Ghazzat Hashim

Ghazzat Hashim was an early Earth settlement on Mars. (: "Esteban")

During the period of environmental and economic instability that challenged most of Earth's peoples during the 21st century, many saw the continuance of living under such circumstances as untenable. Low-intensity conflicts plagued even the most advanced of nation-states. Because of the degradation of the ozone layer, numerous cancers were on the rise.

Some held out hope for interplanetary colonization as a means to start over. Others were concerned that the ideological, ethnic and racial conflicts would only be transplanted to other worlds.


 * In the continuity of the Starfleet International chapter USS Northstar, these low-intensity conflicts were known as the Bias Wars. (Starfleet International: USS Northstar Officers' Handbook)

Some years before the events of 1 May 2053, two primitive DY-200 ships carrying refugees from Gaza -- as well as genetic material collected from their compatriots who had stayed behind -- launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The ships' destination: one of the Martian valleys that had been mapped by unmanned probes but had been unsurveyed by missions from the United States of America, Europe or any member state of the Eastern Coalition.

This settlement barely survived the next quarter-century, with many of the initial settlers dying of malnutrition and radiation poisoning. Meanwhile, much of their homeland on Earth had been laid waste by World War III. While new and tentative friendships with the Vulcans and Centaurians helped the process of restoring the damaged lands and waters of Earth, little was done to aid any off-world settlement except New Berlin on Luna and the research base at Utopia Planitia.

During this reconstruction period, many from the predominantly Muslim peoples of Southeast Asia considered joining Ghazzat Hashim. At least one DY-100 ship (bought by Indonesia from the United States) made the attempt, but was lost and never recovered.

At the turn of the 22nd century, an outreach was made by the fledgling European Hegemony to aid Ghazzat Hashim. The settlers were too proud, even then, to ask for help without proper recompense. They considered such aid a loan that they would repay.