[ WP ] Human colonists have successfully established a settlement on Mars by the late 21st century . You , the commander of the colony , just discovered that Earth has been destroyed .

It was a Martian night like many others. The stars shone brightly through the high glassed dome-city of New Olympus. Set several kilometers away from the base of the biggest mountain in the solar system, New Olympus drew its energy almost entirely from geo-thermal vents bored into the Martian crust. The small amount of energy required otherwise was provided by two small thorium nuclear power stations in two smaller domes two kilometers away from the main dome-city at opposite ends, very ingeniously named Station A and Station B. 
 
 Mayor Carl Brast watched from the balcony of his office in City Hall as the night crew began boarding the tram that would race from the city to Station A for the start of the second shift. Groups of men and women boarding the tram, lunches in hand, to do their civic duty, maintaining the small plants that hummed day and night to provide power for New Olympus. It was n't critical work to maintain the plants. Not really. The geothermal vents below the center of the city did most of the heavy lifting. The nuclear stations just added that little bit extra that allowed the city to live in ease and prosperity, rather than rationing power from day to day. 
 
 As Mayor Brast looked back towards the sky, he saw the small star that was n't a star in the sky. The little twinkle that shone just a touch more brightly than the rest in the night sky past the huge clear dome which kept the air in. Thinking back to living on that small little twinkle was something Carl did not do often. Earth was crowded and full of politics ( and politicians ) that were causing more and more strife than they were worth. The Martian Colonies Program had been started to try to start over. New political ideals had been formulated by scientists and engineers that would ensure that governmental corruption could not take a foothold. A Technocracy had been born on Mars, and was doing rather well 50 years in. Carl had only been a boy of 8 when his parents joined the second expedition to New Olympus. Whenever asked by press during interviews for his campaign for mayor whether he missed the open fields and blue skies of Earth, he would simply remind them that he had grown up in New York City on Earth, and compared to that, New Olympus might as well be a rural wonderland. 
 
 It was a joke among New Olympians that they lived in more of a farm than a city. Many of the buildings in the city center were actually farm-buildings. Large towers that extended towards the top of the dome, and reached down below the surface of the planet. Each grouping of floors home to a different biome, dedicated to growing, housing for farming different plants, livestock, and even bacteria for the denizens of New Olympus to use to survive. Some were for food, some to balance the bacterial ecology inside each individual that keeps them healthy, and some for medicinal purposes, such as antibiotics. 
 
 No, Carl Brast did n't much miss Earth, since most of his life had been spent on Mars anyways. He knew Mars, and it was his home. That is when Carl noticed something. All the while he had been letting his mind wander, he had lost track of that little twinkle. The star that was n't a star, that was n't there. There was no eclipse tonight that Carl could recall. More important things had slipped his mind than the date of an eclipse which would block Earth from view, he knew that. But something was... unsettling Carl. He did n't know what, but something felt wrong. 
 
 As Carl tried to shake that feeling, he was shaken even more by his phone ringing. He had n't expected a call this late at night, and the sound of his phone ringing startled him. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, hit `` Answer'' and the face that greeted him was his Deputy Mayor, Maureen Danowitz. Maureen always had a severe look to her face. Thin, with her hair pulled back sharply and put into a tight bun. All business that woman. Carl had told her more than once, `` Maureen, if you do n't loosen up and try to relax a little, I'm afraid one day you might become so rigid you'll lose the ability to walk.'' 
 
 `` Carl!'' Maureen shouted into the phone. 
 `` Maureen!'' Carl jokingly replied, as he often did, to show his lack of regard for her always-serious manner. 
 `` Carl! Something's wrong! It's Earth!'' Maureen was in hysterics. That was not like Maureen. She was always serious, always severe and proper, and had little patience for Carl's jovial nature; she was not prone to panic. 
 `` What's wrong with Earth, Mo?'' Carl asked, his brow furrowing as he eyed her through the glassy display of his phone. 
 `` We ca n't get any signals on any channels: commercial, governmental, or private. All communication to Earth has just gone dead!'' 
 `` Well that does n't make any sense now does it? What to the boys in the communications labs have to say?'' 
 `` That's just it Carl,'' Maureen replied, her panic not abating one bit. `` They do n't know what's caused it either. All the tests they run say our equipment is fine. No solar flare activity is scheduled for another three months. We can even ping the satellites without any issue. But every transmission we send to Earth is met with silence. Every channel listening for return transmissions are just empty air. There's nothing!'' Maureen nearly shouted her last sentence. 
 `` Alright Maureen, alright. Listen, I get it. I'm in the office. Why do n't you grab up the head man there from communications. Jenkins was his name?'' 
 `` Yes, Bob Jenkins, I'm with him now.'' 
 `` Okay, you take Jenkins and get in a car and come to the office, and we'll start sorting this problem out just as soon as we can.'' 
 
 tbc...
