Timeline

2101-An agreement is made with the newly formed Ceramite Industries corporation to be the sole provider of ceramite to the UN for the next 50 years. They eventually sign agreements with many countries and a legal monopoly is accepted by the UN for 50 years only.

2103-250 colonists entered cryogenic sleep on the USS Mayflower. The ship was powered by multiple third generation fusion reactors coupled with the new void engines that enabled the ship to achieve speeds of up to 30% the speed of light. The trip to Alpha Centauri was estimated to take about 37 years.

2108-A riot broke out in the city state of La Ciudad Roja. Hispanic Alliance military forces killed 275 people in suppressing the riot. Living conditions were displayed for the whole world to see for the first time. There had always been rumors of the deplorable conditions, but no absolute proof was every uncovered.

2110-La Ciudad Roja is officially transferred from the Hispanic Alliance to EU control. Conditions had improved over the past two years, but it is estimated to take two to three decades to get where the other city states are. Blaming and finger pointing abound but ultimately the richer nations take most of the blame, even though they weren’t financially responsible for the colony.

2112-Habitable worlds around the Ivaline and Epsilon Eridani systems are uncovered.

2114-Additional probes are sent out. A new experimental drive system is included that results in them traveling 45% the speed of light. The first probe annihilates its scientific package due to an issue in assembling the probe.

2115-Additional probes are sent to nearby solar systems. This time the scientific section of the probe is attached properly to the drive system.

2117-Discontent on Mars continues to grow. The sponsor nations barely provide for the day-to-day operating costs but demand the colonists to pay obscene taxes back to their sponsor nations.

2118-Martian population exceed 20 million. Mars demands to be recognized as a sovereign state and equal representation at the UN. These requests are rebuffed.

2119-The UN’s Space Force pushes off for Mars. It is hoped that a display of power will put the upstart Martians back in place. This action, in hindsight, was found to be too provocative for the Martians, and they responded by firing warning shots from orbital railgun emplacements.

2120-The first stellar war breaks out. The UN fleet cannot safely get into orbit due to the amount of railgun satellites the Martians have deployed. The fleet begins trying to snipe the stations one by one. The fleet thought they had taken out enough and closed distance to the planet to deploy troops to secure Rust Central, the Indian and Asian city state. This was not the case and the mission ended in disaster, one of the escorting frigates was struck and couldn’t maintain orbit anymore. In a criminal act the captain of the vessel pointed the ships bow at Rust Central and fired its twin rail cannon.

2121-The UN sued for peace. There was ample proof that the captain decided in an act of blind rage and revenge for being shot down that he was going to have his ounce of flesh. 85% of the residents of that city state died because of depressurization or exposure. The Martians achieved independence but at a horrific cost.

2123-The UN Council agrees to a formalized treaty with Mars, mineral rights of the asteroid belt would be shared as would helium mining of the outer gas giants. Reparations for the destruction of a colony were also prepared.

2125-There was an explosion of growth and immigration to Mars. The power blocs and countries realized they were being too controlling of its populace. They moved to undo many of the restrictions they had approved over the years.

The Great Ceramite Debacle

A year after proving there was a method to produce mass amounts of ceramite a fifty-year agreement with Ceramite Industries began. The magnate directed the corporation to continue innovating to find new ways to produce ceramite that were more efficient. Many were found but the best one was found with less than a year left in its contract. The magnate’s son filed a new patent for the process.

The patent was approved and set to last seventy-five years. The corporation had generated trillions in revenue. An added benefit of ceramite was its ability to reflect most of the harmful radiation the sun gives off. When a mostly transparent version of the alloy was eventually constructed, it allowed Martian or Lunar cities and worksites to be built anywhere. There was no longer a need to build into the hills and mountains of Mars or Luna.

A Bold Frontier

The American’s built the first cryo-sleeper ship, the USS Mayflower to take 250 individuals to Alpha Centauri. The ship was the most advanced void vessel ever produced up to that point. It was also the fastest vessel humanity had produced, capable of reaching 30% the speed of light.

