Thomas Hogarth is the physical representation of the concept of “social general” in the Inner Sphere, at least on the surface. A man of means and good upbringing, he coasted through most of his life simply due to his name and ability to throw massive parties. However, once you pull away the veneer, you can start noticing that there is some form of talent and skill to such a man. Hogarth never reached “excellence”, but has been good enough in many endeavors ranging from holding units together, winning critical battles in hard situations and even designing new weapon systems for use with the Heavy Gauss Rifle.

Early Life

The Hogarth family is a powerful and rich family from Hesperus II. Thomas’s father, Lautner, oversaw planetary defenses and militias on Hesperus II while his mother was a socialite and businesswoman associated with Defiance Industries. He got the best possible education, but young Thomas never performed well in school, preferring to spend time loafing around and organizing social events. He himself was not worried about this, often joking that “D is for diploma”. His parents did not care much about his academic situation and enrolled him in The Nagelring in 3023.

Even in military training, Thomas Hogarth was better known for his amazing kegger parties and incredible pranks than his military or scholastic skills. His overall results were pitiable, but he was able to go through the classes thanks to a mix of his personality and his amazing luck. During the graduation speech in 3027, the valedictorian ended the speech with: “Whatever you do, you want Thomas Hogarth in your unit”, meaning that if you wanted the best treatment and the most fun, having him around was a good idea. Thomas graduated on a lieutenant commission and was assigned to the 22^nd Skye Rangers.

Military Career

A Long Time Coming

Thanks to his family connections, Lieutenant Hogarth was assigned to the staff of Colonel Ivan Petroff of the 22^nd. Literally acting as a “go-fer”, Thomas worked mainly as a logistics officer with minimal BattleMech operation. Strangely, this did not suit young Thomas Hogarth much, as he would have preferred to be with the rest of his unit on patrols and such rather than always under the watchful eye of Colonel Petroff. Thomas did meet with Ryan Steiner for the first time during this period and developed a friendship with the man.

During the Fourth Succession War, Lieutenant Hoggarth participated in both the operations on Al Hillah and Grumium. His combat skills were noted to be “unremarkable”, but in both operations he survived with his entire unit intact. Hogart reputation also grew thanks to having been good for the unit morale by arranging games between the various companies and lances. He was promoted to Hauptmann in 3031.

With the 7^th Donegal

The Seventh Donegal Guards was looking for a new Senior Executive officer in 3038 and Thomas Hogarth’s name “miraculously” fell on the desk of Maria Esteban as a prime candidate. The Seventh was in plan to serve during the War of 3039 and many officers had been moved to the new FedCom RCTs, meaning that there were numerous opportunities for young talent. Promoted to Kommandant, Thomas was also known for having an affair with the unit commander while in the field, but nobody made too much noise about it.

During the War of 3039, Hogarth commanded an assault company on the surface of Kervil. Hogarth’s natural talent (and luck) shone once again as he walked through Iron City with his unit, with no clear goal in mind, and found the enemy mobile HQ and command company. With “careful application of force” (namely, shooting things as much as possible with large enough autocannons), Thomas and his crew destroyed the enemy command structure and ensured a victory for the AFFC. Even though the planet was recaptured later by the DCMS, this combat action was regarded as one of the best in the LCAF at the time and got the attention of Nondi Steiner and the leadership of the Lyran portion of the AFFC.

Military Attache to Red Devil Industries

After his successes during the War of 3039, Hogarth was able to negotiate himself a cushy position on Pandora VII as the military attache to Red Devil Industries. The company had seen an increase in their productivity and investments thanks to the rediscovery of the Helm’s Memory Core and they were hard at work on functional prototypes of various designs. Hogarth completed a courseload in BattleMech engineering while working this position, with an accreditation from NAIS (while still getting it at the bottom edge of the passing grade).

While Red Devil would participate in the design of the RFL-5D and BLR-3S, Thomas Hogarth was more well-known for his participation in the boondoggle “Condor Trans-Track” project. The idea was for the Condor hovertank to also be equipped with a track system to improve its ability to maneuver on rough terrain. Multiple demonstrations of the product were held in balls and other social events, which endeared Thomas Hogarth to the local nobility and a lot of the wealthy elite, but did little to showcase the defects of the product. When the Condor Trans-Track was brought forward for a full field test, the track system jammed and failed, crippling the vehicle and throwing egg on Hogarth’s face. Luckily for him, he had enough friends by that point that he was simply “moved along” with a promotion to General.

