On September 30th 2015, Sally Watney's great-grandfather Matthew Carter became the eight man to land on Mars as the Captain of the Minerva 7 mission. While Matthew Carter died years before Sally was born, in many ways was intimate with her ancestor through the stories shared by her grandfather. He would give her vivid tales of life on the red planet, of how decades before the Universal Century began, mankind became a proper interstellar species by placing its first steps and laying the first settlements on another planet. Humanity may be centered on space colonies now, but they had gone so much farther in the past and in time they would settle other planets and moons across the galaxy as they were meant to.

These fond memories, along with an obsession to pour over all literature and footage of mankind's journey into the stars made Sally develop a deep love for space exploration, in particular mankind's journey to and life on Mars.

Unfortunately for Sally, it seemed she lived in an age where mankind collectively didn't give a damn about exploring. Instead of reaching for the stars and pushing the boundaries of possibility as they did generations prior, they were content to have mediocre lives instead of steel cylinders were they would be born, live, and die.

While this wasn't completely true as humanity's presence in the outer solar system was slowly but surely increasing, these were mostly done through private corporate means with there seeming to exist an invisible line between Jupiter and Saturn that humanity could not cross.

At first Sally attempted to break this stagnation personally by traveling to Mars and starting a new life there. Unfortunately life as it often did took on many unexpected paths, and due to many personal developments, though mostly positive with the formation of ties in new friends and family that she could not readily abandon, Sally choose to stay within the Earth sphere, more specifically Side 3.

Not being able to experience her dream of living on Mars, Sally would instead fulfill her desires partially by working for the Colony Public Corporation as a logistical director involved in supply and trade between the Earth and Mars spheres. If she couldn't travel to Mars, then at least she could support the dreams of those who wanted to.

For many years Sally was content to stay in this role. This would all change when she had an encounter with a soul from another world, one that would not only change the course of her life, but the history of the solar system.

March 25th, 0067. Minerva. Autonomous Republic of Munzo. Sally Watney POV

Last week Sally had received the most surprising phone call of her life when then Secretary of Colonization Gihren Zabi had called her during work.

While Sally was not as politically zealous as her fellow citizens of Side 3, she was not so ignorant as to be unaware of who Gihren was, especially when the hit and run on him made headlines for weeks at the start of the year.

Before she first talked to him, Sally didn't really have much of a high opinion on the Degwin's eldest. She assumed that he got his position out of pure nepotism, yet thanks to firsthand experience of his policies in her work in the CPC, he didn't seem too incompetent for the usual corrupt politician. So long as he did his job and it didn't interfere with the corporation, Sally didn't care who occupied the cabinet post. Besides, at the end of the day Side 3's government would always be monopolized by the Social Democrats, they were all Zeon's bootlickers, they were only different in personality.

Not having voted in the past decade and barely paying attention to domestic politics beyond those of colonial infrastructure and inter-side trade, Sally had no idea how she had gotten on Gihren's radar, but somehow she managed to grab the attention of the then-rising star of the Social Democrats.

During the phone call, Gihren had stated that he had an extremely lucrative job offer for her, one that would be vital to Side 3's future and its role in the solar system. While Sally didn't have any want to leave her job, she decided to humor the Zabi and agree to his request for an informal interview.

The fact that he wished to do so at the Museum of Martian history should have been the first red flag.

If Sally was blind to how much Gihren was interested in her, she had no illusions when she walked into the main exhibit and saw Gihren chatting with her wife Susan, one of the tour guides at the museum with the two having met several years ago over their shared loved of Mars.

When Sally saw the two together, she assumed the worst and thought that this was one of those cliche political ploys on TV where the crooked politician would threaten you with your family in order to give into your demands, her already low opinion of Side 3's government furthering any paranoia.

Sally marched over to the two and was ready to tell Gihren off, only for her to fortunately be met with her wife's smiling gaze, disarming her of her anger and Susan's lack of distress partially alleviating her of her fears.

"Hey honey!" Susan said, walking over to her wife and giving her a peck on the cheek, this further calmed Sally when she saw that Susan had no signs of distress and appeared her usual cheery self. She looked over her wife's shoulder and watched Gihren, who at the moment appeared to be ignoring the scene and was reading one of the exhibit's many signs.

"Hi Susan. So do you know who you're..."

"Oh yeah, I know he's the Secretary, he introduced himself an hour ago and asked for a private tour. You'd be surprised at how many questions he asked for a Secretary of Colonization. Far better than elementary kids I get every other week."

"I may be a Secretary of Colonization ma'am, however my expertise lies more with O'Neil cylinders than terrestrial bodies and I've only just started research last year." Gihren said, entering himself into the conversation with an outstretched hand, which Sally cautiously shaked.

"Gihren Zabi Ms. Watney. I'd like to thank you so much for accepting my offer. I have a lot of candidates in mind but so few of them are either citizens of Side 3 or have your collective experience or skills." Gihren said, once more presumably referring to that interview that he wanted to give.

