Bounty Hunter

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File:Bounty Hunter.jpg

Bounty Hunter

The Bounty Hunter is a mysterious figure who first appeared in the late 2900s. He (or she) always appeared to wear a fairly uncommon, and often thought to be an experimental, PA(L) (Power Armor - Light) suit. Its design, while heavily modified, was based off of the five Great Houses' special operations groups (SOG) suits whose designs were available only in limited numbers or thought to be LosTech to the majority of the military and mercenary units. The idea was that the suit obscured the wearer's identity enough to allow this mysterious figure to take on contracts of well known notorious criminals, who were more often than not, brought back dead!

General Description

Always a MechWarrior, the Bounty Hunter piloted a variety of BattleMechs painted a bright green with currency symbols on it, a feared sight on the battlefield. The unidentified mystery figure is typically at the head of a BattleMech lance, often in a highly modified personal 'Mech. This allows for his PA(L) armor to be worn while piloting to further conceal his identity.

His signature 'Mech of choice between 3014 and the Clan Invasion was a Marauder which was originally Natasha Kerensky's. (Conversely, her signature Warhammer is sometimes said to be the Bounty Hunter's original 'Mech, but there is no evidence to support this claim, nor even that the Bounty Hunter ever actually piloted a Warhammer.) The Bounty Hunter later piloted a Mad Cat and even a Marauder II. Immediately prior to stealing Kerensky's original Marauder, he piloted a Griffin.

The Bounty Hunter had been active for close to a century, leading to speculation that the PA(L) suit, the modified 'Mechs that he piloted, and even the mysterious mythos surrounding the individual were passed from person to person via the death or retirement of the former MechWarrior whose personified him. Known people to have been the Bounty Hunter were Michi Noketsuna and Vic Travers, who inherited the equipment, as well as an ancient book referred to as "the tradition". Travers eventually passed the legacy on to one of his aides going by the name of Walt Urizeman, though that name is held to be just one of the man's several fake identities.

The "Bounty Hunter" legend was the topic of a hero team-style tri-vid show called "The Bounty Hunters". Though tapping into the Bounty Hunter's reputation, the producers instead developed their own mythos almost completely unrelated to the real person. The popularity of the series was such that many people in the Inner Sphere cannot separate the fiction of the holovid from the reality of the true Bounty Hunter.

History

Because the "Bounty Hunter" is an identity rather than a single individual, the history surrounding it is complicated.

Marik Civil War

In June of 3014 the Bounty Hunter operated alongside Wolf's Dragoons on Nova Roma. During a mop-up operation following the conquest of the planet he signaled to Natasha Kerensky (then a regular Lieutenant with the Dragoons) that a certain ravine he had inspected was safe. When Kerensky's lance entered, it was ambushed and destroyed by enemy forces and Kerensky had to eject. The remains of her unit—including her own Marauder—were salvaged by the Bounty Hunter who went on to use her 'Mech as his new signature 'Mech. This began a long and bitter personal feud between the Black Widow and the Bounty Hunter. They clashed again on Le Blanc at some point between 3023 and 3027.

Benet III

In 3027, the Bounty Hunter got a contract on Kerensky but was double-crossed, stranding his unit (his Marauder, an Orion, a Quickdraw and a Shadow Hawk) on Benet III. Kerensky's unit was equally stranded on the same planet when promised reinforcements failed to arrive. Under the circumstances, she agreed to join forces with the Bounty Hunter: He would arrange for the Beaux Pawl tracking station to be incapacitated so that Kerensky's DropShip could leave the planet, and Wolf's Dragoons were to provide him with transport out of the system in return.

This was the last time that this particular Bounty Hunter (Natasha Kerensky's nemesis) made an appearance. The identity was subsequently taken by Michi Noketsuna in his quest for vengeance against Warlord Grieg Samsonov for the betrayal of Minobu Tetsuhara and Wolf's Dragoons, a quest that fell squarely in the Dragoons' agenda after the battle on Misery and the Fourth Succession War and that was undertaken with the Dragoons' blessing from mid-3028 onwards. It remains unknown when or how exactly Noketsuna became the Bounty Hunter.

