Mars

#''Colonize Mars'' <img src="https://forum.affinity.serif.com/uploads/monthly_2018_06/ColonizeMars.png.0feb6cc7ce5b6aa295c525308c96e68a.png" width="350" height="500"> ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[[[Start->Advertizing Blitz]]]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P01-Explorers-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> The recruitment ads were everywhere. The richest person on Earth made himself the richest person in the galaxy, by colonizing space. You've been seeing the ads your whole life. "Join us in a once in a lifetime opportunity to inhabit Mars!" When your dissatisfaction with your own life got large enough, you enrolled. Maybe a change of scenery would do you good, a rest cure as they called them. Mars has it all, the hottest and warmest you'll ever be, at once. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[continue->Takeoff]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P08-We-Need-You-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> Every part of your body trembles as the engines fire. The very air inside your cabin pushes harder against your body than any other object that has ever touched it. This is the only way to travel. You see that tiny blue bulb that has housed human civilization for all of history, quickly vanish behind you. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Linger in the image of earth longer->IF Linger]]) ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Go to sleep->Sleep]])

<img src="http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2020/04/earth/21970012-1-eng-GB/Earth_pillars.jpg" width="480" height="300"> You stare at everything our species has been confined to for all our history, for the last time. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Sleep]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P05-Teach-On-Mars-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You fall asleep thinking about everything you just left behind. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Mars]])

<img src="https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/archive/kKvUDfoYVtE4rxBZiQl0_1082074317.jpeg" width="350" height="500"> A red light dimly shines on you. It's the sign. You're sleep pod gently opens, allowing thin streams of light to enter your field of vision, slowly. You've been asleep for six months and seventeen days. The main display flashes, estimated twenty minutes until touchdown. The flight was a success, you've made it to Mars! ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Contionue->Adjusting]])

<img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0034/6901/7157/products/SpaceXOlympusMonssmall_1024x1024.jpg?v=1616354984" width="350" height="500"> Time flew by after that. You descended the rocket, entered the underground compound and met your Sargent, dressed in a white jumpsuit. He assigned you to housing block 89. You left your space suit and put on one of the purple jumpsuits every worker wore. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Work]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P07-Some-User-Assembly-Required-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You met your crew, all housed in the same housing block, which was really a large room with double stacked bunk beds. Things were quite cramped. All in all, you only got a brief glimpse of Mars before descending the rocket. The housing complex looked like it could have been located anywhere. It might not be the best start, but all the research you'd do here, would be more than worth it. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Go to work->Mines]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P02-Work-The-Night-Shift-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> The Sargent rounds you all up takes you down into a mining shaft. They're digging for something shiny. The Sargent starts handing pickaxes around and pointing people to where they're supposed to use them. When it's your turn you ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Ask What All This Is->If Ask Why]]) ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Keep Quiet->Else]])

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/SpaceX_Mars_tourism_poster_for_Phobos_and_Deimos.jpg" width="350" height="500"> "You must be new." your coworker tells you, without turning towards you. "Just keep your head down and do what your told. They don't like it when..." Mid sentence, a woman in a white jumpsuit walks over and grabs him by the arm. She gives you a sharp look, as she escorts the man deeper within the mine. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Continue->Choice Four]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P04-Surveyors-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You notice the only sound coming from the mine is work related. No one is talking. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Ask The Man Next To You->If Ask]]) ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Keep Working->Else Dig]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P06-Technicians-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You try not to attract any attention and do your task. The minerals are unlike anything you've seen before. You wonder what they're using them for. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Choice Four]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P03-Farmers-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> This is how your life looks like for the next few weeks. Time is pointless down here. You wake up when the lights turn on, eat when food is served, work for as long as everyone else and sleep when the lights go out. Speaking to anyone is discouraged. The only time you get to hear anyone is on the commercials. Propaganda for the importance of our mission blares all day. You've heard it for so long that it's become ingrained in you. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Accept Your Fate->If Accept]]) ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Ressist->If Ressist]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P07-Some-User-Assembly-Required-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> Another rocket arrived today. One of the astronauts joined your housing unit. They always did this, separating the crews into different housing blocks, throwing them into a mass of unknown people. Less chance for commiserating, less resistance. You keep an eye on the new recruit, as well as you can, in the following days. Her face has changed since the day she arrived. From the face of thrill and excitement, it morphed into despair and longing. You realize, that's just what happened to your own face just as quickly. You live out your days like this. Soon enough, or it feels like it was soon enough, you don't mind it at all. You only follow. Until you are no longer of use. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[END->Early End Peacefull]])

