Powder Gangers

"Powder Gangers do it with a BANG!"

- Graffiti on the Long 15

The Powder Gangers are a chain gang of escaped convicts operating in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281.

First Defeats
In Goodsprings, Red the Courier awoke after being shot in the head and left for dead. To repay the town for saving him, he offered to help save the town from the Cobb Gang. Red rallied various townspeople, surprising Cobb when he arrived with his posse, not expecting this level of resistance. Led by Red, Cobb and his gang members were all killed, and the town was saved.

Red then journeyed south to Primm. Needing information from Deputy Beagle on the men that attempted to kill him, Red elected to rescue him from the convicts. Storming the Bison Steve alone, Red battled through an entire gang, killing them all. Beagle was freed and law was later restored to the town through the installation of an NCR sheriff.

Around this time, whole camps of Powder Gangers started disappearing in the middle of the night. Combined with reports of "hulking individuals roaming around after dark" in Hidden Valley, it was feared that deathclaws may have traveled south from Sloan and began slaughtering Ganger camps. Of course, when questioned about the fact the Gangers disappeared with no bloody carcasses left behind, the legend changed to intelligent deathclaws being responsible. In reality, the Gangers had been kidnapped by rogue Brotherhood of Steel soldiers led by Jeremiah, who was enslaving them and forcing them to work on expanding bunkers around the Mojave.

One of these bunkers, a former US army below ground vault, saw an assault by the Shadow Company, the mercenary wing of the Syndicate. During the assault, the Gangers rose against the few Brotherhood members guarding the bunker. After the bunker was seized, the Gangers hoped to negotiate with their supposed saviors, only to discover the mythical northern syndicate led by Marko was just as real and ruthless as claimed. The Gangers were worked to death completing the bunker expansion. The few surviving Gangers were sent north as slaves.

Quotes About Powder Gangers
"He wore a tattered blue and white outfit with a black scarf, making him easily recognizable as a Powder Ganger."

- Robert Roseby, Powder Phil, Issue 3