Sagas & Sass began covering the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown in September 2022; these are our summaries of Lyria, Virginia, and Lysander’s POVs through chapter 31 in book 6 – Light Bringer – as they were written to introduce Sagas & Sass Episodes 81 and 82.
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
We begin with “LOVE AS ARMOR”…
At the end of Dark Age, Lyria was sent off by Pax to find Oculus and have her parasite repaired…but apparently Pax didn’t know enough about the “city’s” location, because Lyria has been searching for it for some time, to no avail. And this is despite having a crack team with her, too – a team that she’s mostly fond of, even if she doesn’t love the nickname they’ve given her.
Really, who WOULD want to be dubbed “Truffle Pig”?
They’ve landed on yet another asteroid that they need to explore, but all they find are the skeletons of some pirates who were killed by an antique bioweapon called the Green Death. So Lyria and the half-bionic heavyMetal Red team leader Fel make their way back to their ship…only to be attacked by Dustwalkers!
The entire crew is killed right before Lyria’s eyes, and she even loses a HAND, but before the enemy can finish her off they’re taken out by obelisks that rise from the asteroid! Lyria is left floating, spinning, over the asteroid, and assumes that she is facing certain death – UNTIL a sort of orb approaches her and asks, “Sister, why do you hide in the warmblood?”…and as Lyria passes out, she realizes that the orb isn’t actually talking to her…
She wakes naked and patched up (her hand even having been reattached!) in a grand room that looks out into…an aquarium, of all things? She dresses and dons some shoes, and a door opens, leading her down a path lined with trees, until she ends up in a grove surrounded by rose bushes.
A man waits for her there – but not just ANY man, y’all: it’s Matteo, Quicksilver’s husband! He is of course very kind to Lyria, but she immediately assumes that because she’s seeing his face, she’s already, well, dead. Yet as wary as she is, it doesn’t take long for Matteo to begin chipping away at her barriers. Lyria eventually admits that she came to the asteroid because the parasite was telling her it needed repairs…but she also admits that she’s sick of being small, and knows that the parasite is a weapon that makes her stronger.
We learn that the parasite is called a psyche and was developed to be an AI partner for the brain that would make the user a god among machines. The problem is that its maker, a woman named Agala, realized a moment too late how dangerous her creation was. She tried to take it all back, Quicksilver in turn tried to force her to continue her work, but Agala simply released six of the early prototypes into the worlds and then took her own life.
The TL;DR is that whoever wields the psyche could be incredibly powerful, but when Matteo asks Lyria what she would do if they repaired her prototype, she apparently gives him the type of answer he’s looking for, because he then explains the cost of its repair.
And that cost? Welp, it turns out to be far more than Lyria is willing to pay, because Matteo says repairing the degraded prototype will cause Lyria to lose some of herself. He isn’t sure exactly what, or how much, but she COULD forget who she is – and there will definitely be gaps, holes punched through the story of her life.
So while Lyria could have it repaired and become a very dangerous person, the idea that she might not be herself stops her. At first Matteo is surprised, even confused, but he agrees to remove it and give her everything that she needs to return to her nephew Liam.
Oh, and before she goes under, he gives Lyria hope, as well: by hinting that Darrow maybe didn’t die on Mercury…
That’s where we leave Lyria for now, but at least we’re off to Mars to check in on our fave Sovereign, Mustang – oops, sorry, Virginia! After all, Matteo did in fact inform Lyria that he let one of her messages sneak through…and now Virginia is sending five of the fastest Republic vessels out to find this supposed “armory of unknown size”.
Not that she can give these people all the deets about their mission, but they understand they’re off to do something very important at her behest, and hey, everyone trusts Virginia! (Or at least, everyone who matters, does?)
Immediately after seeing them off on this mission, Virginia is on her way to the Conservatory – a pilot school – with Kavax, because that’s where Pax has been for some months. Granted, Virginia was none too happy when her son announced his decision to attend this specialized flight school, which led to a good ol’ mother-son fight…but now Virginia has news for Pax, news that she insists on giving to him in person…
While they wait for Pax to arrive, Kavax tries to get Virginia to cough up the name of her source who’s been helping her find traitors in their midst. She doesn’t, but it seems he already knows, anyway – and of course WE don’t get that reveal just yet, because just then they’re interrupted by Pax finally emerging from the school!
He’s taller, his eyes harder, his skin pale…and he already has digital tattoos staining his shaved head – earlier than Virginia expected, though the Blues with him inform her that he was chosen for an accelerated track.
As a hunter, nonetheless, with the constellation Orion written on his forehead.
