Rico Ortega

Rico Ortega
Deputy Marshal Ortega in Blackwater
Biographical Information
Status	Alive
Nationality/Ethnicity	Mexican-American
Gender	Male
Title	Deputy Marshal
Occupation	Lawman, Bounty Hunter (formerly)
Affiliation(s)	Saint's Crossing Sheriff's Office, Star City Gang (formerly)
Relatives	Luis Ortega (father), Marina Ortega (mother), Elena (sister)
Portrayed By	tank

Rico Ortega, generally known simply as "Ortega", is a Deputy Marshal of the Saint's Crossing Sheriff's Office.

History

Early Life

Rico Ortega was born in New Austin, on a small ranch outside of Armadillo. His mother disappeared for unknown reasons a few months after his younger sister Elena was born. Heartbroken, his father did his best to raise the two children alone while taking care of the ranch. After an especially harsh winter killed many of their cattle, his father needed to borrow money to keep the ranch running. A man named Joseph Duffy approached him in Armadillo and offered him the money he needed to keep things afloat, but at a steep price. When his father was unable to repay his debts, Duffy and his gang stormed the ranch and looted their family home. Rico and Elena managed to hide in the barn and hide, only to see their father executed by Duffy, and the ranch was set ablaze. Narrowly escaping, the two children made their way to Armadillo to seek help. The people of Armadillo helped bury his father, but with no other family and no idea where their mother had gone, Rico and Elena were sent to an orphanage in Saint Denis.

Reeling from the loss of his father and in a place so different from anything he had experienced before, Rico had significant difficulty adjusting to his new life. To make matters worse, the orphanage split the siblings up and Elena was quickly sent to a new adoptive family. Lonely, angry, and often left hungry from the meager rations provided to the orphan children, Rico began participating in petty crime with some of the other teenagers. After one too many nights in a jail cell for pickpocketing, he was approached by a man named Curtis Cunningham who promised him a new "family" and a better life.

Gang Involvement

When Rico first joined the Star City Gang, Cunningham assured him and the other young men he had recruited that they would just participate in simple robberies and scams. They would often hold people up for their belongings but do their best to make sure none of the victims were harmed in the process. Over time, Rico became very close to the other gang members, especially a boy his age named Tommy. He eventually told them about what had happened to his father and his desire for revenge on Duffy. Cunningham assured Rico that revenge is the purest form of justice, and mobilized the gang to begin seeking out their enemies, including Duffy. Over the coming months, the gang's activity began to escalate, taking on riskier robberies and becoming increasingly violent despite Cunningham's initial promises. Determined to get his revenge, Rico ignored this and dedicated himself to the gang.

In time, the Star City Gang eventually caught up to Duffy and his men. Rico and the rest of the gang gunned down most of the members, keeping Duffy alive for Rico to kill personally. After being beaten by Rico and Tommy, Duffy finally admitted that he knew who Luis Ortega was and that he had killed him. Duffy claimed he had no idea Luis had any children and begged for his life, but Rico insisted he was a liar and slit his throat. Shaken by the turn of events and by the act of deliberately taking a life, Rico began to doubt his position in the gang despite Cunningham's insistence that he did the right thing. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, however, Cunningham had an ulterior motive for targeting Duffy. Armed with Duffy's plans for a bank robbery, Cunningham rallied the gang to prepare for their biggest job yet.

When the law attempted to intervene in the robbery, Cunnigham insisted to the gang they would shoot their way out of the bank. In the mayhem, they managed to commandeer a nearby wagon to make their escape. Rico was nearly shot by one of the deputies, only for Tommy to step in front of him at the last moment. To Rico's horror, he was killed instantly. Suffering a number of casualties on both sides, Cunningham and the surviving members made their way back to their hideout. Disillusioned and mourning the loss of his friend, Rico slipped out of the camp in the dead of night to turn himself in and face his punishment.

Bounty Hunting

During Ortega's first year in prison, Cunningham and the remaining members of the gang continued to escalate. They had upgraded from petty robberies to higher-stakes heists and murders. Struggling to detain them, Rico was offered a deal - he would be released early from prison if he would work with the law to track down and capture the rest of the Star City Gang. Wracked with guilt, Ortega agreed to the terms and began the hunt. His knowledge of the gang's habits led to the capture of many of the members, before Cunningham and a few of his most trusted men and women went deep into hiding. His contract fulfilled, Ortega found he had a knack for tracking down criminals and pursued a full bounty hunting license. He spent the next decade chasing various bounties across the country but refused to return to Saint's Crossing, unable to reconcile with his past.

Events in Saint's Crossing

Ortega's return and the Lang Gang

With time, Ortega decided he was ready for a change of pace. Missing his former home deeply, he returned to the Crossing and applied to become a deputy, deciding he could help people more directly with a badge on his chest instead of chasing down bounties. After being sworn in by Sheriff Woody, he began his new life as a lawman. Due to the events of The Battle of Saint Denis, he returned to find the Lang Gang had claimed control of Armadillo and declared it an outlaw town. By order of the law, anyone caught traveling to New Austin would be considered a potential associate of the gang. Fearing his allegiance would be questioned, Ortega decided to keep his visits to his father's grave and family ranch a secret.

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