Location from Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The tallest volcano in the solar system, rising from the Martian surface. Strategic high ground and site of pivotal battles during the wars for Mars.
Olympus Mons is Mars made literal — everything about the planet is outsized, dramatic, and fought over. The volcano has been a military objective in every major conflict on Mars because holding the Mons means holding the high ground in both the physical and strategic sense. Its slopes have been fortified by successive regimes, its tunnels converted into bunkers, its caldera used as a staging ground for everything from legion exercises to desperate last stands. The battles fought here are the stuff of Gold legend — charges up impossible grades, aerial duels in thin atmosphere, razor duels on the rim of the caldera with the whole planet spread out below. For Reds, the Mons is something else: a reminder of how vast Mars is compared to the tunnels they were confined to, and how much was stolen from them.
A colossal shield volcano stretching twenty-two kilometers above the surrounding plains — so massive its peak extends above most of Mars's atmosphere. Military fortifications ring its slopes. The caldera is vast enough to contain entire cities. At altitude, the thin Martian air bites and the view encompasses the curvature of the planet.
Also known as: Olympus Mons, the Mons, the great volcano