Faction: The Martians
They came here for our resources. Against all odds, the Martians have become a spacefaring race despite living (evolving?) on Mars. The Red Planet is rich in iron, silicon, and aluminum, but is poor in many elements crucial to high-tech equipment – uranium, copper, gold. The Martians do have nuclear power, but it is largely Thorium based. There is also one resource abundant on earth (especially in 1919) that is essentially absent from Mars – fossil fuels.

Now that the second invasion is over, and successful, the Martians are largely concerned with extracting as much gold, copper, uranium and fossil fuels as possible. Massive mining operations exist for fossil fuels in the obvious places – the Middle East, the center of North America from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada, Alaska, Central Asia/Russia, Venezuela and the North Sea. Uranium mining centers are located in Australia, Canada and Central Asia. No continent is devoid of Martian attention, but there is certainly more security around the larger mining operations.

The chief security unit deployed by the Martians is their iconic tripod walkers. The workhorses of both invasions continue to be the ubiquitous vehicle projecting Martian presence and power on Earth. They are always mobilized in multiples of 3 – a single security pod will be 3 walkers, stronger security squads will be three pods of 3, and so on. There is some speculation that the Martians work on a Base-3 mathematics system, but this has not been confirmed.

Cypher System Stat Block (Preliminary)
Martian Tripod Walker – L7 (21)
Motive: Protect Martian controlled areas
Environment: Any
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: 10 (Heat Ray)
Armor: 4
Movement: Long
Modifications: Speed defense at Level 6 due to size
Combat: Always appear in pods of 3 and multiples of 3. Will attempt to surround enemy groups.
Interaction: Pods will usually ignore single or small groups of humans that are trying to avoid the walkers. Those that initiate any threat or perceived resistance are immediately attacked. Anyone or anything that survives a heat ray blast is picked up by a tendril (grappled). Can hold up to 3 targets at a time.
Use: Used as policing forces for Martian occupation and invasion.
Loot: ?
GM Intrusion: Instead of a targeted heat ray, the walker shoots a wide area with the heat ray, setting anything flammable on fire. Anyone within a Short distance takes 3 damage, unless there is cover available and they succeed on a Speed Defense roll.

Featured Art “The Fall of London” by Grant Regan