Fartok 12-40-13, Ghar High Commander

Ghar Senior High Commander Fartok 12-40-13 has had an interesting career. We have his stats and personal history here in a number of different incarnations, and his main stats as leader of the resurgent Ghar Empire can be found in the Ghar Army List.

The following link to the stats for each variant.

• High Commander, Leader of Battle Group 9 in the New Ghar Empire
• Dismounted and Outcast on the run on Ephra
• Fartok, Leader of the Outcast Rebellion

Fartok’s career has been long and varied, from triumphant commanderr, to lowly outcast, and once more back to triumphant commander – even Supreme Commander-in-waiting.

Fartok, High Commander, Battle Group Nine

After the events of Duret IV where Karg was – frankly – utterly obliterated, Fartok is once more the High Commander of Battle Group 9, though now acknowledged as the foremost of all High Commanders and the Supreme Commander-in-waiting. He is rebuilding the Ghar Empire and refitting his own troops with Ghar weapons, though the manufacturing capability of the Empire had deteriorated under Karg so this is taking some time.

Though they were not bred to do so, Fartok’s former Battle Group 9 (BG9) survivors, now veterans, are intensely loyal to a leader they know to be reasonable, highly capable, and one that has the best interested of the Ghar Empire and the Ghar Rule at heart. It is they who call his rule the ‘New Ghar Empire’, to differentaite it from the old.

Fartok has pardoned all his BG9 comrades and all Exiles, though many small groups of exiles are still on the run from karg and know little of what he has done. Fartok has replaced the emperor’s medics with those loyal to the Ghar cause, not Karg, and has freed up the datafeeds to the Supreme Commander so his ruler really understands what is going on.

Stats: High Commander Fartok 12-40-13, leader of Battle Group 9

Fartok is listed in the Ghar Army List as an upgrade to the battlesuited Sourer Squad. He rarely leads from a Command Crawler now, having no need for its extensive cmomand and communication array. The modifications to a standard High Commander cost an extra point (total +6pts) and are as follows:

Modification	Description
Command 10, Initiative 9	Fartok’s experience has fed his natural ability such taht he no longer needs the extensive array of equipment to be highly effective in the field. His High Commander skills allow those in within 20″ to use both these stats.
Rebel Rabble	Fartok has inspired considerable (perhaps un-Ghar-like) loyalty amongst his Battle Group 9 veterans. During list selection, Fartok can replace one of his core battlesuit units with a Battle Group 9 Veteran Squad. The replacement unit counts as a battlesuit squad for selection purposes.

Fartok, Leader of the Outcast Rebellion

This section covers Fartok’s history up to the Outcast rebellion.

[From The Battle for Xilos]: Fartok was the Ghar Empire’s most successful commander, one of a series of extraordinary broodmates cloned on the express order of the Supreme Commander himself to lead the Empire’s all-conquering armies. The war against degenerate humanity in all its multitudinous and sickening forms was eternal, of course, and the Supreme Commander saw that as clearly as anyone – but the prospect did not daunt him in the slightest. For him, the Ghar existed for the sole and enduring purpose of eradicating their enemies: nothing else mattered. The most terrible thing was to fail: failure was worse than death itself as it made a mockery of the only reason that Ghar existed, a betrayal of all Ghar.

For Ghar, a special fate is reserved for those who fail. Such failures are stripped of their honoured place as warriors and, if not sent to a recycling plant, become unworthy Outcasts, despised and reviled by all of Ghar kind. Outcasts are ignominious labourers, sent to the slave factories or food processing plants. If lucky they might become overseers, supervisors or other privileged functionaries and allowed to live out what remains of their lives in shame and regret. If unlucky they became mere slaves, their lives to be casually expended for the benefit of their superiors, for the Ghar are an uncaring race with little thought for the sacrifices of others.

