I have a character concept brewing, and I'm currently at a loss when it comes to contacts for him.

Character is an Ork Physical Adept, no Cyber, no way, no how.
basic concept is a guy street thug/ganger, who awakened and was taken under the wing of a spiritual teacher (sensei quality) who is teaching him samurai-ish ethics of honor and such. He is brutish and stupid and violent at first, but will develop into a proud, honorable(ish) warrior. His driving goal is to improve himself without "cheating" (i.e. Cyber/bioware), and to test his limits, and by testing them, pushing them to the next level. One of the main reasons he runs is, well, they are dangerous. Good training, yadda yadda. I hope you get it by now.
Kinda silly, I know.

Well anyway, I enjoyed creating him so far, but I came to doing finishing touches, and I realized that it might be a good thing to have some contacts. But I'm really at a loss as to what would be useful. Fixer is useful for well....anyone, as far as I could tell, but beyond that, maybe some ganger contacts from his past or something?

I'd like some input for creative ideas that mesh well with the concept, and at the same time would be useful for the character game-wise.

Oh, and if you have the urge, I wouldn't mind suggestions of qualities, gear, adept powers that would be good too. Though I already have all that down, getting other peoples suggestions is always a good idea.

If your a starting adept turn sam you may want to get a talismonger (which can be a contact of your mentor) to get you a weapon foci, or an upgrade to one you start with.

I always like to have some form of vice contact (bartender, drug dealer, etc).

A streetdoc is always a good contact.

A beat cop or such is also a good conntact to have.

As to qualities I think for a the character your trying to build it would be fun to have a drug addiction to overcome, or something that would make it harder to become an honorable sam.

Just my 0.02 new yen

Minimum required for any character is a Fixer. You can actually manage fine with just one contact but anything you want you can bet your ass the fixer wants a percentage - it's his job after all.

In his case i would add the following:

Gang (Loyalty: 4 / Contacts: 1) Old pals but lacking in influence apart from their turf.
Brothel (Loy: 2 / Contacts: 3) Protection racket and information siphon through gang (They...hear a lot)
Sensei (Con: 2 / Loy: 5) Your Sensei, can teach you more and cheap.

The owner or operator of a legal or illegal gym, with connections to lega/illegal fighting groups and clubs.

Investigative Reporters, Bloggers, Pirate Radio Broadcasters, etc. can be a good source of street level information. Corporate Secretaries are a good source of water-cooler gossip, too.

Here are some ideas off the top of my head.

• A fellow student, could be anyone from a fellow adept to a hacker that is trying to get in shape.
• A doctor/shaman to heal those injuries sustained in training.
• A Beat Cop that tried steering you in the right direction.
• An Information Broker that always seemed to know what was going on in the neighborhood.
• A Waitress at a local deli (may provide a place to stay when needed, alibi, etc.)
• A Bookie to place wagers on the fights.

This character concept reminds me a lot of my own- (except that my Orc came from a corporate family in Morocco, but it's a long story.) Started him out in much the same way - little to no contacts - though it would be fun to role-play that aspect of the character and make various contacts along the way. The suggestions that have been made so far (friendly old beat cop, fixer, talismonger, etc) are all excellent. If I have any suggestions, it might be something along the lines of a fight fixer, if you're into the underground fighting scene. (This went badly for me- my fixers neglected to tell me that nobody likes "wizfists", and ran away before I could tell them how I felt about their nonchalant omission of details. Guess that was kind of my own fault.) Another suggestion would be someone who could hook you up with temporary safe-houses. And if you don't get squeamish about wholesale borrowing... Maybe one day you were trying to be all honourable in a skewed fight in the streets, and were losing badly because of it. Perhaps a mafia Caporegime who just happened to be passing through saved your life, and now you see yourself as his retainer, and he's happy to have a loyal friend outside the family. Suppose that type of contact would be more of a Fixer, but it's an interesting one; more so if no-one in your group has seen "Ghost Dog". Hope that helps. Good luck.

I like a 1 Connection 6 Loyalty Great Dragon contact. It helps sometimes.

A connections 1 Great Dragon?
saywhat?

He's a recluse?

EDIT: It's the Sea Dragon. She doesn't talk to anyone.

A Money Launderer is a good bet - they can do more than hide your money, they can investigate other peoples.
A lawyer isn't a bad idea. They can save you all sorts of legal trouble if your SIN(fake or not) can hold up in court.
You team will love you if you happen to be poker buddies with a Gun Runner.
Or even a girlfriend who works somewhere important - like a hospital.

Always a good idea to look at your knowledge skills and pick at least one contact who would have completely different ones.
It's all about the leg work, and knowledge-based info like that is booze cheap.

"Pops" DuBois, Owner and operator of the Lucky Strike Gym. Pops is an ork in his late 20s who trains and works with freestyle martial artists both as a mentor and low end fixer. He finds tallent to match jobs that people let him know they need help with as well as having a finger on the pulse of the street.

There you go, one genuine contact, suitable for a low level ganger/thug adept.