Privateer Admiral Taras Kalemon

Captain, now Admiral, Kalemon is one of Antares’ most opportunistic adventurers. Born into a very minor Freeborn family – a single-doma vardos – he long ago rejected his origins and claimed to be a self-made salvageer. His fortunes have waxed and waned, but on the whole he has gained more than lost and now runs a Freeborn cargo frigate (the Emari Star) with am experienced crew and excellent Boromite engineers, miners and salvage workers. During his long life – he is rumoured to have been rebodied twice – he has picked up a great deal of intimate and unrecorded knowledge about the upper Determinate and the hazy border of the Northern Interface between the two great IMTel shards.

As a captain, Taras Kalemon, often took a letter of marque from the Senatex or salvage, wreck recovery or repair operations under well-funded and lucrative letters of marque from the larger Houses. To no-one’s certain knowledge has he ever acted in a purely piratical fashion, apparently always staying on the ‘right’ side of the law, but his most lucrative trade is in hulks of Concord, independent, or Freeborn origin to the poorer Isorian systems along the Northern Determinate and the Northern Interface. When hulks were in short supply, he and his crew mined and processed exotic minerals in the more sparsely populated systems, trading them onwards to the border worlds of either IMTel .

Taras puts on a devil-may-care, slapdash facade, and may appear to lack morals, but the reality is that he is always seeking knowledge and contacts. Whilst he may not be intelligent, he is wily and ambitious almost has a second sense where opportunity is concerned. He has built up a solid reputation amongst several Boromite clans as a good source of leads for ore and for work, and almost half his crew is composed of Boromites – indeed, most of his front-facing salvage workers and engineer teams are Boromite rather than a more ordinary morph.

With the coming of the Dronescourge, things changed. As part of their intelligence efforts in tracing the line of destruction wrought by the Virai, the Isorians interviewed Captain Kalemon. When the Isorian agents showed him the list of systems, Taras had merely snorted, commenting that they were systems he would never visit. When asked why, he explained that all had been ‘mined out’ from his perspective – that his miners considered the work too much for the return (a rare comment for Boromites). Further, in each, there were rarely any ‘wrecks’ to salvage as the in-system traffic in each case was non-existent.

Taras was canny, continually asking the intelligence agents why they were so interested in such poorly resourced systems. When they left, they thought they had evaded his questions. However, if they had but stopped to face him, they would have seen a very thoughtful look on Taras’s features…

With the coming of TOR 563, Kalemon saw a tremendous opportunity for himself and for those salvage workers and privateers who have been struggling in the wake of XIlos and the upsets within the IMTels. He called in every favour he was owed to pull together a small fleet to capture the ancient liner and turn it into a stable home for all involved. His hope was to found a major Freeborn house, the vardos kalemoni, with himself as vard!

Alas, his plans came to nothing, many of the privateer and salvageers ships being destroyed by the Concord and Senatex navies in an attempt to eradicate the Virai. Other ships were infested with Virai and were abandoned. Other privateers were desttroyed by Gahr defense on TOR 563 when they boarded. Overall, the mission was an abject failure, the privateer fleet virtually destroyed, and Taras barely fled the system with his bodyguards, life and ship intact. His reputation is now in tatters and few privateers and salvageers will say his name without cursing.

Taras and the crew of the Emari Star are now trying to eke out a living wherever they can in the Northern Determinate. Even his own crew have lost faith in his leadership the potential for mutiny is high: all he can rely on are his own, loyal bodyguard.

Taras Kalemon, the person

Taras Kalemon is wily and ambitious and has been accused of lacking any morals. He is, perhaps, the ultimate opportunist but knows when a little planning ahead could go a long way. Experience has taught him that caution is the better part of valour, so he has been able to survive many a gunfight by rapidly moving to a better position – or even somewhere else entirely. He has been patched up so many times that many think his skin has had a layer of subdermal armour added, a rumour he is keen to promote as he figures it makes people less likely to attack him personally.

Taras Kalemon, Privateer Admiral

Following the chaos at Taskarr, Taras Kalemon once more only has command of the Emari Star with occasional allies. Nonetheless, he still insists of being called ‘Admiral’ – though outside his own crew there are many pejoratives added to the title. Taras Kalemon always has at least two panhuman bodyguards and is provided with one such pair – a Boromite and human.

Taras Kalemon uses the Freeborn Vardosi selector (see the PDF Army Lists). He either replaces a Senior Captain in a Fleet Command squad, or his whole unit, option (3) below, replaces the Fleet Command unit.

There are three options to represent Taras Kalemon:

1. Taras Kalemon and his bodyguards can be used as a normal Fleet Command squad, just treating any Boromite bodyguard as a normal panhuman. The hyperlight booster buddy can be ignored if you do not have any models (though shield buddies work well) and the squad cost reduced by 1pt.
2. As with option (1), but upgrading the Fleet Captain to Taras with the stats below.
3. The whole squad can be replaced as shown

OPTION 2: Upgrading Taras In A Fleet Command Squad

The Senior Captain in a Fleet Command unit can be upgraded to Taras at a cost of +1pt (14pts overall). Whlst Taras is likely to have resharded armour, this is not mandatory. Taras’ stats are as the Senior Captain with the following changes:

Modification	Description
Plasma Pistol	Taras is more likely to have a plasma pistol than a plasma carbine, though may take either.
Command 8	Taras is an opportunist, not an inspiring leader.
Initiative 10	This reflects Taras’ abilities to think on his feet rather than plan ahead or inspire those around him.
Wound	See the Core Rules.
Sneak Away	When make a Reaction Test for a Dash to Cover Reaction, Taras’ unit always succeeds on a roll of 1-9, irrespective of pins. Furthermore, Taras’ unit can attempt a Dash To Cover Reaction when targeted by a Fire order at any range.
Boromite Salvageers	Taras Kalemon can swap out up to two domari squads with Boromite Work Gangs (see the Boromite list). They still count as domari infantry as far as core selection criteria are concerned.
Unique	There is only one Taras Kalemon – and even that is too many for some!

Option 3: Taras Kalemon’s Command Squad

A Fleet Command squad can be upgraded to Taras Kalemon’s Command Squad with Taras Kalemon acting as a Senior Captain. The squad has the following stats for a total of 16pts (+3 over Fleet Command).

Infantry Command Unit	M	Ag	Acc	Str	Res	Init	Co	Special
1×’Admiral’ Taras Kalemon with plasma pistol; reflex armour, impact web	5	5	6	5	5(6)	10	8	Command, Hero, Follow, Tough 2, Wound, Sneak Away, Boromite Salvageers
2×Freeborn Bodyguard with plasma carbine, lectro lash; reflex armour, impact cloak	5	5	6	5	5(6)	7	8	Loyal Bodyguard
0×Boromite Bodyguard with plasma carbine; lectro lash; reflex armour, impact cloak	4	5	6	6	6(7)	6	9	Loyal Bodyguard
2×Gun Buddy	–	–	(6)	–	–	–	–	–
1×Medi Buddy	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Upgrades are as follows:

• 0–1 Spotter Buddy @ 1pt
• 0–2 Batter buddies @ 1pt each
• 0–1 HL Booster buddy @ 1pt
• 0–2 Freeborn Bodyguard @ 2pts each
• Replace any Freeborn Bodyguard with Boromite Bodyguard @ Free
• Give all members of unit resharded armour instead of reflex @ 1pt in total