Susan perked up at the statement, "Oh I should probably leave you two to it." She said, giving Sally another light kiss, "We'll have to talk about it more when we get home but I think you're really going to love his offer and I hope you accept. I'll see you later!" She said, walking off to tend to her other duties now that Gihren had completed the tour.

The whole exchange left Sally in a great deal of confusion. When she had applied to the CPC it was a simple process where you turned in your application and met with your future boss in his office, now whatever the heck this was.

Was it bad for Sally that this was one of the least weird aspects of Gihren's personality based on her future interactions with him?

"So what the hell is going on?" Sally brazenly demanded, not caring of any potential repercussions from her uncouth attitude as the worst that could happen from this scenario was going back to her job that she was content with.

"Now I know my conduct so far isn't exactly professional, but I assure you that by now means am I trying to use your wife as some underhanded tactic. What I wanted to do was to get a good gauge of your character, who you are as a person. From what Susan has told me, though biased she may be, it seems like so far I've made the good choice. I also thought that the current setting would help to add to my plea for you to take the offer." Gihren said.

"And what exactly is this job offer you're talking about? You know most people do this by email."

"Follow me and I'll explain." Gihren said cryptically, walking back into the exhibit. Having no choice, Sally reluctantly followed in his stead, resigning to just how much he was able to drive the conversation.

"Tell me Ms. Watney do you believe that the Universal Century is stagnant?" Gihren asked with a straight face.

Sally frowned, unsure if this was some kind of a test or some question of asinine belief like Deikun's rants about gravity. "I beg your pardon sir? I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the Federation's policies, though I don't know how to call them-"

"Let me explain." Gihren interrupted. "When I am referring to stagnation I am not talking about simple politics, economics, culture, or anything similar. I am talking about the stagnation that the Universal Century has had on humanity, more specifically on our drive for space exploration and presence in the solar system. In half a century most of our population was moved to space, and while it was mostly done through force in the end we have created an entire civilization of nine billion Spacenoids in pockets around Earth whereas before two centuries there was absolutely nothing in the Lagrangian points.

In twelve years we went from sending a satellite into space to putting a man onto the moon. In a little more than two decades after WWIII we put a man on Mars. Right after that we began to establish a presence in Jupiter with probes being sent from Europa all the way to Pluto.

In short we as a species are able to make these incredible leaps in just a few short years. Within just a lifetime we went from stuck on a single planet to masters of the solar system. Despite all of this potential, instead of planting our flag on the outer solar system and taking our first steps into the galaxy, we are content to live mediocre lives within the Earth sphere, entire generations trapped within the Sides while the elite of Earth fill themselves with pleasure on the homeworld. This is the true crime of the so-called Universal Century, our collective enslavement to stagnation as a society. "

Sally was significantly surprised at his words, as in a short speech Gihren Zabi had eloquently expressed Sally's same thoughts on the Universal Century, how humanity was wasting its potential by stuffing itself in the Sides rather than going out and exploring the galaxy as they were meant to. Sure they were limited to the solar system as FTL, if it was even possible, was most likely generations away. Still any chance of that happening would be pushed back centuries if humanity continued in its current state.

"I also believe that the Universal Century is stagnant, sir. However, I am rather surprised to hear this coming from the son of one of Deikun's closest supporters, wouldn't it produce a big scandal if I leaked your words to the media." Sally said, trying to further test Gihren.

The Zabi simply shrugged at her words, "Don't get me wrong, I love the colonies and I take great pride in our identity as Spacenoids. We may have been forced to live in the Sides, but we took that oppression and created homes where we can live and create new and better lives for our families. While I don't believe we should return to Earth anytime soon, I do believe it's a waste to simply sit here in the Sides and not exploit the countless asteroids, planetoids, moons, and more that inhabit our solar system for the greater good of mankind. I have made my thoughts known to Deikun, and while he does disagree with me on some levels, I think I can convince him over to my cause in due time.

This of course leads me to the purpose of our meeting, and to not waste further time, I'll be rather frank and state it now." Gihren said, stopping himself in front of a rather large collection of five meter models of Mars that showed the various stages of terraforming, all hanging from the ceiling.

"What I want is for Zeon to be the greatest nation within the solar system. To do that, I'll have to expand our borders beyond the Lagrange to acquire enough resources for self-sufficiency, so that we will never be tied down completely to the wants of Earth. We have our ties to the moon such as Granada, but there is only so much that the Federation will allow for us to do in their "backyard".

Fortunately there is one place within the entire solar system where we can get the resources of Earth without stepping foot on the planet, A fourth rock around the son where we can play colonist and still keep to the tenets of contolism. I want for Zeon to colonize Mars, and I want you Sally Watney to be the Governor of our first colony." Gihren stated.

