AT SOME UNSPECIFIED POINT IN EARTH’S FUTURE, the planet’s resources became depleted and its population faced extinction. A solitary lifeline was extended by the Company, an organisation hailing from the planet Usurius, which was seeking an economically viable property in that sector of the galaxy. The fungoid Usurians brokered a deal with the rulers of Earth – the human population relocated to Mars after Usurian engineers made the planet habitable. The Company’s capital costs were recouped through the utilisation of humans as an industrial workforce and their consequent, excessive, taxation. Once the natural resources of Mars had themselves been exhausted, the Company transferred its base of operations and human workforce to the next viable alternative within the solar system, Pluto, once more terraforming the environment to support human habitation.