Our story takes place shortly after World War Three which includes the destruction of all 1st world countries. It is a long story so here is the gist of it. America, who was crippled by its need for oil as well as its undying infatuation with automobiles, declared war on Canada, who had found huge oil reserves in newly acquired Alaska. This brought the whole weight of the English Commonwealth, (minus Australia who chose to side with The States), on top of the Americans heads. Quite literally in fact, as the war soon turned nuclear. Russian and Asiatic countries were soon dragged into the mix causing more and more confusion. Although there were many interesting facts about this war, (such as the Dakotan and Minnesotan silos refusing to fire at their neighbors to the North), the most outlandish would have to be the fact that the entire war, including the South American skirmishes, were well over in the span of 7 days. At this point in time Both North American and Soviet , (Russia is now a region in northern Asia split into mini states all under the NUSSR New United Soviet Socialists Republic) had established bases on the moon and surrounding asteroids, (such asteroids were left over from the explosion of Venus, 37 years prior to the war), and were planning to launch "Mars Landers" within the next decade. It seems folly to put all this effort forth just to be able to say that their country had the first man on Mars when the Earth was in such a state, but the countries, (Zimbabwe, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Lithuania) were not even planning to man these landers because in 2032, America, (in partnership with Australia), sent an unmanned probe to Mars. It was a routine mission and was programmed to take simple soil samples on Mars' Polar icecap. The probe found that the polar ice only went 2.5 centimeters into the ground after wich started an immense cavity of oil, thrice the size of New York city. The purpose of the race to Mars was for oil and nothing else.
