Minor Gangs

Written by: Ripshot

Let's be real, omae: Not every gang is important enough to have a detailed look at, like ours is, but they're still making enough small waves (and hiring schmucks like us) to be worth writing down. Here's a few names that you might hear about while you're in Raleigh:

Dream Eaters

Territory: Morrisville
Primary Operations: BTL-Manufacturing/Distribution, Cyberware Theft/Chopshopping, Organ Trafficking, Human Trafficking
Colors: White, Purple
Connections: Low (BTL and Narcotics Distributors)
Material Assets: Low (Simsense/BTL-Manufacturing Capabilities)
Magical Assets: Low
Matrix Assets: High
If you've ever slotted a BTL in Raleigh, nine times out of ten it's gonna be from some Elves in Morrisville calling themselves the 'Dream Eaters'. Unlike a lot of small-time chip-dealers, these guys make all of their wares 'in-house' and do the simsense recordings themselves to cut out any middle-men in their profit, and give higher-end customers "tailored experiences". To keep up this supply, the gang has a habit of making trips into Neuse and the The Concrete Forest to kidnap a SINless schmuck or five to be the stars of their newest torture-flick. Afterwards, they'll either sell them onto someone else or, if they died, sell their organs and chrome on the black market for a little extra.
Now buying from these guys ain't hard, but finding them? Much harder. Dream Eaters are a pretty decentralised bunch with no known head-honcho, and most of their assets being matrix-based. Outside of a few slums for their lower-class clientelle they don't really have much in the way of turf, moving from place to place as they record and kill to keep anyone from trailing them for long. Every now and then they'll make a call to a fixer or runner when they want something/someone specific for their drek, but they tend to talk through a proxy or three, so don't expect to track 'em down after a job.

Posting this anonymously for obvious reasons, but I had a rare opportunity to do some 'acting' at one of their temporary studios in the grungier parts of Morrisville. Some big-shot sports guy was paying the Dream Eaters beaucoup bucks to make a snuff-film starring some drekhead junky that killed his kid in a hit-and-run, or at least that's what they told me when they ushered me in. Everyone supervising the scene were wearing these creepy masks that looked like faces sculpted out of porcelein, and none of 'em spoke a word, just sent me messages through a burner-'link. They also weren't exactly well-armed, but I had to wade through a few dozen chipheads just to get to the set...

— Anonymous Poster

Marcello Nostra

Territory: South Cary
Primary Operations: Gambling, Prostitution, Money Laundering, Contract-Killing
Colors: Black, Red
Connections: Medium (Other Mafia Families)
Material Assets: Medium (Small-Arms, Finances)
Magical Assets: Low
Matrix Assets: Low

The Mafia used to be a bigger player in Raleigh's underworld, with the Marcello family holding a whole-ass monopoly on the city's laundering and illegal gambling scenes, but when the Black Unicorns made their debut, one of the first things they did was cut the middle-man out of their own laundering operations and drive the Marcellos out of their downtown turf, leaving only the old Consigliere, Adam Marcello, and a few capos alive by the time the dust cleared. They're still pulling in cash on gigs in the fancier parts of Cary and they've not forgotten what the Unicorns did to 'em, but they're a shadow of their former selves, and they know the only reason they've not been finished off is because they're beneath the Unicorns' notice for the time being.

Hansa

Territory: Tunnels beneath the Raleigh-Shiawase OCC
Primary Operations: Talismongering, Petty Theft, Union-Organising
Colors: Green, White
Connections: Low
Material Assets: Low (Magical Supplies)
Magical Assets: High
Matrix Assets: Low

I know, I know. An underground society underneath a megamall? Hand on the bible, I've seen it for myself, omae. Even in the ritzier parts of Raleigh, there's more than enough old tunnels and disused subways that you could set up a little squatter's town and never get caught. Hansa's the de-facto authority of the squats beneath the Omni-Consumer Complex, making sure whoever's living with 'em are safe from cops or gangers and presiding over any disputes that go on down there. Most of 'em are Dwarfs 'cause I guess they have an easier time moving through the smaller tunnels, we ain't sure. What we are sure about is that they've got a lot of awakened in their crew, and when they're not selling magical junk on the black market, they're organising all kinds of anarcho-syndicalist crap for wageslaves living topside, usually by way of hired chummers like us.

