the freedom party and the areopolis disaster
Initially, the colonization of Mars didn’t go smoothly: because the first colonists came from various ethno-cultural backgrounds – even within a single province – and because many of them came from less socially stable regions, Terran urban problems such as vandalism, criminality and xenophobia rose frighteningly. Hate crimes were especially common, and racial clashes threatened the safety of entire domed cities.
To help them solve these problems – since Mars, due to its distance from the Earth, was not easily contacted – the UN formed the Elenag, and charged it with ensuring peace in the Martian colonies at any cost. At first, the agency itself was troubled by cultural misunderstandings and hostilities; however, under the efficient and wise administration of Feng Wei, the Elenag’s personnel overcame their own ethno-cultural differences. Then, five years after its creation, they started the work they had been commissioned with.
First, they created the Ministry of Public Safety and, in the year 2181, obtained the first fully-trained police department. With the permission of the metropoles, the first Minister of Public Security, Sieglinde Hörst, established Elenag police stations in every Martian city. Afterwards, she convinced the Martian mayors and governors to implement harsher measures to diminish unrest and cut criminality from the root – such as increasing surveillance over citizens and imposing a curfew.
The police (the Elenag’s and the city’s own) imprisoned hundreds of people in two years, including many gang leaders, but that just caused more unrest, culminating with the Great Mars Riot of 2184, when the cities of Nova Daomé, Genesis, Ayodhya, Hongtai and Aoshima almost collapsed. After that, the Elenag requested from the UN itself free rein to deal with the violence as it saw fit, claiming that the bureaucracy of the provinces was hindering its work.
And the Elenag was granted its request. Some mayors and governors protested against the agency's intrusion – and, in most provinces, they were promptly ousted by their respective metropoles and replaced with politicians willing to work along with the Elenag. Afterwards, the agency convinced the governments to impose even harsher policies that further restricted the citizens’ freedom, but which, the Elenag warranted, would not outlast the Riots. Citizens were displeased at first, but most complied with the new policies, eager as they were to see their fragile cities in peace.
And the Elenag drastically increased its participation in the Martian society, conducting mass surveillance, maintaining the curfew (though its duration gradually decreased over the years), detaining and interrogating anyone they found suspicious (even without a warrant); arresting convicted criminals and sending them to reformatories outside Mars, deporting even those convicted of smaller, but repeated, infringements (such as alcoholism)... In the end, however, the Elenag did succeed in establishing order in the cities, and that convinced the Earth metropoles to let the agency maintain its power over the Martian provinces – as long as it did not violate any of the Earth laws which they were supposed to enforce.
To help them solve these problems – since Mars, due to its distance from the Earth, was not easily contacted – the UN formed the Elenag, and charged it with ensuring peace in the Martian colonies at any cost. At first, the agency itself was troubled by cultural misunderstandings and hostilities; however, under the efficient and wise administration of Feng Wei, the Elenag’s personnel overcame their own ethno-cultural differences. Then, five years after its creation, they started the work they had been commissioned with.
First, they created the Ministry of Public Safety and, in the year 2181, obtained the first fully-trained police department. With the permission of the metropoles, the first Minister of Public Security, Sieglinde Hörst, established Elenag police stations in every Martian city. Afterwards, she convinced the Martian mayors and governors to implement harsher measures to diminish unrest and cut criminality from the root – such as increasing surveillance over citizens and imposing a curfew.
The police (the Elenag’s and the city’s own) imprisoned hundreds of people in two years, including many gang leaders, but that just caused more unrest, culminating with the Great Mars Riot of 2184, when the cities of Nova Daomé, Genesis, Ayodhya, Hongtai and Aoshima almost collapsed. After that, the Elenag requested from the UN itself free rein to deal with the violence as it saw fit, claiming that the bureaucracy of the provinces was hindering its work.
And the Elenag was granted its request. Some mayors and governors protested against the agency's intrusion – and, in most provinces, they were promptly ousted by their respective metropoles and replaced with politicians willing to work along with the Elenag. Afterwards, the agency convinced the governments to impose even harsher policies that further restricted the citizens’ freedom, but which, the Elenag warranted, would not outlast the Riots. Citizens were displeased at first, but most complied with the new policies, eager as they were to see their fragile cities in peace.
