Battletech - Dossiers - Bounty Hunter.pdf

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Jihad Plot SuPPlement
Dossiers
The BounTy hunTer
TO: Precentor-Martial Victor Steiner-Davion
FROM: Precentor Hanna Aedalus
DATE: 11 July 3068
SUBJECT: The Bounty Hunter
Precentor,
Attached is the report you requested concerning the Bounty Hunter. We have
collated the material from a wide variety of sources, including some of the
diminishing contacts we retain with other intelligence agencies.
As you know, the Bounty Hunter is more than a lone mercenary, but a warrior
who relies on a network of talented associates, the extent of which is not fully
understood. While every indication we have establishes that the exact composition
of the Hunter’s combat retinue varies between assignments, we feel confident that
the attached dossiers identify those individuals who most likely made up his party
at the time of Duke Kai Allard-Liao’s abduction on St. Ives.
Once more, I feel that I must reiterate that we have actually been unable to
confirm the Bounty Hunter’s involvement in the aforementioned event. It remains my
considered opinion that—given recent events—the attack may have been perpetrated by
the Death Commandos, the Maskirovka, or even the MIIO under the Hunter’s colors. I
would not even rule out the chance that other bounty hunters were involved, although
we have few obvious candidates who have previously demonstrated the competencies
necessary to infiltrate, capture and extract an unwilling Kai Allard-Liao.
Project development:
Herbert A. Beas II
Battletech Line developer:
Herbert A. Beas II
Writing:
Mike Miller, Paul Sjardijn
Product editing:
Herbert A. Beas II
Production staff
Art Direction:
Brent Evans
Cover Design and Layout:
Ray Arrastia
Original Illustrations:
Ray Arrastia
Miniatures Painting & Photography:
Ray Arrastia
Credits
Unit design and record sheets:
Ray Arrastia, Joel Bancroft-Connors, Johannes Heidler
Factchecking/Playtesting:
Joshua Franklin, Keith Hann, Chris Wheeler.
special thanks:
To Brent Evans for starting and pushing the concept. To Herb Beas for
putting together a mighty fine RPG. To Iron Wind Metals for giving us such wonderful
toys to play with.
©2012 The Topps Company Inc. All Rights Reserved. BattleTech Dossiers: The Bounty Hunter,
Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, BattleMech, and ’Mech are registered trademarks and/or
trademarks of The Topps Company Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Catalyst
Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.
STAR LEAGUE ERA
CLAN INVASION ERA
JIHAD ERA
®
SUCCESSION WARS ERA
CIVIL WAR ERA
DARK AGE ERA
1
Dossiers
Dossiers: The Bounty Hunter
provides players with
the character sheets of a small independent lance of
MechWarriors, as well as record sheets for their Battle-
Mechs. Along with the provided background material,
players can use the Bounty Hunter in their own campaign,
either as the opposition, allies, or as ready-for-use player characters.
The
Unit Profile
section includes a brief background on each of the
MechWarriors, as well as Design Quirk suggestions for use with the op-
tional Design Quirk rules as found in
Strategic Operations
pp. 193-199.
These Design Quirks are optional, and can affect the difficulty level of
the Missions.
The
Missions
section provides Tracks for a mini-campaign using the
Bounty Hunter, using rules found in
Chaos Campaign Rulebook
and
A
Time Of War.
The
Chaos Campaign Rulebook
can be found here, while
an abbreviated Quick Start version of
A Time of War
can be found here.
The
record sheets
section provides character sheets and record
sheets for the MechWarriors and their BattleMechs. To convert a char-
acter’s relevant Gunnery or Piloting Skill in
A Time of War
over to
Total
Warfare,
simply subtract the character’s Skill Level from the Skill’s Base
Target Number (TN) as listed in the Skills block of the Character Sheet.
For example, Chris Sante’s Piloting Skill Level of 5 in
A Time of War
would have a
Total Warfare
Piloting Skill Rating of 3; Base TN 8 – 5 = 3.
The BounTy hunTer
HoW to Use tHis PdF
If you enjoy using miniatures in your games, be sure to check out Iron
Wind Metals’ companion products:
The Bounty Hunter Lance Pack
and
The
Bounty Hunter Companions Lance Pack.
2
Dossiers
ensemble Hills
Perkasie, Federated suns
11 January 3068
The wind pushed the long strands of Halen’s grass
around, and the red leaves roiled like the sea under the
setting sun. Massive Lopez gazelles lazily moved out of the path of the
approaching metal giants, as if unaware of the deadly potential each
one possessed.
