Parasites

The parasites are small (2 mm in length) worm like creatures that were discovered by early settlers of the NASB colony in the Mars ice cap. The parasites are capable of withstanding tremendous ranges of temperature and hibernating for indefinite period of time. The true origins of the parasites is still a hotly debated topic with many believing that they are a transplant from another world that arrived on Mars in the distant past. The parasites are capable of burrowing into a human’s skin however they prefer to enter through the mouth or nose. Inside the parasite will slowly make to the host’s brain stem. Once at the brain stem the parasite will start exerting subtle control over the host in order to insure its survival. The parasite will replicate itself in the host and attempt to infect others. The replicated parasites will be produced in the infected human’s mouth and may be passed to others through saliva. The parasites successfully gained control over the NASB colony and infected the PSB colony before the ESB colonists detected them. The parasites have certain features that allowed them to evade most of the standard medical scanners. The ESB scientists who are considered the foremost experts on the parasites developed special scanners that permitted them to weed out the infected in the PSB and NASB colonies. An infected human can have the parasite removed with a delicate operation however if the parasite detects any danger to itself it will exert control over its host to violently resist. This led to the deaths of a number of infected colonists in the NASB colony when the ESB and PSB colonists cleaned it of infected personnel. The only parasites now in the colonies are those in labs being studied by the ESB scientists. It is thought that there may be more on Mars but they have yet to be found.

Rebellion

The ESB colonies are in the midst of a rebellion led by the ESB mine laborers. Only the officials of the ESB colony know the full details and they have refused to disclose anything to the other colonies. Rumors of military weapons being used by both sides has caused great concern amongst the other colonies that ESB has been violating the terms of Resolution 2734. There are also concerns over whether such an event could occur at either of the other colonies. The NASB and PSB colonies were in the midst of trying to pressure the ESB colony leaders to accept their help in resolving the dispute when the current crisis on Earth erupted.

Asteroid Mining

The Mars colonies have become the home base for an extensive effort to mine the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This belt contains an abundance of high quality ore that can be mined and returned to Mars or shipped to Earth for a profit. Each colony has their own fleet of mining ships that mine ore from the belt however the largest and most efficient fleet belongs to the Independent Asteroid Miners (IAM). This group pioneered the mining effort decades ago with just a few small ships. Since then they have grown into the largest most sophisticated mining operation ever seen. The taxes they have paid to the WPCC has provided it with a critical independent source of revenue that has allowed Mars Commerce to become one of the biggest space ports on Mars. The IAM also operate the largest orbital platform above Mars that is used as a docking station for the large ore vessels that do not land on Mars. The success of IAM has become a sore point with the security blocks that don’t like such an economically powerful entity having independence from them. Fortunately for the IAM, the potential economic damage to all if action was taken against them outweighs the aggravation of the blocks. This could change in the future however and the IAM has been pressing for a change in the Mars Colonization Charters to include it as an officially sanctioned entity.

The 2057 Disruption

In 2057 something happened on the surface of Mars that resulted in the destruction of every active sensor system on the planet and in orbit. The ensuing chaos cost some colonists their lives and the damage took years to repair. All indications were that a signal within the range of the sensor arrays but so powerful that it destroyed anything receiving it was emitted from somewhere on the Martian surface. Attempts to locate the source led to regions of Mars within the ESB colony territories. The ESB colony leaders although impacted like everyone else on the surface were less than cooperative at getting to the bottom of the mystery. Eventually the PSB and NASB scientists dropped the investigations as what they saw as stonewalling by ESB had halted any progress. There is a consensus amongst the NASB and PSB scientific community that the ESB colony scientists know much more about this event than they have revealed and given the destruction that occurred this makes them nervous.