Kyoko Sakoda (Character)

Character details

Mugshot used in Kyoko Sakoda's DED file as of 113YC.
Name	Kyoko Sakoda
Gender	Female
Race	Caldari
Bloodline	Deteis/Achura
Licensed	20 December, 106YC
Corporation	Veto Corp
Occupation	Pirate
Specialization	Combat Electronics

Kyoko Sakoda is a veteran PC pilot, pirate, and employee of Veto Corp. Currently she is thought to have cemented a career with the Guristas Pirates, although she spent a brief time working for the Angel Cartel. She is presently engaged to Ethan Verone, CEO of Veto Corp. The root of her given name means "unity" in Achuran.

Education

From her birth (19 May, YC83) Kyoko Sakoda was raised inside the jurisdiction and influence of Ishukone Corporation. Her mother Yukiko was an influential and affluent Achuran biochemist from Saisio III (Achura) who had moved to New Caldari Prime on the terms of an employment offer with the Ishukone subsidary known as Omerta Syndicate. As such it was expected that she would follow in her mother's footsteps.

Instead of specializing in any of the sciences, her later tutors noticed that Kyoko had a knack for electronic engineering. She entered amateur Splinters matches and took an interest in combat electronics, a general term used to encompass defensive and offensive electronic warfare mechanisms ranging from ECM field theory to hacking. After making it known that she would rather apply her skills in the security and intelligence sector, preparations were made for her tertiary education, and Kyoko acquired an internship with Omerta Syndicate.

Omerta Syndicate

Omerta Syndicate was a set of linearly planned (and highly classified) R&D projects in the biotech sector more than it was a corporation, although the scale of its operations required an organizational structure that could only be materialized by gaining official subsidary status. The offices and labs of the corporation were located in the Palermo Center, a tall business complex on the shore of Lex Talionis, New Caldari Prime.

Led by Vassili Zaitsev, the corporation's operations were shrouded in secrecy from the public and low-level Ishukone employees, with little being announced by way of press releases. However, even with this figurehead the corporation reported directly to Ishukone.

Palermo Bombing

On 21 May, 102YC, the Palermo Center was struck by a missile launched from low orbit above New Caldari Prime earlier in the morning. The phased missile was detected by the Caldari Navy but could not be intercepted. Low-yield but deadly, the missile penetrated and exploded, causing a firestorm in the upper levels of the skyscraper. 872 people, employees of the corporation and civilians alike, perished in the attack, including Yukiko Itsu-Sakoda.

The Minmatar terrorist organization known as The Hand of Kwaheri was a prime suspect in the attack and in later years was found conclusively to be the culprit.

Kyoko sustained injury to her left arm and was taken to a local hospital for treatment by Zaitsev himself. She was also treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which included intermittent periods of catatonia for up to two years after the incident.

Resurrection

In the spring of 106YC Omerta Syndicate was reconstructed under the direction of Yuki Li, Vassili Zaitsev's niece. Zaitsev remained as president of the corporation and was largely an inspirational figure. With approval from Ishukone, the corporation received funding and opened a new public face in the biotech industry. Its trademark patriotic recruitment slogan, "Learn what it means to be Caldari," was intended for a wide audience, although it is thought that it was particularly of concern to the corporation that they rebuild their internal security and interstellar task forces quickly.

Kyoko became a starship captain for Omerta Syndicate in 106YC. By now an expert in electronic warfare, she quickly rose through the ranks just short of the directorship. She was instrumental in the process of constructing tunneling protocols unique to the corporation for use through greater FTL networks as secure, encrypted ship-to-ship and ship-to-HQ communication. In addition she increasingly involved herself with the corporation's public relations team. Soon Kyoko's work ethic and determination had earned her a corporate title equivalent to Major.

A more independent entity as a result of its restructuring, every action Omerta took from therein was claimed to be for the betterment of the Caldari State and Ishukone Corporation. Omerta initiated CONCORD-sanctioned wars in the defense of assets, profit margins, and even for themes as trivial as defending their reputation. Ishukone soon had taken exception to Omerta Syndicate's war-mongering along the spacelanes, sparking fears that Omerta could damage the megacorporation's reputation as leader of the Liberal Caldari political bloc. Heated exchanges took place between Vassili Zaitsev and the upper power levels of Ishukone.

New Palermo Raid

Omerta had been active as an Ishukone subsidiary for 18 months when in October 107 their headquarters was stormed and ransacked; the New Palermo security force quickly decimated by a ruthless and overwhelming frontal assault. The president scrambled messages to the entire capsuleer division (some of them as well as Kyoko herself caught up in the ground assault), ordering their immediate dispersal into hiding, fearing Ishukone would take matters further and eliminate the pod pilots too. From then on a hibernation period began, former operatives scattering to null security regions.

Kyoko found herself first as a pilot of Reikoku flying under the banner of the Band of Brothers, alongside most of the Omerta pod pilots that had been expelled. Restless after the New Palermo raid, she moved on to Placid Reborn and Jericho Fraction, neither transfer apparently motivated by ideology. In Jericho Fraction she briefly flew alongside fellow ex-Omerta leader Kale Ryoko once again, who had been training and advising the pilots of the corporation.

Three months after the raid, Omerta regrouped as an entirely capsuleer based organization without any ties to Ishukone or the State and led again under the auspices of Vassili Zaitsev. Kyoko had grown disillusioned with the State and Ishukone and started exhibiting revolutionary tendencies in her open speech over GalNet, blaming Otro Gariushi squarely for her corporation's misfortune.

Second Ushra'Khan War

It is of note that during Omerta Syndicate's second open war with Ushra'Khan (wherein the alliance was attacked for harboring members of The Hand of Kwaheri) Kyoko became both a director and press secretary of Omerta Syndicate. Deeply embroiled and embarrassed in a GalNet controversy over the rationale behind The Hand's attack on Palermo Center, she later decided to step down as press secretary.

