Chapter 01.2
(Thursday, July 20, 2017) Held a little over eleven months earlier, on the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing, was the night of the big press conference to announce the Manned Mars Mission. Launched during the previous year by a Falcon Heavy Rocket, the unmanned Fuel Processor One (FP1), with the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) mounted atop, had already …
Chapter 01.1
Friday, May 11, 2018 (Alanday, Sagittarius 25, 0031) Captain Steven Thomas and two of the men under his command, Williams and Bentley, were swiftly lowered on ropes from the helicopter, as it hovered almost silently, above the rooftop observation deck of Marina City’s southwest tower, in the heart of Chicago. Barely a sliver of a moon would have been visible, …