Factions

Flavor text, difference between Corp, Milsec, Syndicate, and Street Gangs (TODO)

MegaCorporations

Matsumoto Global Technologies

Rising from the keiretsu corporate model, Matsumoto was one of the three still surviving mega-keiretsu born of mergers in the mid-21st century. Led by the Bank of Nagoya-Matsumoto, the megacorporation is still based in Nagoya, Japan but has aggressively secured charter positions within twenty-two economic blocks worldwide across United North America, Europe, and the Swiss Financial Enclave. Matsumoto constantly seeks to maintain its technological competitive edge by encouraging a high-pressure corporate culture dedicated to pursuing ambitious and groundbreaking projects. Famously, Matsumoto is lavish in its rewards for the entire team and sometimes an entire division behind a winning project, leading to cutthroat infighting at all levels to become attached to and stick with rising star researchers.

Matsumoto, A.K.A. MATS, has very good Intrusion Countermeasures technology. For Matrix Hosts, they favor lots of IC spawns in response to intrusion.

Trivia

Matsumoto Corporation appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Yakamoto. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with a real-world Yakamoto corporation.

UltraTek

UltraTek is one of New Boston’s founding megacorps which is split into sprawling divisions, each named after the market segment in which it competes, including UltraLife, UltraStyle and UltraMed. Through its divisional structure, UltraTek is highly diversified, producing everything from diapers to rocket boosters to nerve dampening toxins.UltraTek works in close connection with the UNA, providing a vast array of privatized services to the city and the state, including their ever present UltraMed health clinics. UltraTek’s Sigma systems of varying versions are used by the majority of corporate facilities as the backbone of their quantum sensory and first-response security network. These Sec AI systems are routinely audited for compliance with all AI regulations while providing adaptive coordinated multi-site security services.

Trivia

UltraTek Corporation appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as AzTek. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with a real-world AzTek corporation.

Jupiter Group

Jupiter is the result of the largest megacorporate merger in history, between Mars Corp and Vintago Energy, which was completed in 2229. Unfortunately, both sets of shareholders came to the union with schemes to grasp power, against their internal rivals and across the newly merged lines. For years, Jupiter’s newly established board has been battling to stem the internal civil war that is preventing Jupiter from realizing and profiting from its ascendancy to the most powerful megacorporate force on the planet. As a new decade dawns, there are still many both inside and outside the corporation who wish to see the division, bloodshed, and backstabbing continue.

For Matrix Hosts, the Jupiter Group favors intrusion responses that instantly smash and cycle the entire network keyset, dumping any connected Hacker, and hard.

McKellen Heavy Industries

One of the founding megacorps behind New Boston, and one of the oldest companies in New Boston, McKellen Heavy Industries has a long history full of seminal achievements and notorious failures. An early leader in using nanotechnology in industrial and mining applications, McKellen’s rise to power and prominence among early megacorporations was meteoric. A century later, McKellen was a leader in the last-ditch efforts to stem the rise of nano-radiation by dumping anti-nano nanites into the atmosphere, which was a failure and may have worsened the global situation. McKellen was tasked with much of the immense job of designing and building the New Boston dome in a very short time and later built Wards 7 and 11. McKellen operates much of the utilities and physical services for the city and state - such as trash collection, profitable recycling, desalination and water supply as well as the aging power grid.

For Matrix Hosts, McKellen favors intrusion responses that boost Node stats, hardening the infrastructure around the hacker.

Rook Technologies

Rook Technologies was a heavy weapons and cybernetic division within Mars Corp that had become a drag on the corporate earnings per share in the late 2220s. Led by the charismatic and visionary Jamie Sixth Winters, the Mars division was spending billions in research and development and was labeled as a failing division. As the merger with Vintago Energy took shape, Mars Corp spun out Rook Technologies into its own completely separate corporation, reaping a major windfall in profits from the initial sale of shares. Now, with Jamie “Sixth” Winters still at the helm three years later, Rook keeps promising to bring some of its first weapons tech to security markets soon while shareholders grow more nervous daily.

Corporations

Not big enough to be mega-corporations on their own; these are sometimes subsidiaries of mega-corporations.

Military Security

Also known as Milsec.

Brave Star

Premier Milsec organization in New Boston. Traces their origins to Boston PD.

Trivia

The name Brave Star was inspired by an 80s TV show, BraveStarr. Conceptually, Brave Star is modelled as a privatized version of the Boston Police Department.

Knight Horizon

Dismantled in TODO.

Syndicates

D-Street Cartel

Electric Jackals

A small syndicate known for their matrix hacking and crafting of sploitkits designed for use against Sigma security systems. With an uptick in profits riding on the Sigma 6 AI trainer they acquired through illicit means, the E-Jacks sought application to the {1}. After the disastrous raid by {1} on their Syndicate hideout in Eastbank 72, it is thought that the Electric Jackals have been crushed and disbanded entirely. After our team spearheaded the devastating raid on their Syndicate hideout in Eastbank 72, it is thought that the Electric Jackals have been crushed and disbanded entirely. Anything survivors were mopped up by {1} {3}.

