The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth are a group of civilians and criminals working together for mutual benefit. It's comprised of mostly British members, though not exclusively. It was formed in September 2021 after Chase and Raphael felt that they wanted to build up a family so that people would have friends in the city whenever they were around.

Raphael, Meg and Vanessa dedicate some of their time to provide the rest of the group civilian work when they need it through their respective businesses. The rest of the group focuses more on criminal activity, mostly store robberies, drug trafficking etc.

Smiley Conflict
In October 2021, after Raphael was kidnapped and had his throat slashed by Rick Locke and the Smileys, The Commonwealth decided to take action into their own hands as no arrests had been made. Chase, Meg, Kane and Jacque kidnapped Rick and took him to the torture room. There, they cut off a finger, flayed his face and unloaded an uzi into him before leaving him for dead.

A video of the attack was then left around the city, alongside posters declaring that Ursula Leichenberg was a 'serial killer sympathiser' due to her connections with the Smileys and her attempts to stop the kidnapping of Rick Locke. The Smileys retaliated soon after by kidnapping and stabbing Tom Ato multiple times, after which the Commonwealth abducted and tortured May Flowers.

After this final attack, Kane Stokes and Jocelyn Wade held a phone conversation where a truce was agreed upon. Since then, there has been little to no interaction between the two groups.

Building Connections
Throughout October and November, the group devoted a lot of time to their respective businesses at the Farmer's Markets to build some cash behind them, get everyone the cars/houses they'd been working towards and establish a presence within the city.

Through Chase, Meg, and Ricardo, they managed to establish connections for weapons, thermite, as well as people to provide info and training on more advanced criminal activities. For a time, they began to slow down on recruitment and instead focus on skilling everyone up to the point that they could all be actively contributing to the group's efforts.