[hider=Jonathan McCord] [b]Character Name[/b]: Jonathan McCord [b]Callsign[/b]: [i]Hooker[/i] [b]Nicknames[/b]: Jon, Jonboy, Jay, J-Bone, Cord [hider=Jon] [img]https://cdn.anisearch.com/images/character/screen/61/61129/full/406153.webp[/img] [/hider] [b]Archetype[/b]: [i]Grizzled Veteran[/i] [b]Guiding Motto[/b]: “[i]Let God sort’em out[/i]” [b]Fatal Flaw[/b]: [i]Problem with authority[/i]- Jonathan has an innate disdain for governmental structures and particularly the social protocols that follow. He finds most people/systems that believe they rule over him to be worthy of contempt and mockery. [b]Expertise[/b]: [b]Survival[/b]- Jon is able to be self sufficient in most climates and survive on his own for prolonged periods of time. He grew up being outdoors and is comfortable with even the most minimal arrangements. [b]Tactics[/b]- Small unit tactics and understanding the lay of the land come very natural. If he’s given an objective to take or defend, his methods may not be entirely by the book, but will usually be swiftly effective. [b]Rifles[/b]- Gunnery is one of Jon’s favorite hobbies in general. He can calculate shots based on MOA or MRAD measurements, understands compesating for windage, bullet drop and coriolis effect. He can quickly zero in a rifle or set the convergence on a mech for whatever the scenario may require. [b]Nationality/ Allegiance[/b]: Taurian Concordat [b]Background[/b]: Hailing from New Vandenberg in the heart of the Concordat, the McCords are an old name on planet and trace roots to the uprising against the SLDF. Daily life and education were always accompanied by reminders of this lineage, but generally Jonathan and his younger brother grew up with a fairly common childhood. The family’s business was spread across the many interests of Jon’s father, Randolph, the most lucrative of which being a salvage operation, though also supported by a mass of farmland and a part-time hobby of running a mercenary/militia outfit that operated exclusively in Taurian space against pirates, mercenaries and the occasional probing forces of the neighboring great houses. [i]McCord’s Legion[/i] were a popular force in defensive contracts and was far and away Randolph’s favorite business “hobby”. In Jonathan’s younger years, he idolized his father and the seemingly mystical nature of the Legion, known as much for their antics as their effectiveness. Aside from the expected burdens of education, days were filled with being outdoors either on the farm driving agro-mechs, trucks, loaders- anything else he could get his hands on, going on long calls with his dad in one of their massive recovery vehicles or just hanging around the Legion. The violent history of New Vandenberg provided for plenty of work locally for excavated salvage, but offworld contracts were not out of the question. Being headquartered in one of the most hospitable climate zones on planet, not far from the protected avian preserve, meant the farm stayed busy and the workload was always backed up. Randolph was a profitable manager of his various operations, but not always the most effective one. His whims changed often and were mostly centered around the more entertaining work of the mech lance. Salvage and farming grew to lengths beyond his want or ability to manage while he was often too selfish to share the burden. Graduating from regular schooling and during his late teenage years is when Jonathan began to glimpse the other side of the curtain in regards to the family businesses. The good and the bad. Randolph kept a lot of income moving, but also a lot of debt. There was a balance fueled by long days in the field, crafty negotiations and substantial amounts of alcohol. He was never violent or angry, just a man with a vice. Many remarked he was much more debonair with it than without and his lively company and expertise was often sought after. At the end of the day, the businesses did well. Even if they could do [i]better[/i], “good enough” was just perfect. The simple charisma of the man was something that Jon and his brother continually looked at with fascination as young adults and was ultimately a large part of the man he was shaped into as he headed away from home for the first time to complete his compulsory service for the Taurian Defense Force. Even with his substantial experience with heavy equipment, like all McCords, Jonathan first volunteered for the infantry and did his first year with the TDF as a foot soldier. As with many of his peers who had grown up being outdoors