First off, sorry for resurrecting this thread; it contained snippets of exactly what I wanted to talk about, however, and after actually using the search engine I didn't think starting a new topic was prudent.
With that being said; I have found some pretty glaring contradictions where Mars is concerned, and I'd like to discuss them to see what you all think. The main sources for info on what Evo is doing on Mars are Hazard Pay and Storm Front, while some information can be gleaned from the 2nd Edition book "Missions", the 3rd Edition book "State of the Art: 2064", and the 4th Edition books Sixth World Almanac (SWA from now on) and Corporate Guide.
I see three big disconnects between the two former and the latter.
1. SWA has the latest entry dated November 10th, 2072
2. SWA states that Gagarin base was renamed New Japan (date unknown)
3. SWA states that Evo CEO Anatoly Kirilenko was part of the first manned mission to Mars which first broadcast live footage from Mars in 2063. This is somewhat corroborated by Corporate Guide, which states that he was "the head of the very successful Mars mission" (p80) and that he "presided over the first successful mission to Mars" (p85).
The book publishing order (as far as I can tell, details on publishing is tricky as all get-out to find) is as follows:
2002-05-01 Missions (FAS7325)
2004-10-01 State of the Art: 2064 (FPR25004E)
2010-06-01 Corporate Guide (CAT26221)
2010-10-20 Sixth World Almanac (CAT26205)
2012-06-20 Hazard Pay (CAT26210)
2013-03-27 Storm Front (CAT26213)
Contradictions to the above:
1. The in-game dates of both Hazard Pay and Storm Front (2074-05-28 and 2075-01-18, respectively) indicate that some of the information in the earlier material has been retconned by these later publications, as I'm about to show.
2. Hazard Pay and Storm Front both make multiple references to Gagarin, and never once mention New Japan.
3. According to Hazard Pay, Evo had been working on plans for a manned mission to Mars since early 2063, and managed to capitalize on the chaos following Crash 2.0 by putting the first metahumans on the Red Planet in 2065. Roskosmos cosmonauts charted the future location of Gagarin base and conducted surveys and sample gathering, but all personnel from this first exploratory mission were reportedly lost when a Martian storm killed two crew members instantly and compromised the remaining cosmonauts' suits and craft.
So, we have one source (Corporate Guide) claiming that the first Mars mission took place in 2063, another (SWA) claiming that Anatoly Kirilenko was a part of this mission, and a third (Hazard Pay) claiming that the first manned mission to Mars took place in 2065 and that all crew members from this mission were lost.
Given the above, I'm inclined to believe that Evo CEO Anatoly Kirilenko was not in fact a member of the crew that went to Mars, and that the whole Valentina Tereshkova story (both it's mission and subsequent six-day disappearance) is a relic from previous writers/versions of canon. My guess is that Catalyst Game Labs decided to change the story regarding Mars, despite some of the groundwork that has been laid down in previous editions.
The events of the 2nd Edition book "Missions" (not to be confused with the living campaign) can be theorized to have been kept secret by AresSpace, at least according to canon, so it is fair to assume that both SWA and Hazard Pay are in fact erroneously referring to the 2063 and 2065 expeditions as the "first" manned mission to Mars; few if any 2074 in-universe characters would even be aware of Operation Discovery, and the subsequent Project Cydonia was largely lauded as a failure due to Veil tampering. I doubt that any in-game characters would be aware of the true story behind these two projects.
The only reference I've been able to find of an in-game character having accurate knowledge of the actual events in 2011 and 2042 is in State of the Art: 2064 where a user named MUFON Boy alludes to Operation Discovery being the first successful Mars Mission, a statement that is quickly dismissed as a myth by user Skywarp, with comparisons made to the infamous Area 51.
Conclusion:
It's hard to tell what the writers were intending when they rewrote the story of Evo CEO Anatoly Kirilenko; perhaps they decided to go with less of a "Mission to Mars" and/or "Species" themed storyline for what's going down on Mars. Evidence from Storm Front seems to corroborate this speculation, as at least some and perhaps all of the Gagarin base personnel seem to have been infected with Sybil. Of course, it's all-together possible that the writing staff was simply unaware of the fact that they were rewriting history.
So, if you've made it this far; what do you think?
[EDIT]
Writers for the books in question (in alphabetical order):
Mission: Mars section, Missions
Louis J. Prosperi (early layout and concept by Chris Hussey)
Culture Shock section, State of the Art: 2064
Antonio Pucci, Brian Cross, Drew Curtis, James Nugent, Jon Szeto, Jong-Won Kim, Joshua Powell, Malik Toms, Patrick Goodman, Peter Taylor, Rich Osterhout, Rob Boyle, Robert Derie, Sergio Puljdo, Stephan Meijerhof
Corporate Guide
Aaron Pavao, Adam Large, Andreas Schroth, Brandie Tarvin, Jason Hardy, Jennifer Harding, John Dunn, , Lars Blumenstein, Malik Toms, Mark Edwards, Michael Roesner, Tobias Wolter
Sixth World Almanac
David Hill, Filamena Young, Jason Hardy, , Jason Schmetzer, Jennifer Harding, John Dunn, John Helfers, John Schmidt, Ken Horner, Lars Blumenstein, Malik Toms, Marc Tassin, Michael Wich, Phaedra Weldon, Rusty Childers, Stephen McQuillan
Hazard Pay:
David Ellenberger, Jason M. Hardy, Michael Wich, R.J. Thomas, Robert Wieland
Storm Front:
Brandie Tarvin, Devon Oratz, Jason M. Hardy, Michael Wich, Patrick Goodman, Philip A. Lee, R.J. Thomas, Russell Zimmerman, Scott Schletz, Thomas Willoughby
As one can tell, there are few (if any) overlaps from the earlier 2nd and 3rd Edition books to the 4th Edition books (as can be expected).
