Darius Mason
The Masons are not innately stronger than any of the other characters in the Red Faction universe. Their power lies in their ability to "change the conversation." As one of the old families on Mars, they have been around longer than almost anybody else. Their words and actions carry weight. When they speak, people listen. When they strike, people join.
The people of Mars had few heroes and fewer pieces of their past. The Masons—from Ray, who fought alongside Parker against the Ultor Corporation, to Alec, who defeated the EDF—were an amalgam of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams rolled together with the fighting spirit of the Minutemen.
Darius is the scion of this legacy, though he never asked for the responsibility or wanted it. He just wanted to be left alone to live his own life and not the one Mars had seemingly demanded of him.
He might have succeeded in avoiding the "Mason destiny" if not for the Cultists. While doing his tour of duty for the colony as a soldier/engineer, Darius was unable to stop the White Faction's Adam Hale from destroying the Terraformer, the great machine originally placed on Mars by the Ultor Corporation to allow for breathable air across the planet's surface.
The Martian atmosphere quickly deteriorated to the point that only the caverns and deep places of Mars were more sustainably habitable. While the Colonists didn't necessarily blame him for the disaster, his guilt ate at him, and he was never as comfortable with them as he once was.
Darius's guilt prompted him to spend longer amounts of time alone, seeking out missions that would take him away from settlement life, but not so far that he became a nomad. He learned how to survive by eking out a living from salvage, how to blend into a crowd, and how to fight. The one thing he couldn't do was forget or forgive what had been done to him.
For five years, Darius kept his head down. He ran a black market salvage business, made few contacts, and tried to forget the failures of his past. That was made a more difficult task as the atmospheric conditions on Mars worsened. It seemed that there was always a reminder of how he could not live up to the legacy of his forefathers. It was only when Kara came along that things seemed to get better.
Perky, rebellious, and outgoing, Kara and Darius formed an unlikely combo. As a former Marauder, Kara provided contacts within the hierarchy of Mars's unseen minority. The two grew close, but their romantic relationship never suited them and they remained friends. Kara was too scared of being disappointed, and Darius didn't want to hurt Kara as he had hurt all of Mars.
Hesitations notwithstanding, fate forced Darius's hand. When called upon by a mysterious client to open a hidden temple, Darius unlocked a mystery about the origins of Mars itself. Darius had to fight to survive and, while utilizing all his skills and intelligence, discovered the hero in himself he thought hadn't existed.
S.A.M.
Created by Samanya Mason, the Situational Awareness Module (S.A.M.) is an artificial intelligence designed as a fail-safe monitor for the Nano Forge. Through the deployment of sensors and a powerful CPU, S.A.M. is constantly focused on the preservation of the Nano Forge and its operator. Always speaking in a calm, clear voice, S.A.M. warns of nearby threats as well as provides precise route information, helping Darius navigate the maze-like caverns and mines twisting beneath the planet's surface.
Adam Hale
Every true enemy of the Masons, the Marauders, and the Martians is ultimately an enemy of freedom. The Cultist leader, Adam Hale, was many things to many people, which might explain why he had been so successful. To his followers, he was the symbol of all the mysticism—past, present, and future—that Mars promised to the faithful. His enemies saw him as a ruthless charlatan who would use any and all means to gain power.
Others saw a conflicted individual, who was willing to enact horrible means in order to reach a transcendent end. The varied opinions about Hale had no clear right and wrong. Hale kept his true motives to himself. Starting with a group of extremist EDF stragglers, Hale seized upon the supremacist philosophy of the Marauders shortly after the turn of the 23rd Century.
His charm and wit belied his absolute willingness to do whatever was required to put the Cultists on top. His extremist viewpoints sounded almost reasonable until the Cultists decided to try and destroy the Martian Terraformer. Hale was presumed killed in the process . . . but his body was never found. Some say that he still stalks the Martian Badlands, and that he is looking for something . . . some place . . . where he will unlock true power. The power to rule Mars.
Kara
Though individualism is still at a premium in the world of Red Faction, the idea of togetherness and making a family out of those around you can be just as powerful an influencer as one born of blood. Born a Marauder, a rebel to the core, a hard-nosed smuggler, but one who knows both the streets and the world of science—Kara is all these things and more. Kara ran away from the regimented hierarchy of the Marauders at an early age when she realized that wit and intelligence were traits worthy of derision in her society.
Smuggling goods around Mars and from Earth just seemed a natural course of action both as an act of defiance and as an easy way to make cash. It was while operating in the underground of Mars that she met Darius. Aside from their place of birth, Kara and Darius couldn't be more different. Darius was a hard worker who took people at face value; Kara was a sly, sarcastic rebel who trusted few.
Darius wanted to live his life and avoid authority; Kara was always looking to pick a fight. They do have one thing in common: they wanted to stay hidden, and through that, a natural friendship was born.
Romance flared up once or twice as the two began their partnership, but neither followed through. Kara's emotions were mixed; displaying them would hurt business and complicate things in her life. The time was never right for them, though their friendship nearly blossomed into love on more than one occasion. When this happened, what Darius called one of her "moods" replaced Kara's cool demeanor. Her normally cutting, sarcastic remarks become vicious.
Belligerence often gave way to violence, and it took a while before the sweet-and-sour Kara returned to her natural grace. Used as defense mechanism to keep people from getting too close to her, Kara's aggressiveness prevented her from cutting people a lot of slack. Kara is also an honest, though blunt, soul, who can be prone to overconfidence.
Sergeant Frank Winters
A career soldier, Winters was the leader of Alpha Team, the commando unit sent to prevent Hale from destroying the Terraformer. They failed in this mission. Winters took that very personally, as did Darius Mason, as members of the commando team involved. Already a gruff, determined man, Winters grew more cynical in the two years after the destruction as he and the rest of the Martian armed forces tried to take down dissident Cultists, Marauder separatists, and black market smugglers.
Though it took some time for him to trust Darius completely, he would work with Darius again when Hale unleashed the Plague onto the Martian landscape. Eventually, Winters broke with the chain of command to help defeat the Cultists once and for all.