Winter’s background is a bit of mystery. He showed up on Spica looking for employment while the Monkeys were on a garrison assignment. He doesn’t offer much, but clearly he must have learned his superior mechwarrior skills some place.

The truth is that Winter is an exiled Knight of Randis. He was a native of Randis and a student and devotee of Grand Knight Frews. Although he attempted to accept Frews’s dismissal as Grand Knight, he found the shift in leadership infuriating and became insubordinate. This insubordination ultimately led to his dismissal when he refused to follow Grand Knight Beckett’s orders in battle.

The Knights were all Winter had known and he was aimless after his dismissal. He drifted from planet to planet until he found the Monkeys. He decided then that he would stand and fight the darkness threatening the Inner Sphere and prove his worth, to himself even if to no one else. While Winter does find some of the Monkeys tactics to be less than honorable, he does appreciate the close camraderie of the group.