Crimson Claws
From FEInfobase
Pirate force that operates out of the Cait system and is made up entirely of Caitians that are either former military officers from the national military, or were in Starfleet before the war.
The group is a bitter enemy of the Orion Syndicate and frequently targets their vessels in an attempt to procure supplies for Cait.
The populace of Cait sees the group as "Robin Hoods" due to their efforts to use their resources to assist Cait in lieu of gaining personal wealth. A slang term that the populace uses to refer to the group is "R'immS'hee". Loosley translated, it means "noble ones", but in less then articulate terms of speech. The group is currently being contracted by the Caitian government as privateers, and is supplied by them in some ways. This is of course not official. Due to this, the group is well armed, and capable of waging their own attacks.
The group will attack civilian freighters and ships of any government to procure supplies, but this is rare. More often then not, they target the Orion Syndicate specifically due to their high volume of business and well supplied ships.
The Federation media villifies the Crimson Claws as nothing more then pirates, and views them in the same light as the Orion Syndicate. Starfleet Intelligence attempts to keep as close an eye on them as it can, but does not maintain an enormous amount of information on them. If Cait is re-admitted to the Federation as a member world, this may change on both accounts.
It is unknown what might happen to the organization if Cait eventually accepted Federation membership once more, however it is widley believed that any agreement to re-admit Cait would include clemency for all members and former members in the eyes of Federation law.
Update: 2408
As per the Coup of 2408, and Aa'reth T'arren assuming control of the Caitian government, the Crimson Claws is reorganized into the official Caitian Defense Force and no longer exists.