Freedom Club

“	One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.	”
–Leo Tolstoy

Freedom Club
Logo, depicting a tree on fire
Paramilitary
Motto:	Rebellion Against Technology
Ideological doctrine:	Neo-Luddism
Primary goal(s):	The destruction of artificial intelligence and advanced technology
Operation
Region(s) of operation:	Mars, Cariocecus, Tezuka
Based in:	Various
Publications:	A Confession of Truth
Political position:	Various
Status & relations
Status:	Defunct
Number of members:	Unknown
Historical information
Founded:	3671 (approximately)
Founded by:	Unknown
Notable splinter factions:	Australeans, Freedom Club TRAPPIST
Dissolved:	3800? (Mars), 3851 (Trappist System)
[Source]

Freedom Club was a network of militant Martian Neo-Luddites who sought a world free of the technologies that begat ALIAS and the Martian Civil War that ushered ALIAS into power. A reactionary group that formed in response to the spread of ALIAS, Freedom Club reflected a synthesis of recent Martian anti-AI sentiment and classic Neo-Luddite ideology. Freedom Club fought under the banner of the anti-ALIAS Mariner Valley government during the Martian Civil War as an uneasy ally until the end, but the group would survive for many more years on Mars and later the Trappist colonies, participating in the Great Interstellar War, the Martian invasion of the Trappist System, and the Green Light Revolution on Tezuka. Currently, the group is defunct, but its message lives on in remote parts of Mars and Tezuka. Its name is derived from the pseudonym Freedom Club used by 20th century professor and terrorist Theodore John Kaczynski, a large influence on the group, in his foundational work Industrial Society and Its Future.

History

Founding

The earliest records of Freedom Club dates back to the middle stages of the Martian Civil War, as the war turned against the anti-ALIAS forces. The initial forces that would become the organisation were members of the Mariner Valley state army fighting against the Martian government that had installed ALIAS in Neo Arcadia. The group fought alongside the Martian government in Mariner Valley and the other anti-ALIAS forces in the Martian Civil War.

Freedom Club specifically came from discharged veterans in Mariner Valley alienated from the current conflict, with of them laying blame on their continued reliance on FRIEND. These soldiers saw ALIAS as simply the inevitable end goal of FRIEND, and they concluded that artificial intelligence itself was the problem. Some of the veterans looked for comfort in drink or sex while others looked for answers in literature, finding some in the writings of Theodore John Kaczynski, an Earther professor and terrorist from the 20th century. Kaczynski's words on the dangers of technology inspired the veterans, and they read further on the subject from other authors, most notably Mars's own Artur Olkowski with his writings railing against Second FRIEND. A movement would quickly form of Neo-Luddites named the Freedom Club in Mariner Valley over the next couple months, led in name by a man named Jonas Langen. The group was decentralized and only loosely organized to be a militia to oppose ALIAS and advanced technology in general. The movement and its anti-AI sentiment worried the Mariner Valley government for a while as Freedom Club agitated against Second FRIEND, but eventually, Freedom Club was convinced instead to direct their frustrations toward ALIAS instead of the FRIEND network that they were heavily reliant on. After its rapid growth, Freedom Club sent divisions to fight alongside the state armies and groups like the Crimson Order. As the group fought alongside other anti-ALIAS forces, it spread beyond the boundaries of Mariner Valley to other states, leading to the formation of different factions with the most notable being the Olympus Mons faction and the Green faction.

Freedom Club's role within the anti-ALIAS forces would grow as the war increasingly became more desperate and state armies started to fall apart. The anti-ALIAS forces became more fractious as ALIAS encircled Mariner Valley and Olympus Mons, and the remaining Freedom Club fighters grew increasingly radicalized. This manifested most in Olympus Mons, where an eco-fascist faction of Freedom Club took control of the state after the collapse of the state government. This military junta stayed in power for a year afterwards before Olympus Mons Metro itself finally fell to ALIAS. Meanwhile, Freedom Club in Mariner Valley and other parts of Mars continued to cooperate with other anti-ALIAS forces until the fall of Mariner Valley in 3690. This would bring an effective end to the war with ALIAS in complete control of Mars.

