- The Saints Row Wiki also has an article about Ultor.
The Ultor Corporation, named after the ancient Roman temple devoted to the Roman god Mars, is the antagonist of Red Faction and the sole power on Mars at the time of the game's events. Their rule is an infamous chapter in the history of human settlement on the red planet, marked by the enslavement of their workforce and free run to characters such as their insidious head scientist, Axel Capek.
In the First Martian Revolution, Ultor was overthrown, with the Earth Defence Force taking control of Mars, and rival companies - Kuroari, AmRuKuo, Colonial Transit Authority, Jangwa Mashamba - moved in for the kill and seized the lucrative mining rights, especially precious noachite that was the source of Ultor's wealth. The company was dismantled, but its most vital secrets, such as Axel Capek's biochemical experiments and advancements in nanotechnology, remained safely in the hands of Ultor's remnants - the Marauders.
While Ultor had interests in nanotechnology and weapon manufacturing, they were primarily a mining company. Ultor's logo is a stylized bucket wheel, a type of heavy machinery used in surface mining.
History[]
Colonization of Mars[]
The Ultor Corporation started out as a T-shirt manufacturer before it grew into a megacorporation with many business interests. It colonized Mars around 2050 to take advantage of its vast untapped mining potential and the advantages of its remote location. The corporation shipped resources back to a depleted Earth, specifically a substance known as Noachite, which could generate immense fortunes in Earth's economy. Ultor viewed everything in terms of profit and ignored the increasingly hostile relations between the miners and the security forces. Its technicians carefully filtered all message traffic between Mars and Earth to keep the situation hidden.[1]
Rise of Capek[]
Axel Capek
The head of the research department, an unethical scientist named Axel Capek, carried out all manner of experiments far from the scrutiny of any moral authority. Nevertheless, he effectively created the field of nanotechnology, backed by the enormous resources of the Ultor Corporation. His unparalleled advancements shaped the fate of Mars for centuries after his death.[1]
When Capek first arrived on Mars from Earth, he faced significant opposition to his immoral experiments from the then–Mars administrator. This ended abruptly when the administrator became a test subject in Capek's experiments. His replacement, Administrator Davis, along with the new deputy administrator, Richard Gryphon, and any other potential opposition within Ultor, were cowed as a result, granting Capek free rein over his research.[1]
Even then, he felt he did not have, in his own eyes, enough control to fully push his research to its heights. He believed that an uprising among the miners could benefit him, allowing him to spirit away prisoners in the confusion to use as test subjects, as well as providing an excuse for those already taken. As a result, he deliberately contributed to the outbreak of the First Red Faction Uprising, which was likely the cause of the disease spreading through the Martian population prior to the conflict. After he tested the plague on the old administrator, Administrator Gryphon took over.
He went on to experiment on captured miners, turning them into deformed, monstrous mutants through nanotechnology.[1]
The MASTers expedition[]
- "I've ordered the shaft sealed, and its location obscured. This is a plague which could devastate Mars, an Armageddon only a madman would unleash."
- ―Axel Capek about the alien species.[src]
Mars under the Ultor Corporation
Unbeknownst to most outside his department, many of Capek’s breakthroughs—if not all—originated from the ill-fated MASTers expedition he led in 2067. He discovered an alien species hibernating deep within the bowels of Mars known as The Plague. His observations suggested that they utilized a form of organic biotechnology interwoven into their bodies.[2]
The bulk of the Martian Advanced Science Team died at the hands of the creatures, and Capek, its leader, was forced to ascend alone. After he escaped, he had the entrance to the ancient shaft sealed beneath the molten magma of an Ultor facility.[2]
After the MASTers expedition, Capek continued his work. He created his own mutated Plague, which later appeared during the Red Faction uprising and was most notably encountered by the hero of the revolution, Parker. At the time, they were often simply known as “mutants.”[1]
First Martian Revolution[]
- "This whole place is going to hell. I knew Capek was trouble the minute I laid eyes on the freaky egomaniac. But he's Ultor's golden boy and no one listens to me. This complex is going to explode and I'll have to put the pieces back together. I'm gonna make sure Capek's caught in the blast."