And the Elenag drastically increased its participation in the Martian society, conducting mass surveillance, maintaining the curfew (though its duration gradually decreased over the years), detaining and interrogating anyone they found suspicious (even without a warrant); arresting convicted criminals and sending them to reformatories outside Mars, deporting even those convicted of smaller, but repeated, infringements (such as alcoholism)... In the end, however, the Elenag did succeed in establishing order in the cities, and that convinced the Earth metropoles to let the agency maintain its power over the Martian provinces – as long as it did not violate any of the Earth laws which they were supposed to enforce.
From then on, the agency became something akin to a parallel government in Mars – and, not long after the Great Riots, even in the Star Rings. Having, by then, effectively chosen more than half of Mars' mayors and governors, the agency implemented the subject of Social Studies in every Martian school; there, children learned not only about cultural understanding, but also about the Elenag itself.
As a result, a whole generation of Martians grew up believing that the agency was fundamental to their welfare. Indeed, the Martian population enjoyed great tranquillity after 2184; not only that, but, also, the issues of racism, cultural discrimination and homophobia were largely overcome. By the beginning of the 2190's, the Elenag enjoyed great popularity, and more provinces opened themselves to their influence.
On the other hand, the agency never truly ended the policies it had established originally with the excuse of bringing order to an unruly world – even after it had effectively brought that order. They did end the (very unpopular) curfew and alleviate the punishment for lesser offences, but the mass surveillance on civilians and the practice of detaining supposed suspects with their respective government's warrant were both kept. Still, the success and the popularity of the Elenag were such that even its most controversial aspects were waved aside as “necessary evils,” and most Martians just accepted them as facts of life.
Nevertheless, “most” doesn't mean “all”. A group of people from the Confederate city of Areopolis questioned whether that evil was truly “necessary,” arguing that the Martians had already learned to live orderly and peacefully without the Elenag’s constant intervention. Appealing to their much-cherished democratic values, those Areopolitans founded the Freedom Party, which vowed to oppose the Elenag's influence and watchfulness, in the year 2191.
They spread their ideas and goals and, though not getting much support from fellow Confederates by then, they did manage to attract sympathizers from the USA portion of the North-American Province and even from the other provinces. Each had at least two branches of the Freedom Party by the time of its fifth anniversary.
From 2191 to 2207, the Freedom Party rose to prominence in the politics of Mars. Everywhere it won elections and seats in either the Parliament or the Congress – depending on the province in question –, everywhere it gained popularity, and more and more people started seeing it as an alternative to the Elenag. Thus, a new age seemed to be dawning on Mars, as its citizens finally learned to rule themselves through reason and responsibility, and not through a rule of control.
However, in the Christmas of 2207, tragedy struck.
The Party’s main seat was at its home city of Areopolis, located not very far from the slopes of Mount Arsai, beyond the western end of the Marineris Valleys. It was the only city in Mars to be administered by the Party in all its spheres, from actual governance to the maintenance of the city's infrastructure. For the Christmas of the year 2207, many of the Party’s affiliates were invited to a celebration in Areopolis. Then, on that December 25th, in an appalling failure of the technicians and the systems that monitored the city’s massive nuclear power plant, tragedy struck: the reactors overheated and exploded, shattering the Power Dome and leaving the city bereft of energy – and, consequently, without air and exposed to the killer cold of the Martian wilderness. Of Areopolis' population of millions, only a few thousand survived, being rescued by Elenag troops.
The Areopolis Disaster was devastating for the Freedom Party. In one fell swoop, it lost all its main leaders and all its reputation: people blamed the Party for the tragedy – after all, the maintenance of the power plant was under their responsibility –, all while praising the Elenag’s efficient rescue to the survivors. In the very next elections, Free politicians found themselves – without a single exception – voted out of their seats, replaced by politicians of parties allied to the Elenag.
The Party's own name became sort of a dirty word, and publicly supporting it became political suicide and social embarrassment. Frightened by the horrific demise of Areopolis, the people of Mars opened the arms to the Elenag once more, resigning themselves to a safe, efficient and trustworthy life at the expense of individual liberty.
However, not everyone took the incident lightly. At first, many people (even outside Mars) pointed out that the idea of a nuclear power plant being indolently watched over was almost unbelievable; it was common sense, specially after the Riots, that the Martian cities were fragile environments, in the sense that a single act of irresponsibility could have disastrous consequences. So, to think that the highly-trained experts at the Areopolitan power plant would fail like that was seemingly absurd. Many teams of specialists have been sent to analyse the ruins of Areopolis, but they've all concluded that the only explanation for the power plant's failure was negligent work by those within it.
