Voodoo Boys

"Any idea how many attacks from behind the Blackwall we neutralised? If the Voodoo Boys breach the Blackwall, we'll all be fucked."

- Bryce Mosley, NetWatch Agent

The Voodoo Boys are one of the many gangs in Night City in Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077.

History
This is a terrorist gang of drug dealers. They engage in weird magic rituals, and deal non-synthetic drugs to students near the University. Sadistic and pitiless, they will kill, torture, and rape for any reason or no reason at all. Victims will sometimes be warned with Chicken blood and feathers on their doorstep. Or not. Their motives and practices have no consistency. Mutilating and maiming victims is common, as is dissecting their body parts for rituals or to inspire terror.

Their nihilism and drug use is attractive to some university students. They are sometimes let into the gang, but they are never considered real members. The gang exploits them as cannon fodder for low level crimes, or milks them for funds from their family at home.

No outsider has ever successfully infiltrated the gang. They have no fixed headquarters or crash pads. The location and time for the next meeting is chosen at the end of each meeting. At least two high profile Medias have died while trying to cover this gang. They are considered a priority for the NCPD, violent and dangerous. The terror they inspire has been successful in keeping the local merchants quiet and uncooperative with the police.

They can most often be found at Hababas, an ex-biker bar. They have a perverse celebrity there, and implied threats of violence keep the owners and other patrons in line. This is also where most of their drugs are dealt. If you're a white middle class student who manages to make it through the jeering harassment to the bar, you can expect to receive better prices. But leave your girlfriend at home.

Despite the biosculpting, tattoos, feather implants, and bones through their noses and ears, most members of the gang started as average white boys. Most are male, though female members exist as well. The females are often much worse, as they have twice as much to prove as the males.

In 2077, the Voodoo Boys are an enigmatic gang from Pacifica, aren't just netrunners devoted to uncovering the secrets of the Old Net and behind the Blackwall. They're also edgerunners: breaking every rule there is to break, and programming viruses that can freeze neural networks.

In contrast to their previous iteration, the Voodoo Boys appear to be a Haitian / Dominican gang that is heavily involved with the large Haitian/Dominican community in Pacifica that settled the district in the 2060s, after a natural disaster decimated their home country.

They are led by Brigitte and her second in-command, Placide. They have formed a rivalry with a Boostergang known as the Animals.

Overview
A mysterious gang from Pacifica with a dark reputation for their netrunning skills and their mystical voodoo flavor. Presumed to be entirely consist of members with Haitian blood, the Voodoo Boys are are exclusive, secretive, and distrustful of outsiders. The gang was originally comprised of voodoo priests and priestesses, the prominent caste in the Creole culture of the Haitian diaspora. In 2062, climate change wiped Haiti off the face of the earth and initiated a new chapter of the Voodoo Boys' history. The gang became the self-appointed guardians of Haitian refugees' interests and safety in the Pacifica combat zone.

Most Voodoo Boys are netrunners, so cooling suits and neural implants are common elements of a member's outfit complemented with "voodoo-flavored" elements like dreadlocks, tattoos, and the bones and skulls of small birds and rodents worn as charms. Cyberware used by the gang include cyberdecks and neural links.

Philosophy and structure
"For them, Pacifica's just Haiti 2.0. Their own island, cut off from the rest of the city."

- Johnny Silverhand

Due to the homogenous nature of the Creole diaspora in the Pacifica, coupled with the lack of police forces in the district, it is difficult to determine the Voodoo Boys' numbers, structure, or even goals. It is widely known that the gang is determined to uncover the secrets of the Old Net, and it's commonly believed that they probe the Blackwall in hope of making contact the rogue intelligent systems beyond the barrier. These attempts have drawn the attention and enmity of NetWatch, who are interested tracking and dispatching rogue netrunners and self aware ISs.

It is unknown to what extent, if any, the Voodoo Boys are connected with actual voodoo religious practices in the Haitian diaspora of Pacifica.

Source of income
The gang's primary source of income involves hacking databanks and accounts within various corporations in search of restricted and top-secret data. They persistently violate NetWatch laws and regulations, especially in regard to contact with ISs. The Voodoo Boys also hire themselves out as mercenary netrunners for private contractors who are interested in hit-and-run netrunning operations or exploring any ruined parts of the Old Net.

Other sources of income are hard to verify, but theft of virtual currency and information brokering are probably among them.