A Tiny Spot of Rebellion

A Tiny Spot of Rebellion cover.jpg
A Tiny Spot of Rebellion
Product information
Type Novella
Author Michael A. Stackpole
Publication information
Publisher Catalyst Game Labs
Product code CAT35883NV
First published 22 March 2019
MSRP $3.99
Content
Era Succession Wars era
Timeline 15 - 31 October 3010
Series Kell Hounds Ascendant (series)
Preceded by Not the Way the Smart Money Bets
Followed by A Clever Bit of Fiction

A Tiny Spot of Rebellion is a novella by Michael A. Stackpole. It is the second installment of the Kell Hounds Ascendant Trilogy which describes the inception and early days of the famous Kell Hounds mercenary unit, but is also available as a standalone publication.

From the back cover[edit]

Fresh off their victory over local criminals, the brothers Kell are faced with a growing religious rebellion led by a local bishop with a lofty goal of ruling the entire planet, and using the populace to achieve his aims. They're assigned to put down the uprising, but can they find a way to do that without having to battle the civilians pressed into service as holy soldiers?.

Plot summary[edit]

On Galatea, opposing the Kell Hounds saw crimelord Haskell Blizzard's loan shark and shylocking business brought low within days, and his accomplice, corrupt General "Viper" Volmer, was arrested. Morgan Kell was meanwhile installed as the interim garrison commander. After around a week, Baron Lawrence Bonham takes over.

"Viper" Volmer's wife and son have sought refuge with the pious Church of Jesus Majificent under bishop Arlington Poore. Eschewing most modern technology, this Church is a religious movement of little if any importance in Galatea City, but with major influence among the original settlers of Galatea who now live clustered to the west in what they call Majistan, the planet's only really fertile zone, where they continue the old-fashioned farming of Galatea of old. Bishop Poore asks, essentially demands, that General Volmer, who was baptized into the Church in absentia, also be sent to his care, to be with his family. Volmer, already aboard a DropShip bound for the jump point, at first refuses in a video link with Poore and Bonham but then suddenly - possibly in jest, or out of spite or scorn - begs to be saved from the satanists who are abducting him. Poore, a true believer who is already predisposed against Morgan Kell because of his association with Veronica Matova ("whoremongering" according to Poore), does not take it as a joke at all. He proclaims a "fatwa" (as the Church of Jesus Majificient calls it) and announces there will be no more food deliveries from the west. Since this will cause serious shortages and potentially starve Galatea City within two weeks, Bonham sends the garrison under Colonel Sarah Thorndyke to take control of the Ephaseus warehouse, but the garrison forces find the warehouse empty and end up besieged there after their Maji infantry contingent defected to the Church. Constabulary forces are met with armed AgroMechs and driven off. In this situation, Bonham procures a sealed message from Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth Katrina Steiner ordering the Kell Hounds to stop Poore.

Short on actual BattleMechs, the Kell Hounds make use of a reinforced company of Ultralyte 'Mechs from Blizzard's arena games, figuring that their lasers and missiles at full strength they can stand up to armed IndustrialMechs. Patrick Kell himself pilots an ultralyte Commando. With this force and a communications blackout implemented with the help of ComStar (and with religious police cordoning off ComStar bureaus in the Majistan area), they hope to bring the uprising under control.

At the Ephaseus warehouse, the cautious Kell Hounds forces identify it as a trap. To reach it, they have to kill civilians - some unarmed - who are nevertheless unwilling to back down. When they finally reach the warehouse they find the cockpits of the garrison's 18 'Mechs vandalized with axes, clubs and prying bars. 17 pilots have been crucified. Gun cam recordings show that people had come under a flag of truce to negotiate with Colonel Thorndyke, then large numbers of women and children with baskets and jugs of water move in on the perimeter. (It is implied that the supplies were drugged.) Morgan Kell, speaking with Kell Hounds chaplain and family friend Lt. David Donnelly, comes to understand that these religious zealots will not be cowed, and are prepared to die for their cause. General Volmer's supposed plea to save him has galvanized them around Bishop Poore.

Bishop Poore next goes to Galatea City to negotiate with Baron Bonham, expecting the city's surrender. He also brings a broken Colonel Thorndyke, who he has made one of his wives. Using the food situation as leverage and declaring the sinners need to do penance and can be absolved by him, he demands Bonham to step down and appoint Poore in his place, so that he can rename the world Galacia and convert all of its population to his Church.

With overdue food shipments from the west raising public concerns in Galatea City and time running short, the Kell Hounds attack the small Maji city of Acre and capture the nearby dam, denying them their water supply and threatening to flood the city. This prompts Acre's leader, Patriarch Thaddeus Oltmann, to negotiate with the Kells after all. Using past differences between Oltmann and Poore as leverage, Morgan manages to widen cracks in Majistan's theology-political landscape and convince Oltmann to overthrow his old rival Poore, to save lives. The Kell Hounds move quickly to overrun town after town while sabotage and suicide bombings take place in Galatea City. Poore is deceived into expecting a major attack on Thessalon when on 29 October he is shot in his office at Paradise Mountain by an assassin - Kell Hounds associate Frost. At Thessalon, Maji agents under Patriarch Oltmann's orders proclaim a vision of Bishop Arlington Poore ascending to heaven, which spreads among the Maji population. Oltmann, a truly pious, humble yet pragmatic person, takes over Poore's position and implicitly helps to cover up what really happened to Poore. Thus, the situation is ultimately resolved with far less bloodshed than Poore had threatened.

Featured Characters[edit]

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