Azai Kaede is an approved¹⁾ player character played by paladinrpg, and is currently involved in the Bastion of Winter plot.

Azai Kaede (浅井楓)
Species:	Minkan (Formerly Jiyuuian, born a NH-29)
Gender:	Female
Age:	15 (Born YE 29)
Height:	5'0“
Weight:	107 lbs
Organization:	Yugumo Corporation (Star Army Reserve)
Occupation:	Quartermaster (SAoY: 04 Logistics / 05F Fabrication Specialist)
Rank:	Kakarichō (係長) (SAoY: Jôtô Hei)
Current Placement:	YCS Bastion of Winter (SAoY: Fort Tokyo)

Theme Song: Origami Master

• Height: 5'0”
• Mass: 107 lbs
• Measurements: 32A-24-33

Build and Skin Color: Kaede's body is relatively dainty and svelte, and isn't particularly as voluptuous or curvaceous as most Minkans go, rather bordering on flat-chested (which she is sometimes self conscious about). Her skin is a pleasant creamy beige color.

Eyes and Facial Features: Kaede's has very standard Yamataian almond shaped brown eyes, set in a diamond shaped face. She has a certain neutral, nondescript look about her countenance, as if she could easily be just another face in the crowd.

Ears: Though she used to have Neko ears once, she elected for her new Minkan body to have long and pointed elfin style ones instead. Clipped onto these are usually a few pairs of dangling earrings that she wears in a neat row.

Hair Color and Style: Kaede has long, waist-length brown hair the color of dark honey, and usually wears it in two looped side braids. On very rare casual occasions she will let it hang loose and its natural wavy and curly qualities are able to be seen.

Distinguishing Features: Though she has the flawless eyesight of a synthetic body, Kaede still likes wearing a pair of half-rim glasses for purely cosmetic purposes, as it gives her a certain studious looking aesthetic as she works.

Personality: Kaede is generally a quiet former Nekovalkyrja who conserves her words for matter of import, preferring to devote her energy on the quality of her work ethic. Though managing logistics operations is perhaps the least exciting job in all of the Star Army, she nevertheless performs her often mundane and menial tasks with forthright dedication. To her, stacking recently received cargo containers in organized level piles is not a job but a form of meditation. Kaede takes particular pleasure in the construction of various equipment and parts in the nodal fabrication bays, where she controls the process directly with an efficiency and grace several times greater than an automated MEGAMI system, seeming to be like a master artist who wields nano- and femto-machines like one would a brush and paint. In her off times, she enjoys creating pieces of art instead of military equipment as a form of catharsis, and opens up to others who have a similar appreciation for the aesthetic. She also has a notorious sweet tooth, and a little jar of hard-to-find traditional maple candies is not ever far away from her workstation… it's one thing she can't create herself, as she is apparently a terrible cook.

Kaede has also displayed a bit of a motherly streak in recent years, especially towards younger Neko soldiers. She will often help them into power armors or better learn the details of their chosen equipment, or to even protect them in stressful combat situations where she can. During her time at Fort Tokyo with the Star Army Reserve, she also had begun to experiment with teaching with positive results.

• Likes: Neatness and organization, simplicity, creating things with nanomachines, art & sculpture, sweet things (especially maple-sugar candies)
• Dislikes: Messiness and disorganization, unnecessary destruction, art critics, being called a “boomerang traitor”
• Goals: To refine her skills in nanoconstruction and help rebuild the ravaged Yugumo Cluster.

Kaede was a Nekovalkyrja originally created by the Ketsurui Zaibatsu and trained to operate fabrication modules for the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet's colonization efforts in the Yugumo Cluster. Due to the need to rapidly deploy equipment to the surfaces of the newly established colonies and bases, she spent nearly every waking moment of her young life creating all of the nuts and bolts that made places like Jiyuu become what they are today, back when they were just a humble Katsuko-Class Colony Installation that needed deploying. She continued on in these duties out of the limelight, up until the point that the Motoyoshi-led rebellion and mutiny occurred that would go on to form the United Outer Colonies.

Her body downgraded, Kaede nevertheless wished to continue on in her work as it was really the only structure she had in her life. She promptly enlisted in the United Outer Colonies Peacekeeping Forces, and became a part of the 4th Logistics Fleet, under the command of Mitsuya Ember. It was here that she diversified her skillset, learning to become involved in not only the creating but also the transporting and management of supplies for the Pirate Task Force, serving aboard Ember's flagship the UCS Tanebi for a time. Kaede was later reassigned to Leo Star Fortress, and returned her primary focus to mainly production work for the UOC forces stationed there.

