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Description
Mars had always captivated humanity's imagination as a second home. The earliest fiction about the Red Planet theorized that it was home to intelligent life, and even after it was discovered that all life on the planet died billions of years before the evolution of the biologically modern human, humanity as a whole was captivated by the idea of terraforming the planet and turning it into a second Earth. It was the target of mankind's earliest and most optimistic colonization projects, and in the early centuries of the third millennium, it was widely believed that Mars would become the new center of power for the Solar System, after the days of Terran and Orbital supremacy.

Leading the charge in colonizing Mars were the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The dominant Terran powers for much of the early third millennium, the two powers dominated Earth's orbit and had bases scattered all across the Moon. Their launch capability and orbital assets were rivaled only by the other, and it was clear that they were the only societies rich enough and powerful enough to undertake mankind's first serious attempts to colonize another planet. The Chinese were the first to the Red Planet in 2033, with the Americans following shortly afterward; it was only appropriate that they had the planet to themselves. And while they were rivals, both China and America were amenable to cooperating with one another to ensure that no other power had the opportunity to colonize the planet. The hodgepodge colonization of the Moon, where even middling powers such as France, Turkey and Japan had colonies, was an unacceptable challenge to the two superpowers' planetary hegemony.

Thus, the Chinese and Americans came to an agreement: they would divide Mars in two, and so long as they respected that no colony can be placed on the others' territory, both would cooperate to prevent any other power from colonizing Mars. The rest of the world screeched and howled about this injustice, and demands that the United Nations step in and prevent this violation of the Outer Space Treaty, but nothing could happen. China and America could, individually, be threatened by a coalition of all other spacefaring nations. But together, they were unstoppable.

The actual allocation of Martian territory was not as controversial as both China and America expected. Both agreed that the planet should be divided along the equator, although the question of who would colonize the northern hemisphere and who would colonize the southern hemisphere was widely debated. Eventually, it was decided that America would colonize the Martian north, while China would get the Martian south. This reflected both states' priorities: the Americans wanted the northern hemisphere because it would have the majority of Mars' oceans, and the Americans wanted to build a self-sustaining society that would eventually be able to operate independently of the American government on Earth. China, on the other hand, had no intentions of ever letting their colonies go, and thus they were more than happy to take the southern hemisphere, which offered more land and thus more easy-to-access natural resources in the long run. To compensate for this uneven division, America was granted Phobos, while China took Deimos.

The entire Martian venture would be a tremendous failure for both states. Martian terraforming began in the mid-22nd century, beginning with the placement of large solar mirrors that reflected sunlight onto Mars' southern pole, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The thickening of the Martian atmosphere was furthered through the importation of greenhouse gases from the Terran and Venusian atmospheres. Water soon followed in the form of comets, and by the 26th century, Mars was considered fit for human habitation. However, two flaws remained. The first was Mars' low gravity, which was expected and accounted for through augmentation. The second was a question that was never adequately answered: protecting Mars from solar radiation. Efforts to artificially shield Mars from solar radiation were never as effective as advertised, and as a result, the Martian surface remained heavily irradiated. Colonists had to get expensive cancer treatments and gene therapy if they spent any time at all outside of radiation-shielded domes and underground habitats. The open air Martian cities envisioned by early colonists never came to fruition; instead, existing pre-terraforming habitats grew, and their radiation shielding grew with them. Martian vegetation had to be gene-modded specifically to withstand tremendous amounts of cosmic radiation, which meant that they were often useless for anything other than maintaining Mars' oxygen atmosphere. Terran animals often died from cancer or genetic disease, and they too had to be modified. Mutations abounded on all life on Mars, making the everything on Mars far more expensive than otherwise necessary. Even machinery, unless radiation hardened, could not long survive on the Martian surface.

The heavy radiation on the planet meant that maintaining colonies was expensive, and the venture soon became too unprofitable for the Terran governments to handle. The United States granted independence to the United States of Mars on July 4, 2552, after America's loss to the Union of American States in the Second Reconquista. While Chinese rule of its Martian colonies survived the CCP by several centuries, they were even less profitable, as the Martian southern hemisphere received far more solar radiation than the northern hemisphere. Chinese habitats were shoddy compared to their American counterparts, and Chinese colonists often suffered from genetic diseases that they could only afford to cure by becoming debt slaves to Chinese corporations or the Chinese colonial authorities. This abusive system could not last, and Chinese rule on Mars was overthrown violently by revolutionaries, who subsequently broke Chinese Mars into thirteen independent states. The Chinese government even sold Deimos to the Arab Orbital Republic, and to this day, Deimos is the only off-world possession in the Martian System.

