Phantom 'Mech

The Phantom 'Mech is the only canonical allusion to a possibly supernatural event or power within the BattleTech universe, and as such remains somewhat of an engima.

The Phantom 'Mech incident on Mallory's World

The term Phantom 'Mech usually refers to the conclusion of the famous duel between Morgan Kell and Yorinaga Kurita on Mallory's World in 3016. The duel gained near-legendary status among MechWarriors throughout the Inner Sphere.

Situation

Forces from the Draconis Combine, including the elite 2nd Sword of Light Regiment, launched a major attack against the Federated Suns in 3013 and killed Prince Ian Davion in the fighting on Mallory's World. The mercenary unit Kell Hounds, sent as reinforcements, made planetfall shortly afterwards. While they could not save the Prince, moved in to allow the defenders to recover the late prince's body before the Kurita units could take the body as a trophy. This, and their raid on Murchison a year later, earned the Kell Hounds the emnity of House Kurita.

At the beginning of the year 3016, the fighting on Mallory's World still raged on and House Kurita decided to crush the remaining Kell Hounds on Mallory's World to demoralize the defenders. The Kell Hounds' 2nd bataillon was surrounded and pinned down in their base at the town of Cactus Flats by the 36th Dieron Regiment, while the entire Second Sword of Light under Tai-sa Yorinaga Kurita moved to annihilate the 1st bataillon in their fortified position that had formerly belonged to the 24th Dieron Regiment.

The duel

In this hopeless situation, Morgan Kell stepped forward in his Archer and recounted the heroic deeds of his ancestors in Japanese, calling for a duel with a member of the 2nd Sword of Light. It obviously fell to the regiment's commander, Yorinaga Kurita, to answer the call; he stepped forward in his Warhammer and listed the deeds of his ancestors as well, in precise English.

Although the combattants' respective BattleMech models meant that Kell was clearly disadvantaged at shorter ranges, he ignored his LRM-20 launchers and chose to engage the Warhammer at very short range in a direct match. There could be no doubt that he was going to sacrifice himself and offering his life for that of his men.

Yorinaga Kurita essentially defeated Morgan Kell in the fight. In the end, Kurita feinted the failure of his right PPC, then surprisingly used it to shoot off the Archer's right arm. Kell's critically damaged 'Mech toppled to his knees right in front of Kurita's Warhammer.

According to the reports, Kurita's Warhammer then fired all weapons (Alpha strike) at Kell's Archer at pointblank range but miraculously missed with each and every weapon although Kell did not even move. Conversely, Kell fired his long-range missile launchers. The missiles failed to detonate due to the very short range; their impact did crack open the canopy of Kurita's 'Mech, however. Kurita fired all his weapons again, only to completely miss Kell again.

Kell (in his Archer) did not return fire. Instead, he respectfully bowed to his opponent, acknowledging him as the better fighter. The simple gesture meant that Kurita could not kill Kell without losing his honour now. Ashamed, Yorinaga Kurita uttered a Haiku, conceded victory to Morgan Kell and allowed the Kell Hounds to withdraw while he ordered his own troops to retreat. When the pilot of a Panther objected, he destroyed the 'Mech with a concentrated blast of fire. While his warriors retreated, Kurita threw his Katana and Wakizashi (which he had received from Coordinator Takashi Kurita personally) from his cockpit.

The mysterious event has never been given a satisfactory explanation. Kurita later claimed that he had had the Archer plain in his sights at very short range, but then Kell's 'Mech had inexplicably disappeared from all sensors all of a sudden, despite standing still, and the salvo missed because the targeting computer could not acquire a lock. Similarly, Chu-sa Narimasa Asano, then a Marauder pilot with the Second Sword of Light, later recounted how the Archer had disappeared from all sensors despite being in plain sight.

Aftermath

The duel was a turning point for both Morgan Kell and Yorinaga Kurita. The former largely disbanded the Kell Hounds down from a regiment to a single battailon and went into exile in a monastery on Zaniah without a word of explanation. The latter requested permission from his Coordinator to commit seppuku. The request was denied, and he was exiled to a Zen monastery on Echo V instead. From there, he issued the same request each year but received no answer until 1. January 3027 when he was recalled and tasked with the creation of a new elite unit, the Genyosha. After fulfilling this order, his death wish would be granted.

Patrick Kell's last fight

A similar phenomenon occurred during Patrick Kell's last fight on Styx in 3027, but this is not generally known as the exact events on Styx were largely covered up and remain shrouded in secrecy.

By sheer coincidence, Morgan Kell's brother Patrick wound up leading the Kell Hounds in a battle against the Genyosha on Styx on 26. May 3027. He piloted a Victor that disappeared from the targeting systems (as reported over the radio by Kell Hounds member Austin Brand and witnessed by Daniel Allard) in much the same fashion as Morgan Kell's Archer had on Mallory's World. This time, however, Yorinaga Kurita (again in a Warhammer) managed to destroy the other 'Mech. Patrick Kell was mortally wounded and died shortly afterwards.

