Raider Week: Star Sinister

Known Markings:

A simple pentagram with an outward canting sword extending through the points on either side.

Most Star Sinister equipment is painted in bright hues shifted towards the blue/violet spectrum, including a few odd colors that luminescence under certain conditions. It looks rather garish to most humans, but the aliens in the group seem to think its a rather impressive display.

Leadership:

Authority mostly lies with the aliens due to their access to heavy weapons and control of technology. However, the humans are not necessarily second class, as they are the ones who know the terrain and scavenge.

Estimated Forces:

Enrollment may be as high as several hundred, in part because star sinister has far lower requirements for joining than most other large raider groups.Tower Reversed looks for smart opportunists over simple bandits, Ambulance Chasers want medics first, Hunter's Legion makes recruits swear in to a set of ethics, and Stalin's Posse wants loyal communists or good spies. Star Sinister doesn't care - bring a tithe of guns, food, or equipment, and prove you've got a skill for shooting or beating people with your bare hand, and you're in.

Notable Equipment:

Given that the group is a collaboration between humans and aliens, more than a few pieces of alien tech have made it into the group's armories. These include Eekaidie armor, small laser towers, gyrojet weapons,and even radiation cannons. Due to limited availability of spares for these items, they are often only used in special occasions - intimidating towns, defending the home base, or high value convoys. Outside these alien additions, most of the group is fairly poorly equipped, and must make do with normal personal weapons and a few technicals.

Philosophy:

This rapidly switches between "He who dies with the most toys" and "We are the brotherhood of the damned". On one hand, the group offers protection to just about anyone who cares to sign up - far better than going alone. However, it is very much a gang of criminals and has its share of psychopaths and scum that wouldn't get into a more savvy raider group.

Background:

It is unknown what the Planetary Citizen code of justice is like, but every society has its criminals. Between limited supplies, the demands of colonization, attacks by abominations, and militias of former residents - all on top of preexisting faction tensions - its little wonder that some citizens go rouge.

Nor is it odd that some zone wanderers would want to meet up with these wayward Citizens. Just having an alien ally brings mystique and intimidation. Fast reflexes, keen senses, and small size make them excellent scouts, while the power of an Eekaidie is not to be dismissed. Most groups only find one or two such PCs, if any at all - but Star Sinister has several dozen in their ranks.


The Sinister ones rely mostly on numbers granted by unrestricted recruiting, and the ruthlessness of including hardened criminals in their ranks.  Many bounty hunters know that a Star Sinister Camp is the first place to look for their quarry, and the last place to seek them out - as the group is quite protective of its bivouacs and somehow enforces a regular order within them not seen when the group members are anywhere else. Only the Tower Reversed seems willing to fight this group on its home turf, and that is as much because banditry pushes into their desired territory as altruism.