[ WP ] We finally get men on Mars and they discover an old Soviet flag placed down decades ago . The Soviets won the space race but for whatever horrifying reason did n't say anything .

`` You wo n't believe what we just found'', she reported back to mission control. `` Hammer and sickle, just like you'd remember them from those history books... yes... no... no, not craftsman tools. No....yes... YES, for heaven's sake, the *flag*. Shut you up, has n't it?'' 
 
 Back on Earth, the Prime Director was fighting off the disbelief. The symbol of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? On Mars? The USSR itself has fallen into oblivion, getting no more than a footnote in history textbooks these days. 
 
 And the implications were grave. Only few still know the turbulent past our planet has been through. The violent ages, the era of constantly bickering nation-states. The Unification War of 2084 saw those remnants of the past buried, and the new, unitary world order arise. The people of Earth have known only orderly, peaceful existance since then, all links to the past purged from memory. 
 
 And now, one of those symbols has surfaced, on another planet. The Prime Director knew it could n't be covered up.
