TYPICAL MAELSTROM

The typical Maelstrom member can be identified by the spikes, leathers, scars and heavy cyber they are so very fond of.  Weapons run the gamut from handmade melee weapons to high end assault rifles.  The average Maelstrom is a skilled hand to hand fighter, usually with some level of cybernetic augmentation.  Members with prosthetic limbs are to be considered especially dangerous, having been assumed to have lost the limb in battle.  Hand to hand combat is a personal favorite of the Maelstrom, and scars are not only common, but worn as badges of honor.  While brawling amongst themselves is common, these fights are usually restrained.  Fights among outsiders however are usually to the death.  Personal honor is held in high regard to the Maelstrom, and any member who is challenged by an outsider will be expected to face him one on one in unarmed or melee combat.  No matter how the fight goes, no other member will join in, and asking for help against a single opponent will result in the member being stricken of his rank and they will have to start over again as a new member doing the scut work.  Jumping in to help a comrade in a one on one fight is seen as an eve greater dishonor, and  anyone who does so is banished from the gang and left to fend for themselves.  Since the only way to rise in ranks is to either replace a fallen member or to challenge for rank, all members should be treated as skilled martial artists or brawlers.

Maelstrom is a very violent gang, with no real agenda other than being recognized as the toughest around.  The earn most of their money by providing protection to businesses and homes in their territories, and even some outside of it.  Most shopkeepers and families pay the fee gladly, and display the Clenched Fist tag prominently.  Ones who don’t are left to the mercy of other gangs, though Maelstrom itself is usually above intimidation and strong arm tactics.  This recent change in tactics has earned Maelstrom the reputation for a somewhat bizarre guardian gang, though the reputation is misplaced as they do not prey on they weaker not out of any sense of nobility, but because they see civilians as beneath their notice.

In addition to their protection fees, the Maelstrom dabble in arms and combat drug dealing and prostitution.  They also frequently enter the underground fighting matches put on by the Voodoo Boyz.

Maelstrom has no definitive style in vehicles either, and most of their vehicles are taken as trophies from rival gangs.  However they are known for their “Party Busses”, stolen school busses with armor plates, spikes and weapons welded and bolted on, they use to patrol their turf or make war.

THE BITCHES

The Bitches are a cadre or elite female warriors under the direct leadership of Marina.  These women have bonded together as a sisterhood within the gang, offering mutual protection and support apart from the rest of the gang.  While any woman in their ranks is more than capable of taking care of herself, a lone woman in the ranks of some of the less disciplined members of the gang is still in extreme danger, especially during parties and wilding sessions. 

Life in the Bitches is no tea and manicure session.  These women have had to work twice as hard as the men in the gang to prove themselves as capable warriors.  They are often more vicious, more bloodthirsty, and twice as quick to leap into violence… violence they carry out with reckless and often disturbing efficiency.

The women of Maelstrom have some distinct advantages.  Women can get into many places men can’t.  They are often underestimated, and they have learned to use this to their advantage.  Where the men rely on strength, most of the women rely on agility and ferociousness.  

They command utter respect within the gang, to the point that a man losing to a woman within the gang is not seen as a loss of face.  As far as benefits from the gang, they enjoy utter equality, and all the perks, and the dangers, that it brings.

The only real difference in how the Bitches are treated and how the rest of the gang is treated due to their gender, is that if a Bitch becomes pregnant and decides to keep the child, as soon as her condition is known she is immediately pulled from active duty and placed in a support role.  While not treated by anyone else as a dishonor, it is often seen by the women themselves as such.  They go from being full members of the gang, expected to fight, to being protected non-combatants, with little separating them from the women who don’t fight and have chosen to offer their services for gang protection.  It is for this reason many of the women in The Bitches often decide not to have the child, or to hide the pregnancy for as long as they can. 

These Women have gone to extreme measures to be treated as equals within possibly the most violent combat focused gang in night city, and any threat to that status as equals is avoided at all costs.

Among the other gangs the Bitches are met with mixed feelings.  Some of the other gangs still do not even allow women as full members.  It is members of these gangs who often make the mistake of disrespecting of underestimating members of the Bitches.  A mistake they often make only once. 

The Bitches are every bit as well equipped and combat effective as their male counterparts.  More often than not they wear lighter armor however, specifically to remain more agile. 