The trip was estimated to take thirty-seven years. With any luck humanity would have its first extrasolar colony by the middle half of the century. Two additional automated cargo ships were sent there as well to reinforce the colony. One cargo ship would be sent every year for a full decade before the slowed down to one every other year.

This was prohibitively expensive to do. America shared its learnings from the colony project with nations she was friendly with. Discussions were held to determine how to ease the cost and reliance on Earth for new colonies. Rough plans were drafted to fund new colonies in the future.

Martian Troubles

La Ciudad Roja was the site of the first large riot on Mars. Hispanic Alliance forces moved in to put down the riot but killed 275 citizens of the colony. Only about a quarter of those killed were rioters. Attempts were made to sweep this action under the rug. But footage of the massacre had reached Earth. The UN sent investigators immediately. Ten days later they saw the horrible truth themselves.

Malnutrition was commonplace. The colony had a horrendous homelessness problem, nearly twenty percent of its populace didn’t have a private residence. The city was producing barely enough oxygen for its residents. A massive effort was made to improve the living conditions and facilities at the city state. But it would take nearly three decades for them to catch up to where the other city states are now.

The UN expanded its investigation all the other city states, but thankfully conditions were not found to be anywhere near as awful as what they just witnessed. Additional aid was ordered for two of the smaller city states.

This nearly ripped apart the Hispanic Alliance back on Earth. Mexico ultimately was found the most at blame, but all of the Central American nations were at best turning a blind eye or at worse willfully ignorant of the conditions there. Reparations were ordered to pay back the families of the dead, malnourished and harmed.

An agreement was made with the UN to cede control of the colony to the European Union. The EU took on part of the reparation’s debt in the tradeoff agreement. The colonists were little moved as any immediate changes after the transition were seen as minimal. Food production still remained a concern there but at least were able to just meet the overall demand.

More Worlds and New Probes

The initial probes sent back information about the Ivaline and Epsilon Eridani systems. More habitable worlds had been discovered. Plans for new probes were produced. These probes would be sent to the same systems and others as the speed of them was nearing 45% the speed of light.

The new prototype probe was a hilarious looking thing. Political cartoons on Earth made it appear the car sized probe was attached to a rocket the size of the Empire State building. In truth that description wasn’t that outrageous, though the rocket itself was about twelve stories tall.

The first probe was launched but it wasn’t attached to the rocket incorrectly which resulted in the vibrations that annihilated the scientific equipment on the probe. It also destroyed the communication array with the new ballistic probe. Everyone in the command center at NASA was hoping it wouldn’t strike anything in the future.

The second probe was produced and then launched without issue. Roughly five to six of these probes would be launched every year. They all returned a shocking amount of data that was welcome to all researchers.

More Problems with Mars

Taxes the citizens of Mars paid to their sponsor countries had been steadily increasing over the years. The effective tax rate was nearing 80%, leaving the citizens virtually nothing left after their personal needs are paid for. They began to openly ask aloud what they received for paying these taxes. Imports from Earth were slim, all they did was export.

Maybe the universe had a sense of irony, but the American city state was the first to rise up and refuse to pay these unjust taxes anymore. The other city states and outposts followed suit shortly thereafter. Their sponsor nations were irate, but they had difficulties proving what their taxes were actually being used for. The city states were completely self-sufficient and had been for nearly two decades. Each sponsor had grown lackadaisical and was eager to take their tax revenue but return nothing of value in return. The nations on Earth demanded action and requested the UN send a fleet to Mars. It rejected these calls for a fleet to be sent to Mars to force them to pay taxes. The UN did agree that the lack of paying taxes was a concern, but not one that rose to require military action.

