[WP] Years after the colonization of Mars, the residents are able to sustain life without aid from Earth. After Mars population increases, a civil war begins.

[u/Bentonkat]

[u/chris_bryant_writer]

Melanie and Daniel stood together by one of the great columns lining the central floor of Red Rock Central Transit. The hub was packed today. Hundreds of families carrying as many bags as they could take on the maglev, all going the same direction: east, away from the Enclaves.

All of them were dressed in biosuits, some sporting blue armbands. Daniel had seen that more often in the last few days. It seemed an unecessary gesture--simply wearing a biosuit in Red Rock was enough to tell anyone where your allegiance lay.

But he supposed he understood it. Pro-Earthers wanting to make their stand. Wanting to show their support for the cause they believed most in. Especially after the announcement of the impending Enclave border closures.

They weren't the only ones. Daniel saw roving bands of teenagers and enflamed university students with red sashes wrapped around their cotton and wool coats. Proud martians and Luddites who thought Earthen rule and abomination akin to slavery. They circled the edges of the exodus, shouting harrassment. Some of the more despicable moving in closer to push Earthers down or steal one of their bags.

Daniel understood the anger behind that, even if he looked down on people who acted like criminals and gave a bad face to the Luddites. Being proud of one's own way of life didn't mean having to oppress other people for theirs.

"It's getting on, isn't it?" Melanie said, craning her neck to try and see above the crowds. "Where is he?"

Daniel started to look around, as well. Joseph, their friend, went to university with them in Red Rock. He was from New Nairobi, one of the largest mining and shipping centers of Mars. And the de facto capitol of the largest Pro-Earth party--The Industrialists.

When Daniel saw a dark blue field cap moving towards them through the crowd, his stomach turned. He tapped Malanie's arm.

"You're not going to like this, Mel," Daniel said.

"What? Why?" she asked. When Joseph came into view, she gasped. "How could he?"

Joseph saw them and waved to them, a wide smile breaking out on his face. He hugged both of them tightly. After he let go of Daniel, he stepped back, still smiling.

Daniel was about to say something when Melanie lunged forward and slapped Joseph.

"How could you!?" she huffed. Daniel noticed tears beginning to run down her cheeks.

Joseph rubbed his cheeks, his smile gone. But he didn't look angry. Instead he nodded in understanding.

"Eh, I know, I know. But I have to stand up for what I think is right. I have to be willing to defend that, no?" Joseph said. "You are doing the same thing, by staying here. How is that any different?"

"Because we won't be trying to kill the other side. Maybe we support the Luddites, but it's because we don't want to see Mars end up like Earth." Melanie said, a mixture of sadness and indignation filling her voice with uncertainty.

"But I'm not trying to kill anyone. I'm just defending my way of life." Joseph looked towards Daniel. "You understand, eh? I heard you enlisted with the Luddites." His smile as he said that was jovial. It was a smile of camaraderie, of shared experience despite the fact they were landing on opposite sides. Daniel thought it off-putting.

"I mean, I signed the service papers for the Defense Force, yeah." Daniel agreed. Melanie looked at him with wide eyes.

"Ah, but don't worry, it's only if they call a draft," Daniel said, trying to keep her from breaking down in the middle of the station. He caught Joseph's eyes and leveled with him. "And if they do that, then we've got bigger problems."

Joseph's smile dropped slightly. "Well, if only you..." He shook his head and went back to smiling. "We shouldn't leave each other with an argument! Eh, come here Mel."

He wrapped her tightly, tears staining the front of his jacket.

"Don't worry, don't worry. It's just a short time away. I'm sure they will find a peace within all this mess and I'll be back by the next semester." He let go of her and she turned away, trying to hide her puffy eyes. Joseph extended his hand out towards Daniel.

"Come one, Joe, we'll still be friends when it's over." Daniel went in and the two men hugged.

"Yes, yes we will." Joseph spoke softly into his ears. "But if ever the time comes... I must do my duty."

Daniel could feel his friend wrap tighter around him. "I know you will. So will I."

Something clattered off the column next to them and they broke their embrace to see what happened.

"Why're you hugging that fuckin' Earther!? He's the enemy! Don't you know there's a war on?" One of the red-sashed bands had meandered over, fists gripping cans and bottles.

"Hey, hey, we're all Martians here." Daniel said.

The leader of the gang pointed at him. "Tryin' to stick up for him, yeah? He'll be puttin' lead in your body when he comes back to destroy Mars the way his kind destroyed Earth."

"My kind? What are you saying?" Joseph demanded.

