| 1 | Return to the main character page [[Characters/{{Overheaven}} here.]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | !Mars |
| 4 | The Red Planet... or at least it was, before it was terraformed ("noaformed," as the Martians themselves say). An early target of colonization, chiefly by the USA and its allies. Following a war over terraforming, Mars is united under the Martian Alliance. Mars is the focus of the ''Pax Per Bellum'' updates. |
| 5 | * AbsentAliens: Downplayed. There are alien life forms on Mars, but they're very primitive - simple microbes dubbed "greenmen" and strange beings called "Amphiformes" which resemble [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite stromatolites]]. |
| 6 | * AlternativeCalendar: Since Mars' year is almost twice as long as Earth's, dates for events on Mars use the [[http://ops-alaska.com/time/gangale_converter/calendar_clock.htm Darian calendar]]. |
| 7 | * {{Americasia}}: Mars is a CultureChopSuey, but the two most prominent cultures are shown to be American and Japanese. |
| 8 | * ArcSymbol: The "Shield of Mars," a circle with a chevron inside it, becomes the preferred symbol for Mars over the spear-and-shield symbol. It shows up a lot in Martian iconography, including the flag. |
| 9 | * ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: Early into the Red-Blue War, both sides start running out of ammo, and Mars being the DeathWorld it is at the time, they've got no way to mass-produce more. So, Reds and Blues alike fall back on lower-tech weapons - spears, swords, axes, clubs and even high-tech bows. Guns are never abandoned, but they aren't relied on the way they would've been on Earth. |
| 10 | * CivilWar: The Red-Blue War, fought in the 2070s over whether or not to terraform the planet. The pro-terraforming side (the Blues) wins, but both sides ultimately get most of what they wanted. The war becomes a defining event in Martian history and culture. |
| 11 | ** About fifty years after Hell Day (so circa 2200), Mars has a second civil war, the Fed War. This was fought between the Alliance and the "Feds," a rebel faction who wanted Mars to unite with Luna. The Feds were few in number, but made extensive use of [[RobotSoldier combat robots]]. In the end, the Feds lost. Most rejoined the Alliance and accepted amnesty when it was offered them, but the largest hardliner faction, the Coalition of Duty, refused. The "Cods" were instead allowed to [[TheExile evacuate their forces off Mars entirely]]. They subsequently fought on Luna's side in the Solar Wars. |
| 12 | * ColonyDrop: A comet strikes the Martian north pole, apparently naturally, in 2014. There are few if any casualties, but much of the polar ice cap is melted by the impact, kicking the terraforming conversation into high gear. |
| 13 | * ColorCodedArmies: Reds (anti-terraforming), Blues (pro-terraforming) and Greens (TeamSwitzerland). |
| 14 | * {{Cyborg}}: By 2585, most Martians are cyborgs of some description. |
| 15 | * {{Eagleland}}: Mars was colonized almost exclusively by America and their allies, who carved up the planet at the Treaty of Houston in 1979. (The Soviet bloc got Venus.) |
| 16 | * FantasticReligiousWeirdness: Fairly common on Mars, even setting aside the Barsu: |
| 17 | ** Most Martian religions have a bit of Shinto about them, owing to Mars' enormous Japanese demographic. |
| 18 | ** Mormonism is common on Mars - the LDS Church emigrated to Olympus Mons en masse in the 21st century - and it's considered entirely distinct from Christianity. |
| 19 | ** Post-Hell Day, Mars takes in millions of American refugees, who subsequently develop an "American Folk Religion" based on the veneration of the old USA's civic religion and the Founding Fathers in particular. Practitioners of this faith are called Usanians. |
| 20 | * FictionalCurrency: Mars uses the aureus. |
| 21 | * FictionalProvince: Averted. On paper, almost every Martian "colony" is answerable to one Earth country or another (at least, prior to the RBW), but in practice, due to the sheer distances involved, they're all independent and, after the first few decades, mostly self-sufficient. |
| 22 | * FriendToBugs: Insects served both as major protein sources and as pets in the early decades of Martian colonization. Martian culture thus developed a great fixation on them. |
| 23 | * GoodCounterpart: To, of all things, the Terran Federation from ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. The Martian Alliance's government operates on a "service guarantees citizenship" model and Martian culture is rather militaristic. However, it's also [[TheFederation very egalitarian and entirely democratic]], and service only guarantees citizenship ''in the Alliance'', with citizenship in consituent nations being automatic. Civilian rights are no less protected than citizens' rights, with the only difference being that citizens can vote in Alliance elections as well as local ones. Furthermore, your service doesn't need to be in the military - doing a tour as a civil servant in [=SciCom=] or [=CivCom=] works just as well. It's also emphasized that joining [=MarsCom=] is 100% voluntary: the Martian Alliance's charter even outright states that conscription is completely illegal and if the Alliance can't earn your loyalty fair and square, it deserves to fail. |
| 24 | ** Ryzov does, however, liberally pepper the "Idiot's Guide to the Martian Alliance" post with references to [[Film/StarshipTroopers the movie]]. |
| 25 | * GreyAndGrayMorality: The Red-Blue War is not very morally clear-cut. It's telling that both sides ultimately get most of what they want. |
| 26 | * InsistentTerminology: It's not terraforming, it's ''noaforming.'' The term refers to the Noachian Period, a geological era about 4 billion years ago when Mars is thought to have had liquid water - "noaforming" is thus promoted as a term by the Blues to suggest that they're returning Mars to the way it should be. The Reds, meanwhile, continue to call it terraforming, believing that it will make Mars too much like Earth and deprive Martians of their identity. |
| 27 | * MarsNeedsWater: And air, for that matter. It's a SubvertedTrope, however - rather than getting it through invasion, they get it through trade. The more environmentally-conscious nations of Earth send Mars their excess greenhouse gases, while the Martians buy greenhouse gases from Venus in exchange for the tech they need for their own terraforming efforts and water from Ganymede in exchange for nuclear bombs [[MundaneUtility (which, to the Ganys, are basically just really big ice-breakers)]]. |
| 28 | * PlanetaryNation: The Martian Alliance, founded by the peace treaty that ended the Red-Blue War. Notably, the nations that comprise it seem to retain a degree of independence. |
| 29 | * ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Proud Soldier Race variation. Martians take a lot of pride in their military. [=SciCom=] and [=CivCom=] even use the same military rank structure as [=DefCom=]. |
| 30 | * SettlingTheFrontier: Mars was that frontier from 1979 through the RBW. |
| 31 | * SpaceColdWar: Mars is involved in two: first with Earth, then with Luna. They come out on top both times - they win the Geo-Martian Conflicts by default because of Hell Day, and they beat the Selenites fair and square in the Solar Wars. |
| 32 | * {{Terraforming}}: Over the decades and centuries, Mars is gradually converted into a habitable world, albeit not without a good deal of strife along the way. The way Project Genesis (the Mars Treaty Organization's noaforming plan) was to be carried out was the primary sticking point for the Reds. |
| 33 | * UndergroundCity: Many early Martian cities are built into caves and lava tubes. |
| 34 | * WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture: The Martians certainly seem to think so. European Mars -> Euromars. Mars Command -> [=MarsCom=]. United Forces -> [=UniFor=]. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:The Colonies]] |
| 39 | !!Commonwealth of Tharsis |
| 40 | The American colonies on Mars, located around Valles Marineris. |
| 41 | * {{Eagleland}}: The USA took the lead in Martian colonization. Theirs is the largest colonial claim on the planet. |
| 42 | * FantasticReligiousWeirdness: The Mormons are migrating en masse to Mars, specifically Olympus Mons, after the discovery of a strange meteorite there which they believe was a sign from God. |
| 43 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: The colonies that comprise Tharsis are all named after their Martian locations (Boralia, Cydonia, Olympus Mons, Tempe, Valles Marineris, Zephyria), places on Earth (Alamo, New Archangel, New California, New Saigon, New Tacoma, Shambhala), or famous Americans (Eisenhower, Jefferson, Kamehameha, King, Laurentia, Reagan, Roosevelt). Laurentia, the first, is specifically named for Robert H. Lawrence, the first man on Mars. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | !!Federation of Japanese Mars |
| 46 | The Japanese colonies on Mars, located in the Elysium Planitia region. Better known simply as Kasei. |
| 47 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: Kasei is simply Japanese for Mars. |
| 48 | * NewNeoCity: Perhaps inevitably, the capital of Kasei is called Neo-Tokyo. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | !!Euromars |
| 51 | The European Federation's colonies on Mars, located in Arabia Terra, or Eurabia as it comes to be called. |
| 52 | * UnitedEurope: Founded by them, and includes settlements by every EF member state. |
| 53 | * WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture: In true Eurofed fashion. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | !!Confederation of Avalon |
| 56 | The British Commonwealth's colonies on Mars, located in the Hellas Basin. |
| 57 | * InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: The Zeras (see the Earth page for more on them) gained rather more traction in Avalon than in Britain. |
| 58 | * MeaningfulRename: Hellas Planitia is renamed by the British colonists to Avalon Planitia. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | !!Huitzilin Federation |
| 61 | Mexico's colony. Located in Margaritifer Terra, southeast of Valles Marineris. |
| 62 | * AnimalMotifs: Their name means "hummingbird." It's a reference to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. |
| 63 | * TheFederation: It's in the name. |
| 64 | * UndergroundCity: Their capital, Nueva Acapulco, is built into a cave. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | !!South African Republic of Kruger |
| 67 | South Africa's colony. Located in Reull Vallis, just east of Avalon. |
