Wyre Rats

The glowing neon rat is the global symbol of the Wyre Rats, but what it stands for depends on where on Nisora you are. In some regions, they're still your friendly local tech shop. But the larger the city, the more aggressive the Rats. In places like Galendra, they've radicalized into anarchists, using violence to make their mark.

Conductor

First appearing around 3160, the Wyre Rats came to be in an era of defiance. With off-world influences seeping through Nisora, the concepts of Glowcore became more appealing to those wanting to defy what they saw as sterilization of their culture. These people flocked to message boards and formed local groups of engineers, programmers, painters, and designers. Their goals were to promote Nisoran culture through technology and art, defend personal choice and individual liberty, and defend themselves in the perceived culture war.

Their name came from a rodent known similarly as the wire rat. Used to eating roots and vines, once cities took over, they'd chew through wires and cables and frequently cause outages. They're seen as a nuisance with entire enterprises built around removing them. But like any rodent, they can't be truly eradicated. That was exactly what these Nisorans wanted to be known for. They created a decentralized, leaderless group with the intent to be impossible to stamp out.

Transformer

Over the next few decades, Wyre Rat workshops blossomed across the planet. Each location had a neon sign in the shape of a rat proudly illuminated outside its door. The Rats scavenged materials from junkyards and used them to repair locals' tech for cheap or develop their own projects. Tech enthusiasts of all ages came to learn, teach, or work, and Wyre Rat workshops were the top place to get vibrant custom prosthetics.
Yet as more off-worlders came to Nisora, certain discriminatory ideologies took root in Wyre Rat forums. Their legitimate complaints about unrepairable off-world tech and chains replacing local businesses quickly escalated to personal attacks against business owners and refusal to serve anyone who lacked residency papers or simply didn't "look" Nisoran.

Did you know?

The Wyre Rats also often deal in stimulating drugs. Whether you want to spice up a night out or get more study time in before an exam, they can usually help in mostly non-addictive ways.

Content Warning: Drug use
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Outlets

Wyre Rat retribution varied in intensity depending how aggressive the local chapter was and how severe the perceived offense.

Refuse service or issue bans

Direct loud music at the target's house

Review bomb business websites

Cut power to the target's business or home

Steal and reformat bodied VIs from stores

Repeatedly graffiti stores that wash it off

Resistor

Battery

Wyre Rat defense of personal liberty doesn't stop with humans. They're supportive of animal rights advocates, and are the only group pushing for VI rights. There are people who abuse bodied VIs, either through direct violence or indirect neglect. The Rats will steal these VIs from their workplaces and reformat them. Reportedly, the VI can choose what to do next, and usually chooses to stay with their rescuers.
However, it's well-known that even advanced VIs lack the emotion and free will necessary to make such decisions. Despite how human they can look, they simply aren't, and the Rats' actions are more akin to stealing corporate technology for themselves than freeing disenfranchised slaves.

Heading into the 3200s, Rats in cities like Galendra escalated tactics. They began hacking corporate systems for sabotage or theft, infecting expert systems with viruses, and engaging in increasingly violent means to show corporatists that they weren't welcomed on Nisora. Wyre Rat workshops continued providing their usual services, but their back rooms became meeting ground for anti-corporate anarchists.

Crossed Wires

Meanwhile, the Galendran Rats found a more home-grown rival in Cryptix, the narcotic-dealing gang that controlled most of the Residential District. The Rats saw the way Cryptix controlled Galendran territories as the opposite of the personal liberty they fought for. Worse for the Rats, Cryptix fought back with gunfire.
Using her VI spy network, Cordelia Isoto fanned the flames of their growing and mutual hatred. She found ways to close streets to traffic, forcing Wyre Rat runners into Cryptix territory where they'd be under fire. At other times, she'd shut down power to a casino the Cryptix leader was at, making him believe the Rats were after him.

High Voltage

In 3228, after Cryptix had forced the Rats out of Galendra, the infamous K-Ra took the final step into terrorism. With help from the Gal Pals, she planted Color Bombs beneath the Commercial District where it borders the Corporatist. At 3am, they exploded in paint, glitter, and fireworks, rending a trench to divide the corporate headquarters from the rest of the Galendra.

Content Warning: Act of terrorism
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The effect was billions of credits in devastation to corporate property, with minimal human lives lost. Newspapers tried to pin several deaths on the event, but all but two were confirmed unrelated. In the end, K-Ra made a statement that couldn't be ignored.

Transistor

████ US ███V███ TH█ █████

Wyre Rats surged back to life, with old members and new drawn to the promise of direct action. Bolstered by equipment from Nisora United and allies like the Gal Pals, the Galendran Rats continue taking the fight to their enemies. They've gained ground within the Commercial District, and with Cryptix out of the way, have taken over Residential territory left behind.
Not everything is going to plan, however. Their decentralized nature has led to struggles maintaining these territories, with no store of funds to use for repairs or defined leaders to assume responsibility. Outside of Galendra, copycats are mimicking K-Ra's methods, but being far less careful about avoiding casualties. Their ideology hasn't shifted away from supporting native Nisorans, but their growing extremism is painting some deaths as necessary collatoral.

Rebel Radio

Riding the current of publicity, K-Ra launched Rebel Radio: a station that advertises activity by groups like Cryptix, Integrell, Apex, and other corporations. Rats across the planet submit information, and once corroborated, Rebel Radio airs the details. The Radio never issues edicts, and instead lets listeners decide what they want to do with the information.

Across the planet, many are asking: How far will the Wyre Rats go to get what they want? While others ask: Will they go far enough?

Information

Type

Illicit, Rebel

Location

Commercial District

Controlled Territories

• Outskirts

Notable Members

• K-Ra

Related Ethnicities

• Glowcore

Related Historical Events

• 3 Sep 3228
  Color Bombs Downtown
• 23 Mar 228
  Allied Wyre Rats and Nisora United
• 26 Feb 3228
  The Gala

Related Campaign(s)

Campaign 2: The Gal Pals

Generators

The Wyre Rats are a flat and decentralized organization. There's no leader, nor any requirements to join. You're a Wyre Rat if you say you are.
Though she refutes claims she's a Wyre Rat leader, K-Ra's decisive and opinionated nature make her easy to follow.

LX

A VI "rescued" from Cryptix. Hasn't been seen since the Rats learned of Cordelia's VI spy network.

RE:L

A teenager in the Outskirts known for her artistry. Has hosted secret Wyre Rat planning.

Roger

A former confidant of K-Ra, now untrusted due to his relationship with a member of Cryptix.

Connectors

For most of their history, the Wyre Rats have been allies of any native Nisoran groups while opposing off-world corporatists.

Nisora United crest

The Galendran Rats get their more dangerous materials from the union. Secretly. With the union on unstable footing, it's unclear if that will continue.

Cryptix gang tag by Rin Garnett

The Rats nearly lost the fight they started against Cryptix. Though they won in the end, K-Ra has been backed into a temporary truce while the city recovers.

Author Commentary

Faction Play

I struggled during Campaign 2: The Gal Pals to make the Rats mechanically distinct from Nisora United, despite how functionally different the two are. In some ways, I may have been better off combining them.