Pax assumed her visit was due to news of his father, but Virginia admits that there are only rumors that Darrow lives. At this point Pax wonders if she’s there to tell him that she’s pardoning Valdir, reminding her that the Obsidians only wanted a little of the freedom they died for…
But in the end, Virginia’s really just there to tell him about the developments with Lyria and how a force has been sent to find Quicksilver. Unfortunately, Pax doesn’t believe that his mother’s people have any chance of dragging Quick back into the fight – not without Darrow, or at least Pax himself, because Quicksilver didn’t build statues for Virginia, or Fitchner, or Eo – only for Darrow.
Obviously no part of this meeting goes the way Virginia wanted or hoped it would, but in the end they part with a hug, Kavax shares a few jokes with Pax on the way back to the door, and Virginia realizes that despite it all, she’s ready for the enemy – she has more reasons to fight, and her armor is her love.
WHY YES WE HAD TO WORK THE EPISODE TITLE INTO THIS SUMMARY SORRY NOT SORRY.
And speaking of love, Virginia soon has good reason to show it again. She arrives at the Citadel of Ageam where a Votum torchShip has just landed. She races to the executive lounge and finds that four dear friends and colleagues have returned – more Darrow’s friends than hers, perhaps, but Virginia knows that few people are more worthy of her trust and respect.
Harnassus, Screwface, Thraxa, and Colloway have returned to Mars, y’all!
Virginia welcomes them back with open arms, and it’s soon revealed that it WAS Darrow and Sevro on Venus – so Victra and Virginia now finally know that their husbands are alive! Woot woot!
On the other hand, though, they bring news that Lysander appears to be on his way to Mars. So they might not know where Darrow and Sevro are, exactly – but they’re on the Archi with Cassius, and they’re resourceful…and right now, what’s important is who’s fit to fight.
A question to which all of the returned friends raise their hands, because of course they do! (I mean what else WOULD they do, really…)
As the Core ships come ever closer, Virginia gathers in Lykos with Deanna, Kavax, Holiday, Victra, and thousands of others, to remind the people of Mars what they are all fighting for…and against. The crowd begins the Fading Dirge as Deanna covers Virginia and Victra’s Gold sigils with mud, and they head back to the surface where Pegasus Legion waits…and will continue to wait until Victra looses them.
So Victra and Virginia part ways, with Victra remaining behind to guard Mars from her flagship…while Virginia has to go to Phobos to keep the moon from falling into enemy hands.
Hopefully, anyway…
Because now it’s time for us to delve into “THE BATTLE FOR PHOBOS”!
The time for battle fast approaches. Virginia has landed on Phobos and made her way to the Nucleus, the moon’s military nerve center. It’s become clear that the enemy intends to pierce the defensive shell and deploy an Iron Rain, which is surprising. She dons the crown that allows her to micromanage two hundred battle stations, but the Republic is relegated to defensive posture as they wait to see where the Rim and Core forces plan to, err, poke first.
Disgusted at seeing the Morning Star renamed the Lightbringer and under Lysander’s command, confused about why the combined Core/Rim forces are attacking without Atalantia, and hating having to play defense, Virginia waits…and waits…and waits…for the enemy to attack in earnest.
Unfortunately, when the attack comes, it’s not what aaaaaanyone – even Virginia! – could have expected. Because as it turns out, Lysander’s forces fired rail slugs days in advance, and while they couldn’t target specific ships, they still do a metric fuckton of damage.
Republic intelligence is apparently for shit, which leads Virginia to the conclusion that the Lightbringer must be battle-ready despite their original assumptions. With Victra gathering her ships for her own fight, Virginia prepares to draw some blood of her own.
On the other side of things, Lysander is with Ajax and preparing for the Iron Rain that Virginia already knew was part of their plan. And while Lysander might be on good terms with Ajax, he is still freaking out – even more so for this Rain than for the one on Mercury, which makes sense considering his surviving the Rain depends on being able to knock out some of Phobos’s shields ahead of time.
Virginia, meanwhile, realizes what they’re trying to do almost a moment too late. They’re able to bump some of the empty destroyers that are being used as battering rams off course, but not enough of them…and soon she has to make some tough decisions – to sacrifice one Sector shield to save the others…and to send Kavax into the fray.
Because oh yeah, they WERE too late recognizing another part of Lysander’s plan: he is aping Darrow by using clawDrills to get his men into Phobos! They breach the moon, but HA! Drachenjägers are on their way, and so Lysander has to prepare to fight…
That’s right, Virginia has been sending forces out to seal the breaches, and even starts to believe that Lysander has overreached. Unfortunately, she’s losing men left and right, including many from veteran units. Eventually Virginia recognizes that whoever is leading Lysander’s forces – Ajax, by the armor – is consistently flanking the units she sends out, and that she doesn’t have any fresh forces left other than her own Lionguard.
