Ghalle Cathka
From FABT
Biological information | |
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Born: |
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Died: |
11 August 2185 CE |
Physical information | |
Species: |
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Gender: |
Male |
Height: |
6.6ft |
Eyes: |
Black |
Political and military information | |
Affiliation: |
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Weapon(s): |
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Equipment: |
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Command(s): |
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Rank(s): |
Private |
Era: |
Asari Cycle |
Battle(s): |
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- "Ha! Tarak doesn't pay me to fight. I just coordinate with my squad and fix this damn gunship."
- — Cathka to an undercover Commander Shepard during the Kima Siege in August 2185 CE.
Sergeant Ghalle Cathka was a Blue Suns vehicle mechanic and squad commander that served in the organization's Omega chapter, and a former vehicle mechanic with the Hegemony Army. Born on Adek, Cathka's parents were both Hegemony hardliners, being fiercely patriotic and loyal to the Hegemony regime, with his father serving in the Hegemony Navy as a fighter pilot and his mother left largely to bring up Cathka on her own, as was often expected of batarian women under the Hegemony, with Cathka going through rigorous indoctrination during his childhood: despite this, Cathka never possessed the political and ideological zealotry his parents had, and while he would later go on to serve in the Hegemony Army as a vehicle mechanic, continuing his family's tradition of military service, he did it for the enjoyment of the work itself, rather than a sense of duty to his people. Assigned to the planet of Comnarr at Droto Outpost, which was considered by many in the batarian military to be a dead end assignment due to its small population, distance from the rest of the Hegemony and Khar'Shan itself, and for being a hotspot of rebel activity, Cathka found himself stagnating career-wise, left to maintain the Comnarr garrison's meagre supply of vehicles (which were obsolete even by Hegemony standards and poorly maintained) whilst left with very little to actually do. When a batarian rebel cell attacked the outpost Cathka was stationed at, his garrison suffered heavy casualties and only barely managed to fight off the assault, with their commanding officer killed and the rebels making off with numerous vehicles and military equipment. Fearing that batarian military command would punish them for their loss to the rebels, Cathka and the survivors agreed to desert their posts, hijacking a a local governor's private yacht and using it to flee Hegemony space. After making it to the Terminus Systems, Cathka parted ways with his comrades and decided to join the Blue Suns on Omega, wanting to make better use of his skills with an organization he felt would better appreciate them, doing so at a time when the organization was just beginning to accept batarian recruits.
Cathka's skills as a mechanic were recognized by Krefin Tarak, who initially had him maintaining the Blue Suns' motor pool on Omega, but eventually tasked him with the repair and maintenance of Tarak's personal gunship, the Blue Scimitar. Cathka would ultimately climb up to the rank of sergeant, although he would turn down further promotions as he wasn't interested in a leadership position beyond what he was comfortable with, and found himself more at home with fixing and maintaining Blue Suns vehicles. Three years into his service with the Blue Suns, a mysterious vigilante that would later become known as Archangel would form a team to fight crime across Omega, with the PMCs placed firmly in their crosshairs. The Blue Suns would be hit hard during this time, with much of their vehicles being lost in combat with Archangel's team, placing significant stress on Cathka as a result to maintain their dwindling supply of vehicles: the stress led Cathka to take up the human habit of smoking tobacco, a method of stress relief that he found calmed his nerves and helped him to concentrate: as Cathka's working hours increased and he was forced to sometimes go days without sleep, he started adding a pinch of red sand to his cigarettes, which he found acted as a stimulant to keep him awake and focused, but overtime he became addicted, despite being able to handle the greater workload heaped onto him and his team of mechanics. Despite all of this, Cathka would continue to perform his job to Tarak's satisfaction, and him and his team would be brought on to assist in the operation that would ultimately lead to the final ambush and destruction of Archangel's team. Despite this, the subsequent plan to trap and finish off Archangel himself turned into a disaster, with Tarak's gunship being disabled and himself almost killed, only narrowly able to withdraw with the rest of his forces. Cathka was left with the daunting task of repairing the gunship and preparing it for combat once again, doing so whilst completely exhausted and having not slept for 72 hours straight. Despite not wanting to be involved in a combat leadership position, Tarak, seriously lacking now in manpower, was forced to assign Cathka and his men as a squad to take part in the Blue Suns' part of the operation to finally eliminate Archangel, although it was believed by that point the battle would already be over, with the freelancers taking most of the casualties. Regardless, Cathka wasn't pleased about it, and often took his anger out on his subordinates.
Unfortunately for Cathka, he would never get a chance to finish the repairs on the Blue Scimitar or take part in the attack. Minutes before the assault was to take place, Cathka would be questioned by an overly curious trio of freelancers about the operation, who were actually an undercover Normandy Squad led by Commander Shepard who had embedded with the freelancers in order to sabotage the operation and extract Archangel safely. Seeing an opportunity to sabotage the gunship, Shepard proceeded to quietly kill Cathka by stabbing him with his own welding torch, disposing of his body discreetly and then sabotaged the gunship's heat dispersion system, ensuring it would lock up and melt when Tarak tried to use the chin-mounted gun, which proved to be Tarak's demise not long after. When Cathka couldn't be found during the operation, Tarak assumed he had deserted, unaware he had been murdered. Cathka's body was never found.