Nova Mars

A glimpse at a possible future. This Mars is in the beginning stages of terraforming. It's warmer than modern Mars. Wetter. There's even the beginnings of a thicker, oxygen rich atmosphere. But it's still bitterly cold and bone dry. Most of the new water is locked up in the giant ice sheets that now dominate the surface, unusable until such a time as the temperature is warm enough for liquid water.

Even now, this decreasingly, but still highly, hostile world supports a fledgling civilization; brave pioneers willing to risk everything to bring a dead world back to life.

I was testing a method for creating realistic ice that ~Ittiz informed me about (go check out his gallery, by the way; there's a lot of good art there), and the results looked so good that I couldn't help polishing them up and posting them.

Starfield courtesy of stock provided by ~bloknayrb

Others in the series:
Proxima Centauri:
Gold and Dust
The Singer
Baleful Sun
Whispers on the Winds
Sol:
Rogue Agent