Maelstrom is one of the most violent and dangerous gangs in Night City, and is the very definition of Booster Gang.  Unlike most streetgangs whose bottom line is money, a Booster gangs primary focus is on combat often just for the sake of combat, like a giant game of King Of The Hill.  Maelstrom is definitely king of the Combat Zone when it comes down to violent reputation.  Joining the gang requires that the applicant be able to start and win a fistfight unaided with an enemy of the gangs.  Gaining ranks in the gang is done by challenging for position, and any member who refuses a challenge automatically abdicates his position to the challenger, the only exception being if the member is currently recuperating from wounds taken in combat.  Maelstrom has no specific colors, however most members wear leather, spikes, and/or have wild hairstyles.  Cybernetics are common, and displayed openly as a sign of pride and survival.  The Maelstrom Tag is a clenched blood red fist.

 

Originally Maelstrom was formed from 3 smaller booster gangs, The Red Chrome Legion, the Steel Warriors and the Ironsights (See night City Sourcebook).  The majority of the gangs members were veterans of the Second South American War who had come home augmented.   Many of these enhanced vets had returned home to blank stares and apathy, if not being downright ostracized, due to their prosthetics and the VA’s near bankruptcy, turning away countless former soldiers suffering both from post traumatic stress disorder as well as the original cases of Cyberpsychosis.  These vets would band together, some by neighborhood, some by former unit.  Fed on drugs and the addiction to the superiority cybernetic enhancement bestowed, these already damaged vets became increasingly violent and their behavior erratic.    They gathered together, both for protection and company, and soon found themselves roaming the streets, staking claim and setting up turf.  As these gangs grew in size, their crimes and violent behavior spread.  The first known violent incidents from the Inquisitors were against the Steel Warriors, whom they nearly wiped out. 

 

Faced with retaliation from street gangs whose turf they were encroaching on, police surveillance, and growing Inquisitor attacks, the three groups banded together to form Maelstrom.  Leadership was decided through trial by combat, and a former Sergeant named Hammer who was dangerously close to full blown cyberpsychosis was victorious.  Originally Maelstrom territory was up against that of Slaughterhouse, and the two gangs were bitter rivals.  At the time, the gang had no focus other than perpetrating violence as far and wide as they could, with anyone who so much as glanced at them.  Hammer was a heavy drug addict, favoring anything that kept him pumped and over the edge.  Angel Dust and Meth were his preferred drugs, then Black Lace hit the market and Hammers mental state took a drastic turn for the worse.  He was fighting with everyone, even targets that Maelstrom was grossly unprepared for.  He was taking over territories in the combat zone and ruthlessly destroying any gangs that opposed him, expanding so quickly, and so violently, that at the same time he was spreading his ranks thin, trying to maintain his grip, he was making enemies at an exponential rate.  No one was safe and Maelstrom was targeting women, children, and the elderly, for every scrap they could get to feed their addictions.  Then Hammer made unforgivable mistakes. 

 

First he tried to push past the boundaries of the Combat Zone, culminating in a widely publicized gun battle with police in Little Odessa.  This event led directly to the walling off of the Combat Zone, and the disastrous event known as Carnival.  During the Carnival, Hammer made his second and third mistakes.  First, in the opening days of Carnival, he sent groups of his gang out, to try and take over other gangs whose positions had been weakened and to try and take out as many bounty hunters as possible.  However the members he sent out were mostly younger, and more inexperienced.  One group was slaughtered almost to a man, trying to take down a couple of bounty hunters who had holed up and hardened their position.  Another group was killed when they were caught in an ambush.  His third mistake was that when Slaughterhouse offered a truce, and possible alliance for the duration of Carnival, Hammer killed the envoy that was sent and displayed his body on the front of his armored bus.  By this point Hammer was taking enormous amounts of stimulants and had passed deep into Cyberpsychosis.  He

made one final mistake, when in a rage over being told how weakened the gang was, he decided to take the Punknaught the gang had been building over the course of the last two years, and try to break through the barricade.  The Punknaught did get through the checkpoint, but only made it about a block before the ACPA and National Guard on scene brought it to a halt.  In the ensuing chaos, Hammer was able to get back across to the Combat Zone, but the damage had been done.

Surrounded by enemies on all sides, with most of the gang dead, their overwhelming loss of resources, and with a leader who was certifiably mad and in a near constant rage induced frenzy, the gang appeared to be breathing its last.  Hammers second in command, a younger Maelstrom named Razorfist, challenged him for leadership.  The ensuing fight was absolutely brutal, but Razorfist came away victorious.  He gathered the remaining members, and in the confusion of the final hours of Carnival moved them to an old motel along the eastern wall of the Combat Zone.

After Carnival the gang kept a low profile for a while. Under Razorfists leadership Maelstrom took on a new focus.  The gang now defends their own turf and is growing in size again.  In 2020, just before Carnival there were over 300 members of Maelstrom, immediately after there were less than 75 members.  Today, three years later, the numbers are back up to about half of their former glory, mostly by taking over or taking in many of the smaller booster gang survivors in the Combat Zone after Carnival, like the Givers Of Pain (Interface 1) and the Warriors (Streetfighting). 

Skill in hand to hand combat is still the primary method gaining respect and establishing your place in the gang, but the rampant territorial expansion has minimized.  No longer focused on violence for violence sake the gang deals in combat drugs and extortion for any businesses in the area they stake as their turf.  They also rent themselves out as

guides and escorts for outsiders in the know who have to operate in the Combat Zone, and as bodyguards in or outside of the Combat Zone.

Maelstrom maintains good relationships with the Voodoo Boyz due to their control of the underground Fight Clubs set up across the city, an activity which Maelstrom members frequently enter as combatants to prove and maintain their abilities.  In addition they keep close ties with the nomad community, and have even formed their own Tribe who operates along the west coast.  The nomad Maelstrom are viewed as a charter to the Nice City founders.  The nomad Maelstrom are a Snake Nation family, who most often provide escort and guide duties to other Snake and Aldelcaldo families in exchange for money, weapons, drugs and favors.  As for the extortion, most businesses in the area pay it gladly, as regardless of its smaller size and diminished territory, Maelstrom is still regarded as the most violent and dangerous gang in the city.  While Maelstrom prefers to deal with things hand to hand, or with melee weapons, especially inside their own borders, they have been stockpiling an enormous arsenal, and when dealing with other gangs and intruders they are going to respond heavily armed, often with military grade weapons, including RPG’s and grenade launchers.

 

Outside of major criminal activities, they are known for their raves, which while fun are often as dangerous as any other Maelstrom activity.  Women are allowed to be full members, and in fact the second in command is Razorfists lover, a woman named Sable.  The rules are the same for women as for men, you earn your place by how well you can fight.  Women who can’t fight are not allowed to be members of the gang, but the gang will offer them protection in exchange for other services, usually prostitution, but if the woman has other valuable skills she can bank on those.  The former leader, Hammer, is still alive, and still part of the gang, but is so far gone that he has been relegated to a special group known only as the Psychos, who are reserved only for the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs.  The rest of the time they are kept sedated and compliant in the hotels basement. 

 

Due to Razorfists and Sables influence Maelstrom has actually gained a reputation as something of a guardian gang.  While they charge everyone in their turf protection fees, Razorfist and Sable will punish any members whom are discovered to be harming children, women, or the elderly.  They take the protection game seriously and provide a legitimate service, unlike most extortion rackets of this nature.  In fact, they do not demand protection payments, but by not paying them you are opening yourself as a victim to the other gangs and criminals in the area.  Everyone in Maelstroms direct turf pays, as do several people and shop owners outside their turf.