Kartok

Kartok was a Massassi general who served under the Sith Lords Khrado Ragnos and Tak Sakaros. Artificially created from Sith alchemy, genetically engineered for great strength, cunning, and longevity, Kartok managed to survive the many battles to which he and his brothers were led by their overlords, and rose to become the foremost ground general under Sakaros.

Creation and Early Life
After unlocking the alchemical secrets of his ancestors, the self-proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith Khrado Ragnos "appropriated" the use of a watery planet near Korriban from its owners. The large oceans provided a suitable water medium in which to grow mass numbers of clones, without the benefit of cloning cylinders. A few small crops were lost as Ragnos experimented with his newfound abilities, but at last, after nearly a year, a group was engineered to his satisfaction in 92 BBY.

Among this group of seventy was Kartok. All seventy were gigantic, powerful, and had the potential for great intelligence. Ragnos had stolen a flash-learning system from the Republic, and he used it to teach this first batch quickly rather than devote any time to them himself. While Ragnos went about growing a substantially larger group of Massassi with substantially lower intelligence (enough to be soldiers, but not officers), Kartok and his brothers were educated by the flash-learning technology, and by the time the second batch was completed, they were intelligent enough to lead and understand tactics, creative enough to command, and could speak Sith and the Massassi dialect thereof reasonably well.

Once enough Massassi had been created (and a few planets had "donated" their resources to the Sith war effort), Kartok was among those who trained his subordinates in armed combat, while others of the first batch supervised the construction of the Sith fleet and Ragnos prepared himself for even greater knowledge of the dark side. By 87 BBY, the Sith forces were ready for war.

First Wars
The Sith fleet swept through Wild Space with mixed success at first, though with time and the addition of more ships and crewers its power magnified greatly. Kartok served as a ground forces commander, ripping through enemy defenses with a savage ferocity matched only by that of his lord. Various members of the seventy original Massassi fell in battle or accidents, but Kartok survived, and this survival ensured his advancement through the ranks.

During the conquest of Andaria in 71 BBY, Ragnos gained an apprentice in the young Tak Sakaros, who despite his youth was an able fighter and insurgent warrior. Once his master was assured that he would not get himself mowed down by enemy fire, Tak was allowed to take the field in conquests. A bond was forged between the new Sith apprentice and the Massassi commander; both were (at the time) smaller-scale strategists than their lord who favored an up-close-and-personal conflict with enemies. As a result, though Kartok was perfectly loyal to Khrado Ragnos, he privately held a greater respect for Sakaros, who risked his life in the field with his men.

Having discovered that Kartok's ability to command was greater than even what he was bred for, Ragnos was persuaded to give the Massassi leader more personal instruction in tactics and strategy. Honored to be learning alongside Sakaros himself, from the Dark Lord of the Sith, Kartok became an even deadlier commander than he had been. Sakaros's suggestion was borne out as the Sith forces became more disciplined, took fewer casualties, and conquered more efficiently.

By 61 BBY, while the Sith were on their seventh series of home-grown Massassi and the fleet had grown to immense size and power, Kartok was one of only nine remainders of the seventy. Unexpectedly, the Sith were dealt a brutal defeat at the Battle of Khar Delba. Sakaros vanished from the scene and Ragnos retreated to the systems he more firmly controlled.

Rehabilitation and Revenge
As Ragnos retreated to Korriban regularly to ponder his plans for the future, Kartok and his fellow leaders oversaw the reconstruction of the Sith fleet. This project was slow and laborious, not least because Ragnos himself vanished on private missions for months or even years at a time. Playing on his well-earned reputation for courage and ferocity, Kartok managed to keep his troops disciplined and well-trained through food shortages, depletion of numbers, and extensive boredom.

The Dark Lord finally returned in 25 BBY and instructed his commanders to prepare for war. Full preparations took three years, but the Sith fleet launched itself into battle without hesitation thereafter. Systems in which the marauding Dark Lord had become only a legend fell quickly, and Kartok led his troops eagerly, as all had grown desperate for an outlet of their aggression.

Ragnos had planned to lead his fleet gradually toward Coruscant, hoping that the Clone Wars would weaken the Jedi so badly that they and the Republic would fall with little pressure. Some details of this grand strategy were confided to Kartok, whom Ragnos had begrudgingly taken as his second-in-command in the unending absence of his apprentice. However, when the Emperor and Darth Vader rose to command of the new Galactic Empire, Ragnos disappeared to face them alone, commanding Kartok to keep the fleet in hiding until he returned.

He never did.

A New Master, an Old Friend
After a year had gone by, the Massassi forces on the Ta'asyak Za`vek grew violently restless. Some remained of the first campaign, and informed their aghast juniors of the decades-long pause the last time the Dark Lord had vanished. A small but intense rebellion broke out, and Kartok forced the fleet to retreat to the Horuset System, where conquered systems would not notice. His personal air of command and reputation inspired the disciplined majority to put down and execute the rebels, and the fleet settled back down.

After three years, however, even Kartok realized the campaign was over. He also knew that his forces would not long remain content, and so they occupied a sector of systems Ragnos had controlled since the first cloning, including the clone world. Though continually training for combat and fleet control, the Massassi became something of permanent residents, building cities for themselves and finally exterminating the native populations.