| 68 | * TheAtoner: The founders of Kruger came there in part to build a "final redoubt" for white-supremacist South Africa. They've since come to resent their apartheid past and seek to move beyond it. Unfortunately, a living reminder of that past also exists in Kruger, in the form of the "Blanks" ("whites"), various fascists and assorted bigots drawn by the promise of a white ethnostate. The Boers' reaction to the Blanks' fondness for Kruger can best be described as "YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame." |
| 69 | * TakeAThirdOption: The reason Kruger's claim to Reull, which wasn't part of the Houston Treaty, was legitimized. Avalon and Kasei were in a dispute over the valley and giving it to the Boers seemed like a reasonable compromise. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | !!Federation of Sarmatian Colonies |
| 72 | Sarmatia was founded by various non-Russian ethnic groups who didn't like the USSR, especially Ukrainians. They live in Tyrrhena Terra. |
| 73 | * TheFederation: Consisting of Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Georgian and Armenian colonies, plus one crater full of Belarusians. |
| 74 | * {{Foil}}: Almost deliberately so to the USSR: conservative, very capitalist and the Ukrainians run the show. |
| 75 | * OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: This is what happens when a group of these types aren't being persecuted, but nonetheless conclude they won't be getting what they want. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | !!State of Rama |
| 78 | Thailand's colony. Located in Tycho Brahe Crater, in Terra Cimmeria. |
| 79 | * WretchedHive: Thais back home see Rama as one, on account of the Thai government's very lax qualifications for colonists. The truth is that most Ramians are pretty much just ordinary, honest folks. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | !!Korean Republic of Singye |
| 82 | Korea's colony. Located in Acidalia Planitia, on the northern plains. |
| 83 | * WarRefugees: An interesting example. After the Second Korean War, former North Korean prison camp inmates are stigmatized in both halves of reunited Korea, but on Mars, most people don't really care, so many of them move up to Singye. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | !!State of Vahram |
| 86 | Iran's colony. Located in Terra Cimmeria. |
| 87 | * AlternativeCalendar: In 1976, the Shah changed the Iranian calendar to count from the date Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire. Vahram's flag thus features the date "2544," referring to the year the colony was founded - 1985. |
| 88 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: It means "victory." |
| 89 | * TheRepublic: While nominally ruled by the Shah (in the same way Charles III is technically King of Canada), Vahram runs itself like a republic in practice. Many Vahramians in fact believe the monarchy back on Earth ought to be abolished. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | !!State of Battuta |
| 92 | Morocco's colony. Located in Teisserenc de Bort Crater, south of Eurabia. |
| 93 | * {{Irony}}: Battuta has wound up economically reliant on Euromars, paralleling Morocco's relationship with Eurofed. |
| 94 | |
| 95 | !!Pakistani Republic of Qarmazi |
| 96 | Pakistan's colony - but what does that mean anymore? Located in Chryse Planitia. |
| 97 | * TheFundamentalist: There was a small population of Islamic fundamentalists in Qarmazi, but they went off to found ascetic settlements (most of which failed) after hearing about the Punjab War. |
| 98 | * InNameOnly: After the Punjab War, the people of Qarmazi are having to figure out what they want their colony to be, and the majority opinion is in favor of moving away from being "Pakistani." |
| 99 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: "Qarmazi" means "crimson," in reference to Mars. |
| 100 | * ThoseTwoGuys: With their neighbors, the Indonesian colony of New Mataram. By the time of the Red-Blue War, they've actually grown close enough to merge, creating the [[CultureChopSuey hybrid culture]] of Maqam. |
| 101 | * VoluntaryVassal: Some Qarmazis want to join Tharsis, which would technically make them the 101st state. Most people are more interested in closer ties with New Mataram. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | !!Taiwanese Republic of Xinjia |
| 104 | Taiwan's colony. Located in Kepler Crater, north of Vahram. |
| 105 | * ReconcileTheBitterFoes: Xinjia is one place where Taiwanese and mainland Chinese have, following the PRC's fall, largely mended relations. Mainlanders still get looked down on by the Taiwanese, but it's less genuine racism and more something akin to an American state rivalry. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | !!Egyptian Republic of Nasser |
| 108 | Egypt's colony. Located in Rabe Crater, west of Avalon. |
| 109 | * AnimalMotifs: The Nasserian flag has a scarab on it, for good luck. That the average Martian's diet consists chiefly of insects proved to be a happy coincidence. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | !!State of Petra |
| 112 | Jordan's colony. Located in Nirgal Vallis, between Argyre Planitia and Valles Marineris. |
| 113 | * MeaningfulName: Petra mimics its namesake with cliff-face dwellings made of locally sourced Martian brick. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | !!Republic of Esperanza |
| 116 | Argentina's colony. Located in Lyot Crater, in the Vastitas Borealis to the north of Eurabia. |
| 117 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: Named after Argentina's first Antarctic station. |
| 118 | * SleptThroughTheApocalypse: A mild example. The first colonists bound for Esperanza left in 1981 and wouldn't find out about the Falklands War until they got to Mars at the end of 1982. (For the record, Argentina lost even harder ITTL.) |
| 119 | |
| 120 | !!Yugoslav Republic of Partizanja |
| 121 | Yugoslavia's colony. Located in Aonia Planum, centered on Lowell Crater. |
| 122 | * DoomedHometown: Their first capital had to be abandoned due to a critical airlock failure. |
| 123 | * UniformityException: The only Martian colony founded by a communist country. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | !!State of Sharon |
| 126 | Israel's colony. Also populated by an assortment of Jews from across Earth. Located in Huygens Crater. |
| 127 | * CrazyPrepared: Intended as a refuge for Jews in case things get unsafe on Earth again. ''E!22'' calls it "the spare Israel on Mars." |
| 128 | |
| 129 | !!Empire of Noachia |
| 130 | Brazil's colony. Located in Noachis Terra. |
| 131 | * TheGoodKingdom: Many Brazilians who wanted to restore the Braganzas moved to Noachia, and in 2010 they did exactly that. Noachia is now a constitutional monarchy. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | !!Zairean Republic of Mbuka |
| 134 | Zaire's colony. Located between Cydonia and Eurabia. |
| 135 | * {{Afrofuturism}}: The only Sub-Saharan African state with a share on Mars (Kruger doesn't count), and very proud of it. |
| 136 | * MeaningfulName: AvertedTrope. No one seems to know what the name "Mbuka" actually means. But it was Mobutu's idea, so it stayed. |
| 137 | * TakeAThirdOption: Much like Kruger, Mbuka originates from a territorial dispute. Tharsis and Euromars were arguing over a piece of land on their border and the best solution turned out to be "give it to Zaire." |
| 138 | |
| 139 | !!Indonesian Republic of New Mataram |
| 140 | Indonesia's colony. Located in Chryse Planitia. |
| 141 | * ThoseTwoGuys: With their neighbors, the Pakistani colony of Qarmazi. |
| 142 | |
| 143 | !!Chilean Republic of Magellan |
| 144 | Chile's colony. Located in Utopia Planitia. |
| 145 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Magellan seems to attract curious ideological strains - libertarians, communists and esoteric fascists all settle there in noticeable numbers. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | !!Philippine Republic of Rizalia |
| 148 | The Philippines' colony. Located in Margaritifer Chaos, east of Valles Marineris. |
| 149 | * LandOfOneCity: Rizalia's settlements are so interconnected they're sometimes treated as a single city-state. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | !!Pegaso and Janna |
| 152 | A Hispanic and an Arab colony, located together in Argyre Planitia. |
| 153 | * ThoseTwoGuys: The two colonies grow together and eventually become one entity, much like Maqam. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder:The Reds]] |
| 157 | !![=UniFor=] as a whole |
| 158 | The United Forces, the alliance of seven rebel armies that championed the anti-terraforming (or at least anti-[=MarsCom=]) cause of the Reds. |
| 159 | * TheAlliance: The United Forces were so called because they were a coalition of seven armies. |
| 160 | * LaResistance: How they styled themselves, standing up to [=MarsCom=] in defense of their beliefs and their nations, which they believed [=MarsCom=]'s noaforming plan would callously sacrifice. |
| 161 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Even the main seven United Forces are an eclectic bunch, to say nothing of the minor Reds. |
| 162 | * RebelLeader: Each of the United Forces had one, all of them interesting characters in their own right. The overall Supreme Commander of [=UniFor=] was Tobias Falco of the Primus Occupation Force, [[DefectorFromDecadence a former leader of [=DefCom=]]] who grew disgusted with the way [=MarsCom=] was being run. |
| 163 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: A frequent problem for them - to the point where it loses them the war. |
| 164 | * WonTheWarLostThePeace: InvertedTrope. The Reds lost the war, but won the peace - they ended up getting most of what they wanted at the Treaty of Petra-3. |
| 165 | |
| 166 | !!Euromartian Defense Forces |
| 167 | The largest of the Red armies, hailing from Euromars. Led by Levi Brahm. |
| 168 | * BadassArmy: The Spartan Corps, the elite core of the [=EmDF=], considered to be among the best troops the Reds had. |
| 169 | * BaseOnWheels: The [=EmDF=] had a whole squadron of them, known as Landmasters or "megatanks." One of them, the famous "Megatank Redhammer," led an entire salient by itself before being defeated in a DavidVersusGoliath scenario with a local Blue militia. |
| 170 | * MultinationalTeam: Their members claimed descent from nearly every country in Europe. |
| 171 | * NationalWeapon: Made extensive use of [[CarryABigStick warhammers.]] |
| 172 | * RedBaron: Levi Brahm was known as "the Red Chef," since he'd been a caterer before he was a militia leader. |
| 173 | * TheResenter: Tobias Falco effectively sidelined Levi Brahm in the course of taking control of [=UniFor=], and Brahm never forgave him. This eventually culminated in Brahm disobeying Falco to try and capture the MTOS ''Goliath'', which ended up losing the Reds the war. |
| 174 | * SigilSpam: The three overlapping rings on the main [=EmDF=] flag show up on all their battalions' unit flags. |
