Mike Burch

*"Well this is similar to a war I suppose although instead of fighting Indians we are fighting rich assholes ha!"* - Mike

Michael Burch was a prominent outlaw and co founder of Duke's Boys alongside Emmet Duke with his skill with a rifle that he gained from the army he became quite the killer for the gang, before joining the gang he was a part of the American Military where he ranked up to a Corporal to which he then resigned from the army believing it was not his purpose anymore.

## Biography

### Early Life

#### Joining the Army

Within the year of 1881 at the age of 19 Mike joined the military in hopes of finding a purpose to his life to which his parents did not want him to do but he carried on nonetheless, it would only be a year before he became a Private after having some training to which he began liking his bolt action rifles that he was given to train with becoming heavily reliable on them than any other rifle he had used before. During his years as a private he served in regular infantry against the native Indians who were becoming smarter by the day using their environment to their advantage ambushing many soldiers which included many of the men that Mike had trained with and became friends with, after surviving many skirmishes against the Indians and showing his skill with a rifle he would end up becoming a Corporal in the year of 1886 where for two more years he continued with the war against the Indians with every year passing by he would get more confused on really why the military were fighting the Indians until the year of 1888 he would eventually resign from the military.

#### Purpose

With in the year of 1888 after resigning from the military Michael would be in the state of Little Cedar where he felt still that he had no idea of what he wanted to do, for a time he would consider doing mercenary work as he had experience with guns. This idea would work for a year where he would protect carriages, trains and people for quite some time, it would be in 1890 that Michael met Emmet Duke after protecting a train from Weirdale to Melburg where he would go to relax for a time in the southern state however found himself getting involved with Emmet where the two became a duo with Emmet using his new skills of being a conman from Leo Murphy with Mike being the muscle with him, the two would be quite the dynamic duo conning and robbing many people across the state of Melburg working closely with Leo Murphy. With these two robbing and conning people across the state they would form the beginnings of Duke's Boys.

#### Bulking the Ranks

Not long after 1890 the two would start to build up their gang across the USA handling many jobs both legal and illegal consisting of mercenary work and robbing trains and banks, by the year of 1896 the gang had their full force and had decided to push their way more west where they would hope to prosper however around the year of 1897 the crew would have to go even further west after being hunted by bounty hunters that were hot on their tail.

### 1898

#### Keller's Gang

   After constantly travelling west Duke's Boys found themselves in the state of Weirdale where Mike would meet William Green through Emmet Duke and the three became properly acquainted, the crew began taking jobs from Green until they would eventually see that many of William's contacts were uncovering that a new gang had came on in led by Abraham Keller. Michael only knew about Abraham based on what Emmet had told him and immediately knew that the gang would become a problem to them, it wouldn't be long before Duke's Boys began scuffling with Keller's Gang after William had informed the gang that one of Keller's boys was scouting around Jericho which prompted Mike to capture him bringing him back to his camp with the rest of the gang to interrogate him. The person stated that the gang was planning on rustling a large amount of cattle from Jericho to sell to people in Cruxton the neighbouring town, Mike would also find out the location of one of their outposts being a cabin with tents around it not far from Jericho, Mike would gather some of the gang to attack this outpost killing everyone there which in turn angered Abraham Keller.

With a bunch of skirmishes between the two gangs eventually Abraham Keller and the remainder of his gang would be in a standoff with Emmet Duke and some of his men including Mike, Abraham had captured William using him as a hostage to hopefully get the upper hand on Emmet and kill him and his men, this would not work as Mike had captured Willis Olson from the cabin he raided with some of the gang and as Willis was a high ranking member of Keller's Gang Abraham was not willing to risk Willis' life and so offered a trade sending William across for Willis which however would result in a shootout between the two gangs.

#### Calderon Family

Eventually the shootout would come to a close with Emmet and his gang inflicting more damage on Keller's Gang which made Abraham and Willis flee with the remainder of their men, William would then speak to Emmet informing him that the town was empty for the gang to do war with each other thanks to the Calderon Family who ran their operations out of the city of Bandera. Mike would be the one to say to Emmet that he figured that they had just finished off the crime family's business partner and that they should appease them by helping them for a time and hopefully that will make them not wanting revenge on the gang, with Emmet agreeing the crew would go to Bandera to meet with the Calderon Family. Not to Emmet and Mike's surprise they would meet Leo Murphy who had recently been in Bandera scouting around and had found out about the crime family informing the two that they had connections across Weirdale and also in West Chatley which made them very powerful and influential, Mike began to get worried believing that they maybe shouldn't of come to the city but Emmet would reassure that the only way they could go back to business is by settling things with the Calderon Family.

Upon meeting the leader of the family Curtis Calderon he would allow them to make amends by doing a lot of jobs for him which mainly consisted of damaging things belonging to Clifton Shepherd who was a rich railroad investor rival to Curtis, the gang would carry out these jobs quite well however one job would cause the death of one of the gang members which shortly after prompted the gang to assume their debt was done. Emmet returned to Curtis asking if his debt was done and Curtis had responded saying that it was and even offered him a reward to rob the city bank, Mike was very cautious about this wandering if they were being played however both men had to agree as they were getting low on money and needed it now more than ever, the gang would rob the bank however they were set up by Curtis who had police and his men staged around the bank after they had entered. After realising they were set up some more of their gang was killed which made their numbers thinner when trying to escape with another member getting arrested.

#### Death

In the later part of 1898 with the gang numbers being very low Emmet had the idea to cut off their loose ends that hunted them which included killing people like Clifton Shepherd who became a recent enemy of theirs as well as Curtis Calderon who had set them up but most importantly Peter Conley who had the sheriffs and police in nearly every state after them making their escapes harder and harder to do. Mike was sort of reluctant believing it would only bring down more heat onto the rest of the gang but Emmet believed it was the only move they could do currently, not long after Emmet would uncover that Clifton Shepherd and Peter Conley were having a meeting about their plans to finish the gang they were hunting and before the meeting Emmet wanted to plant dynamite around it however they would need a wagon of dynamite which they stole from the army. With the crew stealing the wagon and Mike driving it they would soon realise the heat they brought on themselves with more soldiers turning up to kill them, they would try to beat the train using as a way of blocking the soldiers path but Mike would sadly sacrifice himself with the wagon being hit by the train just at the last minute blowing the train up and derailing it causing the military to be stopped in their tracks.