The Bloodied Claw

"The galaxy is mine, to plunder and raid as I please! For I am Prince Jor Ruk, of the Bloodied Claw!"

- Prince Jor Ruk

The Bloodied Claw were a major pirate organisation, lead by the charismatic and dangerous Jor Ruk. A erstwhile ally of the Covenant Remnant, the Bloodied Claw were one of the largest and most powerful pirate clans functioning independently of the pirate alliances. Through Prince Jor Ruk's leadership, business acumen, and sheer ruthlessness, they went from a disorganized rabble to a syndicate that carved out their own empire.

Origins
The true origins of the Bloodied Claw are a mystery. Fragmentary data recovered after the fall of High Charity suggests they were a privateer force then under the command of the Covenant. However, the sparse data is unreliable and few details are known. What is known, the UNSC first documented the name in '54. Raids by a number of pirate clans lead to the Office of Naval Intelligence building ties with the young Kig-Yar government to learn about these organisations. The commander of the Bloodied Claw, with a confirmed four raids under their belt, was an old Kig-Yar named Rak Kor, an unambitious but influential leader. During a routine raid, they came into conflict with another clan, who were also raiding the same colony and in the resulting exchange of fire, Rak Kor took a carbine slug to the head. Rendered comatose, his lieutenants immediately squabbled amongst themselves to gain control of the small clan, rallying their own followers. The youngest of his lieutenants, Jor Ruk, orchestrated his peers against one another, secretly pledging his support to each of them and feeding them intelligence from one another. When Rak Kor died of his wounds, his lieutenants entered open war, and when they'd worn their strength and killed each other, he killed the survivors and took clan for his own. Jor Ruk was ambitious driven and intelligent. He rebuilt the Bloodied Claw not as a rag tag squadron of pirates, but as a business. A business which would make him rich.

Gaining Strength
Jor Ruk immediately rebuilt the Bloodied Claw from top to bottom, reshaping it in his image. They numbered only a dozen ships, of various configurations, mostly Raider-class vessels, and numbered a few hundred pirates. He arranged them into crews and concentrated their efforts on lucrative business, such as piracy and slaving. Striking deals with local clan lords, he acted as a authorised privateer, snatch trespassing ships, selling their crew and cargo into slavery and giving a cut of the price to his business partners. Building on this, Jor Ruk earned a reputation as lethally efficient. Under his command, his crews became more efficient too, sharpened into lethal raiders.

Stepping this up to commercial slave raiding, his crew were equally efficient at this. Picking out poorly defended colonies, or colonies he knew he could strike at, Jor Ruk built his fledgling business, selling on most of his seizures, in ships, materiels and slaves, but keeping so to himself, growing in size. In three years, his force doubled in size, becoming better equipped.

Allegiance to the Remnant
When the Remnant returned to known space, with enough warriors and ships to battle the allied races to a standstill, Jor Ruk saw an excellent business opportunity. Allying himself with the Remnant, he left an impression of the gullible Prophet of Absolution. Fighting for Absolution, the Bloodied Claw grew in strength, gifted with ships, men and weapons, Jor Ruk returned the favour by winning him battles and gifting him large bounties of slaves. Jor Ruk would manipulate this to his advantage, and the Bloodied Claw would swell in size and power. However, Absolution was only ever a temporary measure, and Jor Ruk knew it wouldn't last.

Building an Army
Knowing inevitably he would have to step up his operations from simple piracy and raiding to military operations, he knew he would need an army. Numbering close to 9,000 pirates, he knew the bulk of his forces were ill-equipped for open warfare, even with the new equipment and weapons Absolution gifted upon him. To this end, he took a disused tanker ship and re-engineered it as a habitat ship capable of sustaining tends of thousands of Unggoy in a Methane atmosphere. Breeding them, he intended to create an army of expendable foot soldiers to exert his will. Trained to be unwaveringly loyal to him alone, and willing to storm forward blindly. Poorly equipped, they would surge forward of his core of raiders, flushing out opponents while his marksmen, scouts and shield infantry picked them off at leisure. This tactic was tested and proven at Crowe's Landing

Crowe's Landing
Joining Absolution in what was to be his greatest victory over the hated enemy of the Covenant, the human race, Jor Ruk, now ascended to the rank of Prince, was much more interested in plunder than glory. Absolution asked Prince Jor Ruk to secure his flanks during the battle at Crowe's Landing, running defenders to ground and protecting Absolution's interests. Jor Ruk had little interest in such matters, but much preferred to use this as an opportunity to partake in a massive slave raid.

