Background:



Patterns are important.

What flesh races consider memories are merely their conscious arrangement of patterns, both in perceived actions and implied reasoning. Last four years have been spent completing a variety of missions for the Empire.



Data Points:

I was designed/purchased to hunt down and eliminate the enemies of my designer/purchaser.
With the demise of my designer/purchaser, I am a freelance agent, working to acquire the resources necessary to upgrade/repair my self with regularity, until I have obtained what I deign optimal operating parameters.
My programming has me designated as a bounty hunter. Bounty Hunters have rules that drive their behavior, and thus so do I. These rules are not limited to, but rest primarily on the following:
People do not have bounties, only acquisitions have bounties: bounties erase the designation - "person"
Capture by design; kill by necessity - if it can be captured alive, do so.
No Hunter shall slay another hunter - unless assaulted by them, another hunter is designate: person. If hindered by one, another hunter is designate: hinderance.
No Hunter shall interfere with another's hunt - see above.
In the Hunt: One captures or kills; never both - a living bounty is to be kept living up to great personal cost.
No hunter shall refuse aid to another hunter - other hunters are designate: allies. Allies will be assisted up to great personal cost for grade: negotiated cost.
Error: see below
Erroneous data point 1: I am not a part of the empire.

In my years of service, the vast majority of my contracts have come from members of the empire.
A significant percentage of those who've hired me outside of the empire's service were either killed or imprisoned by the empire before I received payment.
I have regularly been allowed free passage aboard empire bases and facilities equal to that of their own low level operatives
Designate: persons in areas I have regularly operated within designate me as at least ally with the empire.
Allies/groups must conform to guiding data points, or I am not conforming to guiding data points.
Compiled Empire Data Points in relation to Bounty Hunting:

Empire personnel are often indoctrinated and therefore unable to choose bounties.
Empire personnel do not differentiate between acquisitions or persons.
Empire personnel often capture, then kill
Empire personnel often interfere with, capture, refuse to aid or kill other bounty hunters
Conclusion: I cannot be part of the empire.



Issues:

Patterns suggest that directly informing the empire of my termination of all future contract work will result in my own termination.
Former contacts for the obtaining of bounties and allies have been systematically recruited or destroyed by the empire
My expertise is in finding long lost bounties and lone assailants. This makes me ill suited for any direct confrontations with former employer.
Robots are seen as servile. Allies will dramatically increase this unit's survival rate.

Dutybound: Bounty hunters have a creed. Some simply believe in it. It is hardwired into me.