Virginia attempts to order Holiday into the fray, but our fave resident Gray refuses to leave her Sovereign’s side again, so the Lionguards go out with a Gray named Virgilus at their head.
Just then a call comes in from the fleet notifying Virginia that Diomedes is moving toward Phobos, but she orders them to stand their ground, claiming that she needs to handle ::gestures:: whatever happens on the moon. Problem is, soon enough it becomes clear that Virgilus and the Lionguard have failed, the shield generator that they were protecting is down, and to make matters worse, Kavax isn’t responding to Virginia’s hails.
Oh wait, it can get EVEN WORSE – because it’s the Minotaur himself who is falling on Kavax’s division! NOT. COOL.
Soon it’s past time for them to put the Nucleus into escape pod mode, but before they can drop it, a Green announces that Kavax’s Drachenjäger is on the line…only it’s Apollonius au Valii-Rath who speaks up, claiming that he’s broken Virginia’s champion!
But we need to set the NOOOO NOT KAVAX feelings aside for a moment, because things turn out to be way more dire than Virginia could have expected when she initiated the Nucleus escape. The lift can only descend so far – the shaft is blocked, and Virginia, Holiday, and the 28 Lionguard members with them are forced to abandon escape plan A. Once they do, Virginia is automatically stacking contingencies on contingencies, and unfortunately they end up needing basically every. last. one of them.
Thankfully Virginia is right when she predicts that Lysander’s men are out for themselves and will compete to get at her, because it seems that both Cicero and Apollonius are trying to do so…but it also appears that they’re not exactly working together. In fact, she’s able to sneak away from Cicero and even almost capture Apple, but he’s too good, their new tranquilizer weapons are duds, and Holiday is injured pretty badly before Virginia gives up the attempted capture and calls a retreat.
With Apple still on their tail and Cicero apparently back on it, Virginia has Holiday and her remaining Lionguards hole up in a flight-training room while she grabs some gear bags they’ve been dragging around and heads off on her own, cloaked, for one last Hail-Mary-style mission.
Turns out that Pax name-dropping Valdir to his mother before she had to head up to Phobos was a bit of a hint of what was to come! Virginia makes her way to the brig, where she releases Valdir and a bunch of other Obsidians to fight the Phobos version of a Rat War battle!
Needless to say, the plan works – although the Obsidians suffer massive casualties, with only Valdir and ten others surviving. Holiday and Virginia’s Lionguards are rescued and they all make their way to Phobos’s hydroponic farms by way of sanitation tubes that dump them in the fertilizer plant. Which…is about as gross as you are probably picturing…but hey, they make it through.
Granted, Virginia isn’t quite sure HOW, because at first they’re definitely being chased and then it seems, suddenly, that they aren’t? But soon Screwface arrives to inform her that it was Victra to the rescue! And so Virginia is off to the command center with him, having to hope that Victra can handle the fight on Phobos while Niobe and Colloway struggle to keep the fleet intact…
Because unfortunately for everyone who hates Lysander (which is still most people, right?), he’s quite a bit better off than Virginia at this point – taking heavy casualties, sure, but with his Praetorians and Ajax by his side, Apple having nearly punched through the Hollows, and Kyber around to take out random suicide bombers, he seems almost…unstoppable.
Weeeellll except for Cicero’s little screw-up, that is! He was supposed to be waiting in reserve, but thanks to Virginia we already know he didn’t follow orders and went after her instead. Oopsies!
(Actually, it’s even bigger than a basic ‘oopsies’ because there’s a counterattack coming up from the Hollows and Cicero’s only choices are to turn tail and run, or die at the hands of Victra and the remaining Free Legions who were on Mercury. Meanwhile, Lysander recalls his men and agrees with Ajax’s offer to guard his back from Victra, because, welp, he doesn’t really have any other choice right now…)
However, despite assurances of Ajax’s aptitude for fights like this one should have been, it turned out to be a trap. Lysander reviews a grainy recording showing his childhood friend being taken down by Victra and Thraxa, and disagrees with Rhone when the Gray insists it isn’t yet a loss. Sure, they gained a slice of the moon, but at what cost?
Still, Rhone isn’t completely wrong – as the days pass, Lysander’s forces creep forward and Virginia doesn’t know how to stop them. But one night she returns from an inspection to find a commotion in the command center, because Victra has arrived!
Oh, and she’s not empty-handed, either – she presents Virginia with her gifts of none other than Cicero au Votum on a leash…and the rotting head of Ajax au Grimmus.
