Date: October 22, 3027
Location: Zaniah III
Title: Warrior: Riposte
Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Type: Novel (Warrior: Riposte – FASA)
Synopsis: Daniel Allard is escorted to the St. Marinus House monastery to meet with Morgan Kell. He is driven through the scorching badlands by Brother Keith, who says Morgan has come to grips with the demons haunting his soul. Keith asks Dan what happened on Mallory's World in 3016.
Dan explains that, with the Kell Hounds' first battalion outnumbered and on the defensive, Morgan challenged Yorinaga Kurita to a duel. When Morgan charged to grapple with Yorinaga, the Warhammer's PPC burst sheared off the Archer's arm, and Morgan's 'Mech stumbled and fell to its knees. Dan saw it fade from his scanner screens. Yorinaga's subsequent attacks all missed, allowing Morgan to bring the Archer back to its feet and execute a neat bow. The Warhammer bowed back, and Yorinaga acknowledged defeat by throwing his katana and wakizashi out of the cockpit. Yorinaga then ordered the 2nd Sword of Light to retreat.
They arrive at the monastery, and Dan is welcomed by Brother Giles, the Abbot. Dan recognizes him as Hermann Steiner - who resigned his commission as CO of the 2nd Royal Guards to forestall a civil war when Katrina overthrew his brother, Alessandro. Giles expresses concern for Morgan's well-being and sanity.
Giles takes Dan up to the top of the mesa in which the monastery is housed, and he emerges into the scorching heat to find Morgan praying. Upon finishing, Morgan greets Dan and says he knows why he's here, saying he knew this day would come, though he hoped it never would. He tells Dan to collect the messages he gave to the Abbot upon his arrival and dispatch them via the Starboro ComStar station. He asks where Patrick has deployed the Kell Hounds.
Dan tells Morgan that Patrick was killed by Yorinaga Kurita saving Melissa Steiner. Morgan is shocked, and drops to his knees, shouting that it should not have happened that way. Dan, also angry, blames Morgan, accusing him of breaking the Kell Hounds and disappearing with no explanation, leaving him to pick up the pieces. He tells Morgan that Salome Ward and Patrick were emotionally shattered by his departure.
Morgan accepts Dan's judgement of how he hurt Salome and Patrick, and asks how he'd hurt Dan. Allard responds that he noticed the best and brightest were chosen to leave during The Defection, and thought there was a plan for the elites. When Morgan left without bringing him in on the plan, he doubted himself, and felt both betrayed and unworthy. He tells Morgan he held the Hounds together just to spite him. Morgan answers that he did have a plan, but saw Dan as a vital element to keeping the Hounds together.
When Dan asks why he left, Morgan asserts that, had he stayed, or had he told them why he was leaving, they would have all died attempting to find and kill Yorinaga Kurita. Now that he has returned to seek out the Kell Hounds, Morgan feels the time has come to emerge from his own exile, to confront Yorinaga once more.
Morgan tells Dan to send his messages from Starboro, and to instruct Salome to take the Hounds to Thorin.
Notes: From the MechWarrior Online lore story for the Archer, we now know that Morgan spent much of his eleven years at St. Marinus House working through night terrors and physically painful PTSD symptoms that resulted from his "Phantom 'Mech" abilities manifesting on Mallory's World.
I'm surprised that Morgan thought Yorinaga would destroy the Kell Hounds if they sought him out, since it took decades of meditation for Yorinaga to develop Phantom 'Mech abilities. Had they hit him in the short term, it's likely they would have been able to take him out - albeit with significant casualties if they moved while he still commanded 'Mech forces. (Better yet - see if they can get a Combine citizen - perhaps one wearing a
renketsu who has substantial underworld connections - to contract with the Nekekami to put a hit on Yorinaga. If they won't play ball against a member of House Kurita, see if Santander's Killers, the Saurimat renegades, or a far afield JarnFolk assassin want the contract.)
Given his mental state, as portrayed in the
Archer lore writeup, it's actually amazing that Morgan had the ability to handle the logistical assignments that set up The Defection (and the letters that will trigger the return). Of those who left, we know that Scott Bradley formed Bradley's Bravos, Walter de Mesnil joined the AFFS and was a training officer for the Kittery Training Battalion, and Jeremiah Youngblood formed the Crescent Hawks, serving as Katrina Steiner's personal troubleshooter unit, and head of security at the Pacifica Academy.
This is Hermann Steiner's only appearance. From the various tidbits dropped about Katrina's succession, it sounds like Michael Stackpole had a significant amount of the backstory worked out. It would have been fantastic had ROC/FASA allowed him to write his Red Corsair novel the way he wanted, rather than forcing it to become a Clan Invasion-era story. We've seen the prologue - "Vanish" in AToW special edition, but clearly there was adventure and derring do in the Periphery, masquerading as pirates while Morgan had some sort of relationship with a woman named Tempest, and also finding a LosTech cache containing a black box/interstellar fax, then coming back and overthrowing Alessandro, with Hermann going into exile to prevent Alessandro from using him against Katrina. To me, that would have been a far more interesting story than the false-flagged Jade Falcon incursion into Lyran space they made him write.
I wonder if the promised Kell Hound novellas are still an active proposition. I would presume Michael is currently at work on the fourth installment of the HBS Kickstarter story about Walter de Mesnil, but it would be great if we had additional Kell Hound stories that could flesh out key events between "Vanish" and "Not the Way the Smart Money Bets."
Morgan dropping to his knees after learning of Patrick's death is clearly intended to echo his Archer dropping to its knees on Mallory's world after losing its strong right arm.
Another interesting element is Dan's comment that, upon graduation from the New Avalon Military Academy, he was given transfer orders to serve a six year term in the Kell Hounds. We've seen other fiction (the Sandusky Sorrell series in Stardate) where AFFS academy graduates are assigned to mercenary units as part of their AFFS service obligation following graduation. I can see the advantages - merc units are more likely to face live-fire situations, and putting cadets there for seasoning keeps them from unduly risking state assets in an AFFS line unit. I wonder if only units under long-term contract with the AFFS are eligible, or if the cadet-graduates are required to report for reassignment if their merc unit leaves service to the Federated Suns.