Name: Nelson vander Reece
Callsign: Lightbringer (or “Lord Nelson” or “Old Man”)
Date of Birth/Age: 24th April, 2960, aged 65
Current Ride: Chupacabra SalvageMech
House Affiliation: None, though claims allegiance to the “True Federated Suns”
Physical Description: Surprisingly well-muscled for a 65 year old. Carries more than a few scars. He’s balding and going grey, both of which he conceals with a battered bowler hat, even in the cockpit (the IndustrialMech Chupacabra not needing a neurohelmet to pilot). Think Bruce Willis in ten years and a bowler hat.
Open Background: Nelson vander Reece was, allegedly, born on Scudder in 2960, the second son of the planetary baron. Two years later, he strangled a wolf to death with his bare hands when it broke into the house (unlikely, since the only wolves on the planet are confined to a region some thousand kilometres from the baron’s hall). At the age of six, an usurper called Lionel Kensington-Parcombe overthrew his father, leaving him orphaned (records state that the governmental transition of 2968 was peaceful after the baron died without heirs).
From there, Nelson did whatever he had to to survive. He worked as a shoe shiner, a cabin boy, a confectioner, a sideshow spruiker and an apprentice orthodontic assistant. At the age of 15, he challenged then ComStar Primus Adrienne Sims to a battle of wits; she withdrew, having foreseen her loss, and he won a Thug-10E. In 2985, he was involved in a three-way race between Hohiro Kurita and a unit of the Vandenberg White Wings to secure what turned out to be a rare Chupacabra SalvageMech.
Nelson worked with numerous merc and House units over the years, including the Wolf’s Dragoons on Halloran V in 3006 for their inaugural mission, and Flag Sergeant of Janos Marik’s honour guard.
In 3023, he met young Oscar Fitzroy, the illegitimate son and last scion of Gunther Kensington-Fitzroy. Nelson then began a plan to enact vengeance on the Kensington-Parcombes, intending to ultimately install Oscar as the new ruler of Scudder. First, though, he needs to be trained in the use of his BattleMech.
Deep Background: Pretty much everything up to that last paragraph is a lie (except the bit about being an apprentice orthodontic assistant, that was true). Nelson vander Reece (formerly “Two-Bit” Nelson Clarke) is a mercenary and con artist, who has been hyper-inflating his history since 2995, when it became apparent there wasn’t much call for an aging lone wolf MechWarrior. It’s been met with mixed success, but he has managed to scour a lot of his old, drab history away, leaving nothing but his claims to go on (and spurring rumours that he’s an exiled Wolf’s Dragoon, which he has worked hard to carefully not deny). Pickings have been slim, though, and he’s hoping that if he can manage to get Oscar into a position of power, he can retire rich and happy.
It’s a long shot, though, and his aging faculties aren’t helping. He’s starting to have difficulty remembering what is his real life and what parts he made up. Parts of his real life are starting to bleed into the fiction, which is making it hard to keep up the disguise.
Name: “Oscar Fitzroy”/Susan
Callsign: Triumph
Date of Birth/Age: “?th November, 3006”/Unknown, 3008, aged "19"/17
Current Ride: Stock Thug THG-10E
House Affiliation: Federated Suns
Physical Description: Short and a bit skinny, with a bit more of a pronounced hip than most boys have. Remarkably clean shaven. Blue eyes and short cropped brown hair. Susan’s life on the streets has lent her a naturally boyish figure, but the final years of puberty and getting regular meals is starting to fill her out in ways that boys shouldn’t, which worries her.
Open Background: Oscar Fitzroy has very little public record. For most of his memory, he has been a street kid in the Scudder capital of Guildwick. That changed when he met Nelson vander Reece, who proclaimed him to be the lost son of Gunther Kensington-Fitzroy. Sir Kensington-Fitzroy, next in line to the barony of Scudder, was executed as a traitor almost fifteen years prior, and to be fair, Oscar does bear a startling similarity to his supposed father’s features. Nelson smuggled him off-world on a mercenary DropShip and set about training him for an eventual campaign to retake Scudder.
Deep Background: Oscar Fitzroy is actually Susan, of no known last name. A street kid of Guildwick, she exploited Nelson’s confusion to exchange a future that probably contained brothels and drugs for one containing regular, healthy meals and a kick-a$$ war machine. While it seemed like a good idea at 15, she’s becoming aware that maintaining her role as a man is going to get increasingly difficult, especially when the time comes to attempt to attack a planetary government.
Due to her upbringing on the streets, Susan (and Oscar) has exceptionally poor literacy skills, and mostly relies on text-to-speech and general familiarity to operate the Thug, since she can’t read it’s displays.
Unbeknown to either Nelson or Susan, she really is the offspring of Sir Gunther Kensington-Fitzroy, but instead of the son of a tryst between Gunther and his prom date (as the real Oscar is expected to be), she’s the daughter of Gunther and a call girl named Jessica.