Such things were of little concern to Fartok, who rose rapidly through the ranks, buoyed upon a succession of successful campaigns in which he led Ghar troops to victory on world after world. His fellow broodmates rose to comparable prominence with almost equal rapidity. Together they won the highest honours among Ghar kind and enjoyed such favour as the Supreme Commander deemed appropriate for his most successful servants. But of that brood, there was one other who came close to equalling Fartok’s successes: Karg 12-40-9. Fartok and Karg became great rivals and soon each gained the command of his own Battle Group – a core independent command within the Empire’s vast forces.

The Ghar Supreme Commander was pleased to contemplate the success of brood number 12-40, the fortieth brood of clone station twelve, the station dedicated to the nurturing and perfection of command qualities within the race. To be bred in the vats of station twelve was sufficient to mark out a warrior for great responsibilities. The Supreme Commander himself had been born of that brood- line many years ago. This fortieth brood was nothing less than the latest and finest expression of the Ghar geneticists’ endeavours to breed strategic geniuses to serve the Empire’s armies. Fartok 12-40-13 and Karg 12-40-9 were triumphs of Ghar science.

Batch 12-40

The Supreme Commander, the greatest and wisest of all the Ghar race, was almost six hundred years old and was ailing, being kept alive by intensive care and Ghar machinery. Now, though, everywhere he looked, Ghar forces were triumphant, leading him to hope that one of the two leaders he had bred would be a worthy successor. However, what he could not know was that all was not quite as it appeared with brood 12-40.

It is impossible to say which of the many, enthusiastic Ghar broodmasters responsible for sequencing the clones for brood 12-40 made the painstaking lateral genetic adjustments the task demanded. Indeed, it hardly mattered, for the genetic splicing had already been carefully planned, and the newly developed mutations run through the simulators hundreds of times.

The Ghar brood-lines had proven remarkably stable for thousands of years, indeed, the telemeric integrity of Ghar chromosomes was so strong that the vast majority of Ghar – those brooded in stations one to seven – were unreconstructed replicas of the pure strains developed by the primal creators thousands upon thousands of years ago. If the Ghar were ideally evolved for anything it was simply to be Ghar: unquestioningly loyal to their own kind, utterly dedicated to their task, not merely prepared to sacrifice their lives in service but fully expecting to do so. For a Ghar, self-interest was as unthinkable as was failure, and a sense of personal ambition a concept as incomprehensible as compassion.

However, in creating their new strain 12-40 the Ghar had inadvertently unleashed qualities hitherto quite alien to the Ghar temperament. While the mewling clones were reared within the station’s nurseries, these qualities were never recognised for what they were. This was because ordinary Ghar have little natural empathy and practically no concept of such things as imagination, personal ambition or curiosity. That the broodmates were quick to learn, eager to succeed, and readily observant seemed only to suggest that the strain had been a great success.

The brood was more different that its inceptors could easily grasp. Confined within their narrow vision of purpose and duty, the geneticists could not know that these seemingly desirable attributes derived from a significantly enhanced sense of individuality and self-worth. In other words they had created Ghar prepared to put themselves above their duty: that was – literally – unthinkable!

As the years passed the Supreme Commander had no immediate cause to regret his decision, and the fortieth brood of station 12 grew to become successful commanders in their diverse fields. A number were killed in the line of duty, as was only to be expected, but those that remained soon climbed to the very peaks of responsibility within the Empire – barring that lofty pinnacle that was the Supreme Commander himself. The most successful were Fartok and Karg, and the Supreme Commander’s gratitude was readily bestowed upon them on behalf of their savage and uncompromising race. Yet their comparable achievements masked two profoundly different characters and methods.

While Fartok was stern and unrelenting he was also careful to instruct his commanders and promote those whose qualities he considered most effective. He also ensured that his commanders looked after the troops under their command and made sure they were well supplied and not exposed to unnecessary risks. This was all unusual behaviour for a Ghar, it was true, but these were traits that contributed hugely to Fartok’s success.