It was another beautiful day on Perkasie, the kind that encouraged
the locals to go for long walks in their skin-suits and filter masks—pre-
cautions that were always needed against the ever-present Karpov
spores. The spores were barely distinguishable from normal fibers, but
when inhaled they could cause lung fibrosis and pleural plagues. Ex-
posed human skin would develop tiny, calloused “warts” wherever the
spores penetrated. In the rare cases that the spores actually grew, the
visible effects were even worse.
Perkasie’s planetary economy did not benefit from tourism.
The Bounty Hunter watched as Calvin’s Cuirassiers ventured from their
base. Situated on one of the taller rises of the En-
semble Hills, the base was an ancient collection
of walls and buildings known only by their to-
tal lack of involvement in any battle, ever.
The aging Cuirassiers’ BattleMechs
were heading straight for a lance of
pirates that was assaulting the lo-
cal water purification plant. An
Ostroc
struggled with a nas-
ty—and, likely, very old—
limp, but its hindered
gait did not slow the
rest of its company, an-
chored as it was by sev-
eral heavies that could
not top sixty-four kph
unless they were thrown
from a DropShip.
“Looks like their
Cata-
pult
is still down with a
busted hip, huh, Calvin?
Too bad. Wonder what
happened to those ac-
tuators you ordered.”
Vic Travers spoke to no
one in particular. This both-
ered him. He knew himself well
enough to recognize it as a sign of
nervousness.
I have been in the business for for-
ty years. Longer than most. Longer than
any,
really.
The Cuirassiers passed his position without
showing any sign that they were aware that they
were marching right by a hundred-ton assault ’Mech.
Travers sighed. His hand hovered over the engine switch that would
bring his
Marauder II
up to full power.
Am I too old for this?
he pondered.
IndIrecT AcquIsITIon
One of his screens blinked with new text. “ARE YOU SURE?”
Walt had grown to know him
too
well. Travers had doubted himself
ever since taking on this last contract. The target had played to his ego;
it was one of the biggest fish he had ever sought out. In the MechWarrior
game, Kai Allard-Liao was the biggest of all. But maybe he had become
too old for this. Maybe he should have retired on the spot; let it be Walt’s
first contract.
But he knew he couldn’t.
In a way, Travers knew that this was what he had signed on for, un-
knowingly, at a fire with three friends on a far away world. It would be
perhaps a century or more before the light from Benjamin’s sun on that
day would reach this Feddie planet—and right now, he almost felt like
that day was indeed
that
long ago.
They had changed the Inner Sphere that night, though he did not un-
derstand it at the time.
And soon he would again. Or die trying.
Michi would approve,
he
thought.
And Oscar would, too.
But first he had to deal with the means to that end.
Travers slapped the switch down, activating his BattleMech without
responding to Walt’s missive. Indicators flashed
green, multi-ton weapon systems powered up,
and artificial muscles tensed, ready to pull
huge armor-clad limbs forward.
The short company that had passed
him stirred, suddenly aware that
what their sensors had taken
nearby boulder was somehow
now equipped with a fusion
engine and particle can-
nons. As the
Marauder
reared itself up, his reti-
cule showed gold on the
Ostroc,
and with a gentle
caress of the firing studs,
he speared the Cuirassier
’Mech with one hyper-
sonic metal slug and two
electric-blue
particle
beams. A combination
of experience, tech-
nology and raw talent
conspired against the
ancient
Ostroc’s
right
hip, and its leg separated
from the severely mangled
assembly. The heavy collapsed
in mid-turn.
Travers throttled forward, thunder-
ing towards the rest of the company. The
camouflage tarp had torn completely away
from his BattleMech, exposing a hide of strik-
ing green and trademark credit symbols—the
second component of his deadly message.
Travers keyed his comm. system to broadcast his words on all chan-
nels, and with icy intent issued the last element.
“I am the Bounty Hunter. I am here for your commander. Flee, and live.
Stand with him, and die.”
3
Dossiers
The following is not intended as a comprehen-
sive description of all the activities attributed to
the Bounty Hunter persona, either the current one,
or past ones.
