Amalgam

Founded by "Mr. Mercury," a noble from AEU Britain, Amalgam is a secret society that started with the best of intentions: to serve as a check on the greed and lust for power that has infested the Federation elite. For a time, Amalgam was even substantially successful in that goal, and encouraged many of the wide-ranging cooperative mobile weapon projects of the 0040s and 0050s. Over time, however, Amalgam's values began to drift, and they began to seek control and power in their own right.

Amalgam, in its current state, primarily seeks to create an environment that fosters the growth of technology. Disunity in the Federation has often proven to be the biggest driver of innovation, and Amalgam's ideology has shifted from 'discourage greed in the Federation elite' to 'the Federation necessarily creates elite, and thus is the problem;' accordingly, Amalgam works to disrupt the spirit of global unity to the greatest extent possible. For many years, it extensively funded the Grimnir nationalist-terrorist organization, stirring up numerous coups d'etat and stealing a wide range of technology.

Amalgam cells largely operate in the dark from one another. While top-level members can and do ask favors of one another, they only officially know each other by their codenames -- all elemental metals. High-ranking members receive codenames that would form amalgams with mercury, while valuable but deniable assets receive codenames that would not.

Notable Characters

• Bal Gorbovsky - Mr. Thallium. Bal Gorbovsky is a solid scientist currently serving as a special scientific liaison between the Republic of East Asia and Ravnui. His work on the Numbers Project, a human enhancement project which has included selective breeding and specific genetic engineering techniques, has earned him tremendous respect in Amalgam; he may well be its most-liked living, active member. He gets on quite well with everyone save Mr. Gold, whose identity he has yet to deduce.
• Dr. Hell - Mr. Plutonium. Dr. Hell has been silent since his defeat over a decade ago. Mr. Silver routinely claims to have gleaned insights from his research, however. His seat at the table remains set if he ever shows his face again.
• Gates - Mr. Kalium. Gates is a brilliant military strategist and genetic donor to Bal Gorbovsky's Numbers project. Gates is singularly unhinged and was much better-off in the organization when Morgan Bernard, the former Mr. Zinc, was alive. He is, however, better-regarded than Mr. Gold and any of those who came up through the freelancer pipeline, and accordingly commands Amalgam's hit squads. He is more immediately reliable than Gauron, but expects more in return, is less creative, and is prone to... unprofessional activity.
• Gauron - Mr. Iron. Gauron is a mercenary who has enjoyed tremendous success in the environment Amalgam has created. He remains technically freelance, as he has concerns beyond Amalgam's geopolitical designs. Gauron, more than any other member, takes the notion of operating freely to heart; his love of doing murders all the time means almost everyone asks him when they want a murder done on no particular schedule.
• Leonard Testarossa - Mr. Silver. Leonard Testarossa is a top-notch scientist working toward his own ends. He can be counted on to supply other Amalgam leaders with mobile weapons technology but remains singularly inscrutable otherwise.
• Masao Sasaki - Mr. Gold.  Contacted by Grimnir during the Second Huffman Conflict, Masao Sasaki is a diehard Free Japanese nationalist and veteran of the Second Huffman Conflict, One Year War, Gryps Conflict, and Britannian Invasion of Japan. Sasaki considers Amalgam's pursuit of science a colossal waste of time, and has a special loathing for Mr. Silver as a result. Other members substantially refuse to read him in on both mobile weapons science and human experimentation; he only really gets along with Mr. Kalium and the freelancers.

Integration Notes

• Amalgam takes the role of the nebulous cabal backing Bal Gorbovsky in Front Mission. The Japanese Prime Minister is not part of this cabal as implied in Front Mission 3.
• FMP!'s Mr. Gold and Front Mission's Masao Sasaki have been collapsed together. Sasaki has a lot of plot presence but not a lot of structural backing, and Mr. Gold has a lot of structural backing but is... barely a character, and both wield considerable power in the Japanese government. (The MIDAS pun is a happy accident.)
• Dr. Hell is here and he's really mad. Dr. Hell is here and he's really angry.