Karg on the other hand was famous for punishing his commanders cruelly for the most trivial errors, and for driving his troops into suicidal attacks to little effect. Fartok gained a reputation for his unusually austere life-style, foregoing the normal privileges of rank to endure the hardships of his front line fighters, demanding nothing of his troops that he would not undertake himself. Karg’s attitude was quite different and he rarely troubled to put himself in danger while he had others to shoulder that particular duty on his behalf. Furthermore, his taste for luxurious living and fine food caused him to grow uncommonly corpulent for a race remarkable for its scrawny appearance and modest appetites.

Ephra and Betrayal

Fartok’s Battle Group Nine (BG9) soon gained a reputation as one of the Ghar Empire’s finest fighting formations. Fartok confronted Prosperate forces on a number of outlying worlds, raiding Algoryn outposts and ambushing Freeborn convoys transporting Prosperate reinforcements. BG9 drove the abominations from no fewer than three entire worlds, their blackened ruins serving as Ghar supply dumps for the continuing war against the hated humans of Algor. Karg’s Battle Group 10 (BG10) had enjoyed almost as great a success, boasting a string of worlds laid waste upon the edges of Prosperate controlled territory.

The Supreme Commander decided that BG9 and BG10 would lead the efforts of six whole, Ghar battle groups to attack the most heavily defended Prosperate world near to their borders, the planet Ephra. This was the first time that the two broodmates had fought side-by-side and the Supreme Commander expected great things of his two finest commanders and their battle honed armies. He placed them in joint command of the entire Ghar force, a mighty armada the like of which had not been seen in many centuries.

The key to Ephra was its sole large city, also called Ephra. The city was protected by a series of fortifications or Sentinels sited to make attack almost impossible so long as they stood. As well as housing heavy weapons, the Sentinels were inter-linked by underground tunnels, allowing the defenders to move unseen to meet any attack. The towering Sentinels were also protected by suspensor fields that shielded the city from aerial bombardment, and made it impossible for Ghar landers to get near. The only way of attacking the city was to first attack and destroy the Sentinels themselves.

The battle for Ephra proved a bloody one for the Ghar. While the Sentinels stood the Ghar were unable to exert control over the planet, and even the Ghar fleets could not entirely prevent the Algoryn reinforcing their position with fresh troops. Heavy weapons in outlying emplacements were able to wreak havoc with the Ghar formations as they advanced over open ground and counterattacks by heavily armoured combat skimmers drove the Ghar armies from their siege lines, destroying much of their heavy equipment. Despite the losses, little by little the defences were gradually weakened, and neither Fartok nor Karg was yet prepared to face the possibility of failure.

The two Ghar strategists devised a plan that would, if successful, deliver the first Sentinel into their hands. The Battle Groups were to coordinate their attacks, the first to clear the outer defences and prepare a path for the second to strike at the weakest point in the enemy’s defences. Karg agreed that BG10 would begin by clearing the route, while Fartok’s BG9 would have the honour of striking the killing blow itself.

The attack failed; BG 10 failed to clear the way. It was hardly the end of Ghar hopes and nor was it the first set-back suffered on Ephra, but when the badly mauled Battle Group 9 eventually broke free of the Algoyrn ambush that had almost destroyed it, Fartok was arrested and his troops disarmed.

Fartok could scarcely believe it: the forces that Karg’s BG10 was supposed to have swept aside had been waiting to intercept BG9’s advance. Fartok had almost died in the onslaught and many of his best commanders and troops had perished under a hail of fire. It was almost as if Karg had deliberately neglected to clear the path ahead of Battle Group 9; it was as if the enemy knew they were coming.

Karg immediately accused Fartok of cowardice, of incompetence, and most especially of failure. That a Ghar High Commander would deliberately shift blame in this way upon a fellow Ghar was unthinkable to other Ghar, including the Supreme Commander, whose disappointment in Fartok was beyond measure. For Fartok, the accusation was the final humiliation that brought home an insight that no other Ghar could even imagine: that he had been betrayed by his own kind. Karg had deliberately led Battle Group 9 into a trap; Karg was that thing it was impossible for a Ghar to be: a traitor!

