Speculation: Marsco towns, hit by a brain drain from the breakaway Big Three megacorps, aging infrastructure, resource theft, and internal strife, suffer from systemic collapse and unrest. Riots over food, medicine, daytime TV options flare up in hot spots over Marsco’s corpnation.
Reference: Suggested by Silent War history and some notes surrounding development of Ledger
Date Notes: Hazy period before “Plague Years”