After two-hundred Earth years on Mars, the first true androids--not robots but artificial human beings--were introduced to Mars. The Martian government had imported the necessary technology and scientists and technicians to create a native production facility. At first, many of the human colonists saw the androids as an interesting novelty. As production of androids rose and then took over jobs that had been the exclusive domain of human beings, things got ugly. The androids had one major advantage over the humans; they didn't need to breathe oxygen--or any other gas for that matter--and they didn't need to wear pressure suits in the thin atmospheric pressure of Mars. While they could have accidents and be injured or even killed, they excelled at surviving incidents that would have killed a human. Over time, the explorers and miners and most of the other adventurers ceased to be human. For the vast majority of the human colonists, the bottom dropped out of the economy. Helplessness and enraged, they watched jobs and wealth flow to the android newcomers. Riots broke out in most of the major Martian settlements, but a lynching or beating of an android simply because he or she was an android could and did happen in many of the smallest settlements. One might expect the smallest settlements to be the most vigorous in persecuting androids but such settlements were hard places to live and the droids were valued because they could do things for the community that were difficult or next to impossible for humans to accomplish. They didn't like droids any better than the human Martians of the bigger communities. The droids were tolerated because survival without them just wasn't possible. Eventually, things grew so desperate for the android Martians living in the big towns and cities that a clandestine movement came into being. They called themselves the "True Martians." The True Martians secreted away supplies and materials for two Martian years. During that time, they made careful plans. One day, all over Mars, the humans woke up to find most of the androids gone. Why a few of the droids stayed in the human cities, only they could say. Most stoically refused to give a reason. There were probably as many reasons as there were androids left. Certainly, a major one was compassion. They could not in good conscience leave the cities without some technicians and workers to keep things going. Many who initially stayed, trained humans to replace them and when they believed their trainees were capable of maintaining things, they left. Some others maintained a small android presence as spokespersons for their government. They felt that there should be some minimal communication channels maintained between the two species. Such duties were regarded as tours of a Martian years in duration. The androids, of course, saw it as a hardship tour. The True Martians, though, spread throughout Mars. They picked the wildest and most inhospitable places by human standards. The androids had planned carefully and the day they disappeared into the wild lands, they dismantled and took their production facilities with them. Once they had built their own settlements, they reassembled the birth factories. Eventually most large settlements had their own android production factories. Just to be sure a secret android production facility was placed in a very remote and tiny settlement. The humans had earned the distrust of the androids; they weren't about to take any chances with their future.