Syms

**Syms Caecus** is Arch Defender of the Defenders at Kratone, however he also works closely with the Musset Company and even the Red Planet Riders. As he once described, "There really isn’t a major faction on Mars that I'm not working for."

*Information is accurate as of Chapter 16.*

## Biography

### Early life

Syms was born on Mars. Early in his life his parents moved back to Earth, but he refused to leave, because he had started his career on Mars and wanted to stay with his friends.

Syms was a few years ahead of Tobias and Wren at the Defenders Academy. He graduated when he was seventeen, and not long after he was taken in by Nathaniel Musset. Syms agreed to working undercover in the Defenders, his task being to watch the Gravedigger and report on his actions.

Three years afterwards, he became Student Warden of the Academy and met Tobias and Wren because Tobias kept picking fights with the bullies on campus.

### Betrayal and Allegiances (Chapters 2-8)

Syms is first mentioned by name in Chapter 2, however only really as an off-handed gesture. His first real appearance is in Chapter 3, though he doesn't do much.

In Chapter 5, after Wren meets Francis, she calls Syms saying that she has a lead on her search for Tobias, however Syms tells her that the reason the Captain took her off the case was because Tobias's body had already been found in the Kratone river. Wren feigns belief, which Syms believes, and informs the Captain that "she knows what you're planning to do." However, Wren catches on that Syms told her a lie about Tobias's body, on the basis that if Tobias's body really had been found, the Captain would have told Syms to say he's still missing.

In Chapter 8, it is revealed that the Syms had gotten the Nurse to stage the mugging that happened in Chapter 4 with one of his agents in order to draw Wren out and so she could plant a bug. However, Syms then kills her with an overdose of morphine in order to keep that information from getting out. Using the bug, he learns of Wren's intent to get into Nathaniel Musset's office just before the Red Dust Ball, though at that same moment he gets a call from the Captain, issuing him an ultimatum to bring her the twins within the next forty-eight hours.

### Revelations (Chapters 8-11)

Syms attends the Red Dust Ball, and when he meets Wren she confronts him about betraying her, and she learns about his being a double agent for Musset. Syms seems to vanish after Tobias rescues Wren, however he tracks the GPS tracker in the lining of Wren's dress to find them, and in the conversation that follows, he prods at the subject of the twins' parents, and it comes out that Tobias had put a memory blocker into Wren because after their parents had died, she was a wreck. In the end she leaves with Syms but, unnoticed by Syms, mouths at her brother, *Trust me*.

In Chapter 11 Wren takes Syms to Francis's place, where they meet and it becomes clear that the two of them do *not* get along. After they leave Wren asks to take her to the Outcrop, the place where she believed her parents had died from drinking poisoned water. Syms tells her more about his backstory, which leads to the topic of Nathaniel Musset - namely, that he and the Gravedigger used to be friends, until the day that the Gravedigger stole the memories Musset valued most, which he then reveals were of his son and daughter, who had just enrolled as Defenders in Kratone - namely, Wren and Tobias.

### Chanterelle Colony (Chapter 13)

Francis receives a coded message from Julian that Tobias wants to meet Wren at the Soggy Dog, so Syms and Wren return there. Tobias then leads them to the glowing underground town he discovered in Chapter 12, and after looking a bit more deeply into it, they find the town was built by a different company to the Musset Company - named Chanterelle Limited - and then find a recorded hologram message fully revealing that there are many other corporations with settlements on Mars other than the Musset Company, and that a hundred years ago there was an uprising which led to each corporation removing all contact and memories of the other corporations from their citizens. Chanterelle Colony itself suffered great damage, leading to its abandonment and the company's assets being acquired by the Musset Company.

### Syms' Arrest (Chapters 14-15)

When the three of them return to the Soggy Dog, they walk into a trap - the Captain was waiting for them. At first Wren seems worried that she and Tobias are going to be arrested, but they arrest Syms instead, for suspicion of first-degree murder - namely of the Nurse, who it turns out actually survived and was found in a critical state, but hadn't awoken yet. Some other pieces of evidence still pointed to Syms, hence the arrest, and the Captain says once the Nurse wakes up and gives her confession he'd most likely be in big trouble then.

Some time later Nathaniel Musset comes to visit him in his jail cell. Musset says he isn't going to use any of his power to get Syms out of jail, but does intend to take advantage of Syms's planned punishment - banishment into the desert. He tells him to head west, in order to find the Red Planet Riders' base.

However, when he is taken out there he uses the position of Phobos with the star Sirius to figure out where he is, and realises he was banished to the south of Eos, instead of to the north, where criminals were normally banished, hence meaning he was much further from the Riders' base than he wished he was. However, it turns out one of the other people who brought him out there left him a device hidden in the sand, which Syms uses the laser on to cut his handcuffs. The device then begins feeding him directions.

Note: In Chapter 15 it is alluded to that Syms also works with the Red Planet Riders, essentially making him a triple agent, however little information about the origins of this or his true motive is known at the moment.

## Quotes

"There really isn’t a major faction on Mars that I'm not working for."

## Trivia

* Francis often calls Syms names that are mangled forms of his name. They are, in order: Sols, Slams, Sloops, Scams, Simps, and finally, Stinkies.