As for the Martians themselves, they were descended from hardy stock, but their harsh world only weakened them. Only the desperate and the foolhardy willingly settled on Mars permanently, and many were prisoners who displeased the American or Chinese authorities. Augmented humans could survive Martian radiation easily, and even the unaugmented wealthy could always buy new body parts or afford gene treatments. However, as with the rest of the Solar System, most of the Martian population was, and remains, poor. Like their Terran counterparts, Martian thralls are totally dependent on the authorities, whether they are corporate employers or the government directly. Martian thralls are even more in debt to the authorities because, in addition to food, water, shelter and security, the authorities provide much-needed gene therapy and other treatments necessary to survive Martian radiation. Unlike Terran thralls, Martian thralls cannot rely on universal basic income, and they are expected to work all their lives. While automated labor is present, Martian governments and corporations find that it is cheaper to use unaugmented human labor, as Mars does not have the infrastructure to maintain modern automated systems. Most Martians work all their lives to maintain and grow their habitats, which by the 31st century rival some cities on Earth. Those that do not work in the only industry that Mars can offer the rest of the Solar System: trade. Mars is the primary hub for processing raw materials from the Outer Solar System and the Belt, for shipment and consumption on Earth and in the Orbitals. Much of the Solar System's sailors come from Mars, not only because of experience, but also because it offers them a way to leave the planet.

The vast majority of Martians live in radiation-shielded habitats, with the United States of Mars having nearly half of the Martian population. Some augmented Martians live in isolated communities outside of radiation-shielded habitats, such as the neo-Koryoists that took refuge in the Tharsis Plateau. Others, known as dusters, roam the sands of the remaining Martian deserts, living as nomads. Descended from a failed attempt to create an augmented human subspecies designed specifically for living in Mars, the dusters are some of the poorest people in the Solar System. Subsisting on what little they can grow in the Martian desert, and on what they can steal from isolated settlements and automated caravans.

Politically, Mars is unimportant to the Solar System. The Martian states often bicker among themselves, and have no outstanding alliances or ties with any solar powers outside of the Martian System. Indeed, like the Cytherean Republic, the Martians generally believe that maintaining good relations with the rest of the Solar System is the best policy, as that is good for business. As for the rest of the Solar System, they dismiss Mars as an irrelevant backwater.

Because it is so far from the eyes of the authorities, Mars has become a popular refuge for criminals on the run who want to continue to do business with the rest of the Solar System. From crime bosses to political extremists, Mars has become a convenient base of operations. Many pirates operate from Phobos, which has fallen outside the de facto control of the USM government. The manufacturers of many black market augments and drugs are welcomed by the impoverished Martian states, and they are then free to smuggle these weapons onto cargo ships making their way sunward. Martian culture, having strong ties its own criminal history, generally views these criminals as rogues and renegades who are fighting against the oppressive system. As a result, Mars lives up to its divine namesake, as it suffers from the most prevalent and violent crime in the entire Solar System.

Description
Mars had always captivated humanity's imagination as a second home. The earliest fiction about the Red Planet theorized that it was home to intelligent life, and even after it was discovered that all life on the planet died billions of years before the evolution of the biologically modern human, humanity as a whole was captivated by the idea of terraforming the planet and turning it into a second Earth. It was the target of mankind's earliest and most optimistic colonization projects, and in the early centuries of the third millennium, it was widely believed that Mars would become the new center of power for the Solar System, after the days of Terran and Orbital supremacy.

Leading the charge in colonizing Mars were the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The dominant Terran powers for much of the early third millennium, the two powers dominated Earth's orbit and had bases scattered all across the Moon. Their launch capability and orbital assets were rivaled only by the other, and it was clear that they were the only societies rich enough and powerful enough to undertake mankind's first serious attempts to colonize another planet. The Chinese were the first to the Red Planet in 2033, with the Americans following shortly afterward; it was only appropriate that they had the planet to themselves. And while they were rivals, both China and America were amenable to cooperating with one another to ensure that no other power had the opportunity to colonize the planet. The hodgepodge colonization of the Moon, where even middling powers such as France, Turkey and Japan had colonies, was an unacceptable challenge to the two superpowers' planetary hegemony.

Thus, the Chinese and Americans came to an agreement: they would divide Mars in two, and so long as they respected that no colony can be placed on the others' territory, both would cooperate to prevent any other power from colonizing Mars. The rest of the world screeched and howled about this injustice, and demands that the United Nations step in and prevent this violation of the Outer Space Treaty, but nothing could happen. China and America could, individually, be threatened by a coalition of all other spacefaring nations. But together, they were unstoppable.

The actual allocation of Martian territory was not as controversial as both China and America expected. Both agreed that the planet should be divided along the equator, although the question of who would colonize the northern hemisphere and who would colonize the southern hemisphere was widely debated. Eventually, it was decided that America would colonize the Martian north, while China would get the Martian south. This reflected both states' priorities: the Americans wanted the northern hemisphere because it would have the majority of Mars' oceans, and the Americans wanted to build a self-sustaining society that would eventually be able to operate independently of the American government on Earth. China, on the other hand, had no intentions of ever letting their colonies go, and thus they were more than happy to take the southern hemisphere, which offered more land and thus more easy-to-access natural resources in the long run. To compensate for this uneven division, America was granted Phobos, while China took Deimos.