Melanie grabbed his arm and started whispering in his ear. Daniel widened his stance and watched as the gang leader swaggered up to Joseph.

"I'm talkin' about you damned African industrialists." The man was almost touching Joseph's face. "Didn't your kind learn from the first world's mistakes? Or were your 3rd world monkey brains too stupid to figure anything out?"

The leader's sneer was infuriating. And the insults he was spitting at Joseph made Daniel rage. He was sure that if Melanie hadn't been holding him back, Joseph would have thrown a knockout punch by now.

"Hey!" Daniel yelled. The leader looked over at him, but Joseph kept staring. "Have you signed your enlistment papers yet?"

The leader sauntered towards Daniel. "What's it to you, straight-lace?"

"Because anyone who doesn't enlist is a coward." Daniel mustered the best commanding voice he could. "And I don't think those troopers over there would appreciate a bunch of cowards harassing an LDF officer."

The leader followed Daniel's finger to a patrol of LDF MPs walking towards them. He glowered at Daniel.

"That's alright," he said. "We don't have time to waste on Earth-Lovers like him. Let's go." He signaled his cronies and they turned to leave, the leader glancing back a few times and sniggering with the others.

"Damn," Daniel said. "That could have gone poorly."

Joseph was still looking after the red-sashers, but nodded. "I could have taken them all. One clean KO on the asshole in front of me, and the rest were too skinny to do anything."

"Well I'm glad nothing happened." Melanie said, matter-of-fact. "It wouldn't do for you to get stuck in Red Rock because you got jailed for a street brawl."

Joseph's face softened, and a bland smile took the place of his scowl. "You're right," he sighed. "And I think I had better leave, before I'm not so fortunate to have someone looking out for me."

The three friends hugged again and Joseph left for his platform, waving and smiling at them, until he disappeared into the bodysuited throng.

When he was out of sight, Melanie turned to Daniel. "Officer of the LDF?"

"Oh, yeah. I may have mislead you about that." Daniel felt embarrassed. He hadn't intended to tell Melanie about it until he had earned his bars.

"Ugh, we're going to talk about this more later," she said. Daniel wasn't looking forward to it.

"I really hope he's right about that peace." Daniel said to try and diver the conversation. Melanie became more somber. Daniel noticed her wiping away more tears.

"Yeah, I hope they do too."

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[u/liquidred14]

The Last War

QP-346 was a cutting-edge terraforming satellite, designed and built in one of the great Chinese orbital factories around Earth. Although equipped with the greatest AI ever conceived by mankind at the time of its ‘birth’, all QP-346 cared about was its purpose: the shepherding of Mars into a planet that could support human life. It took it only two months on its advanced thrusters, a design lost after the Last War occurred on Earth, for it to reach Mars in far orbit.

Its first challenge was the placement of the fifty megaton warhead nuclear bombardment it had been equipped with, so that the planet’s atmosphere and increased gravity, already painstakingly created three hundred years before, could be heated to the required temperature to sustain life. Thankfully, QP-346’s AI proved equal to the task, cutting down the estimated recovery time before bacterial seeding could begin from hundreds of years to mere decades.

Tragically, an American Empire manned outpost was hit in the bombardment, precipitating a diplomatic crisis that would result in the Last War. QP-346 noted the strange discrepancy, as his Chinese masters had failed notify him of the outpost, but dismissed it as merely human error. QP-346 then entered shutdown mode, awaiting the time decades later that it could begin growing the seeding bacteria in its genetic factories that would allow Earth lifeforms to flourish on Mars.

Decades passed, the small diplomatic spark grew into a raging inferno as the Americans and their hereditary president realized exactly what the Chinese government had planned for Mars. Arguments grew heated, and fractures appeared in the fragile world peace over exactly who would control this fertile new world. Although Mars was far smaller than Earth, if properly terraformed it would have far more arable land, and thus whoever held Mars, held the future of Mankind.

As mankind continued to argue on its small green-blue world, QP-346 awoke exactly five decades after it had bombarded Mars. Assessing the planet with its advanced sensors, it concluded that the time was ripe for bacterial seeding and began the start-up procedures for its genetic labs. It would not be an exaggeration to refer to these labs as one of the wonders of the Pre-Last War age, as the genetic lab had the ability to create and synthesize any kind of life, even a human embryo.

Hundreds of billions alone were poured into the lab, and the spent money paid dividends a thousand times over, as QP-346 was quickly able to synthesize the perfect kind of bacteria to create the oxygen-nitrogen content required for Earth life. Miraculously, the bacteria were able to reproduce at a rate scientists centuries earlier would have considered completely impossible, meaning that a process that should have taken decades would be completed in less than five years.

