Theodore Kurita (31st c.)

Illustration of Theodore Kurita by Zina Saunders

Theodore Kurita (1 July, 2997 – 3070) succeeded his father as the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine. Theodore was the only child of Jasmine and Takashi Kurita, who were third cousins. He was tall and lanky, bearing a closer resemblance to his mother than his father.[1]

Among the BattleTech community, his name is often abbreviated to "Teddy K."

Biography

Early Life

Jasmine's was a difficult pregnancy. She was completely bedridden with Theodore, then recovered slowly after his birth. Theodore was born on 1 July in the Imperial City of Luthien. Because Jasmine knew she could never conceive again, she lavished love of her only child in a decidedly un-Kuritan fashion, though the coldness of Takashi balanced her out.

Theodore began his schooling when he was six years old with private tutors. Theodore received his MechWarrior training at Sun Zhang MechWarrior Academy and finished his military training at Wisdom of the Dragon. During his time at SZMA he made friends with Subhash Indrahar, the Director of the Internal Security Force. In his early career, Theodore served in a number of line units and as a staff officer, most notably as an aide to Dieron District commander Vasily Cherenkoff. In the mid-3020s he had a falling out with his father and was sent off to command the Legion of Vega, a brigade of misfits and malcontents.[2]

Marriage and Children

While he did not reveal it publicly, or even to his father, until 3033, Theodore married Tomoe Sakade in 3019.[3] They had three children.

  • Hohiro Kurita succeeded his father as Coordinator.
  • Omi Kurita fell in love with Archon-Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, though they both knew it was to be a difficult path. She succeeded her cousin as Keeper of the House Honor.
  • Minoru Kurita was a mystic. He put that training to good use and became a bondsman of Clan Nova Cat, swiftly rising to the position of Oathmaster.

Locking Horns

It was with the Legions of Vega that Theodore began his programs for reform. He saw the problems with the military doctrine of the Draconis Combine, notably their insistence on attacking the center of their enemies' line and the enacting of the rite of seppuku by otherwise good commanders. [4] Thanks to his leadership and reforms, the Combine was able to fight off the Lyran Commonwealth's invasion during the Fourth Succession War. Theodore led a counterattack on Lyran worlds near the regional capital of Skye, threatening the important world, forcing Archon Katrina Steiner to slow and eventually stop her offensive.

After the 4th War, Theodore's military acumen had become widely known, so Takashi was almost forced to promote him to Gunji-no-Kanrei (Deputy for Military Affairs) in 3031. Takashi planned on reining Theodore in, but Theodore jumped at the opportunity to push his new interpretation of bushido, which he began with the Genyosha and Ryuken. Perhaps his most brilliant move as Kanrei was agreeing to recognize the independence of the Free Rasalhague Republic. In doing so, he bilked the Lyrans out of all of the gains from the 4th War and received aid from ComStar in the form of new, high-tech BattleMechs. These 'Mechs came in handy when the Federated Commonwealth launched its invasion in 3039.

The War of 3039 was a brief affair. After Prince Hanse Davion launched his invasion, Theodore mustered the forces for a counterattack, which captured the factory world of Quentin. Hanse stopped the assault in the face of the Combine's strength. It was not until more than ten years later that he learned Theodore's counterattack had been a bluff, and that he had banked the defense of the Combine on Hanse backing down.

Reconciliation

The 3040s were peaceful, but 3050 brought news of a strange invader from the Periphery. When the Clans appeared, it fell to Theodore to fix the nation's defenses. Theodore traveled with the other leaders of the Inner Sphere to Outreach in 3051 for the purposes of a summit aimed at defeating the Clans. There, Jaime Wolf provided information to Theodore and the others, while he and Hanse agreed on a truce with the threat of a superior enemy. In 3052, Clans Smoke Jaguar and Nova Cat launched a joint invasion of Luthien. Hanse sent both the Kell Hounds and Wolf's Dragoons to aid the DCMS forces, which included units that followed both Theodore's reforms and the old ways that Takashi espoused. The victory by these disparate elements helped reconcile father and son, though successful brain surgery on Takashi also helped his mental state. Ironically, the Clan Invasion helped Theodore's cause by giving so many old-school samurai the glorious death in battle they so wanted.

