The following page is a secret brief that is only available to those affiliated to your faction (or who have gained the information through other channels). It represents a significant investment of IC time and effort. Please do not copy and paste the contents to other players.
With that proviso you may feel free to communicate the information IC using your own words. Of course, your faction may not like you spreading their secrets, and if you are caught doing so you may face significant IC consequences.

Honour. Respect. Friendship. These are the core tenets of Cosa Nostra. This group is notoriously difficult to join, yet the rewards are worth it. As long as you retain honour and respect, you will never be without friends. And a lot of those friends are in high places. Of course, you will be expected to use your own skills and influences to help your friends in Cosa Nostra. Refusal or failure would be upsetting.

Outsiders are aware of the Cosa Nostra, but it is seen as a shadowy organisation and there are more rumours floating around than real knowledge. Various important people are almost certainly members, but you wouldn't want to accuse them openly. Cosa Nostra are a ruthless crime syndicate; their enemies tend to have brutal 'accidents', and it's generally better to keep your head down and hand over resources when they come asking. Harmony occasionally try to stamp the Cosa Nostra out, but as they don't use the Computer to register their membership, it's not so easy.

The rumoured head of Cosa Nostra is Nicola Viteri, a skilled surgeon.

The core tenets are indeed honour, friendship and respect. However, Cosa Nostra's definition of honour differs from many other people's. The code enshrines honour and respect to fellow members of Cosa Nostra, and as such the following rules apply only in dealings with fellow members.

• Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty.
• Appointments must absolutely be respected.
• When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
• Resources cannot be appropriated if they belong to other members.
• Silence and secrecy about Cosa Nostra activities is of utmost importance.

Before joining Cosa Nostra, you had a meeting with a group of members who asked you questions regarding your intentions and commitment. You were introduced to your clan boss and you swore the oaths of honour, secrecy and duty. Your name was entered into the Ledger, a database of all the members, which is closely guarded. If anyone needs to check if someone claiming to be a member really is, they can ask to consult the Ledger. Before completing your induction, you were asked to perform a final test: to arrange the death of someone in Blackout.

Instead of being a large homogeneous structure, Cosa Nostra is made up of several small clans, each led by a boss. The boss will appoint an under-boss, and will be in charge of several 'soldiers', who are the regular members of Cosa Nostra. Bosses are elected by the clan every year or so. Violent succession is rare, but not unheard of.

Nicola Viteri is not, strictly speaking, the head of Cosa Nostra, but instead is simply the boss of one of the most influential clans. Nicola has been re-elected continuously for the last couple of decades and is therefore the longest serving member of the Commission — the meeting of bosses. The Commission exists to settle internal disputes, co-ordinate ship-wide projects and to allow the bosses a forum to discuss their business. Individual clans have a large amount of autonomy.

The main goal of Cosa Nostra is to make life for its members more stable and comfortable. As such, it requires resources and raw materials. Direct theft is seen as rather gauche, and so the main activity is protection racketeering. For a small fee, Cosa Nostra protects residences and communal fabbers from common thieves. Common thieves occasionally are encouraged in non-protected areas, just to keep the market fresh. Cosa Nostra also does various contract work for clients - they are problem solvers.

As a member you are expected to contribute resources and your skills to your clan. In return, you have the benefits of added luxuries and the knowledge that you have friends should you need them for anything.

There is Cosa Nostra presence in Blackout, but the clans generally leave the running of the area to the other cartels present there. Some clans will hire locals to do work within the sector. The Blackout fabbers are a good source of non-Computer sanctioned resources, given the required raw materials.

Cosa Nostra's territory is the rest of the ship, and Blackout is just a convenient outpost for some of their facilities and deals.

This arrangement also makes it a lot easier to convince any representatives of Computer who come looking that Blackout isn't the home base of the Cosa Nostra.