POSTED BY: SHADOWBRAWLER
This one is a little different. This isn’t about just one per- son. This is about the urban brawl team that sidelines as a runner squad when working other cities. They don’t do the shadows of Boston—not their style—but Seat- tle, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, and Miami have all seen at least a taste of the Massacre’s work. It’s not the whole team, but damn close, and they have a little ex- tra help from at least one outsider. Here’s the rundown.
James “Buster” Herbert: Buster is the bane of the Brawl Leagues repair crews. He’s taken down entire build- ings with his limited allotment of ordnance and left the crews to try to figure out what they’ll be doing for the next event. The burly ork’s profile says he’s a former UCAS Marine, and he’ll gladly clench the fist on his cyberarm to show off the bulldog design across his metallic knuckles.
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I love when he hits someone, and in the after interviewsyou can see the shape of the bulldog in the scrapes and bruises on the opponent’s face.
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MassacreFANaticWild Billy Chis: Immediately recognizable due to his thick black nose ring, this team veteran is anything but
an easy-to-control bull. The dwarf is usually decked out in his vintage 1994 SPECOPS tactical vest. The plating inside has been upgraded, but the battle-tested exteri- or has been meticulously kept up. His profile mentions that his grandfather wore that very same vest when he worked “black book” ops for the United States back in the day. The vest, sans a shirt beneath, also gives a great view of this fifty-six-year-old monster’s sixty-one-cen- timeter arms and their bragworthy tattoos. Chis was so confident in his early career he started adding thin black bands for each victory. Those bands are now so numer- ous the design is blending and looking almost solid.
Kip “Ironface” Vanover: If you really want to find out why he got that name, watch this lithe elf head butt someone. In a 2071 grudge match against the Scream- ers, Vanover got whipped like a rag doll by troll brute Abrams “Two Tanks” Sherman. The attack would have ended the career of almost anyone else, but Vanover wanted back in the game. He signed a lifetime contract with the Massacre that would have moved him to the front office when his brawling days were over in ex- change for extensive implantation, including a Transys Ironface Cyberskull. In a match last year he faced off against Two Tanks and shattered the troll’s lower jaw with a head-butt.
Scott “Jellyfish” Kelly: I think the Massacre are great because they embrace history. They aren’t jumping at the latest craze but instead use some of the old tried and true. “Jellyfish” gets his nickname from the myriad of wires that hang from his head—some implanted, some from gear, some just part of his hair. His profile lists his age with a ?? and claims he doesn’t remember anything from before the Crash of ‘29, when he was already a teenager. All of it is probably smoke and mirrors, but he definitely acts as one of the old-timers of the team and stands as an icon of the Massacre.
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The cables and wires are a nice show to cover for his TM abilities.>
NotFooled>
The cables and wires aren’t entirely a show. He’s been a Matrix-mancer since the ‘50s. And don’t go claiming otaku, since he was a full-grown adult by then. Not sure how it would work, but I’m guessing a blend of cyberdeck and technomancy can make an awesome one-two punch.>
BrawlerFanJanis “Cypher” Landgrebe: Cypher is the Massacre’s jack of all trades. He’s bulky and strong thanks to his ork- ish genes, has a way with remote weapons and vehicles that borders on supernatural, and spent the off-season of ‘74 testing out the new Matrix structure for NeoNET. His history is a mystery according to his team profile, but
his tattoos and accent have brought comments all over the team forum about the Republic of Bavaria.
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Supernatural? Another technomancer! NeoNET’s pushing their luck. They get found out and they’re going to lose a big chunk of their squad.>
McDougle>
They already did.>
Crunch>
Cypher is not a TM. He’s got too many implants for that. He’s like a walking ad for NeoNET’s various cyber subsidiaries.>
MerkerrinjaJahrl “Deadeye” Mirkson: The Massacre wouldn’t have near the record they do in the last two seasons without Mirkson. He acquired his skill with a long gun during his time in the AGS. His profile claims his records from life in Germany are sealed for national security, but odds are he worked for S-K or the BGS. He tends to work as a high overwatch and has caught several penalties for exceeding the combat ceiling during matches while moving.
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I’ve seen fan claims to have spotted a GSG9 tattoo on his shoulder when his uniform has torn, but I haven’t found any footage of the actual event.>
RC>
Mirkson funded a Boston school for parkour, the urban running style, called Leaps & Bounds that is supposedly staffed with members of the street gang Wicked. He’s in all the commercials for it, and they use some of his brawl highlight footage for the ads.>
Mr. Jaggers“Mechaphantom”: In 2056 the Massacre put a big-money contract into a little-known outrider named Ryan “Phantom” Wood. He was a troll who could make his Scorpion dance like a prima ballerina. He played four seasons and then suddenly, in 2060, his name was pulled from the roster. No injured reserve, no sent back to the bush leagues, nothing. In fact, he’d had his best season yet in ‘59. The team shut down any questions about him and moved on.
Cycle forward fourteen years and the Massacre make a huge announcement about a returning legend. At the press conference this monstrous “thing” of met- al and muscle steps out with a metallic cyberskull that looks just like Wood. They mention the name briefly but then introduce the new outrider as “Mechaphantom,” the Phantom reborn. Some of the moves are the same, but the Mecha-closeline and Mecha-flying slam have been snagging time on highlight reels ever since.
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Phantom had an accident in their little sideline business in ‘59 that put him and all the other runner/brawlers out of the shadow game for a while. When the team slipped back into shadow ops they put in a call to Phantom, who had experienced a series of nasty injuries that cost him almost every part of his upper body.>
SangiusAndrew Smith: Smith, actually Special Agent Smith, is not a member of the Massacre, but is instead a member of the UCAS FBI and the face for the runners. He collects their contracts and gives them the run assignments without any Johnsons or fixers being able to make the direct connection between the team and the runners. He’s human, average height, and as bland an Agent Smith as one could find anywhere, but he knows the business and makes sure to get top nuyen for his team. But better than that, he knows when to decline an offer. Most runner teams are waiting by the phone for their next job offer, watching their credsticks slowly dwindle to nothing. Since that isn’t the case with these guys, Smith has a lot of leverage when he comes to the table, and he applies it well.
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Smith isn’t a feeb. He’s either NSA or CIA, more likely the latter. Dig enough and you’ll see connections to UCAS national politics in every run the guys on the Massacre pull off.>
Traxx Steiner>
Wonder how that kind of affiliation will play out inside the QZ? All I have to say is good luck Massacre—hope your UB skills can keep you safe.>
ScoundrelTESTINCHEN
POSTED BY: CLOSE
He’s not local, but he’s in Boston. He operated for years in the Atlanta shadows, spent some time making a name for himself in Denver, and settled into Manhattan last year. He would have been at home in the MDC but he got word an old acquaintance was in Boston doing some work. The rival, known only as A.J., was lead- ing a team that Testinchen had run across before, but on opposite sides of a run. Testinchen got his honor smudged, which is a bad thing for a true street samurai, when he got duped and was looking for an apology.
He usually sticks to high-end work that fits his code of honor, a modified Bushido code mixed with some of his native elven traditions that I haven’t got a clue how to explain. He told me once that he dedicates himself to each new job and Johnson but always makes sure to vet them fully before taking the work. His fixers know the deal and he operates on mostly referrals. He never op- erates with the same team, though occasionally he’ll call
back a member who showed promise. It becomes quite a shadowboon to have been called back by Testinchen in the cities he works out of, but his demeanor has made him more than a few enemies in the meantime.