July, 2144
	The company has its personnel spread pretty thin, with offices in Kiev and Moscow, and a sizeable group at our main cargo assembly site in Orlando, Florida (myself included). But when news hits it spreads pretty fast, and before I know it I’m being pelted by questions. It’s pretty obvious I’ll be forced to hold a conference sooner or later, so I decide to go ahead and get it over with. “None of you have heard this yet,” I say, “but the Mars contest is about to be opened to commercial space companies. The Chinese and the Americans are each placing a bounty on delivering their outpost to the Martian surface. I haven’t seen any numbers yet, but I suspect neither one of them is putting up enough money to seriously tempt anyone into taking the contract.”

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	Ignition pg. 4 || 12/10/2010