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ATC2 - A Galaxy Full of Stars: 

The Failure of Capitalism and the Rise of Empire
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ATC singlehandedly squashed the NeoHippy rebellion, primarily aided by the
fearless Europa Team. In the process of stamping out a Hippy presence on
Europa, the Team discovered an alien species, and ATC proceeded to usher
them into a peaceful dialog, and then eased their introduction with the
rest of the corporations and the Earth governments. Not stopping for
accolades or a break, they joined combat with the newest threat - another
alien species, as hostile as the Sleythin were friendly. ATC bravely
stepped forward, Europa Team at the fore, and destroyed the menace.
Then, they destroyed the menace of a nanite disease spreading over Mars.
And finally, when Twenty-Four Syndrome began occurring, ATC's scientists
pinpointed the cause, and helped the worlds to understand what was going
on. The Europa Team has become a walking pantheon, with the power base of
ATC to support them in their rise to Godhood.

This is the world as the public sees it. It is, in a word, crap. It is
built on the truth, but the events that occurred were either set in motion
by the Cube (ATC's (former?) controlling AI), or brought about by the
Europa Team in response to the Cube's machinations. It is a falsehood of
calculation and chance, and it is how everyone not directly involved views
the events. Even if you were to expose the truth to them, they would
likely laugh at you, and rightfully so. 

As a result of ATC's gigantic popularity, they have amassed a gigantic
swath of market share. Other corporations have gone bankrupt left and
right in the face of the growing economic behemoth. At this stage of the
world, there is only a single corporation powerful enough to stand in the
face of ATC, and that is Calhoun Electronics (CEC).

With the failure of corporations, cities found themselves ungoverned. Most
of the free ones located in the English-Speaking Coalition territory were
swiftly "acquired" by ATC, though some of them became independent. Cities
in other "nations", however, were not so fortunate. Swiftly finding that
anarchy was not a pleasant way for a city to govern, they bound together
in the familiar forms of old Earth (by this time already becoming a memory
there) - city boards, states, and countries.

These countries are slowly rediscovering a sense of national identity, and
a national culture. Some are doing it faster than others, but even the ES
Coalition is discovering an identity, despite that identity being "ATC".

There are eleven countries on Mars now. Here is a list and a short
description of each.

English-Speaking Coalition -  By far the biggest "country". This conglomerate
encompasses immigrants from the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, Spain, most of
the Eastern Bloc countries, and basically any country except the other ten
who had corporations with space programs at the time of the Exodus.

Red Japan -  Slowly returning to its roots, Red Japan is just that. Much larger
than Japan ever was, it is a thriving technological paradise, with higher
education levels than average, and a great deal more nanotech and cybertech use.
Red Japan is home to Calhoun Electronics, the single thriving competitor to ATC.

Red France  - After being taken over by the NeoHippies, Red France rebuilt,
and thus sports the title of "most beautiful cities on Mars". They don't
sport much else besides that, however. Red France harbours a general
dislike of the ES Coalition due to the fact that it was ATC who liberated
it, and not the few freedom fighters left in the country.

Red China  - A vibrant place, full of culture and new myths, Red China's
cities are sometimes indistinguishable from their Earther predecessors.
This is the origin of most of the new myths about Martian gods which you
sometimes hear on the streets. These gods are said to even appear, under
the right circumstances and when one has meditated ... and taken the right
drugs.

Red India -  Surprisingly, Red India is one of the countries with the fewest
large cities in it. Many of the Indians migrated elsewhere after their
settlement contracts expired. Red India holds a piece of land supposedly
thought to decide once and for all the question of prior life on Mars, but
neither they nor the corporation who owned it before them will allow
anyone on it.

Red Russia -  A mere shadow of its old Earther version, Red Russia is in
possession of a great deal of permafrost and dune seas. Its main export is
ice, which is mined from the northern pole to send to places that are
building surface water. Red Russia also contains one of the planet's
highest-regarded institutions of learning; the Pink Russian Bartending
Academy, famous world-over for the level of flair bartenders graduate with.

Red Germany -  Germany was a latecomer into the Exodus, but you wouldn't
believe it from their country's location. It quite literally exists
entirely on a vast ore deposit, which has become its main export. In what
is perhaps the oddest return to culture of all, Red Germany has become a
stereotype of itself - the bellowing, beer-drinking, schnitzel-chomping
kind of stereotype. Despite this, there is a guerrilla group of
NeoDadaists somewhere underground in the country.

Red Mexico -  A rather resource-poor nation, Red Mexico is the biggest
user of nanorobotics as a result. They also have quite a bit of area
terraformed; they are second place in total acrage, behind the ES
Coalition. Due to a quirk in the networking structure, Red Mexico is also
the purveyor of rumor on Red Mars - any sort of information you want can
be found there.

Red Korea -  United after North Korea fell during the U.S. Wars of
Aggression in the early 21st century, Korea quickly developed a space
program, just in time for the Exodus. But with both China and Russia
having one as well, Red Korea ended up being fairly sparse for population.
It is the least populated country on Mars, But since it has about average
land area, it thus continas the largest expanses of pristine Martian
terrain of any country. Most of it is protected now, as a National Park,
however temporary it might be.

Red Sweden -  Once home to a marvelous thinktank of organic chemists, Red
Sweden is still the foremost in cybertechnology and such, backed by the
second corporation to remain strong in the face of ATC - DunnoCorp. Despite
being famous for synthetic products, DunnoCorp puts out a line of
cybernetics that trumps ATC's by a long shot. 

Red South Africa -  As the single African nation to have a space program
at the time of the Exodus, most of the African people came to Red South
Africa under the Mjumbwe Corporation. As a result, it sports possibly the
densest cities on Mars, and is certainly the densest country in terms of
the distance between cities. Red South Africa specializes in food
production, making most of the small amount Mars actually produces. And
AgriMars makes the third corporation not totally dwarfed by ATC.


Though some of the countries have begun slowly trying to break ATC's
stranglehold on their economies, none of them have been very successful,
and it looks as though ATC will win out as the Corporation of the Future
in the end.