Survival on Mars

The end of the Martian Civil War brought intense persecution to remaining members of Freedom Club on Mars. As some fled off-world or into remote areas, others were rounded up ALIAS and liquidated like many of the other anti-ALIAS forces. Many of the Freedom Club went down fighting, even after the fall of Mariner Valley, and the group was pursued relentlessly. This was met by an explosive reaction by the Freedom Club which included bombings and various other acts of terrorism. Thousands of Freedom Club members were killed or imprisoned by ALIAS with only a precious few, including its original leader Jonas Langen, managing to escape persecution in the vast deserts of Planum Australe. After Langen's group flight into the desert, Freedom Club largely ceased its active campaign against ALIAS with remaining members in urban areas laying low while the group in Planum Australe built up their strength.

For the next few years, the Great Interstellar War raged, and Freedom Club stayed hidden on Mars. Along with Hatchet, Freedom Club managed to weather the initial persecutions, the crackdown following the numerous attacks on Mars, and later the destructive Day of Fire. All of this hardened Freedom Club's resolve. On the eve of the Ceres Summit in 3694, Freedom Club was finally on the rise once again. The generation of constant war and devastation had taken its toll on the Martian population, and many of the more alienated Martians blamed ALIAS for their misfortunes, gravitating towards Freedom Club or its left wing alternative Hatchet. Both groups observed and recruited from the prior social upheaval, and they both watched eagerly as the coalition aligned against ALIAS prepared for a potential invasion of Mars. As the invasion loomed overhead, leading members of covert cells of both Hatchet and the Freedom Club met clandestinely at Galle in a cafe on the shoreline of the Argyre Sea. There, they discussed their mutual goals and the future of Mars.

During the last years of the civil war, interactions between Hatchet and Freedom Club were limited, but now they found themselves as the last two anti-ALIAS factions standing on Mars. Although both groups found unity in their opposition to ALIAS, they had no particular love for each other. Hatchet saw Freedom Club as wannabe cavemen who had little to offer in the war against ALIAS, while Freedom Club saw Hatchet as an extension of the leftists who had ushered ALIAS into power in the first place. However, both groups were now willing to put aside their differences for a renewed common goal: the overthrow of ALIAS. Their proposal: a decentralized united front consisting of both groups fighting ALIAS in tandem with one another, sharing information and supplies. Hatchet had been the ones to put forth the proposal to Freedom Club after managing to find the group after months of combing Planum Australe in anticipation of an invasion. Jonas Langen, the original leader of Freedom Club, was now a haggard veteran and the only leader of any of the anti-ALIAS factions to escape execution or exile, and he was interested in Hatchet's proposal, however skeptical he was of their ideology. Langen and his small cadre of hardened veterans, representing Freedom Club, met the Hatchet representatives at the cafe and talked for approximately three hours in hushed tones. After that time, the two groups were in agreement that Mars was ripe for rebellion with an invasion on the horizon. They therefore decided then and there for the creation of the United Front for a Free Mars (UFFM; Uunata Fornt fo a Ferii Maz; Uunataforntfo aferiiMaz). After that initial meeting, the two groups returned to their respective hiding places but kept in touch, preparing for the right time to act.

The call to action would finally arrive with the Coalition invasion of Mars later in the year. Hatchet and Freedom Club attacked as the Coalition landed on Mars with Hatchet rising up in several urban areas while Freedom Club, more localized, overwhelmed various outposts and small population centers in the thinly peopled territory of Planum Australe. From there, the UFFM, with Langen as acting provisional leader, revealed itself to the larger world and extended an olive branch to the Coalition in the effort to overthrow ALIAS. Coalition forces were happy to cooperate with friendly Martians, and soon enough, they arrived to assist Freedom Club in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars.

