Anyone out there been wanting to know some more stats and information on the group "Art/Brutal" mentioned in the Rifts Culture Stuff? ( I can't remember the Author's name sorry). Well, one night I thought I'd be pretty nifty if I though up some infor mation on the group (Rifts is terribly lacking in the Urban environment information in North American). Well, here's what I've got on it.
Art/Brutal group was originally a small group of ex-Coalition Scientists and soldiers with a great hatred for the Coalition because there oppressive ways. The leader, of the group, Richard Helion was a renowned computer programmer for the Coalition w ho was literally kidnapped by a small city/state that needed an expert hacker to get information on the whereabouts of their captured leader, Johny Cardinal. At first he refused, not wanting to be part of the "dirty D-Bee loving savages", but after a yea r in captivity, his hope of rescue faded and he really began to look at his captors. His beloved Coalition obviously didn't care about him, so in his anger towards their insensitivity, he finally agreed to help the nation.
Using his skills, he easily accessed the information on the captive, and got the location and plans of the prison he was being held in. Shortly after, a team was sent to infiltrate the military prison and rescue Cardinal. Insisting that he went alon g because of his knowledge of the prison, Helion found he loved his new life fighting against the Coalition he'd grown to hate.
From there, the core of Art/Brutal was formed. Lead by Johny Cardinal, and Ex-Coalition Sky Cycle Pilot who was discharged form service because of his recklessness and disregard for orders. Richard was second in "command" of the group and a key ele ment in getting critical information frequently needed in the group's activities.
Other key members were the famous Max Pilnecheck, another Ex-Coalition Soldier and Demolitions specialist. Arcum Syvistr, a True Atlantean Nomad joined the group because of his love of causing trouble, and the group took him because of his magical pr owess.
There are many other members in the group, but because of it's under-ground nature, they don't all know each other. Now the group has members almost any where there is the Coalition, and there are new members "joining" all the time. There are estimat ed to be more than 500 "real" members, and many more "copy cats" out there doing the same stuff as Brutal under a different name, or claiming to be from Brutal.
To become a "member" of Brutal, there is a initiation that must be undertaken to prove your worth (unless your entered in because of a previous act that is deemed worthy of the group). This ensures that all the members know what they're doing and don 't get foolishly killed or captured. The initiation can be as simple as stealing something or hacking something to as hard as breaking into a storage facility and removing the sensor, weapon and power systems of 15 Enforcers. Once a person is initiated, they are taught the signs and lingo of the gang, given some contacts, and told how to get one of the underground newspapers. They are also introduced to other members and possibly given a job to do for the gang.
Having no "strict" rules (actually none what so ever), Brutal is guided by it's two founders a the top of the chain, who can call upon their network of Brutal members for special jobs. Mostly though, everyone's on their own, they only meet to discuss immediate problems and big jobs, and for parties and the yearly meeting. So you see, Brutal is really a bunch of smaller groups loosely knit into a big one that bands together when needed. This way, if one group goes down, it's most likely that the rest will be OK and not drawn down to, Brutal members try not to get to know other "groups" people very well because that's all the less they can tell to the interrogators...
Art/Brutal "members" can identify each other by gang symbols, signs and sayings. There are a number of underground publications (news letters, magazine, etc.) by and about the group, where members compare stories, photos, (in electronic pages) movies , highly confidential information about things like the location and time of Emperor Prosek's niece's wedding, and group meetings, activities, and most importantly, data on the Coalitions efforts to crack down on the underground world and how to avoid, su persede, or make a joke out of them, and advertisements for every thing the neo-anarchist of Rifts would need, from new hacking programs to experimental high-power plasma sniping rifles.
Many of the members have connections (a few are directly affiliated with) the black market and organized crime in the coalition states. This means that many members have access to highly illegal items and the means to get them (many are accomplished t hieves also!). Many also buy and sell such items amongst themselves (see above).
Thus you can imagine lots of well equipped members out there reeking havoc on the coalition with terrorism, jokes, and sometimes kidnapping and murder (rarely though, more just trying to annoy the hell out of the Coalition). Members of the society "t ag" or mark/draw on Coalition property, scrawling messages and names anyway they can. Different artists try to out-do each other constantly, with more elaborate and good drawings, and in the coolest places possible (like sneaking up to an parked Coalitio n Mark V and spay painting a big yellow smiley face over the skull face and small ones over all the missile warheads, along with the phrase "Make Peace, Not Plasma!" and the author's name "tag"). You get the idea of what these practical jokers/terrorist do.
On the terrorism side, Brutal members commonly attack and capture out-skirts Coalition bases and hold them just long enough to kill all the occupants, steal everything inside, and loop a tape to continually send derogatory messages on all the restrict ed radio bands. Brutal members also sometimes hire themselves out as thieves, scouts, hackers and other shadowy jobs, most members dislike direct combat, resorting more to sniping and back stabbing. Because of this, Brutal members also have connections with many City/States, assassin guilds, mercenary companies, and other illegal groups.
Note: Art/Brutal is a mainly urban gang, locations of their gang mostly are around Chi-Town's burbs, and anywhere else where the Coalition is active, but not completely in control.
Well, that's it for now, write me back with some input and maybe I'll write some more...