Wendigo’s Steel Devils are a mercenary bike gang currently operating on Halcyon. They were originally hired as security for a pharmaceutical research team operating deep in the jungle. After that assignment went completely off the rails – including three dead Devils – they retreated to the Chirkport area to regroup and recruit.
That’s when they discovered the harsh reality of Halcyon’s depressed economy. While they were making good money by Halcyon standards, they weren’t making enough to leave. If they had cut and run as soon as they made it back to Chirkport, selling their remaining bikes and other gear, they could have done it. They would have been marginal for a while, but they’d have been somewhere with better prospects. Instead, they chose to rebuild locally and pursue contracts on Halcyon, not realizing the pharmaceutical job had been a fluke.
At the same time they discovered the generally low quality of potential recruits. Three of their original team were killed on their first contract, and they decided to find replacements in the general population. Halcyonians are tough and know the jungle, so they should make excellent recruits.
Now they take whatever they can get, hoping to scrape together enough to escape Halcyon and go back to more civilized places.
One of their organizational quirks is that they always refer to each other by their callsigns. Wendigo insists it’s for efficiency, but Charybdis insists he just does it to be special. It has the added benefit of keeping their real names off the radio. Considering the extensive criminal records of a few of the team, they’ll take any help they can get not being identified by the authorities.
The gang’s power structure is simple: Charybdis and Spectre are directly below Wendigo, and everyone else does what they’re told. For the most part the others get along relatively well, but squabbles do break out. If personal problems get bad enough for any of the three leaders to take an interest, it doesn’t go well for them; one of the leaders will arbitrate, and the one who “won” will still pay a price for wasting everyone’s time.
Core Members
The core of the Steel Devils are Wendigo, Charybdis, and Spectre. Ironclad and Roadkill are the two remaining survivors of the disaster on MacHorta Island and still run with them. They recruited Gearhead, M-80, and Sasquatch first as prospects then full members from the dregs of society hanging around Chirkport.
Wendigo, the leader of the Devils, is the brains of the outfit. He’s cunning, intelligent, sneaky, and their best tactician.
Charybdis is their best infiltrator by far. Her skills at disguise and impersonation have allowed her to walk into secure locations thought impenetrable, then walk back out with a wave and a smile from the very people who were supposed to keep her out in the first place.
The group’s scout and sniper is Spectre. Equally at home hiding in plain sight with his rifle or sneaking up on a guard and stabbing him in the lung, Spectre has more than earned his callsign. If a mission involves stealth, long range surveillance, or assassination, Wendigo and Charybdis defer to him.
Wendigo, Charybdis, and Spectre are all good infiltrators, and if they ditched the rest of the gang could do quite well as a freelance industrial espionage crew. Charybdis and Spectre have both suggested this, but Wendigo likes having a gang to order around.
Roadkill survived their first contract through sheer orneriness. When everyone was pinned down and couldn’t get a clear shot, he slung his rifle and grabbed a chainsaw. He also has a talent for first aid that saved Wendigo’s life afterward. On several occasions he’s performed crude field surgery in the bed of their truck while Ironclad drove.
Ironclad is their logistics and maintenance specialist. He makes the modifications to and maintains their vehicles, keeps their supplies coming, and acts as medevac driver when necessary.
He’s assisted in his work by Gearhead, one of their Halcyonian recruits. Gearhead isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed even by Halcyonian standards, but he has a gift for motorcycle repairs and follows orders well. He also has a natural talent for finding off-label uses for common items, including converting agricultural sprayers into flamethrowers and smokescreen generators, and building pneumatic cannons from scrap pipe.
Wendigo discovered M-80 running from the police after burning down a bar in Chirkport. While arson is one of his talents, he’s even better with explosives and has an intuitive skill with demolitions. If something static needs to be destroyed, they send in M-80. He’s usually armed with a pistol, grenade launcher, and a backpack full of demolition charges.
Their final Halcyonian recruit was the man they call Sasquatch. His callsign required no real thought on their part – he’s a full two meters tall and masses just under a hundred and fifty kilos of solid muscle and hair. Sasquatch is every bit as stealthy as Spectre, and acts as his spotter when necessary. Spectre is teaching him the finer points of sharpshooting, recognizing the potential of a man as fit and strong as Sasquatch as a sniper. He can hipshoot an anti-materiel rifle, and Wendigo has authorized Spectre to start looking for a weapon fit for Sasquatch’s hands. Of all their recruits, he is the most accepted as a member of the team.
In addition to these regulars, they usually have a prospect or three hanging around. These prospects don’t typically come along on any serious criminal activity but are used as lackeys by any biker within arm’s reach.
Team Assets
The gang maintains a small fleet of motorcycles, a heavy pickup truck, and trailer. Every member but Ironclad owns a motorcycle, including the prospects. Obviously the prospects aren’t riding bikes nearly as nice as the leaders or even the regulars, but they’re still good bikes. Ironclad and Gearhead serve as the gang’s mechanics, drafting the others as needed. Everyone knows the basics of motorcycle repair, but those two are acknowledged as the best in the gang.
Bikes ridden by the Steel Devils are standard civilian offroad models modified by their mechanics. They don’t invest heavily in custom bikes because their machines get shot up far too often to make it worth the expense and local parts are a lot easier to come by.
Likewise, their truck is a heavy off-road pickup modified slightly by Ironclad. Its most notable features are the crew cab, large cargo bed, and heavy winch, all of which are available from the factory. Their trucks always have a crew cab so they can transport wounded who can’t ride a motorcycle; three can squeeze into the back seat, and the bed can easily haul three motorcycles; if they ever have more bikes than riders due to wounds, Wendigo prioritizes Devils over bikes.
The bikes and truck have engines that will run on almost any flammable liquid from moonshine to high-octane racing fuel.
There’s also the matter of interstellar transport; shipping a bike or truck to another planet usually costs more than it’s worth, and servicing off-planet vehicles can be an absolute nightmare. When they get a contract on another planet, they sell their bikes, truck, and other nonessential gear, then buy locally-available equipment on site.