Comm-Link:Tracker - 2943-05-28

Morning, afternoon or evening to all of you out there on the trail. This is Garret Coliga with another installment of TRACKER, your source for all the latest news, tech and tips in the world of bounty hunting. This broadcast is brought to you by Talisman. Whenever I’m on a hunt, Talisman is the only name I trust with their proven line of armor and shields. Talisman, take the hits.

As usual, we’re going to start out with the latest HotSheet, our picks of the latest bounties to hit the Guild. Remember all bounties are validated by the Bounty & Capture Division of the UEE Advocacy and are subject to Advocacy and BHG rules. Consult your local Bounty Hunter Guild or law enforcement office for the complete list of available bounties.

First out. The smuggling team of Alfredo and Judy just got hit with another mark. Last seen quick-burning through Pyro System in their modded Connie. They paid out of their last one so I would mark them as a low threat. Once they drop off whatever their smuggling, I’ll bet they’ll turn themselves in.

Moving on, Cah Feng, aka Jagged Tooth, has been destroying CommRelays outside the jump points along Kellar’s Run. For those outside of the know, Feng doesn’t much like the Law or anybody that represents it, so be easy on your approach. Word in the hubs is that Feng’s been tapping a pretty healthy SLAM habit, so he’ll be extra twitchy. If you find him, make sure you confront him with shields up and guns hot.

Last there’s Sara Clip, aka Needle, aka Killshot. Seems Sara’s back in the mix after getting slapped with a dime on QuarterDeck. Nice to see the cops guarding the prison world managed to keep her there for a whole three months. This is a high risk jacket. Sara got pinched on multiple counts of murder and piracy. She likes to jack ships to keep Shacklers and Advocacy off her trail, so double-check those reg-tags and, above all, be careful.

Remember, you can always consult your local Bounty Hunter Guild or law enforcement office for the complete list of available bounties, and double-check any bounty before confronting a fugitive, as bounties may have been cleared.

Now, onto our main story for this segment. Many of you Guild members know that the Board is currently locked in a debate regarding entry requirements for prospective new Guild members. For months this has been going on and it seems like the battle lines have pretty much settled to two sides. Now, I know many of my Guild-mates might be sick of this topic, but this is for our viewers out there, our prospective brothers and sisters who would be keen to know what’s happening behind closed doors and how it might affect their application or acceptance into our network.

In short, it breaks down like this. There has been a very vocal movement in the Guild to lower the requirements for membership. They want to open up the Guild to attract more members, their logic being that the more sanctioned bounty enforcers out in the black, the safer everyone will be since there will be another level of law enforcement to keep a lid on crime. They propose that a percentage of Guild bounties be cleared for non-members. These pilots would need to register with the Guild before attempting to enforce the bounty. If the pilot were to collect blank-number of these bounties, they could earn their way into the Guild.

Now the opposition feels that inviting the public to participate in bounties will be essentially taking money out of the hands of the seasoned veterans who have been paying Guild dues for decades. In fact, proponents of this mentality have introduced a counter-bill that tightens Guild Membership, requiring a series of applications as well as recommendations from three Guild Members of good standing. They feel that in these difficult economic times, that the Guild shouldn’t be “opening the floodgates” to new members when it has enough difficulty finding work for the members it already has.

So there it is. While it may sound to the non-members that the former situation is obviously preferable as it makes entry into the Guild much easier, there is a trade-off if there are dozens of Guild-rated Hunters scrambling for each low-risk bounty.

But we want to open it up to you. Drop a message to the show and let us know which way you’re leaning. In the meantime, we’ll take some comms from our listeners in-system, so stick around if you can. If you can’t, you take care and watch your back.

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