I asked around a couple of Hansa guys about the Dwarf thing. Those green tracksuits they wear like uniforms? Turns out they lifted a few crates of 'em from a truck that took a wrong turn into their turf (happens more than you think), and most of them were in Dwarf sizes. So it's not so much that there's more dwarfs than other metatypes down in Hansa, it's just that Dwarfs are the ones who wear the gang's colors the most and stand out from the crowd.

— Saint-Ain't

Who'd you ask? Last time I tried to make small-talk with a Hansa Dwarf, he just stared me down while his pal stole my comlink...

— Anonymous Poster

Japanese Keeb, by the name of Leiko . Funny story about her, she used to be a Yakuza bigshot, 'till she managed to roally piss off someone higher up on the food-chain and wussed out of getting her pinky dropped. She ran into the Hansa and asked for sanctuary, and while the Hansa's price was pretty much everything but the clothes on her back, they let her in and kept her from getting whacked by the yak. Been a few years but she's still down there handling the Hansa's finances. Say what you will about 'em, they keep their words.

— Saint-Ain't

Dead Fingers

Territory: The Carotid Souk Shades, Rogue Matrix-Hosts
Primary Operations: Cybercrime, Information-Brokerage, Extortion-Rackets
Colors: Black, Cyan
Connections: High (Carotid Merchants)
Material Assets: Low (Matrix Supplies)
Magical Assets: Low
Matrix Assets: High

The Shades might be the Carotid's epicenter of gossip and info, but that's only partly because drek-merchants like to gossip, and mostly because of these guys. The Dead Fingers are a group of self-styled journalists, matrix-personalities, deckers and even a few Technomancers leading the gang (who keep on the downlow, for obvious reasons) that keep info flowing through the Carotid smoothly and act as middlemen for anyone looking to buy, sell and disseminate paydata. Now it's true, most of their cash goes towards paying other gangs because they're a bunch of skinny nerdlingers, but don't let that and neo-gopnik tracksuits fool you: If you find these guys, it's 'cause they want you to find then, and it'll be on their turf and their terms.

The Towermen

Territory: The Concrete Forest, Upper skyscrapers
Primary Operations: Talismongering. Drug Manufacturing/Distribution
Colors: Brown, Green
Connections: Low
Material Assets: Medium (Narcotics and Produce)
Magical Assets: High
Matrix Assets: Low

Whole lot of real-estate on those skyscrapers in the Concrete Forest go to waste because go fig', the elevators are busted and nobody wants to climb a hundred floors for nothin', but that hasn't stopped these guys from pulling it off and setting up shop and turning the top floors into the biggest fraggin' gardens outside of Durham. What're they growing? Drugs. Lots, and lots of homegrown drugs. Fruits 'n veggies too, but growing your own food gets more heat from the cops than the deepweed, so they keep that more hush-hush. Don't think these guys are like the Rampart guys though: They're not aggressive like other Barrens gangs, but they're still a bunch of isolationist druid-types that booby-trap the hell out of their tower and shoot anyone who climbs too far up without their say-so.

Question: How the hell do they get enough water piped up 102 floors of a fucking skyscraper to run a farm?

— Cr4nk

Same way they get everything else up and down: Drones, drones and more drones. If you know how to make contact, they'll even use 'em to deliver product straight to your window.

