Minoru Kurita (28th c.)
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Minoru Kurita | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 30 April 2705 |
| Died | 14 September 2796 |
| Affiliation | House Kurita |
| Profile | |
| Profession | Coordinator of the Draconis Combine |
| Family | |
| Parents | Takiro Kurita (father) |
| Spouse | Yvonne Toshi (Wife) Heaven's Gate (concubine) |
| Children | Jinjiro Kurita Zabu Kurita |
Minoru Kurita (b. 30 April 2705 – d. 14 September 2796) was Coordinator of the Draconis Combine during the collapse of the Star League and start of the First Succession War.[1]
Contents
Biography
Marriage and Children
Minoru married Yvonne Toshi and produced at least one child, Zabu, however his direct heir Jinjiro was born to a concubine known only as Heaven's Gate. Deeply manipulative, she was able to see off any other possible contenders and convince Minoru to adopt the child as his heir before her enemies caught up with her.
Collapse of the Star League
Minoru succeeded his then 121 year old father Takiro Kurita in 2766. Takiro died days after suffering a heart attack induced by news his grand-nephew and Kurita ambassador to the Star League Drago Kurita was "detained" by Stefan Amaris during his seizure of Terra. A very aggressive man, only a death-bed last request by his father to favor negotiation instead of violence forced Minoru to actively court and offer assistance to Amaris during the Amaris-Kerensky Civil War in an effort to protect his relatives held hostage. Confused and angry at Minoru's strange actions, the Draconis Combine suffered at the hand of poor public relations in the other member states and active military assault when General Aleksandr Kerensky was forced to invade a portion of the Combine to access SLDF bases there. It was only after Terra was recaptured that the Coordinator learned that Amaris had killed them in the lead-up to his take-over.
Minoru like the other council members put forward his name for First Lord, flatly and vehemently refusing to consider any other claim than his, raised in the Kurita tradition to consider universal dominion of inhabited space by the Draconis Combine as natural. Realizing that there was little hope of continuing the Star League, he stepped up his preparations for for war. As soon as Minoru returned to Luthien, he placed his military on a war footing and snapped up as many resources from the Hegemony and other member states as possible before the borders closed.
After fruitlessly attempting to convince the Council Lords to reform the League, in 2784 Kerensky secretly set in motion Operation Exodus. As Kerensky's forces marshaled around New Samarkand, the generals of the DCMS desperately pushed for a first strike against what they felt was an SLDF invasion of the Combine, Minoru favored continuing to stockpile resources for the war to come. Likening their actions to the story of the 47 Ronin, Minoru correctly suspected that instead of pursuing vengeance against the House Lords the SLDF would choose to quietly and honorably withdraw from events. The last brake against open war was removed.
First Succession War
In 2785 Minoru began to test the defenses of the Lyran Commonwealth, ordering an unmarked DCMS force to slip across the border and assault the undefended world of Bone-Norman near the Periphery, fanning Commonwealth fears of the possibility of bandit raids. The Lyran's reacted as Minoru had hoped by pulling troops away from border with the Combine, and his troops brushed aside the now weakened defense to capture Trolloc Prime and Gram. Draconis forces prepared for a Lyran counter-attack, but still unwilling to declare open war, the LCAF continued to stay on the defensive.
In response a Combine regiment jumped in the Skondia system, completely outflanking its defenders and obliterated both its civilian and industrial areas. The DCMS attacks on the Commonwealth and the lack of effective response convinced Minoru that the Lyrans were a weak opponent that he could pick off at his leisure, instead choosing to focus his attention on what he viewed as a more worthy and honorable foe, the Federated Suns.
In December 2786, Minoru proclaimed himself First Lord of the Star League and declared open warfare against any who would oppose his claim, signaling the beginning of the First Succession War. Realizing even before the war began that the Federated Suns would be the only foe that could match the Combine, Minoru had given permission to his violently unstable but militarily brilliant son Jinjiro to plan for a major offensive against them. After first lulling the Davion forces into a false sense of security by staging undermanned raids and with the AFFS focusing on the Liao front, in 2787 the massed force of 50 DCMS regiments struck across the entire length of the border with little warning. The suddenness of the attack broke and shattered a unified Davion defense as both Jinjiro and Minoru personally led thrusts deep into Federated Suns territory. As the years dragged on, Minoru drew closer and closer to New Avalon.
Kentares IV
By 2796 while his son strongly favored continuing the offensive to prevent the Davion forces from regrouping, the now 91 year old Minoru chose to ignore this advice and called a three month halt to allow his forces to rest and to ensure that pockets of heavy resistance on previously captured worlds could be cleared up first. One such pocket on New Rhodes III prevented its use as a supply point for the final offensive, endangering the attacks on numerous world and leading to Minoru and the 6th Sword of Light being sent to bolster the stalled invasion of Kentares IV.
Through sheer volume of troops the Combine forces began to regain control of the planet, forcing the Davion defenders to a single continent. Outside the town of New Snowfield, Minoru was so taken with the scenery that he left his BattleMaster and traveled on foot, accompanied by a small number of troops and Buddhist priest. Sitting alone with the priest as they talked, a sharpshooter from the 7th Crucis Lancers shot Minoru in the back, killing him.
When Jinjiro learned of the assassination, he calmly ordered that his forces exterminate 90 percent of the civilian population, in what would be later known as the Kentares Massacre. While Jinjiro's actions damaged the honor and morale of the DCMS, it enraged the entire Federated Suns to vengeance. The revitalized AFFS forces pushed the Kurita invaders back to the pre-war borders as quickly as they'd come, virtually undoing all of Minoru's gains.
Quotes
| “ | Is it villainy to take advantage of a situation? Better to keep silent and prepare for the inevitable than to speak and grow weak. | ” |
| — Minoru Kurita, in his speech broadcast by State Holo Channel 5, 2771[2] | ||
| “ | If war is inevitable, then why wait for a formal declaration? Strike when you are ready. Pride heals far quicker for a victor. | ” |
| — From The Fall of Red Autumn leaves, by Minoru Kurita, 2794[3] | ||