Tariq Barboza

Tariq Barboza is the child of Guldran nobility, but aside from the bloodline and their ancestral BattleMech, little of his family's holdings survived the Espinoza regime, as the Barbozas refused to break faith with House Arano. Barboza's mother Shazia served in the Restoration campaign with distinction, and upon her retirement and Tariq's graduation from the Guldra Academy of Martial Sciences alongside classmate Aaliyah Shaaban, the son took up the family BattleMech. However, for reasons unknown, neither Barboza nor Shaaban went on to military service in the Coalition Military, instead signing on with the Dust Devils.
== MRBC Dossier -3065 ==
=== BattleMech History ===
Falak, the Barboza family's ancestral ASN-21 Assassin named for a great serpent of Old Arabic folklore, came with them when they fled the Free World's League and the devastation of the Second Succession War, hoping to find a better future in the Rimward Periphery on the prosperous world of Guldra. Generations of Barbozas would pilot Falak in defense of their new home, first for the Taurians, and then for House Madeira after the Concordat abandoned the world. Skill and tenacity saved the Assassin from critical damage and the slow decline experienced by most examples of the model even up to the end of the Restoration, but the Devils' upgrade program for owner-operators breathed truly new life into the ancient machine.
A popular and once wide-spread design, the capabilities of the ASN-21 are fairly well-known to most experienced pilots. As such, Falak comes as something of a nasty surprise to pilots who miss the customization until it's too late. Replacing the standard reactor with an XL model freed up significant weight, allowing for 2.5 additional tonnes of armor to offset the increased vulnerability of the larger engine while still allowing for upgrades to weapons and equipment. 
The standard medium laser was replaced with a more powerful ClanTech extended-range model, but the real upgrade makes use of the torso missile hardpoints: The Devils' technicians removed the LRM and SRM launchers entirely, replacing each with a five-tube Multi-Missile Launcher system fed from CASE-protected ammo bins with a ton each of long- and short-ranged missiles. The entire arsenal is kept cool with double-strength heat sinks, dramatically increasing both damage output and staying power at all ranges. 
The Assassin has long been considered a superb reconnaissance platform and light 'Mech hunter. With upgraded myomers increasing its already impressive maneuverability (and offsetting the removal of one of the stock chassis' jump jets) and the addition of a ClanTech active sensor suite with ECM, Falak excels to an even greater degree in these roles while adding "ambush predator" to its repertoire. 
As a final touch, when replacing the 'Mech's temperature control systems, Chief Technician Virtanen's people were able to replace and reroute some of the more problematic elements of the 'Mech's coolant hardware, freeing up some space in the Assassin's notoriously cramped cockpit. Though Barboza's compact frame somewhat offset the issue, he is undoubtedly delighted at the additional comfort, an improvement the design's manufacturers had never fully achieved in a mass-produceable form.
As befits its namesake, Falak is decorated with swirling serpent patters in granite and coral over a base of camel in keeping with the Devils' overall pallete. The Barboza family crest, a yellow songbird perched on a bent reed over a red-orange roundel, is painted above the cockpit canopy.
Category:Characters
Category:Dust Devils AU
Category:Dust Devils Personnel