Part 3/12:
Given these prolonged timelines, the focus shifts from the drama of immediate combat to a more strategic outlook. While science fiction often dramatizes conflicts between established planetary powers like Earth and Mars, the realities of interplanetary conflict may involve countless smaller players—akin to a modern-day landscape filled with city-states rather than juggernaut superpowers. In this envisioned future, the abundance of resources would facilitate widespread colonization, rendering planets less significant as isolated power bases and transforming them into nodes within a much larger cosmic network.