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Description

One of the inner rocky planets of the Sol system and in relative proximity to the human homeworld Earth, Mars was initially considered a promising prospect of research, exploitation, and settlement at the dawn of the human space age and even had a handful of permanent outposts before the 2045 discovery of FTL flight - after which, however, it was quickly nearly abandoned, as the jump drive opened up opportunities across nearby star systems, and the much heavier gravity wells of the jovian and saturnian planetary systems offered far better anchor points for the execution of jumps. Previously seen as the exciting new frontier of human development, suddenly Mars and its moons grew almost silent between 2050 and 2090, disregarded as little more than a toxic and irradiated frozen wasteland unsuitable for human habitation by the superstates and megacorps of Earth, with the European Union, Chinese People's Republic, and Extrasolar Dynamics maintaining only token maintenance crews, while the United States Of America, Russian Federation, and Pacific Trade Zone abandoned their outposts entirely in favor of interstellar developments.
By the late 2090ies, after significant advances in power generation, hostile-environment habitation, sublight propulsion, and automation technologies, interest in the "Red Planet of Sol" was finally renewed in no small part thanks to industrial mining and scientific research conglomerates which were hesitant to risk their investments in the increasingly politically unstable nations on Earth and developing colonies. While this increase in activity and development necessitated a closer watch from government institutions to maintain stability, neither the newly reformed Federation of Russian Republics or the member nations of the Pacific Trade Zone saw the desire of martian development as worth the cost; while the United North America, in many ways unlike its predecessor of the USA, refused to even show up to the UN Mars Development Summit in Baikonur after it became clear that neither Brussels or Beijing were willing to surrender their outposts in "zones of American interest" even though the superstates now known as the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic had preserved previous US sites in the hopes of smoothing over diplomatic relations. Despite these hurdles, the 2099 Martian Territories Treaty was relatively successful; allowing governments to assume sovereign control over geological features they alone had developments within at the time of ratification and legislative authority within 120kms of any permanent outpost, as well as guaranteeing free access through the planets largest port (the European-controlled Noctis) and the orbital logistics centers of Phobos (controlled by China) to all signatories in exchange for recognition of sovereign territorial rights, while declaring the rest of the planet open to both corporate and state development under their supervision; paving the way for vast extensive mining, refining, and dangerous research industries. By 2120 the corporate enclaves of Mars, although their population remained in the hundreds, had become major suppliers of magnesium, aluminium, and gypsum in human space with a combined market share of nearly 5%, making them second only to Earth. For this reason, it came as a great surprise to many and sparked serious political controversy when in 2136 the European Space Agency and the Chinese National Space Agency, representing the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic respectively, brokered the infamous "Athens Agreement" to expand their territorial holdings in a bid to lock out competition by limiting competitor flights through their control of spaceflight facilities; steps that many at the time argued had violated the spirit, if not exact wording, of the 2099 treaty, but few had the persistence to seriously contest beyond diplomatic actions. In the following years, as international outrage gradually died down, the exact terms of the Athens Agreement became public; the two superstates had agreed to consider Mars as a whole a "joint economic zone" part of the European Economic Area and under the commercial administration of Europe with Noctis City now serving as de-facto capital of the entire planet with "commercial development regions" under its supervision remaining open to foreign actors, and in return the martian moons Phobos and Deimos were fully ceded to Chinese control and recognized as sovereign territory of the Chinese Congressional Republic as well as nearly 40% of the martian surface being demarcated as "Sino-European holdings operating under Chinese local jurisdiction".
Partially as a front for geopolitical unity in the face of increasing tensions, and partially an effort to draw public attention away from the still-controversial issue of direct territorial integration of major planets within Sol itself, representatives of ESA and CNSA unveiled an ambitious joint project in 2139 to terraform Mars to mainline human habitability "within a foreseeable, if distant, future" with a system of tax incentives for temperature-raising and atmosphere-building industrial activities on the planet, as well as massive subsidies for any development of terraformation-specific technologies and research into habitability construction, all open to both domestic and foreign corporations and state agencies alike, with the South American Treaty Organization, African Union, Al-Munthada Stellar Forum, Forestall Ascendancy, and Pacific Trade Zone explicitly invited to participate as equals. While the goal of transforming Mars itself into a verdant, if chilly, paradise world took off with great international public appeal and became the centerpiece of marketing, the primary goal as a policy position was the advancement of terraforming capabilities within the human sphere: both the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic at this point held dozens of lifeless worlds far more promising than Mars as terraformation prospects, some able to be made habitable in mere decades, but were nonetheless unwilling to bear the enormous cost of developing the required new technologies and industries only to risk losing them to industrial sabotage or foreign takeover. In the following decades, agreements were signed with a multitude of companies from all across the Sol system and beyond, and aside from a brief take-over attempt by the United North America in 2146 repelled by a UN Sentinel Initiative task force, once again became a relatively quiet and lightly populated backwater occasionally punctuated by the impact events of ice asteroids imported from the outer system as part of the atmospheric and oceanic construction efforts, spurring on continued development of terraformation projects and artificial ecosystems research among the human interstellar powers.
Aside from an accidental outbreak of a modified strain of the internal tissue-modifying symbiant common to all multicellular life on Serene in 2230 which infected nearly 1300 people in the Arsia Mons Research Facility necessitating urgent care fielded only by the colonists on Serene itself and killed three people, the terraformation and materiel extraction projects on Mars have remained largely on schedule, with the atmosphere having increased nearly twenty-fold and bioengineered cyanobacteria covering the heavily irrigated lowlands around the frozen-over lake systems taking up many of the larger canyon systems, thriving during the short summers when temperatures briefly push up above freezing before quickly declining again for the long winter. As a side effect of the introduction of nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide as well as slow build-up of an ozone layer, much of the martian surface experiences periodic light snowfall slightly raising the albedo, but the characteristic reddish orange dunes and rocky formations still remain in the resource-poor regolith deserts.

