"We never had any, nor plan on starting up any fancy supersoldier programs. What's the point? We have a Colonel Harrigan, don't we?"
-(Then) ChancellorDerrick Zane, bluntly refuting a reporter's inquiries on a Frenkish supersoldier program after it was reported that Harrigan had eliminated 7 Mechanocratic C-Class hypersoldiers on Hokkaido, 2141
Introduction
Colonel Fred Harrigan (born "Fred-62")is the Orkish commanding officer of the Vanguard Control Battalion, former Black Guardsman, and the "enforcer" of the New Frenco Empire. Being the closest that the NFE has to a "supersoldier", Harrigan's primary task is to "erase" threats that are thought to either be too risky or too inhumane (if not both) for standard forces. He is also tasked with "hunting" the supersoldiers of rival world powers, his intent being to remove the threat they pose to the Empire. For example, his unit is known for killing more Mecharussian C-Class soldiers than any other, with Harrigan himself dealing the majority of the killing blows. He has been considered one of the primary reasons the Final Thirteen has been whittled down to it's current numbers, and it's likely that he is at the top of their hit lists.
Background
Though Harrigan's background is seemingly a mystery, pulling away the black tape reveals he was among the first Frenks produced via in vitro production and one of (of not the) first to be bred solely for the "Project Black" supersoldier program. By all means a prototype of a human being, Harrigan's early life was plagued with uncertainty. With errors in his genetic code, he never adapted well to the life of a Black Guardsman, who behaved more like attack dogs than thinking people. What accounts survive suggest Harrigan was actually a sweet, peaceful child who wished harm on no one, but was often pushed to do so by Project Black's cruel trainers. He took comfort in his assigned "watcher", Molly Harrigan, a former nun who was abducted and enslaved by Zealots in her outland monastery and handed over to the government for their experimentation within the project. However, once he was around sixteen years old, Project Black's handlers (eager to conclude Harrigan's training and make him a Guard) ordered Harrigan to rape and murder her, utilizing his intense brainwashing to the state to ensure he completed the task and tested true in his loyalty to the Emperor. While he did do the deed, he suffered from an intense emotional breakdown, began a hysterical laughing fit, and had to be forcibly removed from the room.
His service in the Black Guard lasted only a few months, but those few months sealed his reputation of brutality and excessiveness. After a would-be intruder to the Imperial Tower (who was actually planning a lawful pro-Outland integration demonstration) was found strung up by his own insides in a utility closet, it was determined that Harrigan was unfit. Instead of dismissal or euthanasia, however, the project leads deemed Harrigan's training and prowess too great of a waste, and motioned for his transfer to a conventional military unit, be it the Rangers or the Vanguards. They settled on Vanguards, and organized officer training. However, without thinking, when asked for a name on his first day of training, the young Fred gave them the name "Fred Harrigan", an obvious reference to his old "mother" figure whom he had grown to despise for fostering his former "weakness".
As a Vanguard officer, Harrigan proved to be just as cruel and unpredictable as he always was. During Outland patrols, entire villages suspected of anti-Imperial sentiment would be discovered razed to the ground, with what few inhabitants that could be found being nothing more than charred remains. When Harrigan's commanding officer caught wind of his methods and confronted him over it, he was never heard from again, and declared "missing in action". It is believed that Harrigan murdered him for "obstruction of the mission" and dumped his body in the Mojave desert.
Though it is commonly thought to have came later with his transformation into an Ork, It was during this time that Harrigan earned the nickname "The Green Death" among Outland tribals and superstitious wastelanders, referencing the green tint of the M1 Bobcat powered-armor worn by he and other Vanguards at the time. The name tended to spread more widely after he turned, however.
Canal War
With the outbreak of the Canal War in 2123, Harrigan was among the first to be sent to the front lines. After his troops proved monumental in shattering the Darién Gap Blockade via destruction of key fortifications, he was back under the view of the upper echelons of Imperial society. Many noted him for his martial prowess and competent (if crude) tactical mind, but also conceded that, as a soldier, he was far too dangerous and unpredictable for his own good. A testing group, headed by (then) Whip of Science and Progress and OSI Head Trey Goodman proposed a new project for the Imperial Military keeping Harrigan in mind. While the Black Guard specialized in protection and unconventional warfare, the Empire lacked a suitable supersoldier program for head-on, conventional war scenarios. Looking to the mutant Orks as a "prefect candidate" due to their extreme strength, vitality, and endurance among other traits, the Ork was used as the frame of reference for such a project. After several months of testing, Harrigan was ordered to the OSI's laboratories.
After undergoing a strict regimen of enhanced FEV injections and baths in water laced with performance-enhancing drugs, Harrigan began to mutate. Ten feet tall, green skin, and almost half a ton of muscle mass, Harrigan exhibited all the favorable traits of an Ork. Most importantly, however, his mind survived the process, giving Goodman an easily controllable frame blending the strength of an Ork and the intelligence of a human. Harrigan was unveiled to top military figures, and speculations were made on how an "army of Fred Harrigans" would finish off the South Americans and tip the balance in favor of the Empire against the Mechanocracy. However, once Goodman revealed to the crowd his plan to abduct "useless" children from the YDCs and replicate the same training patterns Harrigan underwent (which had ceased to exist within the Black Guard by this time due to advances in cloning) before mutating them into "Alpha Orks", the Ork snapped and ripped Goodman's head clean off in front of the crowd before destroying the laboratories.
After fleeing to the Outlands, Harrigan eliminated a squad of Rangers sent out to arrest him, leaving the youngest one alive and sending him back with a message stating that the Ork wanted nothing more than to continue serving the Empire, but would not tolerate anything like him for competition. A week later, Harrigan was approached by a lone holographic projector controlled by none other than Joseph Hightower himself. After easily defeating the Ork with his psychic capability, Hightower asked the Ork to return, stating that he knew the Ork's true intent behind killing Goodman and destroying the labs; to spare anyone else the horrors he went through as a child. Though Harrigan denied this, Hightower pressed on, and eventually applauded him, saying that "even the cruelest of brutes have their sensitive side." He pardoned Harrigan of all crimes committed, and tasked him with forming a new unit to be utilized in operations too dangerous or too unethical for conventional forces.