Maverick Hunters

Maverick Hunters are a paramilitary group funded and controlled by the United Nations which gives them operational jurisdiction in every nation in the world. They have bases in every nation, though the Headquarters is located in Able city.

The exact size of the Maverick Hunters has fluctuated greatly over the years from having relatively few at the outset (when it was only based in Able City) to a hundred-thousand hunters globally.

The Hunters primary objective is to police the reploid population across the world. They exist to protect citizens from rogue reploids (Mavericks). Though they are also often called in for damage and disaster relief, protection of personnel (high ranking government, corporate and important witnesses in trials). They also investigate reports of maverick activity, missing persons and some crimes. They don't handle cases of drugs or most human crimes, but they can make arrests if the human possess a threat to others/themselves/hunter personnel. (This sometimes causes hardships and troubles with human law enforcement and undercover stings.)

Converse to mavericks, Hunters are organized extremely well. At the highest point is the leader. The first leader (and creator of the Maverick Hunters) was Dr. Cain, though he later retired and the position was taken up by Signas. Beyond that each squad generally has it's own leader who is in charge of their group. (They are also responsible for filing all incident reports/paperwork/evidence to the higher ups.) Some squads have no leader listed but they have someone else handle their paperwork (sometimes they get their operator to do it).

Each squad typically has it's own internal hierarchy decided by the leader. But the squads themselves do not have a strict structured hierarchy. (Certain squads are still given more respect/honour though because of the feats they have achieved. EX- Squad 0 and 17 being prominent examples. )

Hunters typically function in groups (the exact size of the group varies with each mission, sometimes only a pair of hunters up to the entire squad). There are numerous squads and many of them have their own distinct function or role within the Hunters.

For a list of Hunter squads, please see here

In order to join the Maverick Hunters, prospective candidates must not have a criminal record (or be wanted or involved in other cases). In rare cases, if a perpetrator of a lesser offense (EX- stealing) is caught red handed and are co-operative, they can join the hunters to repay society for the crimes they have committed instead of being locked up. (Typically these hunters are given restricted access to the Hunter base sections and monitored closely. They also aren't given the truly important missions either.)

Physically, candidates of all types are accepted and are given roles to match their physique. Though mental checks are done to ensure that a hunter's cognitive skills are good enough to understand and follow orders. (Though in desperate times, the cognitive skill requirement may be relaxed to enable more to join that might otherwise not have passed.)

Candidates do not need to have prior military training of any kind. Though any specialized training they've received for using their own capabilities can greatly influence decisions to accept a candidate.

Candidates do not need to have their own combat armour because the hunters provide armour. (Though selected candidates can opt to use their own if they wish. Or they can opt to have their base armour modified to Hunter specifications.)

After a candidate has become a hunter, they are given a rank (each hunter is ranked individually). Afterwards their performance on each mission is judged (on how efficient they were, how much collateral damage they caused, how many mavericks they stopped, how quickly they completed the mission, how they worked with their team, etc…), and when they complete enough missions well enough their rank increases. It's entirely possible for hunters on the same squad to be ranked vastly different. Many times the leader is ranked higher than other members. (Often due to more experience from being on more missions.)

The ranks are:

Being funded by the UN means they are given a sizable budget to spend. They use a large portion of the budget to outfit their hunters with state of the art technology. (Most of which is developed in house by Hunter Technicians. Though they occasionally contract outside companies to create new tech for them.)

They have created many useful weapons and armours to protect themselves. Some of which had the designs stolen/leaked or otherwise were reverse engineered into Maverick hands. But the Hunters typically remain ever on the edge of technology thanks to their R&D teams.

The Maverick Hunters were originally founded by Dr. Cain early on after his discovery and replication of Megaman X. Soon after the first Maverick went rogue, Dr. Cain realised how big a problem it would be if more turned this way. So he founded the Hunters and began recruiting. He also continued to build specialised reploids for the purpose of becoming hunters. He built Sigma for the purpose of being a powerful maverick hunter with a defense that would prevent him from becoming a maverick. Sigma eventually turned maverick though and soon became the greatest maverick threat of all.