THE RATHIAN JINTAR
When I was serving as Adjutant to Admiral Charles Howell, the Chief of Naval Operations for the Keftiu Fleet, I overheard a conversation about the Rathian Jintar that has been the source nightmares for me for years!
Admiral Howell was speaking to Commodore Bartels of the Rathia Kommandoes. He inquired as to the reason the Commodore was primarily recruiting fellow Rathians to join his Kommandoes and why the Kommandoes were concentrating on night fighting.
“Admiral, have you ever heard of a Rathian Jintar?”
When Admiral told him he didn’t know what a Jintar was, Commodore continued. “The Jintar was the apex predator on Rathia when we colonized the planet. It would be best described as being a cross between a gorilla and a bear with the temperament of a wolverine.”
“The Jintar is strictly a nocturnal predator so they have enormous eyes that give them excellent night vision. Their skin color is a mottled, dark grey and they have a light hairy coat that breaks their outline. Even though they are very large, they are exceptionally quiet and fast. They communicate at ultrasonic frequencies, so we can’t hear them.”
“The Jintar likes to feed on a living victim and they seem to know how to keep their victims alive as long as possible. The Jintar babies are carried in a pouch in their mother’s abdomen. When a nursing female takes down a victim, the babies come out of the pouch and borrow into the victim’s stomach and consumes them from the inside out!”
“It has taken the colonists many years to suppress the Jintars. We have been forced to fight them at night when they are hunting. Rathian Jintar hunters must become a creature of the night before they can succeed. The Jintars have strong primal hunting instincts and it is very difficult to fight them. We have not managed to eradicate them even after years of hunting them.”“
It is the intention of the Kommandoes to take advantage of Rathian night fighting skills to give us an advantage against our enemies.”
The Open Cluster War
4049-3980 BC (Terrene Standard Years)
The Open Cluster War was fought the Keftiu Empire and a group of pirates and rebels operating out of the depths of the Pleiades Cluster that had been attacking Empire merchant ships and isolated outposts.
The initial attack by the Keftiu Fleet against the main rebel base on Nova Epsilon in the Nicmos system was a dismal failure. The attacking forces were dispersed and the Space Marines suffered catastrophic loses without Fleet support. The Strike Group commanding Admiral resigned in disgrace and Fleet Command imposed a blockade around the Pleiades Cluster.
After five years of ineffective blockade results and heavy losses during several Marine attacks against rebel outposts, Captain Hans Bartels convinces Fleet Command to adapt Rathian combat tactics of highly trained forces executing deep penetration raids. The Rathia Kommando attacks start with small successes against small pirate strongholds and culminate with the destruction of the primary Communications Relay Station on planet Hellsgate.
The destruction of the Relay Station and the intelligence gained by Kommandoes is the turning point in the war. The Blockade becomes more effective and the pirate and rebel forces accept the Empire’s terms of surrender ten years later.
Despite Captain Bartels’ death when the Insertion Ship Valhalla is lost during the Hellsgate attack, the Rathia Kommando becomes a permanent part of the Fleet Order of Battle.