Buccaneer

The **Mark II** **Multipurpose Armored Transport**, usually called the **Buccaneer**, is a combat vehicle designed and used by the Golden Hand Syndicate. It is an armored personnel carrier (APC) that is capable of moving not only on land, but also through the water by swapping out its treads for propellers. Its versatile chassis has also been adapted into a number of other vehicles.

## History

The Buccanneer was originally known as the "BC-UNR Multipurpose Tracked Vehicle." They were designed to provide colonists with a form of protection against any threats they may encounter as well as being able to cross any terrain. The *Voyager* had several of these vehicles when it crash-landed on Vesroth, and the colonists took them with them when they scattered across the planet.

The clans found the BC-UNR to be an excellent transport vehicle. Its carrying capacity, along with the ability to run on nearly any kind of fuel, made it the face of supply convoys across all of Vesroth. However, the BC-UNRs lacked any real combat capabilities. While their outer hulls were quite tough, they lacked any form of weaponry. This meant that they were never seen in any combat roles.

After Konrad Sicallion united the clans and formed them into the Golden Hand Syndicate, he set about modernizing the Syndicate's aging technology. The BC-UNR was one of the candidates for modernization, despite never being used in a military role. The armor was strengthened, the cargo compartment was turned into a troop compartment, and it was given military-grade weaponry. However, its ability to cross large bodies of water wouldn't come until the Syndicate's first raid on the world of Fasia.

The Syndicate had extracted information about a cache of antimatter weapons being stored on Fasia from a captured Commune Federation officer. The weapons were being kept in a heavily-fortified compound on an island, one that was littered with anti-air defenses. The Syndicate knew that they couldn't send in their bombers without it leading to a slaughter (and potential damaging of the prize within), so they planned for an aquatic assault in order to take out the anti-air guns.

Initially, the plan was to use captured Federation watercraft in order to storm the island, but the captured boats lacked any weaponry of their own. The Syndicate then thought about using their BC-UNRs in order to reach the island, but these were incapable of crossing water. However, the Syndicate then had an idea. They would replace the treads on the BC-UNRs with the propellers from the boats. After some jury rigging, the BC-UNRs were ready to attack the island. The Federation troops stationed on the island were shocked to find dozens of these seeming land-bound vehicles storming their way through the water, blasting away at their base. Once they hit land, hundreds of Syndicate soldiers stormed out and quickly overwhelmed the surprised defenders, grabbing the antimatter weapons and speeding away before Federation reinforcements could catch them. This raid rechristened the BC-UNR as the Buccaneer.

## Notable Variations

* **Ravager** - The Ravager is a mobile artillery piece that replaces the troop compartment of the standard Buccaneer with a heavy artillery gun.
* **Headhunter** -