The long power struggle with his father ended with Takashi's seppuku in 3054.

Coordinator

As Coordinator, Theodore vowed to focus on the Clans and stay out of petty Inner Sphere politics. He instituted the Phoenix Programs, which were targeted at rebuilding the DCMS. To do this, he directed them to recruit heavily from non-traditional sources such as women and yakuza. He also allowed ComStar to stage Explorer Corps missions from DCMS bases, both within the Combine and the Deep Periphery, ostensibly with the goal of finding the Clan territories.

Theodore could not keep his Combine out of the way forever, and sent in peacekeepers under ComStar's aegis into the Chaos March shortly after its creation, mostly in the Lyons Thumb. Reactionary conservative elements within the Combine did not think this was enough, however, and invaded the world of Towne in 3058. Though they were stopped by the mercenary unit Camacho's Caballeros, they then tried to assassinate Theodore at his birthday celebration in that year. The kokuryu-kai were again stopped by the Caballeros.

3058 also saw the resurrection of the Star League and its goal of annihilating a Clan. Theodore successfully argued for that Clan to be Clan Smoke Jaguar, the most repressive towards its conquered people of the Clans. Though DCMS forces made up the bulk of the Star League troops, the Combine benefited greatly from the Inner Sphere coalition that aided them. Theodore worked on reintegrating the liberated worlds into the Combine, while other went after the Jaguar capital on Huntress.

First Lord

While those forces were gone, Katherine Steiner-Davion usurped the last of her brother's thrones, so Theodore welcomed Victor Steiner-Davion back to the Inner Sphere on Luthien. Shortly thereafter, he was elected the second First Lord of the reconstituted Star League at the Second Whitting Conference in 3061, after Victor cast the deciding vote against Katherine as the Precentor Martial of ComStar.

Theodore was accused of abusing his power as First Lord when he annexed the Lyons Thumb in 3062. In that year, the kokuryu-kai showed themselves once more when they hired mercenary units to attack Lyran troops under DCMS colors. Similarly, "Lyran" troops attacked DCMS garrisons. When a real Lyran unit counterattacked, Theodore seized the Lyons Thumb to "ensure the stability of the region."Template:Fact

Late Years

In 3062, forces from Clan Ghost Bear and the Federated Commonwealth's Draconis March attacked the Combine. The Bears did so because of a misjudged assault on their new capital of Alshain by the kokuryu-kai-influenced Alshain Avengers, while the March did so because of a perceived weakness borne out of distraction. Theodore received unsolicited aid in the form of Clan Hell's Horses, which attacked the Bears from the other flank, which caused the Ghost Bears to sue for peace. With one border secured thanks to the Trial of Courchevel, Theodore sent his troops to beat back the nominally-FedCom invaders and conquered two planets for the trouble.

With the FedCom Civil War over, the Fourth Whitting Conference saw the dissolution of the Second Star League, which led to the Word of Blake launching their Jihad on the Inner Sphere. Theodore and his contingent had left Tharkad before the attack there started, only to find their capital being fought over by troops loyal to Theodore and kokuryu-kai rebels, with Word of Blake Militia forces thrown into the mix.

Death and Afterward

While trying to direct the DCMS from Dieron, Theodore suffered a stroke, which finally killed him in 3070. His reforms of the DCMS would later have to be scaled back by Hohiro to appease the hard-liners that still existed within the military.

Positions

Preceded by Coordinator of the Draconis Combine
3054-3070 		Succeeded by
Preceded by First Lord of the Star League
3061-3064 		Succeeded by

Notes

  1. ↑ House Kurita Sourcebook, FASA, pg. 169
  2. ↑ House Kurita Sourcebook, FASA, pg. 169
  3. ↑ Twenty Year Update
  4. ↑ Field Manual: Draconis Combine, FASA, pp. 7 & 121

References


The text in this article is based on this revision of the Wikipedia article "List_of_BattleTech_characters" used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See the BattleTechWiki's copyright notice.

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