Rio Marquez
Rio Marquez was born on July 3rd, 3004 on Pandora where his father, Hpt. Emelio Marquez, was stationed. He grew up in the city of Prosperity just outside the military base and mech repair facility, watching the ships and soldiers and battlemechs come and go all his life. Rio and his friends would often sneak on base to play in the Battlemech scrap, pretending they were mechwarriors. He knew that’s what he wanted to do.
His family couldn’t afford to get him to a good Academy, though Rio’s test scores were very high. Rio’s father had become good friends with Leftenant-Colonel Sankt, the logistics officer on base. When Rio was of age, the Leftenant-Colonel called in a few favors and got Rio a full scholarship to Sanglamore for mechwarrior training. Upon completion in 3024, he was issued a LCT-1V which he piloted for much of his career.
In 3029, Marquez, a Corporal at the time, watched half his company wiped out by surprise artillery fire while patrolling a Combine border world. As the highest ranked mechwarrior left, he quickly rallied the remaining mechwarriors and manged to successfully overrun the artillery, which was later found to be distracting patrols from discovering a ‘mech storage facility. For his bravery and quick leadership, his company commander awarded him his first officer rank, 1st Leutnant, and his very own battlemech: a Crusader recovered from the found ‘mechs.
By the end of the 4th SW, he had made the rank of Hauptmann and was given his own company of mechwarriors to command. This only lasted for two patrol missions before the war ended at which time he was relocated back to Pandora to help with training and logistics. After discovering that his mother had passed away and his father was afflicted with Alzheimer’s, Rio Marquez chose to leave the service and seek mercenary work.