title: The Great Martian War: Breakthrough
author:  Scott Washburn 
description: Scott Washburn is an architectural designer by profession, an avid reader of military history as well as long time re-enactor and wargamer. He has written the first three books in the Great Martian War series, the author of <i>The Terran Consensus</i> and has contributed short stories to the Beyond the Gates of Antares books.
zlib_text: War Dragons
  
  
  James T. Kirk and Hikaru Sulu as recorded by
  
  
  L. A. Graf
  
  
  One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## KIRK
  
  
  TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM SPUN a delicate membrane between the spindly green of
  transplanted Martian foliage and the blue-black Martian sky. As he watched one
  of the shipyard’s many crew transports crawl patiently starward along a
  sparkling length of duranium filament, it occurred to James Kirk that man-made
  atmospheres were always the most fragile. Mars’s chilly surface, although no
  longer the frigid wasteland of just a few centuries before, still clung to the
  planet only through the heroic efforts of her tenants. Outside the tame
  habitat of interlinked domes and tunnels, carefully tended flora transplanted
  from Earth’s highest mountains and harshest tundras braved Mars’ seasonal
  extremes, while the excess carbon dioxide from captured comets and a few
  million adventurous humans preserved just enough water on the surface to
  reward the plants with the occasional rain shower. The end result was a
  c