The Red Planet! Named after the God of War from Roman mythology. A source of inspiration and curiosity for humanity, Earth's neighbour: Mars. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians observed Mars coming periodically closer. Aristotle realized that Mars was occluded by the Moon, meaning that it was farther away. Chinese and Indian astronomers measured its diameter. Centuries later, Tycho Brahe measured the diurnal parallax of Mars, allowing Johannes Kepler to make a preliminary calculation of the distance between Earth and Mars. And in 1610, Galileo Galilei observed Mars through his primitive telescope.
By 19th century, astronomers saw "canals" on the surface of the planet, inspiring further speculation on life. It was thought that Mars had extensive vegetation and several seas. Yet no telescope was powerful enough to truly discern any details of the surface. Thus, when the Space Race between United States of America and the United Socialist Soviet Republics started, one side goal was Mars.
On 1st November 1962, the Soviet 2MV-4 No.2 probe, colloquially known as Mars-1, launched from Earth. While roughly hundred million kilometres from the Red Planet, it stopped transmitting. Soviet engineers chalked it up as an equipment failure.
On 28th November 1964, NASA attempted a close fly-by with Mariner 4. Seven and half-months later, the probe was closing in as communications again stopped. Unaware of the result of the earlier Soviet probe, NASA engineers were disappointed but also chalked it up as an equipment failure.
On 30th November 1964, Soviets tried again, with 3MV-4A, colloquially known as Zond-2. Yet the result was the same - complete loss of communication during approach.
This phenomenon continued throughout the 60's and 70's - Mariner 6 and 7 in 1969 and Mariner 9 in 1971 were lost by NASA and the Soviets lost 4M No.171 and 4M No.17 in 1971 and 3MS No.52S, 3MS No.53S, 3MP No.50 and 3MP No.51P in 1973, in addition to the numerous launch failures. Both agencies were disappointed and perplexed - similarly equipped and built Lunar and Venus missions had worked. Some astronomers speculated that an unseen micro-meteorite "cloud" between Earth and Mars could be responsible, yet the various probes had utilized different trajectories, always with the same outcome.
In 1975, NASA tried once more with the Viking 1 and 2 missions. Both missions were failures. Yet by this time, many telescopes were trained at Mars, in hopes of spotting any of the four craft closing in. While the crafts themselves were not seen, a small explosion was spotted by sheer dumb luck. This information caused tremors in NASA and it was quickly declared a national secret in the USA. NASA did not inform the Soviets. Arguments raged for years - was this an unlucky head-on collision with a meteorite or was it something more? In any case, future Mars missions were scrapped.
In 1988, the Soviets in turn attempted once more, this time to inspect Phobos with the 1F No.101 (Fobos-1) and 1F No.102 (Fobos-2) probes. The outcome was the same as for NASA. While Fobos-1 was lost due to software error soon after leaving Earth orbit, Fobos-2 was on a successful path to Mars when communications ceased. The VSK TV imagining system on the probe had returned a single picture just before contact was lost. Soviet imagining analysts were shocked to discover something that looked like an missile. As outlandish as it seemed, Occams Razor now mandated the Soviets to accept that Mars had intelligent life and that his life was hostile. NASA was not informed.
But in early 1989, Mars responded. Before humanity could react, large missiles appeared and wrecked large swaths of the planet. Curiously, they hit seemingly random locations: one missile struck the uninhabited Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia, while another irradiated the Gobi desert. Still, many countries were thrown back to the Dark Ages - especially as background radiation skyrocketed and immense amounts of dust were thrown in the atmosphere. Millions had died in the nuclear holocaust while millions more died afterwards due to radiation sickness, disease and starvation.
The surviving governments, even amid recovery operations, vowed revenge and to protect Earth from further strikes. The Earth Defence Alliance was formed, to operate as a global agency with supra-national powers and to co-ordinate future efforts. EDA would draw personnel and resources from all member nations and it immediately absorbed the remnants of NASA, ESA and the Soviet space program, that had survived. Its first task was to examine the remains of the Martian planet-busters, few of which had been duds. The discovery of Trans-Newtonian materials shocked the scientific community - but one outcome was that an effective defence and eventual revenge would be possible in a much shorter timeframe than what had been believed possible.
On 1st January 1990, EDA came into existence with a dual-purpose mission:
- 1. To protect humanity and Earth from Martian aggression
- 2. To wage war upon the Martians
With meagre resources, its first chairman - Kane Flynn - faced an insurmountable task. Would the Martians repeat their attack before any defences could be enacted? Only future would tell.
