Sean O'Brien

Sean O'Brien was the elder brother of A.R.E.S soldier Corporal Patrick O'Brien and the leader of an Irish Republican Army cell operating in New York in 1914.

The objective of Sean's IRA cell was for his brother Patrick to help them steal Portable Heat Ray Cannons (and even possibly one of the new Achilles-Class Battle Tripods) for the IRA - with the plan being that, with the advanced weaponry from A.R.E.S., the IRA would have the power it would need to liberate Ireland from under the British Empire's rule.

While Sean did truly love his younger brother (whom he referred to as 'Paddy' and 'The Hero of A.R.E.S.'), he himself was determined to accomplish the IRA's goal - to the point where his determination reached an arguably mad level. When the Martians returned and Patrick wanted to abandon the plan as he saw winning the second War of the Worlds against the Martians as more important at the time than freeing Ireland from the British Empire, his brother Sean disagreed and openly declared that the IRA "would rather be dead under the Martians than continue to live under English tyranny". Sean also presumably had some level of infamy, as A.R.E.S. Secretary of War Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt was aware of him and of his work with the IRA.

Information[]

Sean showing off the A.R.E.S Explosives.

"Europe's about to explode and take England with it. We either make our move when it does, or we'll never be free"

―Sean (to his brother Patrick).

Sean, like his younger brother, was from Ulster in Northern Ireland. However, both were members of the Irish Republican Army and sought to free their homeland from the rule of the English. Sean became the leader of an IRA cell which began to operate in New York as Patrick joined A.R.E.S. to prepare for the eventual return of the Martians following their first failed invasion back in 1899.

Sean's IRA cell was able to gain a large number of A.R.E.S. weapons - such as explosives and medium/heavy machine guns - but Sean's main desire was for his cell to acquire a number of Portable Heat Ray Cannons and possibly one of the new Achilles-Class battle tripods, which he hoped would give the IRA the power it needed to 'blast the English out of Ireland' for good. Sean's place in the IRA was apparently noted by A.R.E.S. Secretary of War Theodore Roosevelt, who - during a night out at The Green Man pub in New York with other A.R.E.S. soldiers - questioned Patrick about whether serving under Captain Eric Wells (an Englishman) bothered him as he'd heard about Sean been in the IRA. Patrick responded by claiming that, as an Ulsterman, he was loyal to the crown and that Sean was his own man. Patrick also lied, saying that he hadn't seen Sean in 3 years and that his elder brother was harmless; joking that Sean would "walk over ten naked women to get to a pint". Needless to say, Patrick quickly left when he saw a member of the cell waiting for him by the pub door.

Sean warns Patrick about betraying them.

Upon Patrick's arrival at their base (a warehouse on the dock), the two brothers joked and hugged before the IRA members poured a toast to what they believed would be a successful mission to steal the Portable Heat Ray Cannons at some point on that evening - hoping to return home and strike back at England before the tensions in Europe boiled over into full-scale war. However, Patrick stated the plan would have to wait as A.R.E.S was on full alert; the reason being that Nikolai Tesla had revealed to A.R.E.S earlier that day that there was activity detected on Mars that may be a prelude to an invasion, so General Sergei Kushnirov had scheduled for a War Game to take place the next day. Sean was nonetheless accepting of Patrick's excuse and defended his brother from an accusation by fellow IRA member O'Rourke that Patrick was 'going yellow'. Needless to say, Patrick's inability to

Sean threatens to shoot Patrick for his 'betrayal'.

choose another day and time to steal the weapons led Sean to remind him that they both took the oath and - regardless of them been brothers - stated that he would kill Patrick if he betrayed them. Unfortunately for Sean, Patrick wouldn't steal the Heat Rays as a surprise attack by a trio of upgraded Martian fighting machines at the War Games (which ended in a victory for A.R.E.S but with a large cost) had convinced Patrick to focus on defeating the Martian's second attempt at conquest. Going to his brother empty handed that evening, who's IRA cell was packing up the A.R.E.S weapons they had, Patrick's words about the Martian's return had little to no effect on Sean - who was still determined to fight the English regardless of the Martian's return.

Sean accused Patrick of betraying them - declaring "Don't you get it, Bucko? We'd all rather be dead under the Martians than live under English tyranny". However, Patrick rebutted this by claiming he'd betrayed no-one and the upcoming war was more important than Ireland's fight for freedom. As Patrick bid his goodbyes and told Sean to tell their mother that he loved her, Sean found himself unable to shoot his younger brother and actively stopped O'Rourke from doing so. Regardless, he disowned Patrick - declaring "You're dead to me".

While Sean is not seen again in the rest of the film, he is briefly mentioned later during a discussion between Patrick and Raja Iskandar Shah regarding their opinions on the British as both their nations were under the Empire's rule, yet Raja had a more positive outlook - admitting that he used to be a prince in his home country of Malaya but was disowned by his family for joining A.R.E.S. As Patrick prepared to mention Sean's disownment of him for refusing to steal the Portable Heat Ray Cannons, Raja revealed that he had already guessed that when he saw Patrick leave the Green Man the previous night - stating that he'd not reported Patrick as he'd checked that none of the Heat Rays were missing and that he trusted Patrick. As he walked away, he stated that Patrick's refusal to steal the Heat Rays for Sean and his IRA cell was the right decision.