Noketsuna's Vendetta

Accompanied by Vic Travers (piloting an Orion), Dechan Fraser (piloting a Shadow Hawk), and Jenette Rand (piloting a Dervish), Noketsuna embarked on his vendetta under the Bounty Hunter identity. On 10 January 3010 he and Fraser delivered Samsonov's severed head to Tomiko Tetsuhara, who however refused the gift and suggested her late husband's father might appreciate it (though as it turned out, Minoru Tetsuhara did not approve of Noketsuna's vendetta either).

On 8 October 3030, they ambushed agent Panati (whom Noketsuna held responsible for the bombing on Barlow's End that had maimed Minobu Tetsuhara) in the city of Deber on Benjamin. Incidentally, they captured Theodore Kurita in the process. Kurita accepted Noketsuna's claim for vendetta and allowed him to kill Panati, recruiting Noketsuna to help protect the Draconis Combine from the nascent Federated Commonwealth in the process. On that night, Noketsuna turned over the Bounty Hunter tradition, 'Mech, armor and kill log to his lancemate Vic Travers, while Rand and Fraser decided to follow him into service for the Draconis Combine.

After Noketsuna

During Vic Travers tenure the Bounty Hunter apparently actively engaged in eliminating his competition. Though in one instance he would "buy off" the Cursorial Hunt bounty hunting group in 3044, making a payment in public wearing his full armor, many others suffered violent ends such as the fate of the Meticulous Pursuit mercenary team. In 3034, the Bounty Hunter reportedly hunted down and killed freelance MechWarrior/bounty hunter Dale Sandstrom over a competition for a contract. In 3047 Isabella "the Hyena" Cygnus, who had taken to advertising herself as the "new Bounty Hunter", was executed by Travers in rather public and brutal fashion for stealing his "shtick".

In 3045 the Bounty Hunter brazenly landed on the Draconis Combine world of Marduk in pursuit of Tai-i Rej Mori of the defending Sixth Benjamin Regulars. Expertly timed and grounding less than a kilometer from a Sixth company led by Mori engaged in a training exercise, the Bounty Hunter demanded his surrender only for Mori to show his true colors and flee. Unfortunately he ran into the waiting clutches of "Sheridan's Ghost", Mori unable to land a shot on the nimble Wasp which eventually destroyed his Dragons rear armor and gyro, blending back into the forest as the rest of the Bounty Hunter's team defeated Mori's company and picked up the war criminal for transport to the Federated Commonwealth.

FedCom Civil War

Sometime during the fighting on Kathil during the FedCom Civil War, the Bounty Hunter recruited an infamous MechWarrior named Rebekah into his team, a former warrior with McCarron's Armored Cavalry.

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Bounty Hunter during the Jihad

Vic Travers remained the Bounty Hunter until (at least) May 3067 where he undertook a successful and highly lucrative mission on Solaris VII that he considered to be possibly his last mission, intending to hand the legacy over to "Walt Urizeman" (whose real name remains unknown; Walt Urizeman is just one of several aliases the man used), who Travers had been grooming as his successor for some time.

Jihad

In late 3067 the Bounty Hunter rescued or possibly kidnapped Kai Allard-Liao, possibly in service to Duke George Hasek of the Federated Suns just prior to the Duke's assault against the Capellan Confederation. Allard-Liao was later "rescued" by the Death Commandos during the Capellan counterattack.

By 3072 "Walt Urizeman" had taken over after Vic Travers. In the employ of Chandrasekhar Kurita, he tracked down Victoria Parrdeau on Dalton to obtain her journal, and tangled with Specter Precentor Sigma Berith over its possession.