The entire Martian venture would be a tremendous failure for both states. Martian terraforming began in the mid-22nd century, beginning with the placement of large solar mirrors that reflected sunlight onto Mars' southern pole, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The thickening of the Martian atmosphere was furthered through the importation of greenhouse gases from the Terran and Venusian atmospheres. Water soon followed in the form of comets, and by the 26th century, Mars was considered fit for human habitation. However, two flaws remained. The first was Mars' low gravity, which was expected and accounted for through augmentation. The second was a question that was never adequately answered: protecting Mars from solar radiation. Efforts to artificially shield Mars from solar radiation were never as effective as advertised, and as a result, the Martian surface remained heavily irradiated. Colonists had to get expensive cancer treatments and gene therapy if they spent any time at all outside of radiation-shielded domes and underground habitats. The open air Martian cities envisioned by early colonists never came to fruition; instead, existing pre-terraforming habitats grew, and their radiation shielding grew with them. Martian vegetation had to be gene-modded specifically to withstand tremendous amounts of cosmic radiation, which meant that they were often useless for anything other than maintaining Mars' oxygen atmosphere. Terran animals often died from cancer or genetic disease, and they too had to be modified. Mutations abounded on all life on Mars, making the everything on Mars far more expensive than otherwise necessary. Even machinery, unless radiation hardened, could not long survive on the Martian surface.

The heavy radiation on the planet meant that maintaining colonies was expensive, and the venture soon became too unprofitable for the Terran governments to handle. The United States granted independence to the United States of Mars on July 4, 2552, after America's loss to the Union of American States in the Second Reconquista. While Chinese rule of its Martian colonies survived the CCP by several centuries, they were even less profitable, as the Martian southern hemisphere received far more solar radiation than the northern hemisphere. Chinese habitats were shoddy compared to their American counterparts, and Chinese colonists often suffered from genetic diseases that they could only afford to cure by becoming debt slaves to Chinese corporations or the Chinese colonial authorities. This abusive system could not last, and Chinese rule on Mars was overthrown violently by revolutionaries, who subsequently broke Chinese Mars into thirteen independent states. The Chinese government even sold Deimos to the Arab Orbital Republic, and to this day, Deimos is the only off-world possession in the Martian System.

As for the Martians themselves, they were descended from hardy stock, but their harsh world only weakened them. Only the desperate and the foolhardy willingly settled on Mars permanently, and many were prisoners who displeased the American or Chinese authorities. Augmented humans could survive Martian radiation easily, and even the unaugmented wealthy could always buy new body parts or afford gene treatments. However, as with the rest of the Solar System, most of the Martian population was, and remains, poor. Like their Terran counterparts, Martian thralls are totally dependent on the authorities, whether they are corporate employers or the government directly. Martian thralls are even more in debt to the authorities because, in addition to food, water, shelter and security, the authorities provide much-needed gene therapy and other treatments necessary to survive Martian radiation. Unlike Terran thralls, Martian thralls cannot rely on universal basic income, and they are expected to work all their lives. While automated labor is present, Martian governments and corporations find that it is cheaper to use unaugmented human labor, as Mars does not have the infrastructure to maintain modern automated systems. Most Martians work all their lives to maintain and grow their habitats, which by the 31st century rival some cities on Earth. Those that do not work in the only industry that Mars can offer the rest of the Solar System: trade. Mars is the primary hub for processing raw materials from the Outer Solar System and the Belt, for shipment and consumption on Earth and in the Orbitals. Much of the Solar System's sailors come from Mars, not only because of experience, but also because it offers them a way to leave the planet.

The vast majority of Martians live in radiation-shielded habitats, with the United States of Mars having nearly half of the Martian population. Some augmented Martians live in isolated communities outside of radiation-shielded habitats, such as the neo-Koryoists that took refuge in the Tharsis Plateau. Others, known as dusters, roam the sands of the remaining Martian deserts, living as nomads. Descended from a failed attempt to create an augmented human subspecies designed specifically for living in Mars, the dusters are some of the poorest people in the Solar System. Subsisting on what little they can grow in the Martian desert, and on what they can steal from isolated settlements and automated caravans.

Politically, Mars is unimportant to the Solar System. The Martian states often bicker among themselves, and have no outstanding alliances or ties with any solar powers outside of the Martian System. Indeed, like the Cytherean Republic, the Martians generally believe that maintaining good relations with the rest of the Solar System is the best policy, as that is good for business. As for the rest of the Solar System, they dismiss Mars as an irrelevant backwater.

Because it is so far from the eyes of the authorities, Mars has become a popular refuge for criminals on the run who want to continue to do business with the rest of the Solar System. From crime bosses to political extremists, Mars has become a convenient base of operations. Many pirates operate from Phobos, which has fallen outside the de facto control of the USM government. The manufacturers of many black market augments and drugs are welcomed by the impoverished Martian states, and they are then free to smuggle these weapons onto cargo ships making their way sunward. Martian culture, having strong ties its own criminal history, generally views these criminals as rogues and renegades who are fighting against the oppressive system. As a result, Mars lives up to its divine namesake, as it suffers from the most prevalent and violent crime in the entire Solar System.