Terraform

Terraform begins with the most expensive shot in human history: a ship called the Kepler breaking through the Martian atmosphere after a nine-month transit. Six astronauts, handpicked from a pool of thousands, trained for years to step onto a dead world and begin the century-long process of making it habitable. Except when the airlock opens, the air is already breathable. Not thin. Not marginal. Clean, 21% oxygen, nitrogen-balanced air. The soil has water in it. There are no plants, no microorganisms, no evidence of biology at all — but the atmosphere reads like someone ran the entire terraforming playbook overnight....