Willard Theodore Puritan

Willard Theodore Puritan, better known under the name of Kangaroo Jack, was a notorious smuggler and captain of the JumpShip "Stone Arrow" that was known to travel between the Steiner world of Dustball and the Davion and Kurita space.

His trademark was a bush hat with the rim pinned up to the crown by a tiny kangaroo.

He did not get along well with his brother Wendall Puritan, who piloted a Scorpion for Smithson's Chinese Bandits.

Kangaroo Jack was associated with Draconis Combine crimelord Grig Griez. It was his ship that brought the Dark Wing unit to Ander's Moon during Operation Inroad in April 3024. He was subsequently tracked down by Gideon Braver on a world in the Federated Suns (random, but usually Okefenokee or Tancredi IV) sometime between 3024 and 3028, but was murdered before Gideon Braver could talk to him; the assassin, a known gangland assassin known as Grim Jim, was also found dead.

Other Information

• Kangaroo Jack is a prominent background character in the 1989 Activision computer game MechWarrior, where the player takes the role of Gideon Braver in his quest to find out about and stall Operation Inroad, and reclaim the Chalice. He has to find out about the "Stone Arrow" and track down Kangaroo Jack over the course of the storyline.

• At one point in the game the player has a choice of whether or not to go to a certain address to presumably meet Kangaroo Jack. If the player elects to follow the lead he finds Jack's dead body and can choose whether to shoot the assassin in self defense or to flee. However, an article about the murder of Kangaroo Jack as well as the death of his presumed assassin appears in the news regardless of what choices the player makes. Jack and Grim Jim's deaths in the story are both therefore inevitable. Presumably, Grim Jim is killed as punishment for Gideon's escape.

References

• MechWarrior I