BASALT CARTEL (Chendiuria Chapter)

BuCol Intelligence Division Brief — FI-7 CLASSIFICATION (RESTRICTED)

File Code: BUCOL/INT/CHEN-ORG/BC-02
Primary Subject: Basalt Cartel
Current Leader: Rauko Temeci (“The Basalt Hound”)
Estimated Membership (Chendiuria Only): ~49,800 active
Influence Level: Major Syndicate — Territorial Hegemony (Second Only to Red Dragons)

1. ORIGIN & HISTORY

1.1 Original Formation — Mars (Early 23rd Century)

Orcus Patera City, a rough, long-scarred Martian city beneath a partially collapsed crater, was where the Basalt Cartel was founded.

Originally a coalition of:

• miners
• space ice-haulers
• scrap barons
• tunnel-gangs
• black-market ore refiners

The cartel defined itself early as blue-collar, brutal, and uncompromising.

Their first motto was carved on a basalt plaque in the old Patera tunnels:

“From Stone, Strength.”

Their founders believed that survival in Orcus Patera’s harsh environment required:

• communal protection
• violent deterrence
• and absolutely reliable honor between working-class criminals

The cartel quickly dominated illegal:

• ore shipments
• ore-grade falsification
• labor extortion
• off-ledger scrap and salvage

Their reputation on Mars became synonymous with industrial muscle and street-level ruthlessness.

1.2 Expansion to Chendiuria (Late 23rd – Early 24th Century)

Despite Chendiuria’s hyper-arid environment and extreme mineral deficiency made it a natural fit for the Cartel.

They arrived quietly but expanded rapidly, leveraging:

• smuggling routes between Mars and Chendiuria (developing as star gates enter regular usage)
• old-school labor networks
• bribes to quarry authorities
• ex-miners recruited as soldiers

By 2305 they were Chendiuria’s largest criminal enterprise.

By 2320 the Red Dragons surpassed them in sophistication, but the Basalt Cartel retained control of the ground, the quarries, and the light industry underworld.

1.3 Modern Era: The “Beneath the Stone” Doctrine

Under their current leader, Rauko Temeci, the Basalt Cartel adopted a militaristic organizational structure and expanded aggressively into:

• quarry site extortion
• heavy weapons smuggling
• cloned organ trafficking
• forced labor “contracts”
• industrial sabotage for corporate clients

They remain more territorial and violent than the Red Dragons but lack the Dragons’ finesse and political integration.

2. LEADERSHIP

Cartel Boss: Rauko Temeci

• Age: ~88
• Augments:
• reinforced skeletal plating
• amphibolic metabolic stabilizers (Martian heritage)
• throat amplifier implant (command voice mod)
• subdermal graphene and basalt-resin armor bands
• Personality: cold, stoic, slow to speak, fast to kill
• Background: former Orcus Patera deep-shaft miner; lost two brothers in shaft collapses caused by corrupt inspectors
• Leadership Style:
• "Solve it in three steps: see, strike, bury"

“Basalt does not ask permission.”

— Rauko Temeci

Second-in-Command: Jasha Rell

• Oversees weapon smuggling and industrial rackets
• Known for brutal efficiency and reliable logistics

Enforcers (The Hammer Circle)

• 24 elite operatives
• Mostly ex-miners with heavy augments
• Wear basalt-grit armor coats and breacher gloves

3. CARTEL ORGANIZATION (CHENDIURIA)

Total Estimated Membership: ~49,800

Tier 1 — Boss + The Hammer Circle

25 members total

Strategic violence, territory enforcement, war declarations.

Tier 2 — Foremen (“Foreman Captains”)

Approx. 80

Manage districts, labor fronts, mine-based crime corridors.

Tier 3 — Pit Crews (“Stone Crews”)

Approx. 4,500
The backbone of extortionists, smugglers, muscle, and gun-runners.

Tier 4 — Grits (“Gritmen”)

Approx. 10,000
Low-level soldiers, runners, labor-pawns, protection collectors.

Tier 5 — Buried (“The Buried Ones”)

Approx. 5,000
Debt slaves, coerced labor, off-ledger workers.
Often literal quarry workers under cartel control.

4. MOTTO AND CULTURE

Primary Motto: “From Stone, Strength.”

Secondary Mottos:

• “We stand where others break.”
• “The ground remembers.”
• “What we claim, we keep.”

Core Values:

• Worker solidarity
• Brutal retaliation
• Silence about internal matters
• Absolute loyalty to your Foreman
• Economic domination, not political finesse

The Cartel is more tribal and blue-collar than the Red Dragons.
Members refer to themselves as “Stoneborn.”