<img src="https://cosmosmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/180215_NasaPosters_H-2048x660.jpg" width="470" height="270"> This isn't what you signed up for, this can't be what anyone here signed up for. But they all seem to have accepted it. Unless they're just as confused about it all as you are. We can't let this be how our Mars colony operates. Slavery should have been eliminated on earth hundreds of years ago. We can't take to the stars with us. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Ressist Continues]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P04-Surveyors-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> The Sargent slaps you and shoves the pickaxe into your hands. He pushes you to where you're supposed to work and leaves you, without a word. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Continue->Else]])

<img src="https://image.posterlounge.fr/img/products/620000/618094/618094_poster_l.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You start digging. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Choice 3]])

<img src="https://alternativemovieposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/javier_martian.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You manage to to figure out how to speak to the others. Before food arrives when the lights first turn on, during work in the rare time that a white jumpsuit isn't around to observe, in the interval before the lights go out. You keep reminding people that this isn't what you signed up for. This isn't right. Something has to be done and we have to do it. You tell them to spread the message. More will come. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Choice Five]])

<img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0034/6901/7157/products/SpaceXOlympusMonssmall_1024x1024.jpg?v=1616354984" width="350" height="500"> You don't know how much time has passed since you arrived here. Days mean nothing here. The surface of this planet eludes you. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Give Up->If Give Up]]) ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Keep Going->Both Versions]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P01-Explorers-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You stop spreading the word, but what you've already accomplished was enough. No one keeps silent anymore. They all murmur of the day when everything will change. The rapture, they call it. No one is aware of your hand in this, so often people try to recruit you. You tried, but cannot stop what you've created. Freedom must come whether through change or death. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Continue->Both Versions]])

<img src="https://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/system/images/photo_albums/star-wars-propaganda-posters/large/photo_3345_0-6.jpg?1384968217" width="350" height="500"> Only through collective action can we achieve this. You spread the word, on the fourth lights on from now, change is coming. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Rebel->Rebbelion]])

<img src="http://www.patrickdlutz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Rebel_Poster_smallerRGB.png" width="350" height="500"> The fourth lights on arrives. You had no real plan, only a notion of fighting back, changing the day. Luckily you didn't need one. The word had spread far and everyone interpreted it their own way. Some rebellions started before the meal, others waited until they arrived at the mine. Soon the whole housing block was in chaos. The white jumpsuits tried to keep control, threatening and shooting at the non-compliant, but no one stopped. They fought with bare hands and pickaxes, shovels and knives. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Choice Six`]])

<img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AXNzuwge5yI/V8IOc-Iv2vI/AAAAAAAABo8/uRl0wn-BwPE1QJ2vJ4GJLOtqjQDMMG_DgCLcB/s1600/The%2BMartian%2Billustrated%2Bmovie%2Bposter%2B%2528rover%2529.jpg" width="350" height="500"> You and a group of purples band together. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Go to the mines->If Mine End]]) ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Go to the upper floors->If Elevator]])

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/aoZu5Dg.png" width="350" height="500"> To save as many purples as you can. Once there, you see another colored jumpsuit, red. The dark ones are spread around the floor, but brighter ones are erect. They must be another class of jumpsuits. There are more of you! But your thoughts are interrupted. They shoot you all. As you fall to the ground, you try to comprehend how far this complex goes, until darkness overwhelms you. ((text-colour:#d52bb7)[[Continue->Early End]])

