Location from The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
The Martian Congressional Republic — a military-industrial civilization built around a centuries-long terraforming project. The dream of a green Mars defined Martian identity until the Ring Gates opened and made it pointless.
Mars is what happens when an entire civilization organizes around a single multigenerational project. Every Martian grows up knowing they will never see the sky turn blue, that their grandchildren's grandchildren might — and that this sacrifice gives their lives meaning. The terraforming project shaped everything: military service, scientific research, resource allocation, cultural identity. The MCRN is the system's most technologically advanced military. Martian ships are faster, tougher, and better armed than Earth's, compensating for a smaller population through engineering superiority. The Epstein drive was invented by a Martian. Martian power armor makes a single Marine worth a squad of UN soldiers. When the Ring Gates opened, Mars broke. Why spend generations making one planet habitable when thirteen hundred already are? The dream that held Martian society together evaporated, and the civilization began to hollow out. Population fled to colony worlds. Military assets went missing — sold or stolen by officers who saw no future worth defending. Rogue MCRN elements armed Marco Inaros's Free Navy, trading weapons for passage through the gates. Mars didn't fall to an enemy. It lost its reason to exist.
From orbit, Mars is still mostly red — ochre deserts and rust-colored canyons under a thin atmosphere that is slowly, generation by generation, being thickened. Domed cities cluster near the equator, their interiors green with engineered ecosystems. Military installations dot the surface, MCRN facilities blending into the landscape. Underground, tunnel cities extend for kilometers — Martians live below the surface in clean, efficient spaces designed by engineers who believe every resource serves the terraforming project. The sky is pink at dawn, dark rose at noon, and the sun is small.
Also known as: Mars, Martian Congressional Republic, MCR