Ares Corp (Faction)

Ares Corporation, often shortened to just Ares Corp or Ares, are a Mediterranean private military corporation and combatant faction in the Farsight conflicts.

Formed as an enclave to ostensibly protect communities in the region, Ares Corp are largely believed to be one of the main catalysts of the Farsight conflicts, after they began performing land-grabs from their flotilla base of operations in the Aegean Sea.

Centred largely around the philosophies of strength and honour through conflict, Ares Corp are unforgiving about their aggressive nature, stylizing themselves as 'born warriors' and using ancient Roman and Spartan mythology in their rhetoric.

Origins
The origins of Ares as an organisation are heavily disputed, and attempts by Ares to clarify have been largely dismissed as an attempt to build a false mythology as a form of propaganda.

According to Ares, the organisation was founded by their now-leader, a wealthy heiress known only to the general public as Enyo. Enyo allegedly shunned a position in her family business to join the Hellenic Army, the then-national land army of Greece, before becoming disillusioned with “the disgusting theology of nationalism”, leaving the army, and forming a PMC with her former comrades.

However, varying alternate sources report that Ares originated either as an underground far-right political group, a splinter cell from a violent football firm, or a combination of the two. Ares has refused to comment on these allegations on a number of occasions.

Early Operations
Ares were active in mainland Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean both as a private security force for wealthy landowners afraid of government land seizure and as a fledgling political actor.

As the trend of government land seizure spread throughout Europe, Ares were active in a number of ‘land defense strategies’ – operations that were increasingly common and highly illegal, wherein they would ‘protect’ vast swathes of occupied territory, offering to protect the inhabitants from government control whilst maintaining basic services and security.

As these operations became more popular, Ares gained support not just from wealthy landowners, but also agricultural, industrial and scientific interests from Greece to Cyprus, Croatia and Italy.

Mediterranean Sea Bases
With their forces spread relatively thin and their organisation pursued by a number of governments, Enyo ordered the creation of multiple sea-based military installations known as ‘Growtillas’ (a portmanteau of ‘grow,’ meaning expandable, and ‘flotilla’) using island-building techniques pioneered by the Chinese in earlier decades.

These installations were increasingly advanced: they could house thousands of troops, had enough space for rigorous training exercises, boasted nation-grade defenses, and were even capable of industrial mech manufacture.

It is also alleged that these are the bases where the first ‘Ares’ infantry exo-suits were built and tested.

Lead-up to the Farsight conflicts
A decade into their continued operations, the Ares Corporation had claimed much of the Italian mainland, as well as their native Greece.

They become vocal supporters of anti-nationalist sentiment in Northern Europe, sending aid and weapons to Vestus Corp.

When tensions rose between Vestus and Zafar in North-West Turkey, Ares quickly became involved, sending troops to defend Vestus’ interests in the region.