Wuya Kongsi

Describe a famous criminal organization and the unlawful acts they commit in your world.

Designated a 'Black Society' by both Chinese and UN authorities, Wuya Kongsi originally began its life as a narco trafficking syndicate in the Down Under of Earth. Operating out of Sydney NSW its members engaged in the trans national trafficking of locally grown marijuana, opium from the Golden Triangle and cocaine from Latin America. The interesting element in this was that Wuya Kongsi was a wholesaler. It did handle street level deals, it sold significant amounts to others who were at the top of street level chains.

Fast forward and the First Narco War in the Golden Triangle (circa 2020 to 2025 CE) seriously impinged on the groups resources and access. Several key members had been killed by Zulfiqaist radicals in Chiang Mai during the war and there was an ugly power vaccum. By the early 2030s things had stabilised only for the Second Narco War to break out, this time over access and control to the rich cocaine fields of Latin America and the opium fields of the Golden Triangle. Again the organisation took a hit, though the hit was dealt when the war spilled over into Vietnam and sparked off the Fourth Indochina War. Vietnamese authorities pressured the Australian governemnt to do something about the Raven Company members living and operating in its own territories.

By the time the UNCV Ascension departed to Barnard's Star, the Wuya Kongis (Raven Company) was a mere shadow of what it had once been. Still high place members and their retainers had managed to score a place on the Ascension, perhaps on a new world they could somehow revive their fortunes? Could the Raven Company achieve a rebirth? By the time the vessel arrived in system news filtered through to the colonists via virtual that the target world was haibitable and potentially had its own life forms, though it was not certain if their was sentient life.

Lazarus would certainly be a fertile ground for the organisation. At first there was the effort to establish itself in the pecking order but during the so called Lost Years the Raven Company uncovered certain avenues not previously opened to it before, the new world was filled with a variety of vicious brutal monsters, monsters that could potentially be tamed and at some stage smuggled offworld (the leadership was thinking long term), in the short term these creatures could be used in blood sports, and the company could control betting on such fights.

At first these contests took place in crude arenas away from prying eyes; but they proved popular and even better people were happy to wager their hard earned. Also there was the matter of exo tech and alien relics, people wanted these things as well. Either to study or just to have like some kind of exotic work of art, or a status symbol. Company representatives touched base with scavengers and razboyniki to uncover such things. They also made sure that authorities looked the other way when these things blew up on the face of the purcahser or if the people unearthing them unleashed unwanted consequences.

But the real thing that finally sealed the deal for the Raven Company was a discovery during the Lost Years out in an area dubbed the Spiremarch. Tomas Zelenka was a down and out scavenger, a failed digger and someone fast on the way to becoming a corpse if he didn't pay his gambling debts and other obligations to dubious parties. Out in the wilds though he uncovered something that no dreamed of, he found a fully intact laboratory.

Zelenka had discovered the first batch of Dust aka Mummy Dust. He traded the location to a member of the Raven Company who in turn kicked it upstairs to the leadership. After investigation and thorough erasure of the site from any and all records the company cleared all of his debts. He would die five years later in a knife fight with a book maker over a bet in an underground fight ring.

Through the efforts of Zelenka, Wuya Kongsi had something that would give them dominance in the new worlds criminal scene; Mummy Dust, a narcotic so potent it made all others positively tame. And as it controlled the only known source it could sit at the top of the distribution chain, isolating itself through various fronts, facades and cutouts. It didn't need to deal at street level. Others would do that for the company.

And with the threat of either being killed outright, fed to a monster in one of the underground rings or being sold into sexual slavery dealers were loath to reveal who sold the dust and where the dust came from. It was a perfect solution, and the money that rolled in would be used to further cement things via bribes to officials, politicians etc.