In the year 2075, the Earth Defense Force (EDF) received a distress signal from a small mining facility on the surface of Mars. A group of rebels calling themselves the Red Faction had overthrown the ruthless Ultor Corporation after years of oppression. The EDF responded by launching a fleet of warships to Mars to aid the miners, bring Ultor to justice and restore order to the Martian colonies. In order to ensure safety and security for the newly liberated colonists, the EDF set up command posts and bases across the planet. Initially, under the EDF's rule, the people of Mars prospered: colonists established homesteads, built towns and independent mining operations and began to stake and work their mining claims. But the more things change on Mars, the more they stay the same.The troubles began with colonists being driven from their homes and mining claims by greedy, Earth-based corporations. Then came a 50 year turn of events that saw the EDF adopting the heavy-handed tactics that it once stood against. Yet in doing so it also instilled a deep-seated resentment among the miners and settlers of the Martian colonies. One of these new Martians is miner Alec Mason, whose dream of a new life carved out of the course Martian soil was crushed in the face of EDF-ordered curfews, detention centers, beatings, mass arrests and personal tragedy. But as powerful as the EDF is, there is resistance. Mason and a small group of revolutionaries have banded together, taken up the Red Faction name and pledged to again bring about a free Mars. And though their enemy has changed, their battle cry remains unchanged: "Better Red than Dead."