Seeing Red

by FiddleStixx

Mark Watney spent a year and a half on Mars trying to survive till someone could rescue him. When that happened, the media and NASA proclaimed him an American hero, but that wasn't the whole story. The true story about how one man with wit and potatoes on Mars is hidden away in NASA...but Mark Watney won't settle for that. (Based on the book and movie 'The Martian' by Andy Weir)

1. Prologue

N.A.S.A.

DATA ENTRY: WATNEY, Mark

DATE: 02/10/2020

I suppose you could say you've heard this story before. I mean, somebody would have told it, maybe abridged it, added some fake stuff. That's people's jobs after all. But the truth usually comes out after a while. Which is what is happening right now.

My name is Mark Watney and...and I survived for a year in the half on the most barren planet in the universe the human race has managed to find...Mars. Mars was my home for a year and an half, still to this day, I get recruits at NASA who've heard of me asking how I managed not to go mad on a planet with nothing.

Truth is, I didn't go mad, because by the time I left Mars, it didn't have nothing, but something. I grew potatoes, yes, but I don't mean that. I mean something different, something you wouldn't believe. That's why I'm writing this, to tell you what really happened for that year and a half that I was stuck on that wasteland for. I hope you're ready.