It was not long afterward that the NMX blackout and subsequent invasion of the Yugumo cluster occurred, resulting in the mass evacuation of refugees to the fortress as well as remnants of the UOC's decimated military assets. Kaede soon found her abilities put to the test, as trying to keep up with the hefty demands of logistics under the extreme circumstances was highly stressful, even for her. Thankfully she and the rest of Mitsuya Ember's experienced team were able to hold things together and improvise solutions long enough for the Star Army of Yamatai to arrive with relief. Though Kaede had once delivered food aid with the Peacekeepers, it seemed now the tables were oddly turned.

Once Leo Star Fortress returned to the command of Tenth Fleet in YE 34, the weary yet stoic Jiyuuian also came with the package, re-enlisting back into the ranks of Yamatai and transferring into a fresh new Minkan body. For a woman like her, it mattered little who the boss was today or tomorrow… only that she could continue doing the important work that gave her purpose and enjoyment. Things went smoothly and predictably for the next 3 years, the artist of nano-machines only getting better with time and practice. Kaede also had more free time now – a rare commodity indeed for previous years – and so chose to pick up sculpture to help pass the moments when she was not building the weapons of the Tenth Fleet.

However, the recent terrorist attack in YE 37 upon the military arm of Leo Star Fortress that destroyed multiple assets shook things up for her in a big way, causing serious damage to the nodal fabrication facility in which she worked. Now Kaede has apparently been temporarily reassigned to the ship that managed to survive the strike, the YSS Sakishima, in order to assist in restoring it to combat readiness.

( ND-S10-577, Chiaki-class (1B) Escort Destroyer )

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/yss-sakishima-episode-6-proving-grounds.17215/

Though Kaede went blissfully unnoticed at first with all the construction going on, the arrival of the new gal suddenly became common knowledge when she caught veteran Heishos Simo Anzu & Misha "Wavewatcher" Milat having a quickie interracial tryst behind a stack of Sarah armor equipment crates. Instead of ratting them out, the bespectacled Kaede was thus reluctantly roped into a steamy threesome in Wavewatcher's cabin to celebrate her arrival and the re-launch of the Sakishima. The cuddle-fest was cut short by the alarm to deploy, however… but as they hurried to their stations the hyper-active Inukai Katsumi whom Kaede had helped earlier get settled into the medical bay crashed into the Minkan in the hallway, resulting the embarrassing moment of accidentally pinning the medic to the ground with her face in her skirt (and Inukai taking full advantage of that fact). After being berated by Shoi koko for their inappropriate behaviors, everyone was herded to the launch bay to conduct a customs inspection of a suspicious refueling platform the ship had come across. Kaede helped Anzu get acquainted with the unfamiliar Sarah M7 Samurai Power Armor, as well as suiting up in her Mindy and reassuring Inukai that things would be okay.

However, when the team arrived at the airlock, it proved to be far from it! Flashbang and EMP grenades were their only welcoming committee, backed up by automated machine gun fire that strafed the momentarily disoriented and disabled armor team. Kaede took a hit protecting the younger medic, who promptly worked her magic to heal the wound in thanks, while the veterans charged forward to take out the gun emplacements and get the unarmored out of the line of fire. Things got complicated, though, when the last of the bullets struck Inukai-hei and she went into a berserk state, totally forgetting her medical focus to instead fire down the tight hallway randomly. The Minkan managed to calm the raging Neko down, just before she could create a horrible friendly fire incident. Once the gunfire stopped, it was discovered the whole place was booby trapped to blow sky-high, and the team scrambled to create an escape route back into space before the self-destruct timer ran out! Anti-climactically, Anzu's bull rushing Sarah severed a critical data line and the countdown abruptly terminated, leaving the team to sift through the place for clues to whereabouts of the traitors, who had used a screen of missiles hidden in old fuel tanks to escape the Sakishima-led task force.

( NG-X1-501, Fuji-class Expeditionary Gunship )

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/mission-nine-mamemameshi.59752/

After her exciting mission concluded, Kaede eventually returned to her usual fabrication shop post at Leo Star Fortress and participated in the final stages of the construction of Fort Asura. It was this work that would eventually attract the attention of Chusa Taiyou Hoshi, who promptly tapped her to assist with logistics aboard the YSS Kaiyō II, a vessel at the forefront of the anti-Kuvexian war effort. Though uneasy with the prospect of being aboard a ship that would be engaged in battle constantly, Kaede was eager for the chance to continue improving her craft as well as the chance to serve under Murakami Mitsuko, who had quite the reputation in Star Army Logistics.