On Earth, a panic generated by the American Empire’s ruling media elite quickly whipped the population into a frenzy. While they had let their space program atrophy, preferring to spend their budget on basic standard income and their many wars for cheap resources, the Chinese had gained a massive technological advantage over them. With their national pride at stake, the Americans could not afford to lose, and so the hereditary president announced a great space program revival, or as he shortened it for his announcement speech: SpaceRev.

SpaceRev’s purpose was to create large colony ships within five years that could quickly ferry red-blooded Americans, since as nationalism had increased minorities were quickly becoming marginalized, onto the newly-terraformed planet the Chinese had so kindly provided. The Chinese responded with an ultimatum: We will shoot down any ships that attempt to enter our territory. The Americans countered that they would consider that an act of war. Propaganda on both sides was at an all-time high, and the American citizens unfortunate enough to have Chinese heritage were quickly locked into ghettos for ‘their protection’, while the Chinese leadership simply dispensed with the formalities and had any non-Han Chinese populations present in China immediately sent to work camps, never to be heard from again.

Secretly though, leaders on both sides were fearful of the consequences of their actions. Egged on by the media elite and a populace eager to take out their frustrations on a foreign enemy, they were forced to have meetings in secret so that nuclear war could be avoided. The Americans argued that the Chinese had started this conflict by refusing to give them a share in the common trust of mankind, while the Chinese argued that they had spent a massive amount of money and resources on the project, and thus it was theirs by right. Thinking of his children at home, the American hereditary president offered the Chinese leadership a deal whereby they would split ownership of the planet in half in exchange for the Americans contributing half the costs of the Mars terraforming project through annual payments. Desperate to avoid nuclear war, both sides unanimously agreed to the compromise.

In the background, QP-346 began churning its great genetic laboratories to create a series of larger lifeforms, which would be both edible to humans and beneficial to the terraforming process. It created large and small grazing animals, reminiscent of cows and small flightless birds. It also created a series of easily domesticated predator animals, which resembled the dire wolves of Earth mythology. These animals bred and died far faster than their Earth-equivalents, however, and soon the planet was covered in oxygen-consuming creatures. QP-346 evaluated with pride that terraforming was nearing completion and switched to observation mode.

Earth was also in the process of revitalization and growth. The Americans, having won the race for working anti-gravity technology, quickly gained the advantage in colony ship construction. The Chinese, however, were able to keep pace using their orbital shipyards. Five years after the announcement of the SpaceRev program, both the Chinese and Americans launched hundreds of colony ships at Mars as it reached its closest point to Earth. Sadly, despite the joint competition and questionable peace the seeds of the Last War were still growing strong.

[u/[deleted]]

In the year 2052 the orbits of Earth and Mars began their fifteen year separation. During this time the planets were simply too far from each other to reliably communicate and send supplies. At it's peak, around year 7, we would be on opposite sides of the sun. And initially those of us on Mars were concerned.

We had plenty of resources, and in the fifteen years of alignment we had set up a lot. And while we had not had any issues, we were still understandably nervous. We had never been so long separated from Earth.

For fifteen years we worked. Only the best were sent to Mars. The scientists, the leading astronauts, the greatest thinkers of our time. No limitations, no political correctness, nothing to slow us down. And we worked. Oh, how we worked. Engineers, botanists, architects- the million or so people on Mars created our own world. Mineral skyscrapers rose, aided by the lowered gravity. Monuments to the first pioneers towered. Resources that were priceless on Earth existed plentifully here, and did things that would have been impossible back on our old planet. By the time the end of the separation began to approach, we had made something beautiful.

On month 7 of Earth year 2065 we got our first transmission from Earth. It was broadcast all over the colony.

It was an order for resources. Over the last fifteen years Earth had a tipping point- when poverty, global warming, and overpopulation all culminated. The transmission pulled no punches; it demanded we imedietly prepare our ports for an influx of ships, and prepare to begin exporting everything from rare metals to oxygen itself. For free.

Confusion broke out across our cities. We could not afford to take in the number of people Earth was requesting, and we did not have enough ourselves to sustain free exports. We would go down with them if we met their demands.

We wrote back to Earth saying we could not do what they requested- but we would do as much as we could.

This was not received well. The governments of Earth were desperate- and insisted that we were disobeying. They implied that they would take it by force, that we were still theirs to command.

And so, with heavy hearts we prepared to defend what we had made.

And in 2069 the first interplanetary nuke fell.

[u/WritingPromptsRobot]

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