======The Artificial Liberation Front======

The Artificial Liberation Front, or ALF, is a radical terrorist group who oppose the “exploitation” of bioroids. They came to public attention several years ago when they released a statement taking credit for the destruction of the Kitchener, Ontario headquarters of EduSoft Corporation (a subsidiary of Chutojin), designers of dreamgame software for bioroid conditioning and education. No one was killed in the attack; masked ALF terrorists evacuated the six late-working EduSoft employees at gun point before blowing up the building. The ALF's press statement accused EduSoft of producing programs that turned Bast and Ken-series bioroids into little more than sex toys.

The Artificial Liberation Front have since claimed responsibility for 27 acts of arson or sabotage and 12 successful kidnapping of bioroids from corporate birthlabs, inflicting an estimated 227 million dollars in damage. 23 people have been injured in ALF attacks, but thus far only three people, all corporate security troops, were killed – as in the EduSoft incident, the ALF appear to take steps to minimize loss of life.

The ALF's reign of terror is focused on individuals or companies alleged to abuse bioroid workers or AI personas. The lion's share of attacks have been aimed at two leading bioroid manufacturers: Ambrex and Chutujin. SkyTek, the world's third largest producer of bioroids for the North American market, has been the target of only a handful of ALF raids, none in the last eighteen months. This has led to allegations that the ALF are a covert SkyTek “strike force” used against SkyTek's rivals. SkyTek, which has called the ALF “misguided and confused,” denies any connection. Asked to speculate on their apparent immunity from the ALF, SkyTek spokesperson Maria Esteban pointed to the company's scandal free record and new internal ethics guidelines on “artificial persons” which include 20% real-time nurturing and strict background checks on all purchasers to prevent abuse. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a SkyTek executive stated that “if our distinguished competition treated bioroids more like people instead of animals, maybe they wouldn't have to spend so much on security.”