Ricksham

A small crime Syndicate that lives on the railway systems between major urban zones in the UNA. With all the challenges to air and sea transport, rails are the most reliable and fastest way to get things around, stateside. The Ricksham don't get into moving big cargo and know to stay away from megacorporate freight unless there's something really worth it. They move a lot of drugs, people and guns, but they don't do local distribution.

Street Gangs

Indie

Presumably short for "Independent", an actor not associated with any gang, corporation, syndicate, nor governmental entity.

Free Streets Compact (FSC)

The R&DFSC is the military arm of the Units, insular communities living below and on the edges of the R&DNew Boston dome. Funded, populated and armed by the over 100 self-sufficient and self-policing Units, the R&DFSC has declared war on the megacorps who have exploited, plundered and destroyed R&DNew Boston. While their stated goals are simple, the R&DFree Streets Compact is involved in a wider set of activities, including smuggling, hijacking and kidnapping. At times these actions play to their anti-corporate goals but at other times their enemies have claimed the R&DFSC leadership is simply lining their pockets off the ideals of the cause. Regardless, the R&DFSC are a force to be reckoned with who have claimed responsibilty for some of the largest domestic terrorist acts in R&DNew Boston, including the detonation of biological weapons, assassinations of high ranking corporate officers and more.

Los Zagales Street Gang

Los Zagales rose up from the Leans and other meager wasteland habitations outside the dome. In 2214, their ranks had swollen with disenfranchised eager to enter the dome, and with shadowy allies feeding them weaponry, they forced their way into New Boston. They battled savagely against Brave Star and the Syndicates to claim districts beneath old Roxbury and Fenway. Six powerful gang bosses, including Left-Hand Gerrin and Clive Zep, staked out territory inside the dome and used their smuggling connections to jumpstart their operations. Ten years after their arrival, the UNA and Brave Star formed joint tasks to, quote, 'eradicate the festering mess of violence and illegal activity that has taken root in southern New Boston.' A six-year campaign left much of those districts destroyed, and Los Zagales were forced out into the newly built Wards. The gang's leader, Clive Zep, by this time known as the Old Man Zagales, was captured and imprisoned in Barton Prison. Two years later, after a bloodbath raid on Barton Prison that saw Zep liberated, the tension between Los Zagales and Brave Star has never been hotter.

Trivia

The Los Zagales gang appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Los Valentinos. The name has been retconned to avoid any appearance of conflict with the Valentinos gang in Cyberpunk RED.

(Retcon from Los Valentinos)

Fenian Street Gang

The Fenian street gang traces its origins back to the historic Irish mob with their deep roots in smuggling, gun running, drug production, and extorting businesses for protection and operational rights. Known for their open-door stance, the Fenians allow members to pledge fealty while maintaining normal lives, fostering a loyal and widespread network. The Fenians hold a formidable presence in New Boston's grey card and blue card labor sectors, particularly around the docks and shipping areas, and their multi-century connection to corruption within the Brave Star military police ensures their operations run largely unchallenged. Famously tough, hard-headed, and fiercely defensive of their ancestral turf inside the dome, the Fenians' adaptability has allowed them to thrive as a street gang while gaining powerful clout within many layers of New Boston's underworld and society.

Trivia

The Fenian gang appeared in Cyber Knights Classic as Fennian, named after the Fens in the Back Bay area of Boston. The Fens is the remains of a saltwater marsh, or fenland, along the west side of the original peninsula where Boston was built. The Fens was later turned into a freshwater parkland and landfilled neighborhood, and home of Fenway Park.

Blue Ox Street Gang

The Blue Ox stubbornly refuses the designation of a street gang, preferring to be known as a paramilitary army ranging out from Charlestown, East Boston, and the Tobin Bridge slums. They are an anomaly among street gangs, holding tightly to small stretches of unwanted districts and using them for trafficking and drug production while offering their paramilitary units as security, support, and strike teams to other criminal elements across New Boston. The Blue Ox don't come cheap, but by reputation, they are worth it, as their units are well-trained and heavily equipped. Even Syndicates have called up Blue Ox forces to cover operations and security beyond what they can handle at certain times. The Blue Ox stubbornly refuses the designation of a street gang, preferring to be known as a paramilitary army ranging out from Charlestown, East Boston, and the Tobin Bridge slums. They are an anomaly among street gangs, holding tightly to small stretches of unwanted districts and using them for trafficking and drug production while offering their paramilitary units as security, support, and strike teams to other criminal elements across New Boston. The Blue Ox don't come cheap, but by reputation, they are worth it, as their units are well-trained and heavily equipped. Even Syndicates have called up Blue Ox forces to cover operations and security beyond what they can handle at certain times.

Government Entities