Felifious Bander

Felifious Bander
Character Profile
Affiliation House Bander
Position CEO of Bander BattleMechs
Profession Technician
Children Tim Bander[1]


Felifious Bander was the former chief tech of the Twelfth Star Guards mercenary unit and president and CEO of Bander BattleMechs.[2][3]

History[edit]

Bander served as chief tech of the Twelfth Star Guard for many years, attracting a considerable reputation for his knowledge and skills among mercenary community. After his unit was destroyed during the Clan Invasion, Bander's firsthand experience with the invaders made him realize that fighting the Clans with 3025-era technology was an impossible task. To this end he chose to change careers, using his reputation to recruit fellow former mercenary techs orphaned like he had been by the destruction of their units during the invasion to form Bander BattleMechs, a BattleMech refit shop dedicated to offering mercenaries the recovered weaponry and equipment they needed at a price they could afford.[2][3]

While his new firm quickly secured a reputation for quality and affordability, Felifious however was not content with merely performing refits and began design of an original new BattleMech. Using his firsthand experience against the invaders and armed with the refits most often requested by his clients, Bander based his design upon the 'Mech he considered most distinctive, the popular Marauder, to both invoke a similar style and ensure a large supply of compatible parts. Dubbing his new design the Bandersnatch, the new 'Mech's only technical flaw was that the rear facing medium lasers unexpectedly melted their heat jackets during their first test firing. Unable to determine why, Felifious opted to raise the lasers up by a meter which appeared to resolve the issue, though techs are warned to watch the heat jackets nevertheless.[2][3]

While rightly proud of the Bandersnatch, the limited nature of Bander BattleMechs' production facilities meant each one was painstakingly assembled by hand over a period of up to ten months. Seeking to mitigate this, Felifious unsuccessfully shopped around his design to major manufacturers before turning to Kressly Warworks on Epsilon Eridani. Very receptive to Bander's offer, Kressly was a fellow Chaos March–based manufacturer of the low-cost Lineholder seeking to expand its range of products, with the idea of a heavy 'Mech that even a 'Mech garage outfit like Bander BattleMechs could build proving ideal for that expansion.[2][3]

After securing the new partnership with Kressly, Felifious Bander turned to reducing the cost of the Bandersnatch, developing the light fusion engine-powered BNDR-01B variant.[3]

During the early years of the Jihad Felifious Bander and his company supported the Word of Blake and its rule over Terra Firma, viewing them as a welcome source of stability and receiving an income boost from 'Mech sales to the Blakists. This led to a break with his son Tim, however, as the younger Bander learned of the atrocities the Word was visiting upon the Inner Sphere and defied his father to join the anti-Blakist resistance.[1]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 19, p. 6
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Technical Readout: 3055, p. 66: "BNDR-01A Bandersnatch"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Technical Readout: 3055 Upgrade, p. 60: "BNDR-01A Bandersnatch"

Bibliography[edit]