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You sit in your bedroom.
[[Look around]]
[[Look out window.]] You look around your room. You see scraps of broken machines around your desks. Tools line the walls. A window lets in shafts of warm orange light.
[[Look out window.]]
[[Look at desk.->Look at desk 2]]You look out your window. You see the Red Armada's huge, black airships sweeping over Ariadne's Plains, one of the more desolate areas of the Martian landscape. In the distance you can see the Glendale Canal, flowing into the city from the man-made Lake Alexandria.
"Derik!" You hear from downstairs. Your mother is calling you. "Come on, we're heading to the market."
[[Look around your room.]]
[[Go downstairs]]You look around your room. You see scraps of broken machines around your desks. Tools line the walls. A window lets in shafts of warm orange light.
[[Go downstairs]]
[[Look at desk.]]You walk down the stairs of your flimsy home to meet your mother, who already has her jacket on.
"Come on, it's getting late." She says, and grabs her keys.
[[Go to car.]]
[[Look around home.]]
[[Go upstairs.]]You take a bag of wheat from the latest harvest and you and your mother get into the cheap electric car in the driveway.
The farmlands are pretty much the only things in your area, so there's always very little cars on the road, spare the odd shoddy electric car or the sometimes an electric truck, belonging to the wealthier farmers in the area. As you near the city the giant walls surrounding it become clearer, and cracks in it become apparent. The walls are over three hundred years old, dating back to soon after the full colonisation of Mars.
The car slows down at the southern gate and stops. A man holding a submachine gun, in a white kevlar helmet and a red nylon uniform that fails to mask the heavy body armour underneath, emblazoned with a red and white semi-circular logo walks up to your car. He is a Red Armada soldier. They guard the city of Belthor, as being the capital city of New America, it requires heavy protection from possible terrorism attempts. Not that the extra security helps much, as there's still a fairly high terror rate in the city.
Your mother hands over your passports. The guard checks them and hands them back, opening a gigantic steel gate just high enough to allow the car through.
You pull into the gate and you hear it creaking behind you.
[[Look out window -> Look out car window]] You look around the lower room in your home. There's a sofa, an armchair and an old television. Scraps of fabric adorn the walls and the kitchen area at the far end is cluttered with pots and pans.
[[Go to car.]]
[[Go upstairs.]] You go upstairs. Good for you.
"What are you doing Derik? Come on!"
[[Go back down.]]You go back down the stairs.
"What are you at?" Your mother asks to you. "Let's go, Derik."
[[Go to car.]]
[[Look around home.]] There is a small, unfinished makeshift pistol on you desk. It's almost complete, although it's missing a barrel.
[[Look around your room.]]
[[Go downstairs]]There is a small, unfinished makeshift pistol on you desk. It's almost complete, although it's missing a barrel.
[[Look out window.]] Inside the city, you would barely be able to tell it was the same place. The walls are all painted a pale blue and there is a large mural going around the gate, showing the first expedition to Mars landing in a very artsy, cartoony style.
At first, all you can see are tall concrete buildings seperated by the odd corner shop and the occasional supermarket. They are very plain and ordinary, but there is something strangely appealing about them. Soon after, the buildings begin to fade into more old-fashioned, 21st to 22nd century looking buildings. The Glendale Canal ran through the centre of the city out to where it met Lake Alexandria.
Huge screens accross the edges of the wall that usually show advertisements appear to be showing a government message.
[[Watch screen]]You see a large enough man who looks to be in his late forties, with short hair and a trim beard, both of which are peppered with grey. He's probably the Mayor, although they seem to elect a new one every other week, so their faces never really stick in your head.
"With you help, we can build a better 2450." The man says. He has a commanding, yet comforting voice. He sounds like a real leader.
"We can build a better future for all mankind." Suddenly the screen faded to a shot of outer space, and the man began to narrate over it.
"The Red Armada Reasearch and Development devision have made a groundbreaking discovery in space travel. With this new technology, we are able to travel at faster-than-light speeds with little effort needed." The screen showed a spacecraft drifting away from Mars. It slowly accelerated and soon it was leaving the Solar System. You remember hearing about this technology on the news for weeks.
"We have detected a possibly habitible exoplanet in the nearby Andromeda solar system. The Red Armada is new recruits for investigation. Mars has proven a safe enough place to support human life- but how long? Just think- YOU can create a brighter future for mankind." The screen fades into the Red Armada emblem, a white semi-circle with a dark red circle in the middle, and then cuts back to advertising.
You pull up at the market, in the spot you usually set up your stall.
[[Leave car.]]Double-click this passage to edit it.