| 175 | * TokenEvilTeammate: Their leader, Levi Brahm, is portrayed noticeably more negatively than the others, and it's mentioned that elements of the [=EmDF=] attempted genocide against the Barsu - though for what it's worth, [[EvenEvilHasStandards Brahm publicly disapproved of that.]] |
| 176 | !!Avalon Red Commandos |
| 177 | The resident Red militia of the Avalon Basin. Led by Liam Merrick. |
| 178 | * BadassArmy: Merrick knows who to delegate authority to, and the ARC wind up as one of the best-organized Red armies. |
| 179 | * BritishRockstar: Liam Merrick was a rock musician first and an activist second, but the former gave him the charisma to be very good at the latter. Becoming leader of a revolutionary army didn't stop him from releasing an album in the middle of waging a war. |
| 180 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: The ARC started out as a fairly small outfit, but they gradually grew and absorbed their rivals, eventually becoming the second-largest Red army. |
| 181 | * ImprovisedWeapon: In true British fashion, the ARC adopt the use of [[ShovelStrike shovels]] as weapons. |
| 182 | * NationalWeapon: The ARC have their bows, shovels, "combi-clubs" and the Zulu ''iklwa'' spear. |
| 183 | * TheStraightAndArrowPath: The ARC pioneer "power archers" - essentially cyborgs with souped-up high-tech longbows. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | !!Code Red Coalition |
| 186 | The Red army of the Tharsis Commonwealth. Led by Utena Jackson. |
| 187 | * TheAlliance: A relatively decentralized association of Red paramilitaries. This was their advantage - they could survive a decapitation strike if necessary and operate everywhere at once. |
| 188 | * AnimalMotifs: Many CRC groups put wasps or scorpions on their flags. |
| 189 | * EyepatchOfPower: Utena Jackson wore one after having her eye shot out by a would-be assassin. |
| 190 | * FriendlySniper: The Ophir Rangers were such good sharpshooters that throughout the entire war, when everyone else ran out of ammo, they never did. |
| 191 | * MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Utena Jackson's response to [[EyeScream getting her eye shot out]]: |
| 192 | -->''"It's only an eye, I've got another."'' |
| 193 | * SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: The Reaper Militia, "a group of black-clad edgelords" who put skull designs on their helmet visors and their flag. |
| 194 | |
| 195 | !!Red Planet Revolutionary Ronin |
| 196 | The Red army of Kasei, known for its more ideological bent. Led by Minako Hiyama. |
| 197 | * BombThrowingAnarchists: The Red ideology of the Ronin often took an anarchist slant, and they considered themselves revolutionaries of a sort. |
| 198 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Ronin used a lot more black and white in their flags than most Reds. |
| 199 | * YoungConqueror: Minako Hiyama was only in her early twenties when she became leader of the RPRR. Her Red activism started as teenage rebellion against her strict (and very Blue) parents, but it grew into a cause that consumed her life. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | !!Army for the Salvation of the Argyre Basin (ESCA) |
| 202 | The Red army representing the colonies of Argyre Planitia. Led by Sultan al-Khatib. |
| 203 | * BilingualBonus: Their acronym is Spanish: Ejército para la Salvación de la Cuenca de Argyre. |
| 204 | * CultureChopSuey: Hispanic-Arabic. |
| 205 | * TheFundamentalist: An OddFriendship between Christian and Islamic fundamentalists, at that. It ends badly after the war. |
| 206 | ** However, these are a minority: most ESCA fighters just don't want their country turned into a lake. |
| 207 | * PuppetKing: Sultan al-Khatib, the leader of ESCA, was sidelined by his generals after a failed invasion of Blue-controlled New California. |
| 208 | |
| 209 | !!Army of the North |
| 210 | The Red army representing all the colonies of the Boreal Lowlands. Led by Ernesto Nores. |
| 211 | * BrainInAJar: Ernesto Nores was a brain in a box on wheels. Why? Because that's just how frugal a businessman he was. (Also so that people would underestimate him. [[CrazyEnoughToWork It worked.]]) |
| 212 | * FragileSpeedster: The [=AoTN=] relied on hit-and-run tactics. The 1st Qarmazi Cavalry, a fleet of armed [=ATVs=] and ground drones decorated in gaudy colors to taunt the Blues, were the resident experts. |
| 213 | * NonIndicativeName: The 45 Immortals actually numbered about 600-900. They were called that because of their belief in esoteric numerology, including that the number 45 would protect them. |
| 214 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Army of the North was known for the wide variety of strange ideologies Nores was able to bring under one banner through his impersonal charisma. There were communists, libertarians, Chilean Neo-Nazis, Juche cultists, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Maqamese nationalists]] and more besides. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | !!Primus Occupation Force |
| 217 | The smallest of the main seven Red armies, consisting of Tobias Falco's personal troops. |
| 218 | * CoolOldGuy: Tobias Falco, the 80-year-old Zoomer himself. Proved a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and a beloved RebelLeader during the war, a GracefulLoser at its end and an InspirationalMartyr in the years to come after his death at the hands of "Hard Red" terrorists. |
| 219 | * {{Cyborg}}: Most were augmented in some way. |
| 220 | * DefectorFromDecadence: Most were former [=DefCom=] special forces, personally loyal to Falco. |
| 221 | * EliteArmy: Falco's own troops, the best and brightest of [=UniFor=]. |
| 222 | * TheGadfly: Spent the war mercilessly trolling the Blue forces besieging them. |
| 223 | * TheSiege: The POF occupied Primus (the Martian capital) at the start of the war and held it until the end of the war. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | !!Arean Consciousness Movement |
| 226 | The most prominent of the "Hard Reds," the extremist fringe of the Red movement. |
| 227 | * BloodKnight: "War was an end unto itself" for the ACM. They believed the struggle to protect Mars would have to be unending. |
| 228 | * BullyingADragon: Assassinating Tobias Falco at the Treaty of Petra-3 proved to not be the Areans' wisest move. |
| 229 | * EveryoneHasStandards: The ACM was never part of [=UniFor=]. |
| 230 | * FantasticRacism: The Areans saw Earthlings as weak and spoiled. |
| 231 | * HatedByAll: Killing Falco and trying to continue the RBW after it was over made the ACM and their fellow Hard Reds public enemy number one on Mars for Blues and Red moderates alike. The Red-Blue War thus segues into the "Rust Wars," in which the nascent Martian Alliance hunts down the Hard Reds. |
| 232 | * MiseryBuildsCharacter: The hardships of life on Mars had, the ACM believed, made Martians strong, and to terraform the planet would make them weak. |
| 233 | * MyWayOrTheHighway: The ACM and their fellow Hard Reds believed that noaforming would rob the Martians of their culture and identity, and that there could thus be no compromise whatsoever with the Blues. |
| 234 | * NoTrueScotsman: What most Hard Reds thought of [=UniFor=] when the latter agreed to a peace treaty. The ACM took it so far as to assassinate Tobias Falco. |
| 235 | * RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: The ACM flag was black with a red disk, symbolizing "Mars alone." They're portrayed extremely negatively. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | !!Stop Genesis |
| 238 | A minor Hard Red group from Boeing City, New Tacoma, in Tharsis. |
| 239 | * CultOfPersonality: Their leader, Rebexa Arya, was a teacher who built up one around herself, in part by indoctrinating her students. Eventually, the movement's other leaders grew sick of it and betrayed her. |
| 240 | * TakeOverTheCity: Their aim during the war was to take over Boeing City for the Red cause and destroy the city's noaforming-related industries. The police and local [=MarsCom=] elements stopped them. |
| 241 | * ThrownOutTheAirlock: When Stop Genesis was defeated, Arya was caught trying to escape the city, but decided it was BetterToDieThanBeKilled and inflicted this on herself. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | !!Jean-Paul Lemay Brigade |
| 244 | A minor Hard Red group named after the university professor whose death at the hands of [=MarsCom=] helped start the Red-Blue War. |
| 245 | * CultOfPersonality: Around the memory of Lemay. |
| 246 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Their aim was to find and kill the soldier who'd killed Lemay... and every member of his unit, and all their family, friends and business partners. [=MarsCom=] had to put the soldiers and their families into what amounted to witness protection. |
| 247 | |
| 248 | !!Living Mars Defense Force |
| 249 | A group who believed Mars' native life forms (which were very primitive) should take precedence, and indeed that the whole planet was, in some way, alive. |
| 250 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Their belief in a sort of "Cosmic Consciousness" pervading all things got them treated as this. |
| 251 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Late in the war, the LMDF fell apart as its members realized that if the planet really ''was'' alive, then giving it air and water (i.e. noaforming) might actually do it some good. |
| 252 | * UsefulNotes/NonNaziSwastika: Had one on their flag. It represented "cosmic life force." |
| 253 | |
| 254 | !!The Nyctalopes |
| 255 | Cyborg separatists who fought for the Reds. |
| 256 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Their flags incorporated black and silver as well as red. |
| 257 | * TheExile: After the war, the surviving Nyctalopes moved to the higher-elevation parts of Mars, where noaforming couldn't reach, or to Titan. |
| 258 | * FullConversionCyborg: Almost all Nyctalopes were these. It allowed them to live on Mars with no need for life support, something they were very proud of. |
| 259 | * MiseryBuildsCharacter: They believed that Mars didn't need to be terraformed, because it belonged by right to those who could withstand it as it was - i.e. cyborgs. |
| 260 | * UnwillingRoboticization: Some of them had a habit of turning those they captured into [[FullConversionCyborg Full-Conversion Cyborgs]]. This tended to not work very well, as the Yashima Procedure can easily result in death, insanity and/or serious trauma when performed improperly. |
| 261 | |
| 262 | !!Disciples of Bogath |
| 263 | A faction of heretical Barsu who, unlike most of their fellows, sympathized with the Reds. |
| 264 | * TheHeretic: Seen as this by most other Barsu - admittedly less for their beliefs and more because they were Reds. |
