Red Faction Diaries Part Six

This is my ongoing exploration of the Red Faction Universe. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. I finish with Red Faction.

After taking out the missile batteries shooting down any shuttles, as well as the orbital station fending off the Earth Defence Force (EDF), I was back on Mars with yet another miner dead at my feet seconds after meeting me…

I'm pretty sure Parker killed more miners with his presence than Ultor did with bullets...

I avenged the miner with some heavy gunfire, and made my way through the tunnels. I encountered more miners either as they died, or lay already deceased, and wasted tons of ammunition. I came across a trio of mercenaries on a bridge firing at the miners below -- so I blew up the bridge with my trusty rocket launcher. As explosion damage was negligible, I had been keeping it for when it might do the most good.

Of course, the miners were dead, but it did the most good for me…

I continued, soon reaching an airlock to enter the merc barracks. As I hit the access button on the inside, a merc laughed and gas began to flood the chamber. Before I could ask “How can I survive underwater, but not freaking gas?”, I was unconscious for the third time in recent memory. At least it wasn’t due to head trauma again…

At least it was a solo cell...

I awoke in a cell, and a fellow prisoner spoke to me. As we were getting friendly, a miner ran in firing at the mercs guarding us, and opened the cells. He died, followed very quickly by the fellow prisoner…

Hendrix contacted me as I made my gunfire-filled escape, telling me that he was holed up with some miners nearby. I murdered my way from the cells and through the barracks, finding him in a server room. He told me to shut down the generators, otherwise he wasn’t going to be able to hack the computers -- he could only do it whilst they rebooted.

"I'm sure you won't die soon, Hendrix!"

I went down an elevator and into the first room I came across -- coincidentally the generator room. After a healthy amount of murder and two blown up turrets, I hit the button labeled Shut Down. Rather than explode as I’m used to, Hendrix contacted me to congratulate me and tell me that he was on his way, meet him outside the room. I went out and shot some more mercs.

Hendrix and a miner came along, and he opened the door at the end of the hallway. The miner died in a hail of bullets, and I swiftly avenged him. Hendrix hacked the next door, and the next one as I took out more mercs and turrets.

Beyond the hallways was a hangar filled with mercs, a cargo ship and doors at the other side. Leader of the mercs, a lady called Masako, contacted me to taunt me some. Her smugness only grew when the control panel which Hendrix ran to for more hacking, exploded in his face and set him on fire. He died, becoming yet another notch on the coffin post for those who got to know Parker for more than two seconds...

"Hendrix! Nooo! You will be avenged... I will get the Avengers and you will be avenged, Hendrix!"

I leapt into the ventilation shafts and made my way through, avoiding reinforcements until I reached a fighter docking bay. I called one down and took out the mercs in the room whilst it moved into position. I jumped inside and flew down the hallways, another hanger and yet more hallways.

I avoided fusion rockets, killed mercs and blew up enemy fighters, before slamming into doors that wouldn’t open, and blowing up my fighter. I ran back the way I had come, entering some more doors behind which was a huge warehouse. And two enemy fighters.

I took them down easily with my railgun, which triggered a cutscene with Masako arriving in her own fighter. I took it down, but it didn’t kill Masako, who was encased in a nanotech forcefield much like the one Capek had. Under extended fire, it dropped, and so did she as she was several meters up. Still shooting at me, I unloaded a couple of weapons into her before she fell.

Pictured: More bullets not yet shooting Masako

I went down the cargo lift and spotted Eos huddled against a computer console at the far end of the room. She looked different, but as I approached, Eos shouted that there was a bomb! I immediately turned my attention to it, and had to guess the deactivation codes (which were arrow directions for some reason). With nine seconds left, I hit the right combination.

Now kiss...

Parker helped Eos to her feet, but before they could congratulate themselves too much a fighter pulled up outside, weapons trained on the pair. It exploded in a shower of shrapnel as the EDF arrived, transmitting a message to the facility that everyone should stand down, or be taken down.

"Dude, you need to lift your visor to kiss her! Even we can see that!"

The cavalry finally here, Eos explained that the cure for the plague was being distributed to the miners, and was the reason she looked human instead of cyborg. The pair kicked back, and Parker considered his employment options…

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” - Che Guevara

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