It is dawn at Victoria Crater on the dark flat plain of Terra Meridiani. It is a new day for all of Mars as well. The first of 10,000 atmosphere generators will begin operation today. From its top will belch an earth-like atmosphere into the Martian sky. This day did not come without great cost to the Martians. The struggle of a "pristine" Mars over a terraformed Mars very nearly ended the human occupation of the planet. The creation of the project polarized the Martian nation into two camps, the Eckies and the Tekkies. Over several years, an escalation in rhetoric and violence errupted into a very uncivil civil war between the Preservationists and the Terraformists. One Martian year later, a quarter of the total Martian population was dead and the planet's infrastructure had been damaged dangerously close to a point where human habitation of Mars could no longer be sustained. A truce was arranged that led to a referendum vote to decide the issue. All adult Martians were required to vote. Eighty percent of the voters had always been concerned with just being left alone to live their lives. By this time, that majority was fed up with the extreme elements of the two factions. They were particularly incensed at the Preservationists and the vote was for terraforming to begin--not because they particularly wanted to give the Tekkies a win, but because Martians are a practical people, if they are anything, and they saw terraforming as being the best and safest way of meeting their own needs. What motivated the outcome of that election was knowing that Eckie extremists had vented the atmospheres of three of the planet's largest cities and over four hundred smaller towns and stations. In most of the latter cases, there were no survivors. In the destroyed cities, there were suvivors, but the vast majority of those populations had no time to evacuate to safety. If there had been a breathable air with the right atmospheric pressure, most of the voters reasoned, an awful lot of people would still be alive today. Hence, the outcome of the vote. The Preservationists were molified with the promise that the Tharsis Montes region, that huge bulge on the Martian surface with the shield volcanoes (Olympus Mons, etc.), would be left prisitine. The new atmosphere would deliberately be left no thicker than a couple of miles, so many highland areas of Mars would be left mostly the way they had always been. There was also a Court of Reconciliation, which initially had not been much favored by the majority of Martians, but as time passed, they recognized the value of reconciliation over punishment. ************************************************ I think maybe someday I'll do a picture centered around that civil war, but I need to think on it. I've got a lot of mech models that I need to do something with. Grin. Meanwhile, thanks for dropping by. Comments are always appreciated. Jeremy ************************************************ Credits: Buildings and vehicles: "Planetary Outpost packs-1 & 2" and "Planetary Outpost pack-4 (Atmosphere processor" all by rj001 (Renderosity). Terrain: Modeled and textured by me from a color photograph taken by NASA's MRO satellite of Victoria Crater. Sky: Created in Bryce 6.