It all began with Vasily Ghim, a wealthy businessman from Moscow who made his fortune in the early days of the 21st century. Vasily was a shrewd investor, with a keen eye for emerging markets and cutting-edge technologies. He made his first billion by investing in the burgeoning field of biotech, then expanded into robotics, space exploration, and even artificial intelligence. He invested heavily in Brain-computer interfaces, more commonly known as Beckies.

As his wealth grew, so did his influence. Vasily used his connections to politicians, academics, and other power brokers to gain access to the corridors of power. He became a sought-after advisor, a kingmaker who could make or break careers with a word or a nod.

But Vasily had even greater ambitions. He saw Earth's growing population, dwindling resources, and ever more pressing challenges, and he knew that the old ways of doing things were not sustainable. He believed that the key to Earth's survival lay in the stars, in the vast resources and opportunities of the solar system.

So he invested heavily in space exploration, founding his own private space company, Ghim Enterprises. He poured his wealth into research, development, and infrastructure, building a network of space stations, launch pads, and robotic factories.

And then he set his sights on Mars.

At first, Mars was a distant dream, a tantalizing vision of a new world waiting to be explored and exploited. But Vasily saw something more. He saw a blank slate, a world where he could create something new, something greater than himself.

He sent out a team of explorers and prospectors, equipped with the latest technology and a mandate to find the most promising sites for colonization. They scoured the planet's surface, braving the harsh conditions and the unknown dangers. And they found what they were looking for.

In the vast, ancient canyon known as Valles Marineris, they discovered a network of underground caves and tunnels, carved out by ancient rivers and filled with precious water and minerals. Vasily saw the potential of these caverns, and he knew that he had found the key to Mars's future.

He poured even more resources into the project, building a massive dome over the Valles Marineris, and launching a fleet of robotic miners and construction drones. He hired the best engineers, scientists, and workers from Earth and Mars, and he gave them a mandate to create something truly revolutionary.

And they did. The Ghim Dome, as it came to be known, was a marvel of engineering, a self-sufficient city with its own power, water, and air systems. It housed thousands of workers, scientists, and their families, all working together to create a new world.

But Vasily knew that he could not do it alone. He needed allies, partners, and protectors. And so he reached out to the other major players on Mars, the other powerful families and corporations who had staked their claim on the planet.

He used his wealth, his connections, and his charisma to forge alliances and partnerships with the other families, promising them a share of the profits and a voice in the new world order. He created a network of alliances and favors, a web of mutual dependence that ensured his dominance.Ghim Enterprises was not only interested in mining and colonization, but also in terraforming Mars. They knew that if they could transform the planet's atmosphere, they could make it more habitable for humans, and ultimately create a world that could sustain life without the need for artificial habitats.

They invested heavily in research and development, funding countless experiments and studies aimed at finding ways to warm up the planet and thicken its atmosphere. They developed new technologies for extracting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from the Martian soil, and they even began experimenting with genetic engineering, trying to create new plants and microbes that could thrive in the harsh Martian environment.

Their efforts paid off. Over time, they were able to gradually thicken the Martian atmosphere, trapping more heat and creating a greenhouse effect that warmed up the planet. They introduced hardy, genetically modified plants that could survive the harsh conditions and produce oxygen, and they used them to begin transforming the landscape, creating vast greenbelts and forests that slowly but surely spread across the planet.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was a long and difficult process, but Ghim Enterprises never lost sight of their goal. They knew that the terraforming of Mars was the key to creating a new world, a world where humanity could thrive and prosper, and they were willing to do whatever it took to make it happen. And in the end, they succeeded, creating a world that was more than just a barren wasteland, but a new home for humanity.

And he created a new social structure, a new hierarchy that reflected his own vision of the future. He divided Mars into a series of Moieties, each controlled by a powerful family or corporation. And he made sure that the Ghim Moiety was the most powerful of them all. Anyone who opposed it was quietly disappeared - or, at times, not so quietly. The Ghim family became masters of public torture and execution. The Moeties assumed theirs would be the only governing style on Mars, as the Earth was dying; they never expected the world governments to band together and literally transform the Moon into an interplanetary vessel. Nor did they expect them to launch a full scale mission to land Pallas and Vesta as a part of the terraforming efforts.

The term "Moiety" was not a common one on Earth. It was an old word, with roots in the indigenous cultures of the Americas, and it had largely fallen out of use in modern times. But on Mars, it had taken on a new meaning, a new significance. The ruling families of Mars called themselves Moieties, and they did so for a reason. It was a nod to their own history, to the long, bloody struggle for dominance that had defined the planet's early years.

In those days, the first twenty companies into groups, each with its own vision for the future. One group wanted to create a new world, a utopia free from the tyranny and inequality of Earth. Most of the others wanted to recreate the old world, to preserve the structures and hierarchies that had defined human society for millennia. The Ghim and their closest allies wanted to push for more fanatical, pure power based systems, not unlike those found in the Soviet Union of the twentieth century.

The two clashed, violently and repeatedly. They fought over resources, over ideology, over power. They formed alliances, broke them, formed them again. And in the end, they reached a stalemate, a kind of uneasy truce that would last for generations. In these clashes, seven more Moeties rose to hold some semblance of power. Lesser families but still with some importance.

But the scars of that conflict remained, and the Moieties were a reminder of them. Each ruling family saw itself as a continuation of the original factions, as the inheritor of their legacy. They saw themselves as the true representatives of Mars, as the ones who had fought and bled and sacrificed to make the planet what it was.

And they were not wrong, in a sense. The Moieties had built the infrastructure, the economy, the society that allowed humans to thrive on Mars. They had invested their wealth, their expertise, their labor into the planet, and they had reaped the rewards.

But the Moieties were also a symbol of the planet's darker side, of its inequalities, its injustices, its exploitation. They were a reminder that Mars was not a paradise, but a battleground, a place where power and privilege were fought over and won at the expense of others.

And so the Moieties endured, a testament to the past and a challenge to the future. They were the rulers of Mars, but also its prisoners, trapped by their own history, their own ambition, their own fallibility. They were Moieties, and they were both the promise and the betrayal of what Mars could be. And it was into this dark history that the refugees from Earth found themselves indebted to upon arrival.

It was not easy, of course, to get along with the newcomers. There were rivalries, betrayals, and power struggles. There were moments when it seemed like the whole project would fall apart. But Vasily was a master strategist, a man who knew how to navigate the treacherous waters of politics and business. It would be a generation before the terraforming was complete, and a generation after that before the Moon would arrive. The Moeties would cement their iron-fist rule, instituting more than a caste system: with the new influx of people, slavery would ensure a ready supply of cheap labor to fuel the terraforming efforts. The Moeties would justify this practice as necessary to the survival of the colony, but in reality, it was a cruel and inhumane exploitation of the most vulnerable members of society.

And he had a secret weapon: his family. Vasily had groomed his children from a young age, teaching them the skills and knowledge they would need to carry on his legacy. His son, Orion, was a brilliant engineer who oversaw the construction of the dome. His daughter, Nadia, was a skilled diplomat who negotiated the alliances and partnerships that made the Ghim Moiety so powerful. His third child, a son named Atrius, was nothing in Vasily's eyes, a nothing that would amount to nothing.

Together, they built a new world on Mars, a world where the Ghim family reigned supreme. They had created a new dynasty, a new empire that would endure for generations to come.

And Vasily knew that he had done something truly remarkable. He had taken a brutal dream and turned it into reality. He had created a new world, a new future, and a new legacy for his family. And he knew that they would continue to thrive, to grow, and to conquer for as long as the anti-aging regimen would last and well beyond.