| 265 | * NoTrueScotsman: The rest of the Barsu still consider them PersonaNonGrata even centuries after the war, since the Disciples tried to make excuses for Red groups who massacred Barsu. |
| 266 | * TheProphecy: All the Barsu believed in one, that Mars would be brought back to life by the return of the Barsu, but the Disciples took a step further by claiming that Mars couldn't or wouldn't be restored until ''all'' the Barsu had reached Mars. |
| 267 | |
| 268 | !!Dysonists & Singularitarians |
| 269 | Various groups who believed there were better ways than noaforming by which to transform Mars. |
| 270 | * HiveMind: The Singularity Front sought to create one, unifying all of Mars into a higher consciousness. They never achieved this, but their extensive use of mind-linking technologies allowed the members' memories to be copied and propagated over the net in the centuries to come, granting them a strange form of immortality as they periodically got downloaded and took over random people. |
| 271 | * TakeAThirdOption: Rather than terraform Mars or leave it as it was, the Dysonists wanted to ''disassemble'' the planet and use the resources to build a DysonSphere. |
| 272 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Dysonists were divided between two organizations, [[ItMakesSenseInContext one of which had been subverted by Scientologists from the asteroid belt.]] They didn't get along very well, in no small part because all Martians, Red, Blue or otherwise, ''[[BerserkButton hate]]'' Scientologists.[[note]]The Church of Scientology had plotted to subvert and overthrow several Martian governments some decades prior to the RBW. They got [[IllegalReligion banned from Mars by international treaty]] for it.[[/note]] |
| 273 | |
| 274 | !!Red Hackers |
| 275 | An assortment of hacker organizations were part of the Red cause. |
| 276 | * TheCracker: The organization known as Venom Worms infamously once managed to sabotage a [=MarsCom=] nuclear reactor. The Red Planet IT Army, meanwhile, specialized in deepfake propaganda. |
| 277 | * GoneHorriblyRight: The Red Planet IT Army's deepfakes proved so convincing that some governments on Earth actually fell for them, nearly prompting an intervention. Both the Reds and the Blues agreed to dial back the deepfakery after that, and [=UniFor=] almost severed ties with the RPIT Army. |
| 278 | * IAmSpartacus: Adam Kadmon was a hacker group named after its leader... and everyone else in the organization, who all claimed to be its leader when interrogated. [[MemoryGambit Some of them even believed they really were.]] The Blues never did figure out who the "real" Adam Kadmon was, or if such a person even existed at all. Many historians believe the group's real goal was simply to confuse the [=MarsCom=] cyberintelligence corps. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | !!Red Katipuneros |
| 281 | A minor Red group from Rizalia who were more interested in theater than war and were generally seen as a joke... at least, until the war's end. |
| 282 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Karen Bondoc, self-proclaimed "Revolutionary Commander" of the [=RKs=], was obsessed with musical theater and the trappings thereof, and so the Katipuneros ended up spending more time putting on elaborate musical numbers than getting much done. |
| 283 | * MisfitMobilizationMoment: Theirs came at the Petra-3 Treaty. When the ACM assassinated Falco, Karen Bondoc and the Red Katipunero representatives (who had been encouraged to come in hopes of convincing them to stand down) unexpectedly sprang into action and cut off the Areans' escape route, ensuring the terrorists' capture. In helping to save the peace treaty, the Red Katipuneros earned the respect of the other Reds (who'd hitherto scorned them as "[=LARPers=]"), and they were welcomed home as unlikely heroes. |
| 284 | * ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Broadly regarded as completely ineffectual. The Rizalian authorities let them stay because they drew recruits away from more dangerous organizations. |
| 285 | [[/folder]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | [[folder:The Blues]] |
| 288 | !![=MarsCom=] as a whole |
| 289 | Mars Command was the service arm of the Mars Treaty Organization, and it was they who were tasked with defeating the Reds and making Project Genesis (that is, the noaforming plan) happen. They consisted of three main divisions: [=DefCom=] (Defense Command), [=SciCom=] (Science Command) and [=CivCom=] (Civil Command). |
| 290 | * BadassArmy: [=DefCom=] was the only division that actually was one, but all three branches structured themselves like a military, with officers and unit systems. |
| 291 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: [=SciCom=] and [=CivCom=] often proved themselves extremely valuable to the war effort in their own ways. |
| 292 | * MagnificentBastard: InUniverse. Aaron James Lang, leader of [=MarsCom=] during the war. Described by Ryzov as a "heroic troll" character, Lang pulls out every trick in the book to win the war, and when he does win and can dictate whatever terms he wants... he agrees to most of what the moderate Reds wanted, establishes the framework for the Martian Alliance, pulls a {{Cincinnatus}} and reenlists as a private in [=CivCom=], where he spends the rest of his life having adventures of his own. |
| 293 | * UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: The MTO was essentially the Martian UN, and it did indeed wield a huge amount of power. Many Reds were just as uneasy about that as about noaforming, though the fears that it would evolve into a fascist superstate never quite came to pass. |
| 294 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Project Genesis was considered by many people to be too extreme in its methods, but its proponents, chief among them MTO General Secretary Fumikage Gondo, really did believe it would make Mars a better place. |
| 295 | |
| 296 | !!Defense Command |
| 297 | [=DefCom=], the military wing of the MTO and thus the army of the Blue Movement. Consisted of the Ground Corps, Space Corps, Ranger Corps, Cyber Corps, Intelligence Corps and Logistics Corps. |
| 298 | * AttackDrone: Made frequent use of "teletanks" - that is, remote-controlled armored vehicles, [[IKnowMortalKombat often piloted by Mars' gamer population]]. |
| 299 | * BadassArmy: Easily the best-equipped fighting force on Mars. |
| 300 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Red, since that was the requisite color of Martian camo. |
| 301 | * DropPod: The 1st Suborbital Assault Division specialized in using these. It tended to result in significant casualties. |
| 302 | * NationalWeapon: When melee weapons return to prominence, Blue soldiers go in for katanas and naginatas. |
| 303 | * RealMenWearPink: Rainbows were a frequent symbol of the Blue cause, and after a unit that called themselves the "Rainbow Warriors" suffered horrific casualties in the course of trying to save their comrades, rainbow iconography became associated with military heroism on Mars. |
| 304 | * SpaceMarine: The Space Corps specialized in orbital operations, such as boarding enemy space stations. |
| 305 | * SuperSoldier: The famous 7th Cyborg Raiders were a unit of cyborg soldiers, most of them self-modified. |
| 306 | |
| 307 | !!Science Command |
| 308 | [=SciCom=], the scientific and technological wing of [=MarsCom=]. Consisted of the Innovation Corps, Astronomy Corps, Areology (Martian geology) Corps, Biology Corps, Xeno Corps and Education Corps. |
| 309 | * ColonyDrop: One of the Astronomy Corps' jobs was to scout potential comets for these, albeit for noaforming purposes, not combat. |
| 310 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Blue. |
| 311 | * ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: The "X Troops" of the Innovation Corps' 1st Experimental Division got all the latest, most advanced weapons and gear, since it was their job to test it on the battlefield. |
| 312 | * MadScientist: The Biology Corps tended to attract the sort of people who really ''wanted'' to breed BigCreepyCrawlies for various purposes. |
| 313 | * MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: During the war, one Education Corps project was a program about DIY solutions to problems civilians might encounter in the course of the war. One of the presenters had apparently originally been trained as an actual kindergarten teacher. |
| 314 | * {{Nanomachines}}: The 6th Nanotech Division of the Innovation Corps was responsible for projects relating to these. They weren't combatants, but the Reds tended to kill them anyway, since they feared the 6th were working on nanotech [=WMDs=]. In actuality, their projects mostly pertained to water purification, soil remediation and other such applications. |
| 315 | * TheSmartGuy: [=SciCom=]'s job was to be this to [=MarsCom=]. |
| 316 | |
| 317 | !!Civil Command |
| 318 | [=CivCom=], the infrastructure and civil engineering branch. Consisted of the Corps of Engineers, Medical Corps, Signal Corps, Nuclear Corps, Debris Corps and Traffic Corps. |
| 319 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Green. |
| 320 | * CoolTrain: Trains were the main way of transporting cargo across Mars during the RBW, since there was no atmosphere for planes and no ocean for ships. The Corps of Engineers' 5th Railroad Security Division was responsible for protecting the trains. |
| 321 | * DangerousOrbitalDebris: The Debris Corps' job was to manage and dispose of debris in Mars orbit. |
| 322 | * TheEngineer: Their specialty. |
| 323 | * ImprovisedWeapon: The 1st Civil Infantry Division were [=CivCom=] engineers called into frontline service. As such, when everyone started running out of ammo, they were already well-prepared, and it was they who supplied many [=DefCom=] troops with their melee weapons before [=MarsCom=] started mass-producing them. |
| 324 | * TheMedic: The Medical Corps consisted of these. |
| 325 | * MundaneUtility: One part of Project Genesis was detonating nuclear weapons on Mars - not for military purposes, just to help cool the climate. The Nuclear Corps was in charge of carrying out these detonations and defending the infrastructure for them. They were able to carry out a few detonations during the war, but the project had to be scrapped because of how bad the PR was. |
| 326 | * RefugeInAudacity: The Corps of Engineers got into the habit of conducting missions behind Red lines, not to sabotage their enemies' infrastructure, but to ''repair'' it, as a propaganda tactic of sorts. |
| 327 | * TooAwesomeToUse: The 1st Tactical Security Regiment, whose job was to guard the nuclear stockpile, were easily the most well-equipped troops in [=MarsCom=] - so much so that no one wanted to fight them. |
| 328 | |
