The Enemy Within
- kN0x
Alright here's the real paydata. You can go on any travel site to figure out the lay of the land or read through the library to read the history of the area. That's all well and good but for a runner, the only thing that really concerns you is who is going to put a bullet in your brainpan and here is the rundown of the likely suspects that will bury you if you bite it in Detroit.
Knights Errant
I know, you're as shocked as I am that KE is brought up in an write up about Detroit. Knights Errant is the private security company for Ares. They are everywhere in Detroit as most of the city contracts with KE. They aren't technically the only biz in town as other megacorps use their own forces and for the few holdouts who refuse to use KE have a few contracts with Eagle or Centurion. There are no Lone Stars allowed in Detroit.
Leader: Clayton Wilson - ex-CEO of Lone Star before being ousted by his own brother. Not just in charge of Detroit but all of KE as the Exec VP of the company. Not surprising anyone, Clatyon has a hard-on for stealing business from Lone Star and seems to be on a personal crusade to undercut his brother every step of the way.
Hard Corps Security
Ares' Subsidiary focused on cheap security for apartments and stores. Whereas Knights Errant are equivalent to police and SWAT, Hard Corps is Ares' version of mall cops and rent-a-cops. They mostly just look big and stop shoplifters and vandals but they are armed and if you get zeroed by a Hard Corps officer we
will make fun of you for years afterwards. Still they exist and if you're doing work in residential blocks and small commercial areas these mall cops might get in your way.
Leader: Lionel Carrell - retired UCAS army as are many Ares executives. Carrell seems content to accept Hard Corps for what they are, cheap low-pay, low-risk security. As far as anyone can tell he isn't pushing for any big initiatives or changes, he is happy to just keep their market share steady and cashing Ares checks.
ACMF
Ares Corporate Military Force are the army for Ares. Rented out to nations to conduct full scale war, Ares has tanks, helicopters, artillery, you name it. While a runner should never end up in conflict against the ACMF by themselves, there are a lot of ACMF assets in the area, especially as Ares is pulling in troops from around the globe for training and upgrades. Right now the city is swarming with off-duty ACMF troops and officers and the warehouses all over the city are full of primo military spec gear just waiting for someone to have the balls to take it off ACMF hands. A military run would set you up for life however it would more than likely leave you dead as the ACMF does not pull any punches when it comes to securing their property. They don't have jails, they just have body bags.
Leader: General James Danforth - Danforth has been put in charge of the ACMF forces stationed in Detroit and is officially overseeing the training and upgrade process. By all accounts Danforth is a perfect company man: Loyal, zealous, and dumb as drek. Word on the street is he is obsessed with loyalty among his troops and could be the source for a lot of the apparent purge that is happening in the Ares ranks, especially in regards to Firewatch.
The Castle
Alright as if Knights Errant on every block wasn't bad enough it turns out that right in the heart of Aresville is a group of rogue KE that feel that even Ares isn't enough justice for everyone they hate. Some reporter reported on them a few years back and traced it to a gang inside the Detroit PD and when Ares took over that gang just set up shop in the new employer with a new name. They like to enact swift and brutal frontier justice on everyone they hate and that list pretty much includes everyone. Metas, immigrants, women...you name it and they will grab them off the streets and dump the body in a ditch and then call it a suicide or natural causes or some other bull drek.
Leader: Detective Charles O'Ryan is the man that gets marched out every time some reporter claims The Castle is active again. He is a senior IA agent in KE and comes out every time to repeat the same line about how there is no evidence that any group like that exists.
- I knew the reporter who covered that, May Sommers. She was a good reporter with a promising career ahead of her. Her family still has a $10,000 reward for any information about her whereabouts.
- Sunshine
- The Castle is available for hire if you know how to contact them. Protection, escort, extraction, assassination. If you have the creds, they'll take the job no questions asked.
- Mr. Bonds
- Oh great, as if dealing with KE wasn't bad enough now they might be your competitors too.
- Riser
Detroit Cutters
The Cutters in their hey-day were one of the top gangs in North America. Then their bases in Seattle and Chicago were cut and they have been spiraling ever since. The Detroit Cutters have recently gotten a shot in the arm. A trio of elves have risen to the top of the gang and are whipping them back into shape. Rumor is they are ex-Tir nationals and they have been ramping up both the abilities and the violence coming out of the Cutters over the past year. Already their turf has increased by half and some of the other gangs are talking about forming an alliance to stand against them.
