It’s the year 3250. Two harsh desert planets are in a bitter dispute over mineral and water mining rights over the asteroid belt. The Mars coalition insists that Earth may lay claim only to those rocky bodies that fall past her orbit. Earth insists that anything beyond their respective atmospheres is fair game. They use loaded language and plan to argue that an ‘atmosphere’ is one that sustains life, meaning she plans to mine uninhabited stretches or Martian soil too. There is serious debate on Earth of the inhabitants of Mars are even human anymore, cross breeding has become exceptionally difficult. Martians have a lower natural fertility rate and often need IVF to reproduce. Earth gravity is too strong for martians to safely return to the home planet, and so few Earthlings have ever seen one in person.

The dispute, unresolved, leads to the second interplanetary war. A billion people will die on both planets. Mars will lose precious irreplaceable atmosphere. Earth will lose access to much needed water. The conflict only ends when neither can keep up the fight any longer.