Kell Hounds - Unit History
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History:
Despite the holovid aspects of the unit’s founding, anyone who has ever seen or met the Hounds in action knows these mercenaries are anything but fictional. Destroyed three times, once from within and twice from without, the Kell Hounds have reemerged stronger with each rebirth. Lacking the resources of larger mercenary units, the Hounds became a feared and respected unit and a major player in the Inner Sphere the old-fashion way, using strategy, shrewd planning, and knowledge of their opponents. The unit’s role in the Clan defeats on Luthien and Arc-Royal and the elevation of one of its own from bondsman to the rank of Khan in the Clan Wolf form an eloquent testimony to the Kell Hounds’ fighting prowess.
Origins
The Kells first proved that they were more than dilettantes when they shrewdly wooed many of the best techs away from other units, even before they started recruiting MechWarriors. By this action they created the solid technical support base that has given the Hounds one of the lowest downtime ratios in the Inner Sphere. Bolstering the unit’s support base, the Kell-owned Eire BattleMech Company on Arc-Royal provides the Hounds with a steady supply of spare parts.
By November of 3010 the Kell Hounds boasted a light regiment composed of two ‘Mech battalions, an aerospace battalion, and a jump infantry battalion. The unit possessed one Overlord class Dropship and held contracts with other ship owners that provided them transportation to battle theaters. Most observers scoffed at the high price the new unit demanded for its services, but few people were surprised when the Kells received their unit’s first contract from their cousin-in-law, Archon Katrina Steiner.
The Hounds saw their first duty on the Commonwealth capital of Tharkad, a plum assignment most units would have killed for. The Kell brothers soon grew impatient with the uneventful garrison routine, however, and with Katrina’s blessing arranged a raid on the Marik world of Castor in the company of Cranston Snord’s Irregulars. Underestimating the Hounds, Colonel Ruger Nage of the 13th Marik Militia did not request additional troops to respond to the Snord/Kell assault.
During the fighting on Castor, the Hounds executed a complex battle plan full of demanding maneuvers requiring speed and precision. They anticipated Nage’s likely responses and used Snord’s Irregulars to exploit them, becoming one of the few units that recognized and capitalized on the Irregulars’ unique talents. The Hounds’ discipline and expertise rivaled that of elite regular army units and the effective, complex planning they displayed in the Castor campaign would soon become a hallmark of Hound operations.
Despite their impressive performance, charges of nepotism swirled through Tharkad in the fall of 3012 as the Estates General discussed renewal of the Hounds' contract. The Archon's political enemies minimized the Castor success, putting down to luck rather than skill, and publicly criticized the Hounds as overpaid incompetents. To save Katrina Steiner potential political embarrassment, Morgan Kell accepted a contract with the Federated Suns. Prince Ian Davion, by design or chance, took pressure off Katrina by offering the Kell Hounds a four year contract and a 15 percent increase in pay. This surprising move prompted some analysts to ponder what the First Prince saw in the largely unproven Kell Hounds. Several concluded that by awarding the contract, Ian Davion hoped to embarrass the Lyran Estates General by making the representatives think they had passed on a bargain.
The First Cadre Battalion pursued a Kell Hound company straight into a trap, falling like cut grain under the mercenaries' close assaults and devastating missile barrages. The defeat infuriated the two remaining Kurita battalions, who consoled themselves with the news that the Lugh was docking with their JumpShip Tsume.
The Sun Zhang Cadre units had hoped to salvage some respect from the Luhg's surrender, but were doomed to disappointment. After their Lugh docked with the Tsume, the Hound crew overrode a control circuit in the airlock between the ships and filled it with pressurized anesthetic gas. Most of the Tsume's crew, on hand to accept the surrender, succumbed to the gas and the Hounds secured the ship. The Kurita effort to retake the Tsume nearly stranded the remaining Sun Zhang 'Mech battalions in space and marked the beginning of a deep enmity between the Combine and the Kell Hounds.
The unit next saw action on Mallory's World, aiding Prince Ian Davion and the Fourth Davion Guards against Kurita raiders in October 3013. Prince Ian lifted the siege of Colteville, then moved the Fourth Guards to aid the besieged Seventeenth Avalon Hussars. The Combine's Twenty-fourth Dieron Rangers mauled the Seventeenth, throwing the defenders into a retreat leaving Prince Ian's flank open. The Prince refused to call up his reserves, but at his brother Hanse's urging ordered the Kell Hounds to Mallory's World to strengthen the Davion contingent.
The ten days it took for the Kell Hounds t arrive proved a disaster. Ian Davion, trapped in the desert with his regiment, died fighting a rearguard action against Yorinaga Kurita's Second Sword of Light regiment. The Kell Hounds arrived in time to prevent the Kurita troops from capturing the Prince's body, but could do little more than retreat to Colterville and accept the stalemate on Mallory's World. The Kell Hounds clung to the Davion foothold on Mallory's World for the next three years, broken only by a single Kell battalion's raid on Murchison in 3014 that netted cache of priceless, Star League-era books.
In 3016 Yorinaga Kurita decided to end the stalemate by destroying the Kell Hounds. After using his forces to pin down most of Mallory's defenders, Yorinaga sent his entire Second Sword of Light regiment against the Kell Hounds' First 'Mech Battalion. Before the Kurita forces could strike, however, Morgan Kell stepped forward in his Archer and offered Yorinaga Kurita single combat. Though reports of the combat differ wildly, all accounts agree that Morgan Kell defeated Yorinaga Kurita, saving the Kell Hounds from certain destruction.