— Saint-Ain't

WhiteCells

Territory: The Carotid Souk Shafts
Primary Operations:
Colors: Gray, Red
Connections: Low (Carotid Merchants)
Material Assets: Low
Magical Assets: Medium
Matrix Assets: Low

We all heard the rumors that right down in the bottom of the Souk there's ghouls living in the walls who get to eat anyone that causes too much trouble for the locals, and wouldn't you know it those rumors are true. BUT, this isn't as bad a thing as it sounds. See, the ghouls in question (as well as most other HMHVV types you can think of) that call themselves the WhiteCells, they tend to suck up any HMHVV positive they find in the worse parts of Raleigh and take 'em into the fold, giving 'em shelter and more consistent/less dangerous sources of food. They got their name because of the arrangement they have with the Carotid's merchants in the lower level, where they get corpses and street-clinic castoffs in exchange for helping keep the peace and keeping the more feral infected in check. They tend to stick to their own and get anything done outside of their turf through proxies, but as long as you don't tick them or the Carotid off they'll leave you alone.

They've got drek-all to compensate you financially with if you help 'em out, but WhiteCells know Raleigh's underground inside out, including the best ways to get to any place's underground while avoiding the usual dangers down there. They also let me crash for a couple of days after a job brought some heat. Wasn't a good sleep, mind you...

— Blyat Country

Worried you were gonne get eaten?

— Cr4nk

Nope, they blast goblin-metal 24/7

— Blyat Country

Scattered Souls

Territory: The Pit (?)
Primary Operations: Unknown
Colors: Fire, presumably
Connections: Unknown (likely none)
Material Assets: Unknown (likely none)
Magical Assets: Unknown
Matrix Assets: Unknown (likely none)

This is like one of those urban myths that you hear went around in the before-times. 'course, the Chupacabra ended up being real after all because enough people had enough belief in it when the Awakening hit, so I guess he got the last laugh. All the same, this is something that's been all rumours - even The Rampart's own little trip into the pit didn't shed any light on this. But that transcript (that I'm sure you've read) is enough fuel for this particular fire.

All we're missing is a campfire and some marshmallows out in the sticks.

— Cr4nk

First off, this isn't a proper gang, and this isn't even an official name of any sort. It's a kind of made-up identity that's piled around a chiphead-tier theory for what's *wrong* with The Pit. Annoying thing is that, like any good conspiracy, there's juuuuust enough plausibility for it to not be dismissed out-of-hand. Toxic Shamans are apparently - and thankfully - pretty damn rare. Just one can screw up a place good, and the people in that area along with it. You don't typically hear about more than one in a single location, but only partly because of that rarity. It's also because they usually don't take kindly to each other.

It's their way or the highway.

— BonBonk

Our Ursa says that whenever two of 'em meet, it tends to be a short spate of violence, and then it's done. Usually with a lot of collateral damage, but rarely with lasting effects. But what if more than two of them are drawn to a particular spot? Three? Four? Maybe more? What if they end up at an impasse? Where they bicker and compete, but each of them can't afford to focus too much on just one other in case they get caught on their backfoot, but they've got too much beef with each other to truce up even temporarily, so they never whittle themselves down. Their influences just keep piling on into one little part of the world. And while that's happening, they keep trying to pull away from each other due to mutual hatred, but that same hatred draws them back into competition with each other. They're stuck, and we don't know drek about how much worse it's gonna make the Pit.

The reason this idea holds any amount of water is simple - it is the unending fire at the center of the would-be arcology, and the endless plume of smoke billowing out of it. The strength and downfall of Toxic Shamans is their unnaturally close ties with their Totem, close to the point they can breach through to that Totem's realm more easily than regular Shamans - sometimes even doing so unintentionally. A small group of these people, constantly competing and fighting around The Pit, trying to pull away, and then getting dragged back in because of those same spiritual binds. What do you think that would do to the fabric of reality in the center of all of that? Where do you think that fire is coming from?
...what happens if they ever finally manage to create some distance?

— Ursa-Minor

Fancy a marshmallow, Cr4nk?

— BonBonk