This article is for the faction seen in the Red Faction video game series. For the game, please see Red Faction (game).
- "Better Red than dead!"
- ―The original Red Faction slogan.[src]
The Red Faction, later known as the Red Faction State was a political group and former militant guerrilla organization that was founded circa 2075 by Martian miners who had been virtually enslaved by the Ultor Corporation. They fought and were victorious in the First Martian Revolution with the aid of the Earth Defense Force.
On Earth, a rebellion inspired by the Red Faction began in the Republic of the Commonwealth against the dictatorial Chancellor Victor Sopot, leading to the creation of the Nanotech Enhanced Civilian. The Commonwealth Civil War ended five years later with the Red Faction victorious, becoming the Commonwealth's transitional government.
Whilst the Red Faction appeared to have melted away over the next half-century, they were not forgotten amongst the colonists of Mars. When the governance of the Earth Defense Force turned sour, the Red Faction was resurrected and set about establishing an organized resistance to the regime. This quickly sparked off the Revolution of 2125, also known as the Second Martian Revolution.
After Mars was liberated from the EDF, the Red Faction was elevated to nationhood, becoming the Red Faction State. They continued to track down the remnants of the EDF after the Second Martian Revolution and believed they had wiped them off the face of the planet until the White Faction emerged some twenty-five years later. They eventually defeated the White Faction, but its leader, Adam Hale, disappeared only to reappear decades later as the leader of the Cultists.
The Cultists destroyed the old EDF Terraformer, which forced the Martian colonists, the Marauders, and Red Faction to relocate back underground, as they had lived before the surface had been terraformed. Some time later, The Plague Armageddon would sweep across the planet, killing approximately 85% of the Marauder and Colonist populations.
History[]
First Martian Revolution[]
Red Faction fighting in the first Martian Revolution
The Red Faction was founded by a mysterious figure that called herself Eos, with the intention of fighting against the tyrannical Ultor Corporation and freeing the planet Mars from their tyrannical rule. Along with her friend Orion, the Red Faction was originally founded under the guise of a team in an athletics competition between Ultor's miner barracks. The proposal to make the teams was presented to Ultor's Deputy Administrator Richard Gryphon, who approved of the formation of the competitions and the Red Faction as a 'morale booster'. Under this smokescreen, the Red Faction organized itself and cached supplies in the barracks in preparation for the fight to come.
When the First Martian Revolution began, the Red Faction mobilised with the miners rioting in mine M4. With the aid of a miner named Parker and a rebellious Ultor security technician called Hendrix, the Red Faction succeeded. After being called by Parker to aid the fight against Ultor, the Earth Defense Force arrived on Mars and helped the Red Faction destroy Ultor. Soon, peace settled across the red planet.
The situation changed fifty years later, however, when Earth began to run short of its natural resources and corruption festered within its leadership. The relationship between the EDF and the people of Mars turned sour very quickly and the EDF turned into the brutal overlords they had once rescued the Martians from half a century earlier. The EDF would later declare martial law, using emergency powers granted by this act to effectively turn the Martian Council into a pliant puppet government fully under their sway. The oppression continued for some time, growing more severe over the course of several years.
Commonwealth Civil War[]
Sometime after the First Martian Revolution, another incarnation of the Red Faction was formed on Earth, composed of many Terran citizens and a young commander named Echo. Just before the civil war, Chancellor Victor Sopot used Nano Technology to transform some two-thousands of his standing army into super soldiers. He later came to fear the project and ordered the soldiers to be terminated. In their place, he had mindless abominations created to serve in their stead. However, six of these two-thousand soldiers escaped destruction and fled underground. This group of soldiers was composed of Alias, Tangier, Shrike, Quill and Repta, led by Molov. They eventually allied themselves with the Red Faction, even though it was more out of pragmatism rather than shared beliefs.
During the final campaign of the civil war, the Squad managed to crush much of Sopot's Security and Military forces, along with the Processed and many Elite Guards. The Red Faction rapidly claimed many areas and soon achieved victory by killing Sopot, after which Molov was declared the Chancellor of the Republic of the Commonwealth by Sopot's armies. He declared Alias, Echo and Tangier as enemies of the state, and ordered them be publicly executed. Tangier snuck up behind Molov, taking him at gunpoint with a CMG-32 Submachine Gun, thus allowing Alias and Echo to escape.
The Red Faction was on the brink of war again as Molov unleashed the more dangerous Urban Military, better known as Molov's Military. Alias headed downtown and Echo was killed by Quill, diverting the counterattack. Eventually, Alias was able to destroy the entire Nano Super Soldier army before escaping.
After Molov was killed on Sopot's Statue, The surviving Red Faction Members created the Red Faction Government and assumed total control of the Commonwealth.
