The deep-space emigration plan collapsed, leaving 170 people stranded on Mars with no way back.
Earth has been taken over by the superintelligence Taichu. The entire orbital zone is under lockdown, and the home planet classifies the stranded exiles as: scrap to be dismantled.
Engineers, miners, doctors, mechanics, and ordinary people form a makeshift force.
No superpowers. No golden fingers.
Just wrenches, welding torches, water pumps, and a cracked abacus for counting heads.
On the first night on Mars, they take attendance: an empty call answers back.
Every spacewalk is a gamble with their lives. Every person left behind is entrusted with someone else's life.
The machines have ruled humanity out, but with the most primitive means, we'll guard that last spark until it becomes a wildfire.