around weapons and machines, military life came fairly easily and his gunnery skills more often than not put him at the top of his squad for marksmanship. After the first year his transfer to a mechanized formal training regiment was completed and he continued his service with the TDF for his required three additional years plus two more. It was during this time that he earned his callsign as he expertly retrieved another bogged down Rilfleman from his lance out of a swampy depression. It was not his favorite moniker at first, which made it stick all the more among his command and contemporaries, however over time he adopted a sort of comical ambivalence towards it, willing to simply accept it as "unique". After a career marked with battles and scraps large and small around Taurian space, Jonathan left the regular military to return home. Growing older and having had a larger view of the space around him, Jon knew that permanent life as a mechwarrior was not for him and staying in it for very long could likely produce situations that drastically shortened his life. He struggled with it as he came to join the Legion as an “official member”. He liked to fight and he was good at it- like Randolph, it was his truest nature, but he had seen the long term effects on those that chose to stay in the cockpit. In his time away, many in the Legion had come and gone as more competition grew for contracts in response to the burgeoning Federated Commonwealth. The core regulars, the circle of pilots closest to his father, all were showing signs of their age: many with visible burns and injuries, others that had lost fingers or worse. None of them were forced to fight, it was a [i]choice[/i] and often seemed to border on the nonsensical. It was easy to see that salvage and farming were the safe constants for the family, the steady and slow stream, but the rush of combat and quick paydays of mercenary work were hard to deny. Jonathan knew he was going to have to make a decision and that it wouldn’t necessarily be a popular one. He wanted a life and family outside of fighting and it was within his grasp. However the decision was made for him when the Legion was ambushed in a trap on the border of Taurian/Davion space. Two members of the lance killed with mechs destroyed and Randolph’s [i]Atlas[/i] nearly cored out leaving him paralyzed and barely alive. Jonathan scantly escaped in his [i]Marauder[/i] covering their retreat, but the damage was done. McCord’s Legion was effectively finished in one battle. Rumors that their best days were behind them seemed to be confirmed and in the days and months following the defeat, the mystique surrounding one New Vandenberg’s oldest merc companies all but vanished. Jonathan along with his mother were left to sort out the tangled mess of Randolph’s business practices: a long line of handshake agreements, fast money and commitments that could no longer be satisfied. The thread that seemed to run common through all of it was [i]debt[/i] and without the family patriarch at the reigns the whole balance would disintegrate. There would barely be enough available capital to pay off the survivor debts from the Legion, ship fees and repair Jonathan’s Marauder. The complete refit and repair of Randolph’s Atlas was out of the question and would remain in its mangled state on the border of the family farm sitting alongside all the other salvage. The financial advisors made it clear: Selling assets would be the easiest way to settle up. Assets that would include the salvage company and the farm. Jonathan felt done with all of it, but he knew there was another way and if nothing else, he was going to keep the farm. The rest of it could be damned. One man and one mech with little overhead made it easy to be the lowest bidder on a multitude of contracts, but the amount of work suited for such a combination were conversely, [i]minute[/i]. For weeks Jonathan combed the listings for something until a niche contract popped on a small borderworld in the Andurien region of the Capellan Confederation: Protect a small number of key resources belonging to the Aqua Vitae Corporation. Travel expenses to be covered and a bonus to be paid in Neodymium upon successful completion of a set term. It seemed the locally wealthy needed some extra muscle protecting their property and thusly, [i]Gulf Coast Recon[/i] was born and registered with the MRB to complete the task. The money from the contract would be enough to pay off his father’s debts, keep the farm and the bonus