Vi's Fixmen

Vi's Fixmen are a shadowy mercenary and assassin's guild operating out of the Hodeth Belt. They are a relatively recent phenomenon, perhaps forking away from early Wayward exiled, where they acted as middlemen for more powerful local factions. Now they operate across the Hodeth Belt where they are mostly known for their high-profile ship hijacks and thefts - and how they usually do not leave people dead.
Currently, the Fixmen are led by an entity called Vi Tulsa. Yet very few people can claim to have met with her, as she only communicates through the use of an AI core which acts as the coordinator for a growing fleet of loosely affiliated pirates. Nonetheless, her leadership is effective : the instructions of her AI to different crews are ruthless and prescient, and heavy anti-Coalition propaganda across the Belt ensures a steady flow of recruits, and various Great Houses, corporations and belter groups guarantees a lot of jobs.
A fairly new but already recurrent problem, the Fixers effectively act as glory seekers, bounty hunters and thieves. What makes them notorious, in spite of their small size, is their modus operandi : they do not use sheer force, nor do they seek to infiltrate starports or docked ships. Instead, their hacking tools and specially designed shuttles cut into or dock with ships by precisely matching their hyperspace phase to that of their target, before forcing a breach. Their cyberwarfare suite often prevents the ship from meaningfully detecting the intrusion, and most colonial vessels are ill prepared for such intrusions. Once within the ship, the Fixmen act as a regular but impressive special ops force : they steal, kidnap or even rescue people with minimal injuries and typically no loss of life. Some of the best thieves, hackers, and operatives work in employ of the Fixmen. Their size is kept small and they are splintered in several cells that are seldom aware of one another (to avoid compromising the entire operation if caught). Their only link to each other is through Vi Tulsa's administrative AI, which has ensured their success as an organization.
One does not join the Fixmen - the Fixmen find prospective agents they deem skillful and receptive enough and recruits them. Their success comes at a price, however. Shipping companies are adapting their ships to better meet this new threat, whereas lesser mercenary groups often parade as Fixmen to get more business - and fail miserably at imitating their particular brand of operations. It is noted that no Starlyft, Inc vessel has been targeted by the Fixmen - the shipping corporation commented that they are in the minority of organizations that have invested in proprietary ship systems and airlock mechanisms, which are much harder to hack.

Type

Illicit, Syndicate