chastyami: Thanks . Do you mean a colony that looks like Richard Feynman? Well, this is a bit interesting

Alejandro24: I'm always happy to see your comments, and this is not exception. Thank you very much

 

There is life on Mars! There is life on Mars!

What? Little green men with flying sauces who want to take over the Earth?

No man!

O.K., let's get serious.

When the first Sims visit Mars, they didn't found something to prove that there is life on the Red Planet. They only discovered fossils of ancient microbes, suggesting that was a living planet. Well... it was. Mars is dead, said the SimTerrans scientists.

But in 2060 A.D. (91 A.T.), an unbelievable discover take place in the North Pole of Mars. Before that, let me meet you with Frank, an explorer SimMartian cyborg with the ability to survive in the Martian surface without any protection. It looks that the first generation of 100% Martians in finally here. Anyway, this is Frank.

Frank deployed from a V.T.O.L. airplane to explore the North Pole. An ordinary mission, with a shocking surprise!

Plants? On Mars? Impossible! And yes, there are plants on Mars.

Because of the lower gravity, all those plants where very tall. Some of them had also very large levees to collect more solar energy.

Frank thought. If there are plants, how about animals? And soon, Frank discovered Martian animals!

After some D.N.A. analysis, scientists learned more about those creatures. This non-sapient creature is a herbivore, feeding on small Martian plants, and has a scaly skin covered in a wax-like substance which protects it from the ultraviolet radiation. It also has a thick membrane covering its eyes, in order to shield them from violent sandstorms. Due to this membrane, however, the creature has very poor eyesight. The creature is a quadruped, and uses its strong hind limbs for jumping, which is a very efficient way of locomotion on a low-gravity planet. Due to the frigid temperatures of Mars, the creature's blood contains ethyl alcohol, rather than water. Since the alcohol has a much lower melting point, it remains liquid at very low temperatures, preventing the creature from freezing.

And the name of them: Martian Bear. Why? When the American astronomer Carl Sagan suggests better research for more complex life forms on Mars, some scientists made jokes about "Carl Sagan's Martian polar bears". With the discovery of the Martian bears, Carl Sagan took his "revenge".

While Frank explored the place, he heard creepy sounds from the sky. But is wasn't the wind. Soon a flying creature landed close to him.

This creature made those scary sounds. Soon it attacks a Martian bear to eat it.

After some D.N.A. analysis, scientists learned more about those creatures. This non-sapient creature is a carnivore, feeding on Martian bears. Unlike Martian bears, those flying animals doesn't eat by chewing their food. It's liquivorous, something like the Terran spiders. This animal use a retractable appendage on its mouth that it uses to attack and subdue prey, which pierces the victim's skin and injects digestive juices into the body. The victim is insides liquefy, allowing the flying animal to suck out this for sustenance. Like Martian bears, those animals has also ethyl alcohol in their blood and skin covered in a wax-like substance.

And the name of them: Martian Siren. Why? Because of their creepy siren-like sounds. It's also a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and his book "The Sirens of Titan"

Frank keeps exploring the place, but soon the ground starts to shake. An earthquake? Not exactly, something is going to appear from underground. Maybe is a Martian geyser, maybe is a... MONSTER!!!!! AAAHHHH!!!!

Frank shocked, but he soon notice that this gigantic animal ate a small forest and some Martian bears. Wow, what a snack!

After some D.N.A. analysis, scientists learned more about those creatures. This non-sapient creature is an omnivore feeding on plants, Martian bears and sirens. It's gigantic mouth and extremely hard teeth allows it to eat almost everything, even rocks. This giant lives underground, so it doesn't have ethyl alcohol in their blood and skin covered in a wax-like substance. In fact, it's the only Martian animal that is closer to the Terran animals, making it a truly alien life form.

And the name of them: Martian Sandworms. Why? It's a tribute of the legendary sandworms of the plant Arrakis, from Frank Herbert's novel "Dune".

Now this is something really cool. A small ecosystem on Mars! What next? An ancient civilization? Maybe, especially after the studding of the mysterious area of Cydonia. Cydonia is almost close to Faith-3, so exploring there is easier.

There are many interesting objects to explore, but the famous Martian Face takes the cake. The American mission Mars Global Surveyor proved that it was nothing more than hills. But after a great sandstorm, the dust of the Face removed. So, are you sure that it still just a hill?

Here we can see a scientific base in Cydonia. The exploration of this place is not very easy however. Many strange phenomenas happens here, making Cydonia the Martian Area 51. The Face is the most creepy.

There is a door that leads the explorers to the inside of the Face. The Face was artificially made, but by who? Many scientists explored the inside of the Face. 2 of them disappeared!! How? Did they found a labyrinth-like structure and get lost? Did they found a tunnel that leads them to somewhere else? Did they found a star gate-like object and now they are out of the Solar System? Nobody found them.

But the Face is not the only strange object in Cydonia. This mountain for example. It looks more like an arcology, a building large enough to support a whole city inside it.

Next to it, we can find a city-like group of small hills.

A mysterious crater. Some explorers claimed that they can hear strange alien voices inside of the crater.

All those strange structures connect each other by "roads". If anybody was on the road, he/she could feel something fluid... and this is not air, neither water.

Some days later, Frank explored the North Pole again. This time he discovered ruins from a native civilization! So there was an intelligent specie. He discovered abandonment villages, destroyed temples, unknown structures and evidences of an ancient Martian civilization.

In the end of the day, Frank waited for the airplane to get him. But before that, he discovered something really beautiful. A monolith-like object, with a hologram of a galaxy on it. Frank was surrounded by ancient ruins and a whole ecosystem, but this was his greater discovery, as he said. He even tried to touch the monolith.

This was the last transmission. Frank disappeared.

The discovery of life on Mars was the half Martian Shock, according of SimTerrans and SimLunars description. In the next update, we'll discover the other half. Stay tuned