Still in Chandrasekhar Kurita's employ, the Bounty Hunter was present on Arcturus for Operation Higashikuni, and instrumental in saving his employer from the Word of Blake attack in 3073.

Dark Age

During October/November 3133] the Bounty Hunter landed on Irian when he engaged the Clan Leaders of the Spirit Cats and Steel Wolf forces leading the assault against the Dragon's Fury and defeated them both and made them left. It cannot be confirmed for whom he was working at that time, but the appearance of Bannson's Raiders quickly after that and their siege of the IrTech installations points to Jacob Bannson.

The bounty Hunter continued in active duty during the Dark Age. His incarnation was a man named Michi Fraser. In some date prior to these date, it was discovered and murdered. Even his killer cannot discover if that was his real name or only an alias, but the later option is the most possible, as he wears the name of Michi Noketsuna, one of his precursors, and the family name of one of his friends and partners. The killer took the name and identity, becoming maybe the most infamous bounty hunters. Really, was very talented: a first class mechwarrior, lethal with any weapon, and even with their bare hands, excellent cook, master hacker... his name is Jonathan, and took Bounty Hunter's identity as part of a plot of his brother, Marcus, one of the richest persons in the Inner Sphere, to approach to Katana Tormark and kill her. The most important characteristic of this last incarnation of the Bounty Hunter is than he isn't a honorable, or a real mercenary more or less honorable, no: is a real psychopath, a cold blood killer than enjoys torturing and killing, specially women, just for fun. With the identity of the Bounty Hunter, quickly murders eight persons, including 3 ISF agents, decapitating the last and sending the head to ISF leader, Ramadeep Bhatia. With the bounty hunter armour, Jonathan easily infiltrates in Dragon's Fury's headquarters, in Proserpina, and confronts Katana in their bedroom... but, in place of kill her, he warns her about the inminent Republic invasion of warlord Sakamoto, who is searching for her group to destroy it, and leaves. With his mech, Jonathan fights along Dragon's Fury in the battle of Ancha, downing 3 fighters... but in reality only fighted to win the trust of Katana's people and murder the girlfriend of her, Antonia Chinn. But he can't do it: a kuritan fighter make it before. Crawford, his superior in the group, enraged by the casualty, orders hem to murder Sakamoto, and Jonathan leaves. After infiltrate in the Combine as a wounded aerospace pilot, ends as Sakamoto's personal new cook, poisoning easily, and when the warlord makes a battle jump in planet Saffel, it falls to the sea, dying. The hunter also fights in the battle for Saffel, at the commands of a Panther battlemech, after killing and replacing his kuritan pilot. When Marcus accused his brother to have fall in love with Katana, Jonathan, furious, kill his brother in cold blood.

Battlemechs

The Bounty Hunter usually used heavy mechs. His first mech known was a Marauder captured to the black Widow, after ambush her. He losed it during clan invasion, replacing it by a Mad Cat. Later, he used a biggest Maraduder II, personalized with a rifle Gauss replacing of his automatic cannon. He still has this mech in 3134, using in Ancha's battle, downing 3 kuritan aerospace fighters, and leaving it behind during his mission to murder warlord Sakamoto. In this mission, he takes a kuritan's Panther, after killing their pilot, participating in the battle of Saffel. Almost certainly, later returned to reclaim his mech.

Bounty Hunter Gallery

• BountyHunterPA.JPG

  The Bounty Hunter in his Power Armor

• BountyHunterMarauder.JPG

  The Bounty Hunter beside his custom Marauder II

Bibliography

• A Guy Walks Into a Bar on Solaris VII...
• Historical: Brush Wars
• Heir to the Dragon
• Historical: War of 3039
• Interstellar Players
• Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents
• Tales of the Black Widow Company
• Technical Readout: 3039
• Technical Readout: 3055 Upgrade
• Turning Points: Arcturus
• Wolf's Dragoons
• Wolves on the Border