Mars

Mars, before colonization

A map of known settlements on Mars

**Mars** is the second celestial body that humans have colonized. As most martian development occurred after Luna's War, the planet is kept in a state just a few steps from martial law.

Mars is still a relatively new colony, so the historical significance is still shaking out. It has a research facility at Noah, a mining facility at Dao, a unarmed military base at Hellas, and a settlement at Malea.

All told, the population of Mars is about 50,000.

## Pre-Space Exploration

Mars has always been visible to the naked eye from Earth, and is one of the five "bright planets" noted in astronomy. Many ancient cultures ascribed significance to it, and when it was officially confirmed to be a planet, it was named Mars after the Roman god of war.

## Modern Era

After having secured Luna in early space exploration, the United States and USSR (now Russia) turned their gaze to Mars. After a number of missions of, at best, middling success, the people of Earth cooled on space exploration for a time, until the Early 21st century, when interest in Mars and space exploration picked up again. Dwindling resources on Earth caused many countries to push for more exploration of Mars, in the hopes of mining the planet.

### Tourism

Tourism to Mars was lackluster, thanks in no small part to the immense cost, and, soon after martian tourism started, Luna's War. The war made many interested in space tourism and colonization reticent, as fears of a repeat incident grew.

### Research

Despite the lack of tourism, the desire for martian resources remained, and in 2122, a year after the opening of a successful research facility on Luna, the Noah facility opened on Mars, bringing with it a number of scientists and support staff. The laboratory still operates to this day, though now the focus has split from just Xenogeology, to include Xenobiology as well, thanks to the discovery of fossilized bacteria in the martian soil.

### Mining

Once the Noah facility determined that not only were there resources on Mars, but they were easily accessible, the United States tapped a handful of companies to work together, and establish a mining facility at Dao. Within a year, the United States was reaping a huge return on their investment, and as other countries began to prepare their own missions to Mars, the US sent the "Hellas" expedition.

### Hellas

Framed as an "exploratory expedition to determine viability for a sealed rail system on Hellas Planitia", the Hellas mission was, in fact, a covert mission to establish a military base on Mars. While the Outer Space Treaty clearly prohibits weapons and weapons testing in space, it does not have any restrictions against military personnel.

Many other countries decided to wait to send their own resource gathering expeditions to Mars, in the hopes that the US would foot the bill for the sealed rail system, and that they could just take advantage of it afterward.

Two days before the expedition was to leave, a European Union sleeper agent, Étienne Marchand, began transmission of a coded message to his handlers in Paris, but was cut off part way through, just after an unspecified warning in regards to the Hellas mission.

Three days after the launch, Marchand's body was found in a ravine in Northern California.

Upon arrival on Mars, the unarmed soldiers who had been sent immediately built a small military base at their landing location, naming it Hellas. The creation of this base, and the US's deception, caused outrage on the floor of the United Nations. Many countries threatened "retaliatory actions" or "severe sanctions".

The US shrugged off the threats: at this point, they dominated the colonization efforts to Mars, and any country that wanted to go to Mars without US consent would be forced to start from scratch. In the end, nothing came of it, and Hellas base became operational despite a low public opinion of the whole incident.

### Malea

In 2150, 10 years after the Hellas affair, the UN approached the US about opening a residential colony on Mars. The US was extremely open to the idea, and offered to foot the bill, so long as they could select the people to go on the initial colonization effort. Despite a severe distrust of the United States in regards to Mars, the other UN Member States agreed, as the mission to start a settlement costs more than the GDP of some smaller countries. Both Russia and China made speeches in protest of the US being given so much power over Mars, but in the end, they voted in favor as well.

The Malea Mission took approximately 3 years, from inception to completion. The selected colonists were all US citizens, save one scientist from Nigeria, so that they could continue to call it an "international" mission.

In late 2153, the Malea colony was declared a success.

### Finding an Administrator

With the official declaration that Malea was a successful colony, came the need for the United Nations to select an administrator. The United States blocked many attempts to select an administrator, generally by presenting obstacles or threatening to withdraw troops or funding if someone the US found "unsuitable" were proposed. Finally, in 2164, an "interim administrator" was assigned, until one could be properly arranged. Each interim administrator would last less than 3 years in the position, generally stating that the US residents, soldiers, and scientists were difficult to work with.

In 2183, Caspian Tucker was tapped as a potential administrator, due to his American heritage, interest in the sciences, and the US's belief that he was a pushover.

The other members of the UN felt that having someone in the post, even someone firmly in the US's pocket, was better than having no-one at all, and would bring stability to the colony.

In 2184, at the age of 24, Tucker was named to the post, and has held it without incident since.