Armor Hunters
The Armor Hunters are an organization that features in Valiant Comics.
Contents |
History
The Armor Hunters were an interstellar organization that was created to deal with the outbreak of Armors that had ravaged numerous worlds. Eventually, they discovered the source of the Armor epidemic with this coming from the planet Gennin which had been reduced to ash. The Armor Hunters them established the world as a training ground and reminder of the fate of their respective worlds if the Armors were not stopped. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) A contingency protocol was created for dealing with the Armors which was making a horde of machines known as the Dead Hand that destroyed worlds after collecting genetic samples from them in an effort to deprive the flora-fauna hybrids of any hosts. (X-O Manowar v3 #35)
They once dispatched eighteen squads on transports in pursuit of the Armors with all being lost. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) In an effort to contain the Armors, worlds were 'decontaminated' but the organisms reproduced with the new specimens heading outwards whilst the older ones headed back towards Gennin. Control ordered that all hunter squads deployed were to remain away and continue their mission whilst those on Gennin were to prepare for the coming assault. (X-O Manowar v3 #27)
At some point, an Armor attached itself to a host and attacked a world belonging to a war-like civilization who only knew conflict. Despite their weapons and soldiers, they were unable to vanquish their foe with the Armor devastating the planet slowly. A soldier from their army eventually deserted and went off-world where he told the story in the hope of gaining allies but many people refused to believe such a threat existed in space. Many months ago, a pair of bounty hunters named Malgam and Reebo in search for money were informed about this lone soldier. They were convinced to go to his world but did not believe such a quarry existed. Upon arriving, they found that the planet's entire population had been wiped out with them then encountering the Armor. Despite the bounty hunters efforts, they were unable to kill the Armor which simply repaired its injuries before continuing its single-minded attempt at exterminating any life on the planet. It killed the lone surviving soldier of the native species before the bounty hunters detonated their ship to escape it. Over months, the hid before commandeering a spaceship and escaping the planet where the told their encounter to others on a spacestation. No one believed the pair except for Control who was recruiting those with potential to join the ranks of the Armor Hunters. (X-O Manowar v3 #26)
A team under Primary arrived on planet Baek where they eliminated an Armor on that world. (X-O Manowar v3 #24) Afterwards, the Armors were shown to be doubling back on worlds that they had razed bringing them into direct conflict with the Armor Hunters who suffered heavy casualties. This led to Control ordering all Hunter teams to continue on their assignments until they received word in the hope that this would protect them from harm. On one such hunt, a team on Tartarus were seeking out an Armor which critically wounded the Armor Hunter Malgam. In an effort to save him, the Primary had a portion of an Armor bond with his friend. (X-O Manowar v3 #28)
Primary Reebo's team tracked the presence of an Armor to a primitive world known as Earth. They immediately established themselves in orbit and tracked the signatures of the Armor. Several Hunters struck at a facility in Russian that contained facsimiles of the Armor that were made by the Vine who were an unknown civilization to the Armor Hunters. These were destroyed by the Hunters with Primary Reebo contacting M.E.R.O. where he demanded that the Armor be given to him to be destroyed due to the danger it posed. Colonel Jamie Capshaw refused leading to the Primary having his vessel destroy the nearest population centre namely Mexico City as a sign as to the fate of the world if they refused to hand over the Armor. (Armor Hunters v1 #1) M.E.R.O. once again refused leading to the Armor Hunters deciding to forcibly taking it where they dispatched their hounds across the various sites the Armor was last seen which was to serve as a distraction so that they could confront the wearer himself. (Armor Hunters v1 #2) The hounds were ultimately killed but they succeeded in causing a great many casualties along with damage to various sites globally. M.E.R.O. agreed to surrender the Armor which arrived in orbit but the wearer was not Aric but rather Livewire who demanded the Armor Hunters surrender and when they refused she used her connection to technology to cause their vessel to crash back to the surface. GIN-GR managed to restore herself after a hard reboot where the Primary ordered the vessel to begin attacking the city of Los Angeles where it crashed leading to a battle with Earth's military forces that had gathered in ambush. (Armor Hunters v1 #3) The Unity team managed to work together to circumvent the defences of GIN-GR thus allowing them to knock the giant construct to the ground. This led to the Armor Hunters making a desperate last stand as they sought to eliminate the Armor worn by Aric of Dacia. Despite their efforts, each of the Hunters were slain by Unity with Primary Reepo falling to the wounded Manowar Armor. (Armor Hunters v1 #4)