5. TERRITORY ON CHENDIURIA

The Basalt Cartel controls the industrial belts and lower infrastructure:

• The Rust Spine
• Outer Iron Market
• Six Copper Warrens
• First City Docks Levels 6–11
• Most of the grav-rail smuggling tunnels
• Three old, abandoned monorail stations
• Black Lung Corridor

They do not control the meditative dens (Tong of the Iron Orchid).

They do not control the high-end crime rings (Red Dragons Tong).

But they control:

• some of the streets
• some of the tunnels
• some of the few factories
• and a few of the unregulated street night markets

"Where there is steel, dust, sweat, or rust — Basalt owns it."

6. INCOME STREAMS

1. Industry Racketeering (30%)

Their biggest money maker.

They extract “safety payments” from:

• quarry camps
• fabrication plants
• vehicle repair yards
• salvage shops
• illegal grav plate refitters

2. Drug Distribution (18%)

Not manufacture — distribution.

They moved the Iron Orchid’s products out of high-end dens and into:

• industrial barracks
• migrant camps
• union hostels

Blue Lotus Elixir stays with the Tong of the Iron Orchid, but the Basalt Cartel distributes:

• Dustfire
• Copper-line
• Waker powders
• Shift Boost amphetamines
• Slag-Pipe inhalants

3. Weapons Smuggling (15%)

Especially:

• old Martian rifles
• mini-mag pulse carbines
• industrial cutting torches (not technically a weapon, but can be used as one)
• non-nuclear explosive salvage charges
• black-market pulse shotguns

4. Forced Labor and Contract Theft (12%)

They “rent out” labor crews to:

• illegal speculative mines and quarries
• material sorting plants
• metal reclamation centers

5. Prostitution (9%)

The Basalt Cartel owns several lower-grade brothels and stables of street-level companions in their territories.

Not the luxury dens (Iron Orchid territory).

6. Cloned Organ and Augment Trafficking (8%)

Or “body salvage,” as they call it.

Many operations disguised as:

• clinic backrooms
• emergency medical tents
• “accident recovery crews”

7. Territorial Taxes (8%)

Protection money from every shop, stall, cart, or vending unit on their turf.

7. INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS

7.1 Red Dragons Tong

Status: Hostile-competitive / Avoids open warfare

They respect the Dragons’ intelligence and political reach but hate their refinement.

Border skirmishes happen frequently.

Full-scale war would cripple the city, so both sides avoid escalation.

7.2 Tong of the Iron Orchid

Status: Strictly Neutral

Iron Orchid controls:

• most meditative dens
• Blue Lotus rituals
• emotional commerce

Basalt controls:

• industry
• guns
• workers

They maintain a “No Interference Pact.”

Both sides break it occasionally.

7.3 Sanguine Needles

Status: Former Allies

The Cartel briefly allied with the Needles to purge the Scarlet Demon Lilies from several districts.

The alliance lasted 43 days before dissolving in betrayal.

7.4 Scarlet Demon Lilies

Status: Eradicated (Approx. 95%)

An all-woman gang specialized in precision violence and sex-work protection.

The Basalt and Needles joint purge:

• wiped out most of their lieutenants
• took over their brothels
• seized their most of their weapons and weapon caches
• ended their presence around Rena’s neighborhood
• left a few survivors hiding or fleeing

Adi had previously taken minor jobs from the Lilies’ leader, a woman named Vex Marae.

Vex disappeared after the purge.

Rena’s family was only a few blocks from the fighting.

8. RELATIONSHIP TO ADI

To the Cartel Aditi "Adi" Nizhóní Peshlakai is:

• known
• respected
• slightly feared
• not in debt to them
• not for sale
• not trustworthy from their perspective
• highly dangerous
• unaligned
• more trouble than she’s worth
• unofficially off-limits unless she strikes first

“Adi is a knife someone else threw. Not predictable. Not ours.”

— Rauko Temeci

Adi has:

• killed Basalt soldiers in self-defense
• saved a few independent workers from Basalt extortion
• refused every attempt at recruitment, sometimes violently
• briefly disrupted a weapons-smuggling operation on accident (but they remember)

9. NOTABLE ASSETS

• The Basalt Hold (HQ) — reinforced substructure beneath Dockside Level 9
• Scrap Nexus 7 — illegal salvage yard
• Patera Line — smuggling route between Chendiuria and Mars (will adjust as star gates enter service)
• Black Lung Corridor — forced labor complex
• Pit King Arena — underground illicit fighting pit (literal basalt walls)
• The Stone Choir — small but terrifying group of cartel executioners

10. DIRECTORATE COMMENT

“The Red Dragons own the city’s pulse. But the Basalt Cartel owns its bones.”

— M. Eshai, BuCol Intelligence Analyst