| 329 | !!Hard Blues |
| 330 | Some Blue organizations weren't able to fight for [=MarsCom=], while for others, [=MarsCom=] didn't go far enough. |
| 331 | * ConspiracyTheorist: The New Mars Brigade, a Blue-aligned militia which followed the ideology of Lyndon [=LaRouche=], believed the Reds (and the less extreme Blues) were pawns of a Neo-Platonist opium-dealing cabal run by the UN and the British Royal Family. (Never mind that the Windsors only reigned in Australia and New Zealand by then.) |
| 332 | * EagleSquadron: The Bring the Rain Coalition was an organization of volunteers from Earth who came to fight for the Blues. Lang wouldn't let them join [=MarsCom=], because he didn't want [=MarsCom=] to look like pawns of Earth, but the BTRC fought alongside [=MarsCom=] anyway. |
| 333 | * LaResistance: [=MarsCom=] personnel who became trapped behind enemy lines often started these sorts of groups. |
| 334 | * RedBaron: General Spencer Gordon, leader of a group of [=MarsCom=] personnel who'd become guerillas behind Red lines in Avalon, was nicknamed "Gandalf the Blue." |
| 335 | * RobotSoldier: The Avatar Company was a group of 268 sentient androids built to fight for the Blues on behalf of people who couldn't make the trip from Earth to Mars. Their programming was to help win the war, and afterwards, live their own free lives on Mars. When the war ended, the surviving Avatars decided to carry this out by gathering in one place and then each walking in a different direction. They went on to all have adventures of their own and become the [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes of Another Story]] in their own right. |
| 336 | * SelfFulfillingProphecy: The Reds of the [=EmDF=] did their best to not give the Blue Protection Units a reason to revolt, but their paranoia got the better of them, and the BPU revolted anyway. |
| 337 | * UriahGambit: One Hard Blue group, the Blue-Green Army, had this happen to them because Aaron Lang and many other [=MarsCom=] higher-ups thought the BGA (which consisted mostly of ex-cons) was too extreme and too undisciplined. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | !!Shintoists |
| 340 | Thanks to Mars' large Japanese population, there's a lot of Shintoists on Mars. Most of them sided with the Blues, with some even taking up arms for their beliefs. |
| 341 | * CoolMask: Shinto militants are known to wear armored kabuki masks over their helmets. |
| 342 | * FantasticReligiousWeirdness: Shinto goes off in some odd directions on Mars. In particular, there arises a belief that humans have brought the ''kami'' with them to Mars, and that said ''kami'' are trapped in the colonies' life-support systems, meaning noaforming is necessary in order to free them. |
| 343 | * PaperTalisman: Many Blue Shinto militants got into the habit of pinning ''ofuda'' to their spacesuits. |
| 344 | |
| 345 | !!The Barsu |
| 346 | The "indigenous" people of Mars - so they say, anyway. Most sided with the Blues. |
| 347 | * ChurchMilitant: Seeking to get in touch with their supposed past lives as alien holy warriors, the Barsu militants known as the Warriors of Cydonia became one of these. Their weapons of choice were simple steel clubs, as they believed it was holier to fight without shedding blood. |
| 348 | * FantasticReligiousWeirdness: The Barsu believe that they are the souls of reincarnated ancient Martians, and that it's their duty to return to their "homeworld" and bring it back to life. As such, they tend to side with the Blues during the war, and the Reds tend to be suspicious of them. |
| 349 | * FictionalHoliday: The Barsu's winter holiday of choice is called Jedawar. It's celebrated the day after Christmas. Instead of a Christmas tree, Barsu put up a Jedawar tharzad, a stack of painted rocks which is then decorated as a Christmas tree would be, representing the promise of life returning in the spring. It's customary for Barsu to make resolutions for the next annum at Jedawar, as well as to have enormous vegetarian feasts, and it's a common time for people to convert to the Barsu faith. The tharzad stays up all winter until it's disassembled at the start of spring by throwing the rocks into the nearest body of water. |
| 350 | * HolyGround: The Cydonia region is theirs. |
| 351 | * SaintlyChurch: The Barsu are generally portrayed positively - they try to stay out of politics, and they only take up arms during the war because the Reds are attacking their homeland in Cydonia. |
| 352 | * VirtuousVegetarianism: Barsu believe that their souls reincarnated through every form of animal life in the course of going from "Old Barsu" to their present human forms. As such, they choose not to eat meat out of respect for these animals. |
| 353 | |
| 354 | !!The Murphies |
| 355 | A group who believed that noaforming was necessary because the colonies' life-support systems would inevitably fail. |
| 356 | * MurphysLaw: The centerpiece of their beliefs and the source of their name. |
| 357 | * TheSaboteur: The Murphies' idea of proving their point was to sabotage the life-support systems of Red-aligned colonies. |
| 358 | * {{Troll}}: The Murphies would also engage in cyberattacks, often incorporating troll-face variants such as the infamous "Mard" and slogans like "Why don't you go outside? [[SarcasmMode The air is so nice]]" and "[[BrutalHonesty Genesis doesn't need you. You need it.]]" |
| 359 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: At the end of the day, the Murphies really did want people to learn their lessons and work towards making Mars safer through noaforming. Tellingly, historians would later conclude that in spite of their radical methods, [[TheExtremistWasRight the Murphies genuinely did push the needle in favor of noaforming, even among committed Reds.]] |
| 360 | |
| 361 | !!Tank Kidz Robotank Army |
| 362 | A group of Neo-Tokyo teens who started a Blue militia of remote-controlled tanks. |
| 363 | * DavidVersusGoliath: The Tank Kidz' finest hour was successfully forcing the surrender of Megatank Redhammer. |
| 364 | * KidHero: Most of them were still teenagers when they took up arms. |
| 365 | * TeenGenius: Their leader, Yukitaro Goya, was 16 when he designed and built a fleet of robotanks and recruited his school friends to fight the Reds with him. |
| 366 | * XtremeKoolLetterz: Tank Kidz. |
| 367 | |
| 368 | !!Spider Corps Volunteers |
| 369 | A Blue-aligned militia formed by the Kara, who had settled in Noctis Labyrinthus. |
| 370 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: Many worked as contractors for [=SciCom=], since they were already experts in breeding these. |
| 371 | * DualWielding: Having four arms meant the Kara could dual-wield spears. |
| 372 | * FriendToBugs: They left Australia for Mars because the Martians were less hostile towards spiders. |
| 373 | * {{Goth}}: Even on Mars, they kept up the "spider-goth" aesthetic. |
| 374 | * MultiArmedAndDangerous: Kara have four arms and four legs. |
| 375 | * TerrorHero: Some Kara fighters took to playing up the negative stereotypes about them to scare the Reds. |
| 376 | |
| 377 | !!Z Division |
| 378 | An all-zoan Blue militia, founded by zoans who had been slaves on Earth. |
| 379 | * FantasticRacism: [=MarsCom=] didn't allow zoans to officially enlist until the end of the war, so they started their own militia for self-defense. |
| 380 | * LittleBitBeastly: Many in Z Division were chimeras, including their leader, fox-girl Liberty Autumn. |
| 381 | * NaturalWeapon: The members of Z Division excelled in close-quarters combat, since most of them already had fangs and claws. |
| 382 | * UpliftedAnimal: Others were uplifts, such as the uplifted rats whom [=MarsCom=] would eventually recruit as spies. |
| 383 | [[/folder]] |
| 384 | |
| 385 | [[folder:The Greens & The Rest]] |
| 386 | !!The Green Five |
| 387 | An alliance of five colonies - Noachia, Petra, Nasser, Huygenia and Teisserenc (formerly Battuta) - who chose a path of armed neutrality. |
| 388 | * TheAlliance: Just as committed to mutual defense as to neutrality. The moons and space stations of Mars had one as well, the Phalanx Eight. |
| 389 | * AnimalMotifs: Moths and butterflies, which were considered symbols of peace. |
| 390 | * CharacterDevelopment: InUniverse, Caleb "COSA" Aoyama, the Secretary General of the G5, underwent this. He started out as a ShamelessSelfPromoter whose sole agendas were to keep his native Noachia out of the war and advance his own career. Over the course of the war, however, he gained a greater sense of responsibility and became less self-centered. |
| 391 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Take a wild guess. |
| 392 | * IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: After the war, COSA wrote several books about the hard questions he'd faced as leader of the G5. |
| 393 | * KingmakerScenario: By the war's end, they had all the best training and equipment (and were the only ones who still had any ammo), meaning that whichever side they joined would definitely win. (It ended up being the Blues.) The Greens are considered by some to be the real winners of the war. |
| 394 | * NeutralNoLonger: The Battle of the Goliath prompted them to side with the Blues. This is one of the reasons why the Blues won the war. |
| 395 | * OnlyKnownByInitials: [[OverlyLongName Caleb Otavio Santana Aoyama]], known to all as COSA. |
| 396 | * TakeAThirdOption: Some Greens tried to make the movement about alternatives to noaforming. It didn't catch on. |
| 397 | * TeamSwitzerland: The G5 subscribed to a policy of armed neutrality, takng steps to keep both the Reds and the Blues from interfering in their affairs. Some Greens also tried to suggest [[TakeAThirdOption alternatives]] to noaforming, though none of these caught on. |
| 398 | |
| 399 | !!The Green Cross |
| 400 | A neutral organization founded to provide medical care regardless of faction. |
| 401 | * ActualPacifist: They never take part in the actual fighting, focusing solely on the healing. |
| 402 | * DefectorFromDecadence: Founded by deserters from the [=CivCom=] Medical Corps. |
| 403 | * TheMedic: The Martian equivalent of the Red Cross. Unlike the Green Five, they stuck around after the war ended. |
| 404 | |
| 405 | !!The MTOS ''Goliath'' |
| 406 | A spaceship whose precious cargo of nitrogen, ammonia and water from Ganymede proved instrumental in ending the war. |
| 407 | * KingmakerScenario: So important was the ''Goliath'''s cargo to drought-stricken Mars that a treaty was signed, stipulating that its resources were to be distributed evenly and if either side tried to capture the ship, the Green Five would join the war on the defending side. The Reds tried to call their bluff, and sure enough, the Greens sided with [=MarsCom=], the [[FinalBattle Battle of the Goliath]] was a narrow Blue victory and the Blues won the war. |