She was often seen in scout and electronic warfare support roles during the conflict. Kyoko also expanded her base of knowledge in Gallentean military technology in preperation to certify for Gallentean hulls. It can be deduced that her increasing interest in high-damage, short-range weaponry was a result of her well known revenge motive.

Ishukone and Innovaatio Varustukset

After a brief conflict and parting with the directorship of Omerta in which it was rumored Kyoko had gone so far as to sabotage the private communications networks she herself assisted in the construction of, Kyoko mysteriously returned to duty as the corporation set up new operations in the Delve and Fountain regions.

During this time Omerta pod pilots involved themselves with the sabatoge of Innovaatio Varustukset's sale to Ishukone as plotted by Nugohuevi employee Haanti Vaastun. Kyoko Sakoda commanded at least one operation against Ishukone over the spring months of 109YC. While Omerta was openly condemned by many elements of the State's capsuleer power structure, they were widely considered pawns of Nugohuevi and not brought to trial. This however downplays the fact that the destruction of Innovaatio's main research facility also caused heavy financial damage to Ishukone Corporation (and indeed NOH and Kaalakiota as well) and that Omerta's eye-for-an-eye approach to their former parent megacorporation had more or less been successful.

Ghost Festival

As a result perhaps of her curiosity Kyoko resurrected the corporation Ghost Festival as a small pirate and rackateering operation along with friend Aria Jenneth in the first month of 110YC. The corporation, employing only capsuleers and their support staffs, roamed the trade routes in Derelik for the better part of a half year, simultaneously improving relations with the Angel Cartel and Thukker Tribe. During her time as CEO Kyoko led small fleets of capsuleer pilots into Curse, Great Wildlands, and Providence, befriending only the business partners of the Angel Cartel and obliterating other vessels they posessed the firepower to engage.

Her time with the corporation was short, as she resigned in July of the same year. Such a short stint is not unusual behavior among pod pilots, however her employment history and philisophical standing suggests her work with the Angel Cartel was simply experimental.

Veto Corp (Present)

Kyoko took more than a few Ghost Festival employees with her to Veto Corp in July 110YC, the group mostly consisting of former No Quarter employees and Caldari pirates. Since her application with Veto Corp her activity in space has seen a noticable drop and it is thought that she has resigned herself to mostly administrative roles in the Gurista-supported corporation. Predictably, her occupational shuffle from the South of the map to the North has earned her the callsign "Angel." She is engaged to long time friend and CEO of Veto Corp Ethan Verone.

Philosophy and Personality

Kyoko has before regularly spoken out against injustices in State society as supposedly perpetrated by leaders of most (if not all) of the megacorporations. She believes that the board members of the Chief Executive Panel have not set themselves to a standard to be expected of Caldari leaders. By increasing concern over profit margins and decreasing concern over developing the bottom line (that is, the Caldari proletariat), she argues the State has hurt itself both economically and culturally. She believes more corporate funds should be reinvested in the lower classes of Caldari society and in non-vocational education. However, far from being a socialist of Gallentean flavor, she believes corporations have an obligation to do this themselves, directing resources for their employees in the most optimal way for their particular circumstances.

Economically and diplomatically Kyoko advocates strong Liberal and multilateral methods of operation for the Caldari State. She has also indicated that she favors a stronger Chief Executive Panel and Caldari Business Tribunal with expanded jurisdiction over the domestic affairs of each individual megacorporation should they neglect their duty to their citizens. Any and all of her outrage directed toward the Ishukone Corporation also seems to have gone silent since the Malkalen disaster of 110YC and Otro Gariushi's death. In fact, she has referred to the former CEO as a great leader and an ideological partner, in spite of the fact that she once cursed his name publicly on GalNet. This indicates she presently feels mistaken about her prior conflict with Ishukone for one reason or another.

While some parallels can be drawn between the domestic agendas of Kyoko Sakoda and current Provist leader Tibus Heth, they in fact have entirely different views on foreign relations. Kyoko has repeatedly spoken out against Heth's racially inflammatory and openly "reactionary" rhetoric, and believes strongly that the most prosperous domestic economy would be made by executing multilateral trade agreements on all fronts rather than turning the gears of war against the strongest economy (the Gallente Federation). Unlike Heth she does not blame cultural imperialism for the State's economic and identity problems. She would argue the State has lost its true identity under Heth, becoming the very kind of government the Caldari declared independence from in the First Gallente-Caldari War.

It is unsurprising then that she puts no emphasis on securing Caldari Prime for the Caldari State's possession as her mother was from Saisio and her father was a spacer in the Caldari Navy.

Unfortunately for her it is unlikely that she'll ever be able to return to the State. Hence, her political musings are just that.

Kyoko is an outgoing character around her kind but a cynical woman with the political outlook of a progressive reformist. She values informed opinion created by researching multiple perspectives, as well as intelligence in broad subject matter. While she enjoys an occasional debate, she often exhibits a short temper with those in vehement disagreement with her politically and/or ideologically. Acutely aware of issues in ethics, she enjoys debating these issues most and possesses a great sense of responsibility, particularly for a capsuleer.

Even though Kyoko drinks copious amounts of alcohol and has experimented before with amber cytoserol dihydrate (Blue Pill), she is charismatic and often makes an impression for better or worse upon meeting someone new. She enjoys activity over sloth. Having been raised along a temperate coastal landscape, her favorite activities are often water sport such as surfing and diving, and she generally seems to be an adventurous person. She also plays a single-reed woodwind instrument common in Caldari culture called a rakkuio. She is a frequent gambler, her bets often being placed on Splinters matches.