Historical Archive: The Martian City-State Wars

Federation Reference Classification: Level II – Public Historical Record Compiled: 2773 CE by the Bureau of Colonial History.

I. Prelude to Conflict (2301 – 2357 CE)

The Ark Ship Zheng He made planetfall on Mars in 2301 CE, carrying roughly 40,000 ethnic Chinese colonists led by Admiral Dr. Guo Zhihao Xiaoming Yahui . Under the Original Colonial Charter, a loosely republican structure emerged:

• President: Executive head of the colony, elected every five years.
• Rainmasters (Governors): Leaders of individual cities responsible for managing their domes and life support infrastructure—water, power, air, and food.

Water, being the lifeblood of survival, gave Rainmasters absolute power within their domes. While the President had nominal authority over Mars as a whole, actual power fractured at the city level as populations grew and infrastructure expanded.

By 2335 CE, cities had become political and economic fiefdoms, each with its own security forces, trade treaties, and resource hoards. Tensions grew over the subterranean city atmospheric processor control, food and water rights.

Second Wave of Colonists & the Final 36

The ark ships SS Anastasia, SS Verdant and SS Montgomery carrying 20, 000 colonists each, all from the North American Commonwealth made planetfall on Mars in June of 2350 CE. Out of the original 40,000 colonists, merely 36 lived. The Final 36 are revered, and to be descended from one of them is a high mark of honor and prestige.

II. Escalation & Outbreak (2357 CE)

The spark came in Xianlu Dome in 2357 CE, when a sabotage event at the Helium-3 atmospheric cracking plant left hundreds dead. Accusations flew between Xianlu, Hongcheng, and Yutu Domes. Within six months:

• Four city militias had mobilized armored ground crawlers.
• At least three cities nationalized shared water pipelines.
• Trade between domes effectively ceased.

The Rainmasters declared unilateral sovereignty, turning Mars into a patchwork of armed micro-states. The central presidential authority collapsed after the assassination of President Wu Xianming during the Red Dust Conference .

III. The City-State Wars (2357 – 2361 CE)

A. Character of the War

The conflict was high intensity but localized, defined by:

• Armored ground engagements and tunnel warfare around aquifer access points.
• Cyber-strikes on atmospheric processors and life-support infrastructure.
• Widespread sabotage of fusion reactors and power distribution hubs.
• Extensive use of tactical fission weapons (0.1–5 kt), especially against surface facilities.

Cities acted as independent states with:

• Standing militias ranged from 2,000–15,000 troops.
• Rapidly assembled fusion-powered armored crawlers. (Some of their track marks are still visible on the surface of Mars today.)
• Surface-to-orbit denial systems to prevent external interventions.

Bombardments destroyed much of Mars’s early infrastructure, making the surface largely uninhabitable. The underground cities survived but were heavily scarred.

IV. Key Events

V. Casualties and Impact

• Estimated fatalities: 1.7 million (approximately 20% of the Martian population)
• Surface infrastructure loss: 82% destroyed or rendered unusable
• Atmospheric processors: 61% damaged or captured during the war
• Water aquifers: 43% contaminated, later reclaimed through nanofiltration projects

The legacy of tactical nuclear strikes created vast scar zones across the Tharsis region, still Geiger-active centuries later.

VI. Post-War Resolution (2361 – 2365 CE)

Following the Treaty of Valles , the surviving Rainmasters ceded sovereignty to a new Mars Federal government, creating:

• A unified Mars Federation Government
• Establishment of the Mars Senate, Congress and President
• Federal control of life-support systems and water distribution
• Dissolution of city militias and the creation of the Mars Federation Defense Forces

In 2365 CE, Suisse Mars and the Mars Consortium Bank introduced the digital Mars-Suisse Credit to replace the Mars Dollar (M$), stabilizing postwar economic chaos.

The Rainmaster title survived, but only as a ceremonial post tied to city administration—their life-and-death authority was abolished.

VII. Historical Legacy

The City-State Wars are remembered as:

• A foundational trauma of Martian identity
• A warning of the dangers of fragmented life-support sovereignty
• The catalyst for the rise of megacorporate banking (Suisse Mars Corporate Dossier) and a powerful centralized state

The public school net teaches the war as a lesson in resource unity. Private intelligence circles remember it as when economic power overtook political power on Mars.

“He who controls the water controls life. He who controls credit controls everything else.”
— President Mei Lian, 2365 CE