- ―Colonel Masako[src]
Fighting between Red Faction and Ultor in the First Martian Revolution
In 2075, the First Martian Revolution erupted amid growing discontent among the miners and a disease secretly engineered and spread by Capek.[1]
The miners in M4 mine rose up, supported by a growing movement called the Red Faction, led by their charismatic and mysterious leader Eos. Their first priority was to find a cure for the Plague, and when Gryphon defected, they knew whom to turn to.[1]
Axel Capek relied on Colonel Masako and her Mercenary Regiment to defend his facilities. What he failed to account for was that, while he had crushed all opposition within the Administrative Department, he still had one enemy inside the company who was not intimidated by him. Masako withheld her troops from the front line until after the miners, led by Eos, raided his main laboratory complex.[1]
Only once Capek was dead did Masako join the fray, driving back the miners. When the revolt began to falter, the miners sent a message to the Earth Defence Force, who intervened and helped depose the corporation.[1]
Earth Conflict[]
On Earth, Ultor was one of the main suppliers of weapons and technology to the Republic of the Commonwealth before the start of the Commonwealth Civil War.
Martian Remnants of Ultor[]
After the fall of Ultor, Capek's personal cadre of scientists fled from the victors into the Martian caves. With them, they carried much of their research and a device known as the Nano Forge. They later emerged—after the terraforming—on the surface in the far reaches of the Badlands. Their bitter exile transformed them into the Marauders, a savage warrior culture that despised both colonists and the EDF. Nevertheless, they preserved the scientific devotion of their ancestors, continuing to advance in the shadows of the red planet.[3]
Organization[]
Ultor's ruthlessness is best exemplified by the $100 bounty posted in the middle of the First Martian Revolution per miner killed by security forces.
Ultor was a megacorporation structured along the usual hierarchic paths: Greedy capitalists on Earth getting rich and fat on the backs of the working men in the mines of Mars, thanks to the regular shipments of noachite leaving the Red Planet for Earth. While mining was the primary source of its extreme wealth, Ultor had its fingers in far more sectors, including weapons manufacturing. All equipment issued to Ultor security forces on Mars is produced by Ultor, from the humble 10mm pistol, through automatic weapons, to explosives, rocket launchers, and flame throwers improvised from defoliators. All vehicles also carried Ultor-make weapons, from autocannons to torpedoes and heat-seeking missiles.
Ultor practiced strict compartmentalization, deliberately creating silos within its organization to cover up the fact that miners weren't really intended to mine noachite. In reality, they were guinea pigs for Axel Capek's twisted experiments, with their mining quotas merely an added benefit. Research into nanotechnology was carried out in the utmost secrecy, with the goal of creating the nanoforge, a universal maker that would guarantee Ultor limitless wealth.
Known employees[]
- Davis - Administrator
- Richard Gryphon - Deputy Chief Administrator
- Axel Capek - Head Scientist
- Colonel Masako - Leader of the Mercenary Regiment
- Isondo Barnes - VP of Marketing
- Hawkins - Scientist (died in the MASTers Expedition)
- Wiley Newell - Scientist
- Gerardo Ybarra - Scientist
- Kristen Pahlke - Scientist
- Riley Gibson - Security Guard
- Red Faction defectors
- Hendrix - Security Technician (also Revolutionary)
- Parker - Miner (also Revolutionary)
- Orion - Lieutenant Miner (also Revolutionary)
- Ray Mason - Miner (also Revolutionary)
- Felicia Lu - Miner
- Loftus - Employee
Trivia[]
- Ultor also appears in Saints Row, another game series created by Volition. It is a clothing, media and military group, and served as an antagonistic organization up until Saints Row 2.
- In Saints Row 2, the CEO of Ultor is named Dane Vogel, sharing the name of Mount Vogel.
- Ultor also appears in Agents of Mayhem, another game created by Volition. They serve as the main investors of M.A.Y.H.E.M.
Gallery[]
