Marshal Tung is the chief of all the Marauders in the Orphic Sector
Biography
To the GCPS at large, Tung is an orc commander of some distinction. For more than twenty G-standard years, he has led the Predators, a Marauder company with a reputation for deadly hit and run raids throughout the Fringe. Sometimes the Predators were employed by the corporations, sometimes they fought against them. They fought Asterians too, and Forge Fathers and rebels and pirates alike. Occasionally they were even sent to fight the Plague.
The Predator’s reputation grew with every successful contract they completed. Like all orcs, Tung’s commandos could be relied upon to deliver bloodthirsty violence that turned into winning results and they did just that on their last deployment. But it was not just strength in numbers they brought to the table when they were recruited to bolster the marines besieged on Rhada. The colonel of the marines Tung had relieved in that last campaign reported that the Predators had achieved victory through an uncanny tactical competence. It was as if their commander could predict the enemy’s moves almost faster than they did. Marshall Tung, the colonel went on to say, also had an unparalleled hold on the loyalty of all the other chiefs in his company. True, Tung was bigger than many of the other senior Marauder commanders beneath him, and clearly he was possessed of the same love of violence as they were. But there was something more to their relationship than that.
What that marine colonel did not know, what in fact no human in the Five Spheres then knew, was that ‘Tung’ is only a nom de guerre. The real name of the massive orc that had so impressed him is Mahu’Oran. Marshal Tung is the grandson of none other than Mahúar himself.
The Greatest
Over the many years he spent working alongside and for the corporations, Tung was building more than just a reputation. For a start, Tung’s Predators, though large, is only a fraction of the Marauders Tung commands. As well as them, commanders from Storm Force, the Outriders, and the Nomads have also brought their warriors - and their hardware - to Tung’s banners. Some of these alliances between former rival outfits were made possible by Tung’s heritage, others he forged through charisma, cunning, and charm. Where those all failed, he simply beat his rivals into submission.
Because Tung’s vision is not just to lord it over a few other orcs on a backwater world. His dream is to unite all the Marauders from across the galaxy on a new home world, free from corporate interference. From a place like that, they could conquer the galaxy...
On one of the five Cabot worlds, accessed after travelling through the Cerberus Maw, Marshal Tung, has built his base. For the Marauders, the radiation that drove off the humans that tried to settle in the sector poses no threat - their green skin evolved as protection from the radiation of their original homeworld’s own sun. Add to that a world, complete with ready-made accommodation and plentiful abandoned supplies, almost entirely out of view of the Council and its agents, and Cabot III is ideally suited to Tung’s purposes.
If You Want to Be the Best...
The education camps on Goran teach their students the ways of the GCPS - its languages, history, the benefits of capitalism over any other system of thought or belief. But, in secret, older Marauders have always shown the young the way things used to be. As much as Marauders have taken to life as interstellar professional soldiers, tradition still plays a big part in their lives.
Mahu’Oran left Gora as a young orc but, after rising to lead the Predators as ‘Tung’, he returned to Gora to undergo the Ritual of Chieftains. To be recognised not just as a commander or Marauders, but as a leader of tribes, Mahu’Oran passed a series of tests and trials, culminating in hunting and slaying a wild Mawbeast. These legendary creatures are not the same as those sometimes seen in the GCPS, hurling themselves at enemies, chain-maws whirring furiously. The Mawbeasts of Gora are easily twice the size of those relatively tame animals. Mahu’Oran knew he would still have to kill a monster in order to gain the respect he would need.
He fought and eventually slew a pack leader, a monster of a Mawbeast that was known to have killed the five previous would-be chiefs that had gone after its pelt. Realising the danger that lay in attacking his quarry head-on, Mahu’Oran didn’t go straight at the monster in its lair, as the others had done. Instead he lured it into his own kill-zone, striking the beast from hidden positions and wounding it with traps to weaken it further.
Eventually, exhausted and bleeding, the beast reached the place of Mahu’Oran’s choosing. Only then did he strike it down with the same Hrunka blade his grandfather had carried into battle and take grisly proof of his deed. The fangs of the beast adorn his armour today, a reminder to all other orcs of his status, as is the Hrunka blade that hangs from his belt.
The Hammer Drops
While Tung’s plans were carried out in utmost secrecy, being discovered eventually was always inevitable. Pathfinder units, investigating reports of unmarked Marauder ships transiting corporate space towards the Maw, quickly established how big the problem building beyond it might be. Using their own covert methods, a Pathfinder surveillance unit was sent to the Fawcet worlds and, when word of what Tung had built there reached the ears of the Council of Seven, their reaction was dramatic and immediate. The Black Company was ordered into immediate action and, three days later, Enforcement Patrol Group ‘Hammer’ was en route to the Orphic sector.
The Wyverns of EPG Hammer were used to going where they willed, without objection and, usually, without detection. Nevertheless, they ought to have been better prepared for what awaited them in the Orphic sector. There were after all only a few locations they could have safely slid into beyond the Maw that would not send them straight into the gravity well of one of the super-dense stars.
They were fired upon almost as soon as they slowed from faster-than-light travel and two of the three ships in the group were quickly crippled, their engines set ablaze by lasers and missiles. A fleet of Marauder warships had the drop on their foes and the battle in space quickly became like shooting Pusk in a barrel. As the Wyverns struggled to manoeuvre and began to return fire, the power core of one of the damaged ships detonated, destroying it instantly.
On the bridge of the group’s command ship, the truth was inescapable - the first brief battle was lost. If something were not done soon, all the Enforcer ships would be wrecked. EPG Hammer’s commanding officer had seen the reports of launches from the destroyed Wyvern, but she had no way to help whoever had been aboard those Accusers. Faced with imminent destruction, there was no choice but to order a quick withdrawal, to get her embattled Wyverns away from the system as quickly as their faltering engines would convey them.
The Hunt Begins
A mere fraction of the Enforcers sent to rein in the rogue Marauders of Cabot III actually reached the surface. As what remained of the EPG’s starships struggled to reach a safe distance from the orc blockade, Commander Mantenna took stock of what had made it down with him. The good news was his Accusers were well equipped, having been fully prepped for the mass assault that had been planned. The bad news was he only had limited numbers of any particular piece of kit.
As Mantenna briefed his operators on the tasks ahead of them, Marshal Tung, the great Mahu’Oran, was reflecting on how his own destiny may have changed in the last few hours. Having won the first battle in the skies above his planet, Tung knew he had just sent the rulers of the GCPS an unequivocal message - don’t come here. But, even though the Council’s first foray into the Cabot system was now reported to be running away with its tail between its legs, he also knew more would come after them. It was in their nature to rise to a challenge from a rival, just as it was his. When they did come back, Tung knew his Marauders would be waiting for them again.
Until then, he had to deal with a far more present and just as clear danger - the Enforcers that had already landed on Cabot III. Goblin spotters had tracked them, though they could not be sure how many of the smoke trails they saw streaming across the bright sky were dropships and how many were wreckage. Maybe all of them were harmless pieces of debris from the battle, they had said. But Tung was not fooled. It did not matter if it was a single Accuser or a hundred. Even one Enforcer, if they were left alive, could kill him and end his uprising before it had even properly started.
As the marshal, and as the chief of all the Marauders in the sector, it would be up to him alone to finish what the fleet had begun. While the bulk of his troops had to be kept ready to repel the next invasion attempt when it came, Tung himself would take charge of hunting down those already on his world.
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