Ever the curious scientist species the Martians chose to deposit the surviving Atlanteans onto the primitive and barely habitable third planet in their own solar system. A planet so utterly dangerous and populated by deadly flora and fauna that the chances of the Atlanteans surviving it were expected to be rather low. Of course to the surprise of the Martian observers the ever aggressive and war like Atlanteans (humans) immediately set about subjugating the planet's more physically strong indigenous population (the neanderthal) and quickly became the most dangerous predator on that hellish planet as well.
The Atlanteans stubbornly preserved a sense of their greatness and racial identity as a star faring species right up to the establishment of the great city of Atlantis approximately nine thousand years before the writings of Plato. By that time the Atlantean civilization had finally rebuilt itself sufficiently to begin the process of building ships capable of carrying them back into the stars. The Martians who had been quietly watching this process all along were, of course, having none of this and ultimately performed a massive orbital strike against the city, utterly destroying all life on the island and causing it to sink forever beneath the waves.
During all of this time the Martian Hegemony had experienced a golden age of expansion. The Atlantean Star Empire had left behind thousands of habitable planets and much of their former territory was in ruins, populated by former slave races so shocked by their sudden freedom as to be easy prey for whoever filled the void. For thousands upon thousands of years much of space surrounding the solar system containing Mars and Earth remained the undisputed territory of the Hegemony.
By the time of the destruction of Atlantis and the final loss of the racial identity of humanity as a star faring civilization the Martians were already an old race, millions of years further down the path of their own history than the race of men. At this time the Martians had already lost the ability to reproduce themselves by natural means and relied instead upon the genetics of their scientific priesthood to birth new generations of themselves, perfect clones born to carry on the identity of their parent.
Zev is a Red Martian. This places him in the military caste. He is a commander of the fifth rank within the Fahz'aduk Sept. Zev does not consider himself to be Zev, son of Zev. He is merely Zev. Zev carries in his mind fragments of the memories and identities of a thousand Zev's which have lived before him. Zev has a hated rival, another Red Martian within the Fahz'aduk Sept who is called Mar'don. Zev and Mar'don have worked together in previous incarnations. They have in a very few cases become cautious friends and allies but mostly they have struggled against one another and murdered one another. The last incarnation of Zev was cut down by the current Mar'don in a sudden and violent duel on the streets of Zamaz'na'kapulta, an important Martian city on the Red Planet itself.
This is a glimpse into the strange workings of alien life within Martian society. Within the last two thousand years the clone beds of the priests of science have been in decline. Whole lines of clones have been completely lost. Millions of genetic lines have finally unraveled themselves to the point of nothingness and the streets of a hundred thousand Martian cities scattered throughout the star systems of the Martian Hegemony have grown more and more silent, more and more empty.
The Martian decision to reach out to the race of men, to the ancestors of the hated Atlantean Empire, the most vicious, blood thirsty and cruel bunch of bastards the galaxy has ever seen is born out of a need to shore up their own rapidly faltering population. That and the Martians are afraid of something. Something far out on the borders of the Hegemony beyond where any human expansion has yet managed to travel.
The simple truth is that the Martians need us. If they are to survive at all, they need us.
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