When all was said and done, Sally felt extremely stupid that she didn't put the dots together on what was such an obvious plan.

Her mouth was left gaping for a few seconds, trying to formulate a response over the sheer shock of the statement. "You want to colonize Mars?!"

Gihren gave off a low chuckle, "Well I am the Secretary of Colonization. Colonizing new places and adding them to Side 3 is part of my job."

"But...is this even legal? Is the public even going to support this? This isn't the same as building a colony and parking it next to the existing Side, you're running a colony that'll take six to eight weeks for transportation at best in a good part of the year!"

"I've looked into the Articles of Colonization, and there is absolutely nothing prohibiting a Side from colonizing a terrestial planet, especially since the Federation already allows private groups the right to settle Mars. Earth may despise us, but what I am offering them is a chance to develop Mars at our taxpayer's cost, giving them a proper planet free of charge. I'm well aware of the logistical difficulties and would not have come here if I thought it impossible. As for public opinion, all we need to do is to get one single man on board. If Zeon Zum Deikun says yes, then the nation will contract a bad case of Martian fever.

Sally Watney, I choose you because you are one of the few people within Zeon who has the most experience in relation to Martian matters. You may have never set foot on the planet, but you know everything that there is about our distant cousins and your years in the CPC speak for itself. If my research is correct, your great-grandfather was one of the first people to ever set foot on Mars. I'm sure that nothing would make him prouder than having his great-granddaughter be the leader of Zeon's first colony on the planet, ensuring that Mars transforms from a Wild West to a proper civilization.

You have two choices Ms. Watney. You can either say no and return to your old way of life, something that while respectable shall leave you absent on one of the greatest adventures in our nation's history. Or you can choose to say yes and help place Zeon's footprint on the former red planet. The choice is yours." Said Gihren.

Sally stood there speechless. Ever since she was a little girl she had wanted to one day follow in the footsteps of her ancestor and travel throughout the solar system. While the Universal Century was far from the archaic state of manned spaceflight at the turn of the millennium, it was not a time of equality as rarely did most Spacenoids ever leave their respective Sides. Yet here she stood now, a nepotistic secretary waltzing in and offering the opportunity of the lifetime to fulfill her childhood dream.

While rationally the correct response would've been to ask for some more time, Sally choose to act on instinct, a technique that had only given slight amounts of failure in the past before.

"When do I start?"

September 9th, 0067. Zum City. Autonomous Republic of Munzo

Before this day, Sally Watney had a slightly unfavorable opinion of Zeon Zum Deikun. While she didn't have strong feelings about the man persay, she was always disturbed by his rants about imaginary psychics called Newtypes, his psuedo-science nonsense on how humanity completely leaving Earth was going to magically heal it, and how he hundreds of millions of her fellow Spacenoids were devoted to them like they were in a cult. Still, Zeon had never affected her personally and considering the number of crooked politicians that had popped up in the Earth sphere since the Universal Century began, she would happily take crazy over crooked any day.

This was before she stood in the same room with him for a long period of time in her presentation on how a colonization of Mars was necessary for Side 3. Here her feelings for Zeon morphed from mild disapproval to hatred. Well...maybe hate was too strong a word, but currently she was at heavily dislike and was going towards there.

Going into this pitch, she knew that she would be having a tough time due to how entrenched Zeon's belief in Contolism was. Still, she had managed to deal through years of various crappy bosses and co-workers in the CPC, so she thought that it wouldn't be any problem for her.

She was wrong.

While Zeon wasn't the most hostile person that she ever met, from the first second that she began her presentation it seemed like he wanted to find any and all reasons to shoot her idea down. While there were several legitimate arguments that he brought forward, at the end of the day they were all fronts to tie back to Newtypes, a bullshit concept of psyhics that lived within the confines of his mind.

She got several ridiculous questions like, "How would Newtypes develop on Mars?" "Are we sure that no space colonies can't be built within the Lagrange sphere?" "Won't our presence deeply scar the environment?" It was endless madness and a credit to Sally's professionalism that she didn't strangle Zeon right then and there.

Thankfully, it seemed that Gihren's patronage of the project proved to be an immense blessing as while he was extremely cautious and weary around her, he relaxed and saw common sense when Gihren injected himself and argued on behalf of the expedition. Whenever she made a strong point, Gihren would further elaborate into greater detail and twist the data into philosophy on how this fit in perfectly with Contolism. While Zeon still seemed to be subconsciously against, he was starting to relax and get around to the idea of maybe getting on board, which was a huge improvement from the start.

Outside of Zeon and Gihren, there were two other people within the room, Degwin Zabi and Jimba Ral, Deikun's hands and the two leaders of their respective wings of the party.

For someone who would later go on to commit the worst terror attack since the Laplace incident, Jimba hadn't made too terrible of an impression on Sally that day, herself being beyond shocked that he would later dare to assassinate the Zabis and so many of his colleagues in such an open manner.

