Dax Morgan adjusted his wide-brimmed hat against the thin breeze that swept over the crimson sands. Beneath the faintly orange sky, his ranch—a small dome cradling experimental wheat fields—was a speck of defiance against the inhospitable Martian wilderness. He mounted his six-legged rover, the "Dust Stalker," and headed toward a nearby settlement...

The partnership with Lyra paid off faster than Dax anticipated. Two days after hiring her, a group of raiders tried to sabotage his water pumps. Lyra took out three of them with her plasma rifle before Dax could even aim. The remaining two fled, their rover kicking up dust as it disappeared over the horizon.

With the young man patched up, Dax and Lyra prepared the ranch for an assault. Drones armed with makeshift lasers patrolled the perimeter, and tripwires were rigged with small explosives. Lyra calibrated the defense systems, muttering about outdated tech while Dax distributed what weapons and ammunition he had.

Miles away from Edgewater, Tobias Clarke stood at the edge of his newly acquired mining site, a sprawling canyon of jagged red rock. The purchase had cost him nearly everything—his life savings, years of work, and a hefty loan from one of the Martian banks. But Tobias was a family man, and he believed this mine could secure a future...

The Martian sunrise was a pale pink glow that spilled over the jagged cliffs of Valles Marineris. Beneath the thin, dust-filled sky, Jacob Keller stood at the edge of his claim, surveying the barren expanse he'd poured his life savings into. His mining rig, a towering assemblage of drills and conveyors, was a silhouette against the dawn. It had...

Life on the frontier of a terraforming Mars was a patchwork of challenges and small victories. For most settlers, every day began before dawn, under a sky that alternated between a pale orange glow and the looming blackness of an unyielding universe.