| 408 | * MacGuffin: Whoever got the ''Goliath'' would win the war. |
| 409 | * MileLongShip: Try ''five''-mile-long ship. |
| 410 | * SpaceTrucker: On a seven-year round trip to Ganymede and back, bringing with them a full load of noaforming-related gases and the most valuable thing on Mars - water. |
| 411 | |
| 412 | !!Team Horus |
| 413 | A video game company who negotiated for a peace treaty to protect their home city. |
| 414 | * BadassCreed: "Play. Don't Fight." |
| 415 | * BadassPacifist: Game devs forming a human chain across a battlefield to get the two sides to stop fighting. |
| 416 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: Descriptions of Team Horus tend to treat their history of top-quality video game development as being nearly as awesome as their role in the war. |
| 417 | * ScrewTheWarWerePartying: While the treaty was being negotiated, Team Horus set up multiplayer gaming matches in the local Internet cafes between Red and Blue soldiers. |
| 418 | * TruceZone: Thanks to the "Gamer Truce" that Team Horus helped negotiate, the city of Oasis became one for the duration of the war. |
| 419 | |
| 420 | !!The Blank War |
| 421 | During the Red-Blue War, the colony of Kruger had a civil war of its own - not Red vs. Blue, but Boers vs. Blanks. |
| 422 | * AbandonedArea: The Blank city of Agartha was destroyed and abandoned after the Blank War. |
| 423 | * TheAtoner: The Boers wanted to put their apartheid past behind them by the time of the RBW. |
| 424 | * EvilVsEvil: The Boers were rather puritanical on the best of days... but the Blanks were Neo-Nazis. They're essentially viewed as InUniverse AcceptableTargets, and it's implied the Boers' victory in the war saw the Blanks [[PayEvilUntoEvil all but exterminated.]] |
| 425 | * NotInThisForYourRevolution: Kruger was nominally on the Blue side, but in practice, the Boers' sole agenda was to destroy the Blanks. |
| 426 | * UndergroundCity: The Blanks' capital of Agartha was one. |
| 427 | |
| 428 | !!The Rusties |
| 429 | The nomads of Mars. |
| 430 | * TheAlliance: The "Pact of Pretty Maria," an alliance of four Rusty clans led by the bandit queen of that name, which briefly managed to conquer a large chunk of Daedalia Planum during the Red-Blue War. |
| 431 | * FantasticRacism: Rusties are broadly regarded rather negatively by most folk, especially during the Red-Blue War, when they're stereotyped as being bandits and thugs. |
| 432 | * WanderingCulture: The Rusties live off the grid, away from the colonies, keeping to their clans and their rovers. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | !!New Manchukuo |
| 435 | A colony founded by Manchu nationalists and Japanese libertarians. |
| 436 | * IFightForTheStrongestSide: New Manchukuo would always try to ingratiate themselves to whichever side they thought was winning. [=MarsCom=] eventually exploited this to buy their loyalty. |
| 437 | * MerchantCity: A monarchy, but one whose Princes ran it along libertarian lines. |
| 438 | * TeamSwitzerland: New Manchukuo was neutral for most of the war, doing business with Reds and Blues alike - albeit adjusting their entrance fees based on who the betting pools favored to win the war at any given moment. |
| 439 | |
| 440 | !!The Cleaners |
| 441 | A group of nihilists who believed humanity didn't belong on Mars. |
| 442 | * DarkIsEvil: Their flag was black, and they were a bunch of nihilistic terrorists who sabotaged the life-support systems of various colonies. |
| 443 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the OmnicidalManiac. The Cleaners were so extreme that in spite of their zeal for sabotage, they attracted almost no actual recruits, and Red and Blue intelligence services were not above pulling an EnemyMine to stamp them out. Ultimately, the Cleaners accomplished almost nothing. |
| 444 | * {{Foil}}: Interestingly enough, to the Murphies. Both were disorganized extremist groups active mostly on the internet whose ''modus operandi'' involved sabotaging colonies' life-support systems - but that's where the similarities ended. The Murphies were Blues, while the Cleaners had started out as Reds. The Murphies wanted to improve Martian civilization, while the Cleaners wanted to destroy it. The Murphies delighted in being trolls, while the Cleaners took themselves dead seriously. And, of course, the Murphies were [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]] and [[TheExtremistWasRight got what they wanted]], while the Cleaners were [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniacs]] and completely failed in their goal. |
| 445 | * OmnicidalManiac: Their "[[InsaneTrollLogic logic]]" was essentially that since humans had already polluted the Earth, they didn't deserve to do the same to another world, and therefore, all human civilization had to be removed from Mars. |
| 446 | |
| 447 | !!Others |
| 448 | * ConspiracyTheorist: "Sector 6," a mysterious online cult positing that Red and Blue were both being masterminded by shadowy puppeteers back on Earth. It eventually turned out to be an ARG GoneHorriblyWrong. |
| 449 | * DangerousDeserter: The "Blood Brothers," a gang of these types which remained active after the war for some years, helping hide fugitive war criminals from both sides. |
| 450 | * {{Eagleland}}: Type 2 in the form of the Sons of Liberty, a group who believed the American colonies on Mars should remain loyal to the USA as opposed to the MTO. Neither the Reds nor the Blues liked them very much, and both suspected them of being backed by the CIA. |
| 451 | * PrivateMilitaryContractors: Voyin Security, a notable example based out of Partizanja, known for styling themselves as ''literal'' SpaceCossacks, complete with scimitars, fuzzy hats and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick colorful opinions on Jews.]] |
| 452 | ** There was also [=BlakHat=].app, which could best be described as "Uber, but on the darknet and for mercenaries and private security guards." They were (barely) tolerated during the war, but driven off Mars after it. |
| 453 | * {{Yakuza}}: The Port Dread Yakuza took it upon themselves to keep the peace on Deimos, which they did through segregating establishments as specifically for Reds or Blues and sending anyone who caused trouble back to Mars. |
| 454 | [[/folder]] |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[folder:The Alliance]] |
| 457 | !!The Martian Alliance |
| 458 | The post-war government of Mars, formed by Reds, Blues and Greens alike in 2078. It was envisioned by Aaron Lang, but he refused to be its leader, instead pulling a {{Cincinnatus}} and [[ShortLivedLeadership resigning within minutes]] to call for an election, in which Utena Jackson was elected the first President of Mars. |
| 459 | * TheAlliance: Between every colony on Mars. It's described as an "international democracy." |
| 460 | * CrazyPrepared: ''All'' [=MarsCom=] personnel receive training with knife, staff, pistol and unarmed combat. Yes, even the Weather Corps. The Alliance takes military preparedness ''very'' seriously. |
| 461 | * DavidVersusGoliath: Although Mars and Earth never came to blows, Mars was very much David in the SpaceColdWar, and it's a mindset they've never quite grown out of. |
| 462 | * TheFederation: The Martian Alliance seems to work like one of these in practice. Notably, though, it includes the quirk that citizenship (or at least voting rights) is earned through service in [=MarsCom=], ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''-style. (Although it's definitely more democratic than the government Heinlein depicted and Verhoeven satirized, and said "service" doesn't need to be in [=DefCom=].) |
| 463 | * FictionalPoliticalParty: They're more informal than most and referred to by the InsistentTerminology of "cliques," but they exist: |
| 464 | ** The Shield Coalition are firm believers in [[CrazyPrepared military preparedness]], but also in [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure diplomacy and promoting trade]]. They're fiscal conservatives. |
| 465 | ** The Sword Group are the Shields' more liberal, more aggressive rivals. They tend to lean more towards GunboatDiplomacy. |
| 466 | ** The Scars are the WarHawk faction. They hate Luna and have still never forgiven the Coalition of Duty, but they like the Jovian Empire. |
| 467 | ** The Reformers typically advocate for unproven technologies. Other science-minded cliques include the Genesis Bloc, Labcoat Mafia and Upgrade. |
| 468 | ** The [[MeaningfulName Plowshare Group]] want [=DefCom=]'s more advanced technologies to be [[SwordsToPlowshares turned towards SciCom and CivCom's ends]]. |
| 469 | ** The Maneuver Group is in favor of privatization and cost-saving. |
| 470 | ** The RHL Caucus advocate for interstellar colonization. [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous (Their name is a reference to Robert Henry Lawrence, the first man on Mars, and are led by one of his descendants.)]] |
| 471 | ** The Earthling Freedom Caucus protect the rights of Earthling refugees and immigrants on Mars, as well as Martian minorities on other worlds. |
| 472 | ** Lastly, the Unification Group wants to ReconcileTheBitterFoes with respect to the Coalition of Duty, and to a lesser extent Luna. |
| 473 | * FireForgedFriends: The moderate Reds and Blues became these in the early days of the Alliance, in the course of hunting down the extremists on both sides who refused to stop fighting. These campaigns became known as the "Rust Wars." |
| 474 | * GoodCounterpart: To, of all things, the Terran Federation from ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. The Martian Alliance's government operates on a "service guarantees citizenship" model and Martian culture is rather militaristic. However, it's also [[TheFederation very egalitarian and entirely democratic]], and service only guarantees citizenship ''in the Alliance'', with citizenship in consituent nations being automatic. Civilian rights are no less protected than citizens' rights, with the only difference being that citizens can vote in Alliance elections as well as local ones. Furthermore, your service doesn't need to be in the military - doing a tour as a civil servant in [=SciCom=] or [=CivCom=] works just as well. It's also emphasized that joining [=MarsCom=] is 100% voluntary: the Martian Alliance's charter even outright states that conscripting civilians is completely illegal and if the Alliance can't earn your loyalty fair and square, it deserves to fail. |
| 475 | ** Ryzov does, however, liberally pepper the "Idiot's Guide to the Martian Alliance" post with references to [[Film/StarshipTroopers the movie]]. |
