Red Sands of Revolution

Everyone knows the history behind the Revolution for Martian Independence. This is the personal story behind the man who led Mars to become the first independent planet beyond Earth.

Carl Ronad had gone to Earth to learn how his home-world might join the United Nations as an equal partner. On Earth he learned that the only true path to self-determination for Mars would be through complete independence for his people. A tragic accident involving Carl Ronad’s father, Jake Ronad, calls him home to Mars before graduating from George Washington University on Earth. On his journey home, Carl becomes the first man who sees one of the mysterious Pirate Fleet ships and lives to tell about it. Despite reporting this immediately to the ship’s captain, Carl has now raised the suspicions of the U.N. Interplanetary Investigations Unit (IIU). The IIU is the strong arm enforcer of the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council is keenly aware of the stirrings for revolution and will stop at nothing to hold onto their power-base.

Carl arrives at his home on Mars only to find he is in time to see his father’s funeral. He meets his old love from his undergraduate days on Mars who had refused to go to Earth with him. Their five years apart have not dampened their feelings, but she is unwilling to forget that he seemingly ran away from her all of those years ago. Carl also meets a mysterious figure at his father’s wake who tells Carl that Jake Ronad’s fate was no accident, and that the IIU may be involved. Carl is unaware that this man is the secret leader of the Pirate Fleet and that his father had been working with him to build up a supply of arms for a Martian revolution.

While Carl begins the search for the truth behind his father’s death, he is swept into the rising tide of revolution growing across the planet. He puts his five years of first hand observation on Earth to use by leading the revolutionaries in a plan to swiftly break free of the United Nations’ control of Mars.