The History of Mars (fiction)

For as long as anyone can remember, Earth has been a starving cesspool of devastation. It didn't used to be that way. It used to be the sparkling blue gem of the solar system. The only planet fortunate enough to hold water. Around the turn of the 21st century though, overpopulation, war, and pollution turned Earth into a testament of mankind's failures.

This forced science into a new direction. No longer working to save what they had left, mankind began developing new technologies for space-flight, terraforming, and colonization. The people of Earth set their sights on Mars. The plan was to mobilize a fleet of spacecrafts capable of the long distance travel to Mars, terraform the surface to give the people breathable air, and begin anew. Under the direction of Admiral Fox Slater, the Space Development Fleet began procedures for the colonization of Mars. Terraforming took twenty years, but the project was a success. Cities were built, governments were established, and the population flourished. The first to arrive after the initial colonization were the elite and the wealthy, but eventually most of Earth's populace arrived to begin new lives on Mars. Earth itself became mostly prison space. A few scientific projects still remained on Earth, and even residential space remained, but generally, if one broke the law on Mars, they were sent back to Earth. Mars, itself, had no prisons.

In the year 2149, fifty years after the first human took a breath on Mars, they began drilling downward mining for resources. This is when they found it. The holy grail of science: Native life on Mars. The Martian society has apparently existed for a slightly longer time than humanity. Capable of breathing the atmosphere, even after the terraforming, Martians have existed exclusively underground. They had underground oceans that provided water. For the first time in millenia, Martians went above ground to initiate peace talks with the human leaders.

In 2150, a treaty was struck between the Martians and the humans. Martians have always been a peaceful people, and have never had a need for treaties. It basically said that as long as the humans did not interfere with the Martian society, they could have the entirety of the planet's surface, which has largely been considered wasteland by the Martians anyway. The treaty was signed in front of an enormous bronze statue of Fox Slater, "The Savior of Humanity."

Armed guards were posted at every entrance to the "Martian Level," and for the most part were unused. Occasionally a child or tourist would wander the wrong way, and the guards sent them away. The symbiosis worked for years, with neither species interfering with the other. In 2184, however, the humans wasted the last of the natural ice on the surface and looked to strike another deal with the Martians. Water formation technology was years ahead of them, so they traded arms technology, something new and foreign to the Martians, in exchange for access to the water supplies found underground.

Humans began posting armed guards underground at water depots, and as is human nature, began taking more than their share. In 2197, Humans began rationing water to themselves, and the Martians, taking complete control of the water supplies on the planet. The Martians did not object.

By 2205, the entirety of the underground of Mars was turned into a police state. Curfews were established, and forced labor camps were built. The once proud and peaceful Martian race was turned into all but slaves for the humans. In 2234, "The Eos Incident" occurred. A young Martian female was turned away from the Eos water depot looking for fresh water for her family. When she refused to leave without water, she was shot and killed by the humans.

This is when my people began to fight back.

Using their own weapons against them, we began taking their water depots and slowly forced them above ground. In 2241, we tore down the gaudy statue of their savior. Their government was toppled in 2245 as we took what they worked so hard to build on our planet for ourselves. The war was long and fierce, and countless lives were lost, but we took back our home. The Space Development Fleet was the next target. We made absolutely certain that no future "Admiral Slaters" could possibly do on another planet what they did on ours.

The last surviving humans have been forced underground begging us for mercy and water.