Martok's History
Martok, leader of the House of Martok, was a well-regarded Klingon warrior who served as a general in the Klingon Defense Force, who, during the Dominion War, became the Supreme Commander of the Ninth Fleet, and ultimately, Chancellor of the Klingon Empire.
Fifteen generations of Martok's family had served the Empire as warriors, but Martok's father had hopes that Martok could become an officer. It took some doing, but Martok was able to take the entrance exam, and passed.
However, when he went before the Oversight Council, which was normally considered to be a simple formality, his application was rejected. Kor, Dahar master, felt that it was inappropriate for a man without noble blood to become an officer in the Klingon forces. With the "mark of Kor" on his record, Martok could not enlist even as a common soldier and was forced to become a civilian laborer. He served under General ShiVang aboard his flagship from 2345 to 2350, where he spent his days "cleaning the officers' mess".
Fortune smiled on Martok, however. During a battle with the Romulans, Martok's ship was boarded. Martok acquitted himself so well in the fighting that he earned a battlefield commission. Sadly, his father did not live to see that glorious day.
Martok worked his way up the ranks, eventually attaining the position of general. During the Klingon Civil War of 2368, he played an important role in commanding the forces loyal to Gowron at the Battle of Mempa, and began a steady rise to hero status in the Empire.
At some point during 2371, Martok was secretly abducted by Dominion forces while hunting saber bears on Kang's Summit. From there, he was transported to the Gamma Quadrant and imprisoned in Internment Camp 371 while a Changeling impersonated him in an attempt to ignite a war between the major powers of the Alpha Quadrant as a precursor to Dominion invasion.
While imprisoned, Martok was forced to fight his Jem'Hadar captors in hand-to-hand combat so they could familiarize themselves with Klingon fighting techniques. During one such fight, First Ikat'ika maimed Martok by destroying his left eye, resulting in partial blindness.
Though Martok's shapeshifting copy was discovered in early 2373, his real self remained isolated in the Dominion prison facility until later that year when he was joined by Lieutenant Commander Worf and Elim Garak. As a Klingon, Worf was also made to fight his Jem'Hadar guards. Fortunately for them, this caused a sufficient distraction that Garak was able to work on a transceiver device that commanded a nearby runabout, allowing them to successfully beam out of the facility.
Upon returning to the Alpha Quadrant, and with Chancellor Gowron's approval, Martok was assigned to command the Klingon detachment on the space station Deep Space 9. He was also offered the opportunity to regain the sight in his left eye with a prosthetic, though Martok rejected this outright.
Later that year, Martok was given command of the Bird-of-Prey IKS Rotarran with orders to locate the missing cruiser IKS B'Moth, however, having been confined for over a year, he was hesitant about his command ability. With the Rotarran's crew already low on morale due to a string of defeats against the Dominion, Martok requested Worf join him as his first officer.
During the mission, Martok was extremely cautious in his command of the ship, deliberately avoiding opportunities to engage the Jem'Hadar in battle. The situation came to a head when the crew of the Rotarran nearly mutinied, but due to Worf's challenge of Martok's leadership, this was averted.
The ensuing fight was very much one-sided in Worf's favor; at one point, the bridge crew began chanting Worf's name, expecting him to be victorious. Worf pinned Martok against a console and pointed his d'k tahg centimeters from Martok's chest. At that moment, the two men exchanged glances, and Worf sensed that the warrior spirit within his commanding officer was returning. Seeing this, Worf subtly let his guard down, allowing Martok to defeat his first officer with a stab to the abdomen. The general immediately gained the crew's loyalty, and he remembered his duty as a soldier of the Empire.
Near the onset of the Dominion War, Martok patrolled the Cardassian border to watch for the Dominion invasion fleet. During the ensuing battle at Deep Space 9, the Rotarran played a critical role in defending the USS Defiant long enough for a minefield of self-replicating mines to be deployed. Months later, Martok was instrumental in convincing Gowron to lend support to Starfleet's offensive to recapture Deep Space 9 from the Dominion in 2374. Although Klingon forces were late arriving at the battle, they played an important role in defeating the Dominion fleet in that engagement.
As the war continued, Martok saw fit to remain with the Rotarran, making it his flagship. In mid-2374, he was appointed Supreme Commander of a combined Starfleet and Klingon Ninth Fleet, a position Martok resented due to the amount of paperwork and bureaucracy involved as well as his "elderly assistant", Darok.
A few days after Operation Return, Martok sent several scout ships to the Cardassian border to check for signs of Dominion activity. Later that year, Martok dispatched three squadrons of Klingon attack cruisers to bolster the Dorala system's defense perimeter. Colonel Kira Nerys was confident that Martok would ensure the Klingons held the line until Starfleet reinforcements arrived. In 2375, Martok temporarily commanded the IKS Ch'Tang during his raid on Trelka V. In mid-2375, a Changeling named Laas was discovered and brought aboard Deep Space 9. During his time on the station, Laas killed one of the Klingon soldiers, resulting in a furious reaction from Martok, who asked for him to be detained while a magistrate determined whose jurisdiction the situation fell under.
As one of the most prominent military leaders in the war, Martok gained immense popularity in the Empire for his near-heroic exploits against the Dominion. Gowron, ever the politician, feared Martok's popularity and devised a plan to discredit Martok and end any potential threat to his authority. In late 2375, Gowron inducted Martok into the Order of Kahless, and immediately assumed personal command of Klingon forces on the front lines, relegating Martok to a secondary command role.
Gowron then began ordering Martok on near-suicidal missions against Dominion forces, hoping that a string of defeats would weaken Martok's popularity and discredit him as a military leader, or that Martok would die in battle and thus cease to be a threat to Gowron's authority. However, Worf and Captain Benjamin Sisko recognized that Gowron was jeopardizing the entire war effort to satisfy his political ego. Worf tried to convince Martok to challenge Gowron for the leadership on the grounds of dishonorable conduct in orchestrating the discrediting of Martok.
Martok refused to betray his loyalty to Gowron, despite the latter's treachery. Worf then challenged Gowron himself, accusing Gowron of being a coward for squandering the Empire's resources on a petty act of vengeance. Worf killed Gowron in the ensuing combat, becoming the new chancellor. However, he immediately resigned in favor of Martok. Martok tried to refuse, claiming he did not seek the leadership, but Worf responded by quoting Kahless: "Great men do not seek power, they have power thrust upon them."
Following the successful conclusion of the war, Martok returned to Qo'noS to assume the role of leading the Empire and finally purging it of the corruption that had so weakened it in the past.
