The Cardinal Directive
The Cardinal Directive
What /is/ The Cardinal Directive?
The Cardinal Directive, sometimes referred to simply as Cardinal, is a sci-fantasy horror series set on a fictional version of Mars and told via recorded mission logs.
In this universe, Mars was colonized only a few generations ago when small pockets of running water were discovered on its surface. The governments of Earth, vying for power and resources, decided to send the populations of their prisons to mining camps on Mars.
With a war brewing on Earth, the newly-deemed Martians seized the opportunity to declare their sovereignty and freedom from Earth’s governments by coup. It was successful. In the time since, Mars has grown substantially, but with most cities being contained in biodomes, much of the world remains untamed and strange to outside eyes.
Our story takes place in the Phoenicis Lacus quadrangle on Mars. The region contains part of the Tharsis plateau — a large area formed by ancient volcanic flow — not to mention two of the three Tharsis Montes: Arsia Mons and Pavonis Mons.
While these dormant shield volcanos may be impressive, they hardly hold a candle to the other major feature of this region of Mars: the leading edge of the infamous Noctis Labyrinthus, more commonly known just as the Labyrinth. This intersecting series of canyons and valleys form a maze-like web across the northeast, from which mist and fog billow every morning to cover large swaths of the surrounding plateau.
Traversing the land is no small task, and falls squarely on the shoulders of supply runners known as “harriers”, who ferry items and people from one town to another. Battling the harsh landscape and deadly Martian conditions outside their suits is dangerous enough without counting raiders stalking the supply lines, or the possibility of anyone on the team harboring ulterior motives.
They are the first line of defense between civilization and the Red, and thus first to notice when something begins to stir from the Labyrinth. Something that should be dead…
This post has been made to act as a pinned post in The Cardinal Directive’s subsection, in the effort of informing new and free readers alike what the project is without them needing to spend any money. It’s science fiction, it’s fantasy, it’s practically a space western, and it’s also a whole heaping of mystery and horror! Sound like a good time? I know I’m having fun with it!
If you are a paying subscriber, you can start reading now if you haven’t already! Check out the archive on the site, or just jump straight into Mission Log #1 [HERE]. You can also check out [THIS] thread to get a link for the master document of Cardinal, where all the Mission Logs and other narrative pieces are in the same place for you to read straight through.
If you aren’t a paying subscriber, please consider it! It’s only five dollars a month and it helps me more than you know. You’ll get full access to this episodic series, as well as my novel Sleepless, which is also being serially published through this platform!
Things lurking in the fog are just the start for this series, and if you really want to know what the Cardinal Directive is, there’s no better way to find out than experiencing it yourself!