Leader: Dragwade - believed to be some kind of physical adept. Word is he took over the Cutters by killing the existing upper leadership in one bloody night. Six hits executed simultaneously. Cut the head of the gang right off and then showed up the next day and made everyone bend the knee.
- I don't normally stick my nose into this kind of thing but I actually know that guy. His name isn't Dragwade, it's a title: Draig Waed which means Blood Dragon. He used to be part of the TRC, the Tir's secret police force, as one of their top assassins before disappearing in the wake of some big scandal. There are a lot of rumors but none of them confirmed. Two years later he pops up in UCAS with four disciples with the goal of taking over a gang in north america. He first tried it with the Boston Yardies. Same method: killed their top leaders then asked them to follow him. The Yardies didn't take kindly to it and the aftermath is Drag is down to two disciples and there are no more Boston Yardies.
- Sounder
- Wait...that's what happened to them? I saw the leak of the police reports. They were scooping up Yardies in baggies.
- Hard Exit
The Ancients
The Ancients are everywhere in UCAS and Detroit makes no exception. All-elven go-gang that is highly militant. While the Cutters are the main gang
in Detroit, the Ancients run the roads outside the city. The Midwest region used to be based out of Chicago but after the bugs it was moved to Milwaukee however with the Cutters getting aggressive it seems like Bombshell is moving her personal operations out to the Detroit area to keep an eye on things.
- Or to keep a closer eye on Drag. Ex-TRC popping up in your backyard is worth a closer inspection. I'm also curious why Drag didn't approach anyone in the Ancients.
- Pistons
Leader: Bombshell - she's hot, she's elven, she has an explosive temper. Not much more to say here. She's been running the Midwest region for the Ancienst for over forty years, longer than most gangers have been alive.
Detroit Mafia (Detroit Partnership)
Detroit doesn't have a strong Yakuza or Triad presence so the Mafia is really the only organized crime in town. Hefty kickbacks to local Ares and UCAS officials lets them operate largely unchallenged. They pretty much run the casinos and bars in Windsor now having left the downtown area for the easier money and distance from Ares HQ. As long as they keep things quiet and fill everyone's pockets with nuyen, there is no sign of them slowing down. Even as the Mafia in general struggle, Detroit seems to have it figured out thanks to daddy Damien keeping the asian syndicates at bay.
Leader: Don Roland "The Greek" Stephanopoulos originally reported to the McCaskills out of Milwaukee but about ten years ago the Milwaukee outfit got raided by the feds and while McCaskill avoided jail they lost a lot of power and influence and now The Greek is in charge.
The Fantas
A primarily latino gang, they're not technically a whiz-gang because they are mostly regular gangers but for a small local gang they're throwing around a lot of magic. There are a few hispanic neighborhoods and the Fantas are heavily entrenched there. Rumor is their upper leaders have ties to Aztec.
Leader: Mateo Valdes - a street mage with a penchant for literal fire and brimstone. With his magic he could be a lot more aggressive with the gang than they are so likely Mateo is smarter than one would think as despite their magical arsenal they have kept off of KE's radar.
Daughters of Lilith
An all-female party gang, they don't normally target specific people or businesses, instead it's a matter of "wrong place wrong time." When the Liliths go partying, they leave death and destruction in their wake. What makes them particularly bad news is that a lot of their membership are daughters of prominent corpos looking for a bit of rebellion before joining Ares. While they have no problem shooting you or bashing your brains in if you drop a Lilith chances are you will see their upper-middle class corpo parents on the news the next day crying about the senseless violence followed by your mug as KE's #1 Most Wanted. General consensus is to just "go with the flow" around the Liliths. The gang is full of cliques and high-school drama drek fueled by heavy stimulants laced with combat drugs.
Leader: Lilith. I know, surprising. While most of the gang are late teens, early 20s, Lilith is a middle-aged Orc who seemed to have never outgrown her high school years.
- Lilith's are a lot of fun as long as you can direct their attention. They have the best drugs in the city and daddy's nuyen goes a long way. Just don't get on their bad side or you might end up being hunted through Oakland as a Most Dangerous Game.