THE  EXILES

The Maelstrom refer to their Nomad chapter as the Exiles due to the fact that the majority of members either are on the run from other gangs or have extensive police records and have officially had their citizenship revoked.  Regardless for most members of the Exiles, Night City is no longer a safe place to be, even in the Combat Zone.  However not all the Exiles suffer from this unfortunate status, and they have been known to recruit from the nomad community, even among the Raffen Shiv.  Because of this, and the nature of Maelstrom as a whole, even though they claim Snake Nation ties, many people see them as little more than Raffen Shiv themselves.

 Exiles generally have fewer cybernetics than the rest of Maelstrom, but more than your typical nomad.  They do runs up and down the west coast, usually providing outrider servies to smugglers, but try to hit Night City at least once a month on supply runs.  When this happens, they bring in weapons, ammunition, and vehicles in exchange for drugs, tech, and money. 

Like the other Maelstrom, the Exiles live to fight, and they will purposefully hire on with convoys moving through high risk areas.  Rumor has it that some groups who have refused to hire them and fallen prey to Raffen Shiv have actually been set up, or even attacked, by the Exiles themselves.

When bringing supplies in to the Maelstrom in the Night City Combat Zone they use box trucks they keep stored in a secret location, free of graffiti or markings, with secret storage spaces.  Armed members on cycles escort them to the city limits, where they wait for them to return.  The guards near the lower eastern wall exit are heavily bribed to let the trucks go through.  Since whatever is being smuggled in usually stays in the zone, and whatever is smuggled out goes to the nomad community, the police at the gates tend not to care much and pocket the money happily. 

THE PSYCHOS

Maelstrom live on the edge.  Cybernetics are
commonplace, and one a member starts adding metal to the meat, the snowball just keeps getting bigger.  The cocktails of combat drugs and heavy amounts of alcohol they take don’t help anything either.  When a member pushes the envelope too far and falls victim to Cyberpsychosis, they can no longer be trusted, even among the ultra-violent ranks of the Maelstrom.  However, unlike regular society, where police and medical professionals are called in to help, or in other gangs where the afflicted are abandoned to their own devices or killed, the Maelstrom continues to care for, and occasionally utilize these violent individuals.

Once it becomes obvious that a member is suffering from Cyberpsychosis, the member is restrained and sedated.  They are then brought to the Nursery, to join their brothers and sisters who also have gone beyond the edge.  He has joined the Psychos.

The Nursery is a room in the basement of the motel the Maelstrom have taken over.  The psychos are kept here, intravenously sedated and jacked in to a VR simulation to keep them calm.  Here they remain until they are needed.  They are only brought out in the most extreme circumstances, as unleashing them is often as dangerous to Maelstrom as it is for their enemies.  When they are let loose, their weapons are loaded and armed, they are pumped full of combat drugs and stimulants, pointed as best they can be at their target, and set free.  The carnage and destruction they create is apocalyptic.  The last time the Psychos were unleashed was during Carnival, where the Police resorted to AV’s and ACPA equipped with heavy weapons, Gatling guns and anti-personnel rockets, to bring down 6 of them after they had torn through and massacred 38 civilians and 12 police officers.

The former leader of Maelstrom, Hammer, is one of the current Psychos kept in the nursery.  The Psychos are viewed with high respect and even higher fear.  Their maintenance and medical needs are taken care of by a couple of local ripperdoc under Maelstrom protection.  Their daily care is handled by low ranking members of Maelstrom, or by higher members who are assigned the duty as punishment.

The Psychos are one of the big reasons that even the larger, better organized, gangs of the Combat Zone tend not to directly attack Maelstrom.  Fighting a normal Maelstrom, if such a thing can be claimed, is suicidal enough, fighting a Psycho is seen as certain death.  There are usually between 6 and 12 Psychos kept in the Nursery at any time.  Occasionally one or two will be brought out at a time, but they are used sparingly.