Mars then demanded to be declared a sovereign nation to the UN. This was rejected once more. There were eight votes in total made in 2118, each one failed. Martian belligerence increased. Belters that swore allegiance to Mars began mining asteroids rich in platinum, palladium and gold whether they had rights to it or not. Vast reserves worth of precious metals was then refined and stored in vaults on Mars.

Eventually the UN authorized a fleet be sent to Mars to put them in their place after three massive Helium-2 shipments were diverted to Mars instead of the Orbital Pacific Shipyards. Martians had been launching railgun satellites and had a massive array guarding their planet. When the UN fleet got near the Martians fired a number of warning shots.

With those shots the first interstellar war began. Mars only had three frigates, but they were conducting raiding runs in the outer solar system. The UN fleet fell back and regrouped. They began firing at the railgun array from outside the satellite’s effective range. Several UN ships took oncoming fire, but none were seriously damaged.

It was a horrendously long six months to eliminate enough satellites to close in on Mars. The final push saw the ships take more damage, but again now were destroyed. Mars drew first blood on the conflict. But realistically they stood little chance to win the battle. The UN rushed the invasion though. The USS New York rushed forward out of formation hoping to take out some Martian artillery and anti-aircraft batteries near the proposed landing zone.

They were successful in clearing the LZ, but it came at a severe cost. They were dipping into the upper atmosphere, which normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but a railgun satellite that hadn’t been destroyed fired at her. It crippled the ship as it was skimming the atmosphere. The ship was effectively a dead man walking. There was no saving the ship, she was going to crash land thousands of miles away from anything. The ship’s captain ordered an evacuation, though the crew would be captured by the Martians. Unfortunately for the escaping crew the captain pointed the bow of the ship near Rust Central and fired its twin railgun cannon at the city.

Shortly after that the ship lost its ability to maneuver in the thin atmosphere. The single attack fired at the city state cost nearly 85% of the citizens that called Rust Central home. In response the Martian militia summarily executed every last crewmember of the New York as they tracked down all the escape pods.

The UN fleet immediately came about and fell back to a Lagrange point. The admiral in charge was horrified at the actions. The captain’s actions were broadcast for the whole solar system to see. It was an indefensible act. Meetings were held back on Earth. Within three hours of the atrocity happening the fleet had contacted the ruling council of Mars and offered an unconditional ceasefire and a willingness to send whatever aid they wanted.

The Martian response was curt, and rage filled. They demanded the fleet to leave their space immediately and that when they were ready to talk, they would reach out. Rescue crews from all over Mars were converging on the crippled and dying colony. Temporary airlocks and repairs were made so that rescue crews could get into the city and try to save as many people as they could. Less than 35,000 people remained. Those survivors were brought to other colonies.

Salvage operations began to recover what they could from the colony and to reuse the materials for new construction. The Martian council decided the salvaged metal and ceramite would be used to make the MNS Revenge, a new battlecruiser that had been in the planning staged before the war.

Eventually when tempers had calmed down the Martian Council reached out to the UN and accepted their surrender. Mars demanded their sovereignty, mineral rights in the outer solar system and asteroid belt. The UN agreed to most of their demands without any hesitation, the two sides would haggle over mining rights for years. Reparations for the destroyed colony was a thornier subject. In principle the UN agreed they owed the new Martian nation, but the amount was contested.

Eventually America submitted an offer to the Martian council. They would pay 50% of their requested amount with the UN paying another 25%. They also agreed to sign over the mineral rights on ten asteroids that were known to have massive quantities of gold and palladium and held by the US government.

A peace treaty was formally signed within a year of the reparations deal had been agreed too. Four new cities were being built with five more in the planning phases. The existing cities all began massive amounts of building out their facilities.

The population exploded on Mars due a combination of home-grown growth along with a large amount of immigration to the red planet. By the end of 2125 the population hit 50 million people, thanks in large part to an exodus from Earth. Mars had finally achieved independence and had a voice at the UN. But the cost was high, too high for some on the Martian council, but they were now a recognized power in the solar system.