Red Mars

Red Mars were a major Terran terrorist organization formed in the 25th century. They had broadly Marxist values

Origins

Red Mars was apparently formed by radicals, especially those on the far left in various academic environments and also among mining unions. It was formed with broadly Marxist views opposed to the Hansa and the The Terran Empire

Stated Aims

Red Mars's stated aims were:

• The end of the Terran Empire
• The end of the Hansa
• Freedom of movement for Terrans
• Freedom of thought and expression for Terrans

Organization

Red Mars was organized into cells with an overall "Command" leadership which was seconded to a "Cabinet" of officials who operated in strategy discussions.
Each cell was intended to be able to operate on its own and would only be aware of the members of its own cell and then be contactable by couriers and senior leadership.
Red Mars eventually expanded to created "Armed Brigades", which were much larger and better organized in a paramilitary style.

History

Initially in the 2450's, Red Mars operated on a very small scale. Its primary operations included ambushing police and military units and stealing their weapons, including destroying infrastructure and government structures.
In the late 2450s, Red Mars made contact with a new fund-raising source, later attributed to Kotek Grumman , to raise money and increase training quality. They launched an operation in 2561 to attempt to seize the Cydonia Chamber of Commerce which was stopped thanks to the swift actions of the CIS.
The scale and quality of Red Mars's operations throughout the 2460s continued to ramp up, with garrisons and police stations being attacked and Red Mars developing a small but dedicated paramilitary force.
In 2466, Red Mars's fund-raisers pushed them to strike against the Martian government HQ in Cydonia City. Despite the long odds of the assault succeeding, it would raise the profile of Red Mars and draw attention to their cause.

The August Uprising

In 2467, Red Mars launched a huge operation, by its scale, with over a thousand militants taking part in an assault on the government quarters in Cydonia City. The Red Mars militia brigades successfully defeated the police and troops guarding the government quarter.
They seized four major government buildings and formed a perimeter as Imperial Marines formed a cordon around the government quarter. There was a long range firefight and sniping as well as skirmishing.
The Red Mars leadership declared Cydonia City to be the capital of "Free Mars" and even read out their new manifesto and constitution, though their control of the city never extended further than the government quarter. Red Mars had hoped for support elsewhere in the city or on Mars but there was no major reaction from the public, who largely seem puzzled by what had happened.
After a three week siege, the defenders were running short of food, water and ammo and forced to surrender. The survivors of the siege were taken to Imperial Black-Sites and most spent the rest of their lives in prison or in a black-site.

The Mountain Wars -2471-

After the August Uprising, Red Mars saw a huge influx of supporters and arms and expanded their numbers of militia. Red Mars's new cabinet, with 80% of the prior cabinet either arrested or killed after the August Uprising, called for a much more aggressive response to the Imperial and Valane government.
Red Mars brigades began to ambush Martian police and Marine patrols, especially in the mountainous and sparsely populated regions of Mars.
Red Mars won several small victories, including some successful ambushes of PMCs. Casualties were estimated low, at around 150-200 dead per year.
In 2473 the Imperial Government deployed a force of 100,000 marines to Mars to help crack down on Red Mars.
During the 2477 disputed regency, Red Mars won significant new support and launched several successful counter-strikes, including the bloody "Hill 377" campaign that saw the Marine 38th Regiment take heavy casualties in clashes with several Red Mars brigades.
During the Zzenddi war, the fighting died down, almost to an unofficial ceasefire. This picked up again in the late 80s as Red Mars began to pick up the pace again, clashing with Marines and PMCs.

Battle of Sancrist City

In 2497, Red Mars launched a hugely ambitious plan to seize Sancrist City and to break the back of the Imperial and Martian government. Thousands of Red Mars militia occupied Sancrist City, over-running the police and marines. Red Mars set up a defensive perimeter around the city and attempted to launch a planet-wide uprising but again this didn't materialize.
In the end, a huge Marine force was deployed to retake the city and after three weeks of bloody fighting, they retook the city at the cost of 3,750 marines killed and 11,700 wounded. Red Mars lost nearly 10,000 killed or captured.

Cease-Fire Agreement

After the collapse of the Terran Empire, the Martian Government, led by Princess Nova Valane, began to broker a cease-fire agreement with Red Mars and their leadership.
After long, protracted and occasionally bitter talks, an agreement was made that Red Mars would disband and stack their arms, with their members potentially facing legal charges.
The Martian government agreed to democratically elect the Lt-Governor and Attorney-General as well as various other reforms.
More than six thousand former members of Red Mars faced charges across the following ten years. Red Mars did appear to fully accept the terms and follow the cease-fire

K2

K2 was formed in the 2540s as a radical splinter movement from Red Mars, though there were no former Red Mars members in K2 (due to the amount of time that had passed). K2 attempted to bomb the Nysa City site and also tried to assassinate a member of the Martian government.
After two decades of causing problems for the Martian Government, K2 was largely broken by a combined effort from Martian law enforcement and the Federal Investigative Services and RepInt.