The Sons of Ares is an underground resistance group fighting against The Society and its Gold rulers, with the ultimate objective of destroying the system and hierarchy of The Society.
Structure[]
In 743 PCE, the Sons of Ares were comprised of several hundred individual cells across the Solar System, with over three hundred and fifty operating in The Rim alone.[1]
History[]
The Sons of Ares were officially founded by Fitchner au Barca in 722 P.C.E., but had informally existed since 720 in the form of the team he worked with to assassinate his Silver employer Quicksilver's corporate rivals. His teammates aided him in his failed attempt to save his Red wife, Bryn, from being executed by the Board of Quality Control, and went on to become the original members of the Sons.
Outraged by the ways of The Society, Fitchner gathered like-minded people dissatisfied with the government to fight back against the Gold regime, with Quicksilver providing significant material sponsorship and enlisting several of his own employees over the group's first five years.[2]
Fitchner took the moniker of Ares to call attention to Gold's hypocrisy and sanitizing of the horrors of the ruling regime, based on how the Romans portrayed the war god Mars as a god of military glory, honor, and defense of the home, in contrast with the Greek counterpart Ares being a "patron of rage, violence, bloodlust, and massacre."[3]
To ensure the survival of their movement against the Society, Fitchner created multiple different redundancies so that a single cell being captured or wiped out would not compromise the entire resistance. The main Sons of Ares organization was split into highColor and lowColor factions operating independently, with the lowColor cells initially being led by his sister-in-law Ryanna, while Quicksilver took command of the highColors. Meanwhile, Fitchner created a second rebel group known as the Daughters of Athena in 723 P.C.E to operate exclusively in The Rim so that there would be another resistance faction to carry on their cause even if the Sons of Ares were completely wiped out.[4]
In September 725 P.C.E, the lowColor wing of the Sons recruited around a hundred lowReds from the mining colony of Nagasos on Mars, while Quicksilver's cells constructed the underground city of Tinos in order to house the new recruits. In November of that year, the Sons in Nagasos led an uprising in the mine and liberated several hundred Reds from slavery. When the Lionguard of House Augustus arrived under Fitchner's command to put down the uprising, Fitchner staged a cave-in so that the Sons and the Reds of Nagasos could escape to Tinos through pre-built escape tunnels. After the evacuation, Ryanna left Mars and moved back to her home moon of Triton, where Fitchner tasked her with establishing a separate cell in the Rim.[5][6]
Following their initial uprising and a subsequent propaganda broadcast, the Sons spent much of the next eleven years carrying out acts of sabotage, bombings, and hacking against key Society targets. In 729 PCE, Dancer O'Faran was recruited by Ares and took Ryanna's place as the leader of the Sons' lowColor faction.
With Fitchner having been hired as the Proctor of House Mars at the Martian campus of The Institute following the Nagasos Uprising, the Sons began developing a plan to carve a Red into a Gold whom they could send to The Institute and have infiltrate the Society government. The Sons used a network of informants to feed them information and to find the best of Red to extract from the mines for their plan, and hired a series of Carvers to perform the necessary surgeries.
At least 97 candidates were recruited between November 725 and March 737 P.C.E.[7], but all of the lowReds who underwent the carving process either died during the operations or eventually begged for death.[8]
Red Rising[]
In 737 P.C.E, Eo of Lykos is hanged for singing the Reaping Song, and the Sons utilize the footage of her execution as their primary propaganda piece. Her husband, Darrow of Lykos, is recruited to infiltrate The Institute after his uncle Narol fakes his death. Darrow's carving is completed by Mickey in Yorkton, and he spends three months being trained by Quicksilver's husband Matteo in order to integrate into Gold society. Simultaneously, another Red named Arlus was recruited from Thebos mines and underwent the same carving and training, taking on the alias of Titus au Ladros.
Titus and Darrow are sent to infiltrate The Institute in 738 PCE, but Titus quickly turns to brutality against his classmates and is eventually executed by Darrow, who only learns of Titus' true status as a fellow Red when the latter lets slip a bit of Red slang before his execution.
Darrow eventually wins his year at The Institute and graduates as a Peerless Scarred in September 738, after which he enlists as a Lancer in the service of Martian ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus.
