“These guys make Pantheon look like saints.  I am just glad they seem to take out their aggression on everyone, and not just us baselines…”

-Tadaka Hikaru, Japanese Businessman

“I am a simple business man.  I provide a service, and people pay for it. Perhaps if people were not so...hypocritical...they would understand that I am a true believer in capitalistic economics.  Perhaps my methods are coarse, but in the end it is simply good business…”

-Tao, during a court hearing

A ruthless criminal organization, and though many consider them heroes locally, many more have felt the swift sting of the Brass Orchid Triad.  The Brass Orchid Triad existed before the rise of the elites, but they were among the first to adopt the use of elites and have risen to prominence in Hong Kong and across Southeast Asia, as well as into the Americas. At the heart of the criminal syndicate is the sinister and mysterious Silver Hermit.  It is known that the leader is an elite, perhaps even omega class.  His closest lieutenants run various operations across the globe, while the Silver Hermit seems content with his simple Zen garden and bonsai plants he maintains at his residence in the hills outside of Hong Kong.

Silver Hermit, though, is no fool.  He prefers to keep his hands clean of any wrong-doing, and in fact his son, Johnny Chen, runs much of the day-to-day operations of the organization. Many actually believe that Chen, himself, is the fabled Silver Hermit.  Chen is a canny baseline.  He likes to be flashy with his money, and enjoys being a symbol of success.

The syndicate is split into various groups working different regions all answerable to Johnny Chen, and ultimately the true Silver Hermit. The Boss of Hong Kong is Tao, a ruthless triad enforcer who forced his way to the top, and now uses his elite abilities to keep a stranglehold on the crime scene in Hong Kong. He has many of the cops in his pocket, and nothing makes a move in the underworld without his knowledge. Recently Vanguard Secure Computing has begun to muscle in on his turf, and he has found them to be much tougher then he originally acknowledged them to be. A turf war is brewing in Hong Kong, and the collateral damage could prove to be incredible.

Tao, though, is an opportunist.  He sees a chance to perhaps extend the influence of the Brass Orchid Triad into other circles and has begun to court freelance mercenary elites for more firepower.  He wants to eventually shift some focus from a full crime syndicate to a more legitimate “Problem Solving Agency” though he knows some members of the group may not accept the change.