Part II

The planet Mars has been changed enormously since man first set foot upon it two hundred centuries ago. Using a technology long lost, Mars was converted from a red desert into a fertile pale image of Earth using arcane terraforming procedures. Vast amounts of water and air were brought from who-knows-where to accomplish this transformation and the network of graviton satellites with their associated force shields were set up to protect the planet from solar radiation.

Once terraformed, Mars was settled by industrial cartels and their work forces, and soon this activity grew into the first human hive world. Unlike Earth, the planetary core of Mars has long since cooled and congealed so that its abundant riches can be mined directly, so the true wealth of Mars has always been its abundant gems, minerals, ores, and native metals. Mars thus became the center for industrial production and research, and its very name became synonymous with technical expertise and scientific advancement.

With the coming of the Age of Strife to Mars the process of disintegration began as it did on Earth, but because of the unique conditions on Mars events were to develop entirely differently. Because of lack of maintenance the planet’s atmospheric radiation shields soon broke down. Solar radiation poured onto the surface, destroying the fragile ecosystem and wiping out sparse vegetation which had taken millennia to cultivate. Plagues caused by high radiation levels slew most of the population. Of those that survived most became deranged by sickness, many turned into mutant zombies or gibbering cannibals. The destruction of the entire planet seemed likely, however this was not to be, for a new idea began to spread among the survivors, a religion of survival - the Cult Mechanicus dedicated to the Machine God.