Rank 2 – Maelstrom
- Danger Level: Extreme
- Estimated Size: 1,300 members
- Area: Watson (Northside Industrial District) and North Kabuki
- Cyberware: Pain Editors, Cyber optics, Reflex Boosters
Similar to the Animals, Maelstrom is fascinated by overcoming their humanity to become more than “weak flesh.” However, not through inflated bodies, but through extensive and dehumanizing modifications for which they are willing to give up parts of their bodies and even their faces to become a running machine. This can often lead to cyberpsychosis, which is just as frequent as it is ignored among Maelstrom members.
The members of Maelstrom love not only to shed their own bodies but also to experience the corresponding sensations that go along with them. They consume and trade illegal drugs and medications that cause intense highs to temporarily escape from the brink of madness caused by cyberpsychosis.
Another way to relax through targeted “getting drunk and going wild” is their own nightclub “Totentanz,” which serves as a main source of income for Maelstrom in addition to their criminal activities. Here, not only their own members party but also many other gangs, as long as they comply with their rules.
Maelstrom is a group with particularly questionable morals. While they engage in drug dealing, nightclubs, and contract killings like other gangs, these are particularly brutal and almost serve as another method for the Maelstrom to have fun: Many victims are dismembered, skinned alive, drowned in concrete, or ritualistically sacrificed.
Additionally, Maelstrom belongs to the type of criminals who engage in the trade of illegal braindances, including those that become extremely disturbing and violent. Encountering Maelstrom alone as a normal citizen is highly likely to be a death sentence. Because a day without deaths is a boring day for the gang.