For the most part he had been rather polite with her, but like Deikun seemed to be opposed to the project. From what Sally had observed, this wasn't out of any malice or hard opposition, but rather of his dislike from the Zabis. He barely bothered to hide his dislike of Degwin and Gihren, sending dirty glances to them every other minute while Deikun was completely oblivious. All of his objections were based around opposing any point of support that Gihren made, rarely if ever having any concrete opinions of his own.

Then there was Degwin Sodo Zabi, the future Sovereign. During the entire meeting, Degwin had been playing the neutral card much to her surprise. Instead of outright supporting his son, Degwin was quite throughout most of the presentation and while at times spoke in favor of her and Gihren, at others he played devil's advocate and questioned their plans in a fair manner.

If Sally had to guess, Degwin was either not completely on board with his son's plan, or he was trying to present himself as an unbiased third party to persuade Zeon to support the mission out of logic and reason, ganging up on Jimba's side with a 2 to 1 advantage, a rather smart play considering Gihren's involvement automatically made him biased.

Sally strongly hoped for the latter. While Gihren had started beforehand that his father would support their goal in the end, it wouldn't exactly be the first time that a father and son refused to cooperate on an issue.

"Thus by the 0100, we'll have left a definitive footprint on Mars that shall see Zeon Martians as a strong and critical minority of the planet that shall push human civilization in the sphere on a comparable standard of living to that of Earth. With its resources from the Martian settlements and stronger access to the Belt and Jupiter, Side 3 shall see a continual state of self-sufficiency, allowing us to export our prosperity to our brothers and sisters across the Sides towards the ultimate goal of complete autonomy thanks to an eternal brotherhood of Spacenoids." Sally said, finishing her speech.

Gihren had told her beforehand that if she wanted to get onto Zeon's good side easily then she needed to play the Spacenoid Nationalist card as much as possible to make Zeon believe that this would somehow tie into his goals of Contolism. It greatly annoyed Sally with every line of the script she read, though if it was for Zeon's approval, she would happily preach the gospel of Newtypes in order to do it.

A polite amount of applause followed where after the room settled into a tense silence as they waited on Zeon's definitive answer. After a small period of time, Degwin took the initiative to speak first.

"As you see sir, what my son and Ms. Watney have planed is no pipe dream and if anything is more possible to us now than Apollo was to the Americans. By 0080 the colonies shall have paid for their cost while turning a profit of billions of credits at minimum, we shall have a safe waypoint for missions from Axis and could use Mars as a stepping stone to other areas of expansion in the belt, we can have luxury resources in the hands of the common citizen such as wood, cash crops and rare ores, not to mention a potential ground where we can have voluntarily emigration to prevent any possibility of overpopulation within the Side. We shall have our own private Earth while mother Gaia continues its healing without our damaging it." Degwin said, showing Sally that he was firmly on board.

As soon as Degwin finished speaking, Jimba inserted himself with a strong protest, "Whatever potential advantages come from this childish play at explorer shall be too little for the enormous strain on the budget. We are talking about 150 billion at minimum to establish our presence. That's 150 billion credits that could go to welfare, education, infrastructure, necessities that our citizens need now and what we have been providing for the past decade unlike some Sides such as Hatte and Moore. Why endanger the citizens livelihood and put us in fiscal jeopardy over Gihren's whims?"

"Jimba, nothing great within human history has ever come at a cheap price tag. Where would we be right now if the early Federation decided that space colonization was too expensive, we would all be cramped on Earth and dragging the planet to an early death. The risk is there I will not deny it, but the rewards make any fiscal hindrance nothing in comparison. Just from the closer connection to the Belt in Jupiter, we can receive tens of billions in the budget at minimum from the new influx of raw materials. Unlike our current trade with Earth where we are scarring the homeworld for large expenses to enrich the Federal fat cats, we can have access to our personal paradise without the middlemen of Lhasa and Los Angeles." Gihren said.

"Spacenoids are meant to live in space. Newtypes can't be born on Mars!" Jimba declared.

"We are receiving proof of Terran-born Newtypes and if a Newtype can live their whole life on Earth then they can do so in Mars." Gihren countered

The next minute descending into a high energy verbal spar between Gihren and Jimba while Degwin tried to present himself as the peacemaker. At this point Sally at her most tense and thought that everything was going to go downhill from here, until an unlikely salvation came to her rescue.

"Enough!" Shouted Zeon, causing the two bickerers to quiet at the demand of their Prime Minister. "Both sides have presented their argument and as such I have made my decision." Began Zeon, everyone else waiting in high anticipation in the few moments before he began to speak again.

"While the fiscal burden is great and I am not entirely comfortable with the idea of having our citizens not live in space colonies as they are meant to, at the same time this does have the potential to uplift our economy to self-sufficiency and serve as a viable testing ground for terrestrial Newtypes, a model to show those who still cling to Earth that even they can fulfill their potential.