| 476 | * NotMeThisTime: Mars and Earth still [[SpaceColdWar weren't really on good terms]] when the Beijing Impact happened. The Martian reaction to the Impact is summarized as "BringMyBrownPants, followed by 'we swear we didn't do it.'" (They really didn't. Nobody knows what caused the Impact, and the most likely possibility seems to be that it was entirely natural.) |
| 477 | * OrnamentalWeapon: In a tradition dating back to the Red-Blue War, the judges in [=MarsCom=]'s internal courts under the Alliance use non-functional revolvers as gavels. |
| 478 | * PlanetaryNation: Humanity's first. |
| 479 | * ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Proud Soldier Race variation. |
| 480 | * ReconcileTheBitterFoes: The Alliance was created by the Treaty of Petra-3 specifically to ensure this trope between Blues and Reds. It worked, thanks to a lot of clever compromises and concessions to the Reds, as well as the bonding experience of the Rust Wars. |
| 481 | * TheRival: They see themselves as this to Earth, in spite of the massive power difference between the two. Earthlings in turn tend to strongly distrust the Martians. |
| 482 | ** Later down the line, a more evenly matched rivalry develops between Mars and Luna. In both cases, the rivalry manifests as a SpaceColdWar. |
| 483 | * SuperSoldier: "Project Marabunta" (named after the army ant, an animal Martians consider emblematic of courage and DavidVersusGoliath scenarios) is an Alliance program to develop cyborg super-soldiers to compensate for the massive power disparity between Mars and Earth. |
| 484 | * {{Terraforming}}: Besides the Rust Wars, the Alliance's other main focus from the start is noaforming. They eventually succeed in making Mars fully habitable. |
| 485 | * WonTheWarLostThePeace: The Alliance successfully defeats Luna in the [[SpaceColdWar Solar Wars]], but fails to hold onto their newly gained hegemony in Jupiter for more than a few years. Their [[TheFederation Jovian Moons Federation]] is overthrown in the [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified Thunderbolt Revolution]] of 2249, which establishes the Jovian Empire. |
| 486 | |
| 487 | !!Modern [=DefCom=] |
| 488 | Defense Command in 2585 now consists of the Alliance Ground Forces, Space Corps, Marine Corps, Alliance Navy, Ranger Corps, Space Patrol Corps, Cyber Defense Force, Intelligence Corps and Joint Support Service. |
| 489 | * BadassArmy: Very possibly the best in Sol. |
| 490 | * CoolBoat: The Alliance Navy boasts massive pirate-hunting submarine cruisers, "arsenal ships" that pack a whole [[MacrossMissileMassacre Macross Massacre's worth of missiles]], destroyers armed with FrickinLaserBeams and fusion-powered battleships with railguns that can hit targets in ''low orbit''. And they're one of the ''less important'' branches of [=DefCom=]! |
| 491 | * FullConversionCyborg: Most Martian special forces, and all Martian SpaceMarines, are these. |
| 492 | * InterserviceRivalry: The Intelligence Corps (the spies and unconventional warfare experts) aren't popular with the Alliance's other covert agencies. |
| 493 | * KatanasAreJustBetter: The "Kasei-Gunto," a variation on the katana pioneered by RBW-era [=DefCom=], is a symbol of rank carried by commissioned officers in all three branches. |
| 494 | * PlayfulHacker: The Cyber Defense Force is a whole army of white- and grey-hat hackers, whose job it is to crack enemy systems, protect Alliance systems and protect Martians against cybercrime and particularly nasty malware. |
| 495 | * PoweredArmor: The Marine Corps haven't got much use for tanks, so they use powered exoskeletons and MiniMecha instead. |
| 496 | * {{Ranger}}: The Ranger Corps are responsible for keeping the peace in the mostly-empty Martian wilderness. The Space Patrol does the same thing in space, often tangling with SpacePirates. |
| 497 | * ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Martian SpaceMarines prefer shotguns for boarding actions - they're good in close quarters and less likely to accidentally breach a ship's hull. |
| 498 | * SpaceMarine: What the Alliance Marine Corps are. |
| 499 | * SpaceNavy: The Space Corps is [=DefCom=]'s most important branch now. It's the largest fleet in Sol. |
| 500 | * StandardSciFiFleet: The Space Corps is one: |
| 501 | ** SpaceFighter: Lancers, crewed by a single pilot, used mostly for intercepting missiles. |
| 502 | ** Patrol Boat: Raiders, about 35-50 meters long with a crew of 6-12, armed with one or two lasers, some missiles and an autocannon. They're the basic grunt ships. |
| 503 | ** Destroyer: Kinetistars, cyclostars and arsenalstars, all similar in build (about 80-100 meters long) but built around different weapon systems, fill this role. (Kinetistars have [[MagneticWeapons railguns]], cyclostars use particle cannons and arsenalstars carry [[MacrossMissileMassacre hundreds of missile tubes.]]) Their slightly smaller cousins, the BeamSpam-equipped laserstars, occupy the destroyer escort niche. |
| 504 | ** Assault Carrier: Dronehives, about 250-300 meters long, which carry a complement of stardrones - that is, autonomous starfighters - as well as brainstars, raider-sized craft used to micromanage the drones. |
| 505 | ** StealthInSpace: Brainstars, as well as jollyrogers (electronic warfare ships) fill this role. They can disguise themselves as raiders, forcing the enemy to target less valuable ships - [[ParanoiaFuel because you never know whether one of those harmless raiders might actually be capable of hacking your drone swarm.]] |
| 506 | ** Cruiser: Corsairs are the JackOfAllStats ships. They're 500-1000 meters long and are armed with lasers, missiles, autocannons, at least three heavy railguns or particle cannons [[NuclearOption and a few nuclear warheads.]] They also possess electronic warfare systems and can carry one or two dozen raiders and a company of SpaceMarines. |
| 507 | ** Carrier: Motherships, [[MileLongShip ships dozens of kilometers long]] which serve as forward bases for the smaller ships. They also possess onboard fuel-processing and [[MookMaker fabrication]] capabilities. The Martian Alliance has six of them. |
| 508 | ** TheBattlestar: [[ShoutOut The ships outright called battlestars]] serve as a cross between a corsair and a mothership, and are described as [[MobileCity "heavily-armed mobile space-cities."]] They also qualify as [[MileLongShip Mile-Long Ships]]: the Alliance's three "super battlestars" are 5.5 kilometers long each, and even the smaller "pocket battlestars" (of which there are seven) still reach 2.5 kilometers. They're the leaders of the Alliance fleet. |
| 509 | * SubStory: Most of the Alliance Navy consists of submarines. |
| 510 | * SupportPartyMember: The Joint Support Service handles all the background logistics that keeps the rest of [=DefCom=] running. |
| 511 | * SwordAndGun: In the field, many [=DefCom=] officers will carry both the Kasei-Gunto and a more practical pistol. |
| 512 | ** This also applies to the Marine Corps. Every SpaceMarine is not only a rifleman, but a swordsman - and a martial artist, for that matter. |
| 513 | |
| 514 | !!Modern [=SciCom=] |
| 515 | Science Command in 2585 now consists of the Alliance Innovation Corps, Astronomy Corps, Biology Corps, Planet Corps, Xeno Corps, Education Corps, Weather Corps, Nano Corps, Esper Corps, Ocean Science Corps and Exploration Corps. |
| 516 | * BioAugmentation: Part of the Biology Corps' job. The other part is engineering and breeding new flora and fauna for the noaformed Martian biosphere. |
| 517 | * BizarreAlienBiology: The Xeno Corps studies it. |
| 518 | * BoldExplorer: The Exploration Corps' job is to chart the unexplored or poorly-mapped regions of Mars and the Sol System in general. This duty also serves as an excellent excuse for [=SciCom=] to maintain its own fleet of spaceships. |
| 519 | * BrainsAndBrawn: Interestingly, both sides are apparent in [=SciCom=]. The true scientists are almost exclusively commissioned officers. The enlisted and [=NCOs=], meanwhile, tend to be relatively BookDumb but have a great respect and enthusiasm for science - they don't mind doing the nerds' grunt work, because they mostly just want to be helpful. |
| 520 | * ColonyDrop: The Astronomy Corps used to seek out comets to engineer these for noaforming purposes. Now, they seek out potential rogue asteroids to avert them. |
| 521 | ** After Hell Day, [=AstroCorps=] exploded in funding. For a long time, they were known for their complete obsession with finding the source and cause of the Hell Day impactor. By 2585, though, they've cooled down on this and now spend most of their time checking in on the interstellar colonies, operating telescopes and planetariums, looking for extrasolar intelligence and doing science. |
| 522 | * CoolTeacher: The Education Corps' job is to be this trope. They also do archaeology, social sciences, historical preservation and even historical reenactment. |
| 523 | * CrazyPrepared: The Astronomy Corps has units whose job it is to devise as many potential FirstContact scenarios as possible. |
| 524 | ** This is also why the Esper Corps is still around: better to have 50,000 trained psychics and not need them, than to need 50,000 trained psychics (for whatever ungodly reason) and not have them. |
| 525 | * KillItWithFire: The Biology Corps' biohazard units are known to invest in flamethrowers when the Corps' more ambitious projects get ''really'' out of hand. |
| 526 | * MadScientist: Present, though hardly a majority. Most are warrant officers - people who could be [=COs=] if they wanted to, but refused promotion in order to remain in the field. |
| 527 | * MildlyMilitary: The trope is outright name-dropped in describing [=SciCom=], since they are ultimately reliant on creative, outside-the-box thinking and thus can't afford to be as regimented as [=DefCom=]. |
| 528 | * {{Nanomachines}}: The Nano Corps is in charge of producing and safely handling them. |
| 529 | * {{Neologism}}: Areology is the study of Martian geology and one of the Planet Corps' specialties. |
| 530 | * PsychicPowers: The Esper Corps' specialty, as the name suggests, lies in identifying and training espers and helping them put their powers to practical use. They've gotten very good at sorting out the PhonyPsychic from the real deal. |
| 531 | * TheSmartGuy: Their job is to be this to Mars as a whole. The Innovation Corps stands out for focusing specifically on blue-sky research. |
| 532 | * SuperSoldier: One of the Innovation Corps' many responsibilities is the technical side of Project Marabunta. |
| 533 | * UndyingLoyalty: A Martian Alliance citizen who leaves the Sol System is considered to forfeit their Martian citizenship, as there's no way you can vote in an Alliance election (which is mandatory for citizens) across that distance. However, this doesn't stop many in the Xeno Corps from leaving anyway to study alien life on exoplanets, and they still consider themselves soldiers of [=MarsCom=]. As such, the Xeno Corps often receives reports from their "former" personnel. |
