Carlos Kataga
Sarna News
 | This article needs to be updated with material from Historical Turning Points: New Dallas. Once these titles clear the Moratorium period, or if they already have, please consider revisiting this article and updating it with the new material. |
Character History
Carlos Kataga (b. ???? - d. ????) was a member of the Star League Defense Force during the closing years of the Star League era. Talasko had reached the rank of Major General and was serving as the senior military officer on the Terran Hegemony world of New Dallas when Stefan Amaris launched his coup to take control of the Hegemony.[1]
Both Kataga and the Planetary Governor of New Dallas, Titus Clay, were deeply suspicious of the machinations Stefan Amaris was engaging in during the reign of First Lord Richard Cameron II, with Governor Clay being highly critical of what he felt to be the spreading of toadies throughout the Hegemony by Cameron. When Clay and Kataga were informed that additional garrison forces from the Rim Worlds Republic would be arriving on New Dallas because of the transfer of SLDF troops out of the Hegemony, both reacted quickly; while Clay mobilised the large volunteer militia to garrison the three Castles Brian on New Dallas, Kataga called on those in the SLDF reserve forces to take on more responsibility. The greater part of the reserve forces responded to Kataga's request, leading to both Kataga and Clay quickly declaring to their respective superiors that there was no need for any additional garrison forces on New Dallas.[1]
Despite the protests raised, Rim Worlds Army units landed on New Dallas under the command of General Viktoria Benboudaoud; Benboudaoud presented Kataga with orders signed by General Aleksandr Kerensky directing that the Rim Worlds forces should take up station within the Castles Brian on New Dallas. Both Kataga and Clay met this with outright laughter, and indicated that only the most minor corners of the most far-flung bases would be given over to the control of Benboudaoud and her troops. When Benboudaoud objected, she was summarily escorted out of the Governor's office by armed guards, while her DropShip was impounded and the landing permits for all of her troops were revoked.[1]
Benboudaoud complained to her superiors, both the senior Rim Worlds military commander in the Terran Hegemony, General Patrick Scoffins, as well as Amaris himself; at the time, neither was prepared to go up against the SLDF High Command, and Benboudaoud and her forces were left with no choice but to accept the accommodation grudgingly allowed by Clay and Kataga.[1]
In accordance with Amaris' plans to make the worlds of the Hegemony increasingly dependent on the Rim Worlds forces, independent terrorist attacks were sponsored on New Dallas in the name of various Periphery movements. However, rather than being able to respond to the crises and thereby gain greater influence on New Dallas, the Republican forces were blocked at every turn; whenever an incident occurred, Kataga responded by deploying companies of SLDF recruits to provide security as required, replacing their planned field exercises with actual field experience, dealing with exactly the kind of incidents they could expect to face in the Periphery.[1]
So effective were the measures taken by Clay, Kataga and the local forces and authorities that almost all of the preparatory work perpetrated by the Rim Worlds forces and Benboudaoud for Operation APOTHEOSIS were stymied. Even when mercenary forces loyal to the Rim Worlds attempted to infiltrate onto New Dallas in preparation for the coup, Kataga's forces discovered and intercepted them, arresting two battalions of mercenaries on charges of terrorism and confiscating all of their equipment. When APOTHEOSIS began and Benboudaoud's forces attempted to capture the planetary HPG, Kataga's forces blocked them, forcing Beboudaoud to resort to ordering attacks on military and infrastructure sites on New Dallas as well as an attack to secure the command centre for the local Space Defense System.[1]
The New Dallas militia blocked these attacks, forcing Benboudaoud to call on the Rim Worlds Navy WarShip squadron actively securing the jump points in the system to assist her ground forces. The eight-strong squadron moved to assist, but found itself locked in battle with the local SDS network under the command of Kataga's troops. As the WarShips and drones fought overhead, Kataga personally led the bulk of his forces against Benboudaoud's, outnumbering the Rim Worlds forces in the field. After six hours, the New Dallas forces were victorious both on the ground and in space, although the New Dallas forces took heavy losses.[1]
Governor Clay ordered a state of emergency in anticipation of follow-on attacks from the Republicans following the failure of their efforts to secure the world. The Republican reprisal arrived in the New Dallas system on the 7th of January 2767, in the form of a thirty-ship strong WarShip flotilla commanded by Admiral Otto Idowu. Idowu took the SDS drones captured when the Republicans secured the jump point stations in December and added them to his flotilla, using the combined forces to attack and destroy the surviving drone fleet controlled from New Dallas in a naval engagement on the 14th of January. Idowu followed this with a demand that New Dallas surrender and submit to the rule of Emperor Stefan Amaris within the next twenty-four hours.[1]
Clay and Kataga responded to by ordering the local AeroSpace Fighter squadrons to engage and destroy the enemy forces. Despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned the local squadrons managed to delay the Republican attack by several hours, but when the last of the squadrons had been destroyed Admiral Idowu ordered his WarShips to begin destroying the military bases on New Dallas using orbital bombardment. This bombardment continued until the 31st of January, by which time the organized military on New Dallas had effectively been destroyed and additional Republican ground forces had arrived in system.[1]
The fresh Republican forces promptly launched a ground campaign, quickly securing New Dallas. Governor Clay was captured, subjected to a mock trial and executed, an event that would increase the resistance activity on New Dallas sharply;[1] Kataga's fate isn't recorded, although it would seem likely that he either died in action or during the orbital bombardment.