So what I would like to do for now is to present it to Parliament, and if they agree with the proposal then it shall have my backing." Said Zeon.

The reactions around the room to this statement were heavily mixed with Jimba Ral having a heavy sigh of defeat while looking towards the Zabis in loathing, Degwin having a mildly look of content, Gihren being extremely pleased, and Sally in a moment of unprofessionalism hollering in glee.

She was now one step closer to fulfilling her dream.

September 30th, 0070. ZSS Oregon. Mars Sphere.

"Come on, come on!" Sally begged, pulling on her wife with great excitement as she pushed forward with momentum to guide the two to the observational deck.

"You do know that we still have several hours before we begin orbital descent right?" Questioned Susan, though despite the small annoyance she was happy to see her beloved act so excited and childish in what was a rarity for the past couple of years.

"I had to wait two hours for a certain sleeping beauty to wake up and every minute till we drop I'm going to be too busy coordinating the flotilla. This is one of the few moments of free time I have right now and I'm not going to waste it." Sally replied.

When leaving the Earth sphere, there were two different methods of travel. One was for a ship to have all of its occupants stay conscious during the long voyage, forcing them to delicately ration the food and other various supplies and try to keep themselves entertained for such a long distance.

The other and more quicker way in a manner of speaking was to use cryopods to put the passengers to sleep for weeks or months on end until they reached their destination. For the Minerva Mission as Zeon's colonization attempt was called, the latter was necessary in order to not waste supplies to sustain over 12,000 colonists for a long time, the journey til now having been seventy-one days.

As the head of the mission Sally had been one of the first to awaken to take stock and help ensure that the rest of the journey would be a smooth travel. Due to her wife's non-essential role as a "freelance laborer", Sally had to wait a while for Susan to wake up so the two could partake in what was a once in a lifetime experience for most humans.

After a couple of minutes of traveling, the two finally reached their destination, a small 23 meter lounge with the best view on the ship.

"Wow." Both spouses said breathlessly at the same time.

In an appearance not too dissimilar from the view of Earth from Luna, before them in an optical viewpoint lied a giant blue and green ball. Unlike Earth which was in many ways an ocean world with the continents as titanic islands that partially covered the planet, Mars was for the most part one gigantic supercontinent that dominated a majority of the surface. In the Northern hemisphere a third of the planet was covered by oceans, a great wet hairline for the planet's "face". Similar to Earth, two great arctic regions covered the northern and southernmost areas of Mars.

While many Spacenoids liked to claim that Mars was a pale imitation of Earth, to Sally it was the most beautiful sight in the entire solar system.

"It's crazy, I can't help but think this is a dream and I'm going to wake up any second." Sally said, yelling a loud 'ouch' a second later when Susan pinched her on the arm.

"It's not a dream, this is reality and it's all thanks to your hard work. You may not be the first Martian, but thanks to what we're doing there will be millions more in the future and later on Mars will be Earth's equal and not better. After all there was Cortez after Columbus right?"

Sally rolled her eyes at the simile, "I don't exactly like being compared to a nutjob conqueror that wiped out the Aztecs, but I appreciate the sentiment. Still, all of this is nothing if I don't have you by my side. There's no one else I'd spend the rest of my days on this brave new world with." Sally said.

The two shared a deep kiss and then for the next ten minutes did little else but sit in silent bliss, watching the green world as it slowly rotated on its axis.

The coming days would be hard and full of struggle, but for now, they had a blessed peace as the two future Martians prepared to plant Zeon's footprint on the planet.

October 5th, 0070. Vespucci. Mars.

"Brrrnnnggg! Brrrnnnggg!"

At the sound of the loud alarm, Sally dropped her current tools and grabbed her phone out of her pocket, the close sound making her deduct that it came from her device.

Sure enough, her alarm ran off to its set time, telling Sally that it was time for her to begin making her way to the scheduled meeting.

After a couple of minutes to drop what she was doing and get back into appropriate attire, Sally climbed into one of the nearby rovers and took off to go meet the Planetary Governor and head of the Federal garrison at the designated airfield, leaving behind a large field full of staple crops that were being planted for the past couple of days.

According to the terms that the Republic of Munzo and later Principality of Zeon negotiated with the Federation, Zeon was to have full control over Vespucci Island, the largest island of Mars in the vast northern Galilee Ocean, containing roughly the same surface area as Iberia.

The Minerva Mission had elected to land in the middle of the island around a large eight kilometer lake that would be the basis for the first settlement. Here in the colony (with the final name being divided between New Louisiana and Zabiland), the Minerva Mission would extract the majority of the raw materials and future agriculture on the island. It was hopeful that by 0072 a second settlement would be built on Vespucci's coast that would allow them open access to the Galilee Ocean for aquatic resources and trade with the mainland settlements.

