Chapter 2 - Red Faction Guerilla

What is a hammer for?

Building. Breaking. Smashing.

On Mars, a hammer is for everything.

You work with it,
you walk with it,
you speak with it.

It's used for building a better world, they say.

It's used for diplomacy with the EDF.

It's used for levelling buildings to the ground and nailing people to doors.

It's used for opening a path to freedom.

Really, the hammer is the Swiss Army Knife of Mars.

I love my hammer. It's the first thing I was given when I arrived on Mars. They traded my brother for it, but all in all, I regret nothing, after all, he was not very likeable. We never talked that much, and he admitted getting me into trouble back on earth so... But now, I have my best friend in the whole world. My hammer. I call him Mike. He smashes.

At first I thought, what can a hammer do? I have explosive charges to level buildings (that's my job apparently, I'm a demo man, I don't really care, I like to blow stuff up so demo man seems like a great job). But after a while I realised that my hammer will never leave my side, it will always find its way back in my hands and come to my aid in the direst of situations.

When my brother died, some guys came to me and told me I was Red Faction. I'm supposed to free Mars. Ok, if I get to break stuff and blow it up, I'm in and guerilla work is even more promising than demolition in that regard. So I signed up. But I did not really mind losing my brother, and the subject has never been brought back again so I guess it did not really matter. Freeing Mars is not about grave tones and moody exposure, it's about buildings and vehicles going BOOM! And concrete turning to dust.

Sometimes though, the clean up crew, or EDF, seems really hell bent on stopping me from having fun. they will do whatever they can to keep everything in one piece. They are pretty good at that too, the liberation of Mars can get incredibly, stupidly, ridiculously hard. how is one man supposed to take 80 armoured cars on his own and on foot? Even with the latest and greatest hammer he can put his hands on? No really, sometimes, things just get in the way of fun. So I toned it down a notch. I'm happy I did, because there are few things more amusing than flying around in a jet pack, dropping remote explosives on a military base then landing and detonating them all at once, finishing whatever is left standing in the smoking pile of rubble with a righteous, maniacal swing of hammer to the face.

My only regret is probably that the big mechanical hammers, or mech suit, are not available all the time. Of course it would break any sort of challenge, but having them only once in a while and in very specific scenario is just frustrating. After all, my hammer take more time, sometimes, I just want to run in, break stuff, run out and admire the demolition from afar as I turn my eyes to a 60 meter high tower crushing to the ground flattening any sort of resistance still shooting at me from the "cover" it provided.

If Mars is not the very definition of a sandbox, I don't know what is. It's a big pile of dust and sand, everything there can be broken, and most of the fun actually comes from breaking it. It crumbles to the ground in a glorious fashion, the little consequence there is to your actions allows you to repeat them again and again and again without being punished for going berserk but always gives you more ways to cause chaos and destruction.

Even if I could not care less about politics, I am Red Faction.