Stories of an exemplary mercenary identifying him-
self as “The Bounty Hunter” date back until the 2920s, when
a masked warrior, piloting a green
Warhammer,
gained fame and fortune
by cashing in several bounties on notorious MechWarriors. His identify
was never confirmed, but he proved his mettle by defeating some of
the best warriors of his time, raking in the bounties that often followed
the Succession Wars’ most deadly combatants. Few of Hunter’s targets
survived their encounter with him. One unconfirmed, but prevalent,
story describes this individual delivering the bodies of the twenty-nine
suspects of a major bank heist on El Giza to authorities on Andurien. The
bounties on this band, exceptionally high for the times, suggested that
the contract may have originated from House Humphreys, and the first
Bounty Hunter purportedly retired immediately afterward.
In 2957, another masked individual (who some sources even suggest
may have been female) turned up in the Principality of Regulus wearing a
full Star League-era MechWarrior combat suit and piloting a green
Warham-
mer.
Claiming to be “The Bounty Hunter”, this warrior delivered the bodies of
a band of pirates who had been particularly successful at evading Principal-
ity authorities, while plaguing the local trade routes and industries.
Thus began what many now believe to be the Bounty Hunter’s legacy,
an apparently hereditary tradition that passes down the mask and the
mantle of the Hunter from one elite warrior to the next. The means of
this inheritance is not fully understood, but the legacy is not necessar-
ily based on familial ties. Some have claimed that its descent involves
the actual “sale” of the persona from the current Hunter to his subse-
quent heir, along with access to key contacts, resources, and a manu-
script known as “The Tradition”—a rumored document that contains
tradecraft knowledge for both bounty hunters and MechWarriors alike.
The amount of confirmed and unconfirmed incidents involving The
Bounty Hunter dramatically increase after 2957, making it difficult to keep
track of this warrior legacy. This may be intentional. While some of these
events are known to be examples of copycats attempting to cash in on the
Bounty Hunter’s reputation and anonymity, they only proved how the Hunt-
er’s reputation alone had grown so extremely marketable. One example of
this is the “Hunter’s Bounty”—a second, higher bounty that is paid should
the warrior who delivers the kill be confirmed as the
real
Bounty Hunter.
From what can be gleaned, the “second” Bounty Hunter generally
worked alone, taking contracts for several years across the Inner Sphere
and parts of the Periphery. His (or her) travels are not entirely random,
but heavily biased towards chasing some of the highest bounties of
the time. Frequently, this Hunter delivered his targets dead. During this
time, the Bounty Hunter also used a variety of BattleMechs, including a
Grasshopper,
a
Griffin,
and the aforementioned
Warhammer.
By the 2980s, the Hunter began to employ backup on an increasingly
frequent basis, typically when tracking the most fearsome (and most lu-
crative) bounties. Initially, this support was apparently ad hoc in nature,
possibly involving freelancers on one-off contracts or associations. By
the 2990s, this team grew substantially more static, with between four
and six compatriots active accompanying the Hunter, each using the
same four to six ’Mechs, and all using the same green paint scheme.
This change in operations led some to believe that this was, again, a
completely new Bounty Hunter. Indeed, at this time, the Hunter’s choice
of targets also shifted from those accused of some form of crime, to
merely those warriors whose bounties were particularly high. As heroes
hIsTory
and exceptional MechWarriors often attracted bounties from their ene-
mies among other nations, this caused many to begin reviling The Boun-
ty Hunter (who had once been seen as something of a folk hero), as a
mere profit-driven mercenary. This was amplified even further when this
Bounty Hunter began accepting contracts to take out prominent gen-
erals, scientists, engineers, businessmen and others who no longer—or
even
never—had
piloted a BattleMech. It was during this time that the
trademark green Bounty Hunter ’Mech began displaying credit symbols
as well, an act that further incensed his former admirers.
In one particularly notorious example, the Bounty Hunter was trav-
eling towards the Draconis Combine in 2998, to collect the bounty on
two AFFS generals he had killed on Markesan (with great loss of life to
all around them). While on Le Blanc, the Hunter contracted with a new
mercenary company to transport the slain generals—along with a cargo
of captured AFFS ’Mechs—into Combine space, reportedly promising to
broker a lucrative contract between the mercenaries and the DCMS in
turn. But as soon as the mercenaries successfully snuck the Hunter and
his retinue past the pursuing AFFS forces, the Hunter and his team killed
off the entire mercenary command, and absconded with their BattleM-
echs and their DropShip.
For the next twenty years, the Hunter seemed to make sport playing
Houses against each other, always raising the stakes as he took out no-
bles, officers, elite MechWarriors and planetary leaders with vicious glee,
before crossing borders between assignments. There are some who sug-
gest that this focus on playing upon the ambitions of the nobility indi-
cates yet another change in the Hunter’s legacy.
4

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