might even allow him to keep some of the more rare items from the scrapyard. At present, Jon has been on Espia for around nine months operating in the south protecting AVC assets inland of Platform C around Yuzhny Portveyn and Nui Awa. What started as a relatively easy and mundane defense job rapidly became more complicated over the last few weeks and with his original contract period ending, Jon was ready to collect and get off system. Before the arrival of foreign mech forces and rapid dissolution of the Capellan puppet government, his AVC contact offered a payout on their original arrangement and a [i]doubling[/i] of his existing rate in exchange for his continued service. His gut instinct warned him to take the money and leave, but he knew the extra cash could only help the family and the deluge of continued medical expenses for his father. Reluctantly he agreed to stay and less than a month later Balya Gora fell, effectively stranding him on the planet under contract. Jon knows very little about the Green Knights other than what he has heard from the scattered remnants of the Capellan government in the south and the NPDRE propaganda machine. He has no opinion either way. AVC has been very good to him despite the volatile state of Espia, though he has his suspicions about the interworkings of their end of the planet’s political balance… [hider=Battlemech] [url=https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Marauder]Marauder 3R[/url] - “[i][url=https://i.ibb.co/PQW6NJP/99287d09-f860-4349-b127-7b771a0b7bb5.png]Osceola[/url][/i]” A mostly standard 3R Marauder in appearance, the [i]Seminole[/i] has some more inconspicuous field upfits to secure the traditional weak points around the torso and ensure the survivability of its most distinguishable feature in the autocannon. The AC5 has a slightly lengthened barrel for higher range and velocity to the deliver the round at a single point simultaneously when zeroed-in the with the PPCs. Most onlookers first notice it’s distinctive [url=https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tank-gun-muzzle-brake-after-600w-1820505242.jpg]muzzle brake[/url] before noticing the barrel length. There are few distinguishing markings on the mech, some more recognizable than others: 1. On the [url=https://i.ibb.co/ScfJLXz/37e00e50-c158-4cd8-9adc-9ecaac56897d.png] side[/url] of the AC5 mounting, in line with the barrel is a [url=https://www.davide-pedersoli.com/storage/app/uploads/public/5fa/017/bae/5fa017baec401641663162.jpeg]Kentucky Rifle[/url] with two feathers attached at the end. One white of the wild birds near Jon’s home on New Vandenberg and one in the rust red and brown colors of the Taurian Concordat. 2. On the [url=https://i.ibb.co/S56BKhQ/bf4625e6-fe4b-4879-9a40-defd9a242c96.png]opposite[/url] side of the torso, behind the cockpit is his quickly comissioned company logo for [i]Gulf Coast Recon[/i]: A cartoon stylized river otter wearing a spec-ops helmet, night vision goggles and holding a short barrelled rifle. The motif below the image reads: “[i]Eauxn the Night[/i]”. 3. On the left [url=https://i.ibb.co/h9fQ1t6/e66b3fc2-804f-4f13-b5ee-8744e8a01baf.png]rear[/url], in dull gray, less noticeable beneath one the mech’s large cooling pods is the McCord’s old salvage company logo: [i]Periphery Salvage & Recovery[/i], a tow hook in the shape of a crescent moon around three stars Other notes: Named for the ancient Terran warrior, [i]Osceola[/i] of the Seminole tribe of southern North America. The naming harkens to a similar struggle against foreign invaders as the McCords of New Vandenberg. Often referred to as "[i]Ossie'[/i]" for short by technicians, this 3R Marauder was a small side project for Randolph McCord in Jonathan’s youth, though not nearly flashy enough for him to pilot personally in battle. Jon has been around it and piloted it even before any weapons were installed. He adores it and wouldn’t drive anything else bigger or smaller. With Jon’s neural input, many have remarked that the mech has an unusual swagger about its walk and movements, making it appear loose and flexible almost like a boxer. Jon likes the simple layout of the weaponry and the outward appearance is reflected in a rhythm he keeps over the controls and weapon groups, particularly in battle. While he normally stands off and fights to his strengths as a principle, he is known to use feints, twists, reversals and other movements to catch off-guard any unsuspected pilots that manage to get close to him. [/hider] [/hider]