Group Status: Faction
Group Location: Global
A collection of organized crime families and institutions that have evolved into a silent confederation with shared interests, understood laws and rules, and distributions of territory. During the Wily Wars many criminal
organizations such as the Italian and Russian Mafias, Columbian drug cartels, Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza put aside their pursuits in order to help the effort to prevent their extermination at the hands of
Wily's robots (as many did during World War 2 in battling Axis and Communist powers). In return, the beleaugered global human armies provided the crime lords with weapons and technologies they previously did not have. After the inception of Repliforce to deal with Wily, the criminal organizations that had been forced by outside circumstances to work side by side decided to stay loosely organized into a whole known only as 'The
Syndicate'.
This has made them all the greater headache to local and global law enforcement agencies, and the former heads of militaries that supplied and organized the Syndicate's original member cells have received harsh
criticism for creating the burgeoning hydra of an organization. Yet unexpected benefits have come from this alliance of warlords and "black collar" workers: Functioning much like a union, the Syndicate have actually
absorbed or stamped out many smaller terrorist and gangland groups that have tried to operate within their bounds. Small time crooks and random serial killers have been snuffed out by Syndicate professionals, and
metropolitan neighborhoods have gotten safer, causing many police and even government agencies to overlook Syndicate activity. Syndicate agents are ruthless against those who are not 'part of the fold', and even more
ruthless towards member cells who disobey common rules. Inter-gang warfare has become an almost formal dueling affair, keeping productive, kickback-producing citizens and businesses out of the crosshairs.
Recently Syndicate agents have stepped up anti-Maverick initiatives and quietly aided Hunter and Repliforce agencies both. After all, robots that kill human customers interested in drugs, weapons, contraband materials,
black market robots and the sex trade are bad for the bottom line.
Membership[]
Syndicate members come from all races, nationalities, and ages with one thing in common: they've risen above common criminals to a position of regional importance. The founding members and many new members are self-made while others are picked by the Syndicate to stablize a new territory under their control, receiving funding and in some cases direct support to aid their conquest and then becoming Syndicate members once their control is established.
Involvement with the Syndicate can be loose or involved depending on how much a member choses to take (and pay for) Syndicate resources for their uses, but a strict non-compete policy applies between members. Any member who attacks another Syndicate member or their holdings forfeits their membership and becomes an enemy of the Syndicate, and is almost always found dead shortly afterwards. The exception to this is when a conflict has first been brought to the rest of the Syndicate and a member is given sanction to dispose of another member and seize his holdings. In the event a member needs to be "disciplined", an unrelated member is placed in charge (e.g. a German member deals with an Englishman, Canadian deals with American) to ensure they have no interests beyond getting the job done.
Membership into the Syndicate is not limited by craft, only scale and international benefit. Drug dealers, mercenaries, information brokers, human traffickers, and virtually any other kind of profitable criminal profession can be found within the Syndicate.
In exchange for membership and Syndicate resources, members are expected to provide local sanctuary to other members and open their region to economic trade but officially a member only agrees to the non-compete policy in exchange for the same. Members who make no use of Syndicate resources are generally allowed to keep closed borders (although by its nature the Syndicate will often replace stingy members with those with more profitable views).