Hansa Nairoba and Bovan Tuk

The first miniatures sculpted for Antares were Hansa Nairoba and Bovan Tuk.

Hansan Nairoba, Mercenary Captain

Hansa Nairoba of the Freeborn is a notorious Mercenary Commander and Adventurer – the best in all of Determinate space in the opinion of many Concord intelligence agents. Hansa himself would certainly agree with them: sometime gunrunner, revolutionary leader, military commander, trader in the esoteric and dealer in secrets, his reputation alone is worth a battalion of assault troopers. He is often found in the hire of House Oszon.

Ever prepared for a fight, Hansa carries a light compression carbine – a deadly if notoriously demanding weapon – together with a hefty plasma pistol for when the fighting gets up close and personal. Hansa’s experience and training  makes him deadly accurate with both these firearms.  The cylindrical packs attached to his battle armour carry plasma grenades and the armoured panels on his suit are fitted with resharded hyper-light shield generators.

Bovan Tuk, Mhagris Warchief

Bovan Tuk is a Mhagris mercenary character, well known as a companion of Hansa Nairoba, and is wanted by several Houses of the Varda for contract breaking, smuggling, and dallying with royal princesses. Bovan – who generally goes by the name of Bo or Boey – carries the best and most sophisticated weapons that money can buy, but he also wears many of the savage trappings of his people as befits the leader amongst a proud warrior race.

Bovan’s Mhagris are a primitive tribe that live upon a feral world – a world that long ago reverted to savagery and its people to barbarism. There are many such worlds throughout Antarean space so, unless worlds of strategic importance, or possessed of rare and valuable resources, they are largely ignored by more advanced societies. It’s from such worlds that the Freeborn often recruit and train mercenaries, one of the prime commodities that the Varda trade throughout Antarean space. The Mhagris are those used by the combines headed by the powerful House Oszon. Given this background, it is hardly surprising that Bovan Tuk is deadly at close quarters.

Hansa and Bo: Background

Not even the IMTel of the Concord has data on all of Hansa Nairoba’s affairs, dealings with the powerful and influential worlds of the Determinate, many adventures, or his numerous subversive activities throughout Antarean space.  Even his origins remain something of a mystery.

During his career, Hansa has worked on behalf of both Isorians and the Concord, for several Freeborn Houses, for innumerable worlds within the Determinate, and – if rumours are to be believed – the Vorl and aliens whose very existence is otherwise  unknown to anyone else in Antarean space.

During much of that time he has been accompanied by Bovan Tuk, a former chieftain of the Mhagris who Hansa met whilst undertaking a sensitive mission for Vard Bero – or at least pretending to do so whilst in fact infiltrating the Vard’s defences to steal a particularly cherished item on behalf of another client. That incident didn’t quite work out as intended by any of those concerned, earning Hansa the eternal – if somewhat misplaced – gratitude of the Vard and an unexpected ally amongst the Vard’s numerous wives. But that, as they say, is another story.

Although Hansa and Bovan met as enemies, Hansa was able to liberate the Mhagrid chieftain from the soma grafts implanted into him by the Oszoni renegade NuHu Karad Vek. After this the two became ‘blood‐brothers’ according to the binding Mhagrid ceremony and somewhat to Hansa’s surprise.

One of the reasons why Hansa’s origins remain obscure is that Hansa himself claims to have no recollection of where he came from, his childhood or much of his early life. It could be that Hansa is a regenerate clone without knowing it, or he might have deliberately chosen to excise parts of his own memory at some time in the past. It’s even possible that someone else did this to him for their
own reasons, whether for good or ill, and even NuHu have been unable to glean any details from Hansa’s mind – which lends some credence to the claim.

Hansa does, however, claim to be Freeborn, although without any real basis of evidence. Some Oszoni, principally rivals and enemies of Vard Bero, are keen to claim that he is one of the hated Ky’amak varda, in part to discredit him in the eyes of the Vard. Such an origin is certainly no less likely than any other and such possibilities only serve to cast further suspicion upon Hansa’s motives.

Bovan Tuk’s origins maybe less controversial but since joining up with Hansa his reputation has grown to almost equal that of his partner. Physically huge and  impressively muscled, his appearance alone has been known to cause men to dissolve into incoherent terror and princesses of several Freeborn houses retain an unaccountable affection for him – to the eternal annoyance of parents and suitors alike.

Although Bo has practically recovered from removal of his soma graft implants, sometimes things happen that trigger the residual neural connection, sending him into uncontrollable fury or plunging him into inconsolable despair. Nothing is
more likely to provoke such occurrences as Bo getting angry – which does tend to happen when people shoot at him!

If there is something that Hansa and Bovan both agree on then it is the overbearing technology of the IMTel. Both distrust intrusive technology equally fiercely – though for entirely different reasons. In Bovan’s case he retains all the superstitions of his savage race, and having suffered at the hands of the Renegade NuHu Mandarin Karad Vek he would prefer to put his trust in  old-fashioned technology that doesn’t answer back.

Hansa is canny enough to know that the nano‐based neuro connectivity of the IMTel makes it impossible to keep anything entirely secret – and that can’t be good, can it? They might give the impression that they’re technophobes – but the truth is they’re both competent engineers with a better understanding of how the technology of the Antarean universe works than most people.

Perhaps that’s why they’re not so keen on it after all.

Stats: Hansa Nairoba and Bovan Tuk

Hansa and Bovan are best represented by replacing the command figure in a Feral Command unit in a Freeborn force. Either or both may be used, but if both are used they must be in the same unit.

Hansa replaces a Feral Warlord in a Feral Command unit for +5pts (total +6pts).

Bovan Tuk replaces a Feral Warlord in a Feral Command squad in any Freeborn army for +3pts (total +4pts).

If both Bovan and Hansa are used, Hansa Nairoba can be added to Bovan Tuk’s Feral Command unit for +8pt.

Either or both may be hired as Mercenaries-for-Hire in PanHuman or Vorl armies within a Feral Command unit.

To be faithful to Bovan Tuk’s erratic, partly-removed soma graft, the Feral Command squad in which he is the Warlord should be given soma grafts. If Hansa is with them and teh soma grafts fail, then he is dragged along by the out-of-control Ferals! 

Infantry	M	Ag	Acc	Str	Res	Init	Co	Special
Hansa Nairoba with compression carbine, plasma pistol, plasma grenades; resharded armour, impact web	5	6	6	6	5(7)	9	9	Command, Follow, Hero, Tough 3, Wound 2, Dead Eye, Army Option(Get Up!×2), Unique, Mercenary
Bovan Tuk with oversized mag pistol, plasma grenades, reflex armour, impact cloak	6	6	6	7	6(7)	9	8	Command, Follow, Hero, Tough, Wound 3, Savage Strike, Unique, Mercenary

Modification	Description
Oversized Mag Pistol	Bovan Tuk’s oversized mag pistol is best regarded as a micro-x launcher with overload but with no OH mode and which can be used in hand-to-hand (Inaccurate, SV3).
Dead Eye	When he needs to be, Hansa can be deadly with his ranged weapons. On a Fire order, he receives a +2 Acc bonus instead of +1.