Henry Kincaid

Henry Kincaid
Personal
Also known as	Hack
Born	3095
Affiliation	Wolf's Dragoons
Profile
Rank	Colonel
Profession	MechWarrior

Henry Kincaid was a thirty-second-century MechWarrior and officer in the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit.

History

Dark Age

Henry "Hack" Kincaid was born in a Dragoons crèche on Arc-Royal, steeped in the traditions of the Dragoons who had come before him. On an unknown date, he won the Kincaid (Honorname). His first posting was in the Spider's Web Battalion of Wolf's Dragoons. Promoted to major and command of all the battalion in 3128, he was responsible for reshaping the striker battalions into the fine weapons they became.

As major, he helped capture an Overlord-C-class DropShip from Clan Jade Falcon on Great X which was rechristened the Jaime Wolf, one of four DropShips that Kincaid helped capture during his career.

3139–3140

Now-Colonel Kincaid was commanding officer of the Spider's Web Battalion during the time the Wolf's Dragoons were employed by the Draconis Combine and tasked with conquering the worlds of the Draconis Reach, on the Combine border with the Federated Suns. Kincaid held Wolf's Dragoons history and traditions very dear, including his reluctance to see Wolf's Dragoons employed by the Draconis Combine again and his reverence when shown the memorial to fallen Wolf's Dragoons and Ryuken warriors on Misery. While working with the Ryuken, Kincaid shared professional respect and then affectionate feelings towards Tai-sa Tori Ishihara, the Dragoons' Professional Soldiery Liaison officer and Kincaid's counterpart in operational planning.

IlClan Era

After receiving orders from General Thomas Brubaker to terminate their contract with the Combine, Hack obeyed and took his unit, the Wolfsbane Battalion and Tarantulas Battalion, out of Combine space. As they weren't able to participate in the ilClan Trial, he took both units and the Dragoons' dependents to a meeting point on Savannah in Free Worlds League space. There, on 3 June 3151, the Dragoons' survivors arrived. With the Dragoons' faith in Brubaker shattered, and all other surviving colonels tainted by Terra, Kincaid had no choice but to assume command of all Dragoons. A furious Kincaid ordered the arrest of Marotta Kerensky and all Dragoons officers, charging them with treason.

Hack was as determined as Brubaker to rebuild the Dragoons and seek revenge. He made a plan and began executing it: after gathering all Dragoon officers and announcing the beginning of their war against Clan Wolf, he moved their entire fleet to the Marik system. At the nadir recharge station, on 13 June, he called his Captain, Haya Tetsuhara, having her pose as his aide, for a meeting between him and Captain-General Nikol Halas-Hughes Marik.

There, he made a deal with Nikol: giving her six Ares OmniMechs and information about the Battle of Terra, which he obtained in exchange for control of the Nockatunga recharge station to use as a transfer point.

On June 6, Hack saw former General Brubaker, who had been stripped of his rank and sentenced to exile by the Dragoons. Kincaid rebuked him for his actions on Terra and earlier and offered Brubaker the choice between exile and an honorable death. Choosing the latter option, Brubaker committed suicide. The same day, Kincaid had an interview with Nicholas Crews, the former colonel who had been declared guilty of treason. Hack didn't accept his excuses and left after telling him he would be executed by firing squad the next day.

Without losing more time, Kincaid led his fleet to begin their war. Searching for recruits, salvage, and weapons to rebuild the Dragoons, he sent Tarantulas Battalion to attack New Olympia to take a cadet Cluster as bondsmen, and later Campbelton to loot a weapons factory. The first raid was a stunning success but the second found unexpected resistance: after losing thirteen Dragoons, Hack ordered the retreat, conceding victory to the Wolves for the moment.

After leaving the system, the Tarantulas' surviving officer, Haya Tetsuhara, confronted Kincaid, furious about the retreat order. Kincaid welcomed her and said she had not done anything bad. He presented a businessman, Phu-Phu Engaga, discussing the Dragoons' next step with her. It then became evident that Hack had been grooming Tetsuhara for higher responsibilities: he promoted her to major and gave her the task of rebuilding her next command, the long destroyed Zeta Battalion.

After that, the Dragoons settled on the desert planet of Ilion where they built a new secret base which Kincaid named Fort Joshua. After Tetsuhara resurrected Zeta, Kincaid sent them on their first contract, for the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey, where they easily took three worlds from the Wolf Empire. Hack ordered Tetsuhara to make the Wolves witness that it was the Dragoons alone who had punished them and not the Tamarind troops.

On August 17, Kincaid visited the captive Marotta Kerensky for the first time. At the beginning, the Wolf officer was proud of his acts but later admitted being unable to understand Alaric Ward's motives and insults towards the Dragoons. Kincaid simply called him a fool and laughed at him before leaving.

On 20 April 3152, Hack gave word to Tetsuhara and the victorious Zeta and showed that he had great ambitions for the Dragoons, as he explained that he was leading the rebuilding of the long-gone Epsilon and Delta Regiments, before sending Zeta on a private mission to Gienah, the Empire's capital.

On July 2, after Zeta's successful return, the Battle of Gienah (3152) having become a total success, Kincaid visited Kerensky again, at the Nockatunga recharging station, and told him how Ward had abandoned his empire. Kerensky didn't want to believe him, but Hack told him he could see for himself, as he would be released and sent to Gienah and Terra if he could.

Only then was the true purpose of Zeta's last mission revealed, and why Kincaid had kept Kerensky alive and unharmed: to return him to Terra as a loser, telling Ward how the Dragoons had stolen his future. Zeta, on Gienah, had stolen a sibko of Ward's genetic progeny and gave them as presents to all other Clans but kept some of them to be raised as Dragoons. After Kincaid said that at some point in the future, he would use them against Ward, he promised Kerensky he will kill him if he ever saw him again, before releasing him.

Personality

Henry Kincaid studied warfare and Dragoons history his entire life. He was fiercely loyal to his troops and his mission—a taciturn, stern man who kept himself in good shape and would do anything to protect the Dragoons in his care. He proved that by ordering the retreat in Campbelton to preserve lives.

Kincaid's blue uniform was immaculate and unadorned, as he didn't wear any of the campaign ribbons to which he was entitled except for a MechWarrior badge and the three colonel stars.

BattleMech

Henry Kincaid piloted a Guillotine IIC as part of the Command Star of the Spider's Web Battalion.

Notes

• Hack, Henry Kincaid's nickname, designated a subpar performer, and even he recognized he was one initially.
• Hack was described as 2.15 to 2.2 meters tall and carrying a lot of muscle on his shoulders and torso.
• Ironically, Kincaid shared several features with his adversary, the Empire's Viceroy, Star Colonel Othar: both were originally unremarkable warriors, raised to command by being the highest-ranking officer left behind. Both resented having been denied the right to fight on Terra (or prevent its people from fighting, in Hack's case), both hated Alaric Ward and refused to promote themselves to a higher rank.

Bibliography

• Empire Alone
• Redemption Rift (novel)
• Redemption Rites (novel)