Tales from the Martian Principate

A warship reported missing near the Neptunian border. A university student drawn to a mysterious cult on Phobos. A child conscript forced to storm an Alaskan fortress. These stories, some of them separated by hundreds of years, have one common thread: Mars. At the height of its power, the empire of the Martians stretched from the crown of our home star to the dark edge of the ice giants. Its rivals, be it by the blade or the olive branch, had been pacified. Its people were united in one voice, with one purpose, and under one leader. But eight centuries ago, the dream of the red planet came crashing down, leaving the system in a dark age from which it would not soon recover. Though the glory of the Principate has long since faded, fragments of its history still remain. Legends of a people once mighty and proud. Tales which I, Marcus Cassius, now share with you.