Notwithstanding, some people still refuse to believe in that explanation, and many “conspiracy theories” have popped up since then, many claiming that the Elenag had somehow sabotaged the power plant. But these ideas are normally regarded as even more absurd than the official one, and so the Areopolis Disaster remains one of the greatest and more infamous mysteries in recent human History.
As a result, a whole generation of Martians grew up believing that the agency was fundamental to their welfare. Indeed, the Martian population enjoyed great tranquillity after 2184; not only that, but, also, the issues of racism, cultural discrimination and homophobia were largely overcome. By the beginning of the 2190's, the Elenag enjoyed great popularity, and more provinces opened themselves to their influence.
On the other hand, the agency never truly ended the policies it had established originally with the excuse of bringing order to an unruly world – even after it had effectively brought that order. They did end the (very unpopular) curfew and alleviate the punishment for lesser offences, but the mass surveillance on civilians and the practice of detaining supposed suspects with their respective government's warrant were both kept. Still, the success and the popularity of the Elenag were such that even its most controversial aspects were waved aside as “necessary evils,” and most Martians just accepted them as facts of life.
Nevertheless, “most” doesn't mean “all”. A group of people from the Confederate city of Areopolis questioned whether that evil was truly “necessary,” arguing that the Martians had already learned to live orderly and peacefully without the Elenag’s constant intervention. Appealing to their much-cherished democratic values, those Areopolitans founded the Freedom Party, which vowed to oppose the Elenag's influence and watchfulness, in the year 2191.
They spread their ideas and goals and, though not getting much support from fellow Confederates by then, they did manage to attract sympathizers from the USA portion of the North-American Province and even from the other provinces. Each had at least two branches of the Freedom Party by the time of its fifth anniversary.
From 2191 to 2207, the Freedom Party rose to prominence in the politics of Mars. Everywhere it won elections and seats in either the Parliament or the Congress – depending on the province in question –, everywhere it gained popularity, and more and more people started seeing it as an alternative to the Elenag. Thus, a new age seemed to be dawning on Mars, as its citizens finally learned to rule themselves through reason and responsibility, and not through a rule of control.
However, in the Christmas of 2207, tragedy struck.
The Party’s main seat was at its home city of Areopolis, located not very far from the slopes of Mount Arsai, beyond the western end of the Marineris Valleys. It was the only city in Mars to be administered by the Party in all its spheres, from actual governance to the maintenance of the city's infrastructure. For the Christmas of the year 2207, many of the Party’s affiliates were invited to a celebration in Areopolis. Then, on that December 25th, in an appalling failure of the technicians and the systems that monitored the city’s massive nuclear power plant, tragedy struck: the reactors overheated and exploded, shattering the Power Dome and leaving the city bereft of energy – and, consequently, without air and exposed to the killer cold of the Martian wilderness. Of Areopolis' population of millions, only a few thousand survived, being rescued by Elenag troops.
The Areopolis Disaster was devastating for the Freedom Party. In one fell swoop, it lost all its main leaders and all its reputation: people blamed the Party for the tragedy – after all, the maintenance of the power plant was under their responsibility –, all while praising the Elenag’s efficient rescue to the survivors. In the very next elections, Free politicians found themselves – without a single exception – voted out of their seats, replaced by politicians of parties allied to the Elenag.
The Party's own name became sort of a dirty word, and publicly supporting it became political suicide and social embarrassment. Frightened by the horrific demise of Areopolis, the people of Mars opened the arms to the Elenag once more, resigning themselves to a safe, efficient and trustworthy life at the expense of individual liberty.
However, not everyone took the incident lightly. At first, many people (even outside Mars) pointed out that the idea of a nuclear power plant being indolently watched over was almost unbelievable; it was common sense, specially after the Riots, that the Martian cities were fragile environments, in the sense that a single act of irresponsibility could have disastrous consequences. So, to think that the highly-trained experts at the Areopolitan power plant would fail like that was seemingly absurd. Many teams of specialists have been sent to analyse the ruins of Areopolis, but they've all concluded that the only explanation for the power plant's failure was negligent work by those within it.
Notwithstanding, some people still refuse to believe in that explanation, and many “conspiracy theories” have popped up since then, many claiming that the Elenag had somehow sabotaged the power plant. But these ideas are normally regarded as even more absurd than the official one, and so the Areopolis Disaster remains one of the greatest and more infamous mysteries in recent human History.