However, most of the assistance from the Coalition went to Hatchet, and Freedom Club made little progress in their offensives against Malea and East Hellas, with their crowning achievement being the brief capture of Malea's capital Amphitrites. Their victory would be short-lived though, as a lack of support from the Coalition meant that Freedom Club had to withdraw from Amphitrites back into Planum Australe. This and other perceived slights slowly but surely turned Freedom Club against the Coalition, even as Langen struggled to hold the UFFM together.

Langen managed to mediate the tensions between Freedom Club, Hatchet, and the Coalition for five years until the war was finally lost and the Martian Genocide took place. With that, ALIAS reasserted its control over Mars, and it clamped down hard upon the defeated UFFM. Both Hatchet and Freedom Club were persecuted even more viciously than after the Martian Civil War, and Langen died in the subsequent crackdowns. The remnants of Freedom Club on Mars retreated from their positions in Planum Australe, and they fled into the secluded canyons of Australe Lingula and Promethei Lingula. Initially, ALIAS pursued the remnants of Freedom Club into Planum Australe and kept a close watch upon the territory.

The remnants of Freedom Club in Planum Australe remained in seclusion, but they would strike back at ALIAS a few times over the next century, attacking various outposts and population centers over the years. ALIAS would respond in kind by sending strike teams into the canyons and on one occasion in the 3750s, bombing the canyons. The larger Freedom Club remnant group in Australe Lingula was destroyed or captured in the late thirty-eighth century while the smaller group in Promethei Lingula survived the various raids and bombings. However, the group lost much of its offensive capacities in that time, and there have been no Freedom Club attacks in Planum Australe since 3812.

The Freedom Club group in Promethei Lingula has survived in isolation since then. However, they have lost almost all knowledge of their ancestors’ past in last three hundred years, and have largely grown ignorant of the events of the outside world. Known as Australeans, the group has largely ceased to be a threat to ALIAS and has become more of a local attraction, with numerous lone Martians visiting the group over the years out of either scientific curiosity or an interest to see something of the old Mars. The Australeans are generally isolationist and fear ALIAS greatly, but they are willing to meet and trade with other Martians under certain conditions, although they have become more wary after a devastating unknown illness killed many of their number in the early 3900s. They live simple austere lives underground, but they also feel a certain amount of pride in thinking that they are “the last free people of Mars”.

Currently, ALIAS has a policy of non-interference regarding the Australeans, feeling that they are not worth the effort to assimilate, but still regards them as Martian citizens. Australeans who decided to leave their communities or to simply visit Mars proper are afforded all the rights of Martian citizens. However over the years, Australeans have proven themselves to be rather deviant in their behavior even after leaving their communities, acting selfishly and still fearing ALIAS, so ALIAS usually has even “civilized” Australeans watched closely. Also, off-worlders are not allowed to visit Planum Australe, and Australeans are typically restricted from Tier 1 cities to limit their interactions with tourists.

Trappist Happenings

Almost forty years after the end of the Martian Civil War, members of Freedom Club arrived with other war refugees in the Trappist System. They would arrive on Bellona along with the news that ALIAS had finally overtaken Mars. At that point, the Trappist colonies were already on high alert due to the arrival of ARES and the debate surrounding its installation, but things escalated very quickly when news came of ALIAS’s victory. Great changes followed with Bellona being rechristened Cariocecus and a military junta taking power.

While all that occurred, the Freedom Club refugees found one another on Cariocecus, Kienen, and Tezuka, and the group reformed somewhat on all three planets. Although they had escaped ALIAS’s grasp, many war refugees still harbored Neo-Luddite views, and they held ARES in contempt for being little better than ALIAS. This sentiment lessened during the Martian invasion of Trappist System when ARES proved vital in the systems defense and Freedom Club TRAPPIST fought against the invasion alongside other Martians. The group experienced great suffering on both Tezuka and Kienen where Freedom Club's resistance led to very harsh repercussions. The People's Republic of Cariocecus reclaimed Tezuka with Freedom Club's help, but the Scouring of Kienen led to the planet's sterilization. Goodwill and unity would pervade briefly after the war, but Neo-Luddite ideology slowly increased in the years afterward. This sentiment was especially strong on Tezuka, where many war refugees had resettled and many of the locals even joined Freedom Club due to shared concerns about the influence of ARES, though locals blended this with their skepticism about the central government on Cariocecus.

