Minoru Kurita (28th c.)

Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "The Star League]], Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, Handbook: House Kurita, [[First Succession War (Source Book)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

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	Clarissa (First wife) Yvonne Toshi (Second wife) Heaven's Gate (concubine)
Children	Jinjiro Kurita Zabu Kurita

Minoru Kurita (b. 30 April 2705 – d. 14 September 2796) was the twenty-first Coordinator of the Draconis Combine during the collapse of the Star League and start of the First Succession War.

Biography

Marriage and Children

Minoru married first Clarissa, with whom she got no child, though many historians suspect a chemical overdose caused by Heaven's Gate, one of Monoru's concubines caused Clarissa's death.

Minoru then 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.

It is not exactly known how much Minoru actively aided Amaris during the seven years of his war against the Star League, but he turned down a request from Colonel Bradley, commander of the 3rd Regimental Combat Team (the Eridani Light Horse), to use Kurita worlds as bases of operation for their attacks against Amaris forces. There is also circumstantial evidence that he might be behind the order that made ISF tip off Amaris to the plans of the 3rd RCT's 19th Striker Regiment. Amaris used the information to ambush and destroy the 19th, one of the best units in the Regular Army.

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, but 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. He was right: as the SLDF entire fleet leave the Inner Sphere to no return, in the Exodus.

The last brake against open war was removed.

First Succession War

Once the Star League forces left, Minoru Kurita sent emissaries to Trondheim to recruit the Eridani Light Horse. Though the unit did not accept to join DCMS forces as a line unit, but would at least defend those worlds.

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.

When the Capellan Confederation put forward a proposal for an alliance with the Draconis Combine. As DCMS forces were riding so high on their military successes, Minoru flatly rebuffed the Liao diplomats, and instead proposed that Liao joined with him unconditionally in an immediate offensive against the flank of the Federated Suns. That position ended the discussion of the alliance further.

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.

His last words, whispered to those gathered around him were lost to posterity, for Minoru's companions never betrayed their leader's trust.

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

“	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

“	The noonday suns burn the dozing Dragon. He'll wake when the suns must set.	”
	— Battle haiku sent by Coordinator Minoru Kurita to all troops participating in the offensive against the Federated Suns

“	My grandfather knew the story of the King of the mice. The King of the mice was worried about cats. He asked the other mice to keep cats away, and to tell him if there were any cats about. When one day they did see a cat, they did not want to tell the King, because they would lose face for not keeping the cat away. The cat crept up on the King, as the mice argued among themselves about ways of removing the cat. One little mouse, whom no one had ever noticed before, finally ran up to the King to warn him of the cat's approach. The King hurried from the cat, now just a mouselength away. He ordered the mice together and directed them in scaring away the cat. When it was over, he banished the mice who would not tell him his own business, and took as his closest friend the little nobody mouse who did the wise thing.	”
	— Memoirs of Minister Roland Cranshaw, University of Pesht Press, 2798 - extract from a history from Minoru

Portrait Gallery

Minoru Kurita I

Bibliography

• Handbook: House Kurita
• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1
• House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)
• House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)
• House Davion (The Federated Suns)