So far the work had been performed extraordinary well, thanks in no part to the efforts of the brigade of Zeon Army Engineers that had been sent with the colonists. They were roughly two days ahead of schedule and by the end of the year would have a fully self-sufficient town, with the colonists moving out of the temporary shelters that had been set up next to the ships and into proper homes, each house having enough space that only the richest of Spacenoids could dream of affording inside of the colony.

Thanks to their rapid development, Sally had set aside time to personally involve herself in getting the colony's farms running. While they had enough food to be stocked for three months, the crops would ensure that they had a varied and stable diet, allowing them to set aside hundreds of acres for cash crops that would be sent back to Side 3 by bulk.

When Sally had arrived at the airfield, she found a man waiting for her. This person was a tall and rather bulky figure of Arab descent with a deep brown tan and a heavy black beard on his person. He sported impressive muscles that with the lowered gravity of the planet were sure to perform impressive feats that would overcome an Olympian in Earth's gravity.

Unlike most of his fellow soldiers in Side 3, he didn't wear an elaborate dress uniform based eerily on the fascists of Old, rather adopting a plain and spartan casual fatigue that simply sported a forest green camo pattern with his only sign of rank being a patch with wings on his collar.

This was Colonel Sadam Kattan, the head of the 17th Brigade of Combat Engineers in the Zeon Army, and her relative partner in the management of the colony.

Getting out of her rover after parking it, Sally marched over to her martial compatriot, himself giving off a light nod when she neared him.

"Colonel." Sally greeted.

"Governor." Sadam said in return. "I see you have been playing farmer recently." Sadam quipped, his head pointing to the heavy dirt on her boots that she embarrassingly forgot to clean off.

Sally in light embarrassment tried to scrap the dirt off of her boots with Sadam laughing in mild amusement. "Well Colonel, while I don't mind the rations I'd rather have organic meals that have some flavor in them, even if it's just once a day." Sally said.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about Governor, I'm rather proud to be working with someone who isn't afraid to get down and dirty. The problem with most leaders these days is that they are too far removed from reality and like to play with lives in their own bubble. Doing some hard labor, even if for just a short period, does wonders in humility and leadership. One may need to look no further than our great Sovereign and how his fantastic rise has lead to the glorious Principality as it is today." Sadam said.

For the next seven minutes the two made idle small talk, waiting for the arrival of the Federation delegation.

While Sally didn't mind Sadam as a person and he had caused no issues for the mission, there were some aspects of his personality that were rather off-putting at times.

Like almost every man and women within the 17th Brigade, the man seemed to be a Zabi fanatic who in every conversation would praise the dynasty as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and if it wasn't that then he would sing the praises of the late Zeon Deikun and the people of Zeon as a whole. If it wasn't for him sharing with her that he was an active Muslim, Sally would think that he was part of the Zabi cult that seemed to infest much of Side 3.

While Sally would be forever grateful to Gihren and his father Degwin for becoming patrons of the Mission and allowing for her lifelong dream to come true, her admiration for the Zabis was one of healthy respect and nothing more. Yet to many of her fellow citizens, it seemed that the Zabis were gods among men, with Deikun himself turning into some sort of mythic messiah figure when it turned out that his crazy bullshit about Newtypes was completely true and tens of millions of psychics lived among the Earth sphere.

Did the Zabi family cause Side 3 to enter its greatest period of growth and success since its founding? Sure, it was hard to deny the facts and while they had an autocratic streak, the Zabis were damn good at their jobs and proved that the referendum was a right choice. Still, the high devotion that her fellow Spacenoids gave to a small family was still incredibly unhealthy to Sally and reminded her of the worst aspects of Nationalism from the 20th century of old. It was one thing to love your nation, but to devote your entire life to its success and well-being was no way to live.

Sally hoped that the time spent on Mars would help her fellow Zeon Martians to grow out of their obsession and focus on building the new world, leaving the old grudges of Spacenoid versus Terran in the Earth sphere so that they could start new lives.

Speaking of, a VTOL began to make its way into sight with Sally and Sadam scurrying as fast as possible to make room for the transport and not be caught in its landing. With a small amount of grace, the VTOL glided to its destination and came to a full stop, two men soon exiting and walking towards the leaders of the Zeon colony.

On the left was a slightly overweight white man, sporting jeans and a brown jacket complete with a rather striking cowboy hat that made him look like a denizen of the old Wild West. Next to him was a lean and fit Black man with graying hair sporting the casual fatigues of the Federal Army.

"Sally Watney?" The cowboy wannabe asked.

"That's me." Sally said, stepping forward and greeting with a handshake that was returned.

"Tom Huckabee, the Governor-General of this fine planet. On behalf of the seventeen million men and women that I live alongside, I'd like to offically welcome you to Mars, our little piece of paradise in the Solar system."

