During the Galactic Civil War, Maren Kelsome, a male Human soldier fought for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. His first assignment as a young man was as a scout on the icy planet Akuria II, tasked with eliminating the remaining Imperial troops from a destroyed garrison following the Mission to Akuria II, which occurred just weeks after the Battle of Yavin. His performance was satisfactory, successfully removing the remaining Imperials and enabling the native Akurians to reclaim their homeworld. Due to his effectiveness, Colonel Odan, the Rebel commander on Akuria II, promoted Kelsome from private to corporal.
Later, Kelsome responded to a request for soldiers skilled in arctic survival to defend the Alliance's Echo Base located on the frozen planet Hoth. There, under Colonel Ledick Firest's command, he became accustomed to a more structured military environment, a significant contrast to the informal group under Odan on Akuria II. During the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, Kelsome served as Echo Base's forward scout at Outpost Beta, also known as Point Rider Five, positioned on the base's defensive perimeter. He gained notoriety for being the first to report the approaching Imperial All Terrain Armored Transports from Hoth's North Ridge. However, he and his tauntaun were tragically crushed to death under the foot of an AT-AT after misjudging the walkers' speed.
Maren Kelsome's initial assignment within the Alliance to Restore the Republic involved serving as a scout on the icy world of Akuria II under the leadership of Colonel Odan. Kelsome's duty was to eliminate any remaining Imperial troops from a destroyed garrison that Odan's forces, with the assistance of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa, had previously eliminated during a battle shortly after the Battle of Yavin. Kelsome carried out his duties effectively, removing the Imperial presence and facilitating the return of the native Akurians to their homeworld. Odan recognized Kelsome's efforts by promoting him from private to corporal.
When a call for soldiers with arctic survival skills to protect the Alliance's new Echo Base reached Odan, Kelsome volunteered and was subsequently transferred to the ice planet Hoth. At Echo Base, Kelsome served under Colonel Ledick Firest, who instructed him in formal military procedures, which he found to be a significant departure from Odan's informal group on Akuria II. Kelsome was assigned to routine scouting patrols around Echo Base's outer perimeter.
As the Battle of Hoth began in 3 ABY, Kelsome was among the many soldiers thrust into combat for the first time. He served as the Alliance's forward scout at Outpost Beta, the most distant manned station on the base's perimeter, identified as Point Rider Five. When the Empire arrived in the Hoth system, Kelsome and the other advance outposts were informed, instructed to observe and relay any information on the Imperial invasion force, and then retreat to avoid being overrun.
Kelsome was the first to report the presence of Imperial All Terrain Armored Transports two kilometers from Hoth's North Ridge, although he was unfamiliar with the giant machines. After sending an initial sensor report to Echo Station 3-T-8, he nervously described the physical characteristics of the heavily armored walkers via comlink directly to General Carlist Rieekan in the Echo Base command center. Rieekan recognized Kelsome's description as the formidable AT-AT walker, and after Kelsome warned that the walkers would be in firing range of the perimeter within a minute, Rieekan ordered him and his men to evacuate immediately.
However, Kelsome underestimated the deceptive speed of the AT-AT while retreating to the base. After issuing a final warning about the AT-AT advance to the Echo Base defenses amidst the whine of servomotors, laser cannon fire, and the terrified screams of his tauntaun, Kelsome and his mount were crushed to death under the foot of one of the walkers before the Alliance could fire a single shot.
Maren Kelsome's arctic survival skills made him suitable for transfer from Akuria II to Hoth to serve at Echo Base. Under Ledick Firest's guidance, Kelsome found stringent military protocol to be very different from the relaxed group led by Odan on Akuria II.
Kelsome was unfamiliar with the AT-AT walker, failing to recognize the massive machine when reporting the first sighting of the approaching Imperial force to Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth. The immense size of the war machine frightened the young Kelsome, and his nervousness was apparent during his comlink conversation with Carlist Rieekan. His lack of familiarity with the AT-AT led to his demise, as he failed to appreciate the walker's speed and was subsequently trampled. During his scout service on Hoth, Kelsome was trained in tauntaun riding, demolitions, and artillery use.
Kelsome's equipment consisted of a blaster rifle, grenades, a comlink, and macrobinoculars.
A "Corporal Kelsome" character first appeared in the 1989 West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back to provide a profile of a standard Echo Base soldier for roleplaying purposes. The Kelsome character was given a detailed backstory in the 1996 second edition of Galaxy Guide 3, as part of a major expansion on the first edition sourcebook by Pablo Hidalgo, which also provided a full name for the character, "Maren Kelsome." The second edition of Galaxy Guide 3 tied Kelsome with a tauntaun rider appearing in early versions of The Empire Strikes Back script, who first encounters the AT-AT walkers during the opening stages of the Battle of Hoth. This tauntaun rider, before being identified as Kelsome, first appeared in the 1980 Marvel comic adaptation of the film, Star Wars (1977) 40, and also appears with several lines in the 1983 radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, identified only as "Outpost Beta." With the merging of these two characters, the second edition of Galaxy Guide 3 was the first source to confirm Kelsome's death in the battle.
Kelsome's biographical entry in the second edition of Galaxy Guide 3 also links him to the Marvel serial comic The Kingdom of Ice, released from July 1978 to January 1979. Specific references in the entry, including the planet Akuria II, the native Akurians, the character Colonel Odan, and a mention of the Imperial garrison defeated during the Mission to Akuria II, all originated in the Marvel comic.
The "tauntaun rider" character destined to become Kelsome was first illustrated by conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie during the development stages of The Empire Strikes Back. Originally, the rider was intended to be Luke Skywalker, who, in the conceptualized scene, rides his tauntaun up a ravine only to be surprised by the presence of Imperial walkers and then must flee for his life.
Maren Kelsome should not be confused with the character of Trey Callum, who appears in the film as the trench officer who confirms the presence of AT-ATs approaching Echo Base. Callum is the third link in a chain of comlink calls, originating with Kelsome and passing through Echo Station 3-T-8, that reports the presence of AT-ATs to the base.
The 1990 West End Games The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook and the sourcebook's 1994 second edition include an introductory narrative in "Chapter Six: Ground Combat" detailing how "the advance scout on Echo Base's North Ridge [who was] the first to see the walkers" goes on to save the life of a downed snowspeeder pilot once the last AT-AT has passed his position. The scout single-handedly neutralizes a squad of snowtroopers before carrying the pilot to safety on his tauntaun. This description is a clear reference to the "tauntaun rider" who was later identified as Maren Kelsome. However, with the advent of Kelsome's death early in the battle as established by Galaxy Guide 3 in 1996, any connection between this character in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook and Kelsome provides a stark continuity inconsistency, since Kelsome is long dead by this point.
In The Empire Strikes Back radio drama and the radio drama script, published in The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization, Carlist Rieekan addresses Kelsome as a lieutenant. The first edition Galaxy Guide 3 later identified Kelsome as being a corporal during the Battle of Hoth.
Kelsome's report of the AT-ATs in the radio drama script describes the walkers as "twenty, twenty-five meters high," whereas in the actual radio drama, the Kelsome character describes the walkers as "ten, fifteen meters high." This height differential mirrors a persistent canonical discrepancy across sources concerning the actual height of the AT-AT walkers. To date, many sources, including West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplements and sourcebooks such as Star Wars: Complete Cross-Sections, identify the AT-AT at 15.5 meters, while others, including Star Wars: Complete Locations, put the AT-AT at 22.5 meters.