Golden Son[]
A year after Darrow's departure for The Institute, the lowColor faction of the Sons bugged a Gold villa on Mars's Gorgon Sea after learning that several Senators were going to be vacationing there. The eavesdropping failed to produce any useful intelligence, instead only recording the vacationing Golds' depravities. In response, Harmony, becoming desperate for action, killed the Senators and their guests before breaking away from the Sons with her own radical splinter faction bound for Luna.
The headquarters for the lowColor wing of the Sons was raided by Lurchers in in response to Harmony's actions, resulting in the deaths of about forty Sons before Fitchner arrived with a mixed group of Obsidians and Grays to eliminate the Lurchers. The attack forced many cells underground, leaving Darrow to navigate among Gold without any support. Meanwhile, Harmony's faction began a campaign of bombings, assassinations, and other acts of terrorism across Mars, Earth, Luna, and Venus.
In August 741, Dancer approached Sevro on Triton while the latter had stopped for a layover en route to Luna, and reveals to him the truth of Darrow's origins.
In December 741, Darrow makes contact with Harmony's faction after he thwarted their assassination attempt against Adrius au Augustus. Claiming that her faction was all that was left of the Sons, she convinces Darrow to bring a bomb into the closing gala of the Golds' decennial Summit to assassinate the attendees, using the revelation that his wife Eo was pregnant when she died to manipulate him into agreeing to the suicide mission.
At the Gala, Darrow realizes that the plan will ultimately not lead to any lasting change, and that a house war between the ruling Gold families will more effectively weaken the Aureate regime than simply killing a small group of individuals. His decision results in a bloodbath at the gala and sparks the beginning of the Martian Civil War.
The Sons covertly support Darrow's efforts in the war with the goal of eventually installing him as Sovereign once Octavia au Lune has been overthrown, with their contributions including drilling through the drainage grates under the walls of Agea in preparation for the Lion's Rain.
After the Lion's Rain, Darrow learns of Fitchner's identity as Ares, while Harmony's faction are captured by the Jackal. Enraged at the truth of Ares' identity and Darrow's refusal to do as she ordered, Harmony exposes both Darrow and Fitchner to the Jackal, who then coordinates with Octavia to assassinate Fitchner and capture Darrow for experimentation.
Morning Star[]
Following the Triumph Massacre, Dancer and Sevro salvaged the Sons and evacuate the population of Lykos mine to Tinos in order to protect Darrow's family from being tortured by The Jackal, but lost thousands of trained Sons in the ensuing purges. Three months later, The Society executed a body double of Darrow on the holoNet in an attempt to discredit him, while in reality imprisoning him in Attica.
In response to the world attempting to sweep his friend under the Rug, Sevro uploaded the footage of Darrow's carving onto the net in July 742 , publicizing the truth of the Reaper's origins. The revelation that a Red had risen to such high prestige among Golds sparked open revolution against The Society, marking the beginning of The Rising.
Known members[]
Leaders[]
- Fitchner au Barca (founder)
- Sevro au Barca (acting leader)
- Darrow (leader of the Rising)
- Quicksilver (highColor liaison)
- Ryanna of Cryssos (former lowColor liason)
- Dancer (lowColor liaison)
Other members[]
- Cylax si Nexiti (deceased)
- Fenix (deceased)
- Ballista (codename Enyalius) - an Obsidian
- Anteros - a Brown
- Oenomaus - a Red
- Thrax - a Red
- Ketner (codename Oxylus) - a Green
- Meleager - a Red
- Himeros - a Red
- Phlegyas - a Red
- Tmolus - -a Red
- Cycnus - an Obsidian
- Harmony (former)
- Roran of Nagasos (deceased)
- Corthus of Nagasos (former)
- Mickey
- Evey
- Matteo
- Narol (initiated after Red Rising)
- Loran (initiated after Red Rising)
- Holiday ti Nakamura
- Trigg ti Nakamura (deceased)
- Victra au Julii (initiated during Morning Star)
- All surviving members of the Howlers
- Ephraim ti Horn (former)
- Rollo O'Sicyon (deceased)
Gallery[]
