Name: Dirk Bradbury
Callsign: Brains
Date of Birth/Age: September 2nd, 3014, 37.
Current Mech: Helepolis HEP-3H "
Messer". In the seven years since Tombstone, the
Messer has gone through extensive refitting, now utilizing an Endo-steel structure, XL 375 Engine, and extra pair of jumpjets. This allows the mech a movement speed of 86.4 kph and a jump distance of 150m. The entire weapons loadout has been removed, with a smaller, customized Thumper Artillery Piece taking the place of the Sniper it previously carried. The head medium laser was removed for a command console, and the left arm laser has been replaced with an Extended Range Large Laser and machine gun. A second machine gun in the center torso rounds out the arsenal. Three tonnes of ammunition for the Thumper in the right torso allow Dirk to keep up a persistent barrage for some time, with the third tonne divided into two half tonne bins of smoke and illum rounds. A single half tonne of ammunition for the machine guns in the left torso allow for adequate usage of the machine guns.
House Affiliation: None. Hails from the Lyran Commonwealth, but never particularly cared for nationalities or other such abstract concepts.
Military History: Began a scholarship at NAIS when he was 18 in 3032, straight out of school in mechanics. Transferred to Battlemech Technology in his first year. Dropped from the course. Reenrolled in Electrical Engineering in Aerospace Design in his second year, and was kicked from the course when it was found he had spend three months attending modules in Applied Particle Physics for Laser Based Weaponry. This trend continued, with Dirk starting and stopping courses as his attention was grabbed by newer and more 'shiny' things. Eventually in his fourth year, he successfully finished a year of a course on battlemech training - but was booted from the academy in his fourth year when he was caught stealing components from the university's training mechs to 'Test a theory'. What the theory was, he never told the university - but they did receive a letter in 3039 saying 'It worked - Good thing the FedCom started a war for me to test it in. -Dirk.'
Dirk was a founding member of the Tombstone Barbershop Quartet during the DC attack on New Ivaarsen in 3039, together with Remi Rudbeck, Sierra Mueller, and their leader Nikolai Reznov. Since then, the Quartet has found Dirk to be a 'Human Swiss Army Knife of Discarded Hobbies'. More than once the Quartet has fled behind the safety of thick walls as Dirk muttered something like:
"Demolitions? I spent a couple of days making fireworks once. Lemme see. Oh, I like this. And that. Don't know what that does. Hmmm...which wire is it goes here? Stand back please, this'll either work or it won't..."
Sierra has been known to comment that there is a frighteningly small amount of things Dirk hasn't tried to break at least once or doesn't have a plan to do so that he simply hasn't had the chance to try yet.
Dirk has now been with the Quartet for just over twelve years, and the time has served to instill a certain amount of discipline and hardness into the eccentric Mechanic turned Mechwarrior. Too many close calls and ambushes while providing fire support to the Quartet, not to mention dead friends in the Quartet's support elements, has forced a raw, grim focus during combat. He often leaves his mech after an op covered in sweat and unwilling to talk, even on the rare occasions that not even a single shot is fired. Out of combat, the Quartet has stopped pretending that with Dirk around that anyone else is the chief tech, and simply slapped the job and responsibility on him. As a result, the Quartet's vehicles and equipment are rarely quite the same between missions and the repair bay is at best in a constant state of quasiorganized chaos.
Physical description: Roughly average height with short brown/blonde hair, blue eyes and glasses. Heavily scarred, burned, and calloused hands and arms. His face and several other parts of his body bear scars shaped oddly like drops of spattered liquid or small splinters. If pressed, Dirk will somewhat sheepishly admit that he often gets so excited he completely forgets to use safety gear before he breaks out the arc welders and other dangerous tools. Tends to wear ratty, comfortable and durable clothes. His trousers and long heavy jacket look not unlike that of a fireman's - the rest of the quartet roll their eyes if asked but Dirk says he doesn't like to be slowed down by the need to get changed when he has an idea. They're unclean, pitted, burned, and much repaired - and full of assorted tools, pens, pencils and paper. In the past, he has broken out wrenches, stanley knives and even a hand held blowtorch from the depths of his pockets, but he now also carries a plain, yet exquisitely maintained laser pistol with a small stamp on the back of the barrel and several spare batteries in addition to his usual paraphernalia.