"Thank you very much Governor, it's an honor to call myself a Martian." Sally replied, bringing a great smile on Huckabee's face.

"And you must be Colonel Catan?" Huckabee asked towards her counterpart.

"Kattan, Sadam Kattan. I'm the head of the 17th Engineering Brigade, we'll be laying down the foundation for the Principality's presence on the island." Sadam said coolly, bringing slight discomfort to Huckabee who apologized for his mistake in the name.

"Lieutenant General Jefferson Wayne. I must say it's quite interesting to see a soldier of the Principality that some of my friends back in the Earth sphere have been raving about. While I do appreciate the extra hands, it does seem a little bit odd to me that Degwin would send a military attachment. I have 100,000 of my boys on the planet and we'd be more than willing to land a hand with the colony." Wayne said in slight mirth, which only brought a light scowl to Sadam's face.

"The reason for our presence is due to the opinion of Lord Degwin that the Defense Force is an institution that is best spent serving the people. The mission of the Corps of Engineers is not to simply defend the homeland, but to improve any and all public infrastructure to better the lives of our citizens. You'll find my fellow engineers participate in dozens of projects across the Sides, helping in grand projects to uplift Zeon instead of leaving it to rot and decay in the hands of the private sector. It's a noble calling that I intend to repeat with our colonies here." Sadam stated strongly, bringing some tension into the atmosphere.

Sally was afraid that this would lead to some petty Spacenoid/Terran nonsense and was going to attempt to disarm the conversation, but fortunately the men in front of her only seemed mildly taken aback with Huckabee attempting to calm things down with body language.

"Now I know that back in the Earth sphere things are rather tense between Zeon and Earth, but just because some old farts like to bark at each other for fun it doesn't mean that we have to bring it tens of millions of kilometers to here. Jeff and I may have been born on Earth and you two in Side 3, but from this day on we're all Martians, making our way in the world one small step at a time. This entire planet is our home, let's make sure to leave it in a better place than from what we found it." The Governor said.

His no nonsense attitude brought a smile to Sally's face while taking Sadam slightly by surprise. She was glad that her counterparts were relatively nice and sane people, and that she wouldn't have to worry about the growing Earth/Space divide be exported to her new home.

"I agree completely Governor, we'll do our best to be good neighbors to our southern friends." Sally said.

"It's nice to see the feeling's mutual. By the way, if we're going to be neighbors, let's get a little less formal. Call me Tom."

"And I Sally. Now unless we plan to stand around like statues all day, how about we give you a tour of what we're building here." Sally said, here and Sadam then moving out to present the entirety of the colony to the two highest-ranked men on the planet.

The rest of the day was rather productive with a great first impression in her opinion of the Mission on the two men with promises of support to connect the island to the supercontinent and invitations to visit the capitol of Terra Nova later in the year.

While the road ahead was sure to not be easy, at least the path to building a new home would now be taken with new friends, her fellow Martians.

October 21st, 0070. Sadam Kattan POV

In the dim Martian twilight, Sadam Kattan sat prostrated with his body facing towards the distant Earth and by extension Mecca. Alone at the banks of what Governor Watney had named Lake Carter, Sadam performed the Salah, giving thanks and praise to Allah while asking for the blessing of his current duties and guidance for the days to come.

For the past few weeks Sadam had chosen the lakeside as a calm and serene location to perform Fajr before he began his daily work. While he had only been on Mars for a short period of time, he felt the closest to Allah that he had ever been in his life with only his Hajj eclipsing the spiritual experience.

There was just something about the Martian landscape, despite its rather primitive and underdeveloped environment, that made him feel at peace and that all was right within the solar system. Sadam had chosen to undertake this assignment to fulfill his duty to the Principality first and foremost. Yet it seemed that Allah was rewarding him with a cleansing of his soul. While it may seem rather impulsive, Sadam no longer wished to merely fulfill his orders on the fourth planet, now he longed to start a new life here, to have the same sense of fulfillment that his parents had when they made a new life of themselves in Side 3 after being forcibly removed by the wretched Federation.

When the sun finally began to rise, Sadam ended his prayer and after a series of stretches, began his daily ritual of a one hour run around the lake. This activity had helped to keep his mind focused and to keep his body energized and alert for the coming trials of building Zeon's presence on Vespucci island.

As Sadam performed his run, he couldn't help but let his eyes wander in marvel over the vast valley that he now called home. He remembered how as a young boy his parents would tell him great tales of the majestic desert of Iraq. While their stories were filled with melancholy over the longing of their homeland, at the same time there was a sense of joy at the reviving of the memory of the pristine deserts and quiet peaceful life of their small village near the Syrian border.

To Sadam who had for as long as he remembered knew nothing but the steel walls of the O'Neil cylinders, it always confused him on why his parents were so fond of a hot harsh desert where one could die over exposure to the sun. While he fell in love with Mecca during his Hajj, it was solely due to the history, culture, and faith of the holy city that drew him in; not the scorching desert that pushed a few of his fellow Spacenoid pilgrims to heat stroke.