Written By Deric Bernier, (with gangs and locations created by R. Talsorian Games, Atlas Games, Interface Magazine, and Iaunus Games). Images from Deric Bernier, R. Talsorian Games, Interface, Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Warriors of the 21st Century, Transmetropolitan, Afro Samurai, Mazinger, The Last Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Black Samurai, Double Dragon, Capcom, Virtua Fighter, Streetfighter, Tekken, King Of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Fist Of The North Star, Red Alert, Dead End Drive-In, Shadowrun, Reklamation, Cyborg OEDO, Metro, Borderlands, Clockwork Orange, The Hills Have Eyes, Below Zero, Fallen Earth, Deadlands: Hell On Earth, Rifts, Gurps, The Barbarians, Rage, Fallout, Weird Science, Netrunner, Cyberpunk CCG, Marvel Comics, Ultimates, Tron, Cowboy Bebop, Android, Mafia Wars, Deus Ex, DC Comics, Shazam, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost In The Shell, Appleseed, Breaker, Breaker: New Waves, Parasite Dolls, AD Police, Circuitry Man, Purge, Crimecraft, Saints Row, Grand Theft Auto, Star Wars, Crude buster, Two Crude Dudes, Road Avenger, Renegade, All Points Bulletin, C.O.P.S., Bionic Commando, Negative Burn, Wildcats, Superman, Neon Cyber, Darkminds, Megazone 23, Wolverine, X-men, The Warriors, Streets Of Fire, Class Of 1984, Class of 1999, Karate Warrior, Metal Gear, 2020 Visions, Bubblegum Crisis, Bubblegum Crash, Mortal Kombat, Crime Life, Fast And The Furious, GI Joe, Earthrise, The Club, The Suffering, Machete, Desperado, Blood In Blood Out, Mi Vida Loca, Brazil, City Of God, Crank, Falling Down, Gang City, Akira, Army Of One, NYC Mech, Brink, Set It Off, Assault On Precinct 13, Glen and Randal, Brawling Bouncers, Bitch Slap, Nemesis, Suckerpunch, Batman, Wasteland Empires, What If, Terminator, Resident Evil, Warlands, Exterminators 3000, Burning Man, Weapon Brown, Urban Warriors, Hard Boiled, Arachnophobia, Fallen Skies, Land Of The Dead, Empty Zone, Training Day, Big Trouble In Little China, Tank Girl, The New Barbarians, Gangs Of new York, Back To The Future 2, Savage Tales, Appleseed, Ride To Hell, Solar Babies, Spy Hunter, Metro 2033, Cyberspace, Road Warrior Weekend, Road War, D20 Future, D20 Apocalypse, Dethkillers, Massive Black, Twilight 2000,Adam Warren, Raben AAS, Wry1, Dmitrys, Adam Hughes, Quellion, Bordon,Timur Mutsaev, Cellfaces, Aleksi, Francis001, Gasket,Shiramune, Endo 74, Aaron Beck, Mohzart, Livingrope, Dingo107, Nanavuut,, Jani Hamalainen, Clement_Suave, Kishin007, Roboto_Kun, Quiros, JesserZZZ, NekoxxxNightmare, Josuhemaiz, AkaiSoul, Xadhoom, Carlos Cavalcante, Matt Bradbury, Akuma_Motarasutsumi, Bristow Bailey, Moongrape, N_Mel, Kieron Gillen, Angelero, Likodemus, Dead Dreamer, ShelestovV, LostSoulsArt, Riq, Dave Allsop, OmeN2501, Techtonic, Raven1303, Kazroth, Unhappy_Girl, Rosien_HoH, DOQ_666, The_A_Factory, den89, ichitakaseto-d3fwrw4, SC4V3NG3R, Ricochet188, Viviane, KFoster, Superhawkins, Jager375, Shed2602, Vinicius Menezes, Juhoham, Rubin Cubiles, Bstart, Raultrevino, Johnjackman, Chiara Pasquini, Dweller, RodoxDesign, Lethorgius, Ilog, Grusborg, Chow120, Tom Baxa, Pushpinder Singh, The Elysian, Misterho, Adonihs, Jasson, AKnox, Obeythekiwi, Andree Wallin, Fuchsiart, Garang76, Spiral Dance Studio, Dingo107, Nick Egberts, Acidlullaby, Orellana, Photoport, Wyldekarde, Knightwatch, Zalas, Mothbot, Horrified Survivor, WarmGunMod, Salemburn, Avonius, Avalonfilth, Wildlifehoodoo, Raetjor, Cellar, Skam4, Grinch_7, Patc_14, Echo_x, Bqw-d4822kt, Nickykcin, Scruffyronin, Poibuts, Archipelo, Maria William, Adonhis, A. Baldasseroni, Britnerfmogul, Udoncrew, Artbytheo, Luis Royo, Richard Daborn, atomhawk, Jaime Jones, Jan Ditlev, El Pinoy, Chonastock, Other Unicorn, Joe Clucher, Jacobcharlesdietz, Tim Okamura, Ghostronix, Psychofish, Polaris Pirate, Storm X, Januszwyrzykowski, Brokenhill, Bokuman, The Vigil, Tariq12, Lazeedog, Idomuchris, Remichan, Timur Mutsaev, Joe Leder, Johan Bergstrom, madmaxmovies.com, Humvee driver, Laurent, Barry Harker, and various other unknown films, anime, comics, artists, and car customizers.

For questions, complaints, criticisms and suggestions, e-mail the author:wisdom000@gmail.com