Outcasts, Pardoned Exiles and Dismounted Pilots

Ghar Outcasts are the lowest of the low in Ghar society, possibly even lower than that. Whilst Fartok pardoned the Exiles under Karg, all his own rebels and Battle Group Nine veterans, and some of those needlessly Outcast by Karg, he left the Ghar Rule in place and keeps it rigorously enforced, so there are still Outcasts being created. To a Ghar, any transgression against the Ghar Rule is subject to a wartime court-martial (Ghar are always at war) and the court’s only real punishments are Outcast or protein and mineral recycling (not to put too fine a point on it, this actually means being sent to an extermination chamber where the transgressor’s body is reused as pulp in the ghar food-tubes).

This means that Outcasts have been robbed of any status amongst their kind and condemned to undertake the most menial and dangerous of tasks. Fighting as an Outcast is a sentence that few survive and even fewer escape from to regain their former lives.

Outcasts are equipped with crude lugger guns, exceptionally primitive (from an Antarean perspective), automatic weapons that shoot crude bullets using a volatile and unreliable chemical propellant. Such basic weapons are practically unknown in the rest of Antarean space and though they are not ineffective at close range, in the hands of Ghar Outcasts the chances of hitting anything are slim. This is countered by the low life expectancy of the Outcasts, so the emphasis is to arm them with cheap, expendable weapons to match their cheap, expendable status in Ghar society. They are often also given plasma grenades, though expectations they will achieve anything with such weapons are low.

It is generally understood that desperate Outcasts would sometimes take to their heels and hide away, forming little bands of desperate brigands, living in hope that their masters would somehow forget about them. Sadly they very rarely do. Such runaways would usually find themselves betrayed from amongst their own, typically in return for a cushy job as a slave driver or as a supervisor in the dismal armaments factories of Gharon.

Normally, Outcasts cannot receive any bonuses from their betters due to being demoralised Outcasts. However, their own command squad can give them Follow orders and the benefit of its Command, as can High Commanders, but very few other leaders can inspire such dispirited wastrels.

An overview of Ghar and Rebel weapons can be found in this article.

Outcast Command

Such is the nature of the Ghar that even Outcasts continue to value power, still rating their status in terms of the number of other Ghar who must answer to them. Betrayal can advance even the lowliest Outcast and if they’re lucky they may receive their own maglash and become a slave driver, a leader of sorts, to those unfortunate Outcasts beneath them.

The Outcast’s maglash is a short ranged magnetic impulse weapon that can also be used in hand-to-hand fighting after the fashion of a whip. They’re not an especially common weapon amongst Antarean space, as most factions consider it unnecessarily cruel and barbaric – which is, perhaps, why it is so detested amongst Battle Gourp Nine veterans and Pardoned Exiles, and so loved by Masters and Drivers in Outcast weapon teams. The magnetic field can be extended, allowing a skilled user to ‘throw’ a burst of energy a limited distance. On the table, this gives the user two hand to hand attacks.

Disruptor Cannon Team

Outcast squads may be augmented with the inclusion of a Disruptor Cannon, a light support adaptation of the weapon carried by Ghar battlesuits mounted upon a small, powered walker. Occasionally, am Outcast cannon may be deployed as a separate weapon team (sometimes good for receiving Distort Dice).

The disruptor cannon gives the Outcasts a chance to face enemy troops on something closer to an even footing. It is a little more powerful than the scourer cannon’s disruptor (Blast D5 at SV1 anda  rangte up to 40″) but its main use is in putting pins of any opposition. Being a light support weapon, though, it cannot be used in point blank shooting.

Dismounted Pilots/Pardoned Exiles

Fartok not only brought his own rebels back into the Ghar Empire, but also pardoned those Ghar who went into involuntary Exile rather than face mass extermination or Outcasting at the hands of Karg. The chief difference between the former rebels and the former exiles was that the latter stuck as much as possible with their Ghar weaponry and armour, only using scavenged parts to repair otherwise ‘true Ghar’ technology. Such exiles have the morale and experience of the BG9 veterans, but use the kinetic armour worn by Ghar pilots, lugger guns and plasma grenades.

Such exiles also match those few battlesuit pilots who are waiting to have their suits repaired. At present, the Ghar Empire is struggling to keep up with the demands on battlesuit spares and on producing new suits, primarily due to Karg’s reign of terror. Under Fartok, production is much more efficient but some of the previously loyal pilots are still waiting – but still want to make their mark on the hated panhumans.

Pardoned Exiles and Dismounted Pilots both carry more social weight than Outcasts, so often have ammunition meant for Outcasts redirected to themselves. This means they do not run out of ammunition for their lugger guns – often a problem for true Outcasts.