Pax Ares
You are an investigator sent from the Senate in Rome, arriving on the cold, rusted dunes of Mars. The red planet is the Empire’s jewel, but beneath the pressurized domes of New Pompeii, a rot is spreading. Consul Marcus Valerius has turned the colony into his personal fiefdom, extorting the working-class plebeians and lining his pockets with the planet's precious water reserves. To the Senate, Mars is a distant triumph. To the colonists, it is an iron cage. Your mission is simple but deadly: gather undeniable proof of Valerius's treason and transmit it back to Earth before his praetorian guards find a way to make you disappear into the barren Martian wastes. Every shadow in the sub-surface tunnels holds an informant or an assassin. Trust is a luxury you cannot afford when even the air you breathe is controlled by the man you came to overthrow. Will you uphold the eternal law of Rome, or will Mars become your tomb?
Look inside
The decompression hissed through the umbilical collar of the orbital transport, venting the stale reek of recycled nitrogen into the pressurized cavern of New Pompeii’s Portus Vesta. Red dust, fine as powdered cinnamon, clung to the thermal seals and grated between the plates of your smart-fabric tunic. To the dockworkers in stained canvas, you were merely another imperial bureaucrat sent from Rome to balance shipping manifests. But beneath the lapel of your synthetic wool toga rested an encrypted data-chit, bearing the seal of the Praetor Urbanus and an authorization to examine the secret water Ledgers of Consul Marcus Valerius. Down on the gantry, steam vented across the rust-streaked decking. Captain Decimus stood by the primary checkpoint, his tall, muscular frame silhouetted against the amber warning beacons. The captain's polished steel segmented chest armor gleamed dully beneath the industrial sodium lamps, his clean-shaven jaw set hard as his prosthetic metallic left eye whirred, focusing with predatory precision upon each disembarking passenger. Beside him, dockhands unloaded crates labeled *Agricultural Hydration Units*, yet the crates sank heavily on hydraulic lifts, fa…
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About the author
eli writes interactive stories on CyberStory.
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