KATSUMOTO'S SIXTY
Katsumoto's Sixty is the name given to the sixty samurai warriors and Jade marines who defended the steps to the Jade Palace during the Trathiran Revolt. All sixty of the defenders were killed over the course of approximately twenty minutes of fighting. The delay allowed the Shogun's daughter and future Empress, Takara Kuribayashi, to escape along with General Kanbei and Admiral Cornewaille.
BACKGROUND
The Trathiran Revolt, a wide-reaching rebellion against the Shogunate government, was launched by a surprise naval attack in the Laptev System. After achieving orbital superiority, the Trathiran rebels began landing ground forces to seize the Jade Palace and capture Shogun Tadamichi Kuribayashi.
KATSUMOTO GATHERS HIS SIXTY
As rebel forces assaulted key Shogunate facilities and ships throughout the Laptev System, the Jade Palace was attacked by a small band of Trathiran Reichsfangzahn elite troops hidden inside the perimeter of the Jade Palace, posing as contractors working on a draining system in the northern corner of the grounds.
Their objective was to capture or kill Shogun Tadamichi Kuribayashi and his daughter, Takara Kuribayashi, thus ending the Kuribayashi clan and delegitimising any attempts to rally resistance to the Trathiran movement. The forty soldiers of the RFZ strike force were led by Hauptmann Juan Alvarez, a political extremist and early member of the Trathiran Party. Simultaneously, the walls themselves were assaulted from outside by a battalion of Trathiran rebels. The palace interior was immediately, as per defensive protocol, covered in a localised Welthelm field, providing defense against orbital bombardment and preventing the use of everything except cold arms inside the palace walls. |
Daimyo Toyotomi Katsumoto, then overlord of Ingen District and a trusted advisor of the Shogun, happened to be present at the palace on official duties when the hostilities began. He and his fourteen retainers rushed to the front of the Jade Palace to see the sky alight with ship-to-ship combat. As the group arrived at the front of the palace, the squadron led by Hauptmann Alvarez advanced into view, approaching the main gate to the Jade Palace from the north-west. Katsumoto called out a general alarm and was quickly joined by thirteen nearby members of the Commandery and thirty-three other lesser nobles and their samurai and ashigaru retainers. Realising the gravity of the situation, Katsumoto led his ad-hoc warband in a moment of meditation.
THE BATTLE
As the forty approached, there was a brief standoff during which Alvarez and Katsumoto each attempted to convince the other to surrender, Katsumoto attempting to stall for time for the Shogun. Although the precise words spoken are not known, Katsumoto became incensed during the conversation and drew his katana, striking down the Hauptmann and rushing the Reichsfangzahn troops, his warriors following closely behind. Within three minutes, all forty of the initial band of RFZ soldiers were killed or mortally wounded, whilst seventeen of the defenders had been put out of action in the open melee.
Katsumoto's group took the time to assist their wounded comrades to an honourable death, whilst the revolutionaries battered down the front gate of the Palace. Through the gate flooded several hundred Trathiran militia and revolutionaries, armed primarily with bayoneted firearms and improvised melee weapons.
Katsumoto arranged his soldiers at the top of the stairs to the Jade Palace. The stairs were cut into the platform on which the Palace is built, and on the platform either side of the steps Katsumoto lined his spearmen and archers, whilst at the top he placed his remaining swordsmen. The Trathirans advanced and were bloodily repulsed, and further attacks were frustrated by the hindrance created by the dead and wounded. The fighting went on in this style for nearly twenty minutes, before a group of Trathirans climbed the eastern end of the platform on its north face, advancing on the surviving defenders there. With their flank turned, the defenders were quickly forced back to the Palace gates, where a half-dozen survivors led by Katsumoto fought on for several more minutes before being overwhelmed.
Katsumoto's group took the time to assist their wounded comrades to an honourable death, whilst the revolutionaries battered down the front gate of the Palace. Through the gate flooded several hundred Trathiran militia and revolutionaries, armed primarily with bayoneted firearms and improvised melee weapons.
Katsumoto arranged his soldiers at the top of the stairs to the Jade Palace. The stairs were cut into the platform on which the Palace is built, and on the platform either side of the steps Katsumoto lined his spearmen and archers, whilst at the top he placed his remaining swordsmen. The Trathirans advanced and were bloodily repulsed, and further attacks were frustrated by the hindrance created by the dead and wounded. The fighting went on in this style for nearly twenty minutes, before a group of Trathirans climbed the eastern end of the platform on its north face, advancing on the surviving defenders there. With their flank turned, the defenders were quickly forced back to the Palace gates, where a half-dozen survivors led by Katsumoto fought on for several more minutes before being overwhelmed.
AFTERMATH
Although the Jade Palace fell to the Trathirans, the time won by Katsumoto's Sixty allowed for the safe evacuation of Takara Kuribayashi and several high-ranking military and political figures who would go on to form the core of the Exile band. The Exiles would eventually go on to defeat the Trathiran Reich and restore the Jade Empire.