Bedlam is not a group you find. They find you, and you are either a target, or a client. If you're a client, relax. You're in good hands, listen to the sisters, and you'll be fine. If you're a target... god help you.
Bedlam is a small, independent mercenary outfit operating out of Tycho Station in Freelance space. Unlike most mercs, they specialize in jobs that are long on risk and short on pay — the kind of work that privateers and professional outfits won't touch because there's no profit in it. Liberation, regime change, political sabotage, the odd bit of espionage. If it needs doing and nobody else will do it, Bedlam might take the job.
The group is run by two sisters, Linore and Hessa Charon, out of their bar, the Ignite Bar and Lounge on Tycho Station. Whether you're a client or just looking for a good drink in a place where nobody can overhear you, Ignite is where it starts.
On paper, Bedlam shouldn't work. The crew is a collection of personalities that would drive most commanding officers to early retirement. Ginerva antagonizes everyone, especially Zee and Leist, and has a habit of letting her genetic experiments loose on the ship. Leist has been known to electrify furniture in self-defense. Zee is the kind of quiet that makes loud people nervous.
What holds it together is the Charon sisters. Hessa can calm a room just by humming, and has a network of contacts that spans factions. Linore makes the hard calls — she's the one who decides which impossible jobs are worth taking and which are suicide. Between the two of them, they keep the crew from killing each other long enough to get the job done.
The Ignite Bar and Lounge on Tycho is an upscale bar in Central, owned by the Charon sisters. Unlike most high-class establishments, it's open to anyone. The atmosphere is carefully tuned — every table can hear its own conversation, but you can barely hear the table next to you. It's a popular spot for business dealings of all kinds.
The real draw is Hessa's performances. Her vocal and dance performances are the stuff of legend. Patrons travel for weeks or months just to hear her sing, and she never fails to pack the Lounge when she steps up to the mic.
If you need Bedlam's services, talk to Linore. Just make sure it's before or after her sister sings, because she won't let you speak during a performance.
Bedlam operates from the FMS Raven, their ship.
Bedlam was founded by Linore and Hessa, with help from Simon.
In 2692, Bedlam was hired to deal with Lord Baranov, a disgraced Terran noble who'd gotten his hands on an abandoned Republic military cache near the Freelance border. Rather than play pirate, Baranov had the brains to set himself up as the "legitimate government" of several independent worlds — seizing merchant ships through tariffs and docking fees instead of open piracy. His long game was to build enough of a powerbase that the Republic would welcome him back as a new Sector Magistrate, effectively annexing a chunk of Freelance space without firing a shot at anyone who mattered.
The job came to Bedlam through David McKenzie, who'd heard about it through Captain Achenson and the Spring's Endeavour crew. Achenson's privateers wouldn't touch it — no money in liberating planets — and Lizbeth Locke passed for the same reason. Hessa, naturally, thought it was perfect for Bedlam.
The operation was a con job, not a military operation. As Hessa put it: "We'll be liberating planets! And the best part? There's no fighting, if we do it right!"