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/post-mission-nine-chlorate-remastered.60554/

It was also during this time that she met the AI Chlorate, for whom she helped craft a unique, customized Service Android, Type 36A "Emma" android body for her to reside in at the direction of the Chusa and Chlorate's adoptive “father”, technician Walter Hyde. Azai-hei particularly enjoyed this request, as weaving the artificial tendons and neural networks together like one would a warm sweater for the budding young sentience was likely the closest she had ever come to the concept of creating a child one day.

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/index.php?threads/mission-ten-takaramono.60667/

Kaede was tapped to directly support the Chusa and the exploration efforts of the crew in the mysterious Temple of the Stars on the planet of Ralt, by managing sensitive equipment such as the Universally Networked Scalar Array Field Emitter and the prototype Shibui Powered Suit (Test Type) being tested in the cold conditions there. This triggered memories of training on the tundra of Tange System long ago, though her insights into the mystery of the Xiulurian Elf algorithm/language discovered also proved valuable.

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/yss-sakishima-episode-8-paradise-lost.65016/

While on leave in Jiyuu, the faithful logistics soldier received an emergency recall and reassignment request, being pressed back into Tenth Fleet service to her old post on the YSS Sakishima, now commanded by the battle-hardened Shoi Hoshitomo Rin. The entire fleet strength of Yugumo Cluster had been mobilized as emergency reinforcements for the beleaguered Sixth Fleet at the Battle of Hanako's Star, however the might of the attacking Interstellar Kingdom Of Kuvexia armada was simply too great for the combined defenders. Its ships slowly decimated in the chaos of battle, Tenth Fleet command gave the orders for a retreat and battlefield recovery operation, for which the Sakishima's small size and speed made it ideal. For her part, Kaede was tested to handle the logistics of the recovery of hundreds of wounded crew and Soul Savior Pod systems aboard the very tiny Chiaki class escort, which inevitably summoned visions of the misery of keeping Leo Star Fortress and its overcrowded refugees alive post-UOC fall. She also managed to survive an attack by a heavy armored Kuvexian soldier who was scooped up with some rescued giretsu infantry off the wreck of the YSS Shinshū Maru with the intent to finish the job of killing them, but her quick thinking tractor beamed him out of the cargo bay's forcefield before more Nekovalkyrja lives were lost.

( YSS Wakaba, Sharie-class Battleship )

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/yss-wakaba-episode-1-the-ghost-outpost.67081/

Safely returning with the survivors of that harrowing conflict back to Yugumo cluster, Kaede was subsequently awarded a Kuvexian War Medal for her service to the Empire. This also earned her a posting to a much larger ship that could make more use of her unique abilities, the Sharie-class YSS Wakaba, which had suffered chronic supply shortages as a result of the war and reorganization of the First Expeditionary Fleet. The ship however was pushed into operational readiness, in order to quickly support humanitarian aid and rebuilding efforts on the system of Tange, while clearing the space of Kuvexian remnants at an old outpost. Perhaps this time she could make some peace with the old scars that lurked there.

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/yss-kaiy%C5%8D-ii-orders-azai-kaede.60071/#post-418251/

A Kuvexian war-weary Azai-hei was eventually finally reassigned to Star Army Reserve duty at Fort Tokyo on Jiyuu III, a posting which she was more than happy to accept and be closer to home, as yet another term of her seemingly never-ending enlistment in the Star Army was coming to an end in a few months. Though she had never given it a second thought before, Kaede's mind now began to question if this was to be her ultimate future going forward. Retirement definitely didn't suit a hard worker like her, however, so she began volunteering to teach some basic logistics classes to incoming reservists on their weekend tours of duty to stay busy. It was during one of these presentations that she caught the eye of talent scouts from the Yugumo Corporation, and their personnel director was quick to offer her a position as an Assistant Quartermaster aboard a Yugumo Corporate Fleet vessel. It would seem, like the leaves of the maple tree, Kaede was once again fated to change her colors… yet her roots remained ever deeper into the familiar Jiyuuian soil.

( CYE-CYU-0036, Yūgure-class Merchant Destroyer )

https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/bastion-of-winter-mission-to-system-e13.68768/

TBA

As a former created Nekovalkyrja, Kaede received training in the Star Army Common Skills as well as those later developed by the United Outer Colonies Peacekeeping Forces while she was a member.

