///From the author: Mars has always held a special place in my heart, and a unique place in the story of the Spacers Saga. Originally the main enemy of Earth in the original take on the Solar Civil War, it became the primary world in Solar Space in later drafts, after I decided to toy with global catastrophe which rendered the Earth uninhabitable, a lá Cowboy Bebop. In current drafts of the stories, however, Mars is sort of the "second-best" world in the solar system - number one in military spending, but behind the eight ball in many other metrics, including population and press freedoms. But still the mystique of the legendary Red Planet holds true, and as we will see in this record of the world and its history, the Martians do still have very much to be proud of in 2289
The Map of Mars - circa 2289
Critical Stats:
Population: approximately 71.3 million (estimated per the 2287 census)
Capital: Aldrin City, Federal Capital region; metropolitan population: approx. 6.4 million
Affiliation: the Interplanetary Cooperative Administration (ICA)
Government: federal parliamentary democratic constitutional republic (seat of government is the Federal Compound in Aldrin City; government authority rests with the Martian Federal Senate)
Primary industries: heavy industry/manufactured goods (Mars is the ICA’s primary industrial hub, and a major manufacturer of civilian & military technical products)
Notes:
The race to explore Mars heated up following the adoption of the Brookenden Accords, and by 2136, over a million people lived there. This thriving population grew quickly over the centuries that followed, fueled by the necessities of an expanding Martian industry which was in turn bolstered by the long, tumultuous collapse of industrial society back on Earth (often referred to as The Fall) beginning in the second half of the 21st century.
In 2064, following an incident at a scienctific research outpost in the Arabia Terra, the denizens of the Red Planet signed their own founding treaty, the Marineris Accords, itself a precursor to the creation of the United Nations of Mars in 2148.
Mars rose quickly as an industrial power in the 22nd century, riding a tide of prosperity fueled by its successful partnership with the mining barons of the Asteroid Belt. The terraforming program also flourished, and as of 2289 there are several sizable bodies of water on the Martian surface.
Notable among these are the Hellas and Argyre Seas and the Marineris Waterway, all of which are banked by fertile zones where Martians farm the land as a means of filling their bellies. Much of the southern highlands, meanwhile, as well as the Elysium Mons region, have been transformed into sprawling industrial tracts, where the various subsidiaries of the Mars Industrial Conglomerate builds, fabricates, or otherwise stamps out the various mass-produced necessities of life in the solar system, all made possible by partnership with Ceres.
As the industrial might of Mars expands, so too does the strength of the Martian military: roughly one in six spacers in the Interplanetary Defense Corps calls Mars their homeworld. This belies the grave threats to Martian prosperity which have emerged over the years, especially in light of a longstanding rivalry between Mars and the worlds of the outer system.
Chief among these threats is the Alliance of Free Worlds, a federation of rebellious frontier colonies dedicated to dethroning Mars and Ceres as the primary political players in Solar Space. As the Alliance rises to threaten Mars’ role as the system's main military power, the demands placed upon the Interplanetary Defense Corps (aka the Spacer Corps) to defend Martian interests alongside those of the ICA continue to intensify.
The rivalry between Mars and the outer system dates at least as far back as the Mars-Titan War (2189-2194), wherein UNOM fought against the warlords of Titan for control of Titan's precursor artifacts. In the years since, with Mars leading the charge to clamp down on frontier nationalism, movements such as Draconism have only exacerbated the situation.
This ultimately led to the Frontier Wars, which plunged Solar Space into chaos between 2271 and 2281, and only ended when the Zharan Collective, another political newcomer, entered the war on the Alliance’s behalf and forced the ICA to agree to ceasefire negotiations.
Now, with UNOM and the Alliance posturing and the ICA caught up in an ongoing series of tense peace, it seems that the only catalyst needed to plunge Solar Space back into war will be a single spark. And as Mars celebrates the 75th anniversary of the UNOM’s founding, there is evidence mounting that the Alliance Armada may have just such a spark in mind…
Aldrin City - The Capital of Mars
Notes:
The urban expanse commonly referred to as Aldrin City emerges from the earliest Martian settlement, which was dubbed Aldrin Station in honor of the late Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin of Apollo fame, himself a longtime proponent of Martian colonization. As of the late 24th century, this metropolis is home to over six million people, or around nine percent of the Martian population.
The majority of these people live in the Melas Chasma, which has been extensively paraterraformed in the roughly two hundred years and fifty since the region was first settled in 2036. Many modern historians compare the metro area to that of Los Angeles in the mid-20th century, complete with many of the same environmental and economic woes.
It is also home to a number of prestigious colleges, including Marineris Technical University, and a very vibrant commercial and service economy. Among the many millions of working class citizens eking out a more or less prosperous living here are best friends Sam Taskaro, Devon Wastani, and Matt Cavanaugh, all of whom are students at MTU.
They are also reservists in the Interplanetary Defense Corps, which keeps the peace across space governed by the Interplanetary Cooperative Administration. This role will soon dominate their futures, as war breaks out between the ICA and its longtime nemesis, the Alliance of Free Worlds. A war in which the trio will shape much more than their own destinies…
Additional Notes - The Rise of Mars
Late in the 21st century, the denizens of Mars initiated a campaign aimed at transforming the vast, dusty desert of the Red Planet into a second Eden. At the centennial of the Brookenden Accords in 2165, this project was unified under a new name: the Mars Project.
Over the next next century, the people of Mars devoted substantial economic resources and effort to cultivating the barren Red Planet into a new garden world through methods which would have seemed fantastical only as far back as the middle of the 21st century.
From the creation of the Great Magnetodyn in orbit at Mars’ L1 point to the engineering of the omnipresent Hypnodendron martialis (commonly referred to as “Mars Moss”), the scientists of the United Nations of Mars worked wonders to suit the needs of humans living there. In the 25th century, these efforts have brought forth a new era - the era of Mars, the Tricolor World.
We should use this in Shadowplay!