Oan Mkoll

''Warning: The following page contains major spoilers for the "Gaunts Ghosts" novel series from Dan Abnett. ''"You are good."

- Scout Seargeant Mkoll to the confused Mandrake Skarwael Oan Mkoll is the Scout Seargeant of the Tanith First-and-Only and one of the most skilled scouts of the Imperial Guard. Drafted from the Forest World of Tanith on the day of its destruction he serves as leader of the unique Scouts, overseeing their training as well as leading them into battle. While he has taken on foes, that seemed unbeatable by normal humans, his greatest skill lies in the art of stealth. He is equally skilled in moving fast and unseen deep into enemy territory, as well as leading his fellow Guardsmen, especially his own Scouts, where they need to be, without beeing noticed.

Life on Tanith
Oan Mkoll was born on the Forest World of Tanith and raised in one of its numerous villages deep in the forests. There, he learned how to move and orientate inside the forests of Tanith, which had a strange habit of beeing in constant change. This way Mkoll developed a strong sense of direction, like most people of Tanith.

He later joined the Tanith PDF, where his outstanding talents were first discovered: While all men of Tanith are trained scouts and nearly never get lost anywhere, Mkolls sense for orientation and scouting even excelled compared to the other natives of Tanith. Therefore, in his military training, he developed all the skills, a professional scout needs. He not only learned to move fast and unseen, he also became a skilled marksman with his Lasgun, specialising in precise single shots, as well as a great fighter with the "Straight Silver", the unique combat knifes of Tanith.

He also developed a friendship with a great number of those, he would later fight together in the Imperial guard. Most notably he met Mkvenner, also a scout and perhaps the only person, who could compare his skills as a Scout with Mkolls or even surpassing him in some fields, like fighting with "Straight Silver".

One day Colonel-Comissar Ibram Gaunt arrived, sent to recruit three regiments on this world to support the Sabbat-World-Crusade. Mkoll was one of the chosen to leave the PDF and join one of these three regiments. However, the same day Chaos attacked. The planet was destroyed, but Ibram Gaunt decided, that, instead of giving a last stand, completing his task was more important. He ordered all Guardsmen he could get to leave the planet, which was destroyed beneath them. The surviving troops, extremly decimated in numbers, formed only one regiment, the Tanith First-and-Only.

One of the survivors was Oan Mkoll. Due to his outstanding and well-known talent as a Scout, as well as his skills as a leader, Ibram Gaunt decided on Mkoll to lead the seperate Scout-Unit of the Tanith First-and-Only as its Seargeant.

Leader of the Scouts
"Form a seperate Scout-unit and let him take the lead. You will love what he does. He is like... I don´t know. He is a wizard."

- Gol Kolea at Mkoll return

Mkoll started to excell in his knew role quickly, proving, that the new and strange challenges he faced as a guardsman could be met with the same skill and efficiency he was known for on Tanith. He organized his Scouts quickly and became one of the most important reasons for the regiments extrodinary history of unexpected victory. This way he also played a great role in earning the regiment the name "Gaunts Ghosts", partly because they had no home or history anymore, therefore were "ghosts", but also because they, especially Mkolls Scouts, seemed to move invisible on the battlefield just like ghosts.

Since it is said, that every man in the Tanith First-and-Only is just as talented as a scout as any specialist of other regiments, this makes the Scouts of Tanith literally the Best of the Best. And Mkoll is probably the best of them. Just as on Tanith he and Mkvenner stayed close friends with Mkvenner inofficially taking the role of a second commander. Often Mkoll chose him to lead a mission or take on solo operations, that would be challenging even for Mkoll.

Soon Mkoll was faced with a new challenge: After the battle of Vervunhive the regiment was filled with volunteers of this world, both civilians and experienced soldiers. And although the Verghastites were more known to develop skilled snipers, the other speciality of the First-and-Only, Mkoll still had a great amount of new recruits for his scouting company.

Mkoll soon grew into one of the closest friends of Colonel-Comissar Gaunt, who was wise enough to always listen to the Scouts advices and trusting in its talents. Because of this, Gaunt chose him to accompany him as part of a strike force on the chaos-controlled world Gereon in a top secret assassination-mission. This mission, and the time afterwards, when the strike force, unable to leave the planet, decided to continue building up the resistance. On this planet Mkoll, as well as the other members of the team, learned many new things, Mkoll later often put to good use. He learned the language spoken by the human forces of Chaos and he and Mkvenner, who also was part of the strike force, traded techniques with the native Nithganes, who lived in extremly deadly jungles and had developed stealth and scouting techniques equal to the two Guardsmen.

After a long time they finally were able to leave, but Mkvenner, together with Ana Curth, decided to stay, Mkoll found a new rival, the Nithgane '''Eszrah ap Niht. They became close friends, and Eszrah ap Niht, '''just as impressed by Mkoll as it was the other way around, named Mkoll "Spuk", which translates into "Ghost".

The same problem, that accured with the Verghastites, happened after his return: He had to discover that the regiment was fused with another regiment, the Belladons. However, after beeing called into service as Scout Seargeant once again, he was able to integrate those new troops as well, especially since the Belladons also were a light-infantary-scouting regiment, which allowed Mkoll to built on their already impressive skills to put them on equal footing with the native Taniths and the Verghastites.

