1903: Astro-Transports

Whilst The Astronef proved more than capable of extra-terrestrial flight as demonstrated by Earl Redgrave's tour of the Solar System in 1895, the quantity of R-Gravitons needed for such travel restricted the numbers of astronef employed by the Great Powers in the ether at the turn of the century. Indeed, it was an older technology based on that employed by the Baltimore Gun Club with its Columbiad cannon after the American Civil War which was to prove the low cost answer to the Great Powers need to get troops to Mars following the Olympian invasion and subsequent Martian Rebellion of 1903.

All the Great Powers constructed huge cannon to fire shell like troop transports, first to Mars and subsequently the Moon, Venus and Ganymede. These transports have extremely strong hulls to withstand the pressure of firing and landing, but the crew have limited control of the craft in flight and a reasonably fixed course must be maintained to ensure the landing zone on the target planet is hit.

The transports, whilst escorted by astronef, do sport limited weaponry and indeed it was an astro-transport that engaged in the first space battle in humanities history when a convoy carrying troops to the Red Planet as part of the retaliatory invasion against the Olympians was attacked by Martian craft.

Life On Mars: Olympian Martians

It may seem surprising to some that neither the Redgrave expedition of 1895 nor the Peterson expedition of 1897 discovered the race of Martians that were to bring so much calamity to Earth in 1901 but these expeditions and the initial colonies founded by Britain and France were well away from the Nix Olympias in the Nordus Gordii region. Indeed the snow covered aspect of this region led initial observers to believe that this was one of the most inhospitable areas of the Red Planet and long abandoned by the Martian races initially discovered. With hindsight it is now understood that the other races feared the inhabitants of this region and kept as much distance as was possible.

The Olympian Martians are now believed to be one of the Elder Races of Mars and due to the ecological changes ravaging the planet, a race in decline at the time of the first human landings. Technologically advanced, the Olympians made much use of their perverted science to eke out the meagre resources of Mars and launch their failed invasion of Earth. Their susceptibility to the chemical weapons, initially used by the French, is well reported but the impact of la guerre miasmatique on the Red Planet has been less dramatic. Whether this is due to atmospheric peculiarities of the Martian atmosphere or the a new development in Olympian technology has not been ascertained.

Life On Mars: Aurorean Martians

The first sentient beings discovered on Mars by Earl Redgrave at Xanthe near Auorae Sinus, the Auroreans (as humans have called them) are a highly intelligent race, approximately seven foot tall, living in sprawling cities which are connected by the canal network.

Their scientific-totalitarian system of government has enabled the Auroreans to focus their development to scientific ends and in many respects their technology is on a par or better than that of the nations of earth.

However, their development has for many centuries been confined to dealing with the ecological problems of their dying planet and their military technology is of varied quality against the human colonists who have landed on the red planet. Some weapons such as the Martian electro-rifle are extremely deadly, whereas the Aurorean aeronef are generally of an inferior design. That said what they lack in quality, the Aurorean air-fleet makes up for in quantity.

picture: The Astronef rams and destroys an Aurorean aeronef