Mars

Mars is historically significant in being humanity's second colonized world following extensive terraforming efforts to restart the planet's magnetosphere as well as importing water and essential gases and carbons from mining moons in the solar system.

## Climate and Biosphere

The restoration of Mars' magnetosphere to support an atmosphere against the solar wind was a monumental feat of geoengineering that required multiple prototypes and attempts to get right. Using the known concept of supercriticality to generate extraordinary amounts of energy and heat necessary to restart heat convection, several points within the planet's core were exposed to cores of pure plutonium in shells of gallium to generate heat in excess enough to restart the natural processes.

Following these processes, the next step was to develop means to seed the planet with life. This involved the process of mining water and necessary gases (such as methane, nitrogen and oxygen) off various stellar bodies within the Sol system and brought to Mars as well as the development of the Brandi Process - where the process of forcing the development of life became "sped up" as a result by using existing protein and amino chains from Earth - from alien technology recovered from Pluto.

From there, in the span of a decade, Mars was turned from a red, sandy planet to that of a verdant paradise, with Venus following suit just years later. As a result, life on Mars outside of humans is fairly similar to that of Earth in terms of plant and animal life. A strain of wheat developed on Mars from its convergent evolutionary path has ended up obtaining an aromatic spicy undertone which makes its flour popular for cooking various dishes. Much of the animal life remains small, but fairly specialized for their respective biomes and regions, as not enough time has passed for larger fauna to develop.

## Infrastructure

Mars is a well developed planet within Sol space, with various cities dotting its surface alongside magrail lines to facilitate travel in atmosphere on the ground. There are also several major spaceports for travel and trade that allows Mars to export its grains and other products. There also exists a specific sublight travel highway that is designated between Terra and Mars for commerce purposes.

Mars also has an extensive political network for planetary matters as well as representation and relations within the broader Alliance itself. Mars' politicians hold significant political sway within the Chamber of Representatives, second to that of Terra itself.

## Notable Locations

#### Cydonia

The capital of Mars and the site of the first human settlement efforts following terraforming of the planet. Known for its verdant rooftop gardens spread out across the city and extensive canal network that attracts many tourists.

#### Olympus Mons

An extinct volcano that breaks into the Martian stratosphere with its sheer size, being 21.5 km tall and with a land mass the size of France. The life that has evolved here is unique compared to the rest of the terraformed planet, with its basalt outflows harboring life that feeds off of silicates rather than carbons. These creatures are an oddity for study by xenobiologists as well as an attraction for tourists who watch the glass-like bugs from afar.