Mars

Posted by: Fazzat, Firewall Proxy

Mars. We say it in the same way people used to say “Earth.” It’s our home now. At least it’s home for me and two-hundred million other transhumans. We flooded into Mars after the Fall, the only place with enough room and a barely habitable environment for our entire extinction-fleeing species. Mars won’t be finished for hundreds of years, but the promise of fresh air and open water and real freedom is more real everyday. It’s a place worth fighting for.

Terraforming

Long before the Exodus, Mars had been the focus of massive terraforming projects, largely funded by Chinese nationals and hypercorps. They had begun the first truly multigenerational scientific endeavor in history — the transformation of an alien world into one hospitable to transhuman life. Nanoswarms blacken the ground of the Martian equator to lower the albedo and heat the planet. Comets crash down in a controlled manner to raise temps and spread water vapor. Engineered lifeforms are introduced and tweaked as our fragile ecosystem starts to grow (ask me about the year I spent planting waterbears in Argryre Plantitia). Scumyards ceaselessly emit methane to thicken and warm the atmosphere. They've deployed a magnetic shield at the Sol-Mars L1 point to help retain atmosphere and are also talking orbital mirror arrays. But even after decades of progress, Mars is frigid and light in atmosphere. We’re getting there, but it’s still harsh and wild and beautiful, and you better have a ruster or other adapted morph if you’re gonna spend much time outside of the dome cities and tin-can habs.

Martian Travel

Getting around’s getting easier, we’ve got the best rail line in the system. All of the cities and major settlements are connected by rail, even out in the hinterlands. An awful lot of settlers owe their livelihoods to it. Freight and passengers are ferried around at speeds up to 400 kph, which means even the long trek from Valles-New Shanghai to the space elevator at Pavonis Mons is only about 13 hours.

We’ve also got complex flyways in every major city, accompanied by a few main arterials in between. Flyways are relaxed in open country. It’s a necessity to let drivers react swiftly to a big dust storm. There are traditional highways for ground vehicles, too, but these are slower and more dangerous ways to get around, especially if you’re passing through territory undergoing an eminent-domain dispute.

Powder Keg

All this progress doesn’t come easy. Being the new beating heart of transhumanity means the Planetary Consortium thinks it owns the place. They’re trying to bring terraforming under central control with their Red Eden Project. That sounds great until your personal hab and agricultural plots are in the dead center of a designated comet impact zone and they’re claiming eminent domain and offering you a quarter of the value of your land.

Things are getting rough out in the hinterlands. Hell, it’s rough in the cities, too. You’ve got the richest, most aggressive hypercorps in the system eager to get their piece of the pie — some of which will be beachfront property in a century or two. They're coming up against several million pissed off settlers, nomads, and indentures who think they’ve got just as much right to the world they’re making possible as the handful of people who paid for it. That’s the Barsoomian Movement and, let me tell you, brother, if you aren’t down with B you don’t want to know me.

Martian Settlements

The habs where you’re most likely to find what you’re looking for.

Elysium

Elysium is built into the floor and walls of the Hyblaeus Chasma fissure, ten kilometers across at its widest point. The canyon rim is covered in a vast arc of thick panes of glass and water styled like Victorian ironwork. These are supported by massive pillars that reach all the way to the chasm floor. Beauty is the core value of Elyisum’s population, and entertainment is its core business. Ruled by the hyperelite Oaxaca-Maartens family (though they have a puppet mayor and government), Elysium is where you go to make it big in entertainment of any kind, and where you wash up hard if you fail.

Noctis-Qianjiao

On the other end of the spectrum is Noctis-Qianjiao, the meticulously planned business center of Martian society. The city is comprised of two domes, divided by the River Noctis and connected by huge bridges and conglomerations of souks. The bridges aren’t just infrastructure, they’re neighborhoods packed with thousands of homes and businesses. Noctis City is the larger dome and holds just over half the population. The TTO maintains its largest offices here. Across the river is Qianjiao, home to the city’s major academic institutions. Of Mars's major cities, Noctis-Qianjiao is closest to the Martian Gate, Pathfinder City, and Pavonis space elevator. It’s a long way, but a lot of research ends up in Noctis for assessment.

Pavonis

Pavonis Mons may not be the center of Martian life anymore, but it’s still an iconic location. It rises fourteen kilometers high, though it's still dwarfed by its sister volcanoes, Arsia and Ascraeus, and the distant Olympus Mons. The city of Pavonis is cradled in its caldera and was the first principal settlement on Mars. It sprang up around the space elevator, still a vital piece of Martian infrastructure, but as the rest of the planet became more habitable, the citizenry moved on, leaving it a ghost town. The outskirts are some of the poorest areas on Mars and occasional outbreaks of wild artificials (feral robots) make this a grim place to live. Proximity to the TITAN Quarantine Zone doesn’t make Pavonis any more desirable.

Progress

Progress was carved out of the moon formerly called Deimos. Home to the headquarters of the Planetary Consortium, Progress is a crowded place of government and high-level hypercorp business. All of the major hypercorps have offices here. The architecture is a cross between an expensive mall and the most soulless corp facility you’ve ever imagined.

Valles-New Shanghai

The city of Valles-New Shangai sits atop a mesa that will one day be an island, when the sea eventually fills the vast basin of Eos. Thirty-seven million people call the five domes of this city home, making this the largest gathering of transhumanity anywhere since the Fall. Almost every group of peoples that survived the Fall can be found here, speaking in every language that survived with them. Indentures are omnipresent and almost half the population is serving out their contract or hustling to get by in sub-par clanking synths and pods. Still, there’s hope that so many of us have survived.

The New Shanghai dome is an impressive temple of excess, home to the Tharsis League's central administration, embassies and arcologies, and an authentic recreation of the Bund, the waterfront of the original Shanghai on Earth. Little Shanghai is a hub of crime and desperation. Valles Center, New Pittsburgh, and Nytrondheim teem with business, manufacturing, and every type of conceivable entertainment. Covered souks connect the domes together, packed with bazaars, food stands, and squats.

The Martian Trojans

Less dramatic than the other places I’ve mentioned, and often forgotten, are the Martian Trojans. This small group of rocky asteroids trails and precedes Mars in orbit. A number of brinker and hypercorp habs are found here.

Qing Long

Qing Long (Azure Dragon) is the largest cylinder in the Solar System, home to 2 million people, and also one of the oldest. Founded as part of the Chinese effort to colonize Mars, Qing Long is now an independent habitat with a transitional economy. In reality, the habitat is a notorious criminal haven with its administration beholden to the triads. Though the14K triad is dominant, other cartels also have a presence, and they cooperate just enough to maintain a thriving grey and black market.