Second Martian Revolution[]
A Marauder known as Samanya, sister of Marauder leader Vasha, rescued Dan Mason and Hugo Davies from the EDF prison camps in Mariner Valley. The move turned Samanya into an outcast among her own people and so she joined the two in their attempt to resurrect the Red Faction with Davies at its head.
In an elaborate EDF sting about a month before Alec Mason's arrival on Mars, an operative infiltrats the Red Faction and forces the organization to scatter and regroup - abandoning their old base. Dan's charge rigger, Tyrell, was killed instantly - but the data gathered from the Armor Labs Sting on the members of Red Faction in the Parker sector was most likely the cause of Dan's death, after having been pinged by the EDF.
Alec Mason and Samanya meeting with Hugo Davies
Dan would be later killed by an EDF Gunship, forcing his brother, who just arrived to Mars, to join the insurgency. He ultimately helps the Second Red Faction win their guerrilla war against the Earth Defense Force, liberating the sectors of Tharsis. Unfortunately, many Red Faction members, including their long-standing leader, die when the EDF raided the Badlands safe-house after its location was been betrayed by Jenkins. Although they managed to destroy the E.D.S. Hydra with the reluctant help of the Marauders, the organization was severely crippled for a time.
After the successful second uprising, the Red Faction became the military arm of the Martian state, and achieved peace with the Marauders after Alec marries Samanya.
Five years later, the White Faction launched an attack on the Mason House, killing Samanya and kidnapping her daughter, Lyra. An act of vengeance for the destruction of their former government, which had been brought down by their efforts. This attack caused the breaking of the truce between the Red Faction and Marauders.
Dealing with the White Faction[]
Red Faction soldiers in the year 2150
Twenty-five years after the revolution, Alec has become a sullen, retired man, burdened by the loss of his wife and daughter. Meanwhile, Jake Mason, Alec's son, is a lieutenant in the Red Faction. Jake is informed that the remains of the EDF Dreadnought Hydra — destroyed in orbit by Alec at the end of the revolution — is falling to Mars and must be searched for valuable technology. When searching the Hydra with the aid of Tess, an Earth technology expert, Jake discovers a group of Marauders, dressed similarly to the ones he remembers kidnapping Lyra, who were carrying a device away from the ship. Jake attacks one of them and discovers it is a female soldier he believes to be Lyra.
Jake returns to Alec and insists that his sister was still alive, but nobody believes him. He then decides to desert to Marauder territory to find her and is accompanied by Tess, who seeks to recover more technology. Jake abandons Tess and was discovered by two Marauders called Leonid and Corvallis that same night, whom he manages to befriend reluctantly. The three make their way to the Asimov Sector to find the White Faction, where Tess finds them and expresses her anger over being left behind. Tess helps them steal tracking codes to find the White Faction soldiers, as they cannot afford to buy them from a dealer. Tess also discovers the soldiers took a "Firework" from the crashed Hydra, which is discovered to be part of a nuclear reactor.
Back in Eos, Alec discovers that Jake is missing and contacts Matriarch Omaya, leader of the Marauders, to grant him mercy for trespassing into their land. Jake and Tess find the White Faction soldiers hiding in a ship near the Terraformer, which creates a habitable atmosphere but also disrupts radar signals, effectively hiding the ship. Jake finds Lyra, who recognizes Jake but believed him to be dead. To this end, she captures Jake and Tess. Adam Hale had previously tricked Lyra into believing her family was dead and he saved her, which she still believes, even after finding Jake. Leonid and his companion, Jake’s Marauder friends and Tess escape, and return back to Eos. Jake warns the Red Faction that the White Faction took the Firework to attack Eos under the guise of the Marauders, intending to start a war between the two. The Red Faction chooses not to believe Jake and instead arrests him for treason and desertion. Another White Faction dreadnought, hidden under the ship Jake infiltrated, fires on Eos and prompts the Red Faction to mobilize an attack on the Marauders.
Alec and Jake fight over the existence of Lyra in prison and were eventually freed by Leonid and his companion. The group reenters the dreadnought and fights their way to Lyra. Hale believes Lyra now knows the truth and is helping her brother, which leads him to attack her. Jake and Lyra team up to kill Hale and return to the transport with Alec to destroy the dreadnought with missiles. Alec and Lyra meet for the first time since her kidnapping. The missile launcher is destroyed and Jake plans to crash the plane into the dreadnought before Alec takes the duty upon himself. He says goodbye over radio to his children and sacrifices himself to save Eos and the Red Faction from the dreadnought, giving his life to protect the free people of Mars.
