Mars (Croatian Empire)

After the devastation of two large-scale nuclear wars on the Earth, the surviving nations, led by the Croatian Empire, devoted sizable resources to establishing a human colony on Mars. A terraforming project was also devised in 2009 called Project Last Hope. It was hoped that the lessons learned from attempting to terraform Mars would one day be helpful in restoring the severely damaged environment of the Earth. A series of transport rockets left for Mars in 2009 arriving a year later with materials for the future colonists. Additional rockets and the Mars Cycler named the Kučera brougth a total of 2,620 colonists to the surface of Mars by the end of 2010. By this point the vast expense of Project Last Hope was becoming unsustainable by the nations of Earth. The countless billions would be of better use to improve the lives of the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the homeworld as opposed to being wasted on a couple thousand colonists. Luckily the Kučera allows for regular, relatively inexpense, resupply of the colony. Major expansion is unlikely in the near future.

THE COLONY
Two settlements were established during the rush to colonize the world. The first is near the north polar ice cap. The second is to the east of Alba Mons. Both have growing underground habitations to help protect the colonists from radiation.