Meanwhile, on the Periphery, Snow’s revolution was going from strength to strength, and soon it spread. From the warrens of Hamlin, to the oceans of Ariel, to the forests of Baba Yaga, everywhere touched by the bony hand of the king.

Their tactics were [bad word] and vicious, as befitted their despotic foe, but there were heroes. The beautiful Colonel Belle, a tactical genius, guarded at all times by her savage husband. The lady known only as the Red Hood, who would use her Wolf [bad word] to hack into Crown vehicles and ride them into battle.

And they fought against monsters. Gepetto,  known as the “Demon of Aesop” for his experiments into biomechanical augmentation, especially on children. Or the silver-tongued propaganda minister, Scheherezade.

But in all the annals of the Resistance, no name shines brighter than that of Corporal John Spratt, known to his friends as “Mad Jack” or “Jack the Giant Killer”, after he single-handedly destroyed a Rose Red behemoth. He was also known to stand without cover during orbital bombardments, as if daring the sky itself to strike him down. He was eventually captured and killed, of course, but if you tuned your radio just right of an evening, you might have heard the unofficial anthem of the resistance.