The two moons of Mars, a fully integrated territory of the Chinese Congressional Republic, have seen extensive industrialization and development as well; while Phobos and Deimos were quickly mined out and depleted of their most valuable resources by the 2260ies and 2190ies respectively due to the needs of terraformation megastructures on Mars and elsewhere, they now serve as major logistics hubs.
Phobos Station (Huoweiyi / 火卫一 in Standardized Chinese) is the third largest cylinder station within the Sol system after Psychié Station and Eros Station, and serves as the larges industrial logistics terminal in Sol, processing upwards of a hundred billion tons of material for the terraformation each day; mostly ice and volatiles from the Kupier belt and outer planets, with a percentage being nitrogen-phosphorous transport capsules from the venusian mass driver complexes being prepped for return flight.
Meanwhile, Deimos Station (Huoweier / 火卫二 in Standardized Chinese) is the largest singular supply and command center of the Chinese National Interstellar Forces, with a permanent population of 4550 and nearly three times that many aerospace force personnel being on-station at any time. Although more expensive and less efficient than planetside anchorages and assembly, the CNIF has maintained sufficient political clout for this approach, in no small part due to inter-institutional rivalry and tension with the planet-bound air forces of the People's Liberation Army.

Description

One of the inner rocky planets of the Sol system and in relative proximity to the human homeworld Earth, Mars was initially considered a promising prospect of research, exploitation, and settlement at the dawn of the human space age and even had a handful of permanent outposts before the 2045 discovery of FTL flight - after which, however, it was quickly nearly abandoned, as the jump drive opened up opportunities across nearby star systems, and the much heavier gravity wells of the jovian and saturnian planetary systems offered far better anchor points for the execution of jumps. Previously seen as the exciting new frontier of human development, suddenly Mars and its moons grew almost silent between 2050 and 2090, disregarded as little more than a toxic and irradiated frozen wasteland unsuitable for human habitation by the superstates and megacorps of Earth, with the European Union, Chinese People's Republic, and Extrasolar Dynamics maintaining only token maintenance crews, while the United States Of America, Russian Federation, and Pacific Trade Zone abandoned their outposts entirely in favor of interstellar developments.
By the late 2090ies, after significant advances in power generation, hostile-environment habitation, sublight propulsion, and automation technologies, interest in the "Red Planet of Sol" was finally renewed in no small part thanks to industrial mining and scientific research conglomerates which were hesitant to risk their investments in the increasingly politically unstable nations on Earth and developing colonies. While this increase in activity and development necessitated a closer watch from government institutions to maintain stability, neither the newly reformed Federation of Russian Republics or the member nations of the Pacific Trade Zone saw the desire of martian development as worth the cost; while the United North America, in many ways unlike its predecessor of the USA, refused to even show up to the UN Mars Development Summit in Baikonur after it became clear that neither Brussels or Beijing were willing to surrender their outposts in "zones of American interest" even though the superstates now known as the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic had preserved previous US sites in the hopes of smoothing over diplomatic relations. Despite these hurdles, the 2099 Martian Territories Treaty was relatively successful; allowing governments to assume sovereign control over geological features they alone had developments within at the time of ratification and legislative authority within 120kms of any permanent outpost, as well as guaranteeing free access through the planets largest port (the European-controlled Noctis) and the orbital logistics centers of Phobos (controlled by China) to all signatories in exchange for recognition of sovereign territorial rights, while declaring the rest of the planet open to both corporate and state development under their supervision; paving the way for vast extensive mining, refining, and dangerous research industries. By 2120 the corporate enclaves of Mars, although their population remained in the hundreds, had become major suppliers of magnesium, aluminium, and gypsum in human space with a combined market share of nearly 5%, making them second only to Earth. For this reason, it came as a great surprise to many and sparked serious political controversy when in 2136 the European Space Agency and the Chinese National Space Agency, representing the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic respectively, brokered the infamous "Athens Agreement" to expand their territorial holdings in a bid to lock out competition by limiting competitor flights through their control of spaceflight facilities; steps that many at the time argued had violated the spirit, if not exact wording, of the 2099 treaty, but few had the persistence to seriously contest beyond diplomatic actions. In the following years, as international outrage gradually died down, the exact terms of the Athens Agreement became public; the two superstates had agreed to consider Mars as a whole a "joint economic zone" part of the European Economic Area and under the commercial administration of Europe with Noctis City now serving as de-facto capital of the entire planet with "commercial development regions" under its supervision remaining open to foreign actors, and in return the martian moons Phobos and Deimos were fully ceded to Chinese control and recognized as sovereign territory of the Chinese Congressional Republic as well as nearly 40% of the martian surface being demarcated as "Sino-European holdings operating under Chinese local jurisdiction".