Two decades later, when Khrado Ragnos was fading from general memory and the fleet was kept up only as a matter of duty, Tak Sakaros appeared from nowhere and assumed command. After learning of Ragnos's fate, Kartok eagerly swore fealty to his new lord, whom he remembered both clearly and fondly. Sakaros made further modifications to the Sith fleet, adapting it for combat with modern Imperial and Republic warships.

Though a few years were spent preparing before any war actually took place, the Massassi took to their new leader fanatically. Tak Sakaros was a much more personable, humane commander; while he demanded the best and would come down hard on any who dared to give him less, his personal courage was legend and he never asked of his forces what they could not give him. When battle finally came, caged aggression had been replaced by almost servile devotion as a motivation to the troops.

Though Tak had three sons, he appointed Kartok his foremost ground commander. Khrado Sakaros served as a grand-scale strategist with his father, and even when he took the field, he preferred to mow down the enemy unencumbered and leave details to the Massassi commander. Consequently, Kartok proved himself an invaluable asset to his master.

After the disaster at Dorian IV, Kartok accompanied Tak and Tariun Sakaros into hiding at the Denarii Nova.

New Responsibilites
Faced yet again with a long period of dormancy, the Massassi were close to despair. Recognizing this, Tak wisely spread them throughout the galaxy, keeping only a skeleton force with the fleet. Kartok he kept near at hand at all times, both as a personal bodyguard and a confidante. When Tak returned to the galaxy proper in 31 ABY to visit Naboo, Kartok accompanied him while Tariun stayed with the fleet.

On the once-passive planet, the Sith Lord soon devised a plan to establish a base there. When a rogue Dark Jedi calling himself Darth Teeron invaded, Tak called his fleet from the Nova and his Massassi forces from hiding to engage the invaders. The battles which ensued were vicious and characterized by guerilla warfare. At Tak's suggestion, Kartok armed his Massassi with Gungan energy shields. Even after Teeron had been neutralized, the Massassi began replicating this technology, well-suited to their close quarters style of war.

When Tak ordered a Sith temple to be built on Naboo, Kartok was entrusted with the day-to-day supervision of the project, ensuring the structure was built to his master's exact specifications. He was given the great honor of residing there along with Tak and his band of Sith disciples and allies until the temple fell a year later.

After Tak and Gav Daragon struck their secret bargain, Sakaros often led campaigns in the Outer Rim with Kartok at his side. The duplicitous Battle of Kamino resulted in over a million cloning cylinders being stolen, of which over a hundred thousand were sent to Tak. The Sith and his Massassi general set them up far out in Wild Space, on a planet which could supply both power and food, and the growth of a new force was begun.

With the clones still in development and the Massassi reduced to mere hundreds after a century of war and attrition, when the feigned war between Sakaros and Daragon became real war, Tak, Tariun, and Kartok kept largely to themselves in hiding. Kartok often served as guardian of both Tak's comatose niece, Adrienne Keane, and her daughter Andromeda.

Appearance and Personality
Kartok stood 7 feet, 6 inches tall, and rippled with muscle. Consequently, he was a terrifying and imposing presence, and his reputation for savagery in battle made those who knew of him even more afraid. Like all artificially bred Massassi, he had large quills and bone spurs on his head and down his back, and deep red skin that matched his masters'. The left tentacle whisker on his face was severed just below the jaw, and his body bore numerous scars and pock marks from a century of battles.

Bred to be smarter than the average Massassi, while Kartok was not quite on the intellectual level of his masters, he was nonetheless a quick thinker in battle and resourceful when pushed. He had enough understanding of emotions to use those of his men and ensure discipline and loyalty. He himself was devotedly faithful to Khrado Ragnos and fanatically loyal to Tak Sakaros.

It was a mark of the deep warrior bond between Tak and Kartok that the former entrusted the latter with the lives of his children and other relatives. Kartok, for his part, took this duty with the utmost seriousness, and killed even his own men who strayed too close to the Sith young. Tak viewed him as both agent and confidante, a status no Massassi had gotten from a Sith since the original Empire.

Skills and Abilities
Though devoid of the Force and therefore eternally less than his masters, Kartok was nonetheless a warrior to match most. His skills with a glaive were surpassed only by the Sith Lords he served, and he was an able gunner and a competent armored forces leader. His knowledge of tactics and strategy, implanted with flash-learning and supplemented by instruction by both Ragnos and Sakaros, was extensive and made him a superb field commander.

Relations with the Sakaros Clan
As has been stated, Kartok was one of the very few friends Tak Sakaros had, and certainly the only Massassi to earn that distinction. Due to the great time he spent with them, he also came to know the rest of the Sith clan. Khrado Sakaros, like his namesake, saw the Massassi merely as tools, and Marquand viewed them as somewhat brutish, if pleasantly devoted. Tariun, on the other hand, was much closer to his father's position, and treated Kartok with the respect he would accord a fellow warrior. Having spent much of their early lives in his company and protection, all three brothers were confident in Kartok's abilities.

Adrienne Keane had a much more respectful view of Massassi than her father, though the alchemist in her made them seem like experiments to her at times. Her daughter, who was raised for a good portion of her life by Tak Sakaros, was initially intimidated by the Massassi, but came to trust them, and Kartok in particular.