The Underworld

There are plenty of criminals around the UNL, and a lot of misunderstandings about them. If there is one thing they do not take kindly to, it is outsiders that think they know it all. So if you are going into business here, you should be aware of the biggest players. Strap in, and take some Psyche if you get bored easily.

— Moenen

Date of Upload

25-01-2083

Author

Moenen

Status

Verified

Dutch Penose

The Penose are the local criminals, a loose alliance of gangs and crime lords. Well, that is a lie. They are only unified when it comes to outside threats. Internal competition, not so much. When a crime lord gets offed, usually it was someone that shook their hand just the day before. The upside is that this kind of war comes with less collateral damage, as people want to keep the assets whole.
As for their reach, long gone are the days the Penose mainly ruled Amsterdam. They have their claws in harbor cities all around the Netherlands and even parts of the ADL, bringing their smuggled drugs everywhere. Their reach is definitely helped by the fact they are an equal-opportunity employer. Troll, Dwarf, Dutch, Slav, who cares. Just take this gun and kick ass.
One last fun fact: The Penose rarely equips their foot soldiers with augmentations. As most fights take the form of liquidation attempts, your average grunt rarely needs to actually fight. So combat drugs are all they really need, with enough break time to prevent addiction.

Vory v Zakone

The Vory has made brutality their main weapon. If you piss them off, they get an angry mob in your face. You defy them still, they beat you up. This serves them well in some places, but not in the UNL, where you might raid an enemy base, cannot find the boss at all, then the next day your own boss is gunned down in a drive-by.
As for territory, the Vory lost the Tempo Wars, while also having to deal with the Albanian mob. Things never really got better for them, but they lucked out that the Penose went through a lot of infighting. That said, the third liquidation wave is definitely incoming and will likely drag the Vory along this time.
There still are plenty of Vory scattered throughout the country, though, so it still is a smart idea not to go and pick a fight with them. They may have a bit of respect for the Penose, but they care little about anyone else. Be especially careful if you frequent Antwerp, as they still have a decent grasp on the diamond business there. Best either stick to the Penose like glue, or remain ever neutral.

Pirates & Smugglers

When it comes to Europort, several oversea organizations run a smuggling business there. And of course there are plenty of people who smuggle their goods in through Amsterdam. But we do not care about them. Pirates! Those we care about.
There are quite a few groups of pirates active in the North Sea, but the most important groups are the Klabauterbund and the Red Corsairs. Once these were allies, but no more. In the past decade, the Red Corsairs have torn themselves apart, with only the most vicious surviving. Now they are corporate slaves, making a living as privateers for Proteus. They are violent bastards, led by a sociopath descending into madness, that are best avoided.
As for the eco-terroristic Klabauterbund, they care not about runners. Their main enemies are the Megacorps. Because of the escalating reign of terror of the Red Corsairs, the Klabauterbund has both gained new allies and lost existing ones, as pirate groups either take refuge in numbers, or stay neutral in a futile attempt to avoid conflict.

Shadowrunners

The most famous part of the UNL Shadows is the Shadowhelix, the second-largest Shadowrunner Matrix Haven in the world. It used to be semi-legal, before the UNL joined the NEEC. Nowadays it is violating half a dozen laws but not caring one byte. Its servers are distributed globally and sometimes even hidden within Corporate networks, making it near-impossible to take down.
As for the native Shadowrunners, they are a surprisingly international lot. The UNL is small and both highways and railroads let one traverse the entire country in a manner of hours. A runner who lives in a Penose safehouse in Amsterdam, can make it to Antwerp or Rhein-Ruhr in just two hours. As such, runners can easily operate even in other countries.
Combine that with Europort and Amsterdam, which import runners from other smuggler havens all the time, and the diversity of the Dutch Shadows ends up putting even Evo to shame. In the morning breakfast with a Caribbean smuggler at the Hague, and in the evening clubbing with Simon Andrews in London or Essen. Europe is our oyster.