Partially as a front for geopolitical unity in the face of increasing tensions, and partially an effort to draw public attention away from the still-controversial issue of direct territorial integration of major planets within Sol itself, representatives of ESA and CNSA unveiled an ambitious joint project in 2139 to terraform Mars to mainline human habitability "within a foreseeable, if distant, future" with a system of tax incentives for temperature-raising and atmosphere-building industrial activities on the planet, as well as massive subsidies for any development of terraformation-specific technologies and research into habitability construction, all open to both domestic and foreign corporations and state agencies alike, with the South American Treaty Organization, African Union, Al-Munthada Stellar Forum, Forestall Ascendancy, and Pacific Trade Zone explicitly invited to participate as equals. While the goal of transforming Mars itself into a verdant, if chilly, paradise world took off with great international public appeal and became the centerpiece of marketing, the primary goal as a policy position was the advancement of terraforming capabilities within the human sphere: both the European Confederacy and Chinese Congressional Republic at this point held dozens of lifeless worlds far more promising than Mars as terraformation prospects, some able to be made habitable in mere decades, but were nonetheless unwilling to bear the enormous cost of developing the required new technologies and industries only to risk losing them to industrial sabotage or foreign takeover. In the following decades, agreements were signed with a multitude of companies from all across the Sol system and beyond, and aside from a brief take-over attempt by the United North America in 2146 repelled by a UN Sentinel Initiative task force, once again became a relatively quiet and lightly populated backwater occasionally punctuated by the impact events of ice asteroids imported from the outer system as part of the atmospheric and oceanic construction efforts, spurring on continued development of terraformation projects and artificial ecosystems research among the human interstellar powers.
Aside from an accidental outbreak of a modified strain of the internal tissue-modifying symbiant common to all multicellular life on Serene in 2230 which infected nearly 1300 people in the Arsia Mons Research Facility necessitating urgent care fielded only by the colonists on Serene itself and killed three people, the terraformation and materiel extraction projects on Mars have remained largely on schedule, with the atmosphere having increased nearly twenty-fold and bioengineered cyanobacteria covering the heavily irrigated lowlands around the frozen-over lake systems taking up many of the larger canyon systems, thriving during the short summers when temperatures briefly push up above freezing before quickly declining again for the long winter. As a side effect of the introduction of nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide as well as slow build-up of an ozone layer, much of the martian surface experiences periodic light snowfall slightly raising the albedo, but the characteristic reddish orange dunes and rocky formations still remain in the resource-poor regolith deserts.

The two moons of Mars, a fully integrated territory of the Chinese Congressional Republic, have seen extensive industrialization and development as well; while Phobos and Deimos were quickly mined out and depleted of their most valuable resources by the 2260ies and 2190ies respectively due to the needs of terraformation megastructures on Mars and elsewhere, they now serve as major logistics hubs.
Phobos Station (Huoweiyi / 火卫一 in Standardized Chinese) is the third largest cylinder station within the Sol system after Psychié Station and Eros Station, and serves as the larges industrial logistics terminal in Sol, processing upwards of a hundred billion tons of material for the terraformation each day; mostly ice and volatiles from the Kupier belt and outer planets, with a percentage being nitrogen-phosphorous transport capsules from the venusian mass driver complexes being prepped for return flight.
Meanwhile, Deimos Station (Huoweier / 火卫二 in Standardized Chinese) is the largest singular supply and command center of the Chinese National Interstellar Forces, with a permanent population of 4550 and nearly three times that many aerospace force personnel being on-station at any time. Although more expensive and less efficient than planetside anchorages and assembly, the CNIF has maintained sufficient political clout for this approach, in no small part due to inter-institutional rivalry and tension with the planet-bound air forces of the People's Liberation Army.