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, typically leading a BattleMech lance. His 'Mechs were invariably painted a bright green with currency symbols on it, a feared sight on the battlefield, and often custom-modified, allowing for his or her PA(L) armor to be worn while piloting to further conceal the pilot's identity.

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

The "Bounty Hunter" is an identity rather than a single individual, which is often suspected but not generally known for a fact within the BattleTech universe.

The actual origin of the Bounty Hunter persona is unknown.

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 which he had inspected was safe. When Kerensky's lance entered, they were ambushed and destroyed by enemy forces and Kerensky had to eject. The remains of her unit–namely her 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 Kerensky 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, possibly the same one that had been with the Bounty Hunter on Benet III), 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 3030 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 log to his lancemate Vic Travers, while Rand and Fraser decided to follow Theodore Kurita into service for the Draconis Combine.

After Noketsuna

During Vic Travers's 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 was 1unable to land a shot on the nimble Wasp which eventually destroyed his Dragon's 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.

File:Bounty Hunter JS.jpg

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). Travers had already been grooming Urizeman 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 and quickly engaged the Clan Leaders of the Spirit Cats and Steel Wolf forces that were leading the assault against the Dragon's Fury, defeating them both. After that fight both Clan forces left the planet. It cannot be confirmed for whom he was working at that time. Both Bannson's Raiders, who appeared quickly afterwards and laid siege of the IrTech installations, and Katana Tormark whose opposition was thus taken out but who might not have expected Bannson's Raiders to show up are possible candidates.

The Bounty Hunter continued in active duty throughout the Dark Age. His incarnation was a man named Michi Fraser at one point, who was discovered and murdered. However, even his killer could not discover if Michi Fraser was his real name or only an alias, though the latter option seems more likely. The killer took the name and identity, becoming maybe the most infamous Bounty Hunter incarnation. Named Jonathan, he took the Bounty Hunter's identity as part of a plot by his brother Marcus, one of the richest persons in the Inner Sphere, to approach to Katana Tormark and kill her. Jonathan was a talented MechWarrior and fighter, lethal with any weapon and even his bare hands, and excellent cook, and a master hacker. The most important characteristic of this Bounty Hunter incarnation is than he was a psychopath and cold blooded killer who enjoyed torturing and killing, specially women, just for fun. He quickly murdered eight people, including three ISF agents, decapitating the last and sending the head to ISF director Ramadeep Bhatia.

Wearing the Bounty Hunter armour, Jonathan infiltrated the Dragon's Fury headquarters on Proserpina but did not kill Katana Tormark but warned her about the inminent Republic invasion by Warlord Sakamoto in search for her group to destroy it, and leaves.

Jonathan fought along the Dragon's Fury in the battle of Ancha, downing three fighters, though he actually only fought to win the trust of Katana's people and murder her partner, Antonia Chinn. However, she is killed in battle before he can kill her. Crawford, his superior in the group, enraged by the casualty, orders the Bounty Hunter to hit Warlord Sakamoto, and Jonathan leaves. After infiltrating in the Draconis Combine as a wounded aerospace pilot, he managed to become Sakamoto's personal new cook.

The Warlord would die in a combat drop on Saffel. The Bounty Hunter fought in the same battle on Saffel, at the controls of a Panther BattleMech after killing and replacing his original pilot.

When Marcus accused his brother to have fallen in love with Katana Tormark, Jonathan responded by killing his brother.

Battlemechs

Immediately prior to stealing Natasha Kerensky's original Marauder in 3014, the Bounty Hunter piloted a Griffin.

Kerensky's Marauder subsequently became the Bounty Hunter's signature 'Mech of choice between 3014 and the Clan Invasion. (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 by the time of the Jihad had switched to a Marauder II. He felt that the Mad Cat had been too expensive to maintain.

The Marauder II is still used by the Bounty Hunter as of 3134, where he piloted it in the Ancha battle and then left it behind during his mission to murder Warlord Sakamoto. Over the course of this mission, he took a Panther to assume the identity of its former pilot; this 'Mech was thus not painted in the usual fashion. It is implied that the Bounty Hunter intended to reclaim his Marauder II after the mission.

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