Editing Setting:Nutopia/Factions (section)

==Red Widow's Crew==
Among merc circles and those who deal with them, there is one name indisputably considered legendary. Red Widow is a CSC merc, most commonly pictured screaming across the sky in a glossy lipstick red Grumman-Sukhoi Combine SGx-0 Air Superiority craft. Her legend stems not only from the fact that she is widely considered to be the deadliest single person in the sky circa ACE 25, but also because the Red Widow was the first human being to undergo a full CSC procedure - the very first brain-in-a-jar. The list of battles the former auburn-haired Israeli Air Force Major turned high-profile PMC aviator has fought and prevailed in trail from, depending on who you ask, the first NATO wargames to involve CSC pilots to sorties during Armacor Intervention Actions, Shadow Wars during the height of Corporate power to the by now mythic 20:1 battle above the Mediterranean during the Fall. For reasons open to much debate, Widow acted seemingly in accordance with Liberty's general goals, although it is unclear if she coordinated her actions with them, or was simply killing her way through some age old personal grudge list.

Regardless of motive, her actions rendered her something of a pariah among corp-loyal mercs. However, she has also consistently refused to outright cooperate with Aegis or other revolutionary groups, preferring to stay completely unaligned. This attitude has hardly won her any lasting friends in the free state communities, and in many places, Red Widow is considered nothing but an overhyped Raider. This, along with a never ending string of would be pretenders to the throne of deadliest merc in the sky have forced the rogue pilot into a life dodging the spotlight. Nevertheless, some mercs that prefer to operate independently have sought her out and joined her, forming a loyal warband that follows the Widow into battle, repairs her various chassis (the red plane being her signature avatar, but Red has been known to use more low-key aircraft, vehicles and humanoid doll forms) and run her mysterious errands. For whatever purpose, Red is actively hiring Delvers to retrieve old data (ranging from pre-fall advertising videos to VI prototypes) from caches around the world. Some take this apparently random interest in various information a sign of the Widow's psychological problems; as the oldest CSC subject alive today, she is speculated to be suffering from an advanced, rare form of corporeal identity dissociation syndrome (CIDS), a mental disorder that functions in its terminal stages like an extreme version of the phantom limb phenomena seen in some amputees, and can even lead to degenerative Alzheimer's like symptoms. It occurs commonly in CSC humans, but can usually be overcome via therapy, cortex extension implants and an extended stay in a single shell. Red has not had any such luxuries, as a CSC prototype who has rotated between a number of radically different shells the fact that she has survived this long on what amounts to sheer willpower is stunning. Those slightly more optimistic about her motives believe the data she hunts is building towards something meaningful, although exactly what that is varies depending on who you ask.

Delvers who make a name for themselves may at some point be contacted by her or one of her intermediaries, often with promise of a high risk, high reward operation. At times her operation will even hire relative unknowns, rarely ever making their bought help aware of exactly whom sent them on their mission. These jobs are often high paying, marked only by the fact that they simply seem odd, a large payoff for a stroll through a picked over delve to retrieve census data or some other seemingly innocuous piece of info. Sinister rumors persist that Red's group is not above paying for cannon fodder, selecting inexperienced operators specifically because they won't be missed and using them as expendable chaff for their own operations. The difficulty in tracking down whether or not the Widow's organization did in fact offer a job makes these rumors difficult to affirm or deny. Regardless of their veracity, quick, easy money always has takers.