Charles Kincaid (25th c.)

Charles Kincaid
Personal
Born	2413
Died	2481
Affiliation	House Kincaid
Profile
Rank	Colonel
Profession	MechWarrior
Family
Parents	Elishia Kincaid (father)
Spouse	Isabelle Cameron Amanda Cunningham (lover)

Charles Kincaid can, without too much aggrandizement, be called the first MechWarrior as he piloted the first-ever BattleMech, the Mackie, in its first combat trial.

History

A scion of the wealthy and influential Kincaid family, Charles Kincaid has the distinction of being the test pilot of the MSK-5S Mackie during the first combat trial for a BattleMech. However, the early history of Charles was nearly lost to the history due to centuries of House Cameron's cover-up attempts, as well as the chaos of the Amaris Coup, but in the Dark Age Era enough was reconstructed to create a most complete picture.

Charles Kincaid was the eldest son of Elishia Kincaid, and from an early age there were high expectations on him to honor his family's military heritage which stretched back to Terra's Second World War. His father used all means at his disposal to ensure than his son gained the education and experiences he felt the boy would need to honor the family: bribes of money and real estate on Killbourn helped with that. Ironically, it appears than Charles barely needed it; he was highly intelligent and capable in his own right and would likely have gone very far even without his father's meddling.

Upon graduating from a prestigious preparatory school, he traveled to Terra, where attended the historic West Point Academy along with tutors, advisors and trainers provided by his father. Charles grew into a skilled tactician and charismatic leader, but without facing any form of hardship or challenge to his decision. After graduating, he joined the Hegemony Armed Forces with the rank of captain.

Kincaid's first true test came during the Hegemony's defense of Tybalt, in 2435. He was placed in charge of strategic planning and operations. Director-General Jacob Cameron placed a lot of pressure on Kincaid, but also deployed the new Merkava Mk.VII heavy tanks. Kincaid succeeded in using them to their full potential, obtaining victory, and making Tybalt a Hegemony protectorate. Charles was applauded of one of greatest heroes in the conflict.

The First MechWarrior

Later, Kincaid was forced into the BattleMech Project by his father's contacts, and he became the final candidate test pilot for the Mackie. The great prestige of the test made him willing to succeed at all costs. During the successful test on 5 February 2439, he squared off against—and promptly destroyed—a number of remote controlled Merkava Mk. VI heavy tanks, ushering in the age of the BattleMech with this demonstration. However, nobody knew that in the rush to launch the Mackie, the experimental neurohelmet would damage his nerve tissue, causing it to deteriorate over the following decades. The issue was discovered quickly and fixed in later neurohelmets; meanwhile, evidence of the damage done to Kincaid was covered up at the highest levels.

As the Kincaid family had vested interests in a number of weapon firms and Charles Kincaid himself enjoyed good relations with the ruling Cameron family, he invariably faced charges of favoritism, but nevertheless Kincaid proved himself a capable pilot at the controls of the Mackie. As a result, Kincaid—then a Colonel—went on to command a company of BattleMechs within the 801st Heavy Armored Regiment. In 2443, the 801st would in turn be involved in the first ever battle in the Inner Sphere to involve BattleMechs, when a lance from the 801st went on to destroy a company of armor with infantry support from a raiding party from the Draconis Combine outside the city of Barbados on the planet Styx. However, Charles covered his participation, favoring specially his assistant and lover, Amanda Cunningham.

However, Styx was the last battle fought by Charles as a MechWarrior; the progressive nerve damage he suffered from the first trial increased, and the primitive neurohelmets of the time weren't able to compensate for this. Though he remained a successful officer for a time, his growing tremors in his limbs and diminished consciousness forced him to leave the battlefield. His family knew the truth of what had happened, but their official stance was that he suffered brain damage on Styx and never recovered. Eventually, Kincaid died at the age of 68 in his home of Killbourn.

BattleMech

Kincaid's only 'Mech for all his career was the same which he piloted in his first battle. The MSK-5S Mackie was, overall, a prototype: doted with an array of test stands and diagnostic equipment, and with parts of the autocannon's armor semitransparent to allow munition experts to see the mechanisms.

After Charles retired from active service, his Mackie was initially displayed on his home world of Killbourn, but the Camerons feared than some class of evidence in their databanks can tie them to the accidental damage Kincaid sustained, so they had it moved to Terra after Charles' death in 2481. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

Gallery

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  Kincaid's MSK-5S Mackie from BT:Legends

Bibliography

• BattleTech: Legends
• Break-Away (short story)
• Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130)
• Era Digest: Age of War
• Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives, Volume 1
• Shrapnel, issue #12
• Technical Readout: 3075