During this fight, which was not a duel but a battle between several dozen 'Mechs, Yorinaga Kurita's Warhammer, too, could not be acquired as a target for some time.

Final showdown

The death of his brother brought Morgan Kell out of his self-imposed exile. He took command of the Kell Hounds again and quickly rebuilt them to regiment strength just prior to the Fourth Succession War. The Kell Hounds and the Draconis Combine, especially the Sword of Light regiments and the Genyosha, frequently attacked each other's bases but the final battle only took place in October 3029 on Nusakan. The Fifth Sword of Light had engaged the Kell Hounds in intense one-to-one fighting when the Genyosha arrived.

Again, Yorinaga Kurita and Morgan Kell squared off in a one-on-one duel. It was a virtual replay of their fight on Mallory's World thirteen years earlier, only Morgan Kell did not fire a single shot this time while Kurita fired virtually everything he had, hardly hitting Kell despite his best efforts. Kell's Archer (again) lost an arm and dropped to its knees before Kurita's Warhammer, then again stood and bowed to his opponent.

Kurita could not return the gesture because the full salvo had overheated and immobilized his Warhammer in the Nusakan desert. By his own honour code, he had again lost the duel and subsequently committed seppuku.

Deeply impressed, Yorinaga Kurita's son Akira Brahe and a dozen other Genyosha MechWarriors left the Draconis Combine on the spot and joined the Kell Hounds.

Conclusions

Phantom 'Mech Ability

In the (canonical) sourcebook, The Kell Hounds, a mystical ability called the Phantom 'Mech Ability (aka PMA) was explicitly postulated as the reason for the phenomenon. Both Morgan and Patrick Kell, as well as Yorinaga Kurita, alledgedly possess that ability. This sparked a controversy among fans of the BattleTech universe wether or not PMA is acceptable as canon; a mystical ability seems rather far-fetched, especially considering the technically oriented outlook of the BattleTech universe and the absence of any Psi powers, magic, telepathy etc. otherwise.

ECM

The preferred alternative explanation for the Phantom 'Mech phenomenon is that the Kells used some kind of Lostech ECM jammer or cloaking device.

During Patrick Kell's fight on Styx, Daniel Allard's Valkyrie managed to acquire an IR signature of Patrick Kell's Victor for half a second when it was hit by two PPCs from Kurita's Warhammer, possibly disabling the mysterious device briefly. The other Kurita 'Mechs inexplicably kept missing the Victor.

When Yorinaga Kurita's Warhammer closed with the Victor, Allard could not acquire a lock on the Warhammer either and ultimately rammed his own 'Mech into the back of Kurita's machine, destroying both. While some have theorized that Yorinaga Kurita shared the Kell brothers' ability at that moment, it could also be argued that the Warhammer was affected by the proximity of Kell's Victor.

Glitch

In a forum thread discussin the PMA topic, user MacAttack suggested (although not entirely seriously):

Phantom Mechs - The Truth

What is commonly called the Phantom Mech Ability dates back to the final years of the Star League when a nasty little court case resulted in the images of a number of BattleMechs being deleted from the official SLDF databases. During the Succession Wars this was not a problem - for the SLDF had left the Inner Sphere taking much of their technology with them. The trouble started in the early 3000s was Inner Sphere techs becan to trade copies of bootleg SLDF targeting and tracking software uncovered from a long forgotten SLDF laptop. Suddenly MechWarriors started to have difficulty in targeting some designs as their reprogrammed weapons systems refused to acknowledge their existance.

Probably the most notable early example of this was when Yorinaga Kurita's Tech upgraded his Warhammer's FCS just before the encounter with Morgan Kell on Malory's World. Of course Dan Allard experienced a similar problem with his brand new Wolfhound (targeting software provided courtesy of the GDL memory core). The Clans also have difficulty targeting Kell's Archer on Luthien - for their targeting software was based on the SLDF's.

Fortunatly the issue has been identified and most BattleMechs have fire control software that patches the issue. Though every so often somebody running the old software runs into exactly the wrong kind of Mech - perpetuating tales of "Phantom Mechs".

It should be noted that his position is HTE Marketing (Writer) and the explanation, serious or not, could be considered canon.

Notes

• The duel is never directly described in canon sources; instead, it is indirectly recounted by various people in different sources. Since the duel has a legendary status within the universe, those statements are hardly objective, and may rather be blurring the subject.
• Critter-TEK ridicules the Phantom 'Mech with a special rule called "The amazing Ghost TEK" ability, which "allows the Swell Hounds to rescue any important character or leader TEK from overwhelming odds or an desperate situation, once during a scenario."

References

• En Garde (Novel)
• The Kell Hounds (Scenario pack)