Long time lurker, first time poster.

So, the gaming party I usually play with is currently in our 3rd game of AW, and my Gunlugger is standing at a bit of a self-imposed crossroads and has a few decisions in front of him, some of which could divide the party. First, a bit of context: the game is set in a broken down, rusted out sci-fi future on a desert former colony world on the fringe of what was assumably a large interstellar human civilization. The setting is basically half Tatooine, and half Southwestern USA.

Our party is currently comprised of a Hardholder whose hold is a crashed former colony ship, and he has retained the trappings, ranks, and loose organization of the former colonial military force that was on board the ship when it crashed 50 some years ago. The rest of the party is comprised of his command staff and chief subordinates and include: 1) a Gunlugger (my character), chief of the special operations division (my gang), 2) a Battlebabe, chief of the secret police, 3) a Savvyhead, chief of engineering and mad science, and 4) an Angel, chief medical officer.

The Hardholder and Battlebabe are friends from their days as child soldiers in the same platoon, and this friendship is as close as AW can get to ironclad and unbreakable. Our fearless leader Hardholder openly proclaims himself a despot, and cracks down with draconian ruthlessness on any perceived wrongdoing, chiefly sedition, treason, or any civilian of the hold gaining a firearm. The Battlebabe takes immense joy in torture and general infliction of pain under the aegis of "information gathering" and stamping out rebellious sentiments, and is the primary method for the Hardholder's punishments to be dispensed.

So, the issue currently before me is one of my gang members' close relatives is an NPC we met a few sessions ago when she was about to be unfairly lynched as a suspected plague-bearer, and due to being carried off and nearly killed she attempted to gain a gun from a rebel group inside our own hold. She was just arrested in the last session after a brutal crackdown carried out by the Battlebabe (complete with semi-feral dogs being unleashed on a crowd in the lower wards of the hold) for this and her death warrant is all but officially signed. From talking it over with the Hardholder, he sees this NPC totally in the wrong despite the fact the military failed to protect her or her family quite badly when she was nearly lynched. Between the recurring brutal suppression, a new "savage" element being added to the Hardholder's gang, and the new "zero tolerance" policies the hold is moving to, my Gunlugger has about seen enough and is considering striking out on his own. It also helps that his gang has attained near folk hero status inside the hold, and are infamous and widely feared by the various nomads and other gangs out in the desert wastes.

The issue I'm worried about is, this has the potential to introduce direct, standing antagonism between various PC's. And my follow-up question, is that worth it? Has any MC or player ever run into this issue before and what was the outcome and their thoughts on it?

Also, while my Gunlugger is a far cry from "heroic," he does have a vague set of principles, and is fanatically loyal to his men. So, does that perhaps fly in the face of the more bleak set-up AW usually trades in, and is that my main issue here?

Thoughts appreciated.