“My homies call me Cracker. I crack computers, I crack skulls. Any questions?” -Cracker, explaining his name
Bio
As a young man growing up in an LA street gang, this pasty-white tech guy had the brains to go to UCLA, but was too busy putting his talents to use for more…nefarious purposes. Let’s just say he had two prices on his head: one for all the criminal gangs wanting to utilize his skill set; the other for his death or capture, put on his head by pretty much everyone with a security system.
After narrowly escaping arrest in his hometown, Cracker thought it best to ply his craft somewhere where people wouldn’t mind as much. And, of course, he could make from one job as an Objective Specialist an amount of money rivaling all the cash he’d robbed from every bank in LA, which further incentivized the move to London for Cracker.
Stats
Class: Engineer
Health: 120
Speed: 400
Appearance
Swaggering about in his sagging jeans, Cracker can’t be missed. A team-colored bandana covers the short blonde cropped hair atop his head. There’s a pair of glasses on his head, one of the arms is missing but Cracker somehow manages to keep the damn things straight. A severely oversized football jersey with some rather worrying blood stains and bullet holes drapes across his thin frame, it bears the name CRACKER and the number on whatever Loadout Card currently equipped. The belt isn’t doing a great job at holding his pants up, but it is a handy place to store Transponders; alongside several Transponders, the Objective Specialist’s repair tools can be seen hanging.
If an artist such as @Shinywindow or @gg2ez could draw this, there would be a shortage of gratitude in the world, for I would have hoarded all of it.
Primary Ability: Transponder
“Can’t touch this.” -Cracker, remarking on his Transponder’s abilities
This little black box resembles a walkie-talkie, but despite fitting in Cracker’s hand, it can do so much more. What it can do specifically depends on what objective Cracker is currently taking care of, but what they all have in common is that it only works if Cracker stays in a certain radius of it. However, as long as he’s still in the radius, the Transponder will still work even while Cracker is Incapacitated, as long as he’s not gibbed. He can toss it onto an objective much like a Heartbeat Sensor. The deployed Transponder has 100 HP and has 50% fire resistance thanks to its rugged heat-resistant casing; rare-earth magnets on its base make it nigh-immovable for its size once attached. Only one Cracker from each team can activate a Transponder on each objective. Transponders have 15-second batteries and 25-second cooldown; Cracker can recover it for either 10 seconds of cooldown refunded or 5 seconds remaining, whichever leaves Cracker with a greater CD time. Unless, of course, it’s not on an objective, in which case recovering will completely refund the cooldown.
The specific radius is debatable, but about double an Aura healing station sounds like a good place to start.
C4 - Offense
Cracker tosses the Transponder onto a planted C4, and while it remains active, the defuse progress will steadily revert. The active revert continues even while someone’s actively defusing the C4, slowing them down.
C4 - Defense
Cracker tosses this onto a planted enemy C4, stopping the timer while he’s in range. This can work to buy him time to defuse when there’s only a few seconds left, or to let him fight off enemies before going for the defuse.
EV - Offense
Cracker can toss the Transponder onto the repaired EV, jamming incoming “call-in” Fire Support within the Cracker radius to protect the EV. Arty and Kira designators will show an invalid location, though Kira can just park her laser in the path of the EV; Skyhammer’s marker will act like a nade. Stoker’s molotovs are unaffected, which is why the Transponder resists heat.
EV - Defense
On a destroyed EV, the Transponder will slow down and revert repair progress much like it would a defuse on C4.
Carryables
I can’t think of a specific use on Carryables, but with his increased health and access to assault rifles, he can pitch in on the assault to get the carrier there.
Other
Cracker can throw the Transponder onto an enemy deployable, making it serve Cracker as if he were the Merc who placed it down. Again, the Cracker radius applies to the Transponder’s function. If the real owner of the deployable replaces it, or Cracker or a teammate destroys said deployable, Cracker is refunded 10 seconds on his Transponder cooldown. This refund does not happen if the enemy shoots the Transponder off.
Secondary Ability: Objective Specialist
Weapons
Primary Weapon: Sanik-10 (Real world equivalent: Saiga-12)
It looks like a Timik, but don’t quite quack like one. It’s actually a semiautomatic shotgun sporting 10-round box magazines. It fires 12 pellets at 6 damage each with similar spread to the Ahnuld. Obviously the box mag offers a sizable advantage to the other shotguns with a larger capacity and faster reload, and the fire rate is slightly higher compared to the other shotguns as well. This thing kicks like a mule, though, so ADS and space out your shots if going for mid-range. It’s the shotgun of the assault-rifle world, and Loadouts can equip Cracker with the Timik and M4A1 assault rifles.
Secondary Weapon: MP400 default, DE. 50, S&W
Tertiary Weapon: Any standard, or a baseball bat.
Of course there will be Augments increasing radius, he’ll probably have access to the Stability Augment as well as Tough or Focus, and maybe an Augment letting him ignore the radius requirement and communicate with his Transponder by iron-sighting it from a distance.
Fight Back
When encountering Cracker, remember that his Ability requires him to stay within an area for it to work. Use explosives or a Molotov to drive him out and render the Transponder useless. Time he spends shooting at you is time he isn’t spending doing the objective, distract him while a teammate shoots off the Transponder. Cracker has the health and weapons to duel other Mercs, back off or get backup when encountering him.
So get Cracker, hack some objectives, and get dirty.