In Sadam's opinion, this was nature in perfection. Wide open skies with nothing but the heavens above, powerful mountains that dominated the landscape in strength, roaring waters of rivers and lakes that were as clean as can be, vast plains of grass painted in a beautiful green, and the small but growing forests that in generations would cover the Martian landscape in their little kingdoms.

This was perhaps one of the greatest evils of the Federation. When they removed billions of people from their ancestral homelands, instead of moving them to this new and vibrant Earth where they could start anew in an untouched paradise, they forced them in the cramped colonies with most living miserable lives of poverty, existing for no other purpose than to be the Federation's loyal chattel.

Such thoughts had Sadam's mind drift to his secret agenda for the 17th Brigade, a mission that in many ways was the ultimate purpose of the Martian colony.

While the public side of the Minerva Mission was still very much a critical aspect of the colony with the new frontier offering countless economic opportunities for the Principality in the midst of the Miracle, there was a hidden mission that was critical to Zeon's national security and its future independence.

In his private talks with Gihren and Degwin Zabi, Sadam had been given two missions. His first was to aid the colony in any way he could and get it running off the ground and connected to the rest of the planet and the belt. The second was to wait and take command of further reinforcements in the near future, and upon the self-sufficiency of the civilian colony, begin construction of a military base on the supercontinent that would act as a testing facility for the new mobile suits, planes, boats, and mechanized divisions of the Self Defense Force. All of this to serve as a template for a potential invasion of Earth in the possibility of open war with the Federation should they refuse Zeon's independence.

While a part of Sadam was frightened by the prospect of invading Earth as a necessity for Zeon's independence, at the same time a majority of his soul was in jubilant anticipation. While Sadam was far from having lived the worst Spacenoid life, at the same time he had lived through many struggles in his youth with his original aspirations of being an engineer on Luna being shot down by lack of funds and connections along with Federal cronyism. His family had barely scraped by in survival in his childhood before the coming of Zeon Deikun, while his parents bore plenty of scars in their minds and hearts over the Federal Army's conduct in the Unification Wars.

Like most sons and daughters of Zeon, Sadam had nothing but hatred for the infernal Federation. They claimed to be the perfect democracy, to being humanity's most enlightened government that brought forth an era of peace and progress. Sadam was no fool and saw Earth for what it rightfully was, a rich man's club where the elite preyed on the struggling Spacenoids to feed their eternal greed and gluttony.

It was only thanks to Zeon Zum Deikun and later the Zabi dynasty that the Spacenoids of Side 3 were able to obtain any measure of dignity and happiness, for the first time living instead of surviving.

Sadam owed much of his current fortunes to Gihren Zabi who had promoted him two ranks for his ingenuity and asked him to be in charge of the Martian garrison and to prepare the future warriors for the eventual struggle of independence. It was a greater purpose than Sadam could ever ask for and he would gladly pay his debt with interest.

Eventually Sadam's hour went up, and with the sun rising in full, he made his way back to his new home for a shower to begin the day anew.

If Zeon somehow through an impossible miracle was able to obtain its independence through peaceful means, then that was fine by Sadam. Until then and afterword he would continue his mission of gradually building up the Martian colonies and making model Zeon states on Mars, he would continue his mission until retirement or until he was ordered back into the Earth sphere.

If Zeon was to win its righteous independence through armed conflict however, then Sadam shall have gladly done his part by being the guinea pig for all branches of the Self Defense Force. If an invasion of Earth was to happen, then victory would be achieved through the extensive research Sadam and his men would have conducted on Mars.

Whether war shall soon break out in the Earth sphere or the eternal peace of the Universal Century remains so, none shall deny that Sadam Kattan performed his duty.

A/N: Hey everyone, Kaiser Chris here with another chapter of Gihren's Glory. Here we get to see just what Gihren was planning for Mars and how Zeon's mission to the planet began in its early stages and is playing out in its first days. While Mars won't be too major of a plotline going forward, it will show up in future chapters and be an important jumping point for any potential sequels after the eventual war.

Here this shall take place through our two main Zeon POV's on the planet, Sally Watney and Sadam Kattan, two OC's of mine who will present the pioneer and military side of Zeon's presence on the planet. While some may claim that Zeon being able to colonize Mars is a little far fetched, there was in canon a Neo Zeon remnant that set up shop after the war and lived there for almost fifty years until 0123, the Oldsmobile Army. Haven't been able to read the manga that they are from but they've got some pretty interesting lore and it does set up a strong precedent for the plotline in the story.

Next chapter shall be updated after Cosmic Crusade chapter 12, and in said chapter we shall see the birth of the Sovereign Front in Zum City, as well as a couple of developments in the personal lives of the Zabis. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!