Open Background: Dirk has severe ADD, which causes as many problems as it solves. Highly intelligent, Dirk spends much time reading as many books as he can get his hands on - usually for less than an hour before he scampers off scribbling on a crumpled notepad muttering to himself. The Quartet more often find him stripping a mech of the weapon he was supposed to reload "because I can make it better, look!" than actually reloading it. In combat, he's nearly always the first to lay eyes on an enemy, but also agitated and terse on the comms. Still, the Quartet finds it useful to have a resident mad scientist in the unit with no moral qualms about anything. The extra babysitting required tends to pay off, eventually.
His mech,
Messer, is another tale. On a fairly routine mission in the Sarna March, on the war torn 'Small World', the Tombstone Barbershop Quartet were involved in heavy mountain fighting, committing headhunting missions for the Duchy of Oriente. While fighting through a particularly infamous pass, a rockslide was triggered. The Barbershop had chosen their ground well, triggering their jump jets to get out of the way, and their opponents were crushed. The slide however, bore unexpected fruit, a battered and crushed mech poking out of the rubble. Curious, Dirk Bradbury piloted his Shadow Hawk to the wreck, and despite protests from the rest of the Quartet and began to pull it out. As the ruined mech began to take shape, it was recognised by another member of the Quartet and Dirk decided to salvage it. Dragging it clear of the pass while the remainder of the Quartet swiftly began their own roles in salvage, the Helepolis was evacuated by one of the carrier VTOLs.
Upon completion of their mission and returning to base, the Quartet's chief tech informed Dirk that the Helepolis' damage was not too extreme, and it could be salvaged - if they could find the parts, or at least some they could jury rig to work. It took three long years before the mech could be used, with parts bought from collectors, antique dealers, and others undergoing extensive work before they could be fitted to the ancient design.
Messer has now tirelessly served Dirk for a further seven years and undergone additional work to completely replace the internal structure and engine with bulkier, but lighter endo-steel and XL versions. Room was made by downgrading the Sniper to a Thumper, which causes less collateral damage - in the long term, the reduction of firepower has proved to be more advantageous to the Quartet and their predominantly 'Smash and Grab' orientated missions. The
Messer can now keep pace with the rest of the unit without holding them back and even hold it's own, to a point, in straight up combat.
In 3043 Dirk began officially seeing Sierra Meuller, the Quartet's resident kleptomaniac. Their relationship continued for three years through varying degrees of resistance by the fiercely independant Sierra before they were married in July of 3046. Their daughter Amelia was born in February of 3047. Dirk and Sierra have each been forbidden from allowing her to follow in their footsteps, with absolutely no success whatsoever.
Dirk has come to Sevren with
Messer and a couple of the units technicians while the Quartet is undergoing a 'quiet' period. As it's mechwarriors had aged, the Quartet had been undergoing more of these breaks, which Dirk didn't really mind. It allowed him to use more of his saved cache of C-Bills to finish, start, continue and abandon various projects and generally amuse himself. He'd decided to visit Sevren to attend several conferences and lectures on Nuclear reactor technology, hoping to learn more about precisely how the fusion engines used by battlemechs worked. He was sure he could figure out a way to make an XL engine take up less space, but he just wasn't sure how.
Deep Background:
At least that's what he'd told Sierra and the others. While it definitely was something he would be doing, the main reason he'd snuck away was to try and get his hands on some clan technology. The strange invaders had been pushing further and further into the Inner Sphere and he knew the others were worried about it, but he couldn't help but be excited. He'd been trying to get his hands on some for a year, since he'd begun hearing how advanced it was, but there was next to none of it staying out of House hands unless one was very close to the front.
When Dirk had heard a black market dealer he knew to be handling the stuff was on Sevren, he'd resolved to get very close to the front indeed.
Additionally, despite maturing significantly, Dirk still desperately seeks for the approval of those around him. Whether he was unloved as a child or simply wants someone to appreciate his designs no one knows, but it doesn't matter. If accompanied by his friends, this isn't a problem, but alone...Of all the Quartet, Dirk remains the one most likely to break under pressure - if not as likely as he had been in the past.
Edited by RogueSpear, 24 February 2013 - 06:09 PM.
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