In the 2040s there was a Mars colonization rush. Over a dozen separate missions were launched by both governments and companies to explore and colonize the red planet. Most of the colonies succeeded, but when, in 2067, they became self-sufficient and declared their independence, the governments of the world were quick to brand them as traitors, terrorists, or radicals, whatever it took to keep them from causing unrest among the people of earth who were losing faith in their rulers. According to the official intelligence reports released to the public, they were planning on bombarding the surface with space debris and asteroid fragments to wipe out as many people as they could.
Though the people of Mars fought bravely, or if you believe the official story, cowardly assaulted the Earth military units with IEDs, surface-to-space missiles, and laser turrets, but in 2078 they were declared defeated, and the surviving ships of the Earth military units returned to Earth orbit. Space travel was quickly restricted, with few people being able to get a license to do anything more than take a sub-orbital flight above the atmosphere, and the orbital shipyards and space stations were abandoned.
My grandfather was the engineer aboard the Ares-7, the last military ship to leave Mars, as it was left there for another launch window so that they could verify the victory and clean up any surviving terrorists. Unknown to the governments, after returning to the surface and taking on a civilian job, he managed to build a computer and the other necessary equipment to hack into the Ares space launch facility and the Ares-7, both of which had been left floating in orbit. He worked to repair and maintain what he could with the robots on board, as he planned his escape. While on Mars, he'd seen what the locals were really like, and now he wanted to return, to help make up for the horror and pain he caused them, and to live as one of them.
While he was being too closely watched to ever leave Earth himself, even for a quick orbital flight, he knew that someday one of his descendents could carry out his mission. His mission to leave the planet was simple. He or his descendent would charter a sub-orbital flight and, while they were near apogee, a lander from the Ares-7 would dock with the ship. Modern sub-orbital ships were based on landers from the Mars colonization days, so they would be compatible. Everyone that was going to Mars would then board the shuttle and return to the Ares-7, where they would use it to go to the red planet.
We'll start off in a sub-orbital zero-gee joy-flight I, as his only surviving descendant, chartered with his life insurance money. We'll take a few bags each, and then leave for the station. After the ship launches, I'll time-skip to just before we enter Mars orbit, when we come out of the ship's outdated cryo-pods, and then head down to the surface to build our colony, salvage what we can, and make contact with any survivors.
Some of the colonists from 100 years earlier will have survived by building in old lava tubes, and will be our enemy unless we can talk them down. Also, they'll have started terraforming with lifeforms engineered to work in the martian atmosphere and soil, using ice as water.
Though the people of Mars fought bravely, or if you believe the official story, cowardly assaulted the Earth military units with IEDs, surface-to-space missiles, and laser turrets, but in 2078 they were declared defeated, and the surviving ships of the Earth military units returned to Earth orbit. Space travel was quickly restricted, with few people being able to get a license to do anything more than take a sub-orbital flight above the atmosphere, and the orbital shipyards and space stations were abandoned.
My grandfather was the engineer aboard the Ares-7, the last military ship to leave Mars, as it was left there for another launch window so that they could verify the victory and clean up any surviving terrorists. Unknown to the governments, after returning to the surface and taking on a civilian job, he managed to build a computer and the other necessary equipment to hack into the Ares space launch facility and the Ares-7, both of which had been left floating in orbit. He worked to repair and maintain what he could with the robots on board, as he planned his escape. While on Mars, he'd seen what the locals were really like, and now he wanted to return, to help make up for the horror and pain he caused them, and to live as one of them.
While he was being too closely watched to ever leave Earth himself, even for a quick orbital flight, he knew that someday one of his descendents could carry out his mission. His mission to leave the planet was simple. He or his descendent would charter a sub-orbital flight and, while they were near apogee, a lander from the Ares-7 would dock with the ship. Modern sub-orbital ships were based on landers from the Mars colonization days, so they would be compatible. Everyone that was going to Mars would then board the shuttle and return to the Ares-7, where they would use it to go to the red planet.
We'll start off in a sub-orbital zero-gee joy-flight I, as his only surviving descendant, chartered with his life insurance money. We'll take a few bags each, and then leave for the station. After the ship launches, I'll time-skip to just before we enter Mars orbit, when we come out of the ship's outdated cryo-pods, and then head down to the surface to build our colony, salvage what we can, and make contact with any survivors.
Some of the colonists from 100 years earlier will have survived by building in old lava tubes, and will be our enemy unless we can talk them down. Also, they'll have started terraforming with lifeforms engineered to work in the martian atmosphere and soil, using ice as water.
