Overview
Rustfire is Drifter Camp's paramilitary force. They are a ragtag and disorganized militia and do not use Mania weapons, but their combat prowess is deceptively well developed. Rustfire members specialize in guerilla tactics, maximizing the usage of the traps and mechanisms built into their home, and covert operations such as assassinations of authorities which they can pin on accidental casualties of gang conflicts. Rustfire is also proficient at the use of anti-Mania tactics, wielding Hypercube-derived weaponry and injections that are able to negate the abilities of Sinners. Rustfire's secret objective was to recapture BR-002 in order to secure a Hypercube mine for Syndicate. This would allow them smuggle Hypercubes to Outland city states, undermining DisCity's economy and security to eventually overthrow the DisCity authorities.
Rustfire was originally founded as a militia by the Hypercube miners of the Inner Bay after the DisSea Explosion. They would work the mines by day, and defend them from the emerging Syndicate gangs by night. In those days, the members of Rustfire were regarded as heroes, the last remnants of the golden age of the West District -- however, they were massacred during the descent of BR-002. Their leader, Donald, was believed to have defected to Nirvana, and within a week most survivors fled or joined the gangs.
Rustfire was reformed in N.F. 108 as a self-defense force for Drifter Camp and Julien became its leader. As Julien put it, those who were mature and reliable had long since died, and so all that was left of Rustfire was a group of angry kids. At this time, Rustfire numbered about 3,000 members, but only a few hundred armed combatants. The fall of The Legion left Rustfire as the primary force in Syndicate organized against the authorities, and their numbers increased to 6,000, with 1,000 armed combatants.
In N.F. 113, following the Drifter Camp mania crisis, Rustfire declared open rebellion against the authorities. FAC and Reconstruction Executive Committee were quickly swept out of Syndicate, and Rustfire gained control of two Hypercube production sites: BR-002 in the Inner Bay and BR-004 in Keylan Square. However, the rule of Rustfire over Syndicate proved to be no better than what came before. Their rebellion was enabled by the mass recruitment of angry and violent individuals, attracted by inciting propaganda by Raven, the manufactured martyrdom of the Chief and by the promise of Sinner-like power that was conferred by any who touched the Chief's body. These factors swelled Rustfire's nominal ranks to 270,000, though over 200,000 of these were simply opportunistic rioters or imitators, and not numbered among the core organization.
Conflict with Reconstruction Executive Committee
In N.F. 113, Drifter Camp became the target of both the Reconstruction Executive Committee and Parma. According to Julien, the Executive Committee made the decision to wipe out Drifter Camp after BR-004 began to precipitate Hypercube fragments. On N.F. 113.3.15, spies from the Executive Committee suddenly mutated into Corruptors. The outbreak was contained, but it led to belief among Rustfire that the Executive Committee had resorted to using Mania as a weapon. Thus, they were highly suspicious of the Chief when they arrived in Drifter Camp ten days later, as a "Mania specialist" accompanied by Executive Officers. Led by Taran, Rustfire assassinated the Officers accompanying them and led the Chief into a trap, which seemingly resulted in their death.
When the Executive Committee launched their attack on Drifter Camp, Rustfire was forced by Julien to allow the Chief and their Sinners to help, and was shocked by the power with which they were able to defeat Donald and his heavy weaponry. They assisted in the evacuation of the Camp when a Mania crisis broke out under the influence of the Corpseborne of BR-002.
During the Drifter Camp crisis, Rustfire troops faked their deaths on a massive scale in order to secretly relocate to Shelter W-31 near the site of BR-002. With the FAC occupied by Parma in Eastside and the Reconstruction Executive Committee focused on Drifter Camp, Rustfire seized an opportunity for the Chief to destroy the Black Ring and give them control over the Hypercube mine. However, the Chief refused to do so if the cost would be sacrificing Drifter Camp. Instead, the Chief opted to pull pressure off of Drifter Camp by manipulating the authorities' forces into assisting with their hunt for the Corpseborne.
Ten Days of Rustfire
The Chief's pursuit ended in disaster, as a second battle with the Corpseborne rendered them comatose and directly connected to BR-002 through the Shackles. After a fierce battle with the authority forces accompanying them, Taran managed to recover the Chief's body and return it to Drifter Camp. Despite the Chief's repeated refusal to act as their leader while alive, they were made into a martyr for Rustfire's cause. Above and beyond the symbolic value of their sacrifice, the Shackles in the Chief's inert body went wild, connected as they were directly to the Mania of BR-002. In this state, anybody who touched the Chief's body was instantly transformed into a Sinner. The original values and meaning of Rustfire were subsumed by aimless anger, as former gangsters rebranded as Rustfire fighters. The period that followed became known as the Ten Days of Rustfire:
- March 22: The Chief is declared dead. Rustfire swears to retaliate against DisCity.
- March 23: Rustfire claims the ruins of Hypercube mine W-31, the site of BR-002
- March 25: Rustfire defeats the FAC forces in Syndicate (diminished after they were primarily redeployed to Eastside) and occupies Keylan Square, the site of BR-004
- March 26: Rustfire defeats the main force of Executive Officers and occupies their headquarters. A list of spies and traitors planted by Shalom leads them to purge their own ranks in a massive bloodletting that lasts for three days.
- March 29: Rustfire completes its internal purges and vows to reclaim everything that belonged to the West District.
- April 1: Rustfire completes the reconquest of Syndicate and its forces return to Drifter Camp. They plan to cross the Rust and invade Eastside.
At the end of the Ten Days of Rustfire, on the evening of April 1, Julien quit Rustfire, disgusted by what their revolution had become. Soon after, he encountered the Underground Shepherd and was persuaded to merge with the Corpus of BR-002. The renewed Black Ring erupted and consumed Drifter Camp, wiping out the Rustfire forces and turning the thriving refuge into a dead city overrun with Corruptors.
By July of N.F. 113, the level of conflict in the Rustfire rebellion had died down, in part due to the resurgence of BR-002 in Syndicate, which turned the conflict into a three-way war between Rustfire, the Underground, and the FAC. By that time, the number of FAC dead in Syndicate was so great that memorial services had been postponed while they dealt with the backlog of contaminated corpses.
Refugees
With their military power broken and Drifter Camp destroyed, Rustfire was reduced to a a group of noncombatant refugees (greatly reduced, but still numbering in the tens of thousands) on the run from the Executive Committee's comprehensive census of Syndicate. With Lavina as their new defacto leader, Rustfire established over a dozen hidden bases, including one central base within the contamination zone, between which they moved frequently. These bases were supported by Hypercubes acquired from the now-inert old site of BR-002 in the Inner Bay.
In November of N.F. 113, a panic at the central refugee shelter within BR-002 (caused by false rumors spread by Parma, leading to an attack by Paradeisos) catalyzed rapid expansion of the Black Ring. Rustfire planned to evacuate Syndicate and relocate to satellite towns in Outland in order to escape the Purge Order that was intended to hamstring the Ring's growth. However, the defeat of Corpus 002 made this total evacuation ultimately unnecessary.