Marcus Kotare

Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field Star Colonel Marcus Kotare was a high-ranking Clan Smoke Jaguar MechWarrior commander. He appeared in two PC games: a cameo role in MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries and as the main antagonist in MechCommander: Desperate Measures.

In 3060, during Operation Bulldog, Kotare was captured by SLDF authorities and placed under house arrest, pending a court-martial for war atrocities. Kotare was widely believed to be mentally unstable and an incredibly dangerous sociopathic murderer, since he would not hesitate to use extreme amounts of violence (that were considered highly dishonorable by Clan standards, even by the Smoke Jaguar Warrior Caste) against his enemies. As Bulldog progressed he managed to escape, acquire a single drop-ship and lead a small contingent of Jaguar warriors into the Periphery.

He headed for the world of Cermak, it was located in the near-periphery, core-ward of the Occupation Zone. It had once been a major Star League base, one of the reasons the Jaguars had chosen it in 3049 to build a HPG relay station for communication to the Homeworlds. In the 10 years it had been in their control the Jaguars had slowly rebuilt several of the facilities, factories, hydroponics units and defences. A small secondary Elemental training facility was also located here.

When he arrived on Cermak he found it defended by a single cluster of Mechs and vehicles commanded by Star Colonel Burnell Wirth. Kotare assumed command, reorganised the defences and attempted to re-arm his command with weapons from some of the deeper and as yet undisturbed Star League vaults.

Kotare organised his forces into two provisional combined arms Clusters. Each was equipped with mainly Mechs and armour, but they did also contain a few elementals and fighters. The paint schemes reported during later fighting indicated that the equipment came from at least three different Clusters, perhaps four. Much of it was even Clan Nova Cat in origin, in fact it would appear that only the Clan Symbols on these Mechs were repainted as some still bore the insignia of the Nova Cats Omicron Galaxy.

It has been speculated that the drop-ship Kotare took over was a partially loaded Nova Cat Overlord-C belonging to Omicorn Galaxy, many of whose warriors had joined the false Star League. This would account for the amount of Nova Cat equipment that he had available to him. It also begs the question did any Nova Cats aid his escape? Or even joined him shocked by the treacherous actions of their Khans?

In the recent assault his command of 50 OmniMechs had been overrun by over 500 Inner Sphere machines, such odds to his mind just showed how dishonourable the "barbarians" were. To survive he knew he would have to increase his potential fire-power, make anyone thing twice about launching an assault. He had discovered Star League records that indicated that the lower vaults contained both Nuclear and Chemical weapons as well as hinting at the existence of Biological weapons. Many Clansmen who were aware of his plan were shocked at the idea of unearthing such devices. However, Kotare stated that these were the weapons of the original Star League, if they had them as a deterrent then how could employing them as such again be wrong? Really, he argued, if you criticise these weapons you criticise the Star League, and no Clansman would want to be seen to do that.

The Explorer Corps had been scouring the Periphery since September 3059 trying to locate any Jaguar units that had survived the main assault of Operation Bulldog. One team located the planet of Cermak, the limited scans shows the planet was Industrial, they required no more information to request a Search and Destroy unit be dropped on the Planet. That Job fell to Yankee and Zulu companies of 1st Battalion of the 1st Davion Guards. They landed at both companies of 'Mechs, supported by armour and artillery on the planet in December 3059.

The Davion Battalion had employed its mobile tactics successfully on Port Arthur, aided by the Mech Commander tactical package. Using these methods again it set out on a campaign of divide on conquer, isolating first Stars and then Trinaries away from support before destroying them. Marcus Kotare seemed too preoccupied with drilling into the Star League Vaults to mount any organised counter attack.

This preoccupation, to be fair, probably came from the fact that he had ordered his only drop-ships engine removed to power the digging equipment. While that operation continued his forces were marooned on the planet. Although, a bolder Commander might have forced this issue, by counter attacking and trying to capture the Guards drop-ships.

The loss in combat of his only Bloodnamed warriors, Star Captains Katherine Furey and Marcus Osis was a blow, as was the head-hunter attack that captured three more Star Captains; Rathbon, Dulaney and Kulin. His defences were being stripped of competent field commanders. This is perhaps why he chose to defend bases than meet the enemy in the open. However, this tactic only spread his troops out thinner.

Eventually the Davion Guards had broken through the perimeter defences, and had cornered the command trinaries of both Clusters at the entrance of the weapons vault. The ensuing fight saw the destruction of the drop-ship engine, thus stranding any survivors on the planet. It also saw the deaths of both Marcus Kotare and Burnell Wirth.

While much larger Inner Sphere units had been chasing down small bands of Jaguar troops even individual warriors, and in many cases just phantoms. Ironically the smallest Inner Sphere hunting band defeated possibly the single largest concentration of Jaguars.

Notes

• Kotare piloted a customized Turkina OmniMech.

Bibliography

• MechCommander: Desperate Measures