Rick "Hunter" was one of those kids who felt more attached to his electronic toys than to other kids, or even his parents.

His parents were the usual stupid suburbanites who believed everything they saw on TV. So of course they thought they were doing their son a favor by getting him a big computer on his 10th birthday.

They never saw too much of him after that, and wondered what he might be up to, up there. They'd have been shocked if they knew. The authorities sure were.

By the time Rick was in high school, he was as deep in trouble as any one nerd with a modem could get. The only thing that kept the authorities from finding him was that he was very, very good at adapting to whatever they did, so he could get away scott-free. He used to boast about the time the CIA chased his signal over five continents and raided the local McDonalds instead of his house. (He still does, though now he's willing to admit that the CIA's getting the address wrong was their mistake, rather than anything he did)

But his one weakness - sneaking into the automated program changer at the local TV station and running Robotech marathons at 2 am - eventually got him busted. One night, during his senior year, he fell asleep at the switch. The next thing he knew, his house was surrounded by cops.

When he got hauled in, he was seated in front of a big, imposing black man with a slight French accent. The fellow made him a deal - one that would get him a free college scholarship and a straight track into the NSA, as long as he promised to keep his nose clean and hack only where they let him. It was either that or twenty years of barred windows, striped pants and forced sodomy.

Rick agreed, and has stuck to his end of the bargain - mostly. The local Maryland stations still wonder who keeps sticking the old Robotech episodes on at 3 am...

On the Record:

In 1991, during his Freshman year at MIT, Rick was featured in a Newsweek story about "Bad Hackers Gone Good." The story is notable because Newsweek was shut down by hackers the week after it published "in protest" of the article. Rick's name was prominently defamed in their manifesto. He never gave an interview after that.

In 1994, he joined the NSA straight out of college and started working for then-Captain Tremayne's group. That's as much as is publicly known. Everything since then is off the record, though it can be supposed that, if Tremayne's Agents were supposdly responsible for the apprehension of some 60 serial hackers, he was partially responsible for at least some of the arrests. Provided they happened at all.

In 1997 Major Tremayne was severely injured on a case. Soon thereafter, Rick was transfered directly under him, and has gone deeper "underground" than before.

Name: Rick "Hunter" Findsen
Age: 30
Nature: Explorer
Demeanor: Conniver
Motivation: To perform the ultimate hack
Group: National Security Agency - Cybernetic Intelligence Unit
Rank: Lt. Second Class
Codename: Exedore

STR: 2 DEX: 3 STA: 2

CHA: 2 MAN: 3 APP: 2

PER: 3 INT: 3 WIT: 4 (Wits Specialty: Rapidly Adaptive)

Talents: Alertness 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 1, Empathy 1, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 3

Skills: Firearms 2, Repair 2, Security 4 (Computer Systems)

Knowledges: Computer 5 (Understanding/designing invasive programs), Computer Hacking 4 (Finding Backdoors), Covert Culture 2, Cryptography 2, Hacker Lore 3, Investigation 2, Occult 1, Science 2, Vampire ("Haemophage") Lore 1, Wraith Lore 2

Backgrounds: Allies 1, Contacts 3, Fame 1, Influence 2, Mentor 2, Rank 1, Resources 2

Willpower: 5

Flaws: Compulsion -1 (Hacking where he shouldn't)

Merits: Lightning Calculator +1, Wraith Ally +3

Equipment Carried: G-man kit (complete with Sig Sauer - normal and AP rounds), 2 cell phones (one regular, one unlisted)

Equipment on hand: Laptop with cypher box (modem built in). Six-layered shielding surrounds the computer's memory. The CPU is hardwired to send a virus down the pathway of any unfamilliar intrusions that make it past the shields. The virus is designed to flood the user's memory with huge GIFs of Robotech artwork, causing an eventual stall if the intrusion isn't stopped. He has any number of other, invasive programs that he's designed himself, all ready to go at a moment's notice.

Allies: His truest ally is an as-yet uncaught hacker known only as "Daisy Chain" (From Guildbook: Artificers) He, like most other (living) hackers, has no idea she's a Wraith.

Contacts: Various members of the turned hacker community.

Fame: He's well-known amongst the turned and unturned hackers, though 'fame' isn't the way the unturned folks look at him.

Mentor: His superior, Major Trevor F. Tremayne

Image: Rick is "cute," skinny and lithe. He has wild black hair that he's teased and sprayed to the point of looking somewhat like a certain anime character, complete with thick, hanging forelocks over his left eye.

When lounging around he tends to wear seatpants and japanese t-shirts. He does, however, tend to wear the preferred NSA "uniform" of black on black suits and "don't-fuck-with-me" shades when he's on duty.

M.O. Once he got out of school and into the NSA, Rick was groomed to work with Major Tremayne's group. For the first few years he was on "ghost missions," searching for GITMs (Ghosts In The Machine) as well as normal super-hackers no one else could get. He was able to get a lot of work done thanks to Daisy Chain, but he never told anyone about her for fear that someone might try to turn her in.

As far as Rick knows, ghosts all seem to have this thing for computers, since that's the only way they can manifest these days. They all call themselves "Artificers" on that side of things. It's not exactly how he saw the afterlife when he was a kid, but hey, you have to keep an open mind on this job. Right?

He wasn't with the Major when that man had that run-in with a "Haemophage," but wishes he could have been, just to have done something. On a more curious level, he'd have liked to have seen it. Especially since it was supposed to have been the S*O*P the Major was tracking at the time. How the guy turned into a vampire is a question he'd love to know the answer to.

Since that accident, Major Tremayne's taken him from the general pool of GITM-hunters, and put him right under his wing on his secret search for "Haemophages." They spend most of their time searching for online traces of vampire activity, most of which is - of course - bogus nonsense put up by wanna-bes, freaks and people who think Jesus is talking to them. But he's getting somewhere, thanks to Daisy Chain.