On the Marik Border

General Hogarth was placed in command of the Furillo Tamarind March Militia, Another unit attached to defend industrial plants, Thomas was able to schmooze his way into the nobility and wealthy elite of the planet. He became friends (some say more than just friends) with the widowed Iris Steiner, much to the ire and chagrin of Caesar Steiner, who saw Hogarth as an opportunistic pig. The rivalry between the two men would go on from that point onwards.

As a March Militia commander, Hogart was not asked to mobilize his troops to the Clan front during Operation REVIVAL. He did, however, recommend some of his best elements be rotated to front-line units at the recommendation of Iris and Ryan Steiner. While his forces were not engaged in front line combat, they did have to repel several “unmarked raiders” during the early 3050s. While Hogarth never could prove that those were Marik assets, he made his views clear to the high command.

Fifth Succession War and Lyran Alliance

Leutnant-General Hoggart was happy to coast by in the Furillo March Militia, but things took a turn during the early days of Nondi Steiner’s Lyran Alliance. His old contacts and friendships with the likes of Ryan Steiner made him more friendly to the Alliance cause and the leadership of the AFFC lost confidence in his abilities. In order to secure his job (and cushy lifestyle), Hogarth began experimenting with Gauss Rifle technology and got the production of the first prototypes of the Heavy Gauss Rifle by 3057.

This was too late, however, as Richard Steiner II, Nondi’s son, implicated Thomas Hogarth into one of his scheme without the Leutnant-General knowing about it. Caesar Steiner came to Furillo to arrest Hogarth (a task he would have loved to complete), but Hogarth was alerted and managed to escape the world with a personal guard of about a battalion worth of ‘Mechs. He would meet with the Alliance leadership and be given the rank of Hauptmann-General of the newly founded 2^nd Alliance Guard.

Pirate Wars

Unfortunately for Thomas, the LAAF was expecting him to actually perform. He had to take his unit and begin the pacification of various pirate worlds in the Rim Collection so the Alliance could establish a power base. His corporate contact had allowed the Hauptmann-General to build a high-tech unit with some of the best machines around, he was mainly lacking good pilots for them. Thankfully, his opponents were mainly using old Succession War relics, repaired a hundred times, along with basi planetary defense vehicles.

Thomas Hogarth’s successes were widly distributed in the Federated Commonwealth to show how “efficient” the Lyran Alliance was by propagandists. This led Thomas to begin rising in profile within the Alliance… along with on the kill list of MIIO. Using his contacts and such, he managed to keep himself away from “real trouble” as the rest of the AFFC was concentrating on their fight with the Marik-Liao alliance.

Personal Life

Thomas Hogarth is known to be an odd ball, but a great person to be around overall. Throughout his life, he was always the first to organize any festival or event for his unit and their associated dependents. While some decry his logistics skill on the front, there is no question his ability to always locate the best food and drink on any world is appreciated. His attitude does put him at odds with some of the more “conservative” military officers but makes him quite popular with the rank and file. In 3064, he was given the title of Duke of Ormstown by Nondi Steiner, and he established a household on the planet.

A few people wonder about Hogarth’s “proclivities” as well. The man has remained unmarried, but is quite popular with the ladies due to his attitude and charisma. He has an “illegitimate son” which he recognized as his heir from a previous dalliance, but like many of them, it appears to have been with an “older woman”. Even in his youth, he had full posters of Katrina Steiner in his room, a trend that continued far past the time it could have been seen as reasonable. His later close friendship with Iris Steiner could also be seen as quite improper, and this is what made him draw the ire of Caesar Steiner.

Thomas Hogarth’s BattleMech

Thomas Hogarth pilots an Atlas customized with a Heavy Gauss Rifle, which he in part designed. He also owns (reluctantly) a first run Defiance, which he wants to customize to use a Heavy Gauss Rifle if he could. The prototype is being tested for use in the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces.

Clan Watch Report

“Incompetence and kissing ass have a name, and it is Thomas Hogarth. Strangely though, this does not mean actua incompetence. The man can maneuver himself into beneficial positions at all time and just coast by on his name and rank alone, but when push comes to shove, he strangely always comes out on top. A case study in how the Inner Sphere, and especially the Lyran Commonwealth, operates for sure.”