<img src="https://mars.nasa.gov/files/resources/posters/P01-Explorers-Wanted-NASA-Recruitment-Poster-600x.jpg" width="350" height="500"> None of you have ever been up there before. You all guess, or hope that it leads to the surface, to the sun. It's much farther away now, but it's still the same sun you used to neglect every day back on earth. But the hallway doesn't lead to magnificent windows of the outdoors, only more cavernous hallways. The propaganda on the speakers has changed. It startles you to hear anything different coming from there. "Surrender your folly, or prepare for deletion!" ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Meet Elon]])

<img src="https://www.metalplatepictures.com/media/catalog/product/cache/bc6fce6c899329c9f681256d0d42cfb1/1/1/11_104.jpg" width="350" height="500"> As you wonder the hallways, you meet more purples. You're quite a force now, dozens of you. You keep searching for elevated hallways, the have to lead to the surface eventually. After a long walk, you reach a wall that says command center. You enter and find a large room, with windows on all three sides. A man with striking white hair, dressed in all black, is sitting in a white chair in the middle. ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Listen->Elon Speaks]])

<img src="https://ctl.s6img.com/society6/img/juw7B9r63Zbmoxsn-npqs5CJ3O0/w_700/posters/top/~artwork,fw_2718,fh_3618,fy_-3,iw_2718,ih_3624/s6-original-art-uploads/society6/uploads/misc/6269027c78f84514a6d6d8a15149ce3e/~~/terraforming-mars-minimalist-board-games-02-posters.jpg" width="350" height="500"> "So you're our troublemaker." He seems relaxed, studying you with his gaze. "Quite the trouble, though not at all the first to cause such a disturbance." He snaps his fingers and you find yourself weighted down to the floor by your face. The man walks over to you and picks you up. "Lets see if I can educate you." ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Monolog 1]])

<img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0A7P6hK55ac/V8IOeJhl8RI/AAAAAAAABpA/eYlmGtVT0REH9-G_97QSquNW6yaEPme-gCLcB/s1600/The%2BMartian%2Billustrated%2Bmovie%2Bposter%2B%2528base%2529.jpg" width="350" height="500"> "You thought you were signing up for the betterment of all humankind? You were. By your sacrifice, the people on earth get to continue enjoying the same standard. The human race expands infinitely, but we've had limit resources on Earth. But space has unlimited amounts, everything we need and countless oddities we've never thought of. You help bring them to our people and continue our cycle of endless innovation. You're quite the hero, in a way. You saved Earth from complete destruction. No one will mind if we destroy uninhabited rocks in space. You are an indispensable casualty." ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[Continue->Monolog 2]])

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/aoZu5Dg.png" width="350" height="500"> "This is how we clean everything up. When the British empire cleaned up London, transforming it from the most polluted city on earth into clean one, it managed it by transferring all the factories in third world countries. That's just what I've done, transferred everything the good people don't want to think about, but affords them their lifestyle, as far away from them. That used to be China. Today, it's Mars. Who holds what tomorrow holds. But you won't have to worry about that." ((text-colour:#f46a9b)[[END]])

<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5752b18efe340001535916/1606849625832-8XP2RFCQ4CAJVUFS0N3R/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kHWJhM5OumnWkn-bJp56T597gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UZ7cWd1LpBhZR6bwsM6WVV07xftaA23IPb4wFlikySLFbSexTd1-frD7527z4SM9QQ/gritty+skull.png?format=500w" width="350" height="500"> Once he finished his monologue, he had no more use of you. He exposed of you just as he exposed of all the others. In your final moment, you saw the Martian surface you longed for, as you were thrown onto it. You body froze and burned at the same time. Now nothing is left of you.

<img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1975/8663/products/1495394715396_1024x1024@2x.png?v=1569202906" width="350" height="500"> You've lived just as all the workers before you, changing nothing, accepting the toils and therefore ensuring that everyone after you will do the same.

<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5752b18efe340001535916/1606849574738-FJAIXLHMLMGBHRIMB4GX/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kO4ZbJrAHPDdLUPzr7GnDcV7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1Ue-EBF3ZmFr6MKtwjajAnYv1Y_CkKi6RQKKTI8glWw0eG6v6ULRah83RgHXAWD5lbQ/dead+astronaut.png?format=500w" width="350" height="500"> You're rebbelion has failed. You chose this. You failed them all.