Mars
Diameter: 6,792km
Mass: 0.107 Earths
Gravity: .38g
# of moons: Two planetoids (Deimos and Phobos)
Hydrosphere: Ice caps
Atmosphere: Trace Hazard
Radiation Levels: Trace Hazard
Atmospheric Toxicity: None
Surface Temperatures: -87/-5°C
Length of Day: 24h, 37m
Length of Year: 687 standard days
Dominant Terrain: Desert
Dominant Life Form:None
Distance From Primary: 227,936,640km (1.562 A.U.)
Even in the 29th century, the debate on whether Mars is a non-living, dead, or artificially modified still goes on. Even though it has been visited before Humanity reached space by the Gha!kuuk'aa, they do not say what they actually did.
Though Mars may benefit from terraforming techniques, no attempt by humanity to do so has been attempted. The reason for this is a simple one: why create a beautiful breathable atmospheres just so you can pollute it? Mars has become the industrial planet of the Sol System. An independent world, Mars is, like all worlds in the system, a full member of the Solar Alliance.
The largest city is Olympus. It is at the southern foot of the great volcano Olympus Mons. It houses over 7 million people and several corporations have property here. Marvinberg, a city in the western walls of Valles Marineris, is the second-largest city with 4 million. Pre-Civil War populations were slightly higher. There are also many towns, villages, and hamlets scattered along the planet. Like Terra, All communities are mostly underground. This was done after the Civil War - an act that helped them centuries later when the Bugs came.
Mars was first colonized by Humanity in 2105. Olympus was founded at that time. Mars had some mineral wealth but investors chose to build more factories than mines. Minerals and other materials came from the Asteroid Belt. Manufactured good were distributed all around the High Colonies, then, eventually, to Old Earth. Earth's production - both PC and QC - suffered under NOPL doctrine. Mars attempted to pick up the slack. Things changed, however, when The Coup of 2300 happened...
In that year, NOPL took over all of Old Earth's governments and created a super-state that attempted to dominate all facets of Human life. They removed the leaders of the High Colonies and replaced them with NOPL loyalists. The governor - a man by the name of Rev. Gregory Philburt, was a particularly cruel leader. His policies for factory safety were simple: it wasn't needed. After all, these heretics chose to leave God's World, so they didn't deserve protection - nor mercy. The Reverend Governor had a whole division of troops, loyal to him, to back up his Holy Policies.
The year 2451 marked the beginning of the Civil War between Old Earth and the High Colonies in the Sol System. When the tragedy of New Kiev - where the the entire population of over 700,000 was exposed to space by NOPL marines - reached Mars, the colonists had enough. Unpacking secret weapon and munition caches, the Martians engaged the Army division, soundly defeated them, and exposed Reverend Philburt to the Martian surface the hard way, like he sent so many of them to the same fate during his reign.
NOPL's response was swift and terrible. In the year 2453, orbital bombardment blasted Mars' factories and killed most of the population. The High Colonies lost their main industrial base. The rebels had to move to the outer worlds and Mars was occupied by Earth military again. This time, they shot Free Martians on site. By 2454, Mars was de-populated by NOPL forces.
Relief came in 2456, when a successful counter-strike against NOPL military forces ended in November of that year. The rebels re-took and re-populated Mars and decided to build their factories underground to better protect them from orbital bombardments. New attacks never came, however, as NOPL forces were on the run.
After the war was over, Martian industry started re-building in earnest. The last damage from the war was cleaned away in 2465. This was also the time when Mars became the Capitol World for the United Worlds of Mendoza. Mars remained the capitol until it was transferred to Earth (now Terra) in 2728.
Nowadays, Mars is an active industrial world once again. 90% of Sol's industrial base is on Mars. Companies there compete with worlds like Barnard and Heinrick's Claim for contracts. It looks like Mars will remain Sol's industrial base for years to come.
Cool setting - I'd play there!
Did you see the other worlds I submitted? Look for Venus and Mercury. The Jovian Republic will be next.
Edited for FS playtest rules