Fartok swore he would not rest until his new enemy had been killed and exposed as a traitor.

A Rebellion is Born

After escaping from captivity with many of his BG9 comrades, Fartok had little choice but to form an organised opposition to Karg: the Ghar Outcast rebellion was born. Cut off from Ghar manufacturing facilities, his forces had scavenge what they could from raids on civilian and military installations and vessels throughout the Southern Determinate: from food to protection to medical facilities and even weapons. Under his guidance, his Rebels had eaten strange foods, reworked scavenged, abomination technology, and interfaced the robust Ghar engineering with the delicate and fragile panuhman technology – actions that was unthinkable for most Ghar.

Fartok continued preying on Karg’s ships, incporating Outcasts into his army, and was gratified to see almost all the survivors of Battle Group 9 flock to his cause (where they formed the Black Guard). Whole brigades of Ghar and even ship crews turned to the Rebel banner when they given impossible-to-complete or suicidal tasks.

Gradually, Fartok built up his rebel forces even as Karg weakened the Ghare Empire, feeding falsehoods to the emperor and even creating a strain of Ghar who were personally loyal to him, not the Ghar Rule. For a while, direct pressure on the Algoryn forces diminished as Karg hunted Fartok, though the Algoryn were faced with Fartok’s guerilla war, one where resources were the objective, not conquer.

Eventually, after building an armada and a substantial Ghar army, Fartok tracked Karg to the world of Xilos, where he launched a devastating attack (unwittingly aided by the Algoryn and Concord) that drove Karg’s forces into the underground complex at the heart of the planet. Determined to avenge the terrible betrayal of Ephra, Fartok’s Outcast army had pursued the hated Karg deep underground. Whilst they no doubt beat the Empire, they were forced to flee when the XIlos Rift swept across the system.

Even during his rebellion, Fartok remained loyal to the Empire and knows that not only was the Ghar Empire itself in danger from Karg’s ambition but even the life of the Supreme Commander was at stake. He knew that Karg would stop at nothing to advance himself at the expense of all others. It was Fartok’s duty to prevent that corruption and return the Ghar Empire to glory.

After the major battles of Xilos and Chryseis, Fartok would not face Karg directly until the revenge of Duret IV – and Karg’s final demise.

STATS: Fartok, Leader of the Outcast Rebellion

Whether in service to the Empire or as a Rebel, Fartok fought – and fights – at the forefront of his troops so, as a Rebel, he wore the special battlesuit his engineers rebuilt for him. Though no longer available, if players wish to refight Fartok’s Rebel days with his Fartok’s jury-rigged battlesuit (available for BtGoA v1), the should treat him as a High Commander in a Scourer Squad at an extra +1 point (+6 in total) with the modifications below (note that this is the same cost as Fartok as High Commander but lacks his experience in charge of the Rebel cause).

Modification	Description
Multi-maglash	This replaces the battlesuit’s normal plasma claw and consists of a number of maglashes jury-rigged onto the power feeds. It is used only in hand-to-hand where it has 5 Attacks SV1.
Scavenged Plasma Light Support	This is the Rebel engineers only successsful repurposing of a plasma light support. It’s range is severely reduced (20/30/50) but still has three shots and SV.
Rebel Rabble	Fartok has inspired considerable (perhaps un-Ghar-like) loyalty amongst his Battle Group 9 veterans. During list selection, Fartok can replace one of his core battlesuit units with a Battle Group 9 Veteran Squad. The replacement unit counts as a battlesuit squad for selection purposes.
Co 9, Init 8	Whilst highly effective, Fartok has yet to fully realise his potential through experrience. His Co and Init stats remain the same as any other suited high commander.