Taiyou Shogunate Territories

The boy, or at least he looked like a boy, wandered the streets of Wing City alone. He didn't stand out all too much, for it was summer. Many children wandered, with toys, to candy, in groups. The only real reason he stood out was the fact that he was alone.

Plainly garbed in blue, the average passer by probably wouldn't pay him heed. He wasn't scrubby, just young a riled. The boy's eyes were cast down, so he probably wasn't looking for trouble. At least, that's what he wanted you to think.

In truth he was prowling for his next steal. A sleight of hand to be his next meal. Would it be that Sir over there, or the Ma'am with the unclasping bag?

Asteroid materializes from the void.

Asteroid vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.

Kurt Bannon has arrived, coming from Taiyou Space.

Kurt Bannon vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.

Pilav grunted with effort as he and a handful of others worked to load cargo onto a ship found on a world in the Territories. Him and his brothers and sisters, bound not by blood but by shared belief and desire, worked together to achieve what would be impossible for one.

And he was their leader, not because he wore a crown or held a title, but because he had proven himself to be the most hard working and loyal to them all. Thus they had uplifted him, treated him as their leader not because he had wanted such, but because they had chosen to follow him.

Pilav though about this and more as he continued to work alongside those who had taken to following him, and as he thought about it he could not help but feel proud at his choices and actions. He had proven himself, and people followed him because of that, this was how it should be. This was why he had joined the Asylian Mercenary Fleet, because they had shown him that life in the Shogunate was wrong.

And as he thought that, he thought of his sister and his mother, and a tear came to his eye that would never fall. If only I had been stronger, he had thought at first. If only the shogun had protected us, he had thought second. If only those lousy so called rulers hadn't been so caught up in their self importance! He had finally concluded.

For what was the point of having power if you didn't use it to protect those who had given it to you? This was first among many arguments he had heard from the former Captain he had enlisted with. It was what had first drawn him in, and what had first brought him to understand, and eventually accept, the Asylian Philosophy.

A strange feeling, a cold touch on his spine that made his skin prickle, pulled him out of his reverie of thinking. he stood up straight and glared around, and therein saw the figure of a shadow sprite. He knew it for what it was, and gestured it with an open hand. It came forth and rested in his palm, before sinking into him. It's purpose complete, the magic that sustained it evaporated, and the message sank into his mind.

Begin Campaign.

Two simple, yet oh so ominous words. His eyes snapped open, he hadn't even realized they had closed, and he turned to his crew, who had been watching him. "It is time. We finish loading, then we begin." He said. They nodded silently, the only evidence of change being the speed and effort they put into finishing quickly.

Pilav looked to the sky, and gave a silent prayer of thanks. It was not to any gods, he had long since abandoned belief in such entities. Instead, he had put his faith in people, in the captain who had helped him find his strength, in a king he'd never met who had been so kind as to welcome someone no one else cared for, and in the people around him who trusted him to lead them. He prayed to each and every one of them, that they would find the strength to do what they knew was needed.

Shortly after, the last box was loaded, and the crew climbed aboard the cargo ship, which began to rise and lift off into the sky. Normally this ship would be bound for a freighter, to take the various materials and parts to a starship dock for the construction of Taiyou Navy ships. But instead of following that path, the ship fluttered into space, and vanished from all eyes, both mechanical and otherwise.

An unusual looking ship shot into orbit above the planet, at first glance it matched the design parameters of a Galaxy Police cruiser, but it was bearing the markings of the Taiyou Empire's ISSP.



It didn't take long for the missing supplies to reach the attention of the local chapter of the Inter-Solar System Police, the National police force of the Taiyou Empire.

It was an isolated industrial world on the fringes of the Nagama shogunate, of little importance to the greater machinations of the Taiyou Empire, one shipment that was bound for some far flung shipyard. Detective Suzuki understood why the local Zaibatsu was understandably upset, with billions of Yen worth of materials, and equipment missing.

Suzuki maneuvered his ship through the guided space lanes using a special ISSP clearance, while quietly going over the initial report.

Bringing the ship towards the planet, he would start by questioning those involved at the local dock where the transport was last seen, and grow his investigation from there.