- Shockwave
- Sounds like you have some personal experience with them?
- Turbo Bunny
- A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
- Shockwave
Chromeheads
Technically they call themselves the "Ascendants of the Chrome God" but locally they just call them Chromeheads. A gang obsessed with transhumanism and cutting away their flesh for cyberware, they are barely on the edge of cyberpsychosis on a good day. They love to "experiment" with weird upgrades like adding more legs or deforming their bodies to, as they put it, shed away the shackles of humanity. All you need to know is that they are chromed to the gills, completely crazy, and if they capture you they will likely rip out your guts and put in whatever random cyberware they have lying around. They hunt primarily in the Auburn Hills region. Supposedly there aren't that many of them but there are still recent news feeds talking about them ripping through an entire apartment building and leaving behind a horror show. As one would expect they deal heavily in illegal cyberware, and to a lesser extent weapons.
Leader: Morningstar. By all accounts he is officially a cyborg as it is rumored that the only organic piece left to him is his brain. Built like a tank because it is rumored he has actual tank parts grafted to him. He is slow, heavy, stupid, and has speakers blasting his sermons letting everyone know he is coming. Ordinarily he wouldn't be much of a threat but the cybered up zealots that follow his every word are more than enough danger for everyone in Auburn.
- Leaked documents from a Seattle run on the Ares office out there seems to indicate that the original Chromeheads were part of some experimental ACMS program to create cyborg soldiers. They weren't able to solve the psychosis problem and shipped the soldiers out to die but the convoy was ambushed by a go-gang looking to harvest that chrome for the black market. In the battle, the soldiers escaped and formed their own gang.
- Glitch
Rompez
This gang is a bit weird so bear with me. When Chicago turned into Bug Capital USA a bunch of gangs were decimated in the process and the survivors formed a coalition under "The Jigsaw Man" as he was called. When refugees flooded into Detroit, Jigsaw Man and his crew, now calling themselves the Rompez, quickly seized control of crime and corruption inside the Ares refugee camps. As the Chicagoans were integrated, the Rompez slowly spread out and although it's been twenty years, Rompez still pop up all over the city. They don't have cohesive territory, instead a random block here or there suddenly is Rompez territory and these guys are
nasty. For a gang operating in the heart of Knights Errant they give zero frags and taking down the Jigsaw Man has been priority #1 for every Knights Errant CEO and senior advisor in Detroit...and yet Jigsaw is still going strong.
- I don't want to go the route of Plan 9 but it is fragging weird how bold Rompez are right under Ares nose. They are about as sublte as a troll with a grenade launcher and yet a decade later they still have a lot of influence in the city. I wonder if Jigsaw has some secret ties to Ares. While they are loud and bold they have never done anything explicitly "anti-corpo" during their time in Detroit.
-Riser
- Then again they survived Chicago. Might just be more trouble than it is worth to cut them out.
-Butch
- Or maybe Damien likes having an auxillary group of expert bug hunters. Firewatch recruits have to come from somewhere...
-DangerSensei
The Rest of the Rest
As you would imagine there are dozens of lesser gangs and organizations. They're smalltime, usually only controlling a few blocks or businesses but still its important to keep an eye out for them:
Gang | Type | Description |
---|
Piranhas | Party Gang | Bunch of BTL addicts, only cause trouble when they need nuyen for the latest release |
Red Ronin | Combat Gang | Pretenders acting like they are ex-Renraku elite soldiers. |
SINless Saints | Saint Gang | Try to keep peace & order in civilized parts of Auburn |
Inquisitors | Whizgang | No territory, just pop up throwing heavy magic and disappear |
The Rippers | Psycho gang | Target prostitutes and homeless and murder them brutally. |
Golden Knights | Prank Gang | Dress up like KE and perform anti-ares stunts |
Slaughterhouse | Booster gang | Roided up and brutal, specialize in bladed weapons. |
EaZe A's | Street gang | A merger of three local gangs. Mostly cater to kids of wageslaves looking for a taste of the wild side. |
Davis Irregulars | Racist gang | Anti-black, anti-meta, anti-Ares. These ex-CAS transplants hate everyone and everyone hates them. |
This message was last edited by the player at 03:09, Mon 18 Oct 2021.