The Revolutuionary United Front, or RUF as it is called, is an international terrorist cell that is, currently, covertly financed by the nation of Imperial Japanistan to serve as a destabilizing force on MESS-CATO relations.
History of the RUF[]
The Revolutionary United Front's origins tend to be shrouded in some mystery. That they have clear Communist roots is not in doubt, however, their Communist ideological adherence tends to be all over the board. Elements of the RUF operated briefly in the Old Continent, but was rarely much more than an annoyance to authorities in Canissia, PeZookia, Vulpesia and other states.
The earliest members of what would become the RUF were dispirited post-Second War of the World soldiers and Resistance fighters from across the Old Continent who had fought against the forces of Joe Itler and now faced two post-war realities: one, returning to mundane lives; and two, feeling the call to social action and middle-class justice promised by the victorious ideology of Communism. One of the earliest, and most well-known founders, was a woman who served as a resistance fighter, saboteur, and eventually sniper in the Crimson Army Foreign Volunteers Division named Madameoiselle Marie "Kanine" Bonesteel, a woman originally of Piconese extraction from Canissia.
Mlle. Marie "Kanine" Bonesteel[]
Mlle. Bonesteel's nickname of "Kanine" was said to be of several possible origins-- one was that she was an "alpha wolf" of her resistance cell; others said that she could sniff out an enemy position "like a bloodhound" and track enemy troops with as much skill; some said it was simply a reference to her being from Canissia, while others asseted it was simply that she was a particularly unattractive woman. But Mlle. Bonesteel was a vicious and tenacious fighter, willing to withstand any hardship in her fight for International Communism. She carried her fight into the post-war world, starting a "People's Revolutionary Committee" in her native Picon after returning home from the war.
Mlle. Bonesteel's actions initially revolved around the printing of Communist newsletters, vying for spots on radio shows, holding public rallies and having meetings in her home. Initially popular and successful, as the years dragged on attendance dwindled, the meetings became more concerned with minutae, and Mlle. Bonesteel became disgusted with the whole affair and stopped having meetings altogether. She disappeared for awhile, selling her small villa and, some reports say, sank into a deep depression.
Mlle. Bonesteel resurfaced in the 1960's in the Crimson Star Republic, re-uniting with comrades from the war. She floated in CSR academic circles, achieving a Master's in Class Struggle and Worker's Theories from Stasograd University. Fluent in Russian, as well as Canissian Unitese and her native Piconese, she returned to Canissia more determined than ever to spark Worker's Revolution.
The Royal People's Republic, however, had it's fill of Communist ideology in the Seven Years' Anarchy, and Mlle. Bonesteel found it difficult to recruit people who made the Movement look good. She attracted mostly disgruntled ex-cons and street people, not fertile ground for a good revolutionary army. She took her revolution on the road, and began agitating for worker's movements in Vulpesia, where she convinced a number of artist-hooligan types to form a "black bloc" and attack corporate headquarters, banks, and "government capitalists" with Molotov cocktails. She got chased out of Vulpesia, with a few more bohemian artist types, and drifted through PeZookia and the Border States, spreading anarchy, terrorism, and "worker's revolution" where she could.
The symbol of the Revolutionary Armed Front, Mlle. Bonesteel's most sucessful Revolutionary organization.
Eventually, Mlle. Bonesteel had a small army at her command, with the help of the CSR secret services sending other disaffected youth her way she was able to marginalize and squeeze out the convicts and street people (ironically, many of whom had become her most ardent believers), and form a real cell of dedicated street fighters and Revolutionaries. She operated in Canissia and PeZookia during the 1970's with another Revolutionary leader named Albert Haufmann, a former reporter. In 1980 she disappeared in PeZookia, to resurface again, pregnant with a daughter, in Byzantium, where she'd temporarily settled down, with no explanations given, with a much older man who was a doctor until he was blinded in an accident. Mlle. Bonesteel and her daughter left the doctor after the birth, and Kelah grew up with her mother on the run and being taught the arts of revolution. Mlle. Bonesteel's attentions seemed to have turned to teaching her daughter Kelah to carry on her works, as her hands-on involvement with revolutionary activity seemed to dwindle. She whiled out her last few years in Shepistan, ostensibly providing "revolutionary guerrilla training" to Shepistan covert ops agitators, but in reality merely participating in such activity so that her daughter would be well-steeped in the psychology of the Struggle.
Rebirth of the Struggle: RUF in the 1990's[]
Kelah Bonesteel, picture taken by remote Old Dominion operatives on border, 2001
Police profilers have assembled a montage of possible members, many of them based on bored, upper-class kids seeking thrills; frustrated, underemployed bohemian artist-slacker types; and true Communist ideologues seeking followers and a purpose. In the early 1960's and 1970's the group was known by a variety of names, including the Crimson Army Faction, the Haufmann-Bonesteel Gang, and finally the Revolutionary Armed Front before the addition of the mysterious Jackson Blackpelt joined the organization in the mid-1990's and renamed it the Revolutionary United Front, or RUF because, as he is largely credited as saying, "the acronym will play well in the media and sound almost playful".
As much as Marie Bonesteel was unattractive, her daughter Kelah turned out to be a lovely young woman. She was, however, seriously affected by her violent upbringing. Her mother, the aging Marie, reportedly struck and abused Kelah many times as she was growing up, purportedly angry and frustrated at her own advancing age, and her youthful daughter's energy and looks. Kelah Bonesteel grew to be an angry and amoral woman, emotionally detached and, some some profilers theorize, a sadist. She formed a close bond with Jackson Blackpelt, a few years older than her and a man of great patience, disarming charm, Old Continent manners when he chose to display them, and a cold, emotional detachment when it came to his serious commitment to armed struggle.
Picture of Jackson Blackpelt taken by covert operator, 2002
Jackson brought with him to the organization a friend named Lukin Grey, whom he'd met in college. Lukin Grey was an eager convert to Revolutionary Struggle, having been a fervent studier of Political Science in his early college years in the Shinra Republic. These two men, Jackson and Lukin, re-invigorated the then Revolutionary Armed Front when they joined the elderly Madame Bonesteel in Shepistan, where she and her daughter had been living and training, and lending their efforts to occasional terrorist actions against the Old Dominion on behalf of Shepistan.
Lukin Grey, in an undated college photo.