As a Star Army Cargo and Supply specialist, she is well versed in operating various types of shuttles, trucks, and other vehicles for the purposes of moving things from point A to point B. As former Peacekeeper logistics personnel, she can also operate UOC light crafts as well.

Besides being fluent in Trade (language) and Yamataigo (邪馬台語), Kaede's experience in the Yugumo cluster working alongside the Lorath has led to her possessing conversational knowledge of everyday Ly'thir.

Kaede has amazing skill in the area of nano-scale construction, able to operate a Standard Star Army Fabrication Area found on starships and star fortresses to great effect. She can create standard equipment such as power armor, clothing, ammunition, shuttles, and essential ship components with great efficiency, sometimes cutting the time needed nearly in half. With proper raw materials, and research she can also use the nanomachines to craft non-standard inorganic/organic items, though the process usually takes much longer to do so… and having an actual sample of the item to be templated speeds up things significantly. Her expert skill also extends to the use of a power armor mounted Ke-M2-G2902 Nodal Fabrication Module in the field, able to deconstruct and reform matter at the sub-molecular level in a variety of creative, useful ways to further the mission.

Considering her 5F specialty code, Kaede has also received generalist training of an-entry level Star Army Technician, though she is far from a replacement for a dedicated chief engineer. Her familiarity with blueprints and parts breakdowns for the purposes of fabrication does naturally make her very capable at fixing problems with starships and other vehicles that would primarily involve a “repair by replacement” strategy, though diagnosing the problems correctly first is something she would need assistance with from a more experienced technician or the MEGAMI. She also enjoys assisting with armor-related issues, and is significantly more capable in this area.

Being versed in inorganic construction, Kaede is naturally able to make things that serve no wartime purpose, rather simply to be aesthetically pleasing sculptures. Though she can take shortcuts with nanomachines, she rather enjoys taking her time to create these using more “old fashioned” manual methods and mediums such as clay, stone and even paper.

Kaede prizes a well-maintained neat and orderly space, not merely just for operating efficiency but also simply for being pleasing to the eyes. This in-built desire also extends to places beyond the cargo and maintenance areas within the ship as well, and she will often busy herself with tidying up common areas or even crew quarters when nothing else requires her direct attention. The Minkan would actually make an excellent stereotypical Yamataiian 'shufu' housewife… just, her cooking leaves a lot to be desired.

During her half year tour in the Star Army Reserve at Fort Tokyo, Kaede had a rather uncomfortable amount of free time. So she began to experiment with becoming less shy, and wished to share her great knowledge and experience that her fellow soldiers might benefit. This took the form of volunteering to deliver mundane briefings about good logistics procedures, as well as teaching aspiring fabrication soldiers the finer details of nano-scale assembly and blueprint reading through lectures and hands on workshops. Her new employer Yugumo Corporation recognized this potential, and believes she has a promising future in lower management of the quartermaster division as a result.

Azai Kaede is connected to:

• Chlorate (Created her current Emma-type custom body)

Azai Kaede has the following items:

• Yugumo Corporation Standard Issue
• Star Army Standard Issue Items package
• Star Army Duty Uniform, Type 30C in orange panels
• Boxes of maple-sugar candies
• Sculptures she has created

• One red and green striped sweater with an artist's depiction of the Fuji-class Expeditionary Gunship adorned with sparkling lights and YSS Kaiyō is underneath, above some snowmen!
• A Star Army Datapad, Type 33 specially made case is the trademark Kaiyō blue and has the YSS Kaiyō II patch on the front
• An Te-G5 Adante Keyboard from Kaiyō Year-End Traditions
• A zip-up hoodie with a picturesque image of the YSS Kaiyō II printed across the entirety of the hoodie
• Star Army Holiday Kit, Type 36

Prizes won from SCSC Trick or Treat Giveaway - YE 39:

• Ammunition Crate, 105mm Tank (NMX War, TC: 84-21, IC: 1737-19125-95)
• Civilian Car
• 5 Crates of Exotic Liquor
• SSCC-XL containing Lead
• SSCC-XL containing Terbium
• 401 x Amphora of Vinegar (80 lb)

Azai Kaede is currently a Kakarichō (係長)]] in the Yugumo Corporation. She also is ranked as a Jôtô Hei in the Star Army Reserve.

• The characters for her name are 浅井楓 (az ai kaede) which translates to “shallow well maple”.

In the case paladinrpg becomes inactive:

• Can this character be used as an NPC by a GM or FM? YES
• Can this character be adopted after I've been gone for a year? YES