Nathan Carter inherited his BattleMech on the death of his father, a "frontier freelancer", at the the hands of slavers raiding independent worlds in the Rimward Periphery. Finding in the Dust Devils kindred spirits with an equally dim view of slavers, and grateful for the opportunity provided by their upgrade programs to bring his ancient VND-1R Vindicator to modern standards, Carter signed on with the Devils during their rebuild period in 3064.
MRBC Dossier 3065[]
BattleMech[]
Frontier Justice is an old 'Mech given new life, having been passed down through the Carter family since it walked off the Ceres Metals assembly line on Capella more than 200 years ago and into the ranks of the Capellan Confederation's Liao Lancers, where it was assigned to a young Sao-wei named Jacob Carter just in time for the Third Succession War. As the culture of the Successor States and their militaries drifted more deeply into neo-feudalism and BattleMechs became family heirlooms, Frontier Justice was passed from parent to child alongside their position in the Lancers, up until the unit's final dissolution in the mid years of the long conflict.
Dillinger Carter, the 'Mech's owner at the time, having lost both the family's meager landhold and parent unit to the Federated Suns, chose to leave the Confederation and take up in the Rimward Periphery as a lawman-for-hire, rechristening the Vindicator to its current moniker to better reflect the new role. His daughter took up the job and the 'Mech upon his death, and after her her son, and so on. Though lovingly and carefully maintained through the generations, the reality of Periphery logistics left Frontier Justice in a patchwork state by the time the latest heir to the 'Mech signed on with the Devils.
Yang Virtanen was only too happy to enjoy the nostalgia of tuning up a familiar design from his CCAF days, and the results speak for themselves; Frontier Justice's current configuration is superior in every way to a stock VND-1R. Upgrading the venerable power plant with a General Motors 180 Light reactor and the entire energy arsenal to lighter, harder hitting ClanTech ER models (except for the small laser, which was swapped out for a flamethrower instead) freed up significant weight, allowing for the replacement of the stock LRM-5 with a more versatile and powerful seven-tube Multi-Missile Launcher, with a ton each of short- and long-range missiles in CASE-protected bins, as well as an extra half-ton of armor. Fourteen double heat sinks keep Frontier Justice cooler than its stock configuration, even with the hotter weaponry. Finally, upgraded myomers allow the old Vindicator an edge in speed over its unmodified brethren.
Frontier Justice is painted in a base of the Devils' typical camel, with a few coral highlight stripes on the head and arms, and granite chevrons on the lower legs. Carter's family crest, a "tin star" set over a burning torch and flanked on either side by an up-tilted black revolver, is painted on the right chest plate.