Felifious Bander
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Felifious Bander |
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Felifious Bander (b. 30?? - d. 303?) was the former chief tech of the 12th Star Guards mercenary unit and president and CEO of Bander BattleMechs.[1] [2]
Biography
Bander served as chief tech of the Twelfth Star Guard for many years, attracting a considerable reputation for his knowledge and skills amoung mercenary community. After his unit was destroyed during the Clan Invasion, Bander's first hand experience with the invaders made him realise that fighting the Clans with 3025-era technology was an impossible task. To this end he chose to change carieers, 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.[1] [2]
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 first hand 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 compatitable 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 never the less.[1] [2]
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 mitigated this, Felifious unsuccessfully shopped around his design to major manufacturers, before he turned 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 heavy 'Mech that even a 'Mech Garage outfit like Bander BattleMechs could build ideal to that expansion.[1] [2]
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.[2]