Cynosure.X International: Cyno's Role-Play: Supplements: Mars 2143 A.D.: Introduction

Cyno's Role-Play: Supplements: Mars 2143 A.D.

Introduction

During the twentieth century, humans speculate that there are aliens on Mars called Martians. Never have they thought that one day, they would colonize the planet itself, find no aliens there, and become the Martians of Mars.

By the end of the twenty-first century, a number of Mars colonies have developed into neo-metropolises. These neo-metropolises have domes around them to secure an atmosphere for the population. The few Mars colonies left are now specialized in different fields, such as a military base, or cyberoid development and test area.

Mars colonies, at the time, were newly colonized but self-sufficient. By the third newborn generation, the Mars colonists grew tiresome of Earth's rule. Why should they pay taxes to governments on Earth if they are now only relying on themselves to survive? They saw no point in being under the control of Earth, and having to pay taxes to a 'remote' government. They have been self-reliant all along. A 'local' government would better suit their needs; they declared themselves independent in 2117 A.D., Earth time.

Earth, itself, as the forefather, did not want to lose its newest colonies and sent in troops to suppress the uprise. Mars, of course, revolted. Earth was surprised to see that many Mars-native military personnels were supporting the revolt. Even more surprising was that they converted their maintenance cyberoids into military, combat cyberoids. Even unarmed cyberoids for build vessels were used in hand-to-hand combats.

Soon, United Nations signed contracts with many companies to produce military combat cyberoids to fight the war. After a three year revolution, United Nations Federation finally supressed the Mars colonies. After the bitter war, Mars colonies feel a coldness toward mother Earth. Even after the revolution, the rebel groups, now fugitives, reformed and joined high-tech bandits, preying on U.N. and merchant space vessels. To this date, conflicts still erupt from several Mars liberation groups.

Cyberoids on Mars

Mars is an extrordinary place for space-age cyberoid design, because there is a much thinner atmosphere around the planet than Earth. It is also bigger than the moon, which allow the cyberoid prototypes to be tested to its fullest potential. Cyberoids designed on Mars generally receive a performance boost in space.

The ability to create high-performance, space-capable cyberoids on Mars allows larger, more sophisticated vessels to be build in space. These vessels can not be build on high gravity-pull planets, like Earth, because thrusters are not powerful enough blast them off the surface.

Asteroid Belt

An orbit filled with more than 30,000 asteroids lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, The largest asteroid, Ceres, is just over 620 miles in diameter. Most of these asteroids are small. Some are even pebble-size.

The distribution of asteroid is not uniform in the belt. Rather, there exist several clear areas or gaps. Various high-tech bandits and space pirates have used the asteroid belts as hide-outs and bases of their smuggling operations.

Although the United Nations Federation have established an law enforcement program to alleviate the problem, the bandits are extremely successful at evading and neutralizing patrols.

The bandits and pirates fought mostly with modified versions of outdated U.N. equipment. Their fighters, ammunitions, and vessles were generally brought in by rebel members from the revolution. With limited amount of resources, the bandits are bound to lose.

Unfortunately, a number of sources, unknown to the U.N., are fueling their efforts. These sources could be a large corporation paying dues, another federation fighting the U.N., or even a politician playing political games. (GM can link the second possibility to the uprising federation in the SL2 scenario.)

Bandit Tribes

Bandit members are part of numerous unorganized, savage warrior tribes. Although they constantly trouble the U.N., they all have uncommon goals in mind. Some are involved purely for the money, some are trying to liberate U.N.'s control on Mars, others are simply trying to make a living for their family.

The bandit tribes often cooperate with one another against the U.N. However, the handful of tribes also fought each other regularily over disbutes and arguments. The lives of the bandit members are stressful. The continual pressure of winning, staying alive, and the fear of double-cross dim the rainbow at the end of a rainy day. The older bandit members are saving up their earnings for a chance to leave this destitute situation; to live a peaceful life somewhere else. At the other extreme, younger, more rebellious, amateur bandits are seeking desperately to get in for a taste of the action.

Corporate Defense

Unlike the U.N. vessels, most corporate merchant spacecrafts are unarmed. They are easy targets for space bandits to capture and plunder. A large number of new recruits are also gained in this fashion; many shipmates rather join the bandits, than to perish in space.

Over time, many smaller companies filed bankruptcy due to financial loses caused by the plunder. To ensure safety, U.N. provides escort services to all in need. However, to apply for and to receive U.N. service is an extremely difficult task, complicated by bureaucracy.

Several large corporations provide escort services for their own fleet of merchant vessels. United FOX is an example, they provides escort with the Cyclops CombatTitan prototypes that were never put into commercial production (refer to Earth 2143 A.D. supplement for details). Numerous companies specialized in escort services have surfaced. Even some bandit groups are providing escort services for a nominal fee. The result is a chaotic market that is up for grabs.