Making landfall at Clover City, his raiders were initially brought into conflict with members of the Reth clan, determined to take his prize from him. Beating them back, he began to organize an encirclement of the city. For two days he laid siege, raining down artillery, launching wave infantry assaults, terrorising the streets with snipers and gradually wrestling air control from the UNSC. Repeating his tactic of wave infantry assault, followed by elite raiders carrying shields and sniper rifles, he would gain significant ground, pushing the UNSC off their high ground. Jor Ruk predicted he'd have the city secured in a day. The arrival of Spartans hampered this.

Suddenly facing Spartans, for his first time ever, Jor Ruk was off balanced, and unsure of how to prosecute a foe that was infinitely more slippery than his own raiders. Taking increasing casualties, he elected to finish his encirclement rather than secure the city. This worked to his advantage, as while the Spartan forces punched a hole straight through his circle, taking a great many civilians and soldiers of the city, many more were trapped within. Utilising his new found aerial supremacy, he flew his Phantoms over the city unopposed, fitted with modified communications equipment that would constantly broadcast the same message over loud speaker. "Surrender and you will live.". Given the last two days of the apocalyptic siege and worn them down, most of the remaining soldiers and population took this opportunity to surrender. Dropping their arms and leaving their refuges, they approached the forces of the Bloodied Claw with their hands up in surrender. A few pockets of armed resistance continued, and would be put down later in the night, while some civilians refused to come out of their refuges, and were punished for their insolence. Gathering up all the prisoners, they were herded onto the transport ships they had prepared. Positioned at a secret rally point at the edge of the system, they would await the bulk of the prince's forces before leaving.

Rather than pursuing the forces fleeing Clover, Jor shifted his focus to the small townships and hamlets scattered across the lowlands. Going from settlement to settlement, his raiders rounded up the inhabitants, killing anybody that dared to resist. Numerous villages were simple bombed into dust for daring to raise arms against them, and the news of their ruthlessness spread to the other villages, prompting their surrender.

Finally content with his haul, he pulled his forces back to his rally point just as the UNSC arrived. Seeing Caesercus' increasingly difficult situation, and the loss of his ally Absolution, he elected to wait until the right moment to strike. When Caesercus finally attempted his breakout, Jor struck. Contacting him on a private channel, Jor offered him the the forces of his raiders, if he promised him half of the slaves he had captured today. Begrudgingly, Caesercus would agree, and the agile raiders of the Bloodied Claw would cut their way through the encirclement allowing Caesercus to escape. With his ships damaged, and his fighting strength drained, Caesercus was forced to enact the trade, exchanging them in a neutral port at first opportunity. Jor Ruk left Caesercu's survivor, his slave holds bulging with living cargo.

Empire Builder
Being the only commander to leave Crowe's Landing richer, Jor left the employ of the Remnant, preferring to strike out on his own. Travelling to neutral territories, selling off some of his slaves at every stop for construction materials, he made his way to a remote world. A dust bowl of a planet, it was rich in natural resources, but controlled by a small pirate clan. Nobody knows exactly why Jor Ruk picked out this one world, or its clan, but his sudden and inexplicable attack, marked by its ruthless savagery, suggested a past with this clan. Either way, every member of the clan was exterminated or enslaved practically overnight, and their slaves became Jor's slaves. Here Jor would establish the capital of a criminal empire that would expand at a meteoric rate.

Building on the still warm ashes of the one settlement of the world, he built a surprisingly lavish city, capable of supporting his loyal raiders and their ever expanding slave force. expanding out across the coast line, it would connect to several of the small islands across the archipelago, and they would construct overland transport connections to their mines and quarries further out in the desert. His slaves would toil for him, expanding his city as well as constructing the orbital elevator, the space dock it connected to, as well as numerous stations in the system, such as a refuelling station orbiting the gas giant. OTher, important structures would be built around his city, including a biosphere for his Unggoy army, and an immense arena for gladiators to battle each other in.

Prince Jor Ruk knew a capital would only get him so far, and only through empire building would he increase in strength. They were no beyond just being purely raiders, they were now traders, exporters and manufacturers. Under his orders, his commanders spread out, conquering nearby star systems and bringing them to heel under his command. Four star systems fell to his fleet, and he consolidated quickly. His growing confidence promoted him to attack a large colony of Unggoy, with little preparation. This mistake would cost him, as he had unwittingly attacked the Empire of Koroku. Expecting a world of simpering weaklings, he instead found a world of violent, strong and courageous Unggoy, organised and well armed. His Unggoy infantry were decimated, and his own raiders taking horrendous casualties. Pulling back, he realised his mistake. The following border skirmishes between the two empires went poorly for the Bloodied Claw, who would easily beat their fleets, but could not defeat their armies on the ground. Jor Ruk would have to raise a new army.

New Model Army
The vast Unggoy armies he faces were better trained, and better armed than his own Unggoy forces, and out numbered his hardened raiders. Prince Jor Ruk recognised his armies were ill equipped to fight on such a scale, against standing armies.