Since then Mkoll continues to serve as the prime example of the combat doctrine of the First and only, as well as one of their most talented and experienced veterans. He also is one of Colonel-Comissar Gaunts closest friends and Gaunt is known to never refuse one of Mkolls hints and advises.

For a full overview on the campaigns with Mkoll look here.

Skills and Sucesses
""In basic training and as a hunter [...] he was presumed to be a good tracker. That was the reason, he was placed in the scouting unit [...]. And this old bastard gives him the feeling of beeing an idiot, a clumsy idiot.""

- Scout Dewr, thinking over Mkoll

Beeing an Imperial Guardsman Mkoll continued to deliver uncomparable results. He is an expert in close combat with his silver knife, the Straight Silver, which all members of his regiment carry. He can move unseen nearly anywhere and kill without beeing noticed. He is known for always finding the right path and alwaysbe able to safely lead the regiment to any location he already scouted. The few times, when Mkoll can´t find something, are usually in some way connected to sorcery.

Wargear
Beeing a Scout of the Tanith First-and-Only, Mkoll carries their standard equipment. This means, like nearly all men of his regiment, he makes use of a Mark 3 Lasgun, with a shaft made out of Nalwood directly from Tanith, as well as his Straight Silver, the silver dagger used by the First-and-Only. Finally, his camo-cloak helps him to move around unseen. He also sometimes carries explosives for saboteur-operations, but that is by no means standard.

Kills
"You are a hero" "How is that?" "A damn Cybot. You killed a Cybot, Mkoll." "We will inform the Comissar that the area is cleansed. Understood? I dont want any foolish fame."

- Mkoll and Scout Waed

One of the most secure ways to judge Mkolls ability is his kill-count, since he both took part in as well as activly killing some of the greatest dangers of the galaxy and is one of the reasons, why it is said, that some of the First-and-Only could best an Astartes.
 * Chaos Dreadnought: While on the world of Ramiles 268-43 Mkoll and his Scouts encountered a blinded, but enraged Chaos Dreadnought. Since a Lasgun could not hope to kill such a foe, Mkoll instead relied his cunning to attack the Dreadnought using both the enviroment and his skills to emerge victorious. However, he refused to tell anyone about it and commanded his companion, the Scout Waen, to do the same.
 * Mandrake Skarwael: On the world of Herodor, after Saint Sabbat seemed to be reborn, the forces of Chaos under the leadership of Magister Enok Innokenti of the Blood Pact try to turn this setback into a victory by assassinating her. One of these nine assassins was a hired Dark Eldar Mandrake known as Skarwael. After the coming of these attackers was revealed, Mkoll goes on the hunt to find and kill them. He manages to track down the Mandrake, but the Mandrake already felt him approaching. In a duel of stealth the Dark Eldar is tricked and killed by Mkoll with a well-placed shot.
 * Sagittar Slaith: On the world of Phantine a small strike force of the First-and-Only was deployed via Grav-Chute to assassinate the enemy leader, Etrogaur Sagittar Slaith. Since the Etrogaur protected himself from the Snipers of the First-and-Only with a powerfull force-field-generator, the operation  seemed failed. However Mkoll, who he was presumed dead after the crash of his plane,  survived and made his way through the enemy city, even into Slaiths personla quarters, where the Etrogaur has fled after the assasination attempt. Mkoll detonated a small charge of explosives right beside Slaith, eliminating the target, while he only barely survived.
 * Blood-Pact Damogaur: On the world of Jago Mkoll was faced with a most desperate situation. Not only did the First-and-Only seem to make its last stand, Colonel-Comissar Gaunt also seemed lost. Together with Eszrah ap Niht, sworn protector of Gaunt, he made his daeda waeg: A tradition of Eszrah´s people, after failing in his duty to protect Gaunt needed to destroy all enemies, that were responsible for this, or die trying. Killing a Damogaur, a high-ranking member of the Blood Pact, Mkoll saved Eszrah and found Gaunt, horribly tortured but alive.

Personality
Mkoll has a character fitting to his job. He is tough, has great exspecations both from his Scouts and himself and is always calm and introverted. However, he cares deeply for his comrades and friends He would always throw away his life for those he was entrusted with .He for example faced a Chaos Cybot, just because retreating would mean to search for the beast later, which most likely would result in losses for the regiment.

In general, the responsibility to always lead the regiment safely through dangerous lands is pressuring him constantly. If he is ever without a clue, if his skills seem to fail, he feels guilty and a burning self-hatred starts to grow. This results in a great fear of failing. As his Colonel Gaunt seemed to be dead, he could feel the same pain as Eszrah ap Niht, who was sworn to protect Gaunt at any costs and believed he has failed his quest. This way, Mkoll had a deep understanding for Eszrah and his daeda waeg: He accompanied the Nihtghane to kill any Blood Pact soldier on Jago or die trying, since those were responsible for Gaunts "demise". If they would not have found Gaunt, they propably would have reached the end of this special path, one way or another.