| 534 | ** The Exploration Corps has the same "problem" - many in their number aren't satisfied with uncovering the mysteries of Mars and the rest of Sol, so they resign in order to explore Alpha Centauri and beyond. |
| 535 | * WeatherManipulation: The Weather Corps' job is to keep the weather of Mars' artificial atmosphere working as intended. They also regulate the climate. |
| 536 | * WeirdnessMagnet: Referred to InUniverse as "High Strangeness" - the Esper Corps believe that humanity as a whole is one, owing to the frequency of unexplained incidents and seemingly paranormal phenomena. They want to know why, and to that end they study lots of different "anomalies," not just ESP. |
| 537 | * TheWormGuy: A whole army of them. |
| 538 | |
| 539 | !!Modern [=CivCom=] |
| 540 | Civil Command in 2585 now consists of the Alliance Corps of Engineers, Medical Corps, Nuclear Corps, Space Rescue Service, Emergency Response Corps, Orbital Guard Corps, Signal Corps, Ecology Corps, Transport Corps, Agriculture Corps and Maritime Service Corps. |
| 541 | * {{Antimatter}}: Part of the Nuclear Corps' job (besides the obvious) is manufacturing antimatter, the security for which they take ''even more'' seriously than defending the atomic arsenal. |
| 542 | * CoolTrain: The Rail Corps of the Corps of Engineers operate everything from high-speed urban maglev networks to nuclear-powered cross-country lines. They also have dedicated armed units to defend said trains. |
| 543 | * DangerousOrbitalDebris: The Orbital Guard Corps' job is to clean it up and prevent Kessler Syndrome. |
| 544 | * DistressCall: The Space Rescue Service and the Emergency Response Corps are responsible for answering these. |
| 545 | * EmergencyServices: The Space Rescue Service's job is to handle emergency response and search-and-rescue missions in space, whilst the Emergency Response Corps does it planetside. |
| 546 | * TheEngineer: The Corps of Engineers is the single largest corps in all of [=MarsCom=]. At 12 million personnel, it's as large as all of [=DefCom=] put together! |
| 547 | * FluffyTamer: The Ecology Corps does a lot of work with Mars' "native" megabugs, which they often domesticate to help them in their duties. |
| 548 | * InterserviceRivalry: The Ecology Corps has one with the Biology Corps, as their jobs tend to overlap. It's mostly friendly. |
| 549 | * LighthousePoint: The Maritime Service Corps' jurisdiction includes lighthouses. |
| 550 | * TheMedic: The Medical Corps fills a niche similar to Old Earth's WHO. |
| 551 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: The Airborne Corps of the Corps of Engineers plants seeds and saplings via ''cluster bombing''. |
| 552 | * NuclearOption: The Nuclear Corps produces and defends the Martian nuclear weapons stockpile. They also provide most of Mars' energy via nuclear power plants. |
| 553 | * PastoralScienceFiction: For this trope, refer to the Agriculture Corps, which manages Mars' farmlands and combats hunger. |
| 554 | * SeriousBusiness: The Space Rescue Service is ''dead'' serious about docking standards protocols, as being able to safely dock with a ship in need is crucial to their job. |
| 555 | * SpaceTrucker: The Transport Corps is in charge of them. |
| 556 | * {{Terraforming}}: The Ecology Corps manages the noaformed biosphere. |
| 557 | * WiseTree: Marshal Hoold, the leader of the Ecology Corps, is a neurotree. He's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over five centuries old]] and has been in charge of [=EcoCorps=] for half of that. He remains rooted to the ground - his HQ is built around him - but like all sentient plants, he's ''extremely'' good at long-term planning, information processing and strategizing. His rank insignia and medals are simply stuck into his trunk. |
| 558 | |
| 559 | !!Other |
| 560 | * TheAlcatraz: The Alliance Penitentiary System runs Mars' most secure prisons. |
| 561 | * CelibateHero: Judges in the High Court of Mars are required to be single for the duration of their tenure. |
| 562 | * FictionalCurrency: The Alliance Mint, nominally run by the Department of the Treasury but in practice mostly independent, is in charge of producing and distributing aureus banknotes and denarius coins. |
| 563 | * GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Alliance has the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) to handle its espionage. |
| 564 | * InternalAffairs: A rare [[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen heroic]] example in the form of the Disciplinary Court, whose job is to investigate [=MarsCom=] itself. They got their start handling the truth-and-reconciliation trials immediately after the RBW - Aaron Lang himself voluntarily testified before them and revealed a lot of the shadier things he'd done. The Disciplinary Court is generally seen as a positive force, making sure [=MarsCom=] personnel conduct themselves properly. (Incidentally, these are also the guys who use revolvers as gavels.) |
| 565 | * PraetorianGuard: The sessions of the Assembly (the Martian legislature) are ceremonially guarded by a unit of [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted cats]]. |
| 566 | * SlaveLiberation: The Alliance's Department of Homeworld Security maintains an International Abolition Force, whose job it is to root out slavery and human trafficking in all its forms. They've gone as far afield as the Kuiper Belt to rescue Alliance civilians. |
| 567 | [[/folder]] |
| 568 | |
| 569 | [[folder:The Phalanx]] |
| 570 | The network of habitats in Martian orbit - basically, Mars' Exonesia. Also includes Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars. |
| 571 | |
| 572 | !!The Phalanx as a whole |
| 573 | * MerchantCity: All trade and immigration to Mars comes in through here. |
| 574 | * SpaceStation: Not as many as Exonesia, but quite a lot of them. |
| 575 | * TeamSwitzerland: They had their own equivalent to the Green Five, the Phalanx Eight, during the Red-Blue War. |
| 576 | |
| 577 | !!Deimos |
| 578 | The Terror Moon. Deimos, and the spherical city of Port Dread anchored to it, forms the primary arterty of trade between Earth and Mars. Deimos, and Port Dread in particular, is the focus of the ''The Terror Moon'' update. |
| 579 | * AsteroidMiners: A variation. Gold is valuable, but it's [[WorthlessYellowRocks easy to come by]] in an age of AsteroidMiners. The real money is in ''ice'' - water, after all, is in short supply on Mars, and ice is useful for plenty of other things besides. Deimos, which has rather a lot of ice inside of it, becomes home to a lot of prospectors in The80s, and ice mining remains a key part of the Deimian economy. The settlements on the moon became [[BoomTown Boom Towns]], but most eventually went bust and had to find other industries. (One is now a monastery.) |
| 580 | * CityOfAdventure: Port Dread, very much so. The district of Spaceman's Quarter has [[TheCityNarrows a particular reputation for it]], only somewhat unearned. |
| 581 | * CultureChopSuey: Japanese and British, with a dash of Jamaican. |
| 582 | * DarkIsNotEvil: Their flag makes prominent use of black and red, and it features a snarling {{Oni}} face, but Deimos is a relatively friendly place to visit. |
| 583 | * ADayInTheLimelight: ''The Terror Moon'' is a full map and lore document, all about Deimos. |
| 584 | * {{Oni}}: Oni are a common symbol of Deimos and especially of Port Dread, where they're often invoked in the local Shinto tradition as protectors. Spaceman's Quarter is full of oni statues (which [[SuperstitiousSailors superstitious spacers]] leave offerings at), and the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Deimos (as promoted by the Port Dread Tourism Commission) is a CuteMonsterGirl oni. Even their local variation on Santa Claus is an oni. |
| 585 | ** Later on in the timeline, a HumanSubspecies genetically engineered to resemble oni appears in Port Dread. By 2585, the Oni more or less run the place. |
| 586 | * PortTown: In space! |
| 587 | * SeriousBusiness: Some of the [[CosplayCafe maid cafes]] on Port Dread are more gangsta than the actual gangsters. |
| 588 | * WretchedHive: Yadorigi, the "opposite number" to Port Dread on the other side of Deimos, has (as of 2020) wound up full of drug dealers, drug addicts and (unorganized) crime, in part thanks to a widespread belief among spacers that it's cursed. The government of Port Dread is taking increasingly forceful measures to get their sister city to shape up. |
| 589 | -->''"So far, they haven't started [[ThrownOutTheAirlock throwing junkies out of airlocks]] yet, but one wonders what the policy will be when they run out of methadone, modafinil and Bibles."'' |
| 590 | * {{Yakuza}}: It's an OpenSecret that the government of Port Dread lets the local yakuza have a monopoly on illicit activities in the city, so long as they don't step too far out of line. This actually keeps the crime rate ''down'', since the yakuza don't approve of petty crime. During the Red-Blue War, the yakuza even help keep the peace between Reds and Blues on shore leave in Spaceman's Quarter. |
| 591 | |
| 592 | !!Phobos |
| 593 | The larger of Mars' two moons. |
| 594 | * OutOfFocus: In contrast to the full map and lore document Deimos got, almost nothing has been said about Phobos. What little we do know indicates that it was chiefly settled by Slavic-Americans and that its capital is named New Archangel, but that's about it. |
| 595 | |
| 596 | !!The Halo |
| 597 | Mars' orbital ring, a series of stations encircling the planet. |
| 598 | * NamingYourColonyWorld: The six stations that anchor the Halo are all named for American astronauts from the first missions to Mars: Lawrence, Musgrave, Aldrin, Collins, O'Leary and Overmayer. |
| 599 | * SpaceElevator: Built on six of them. (Space elevators are easier on Mars, since there's less gravity.) |
| 600 | |
| 601 | !!Neo Hong Kong |
| 602 | A SpaceStation originally from Earth. How it got to Mars is a tale in itself. |
| 603 | * NewNeoCity: Started out as Hong Kong's slice of Exonesia. |
| 604 | * TheRemnant: Neo Hong Kong came to see itself as the last bastion of Hong Kong nationalism. |
| 605 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Hong Kong voted to rejoin the Federal Republic of China, Neo Hong Kong decided they'd rather not, strapped engines to the station and defected to Mars. The Alliance, not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, accepted them. This nearly caused a war when a Chinese warship got a little too close for comfort and was promptly destroyed by the Martians. The Neo Hong Kong Crisis is generally agreed to be one of the inciting incidents of the [[SpaceColdWar Geo-Martian Conflicts]]. |
| 606 | [[/folder]] |
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