Mars VS Earth

One thousand years from now; Earth will finally make alien contact with Mars! It will be an extraordinary day, one that had only lived within the minds of creative science fiction writers for over a Millennium. When describing aliens, people picture strange lanky creatures unlike any human on earth, with big bug eyes of black and large round heads in the shape of American footballs. I must disappoint you however, for Martians don't look much different than humans at all. Just like us, they have two eyes, but their pupils are much larger and are only black without colour, or perhaps a shade so dark it is impossible to see. They do have reddish skin however, looking a lot like a sun burnt English man on holiday to Barcelona, only they permanently have that skin tone of burnt flesh. Perhaps because they live so much closer to the sun, their skin evolved into the same colour as the sand below their feet. They do have snout-like noses, where their nose tips lean upwards slightly more than an earthling, making the women look rather cute and the men more boarish. Gravity is much lighter on Mars, so the species evolved to be much heavier than humans, so they don't float off into the vacuum of space. They are all built like Earthling body builders. They have spiky hair, much like that of an American punk band, only this is naturally grown, without needing gel to keep it stylised that way. Just like us, they have two legs and two arms, feet and hands too. Only they have seven toes on each foot, so they can better grip onto the planet's surface, because the lighter gravity makes it harder to stay grounded. They have four fingers on each hand however, lacking thumbs because their hands are shaped more like claws to better dig at the hard rock that covers Mars, using their long, tough nails to break away stone. Despite these minor differences, the Martians are very similar to humans, they stand upright and wear clothes to cover their private areas and even speak a language similar to our own. The reason why they are so much like humans became clear, as it was revealed that these were the descendants of lost astronauts who ended up on Mars after losing contact with earth. They at first lived in the manmade space shelters around the planet, never leaving their homes because they could not breathe the very thin, almost non-existent air outside. Eventually the children born on Mars could adapt to their new environment and hold their breath for unbelievably long periods of time, marching around Mars for hours without needing air, then eventually they didn't need astronaut helmets or oxygen tanks to survive on the thin air at all. I'm skipping over hundreds and hundreds of years of Martian evolution here, but that's how Humans evolved on this planet, eventually becoming almost too alien from Earthlings to be called Human, becoming the Martians I just described. This discovery was quite disappointing for some, because they genuinely thought the Martians were a new alien species, not just another human race that only looked a little bit different from each other. Yet, the fact intelligent life was on a different planet was still very exciting and everyone on Earth and Mars couldn't wait to build a utopian space colony together, one that would unite both worlds and hopefully together they could reach actual alien species from the likes of Jupiter or Venus.

Another one hundred years later in 3100; the utopia Mars and Earth built together did not last long. Earthlings came to Mars in search of oil for their planet and Martians came to Earth in search for electricity to power their manmade space shelters, which had become houses for the people of Mars. For the first twenty years, this was a peaceful trade, but as resources on both planets got low, so did the hopes for the future of Humanity and Martianity. It seemed that only one race could hold a monopoly against the other. Politicians from both planets declared war on each other by 3024! Not just because of their lack of shared oil and electricity, but because of their many differences in beliefs. The Martians believed they were the original descendants, that it was Humans who evolved from them. The Earth's people didn't believe such blasphemy and called them liars. Of course in the year 2024, we know that Earthlings came first, but over a thousand years later, history had gotten messy. Historical events had been drastically rewritten by the year 3016, Martian Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens had told their people that Mars had helped build Earth into the super power that it is today. They claimed the manmade shelters that Human astronauts made, actually came from an ancient culture much like the Egyptians or Romans on Earth. Apparently Mars had its own internal struggles over the last 1,000 years too, where different cultures believed in different religions and Gods of Mars. The planet had battles amongst its own people, just like Earth's own internal wars. When the very first Planets War began (PW1) in late 3024, space fighters from each planet raced through the stars, shooting lasers at each other's rocket-ships. Humans died on the sands of Mars and Martians died in the waters of Earth. The sight of spaceships firing green, blue and red laser beams at each other, it sounds almost fun and exciting to those of you reading this in 2024, but I assure you that the Planets War was no action adventure movie, sci-fi book or whacky comic! It was brutal, unforgiving and horrifying. Huge hulks of red meat were slaughtering the "weak and pathetic Earthlings" to bloody pieces, ripping their legs and arms off like someone removing a fly's wings. Humans had far more advanced arsenal (as they were the original descendants) and vaporised terrified Martian families in cold (or hot) blood, laughing at the scared red kids who mourned their fallen parents, before burning the space station homes to flames! The war crimes on both sides were cruel and barbaric. In a strange turn, some Earthling countries actually aided the Martians in this war, after hearing how cruel some of the American soldiers had been. The atheist cultures on Mars stepped in to help Earth too, as they knew this war was fueled by Martian religious figures who thought Earth was below them. The Planets War only got more complex and convoluted as it went on. At first it was Mars Vs Earth, but it had evolved from that to separate sections of each planet, reuniting against each nation across both worlds. Some called this PW2 starting in 3041, as the goals of this war had changed so dramatically from the original Planets War, which had never ended, instead blending into the politics of the second war of both worlds. Eventually in the year 3050, the decades-long Planets Wars had finally ceased, resulting in a new society of mixed races of Martian and Human, living across both planets in different territories of each world. The foreign species needed special suits to survive on their opposite planets however, so certain areas were guarded off and built around each species. New indoor space stations on Mars were built for Earthlings and Martians flocked to the hottest areas like Egypt, which closer resembled the temperatures and sandy environments of their homeworld. Neither aliens were ever truly accepted on their opposite worlds by the natives. Most did not even wish to live there, instead they had found themselves stuck in these territories after surviving the Planets Wars. Life after 3050 became an overcrowded and depressing world(s) to live in. Earth already had problems with overpopulation and poverty long before they found life on Mars, so having a million Martians taking up even more room on the planet, only added more fuel to the fire. As for Mars, well it lost its identity. They had developed a culture very different and alien from our own, despite being descendants of human Earthlings, the people of Mars had developed unique beliefs unlike anything on Earth. Their Gods were of giant sandworms and lizards, perhaps inspired by the astronauts who must've loved Science fiction novels, sharing stories with their children, which eventually became religions based on iconic space adventure films. Perhaps that's what inspired the star fighters that shot multi-coloured lasers and could warp to super speeds. The utopian future together, that both planets dreamed about, had been nothing short of a failure. It didn't turn out that way at all, it had become a dystopia.