Defection
Morgan's actions following the battle continue to mystify historians. During the period that the Hounds called "the Defection," Morgan Kell broke the regiment down to a single battalion, placed his brother Patrick in charge, and exiled himself to St. Marinus House on Zaniah, a religious retreat for ex-MechWarriors. Patrick Kell sank into depression, and only the efforts of Kell Hound officers Daniel Allard, Seamus Fitzpatrick, and Richard O'Ciern kept the unit alive.
From 3016 to 3027 Patrick Kell accepted a number of unusual assignments for the unit, in the process building them into the best battalion-size unit in the Inner Sphere. Despite the subordinate role he had performed under his brother, Patrick Kell proved an able and inventive commander. In 3019, fresh from pirate hunting in the Free Worlds League, the Hounds took a post with the Lyran Commonwealth defending against Kurita raids. Four years later the unit moved to the Federated Suns, reconfigured to mimic a Draconis Combine raider unit for a series of military exercises to train Davion militia units.
Tiring of the grueling schedule the exercises had put them through, the Kell Hounds signed a new contract with the Lyran Commonwealth in 3026. Garrison duty on the backwater world of Pacifica should have qualified as easy duty, but Yorinaga Kurita's recall from disgrace turned peaceful Pacifica into a danger zone. After repelling an assault by Combine Internal Security Force Commandos on Pacifica, the Hounds fled that world and shook pursuit by jumping into Combine Space. Discovering Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner stranded on the Draconis world of Styx, the Hounds held off Yorinaga's new elite unit, the Genyosha, long enough for Melissa to exscape. During the fierce fighting Yorinaga targeted Patrick Kell, who ignored Yorinaga's assaults and destroyed the other Genyosha on the way to a Hound victory before paying with his life.
Patrick Kell's death prompted Morgan Kell to return from exile. Just before leaving the monastery, he summoned all the MechWarriors who had once been Kell Hounds to rejoin the unit. Those who could answered the call; others sent their children, and some returnees brought with them portions of the units in which they had served since the Defection. By the time of the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, the Kell Hounds were back up to regimental strength and ready for the Fourth Succession War.
3030 to 3032 were blessed years for the Kell Hounds as well. In 3030, Morgan Kell and Salome were married, and in two years, the couple had had two children, Phelan Patrick Kell and Caitlin Ward Kell. In 3038, the Kell Hounds made a contract with the Free Worlds League, and were stationed near the Capellan border. Because Daniel Allard was the brother of Justin Allard, the man who had married her sister Candance and humiliated the Confederation during the 4th Succession War, Daniel Allard became the target of Romano's rage. Romano sent an assassin to wipe out the Allards, but the assassin attacked Morgan Kell's house by mistake and was killed by Phelan Kell's dog, Grinner.
When Katrina Steiner died in 3040, Morgan Kell received a substantial legacy from his royal cousin. He used the money to expand the Kell Hounds to two full regiments, promoting Daniel Allard and Scott Bradley to the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and giving them regimental commands. Akira Brahe was then promoted to the rank of Major, receiving command of the First Regiment's First 'Mech Battalion.
New Generation
In 3042, a 16-year-old youth calling himself Christian Kell appeared on the world Arboris, and presented himself to Morgan Kell as the son of his late Patrick and his mistress Takara. Morgan took him to Outreach to be trained by Wolf's Dragoons, which led to another promotion for Dan Allard. He now commanded the entire unit. Akira Brahe then took over the 1st Regiment.
In a battle in the St. Ives Compact, Christian Kell and the remains of his unit received the St. Ives Order of Heroism from the planet Ambergrist. He then was promoted to command of the 1st Battalion. In contrast to Christian Kell's performance in 3048, Phelan Kell was expelled from the Nagelring. The Honour Board at Nagelring dismissed him for stealing a 'Mech, noting that the theft capped a year of increasingly serious problems following the death of his friend D.J. Conner in action on the Marik border. Phelan joined up with the Kell Hounds and went to fight bandits in the periphery. Neither Phelan Kell nor anyone else in the Inner Sphere suspected that an apparent increase in bandit raids signaled the opening offensive in a intergalactic war.
Clan Onslaught
There are three major actions the Kell Hounds fought in during the Clan War. At Twycross, Luthien, and Arc-Royal, the Kell Hounds defeated the Clan juggernaut. The battle at Twycross involved the Tenth Lyran Guards, and the Ninth Federated Commonwealth RCT, and the Kell Hounds. Losses were high, but a year-long break in the war allowed the Kell Hounds to rebuild to their pre-war strength, and gave them the time to analyse Clan tactics.
At Luthien, the Kell Hounds fought along side the Wolf's Dragoons and several elite Combine units. Forces from Clan Smoke Jaguar, and Clan Nova Cat attempted to seize the planet, but thanks to the Kell Hounds and Wolf's Dragoons, they were unsuccessful. War Lord Theodore Kurita allowed the two mercenaries the first pick of salvage from the battle, so the units could rebuild.
In one of the saddest events in Kell Hound history, on June 19, 3055, Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion, and Salome Ward died at the hands of an assassins bomb that Kathriene Steiner, Mellisa's daughter, had helped form. The last major battle that the Kell Hounds had a part in so far in the Clan War, was at the Kell Hounds' home of Arc-Royal. A renegade Clan bandit force was lured to Arc-Royal by Clan Wolf and the Kell Hounds, and was destroyed. This proved to the citizens of Arc-Royal that if Phelan ever left the Clans, he would have a place in the leadership of the Kell Hounds.
The Inner Sphere Fights Back