This predictably led to conflict between Freedom Club and the People's Republic of Cariocecus. At first, the government simply used the preexisting Crimson Order as a proxy against Freedom Club with the two groups often fighting one another either figuratively or literally. However, Freedom Club grew to be such a problem that in the early 3800s, the government would crack down on the Neo-Luddites across all its territory. These crack downs were largely peaceful on Cariocecus but flared up into violence on Tezuka as ice miners sided with Freedom Club in large numbers, subsequently forming the Green Light Movement. This conflict continued at varying levels for the next half century, even during the Martian Invasion of the Trappist System until a peace agreement was reached leading to the Green Light Revolution, where Tezukans were allowed a large degree of autonomy from ARES and their own local government for the first time. With that, Freedom Club on Tezuka voluntarily disbanded though a few holdouts remained in the decade after the Green Light Revolution. The exception to this was the small breakaway Tezuka Independence Movement who continues to resist Cariocecus into the current day. Today, Freedom Club’s influence can largely be felt on Tezuka with its Neo-Luddite friendly government and across other Trappist Martians with continued Neo-Luddite sentiment, though naked hostility towards ARES has largely faded.

Ideology

Many different cells and factions of Freedom Club emerged over the years with differing ideologies, but there were always unifying beliefs that held them together. That included an intense fear of artificial intelligence, a return of non-"civilized" ways of life through deindustrialization, and a reconnection with nature. Main influences on Freedom Club included Theodore John Kaczynski, Henry David Thoreau, and Artur Olkowski.

Besides their intense anti-ALIAS sentiment, the ideology of Freedom Club varied wildly by faction. During the Martian Civil War, the original Mariner Valley faction was dominant and their idolization of Ted Kaczynski came to define the group for centuries afterwards. Other factions during the Martian Civil War included the uniquely authoritarian Olympus Mons faction which briefly ruled Olympus Mons Metro as a military junta, the Crimson Order-influenced Argyrean faction, and the left-leaning insurrectionist Green faction who never quite got along with the other anti-ALIAS forces.

After the Martian Civil War, Freedom Club was wiped out across much of Mars by ALIAS. However, a few Freedom Club cells, mostly derived from the Mariner Valley faction, remained in isolation on Mars while war refugees brought the group to the Martian colonies in the Trappist System. The group reemerged on Mars during the Great Interstellar War, but it was effectively broken by the war, never recovering its position on Mars and fading away into the deserts of Planum Australe. Meanwhile, Freedom Club managed to survive in some form for another century after in the Trappist System, particularly on Tezuka as a dissident movement against the overbearing government on Cariocecus. The group finally became defunct after the Green Light Revolution on Tezuka, with the Freedom Club there largely achieving their goals and disbanding voluntarily.

Influence

Freedom Club's influence is largely confined to Mars and the Martian diaspora, in contrast to Hatchet, which has much wider mass appeal. As Freedom Club has been officially disbanded for nearly two centuries, there are precious few members of Freedom Club left. Those few left live out their days on Tezuka as elders within their communities. The isolated Australean community on Mars is descended from members of Freedom Club, and they keep to the ways of their ancestors somewhat, though they have lost any real coherency to their beliefs. The ideology and philosophy of Freedom Club are most influential on Tezuka due to their successful establishment of an ergatocracy on the planet in the Green Light Revolution.

The influence of Freedom Club is also felt in other parts of the Martian diaspora, most notably on Cariocecus, Ceres, and Haumea. This comes in the form of continued anti-ALIAS, specifically Neo-Luddite, sentiment inspired by Freedom Club's past actions and ideology. Still, Freedom Club's beliefs have stayed confined to the Martian diaspora besides a few members of Blutkorps.