoted personally by the King to the rank of General. Things settled down after that even though the occasional revolt would foster. He spent many days in the court of the King and earned the Kings favour which led to more military spending and lavish titles being poured onto Bradley much to the dismay of Prince Elthin who thought that that as a commoner Bradley did not deserve to be treated with much respect.

When the King died and Prince James abdicated Prince Elthin became King and Bradley found that almost immediately his reception at court became much more hostile than before and he would often be shunned in favour of Generals with aristocratic blood and would have his wages constantly cut. This came to a head when the King insulted him in front of all the court and Bradley stormed up to the throne and punched the King in the face. Bradley was to be thrown in prison for the rest of his life but due to a few words from Prince James he was released on the condition he would stay far away from Central.

He met a man named Alexander who was campaigning for women's rights and who constantly presented petitions to the King, They fell in love and in a few years time had adopted a son by the name of Bradley Steele Jr (2000). Alexander would later move to London to escape the Japanese occupation.

## War with Japan

Bradley was charged with the defence of City Central which had a garrison of some 10,000 men and women who were poorly trained and exhausted, he held the Capital for 2 whole months and lost nearly 7000 men of the garrison to the Japanese loss of nearly 15000. The King ordered a surrender which greatly angered the General who knew that the consequences of such an action would lead to a years long occupation and most likely the death of Prince James and the rest of the royal family.

## The Occupation

Bradley signed the Japanese peace treaty with the King and went into hiding with his son where he would later join the revolution and fight for the countries freedom. One fateful day he received a letter from the postman stating that Alexander had been killed in a German air raid over London and the General became extremely angry. Later that day his son burst through the door and told him of his failed raid on the armoury and how his men had been captured. The General told Bradley Jr of his fathers death before an alarm went off signalling them to go to the town centre. When they arrived his sons men were tied to a pole and the Japanese were about to shoot them when he called out.

"Halt what you are doing and allow these men to go" challenging the Captain.

"Who do you think you are?" the Japanese Captain responded while his son was freeing the prisoners.

"General Bradley3000 and I will not allow you to talk to me this way" The General responded

The Japanese Captain talked on his radio for a while before shooting him in the head at which point he blacked out.

The General woke up in a military prison outside of Nagasaki, Japan where he would spend years in imprisonment being tortured for information. Japanese reports show that the General never spilt any military secrets and constantly repeated his name during torture. He developed a friendship with a fellow American prisoner by the name of Captain Abraham who often made light of bad situations and kept the General from breaking. On August 9th, 1945 the US dropped an atomic bomb "fat man" on the city of Nagasaki which killed Captain Abraham's who was in the city at the time. This affected the General in a way he had never felt before and while seeing the mushroom cloud was for the first time genuinely terrified and scared. After the Japanese surrender to America all prisoners of war were to be released and so the General walked free from his confines.

## After prison

After he was released Bradley had no way to get to Echain being penniless and with the provisional government all but forgetting he existed. After months of earning enough money he hired a ship and sailed for Echain where on his return he learnt that his son (one of the framers of the Constitution) had been killed by a random farmer in the streets.

The newly elected President, President Grifenknight, appointed Bradley as the Minister of Defence which was confirmed by the Senate. The Minister would later go on the fight the Battle of City Central[1] in which he would lose an arm.