Overview
All members had lost family, friends or someone to the Armors. This was why they hunted the Armors in the hopes that others would not experience such loss. (X-O Manowar v3 #24) They were composed of squads that were sent into the field and specifically designed to track as well as kill Armors. For this task, it was determined that small squads for surgical strikes were needed as larger forces simply painted them as targets for an Armor. It was said that the Armor Hunters were not a military but a force designed to kill Armors only. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) Full hunter squads consisted of ten members with any deaths seeing reinforcements to replace the fallen. (X-O Manowar v3 #28) Members were said to had sworn an oath where they were to always be on the hunt until no Armors were left anywhere. (Armor Hunters v1 #3)
Leadership of the organization was headed by a figure who held the position of Control. Among the individual squads, the leader of a hunter team held the post of Primary. These squad leaders decided on strategy in the field and dealt the deathblow to an Armor with the special Spears they crafted. It was said that such a position could not be taught and that an individual had to have the innate skills for leadership to be a squad leader. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) After the complete of a mission, the Hunter squad were expected to transmit their log and send it to Control. (X-O Manowar v3 #24)
Protocol was established by Control who developed mission standards for the Hunters. Among these was not to engage in decontamination of a world of Armors from orbit. This was because previous actions against the Armors had the organisms dig deep underground that prevented any decontamination manoeuvres from reaching them or in another case the escaped the world completely. (Armor Hunters v1 #1)
On the planet Gennin, they used the parched planet as a training ground for their recruits with a kill facility located there. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) They conducted their own funerals for their fellow Hunters in respect for their service. (X-O Manowar v3 #24)
A key weapon against their targets was a Spear whose tip was magma glass that had been charged in hyper-atomic chambers and had their shaft composed of wood from the plant that spawned the Armors. These weapons were extremely rare and nearly impossible to obtain with them being even more difficult to craft. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) Spears were able to disrupt the functions of an Armor preventing the host form being able to access their abilities for a short length of time to allow the use to eliminate the organism. (Armor Hunters v1 #4) They were known to make use of Hounds that were large extraterrestrial four-legged hunting animals able to follow commands and emitted powerful sonic screams able to kill other beings. Such beasts were deployed onto planets via pods and dispatched to weaken the enemy lines before the Hunters themselves took to the battlefield. (Armor Hunters v1 #2)
Armor Hunters made use of Class-I independent operations units that were the biggest death machines in their arsenal and served as transports for their teams. If their respective teams were lost, the transports were tasked with returning to headquarters to await new friendship assignments. (X-O Manowar v3 #27) Using a Resistance Package, these machines under a level 1 rating were able to detach their head and launch them at a site of an adequate population centre near the target where they emitted a large explosion capable of devastating entire cities killing everyone within its radius. (Armor Hunters v1 #1) Once on the field, they could project energy beams from the face-like structure that hovered and served as their head. These machines were also able to deploy a shield and activate countermeasures such as armed spherical drones when responding to attacks. (Armor Hunters v1 #3)
An ultimate weapon created by the Armor Hunters in response to the Armors was the Dead Hand. This was a massive planet-sized machine composed of thousands of varying mechanical automatons. The purpose of the machine was to find worlds whose various forms of life were catalogued and stored whereupon the planet was destroyed by terminating the star thus scorching it clean of life. This was in order to prevent the Armors from having any further hosts and lead to its eventual extermination. By eliminating life, the Dead Hand reasoned then that the Armors would similarly perish. Once the Armors were destroyed, the genetic samples taken by the Dead Hand were to be used to restore the life forms destroyed by the great machine. As an automated system, it did not hold a leader and instead followed its directive in purging worlds after their respective life forms were stored for safekeeping. (X-O Manowar v3 #35)
Members
- Control :
- Helix :
- Malgam :
- Reebo :
- Mopp : (X-O Manowar v3 #24)
- Quartz :
Notes
- The Armor Hunters were created by Robert Venditti where they made their first appearance in X-O Manowar v3 #24 (March, 2014).
Appearances
- X-O Manowar v3:
- Armor Hunters v1:
External Links
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