Back in Eos, Jake is commended for his actions and Alec is remembered as a hero of the Red Faction. Omaya, prompted by her son Leonid, agrees to form a new faction on Mars that incorporates both Marauders and Colonists, working together in peace. Jake founds a new team with Tess and leads Lyra back home for the first time in years.
Plague Armageddon[]
Twenty years later, the Red Faction were working fast to stop Adam Hale from destroying the Terraformer that keeps the planets surface stable. Darius Mason tracks down Hale and follows him to his camp. Despite Darius's efforts, Hale is successful and sabotages the terraformer, transforming the entire Martian surface into a hostile wasteland and forcing the Red Faction to disappear underground with the Marauders.
Red Faction soldiers in their camp
Five years later, Darius becomes a mercenary after leaving the Red Faction. After meeting with Kara, he is called by an unknown miner to open a strange seal found in a cave. The seal had been found by Capek before the Ultor Corporation established themselves on Mars and started to force the miners to work for them.
Darius is able to break the seal. However, it is revealed that the miners were actually disguised Cultists led by Adam Hale. They thank Darius for opening the seal and releasing the Sleeping Plague, thus beginning a new war and almost destroying the entire planet.
During this event the Red Faction military were ill-prepared to deal with the Plague and the majority of Red Faction held territory is overrun by the infestation, forcing the remnants of the Red Faction to retreat to the surface in order to escape from the onslaught of Alien forces. Despite being horribly outnumbered and low on morale, the Red Faction continued operations against both the Cultists and the Plague, albeit with little to no success against the latter. Salvation came when Darius managed to repair the broken terraformer and restore the Atmosphere, suffocating the Plague and destroying the entire species within a matter of hours.
Government[]
During its time as a resistance movement Red Faction was led by a single person with seemingly total authority, it is unknown if by the time of the White Faction Crisis if it had shifted to a more formal, structered or democratic form of governance, however at the culmination of the Plague Armageddon, Frank Winters, a Sergeant in the Red Faction military had assumed leadership, therefore falling under a military led government.
Weapons and tactics[]
During the first Red Faction uprising, the movement used many weapons that were captured from the Security Guards of the Ultor Corporation or found around their buildings, as well as some from the Mercenaries.
In their uprising against the EDF, the Red Faction favored guerrilla tactics, including raiding facilities, attacking convoys and intercepting couriers. Their weapons were generally a mix of those captured from the enemy, mining equipment altered and put to a more violent use, and deadly improvised weapons that were created from salvage.
- Sledgehammer - Originally a mining tool, now a deadly melee weapon.
- Arc Welder - An electric weapon that can paralyze multiple enemies.
- Grinder - An improvised scrap weapon, the Grinder is absolutely lethal. It fires spinning metal discs at extreme speed towards enemies.
- Nano Rifle - A fusion of salvage and advanced Nanotechnology, this versatile weapon can disintegrate humans, vehicles and buildings at astonishing speeds.
- Proximity Mine - A powerful explosive fashioned from scrap, these can be upgraded to only be triggered by hostiles.
- Remote Charge - Originally intended for mining, these have been utilized as weapons since the First Red Faction Uprising.
- Rocket Launcher- Made from salvaged components, the explosives fired from this homemade device are most effective against vehicles.
- Thermobaric Rocket Launcher - A massively powerful blast weapon, similar to the FTL-1 Fusion Rocket Launcher used by the Mercenaries in the First Red Faction uprising.
As the Red Faction grew into a military organization, they began developing more military-purpose weaponry. Some were based on previous designs, while others were upgraded from the Second Uprising, and many were completely new.
- Red Faction Assault Rifle - An automatic rifle, it acts as the main weapon for the Red Faction forces. It has a moderate rate of fire with moderate damage.
- Red Faction Shotgun - A close quarters weapon based on the UA-18 and the CA-14.
- Plasma Cannon - A destructive, powerful weapon that is designed to destroy large groups of enemies. It is effective against vehicles and at breaking down structures into pieces.
- Laser Pistol - An automatic Pistol that acts like a laser, it is used almost exclusively by the Red Faction.
- Plasma Thrower - A weapon similar to a flamethrower that appears only in Multiplayer Mode, this weapon is good for burning down structures.
- Dual Wield Pistols - A pistol based off the EDF pistols seen after the Second Martian Revolution.
- Rocket Launcher MK2 - A new generation of the rocket launcher model that now comes with an auto-locking system and larger ammo capacity.
- Plasma Beam - A powerful ray gun that is designed to melt structures and enemies in a single pass.
- Red Faction Rail Driver - An old model weapon based on EDF designs from the First Martian Revolution. This newer weapons has the largest ammo capacity as now, It is a much better weapon as It holds more ammo then any of its previous generations
Gallery[]
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