In those days, many political things were happening. War broke out: a United Nations coalition led by the United States was fighting piracy in outer space. There was a man calling himself Sadatmo of Dhagbod; he was a leader of pirates threatening the trade routes between the Moon, where China dominated, and the Earth's orbit, which America controlled. For reasons beyond my scope of understanding at the time, this conflict involved Mars, which, apparently, had been supporting the pirates in their struggle against American trade interest. Many of the pirates were members of bankrupt or otherwise out-of-business tourist or shipping companies. They blamed America for their abject poverty: they had nothing, and the companies who cooperated with the United States (flying their flag even!) were considered fair game.

– Verse 119 from the chapter called Childhood

The destruction was awesome. The U.S. Space Marines punched a hole through the main defenses; another group made a feint. Meanwhile, armored ships outflanked the pirates from their weakest point. They were encircled. Within days, the great armed forces of Sadatmo ceased to exist. Many surrendered; others ran away. The coalition held back. The great tyrant escaped into the blackness of outer space.

– Verse 127 from the chapter called Childhood

The Reserve Army division (whose general staff headquarters had been placed in Treblinka) was supposed to be preventing terrorists from joining up with their brethren in Poznan (to the north) or else from filtering through the southwestern Polish countryside towards the nearest spaceport around, located a few miles south of Warsaw. The Reserve Army, in the few weeks since Wroclaw had fallen under terrorist siege, had made several very important and surprising accomplishments: it had finally stopped favoring Germany and German interests; it had finally looked past the so-called 'Looney Triangle' of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin; it had finally considered the possibility that terrorists were being manipulated (or else directly controlled) by an agent or agents whose agendas had very little in common with terrorists' traditional goals of killing Americans and their allies - after all, what the hell were they doing on planet Earth? They had plenty of soft targets in outer space and especially in Earth's orbit - they were consciously neglecting them. That made no sense whatsoever. The Reserve Army finally deployed two divisions east. As an afterthought, one was sent down to Silesia, while the main contingent made a beeline to the capital. Thanks to them, Jesus found his way out.

– Verse 8 from the chapter called Bohemia

"Terrorists," my cousin laughed. "The terrorist war, the Martian Revolution. The Reserve Army's been burning all of its fossil fuel reserve fighting these goddamn terrorists; no one's been able to transport fossil fuels to outer space or to Mars for the past - God knows how long; fossil fuel consumption's been up ever since interplanetary trade fell to shit, and all despite the rising prices and restrictions - the Americans finally realized we have to do something about the atmosphere again."

– Verse 74 from the chapter called Bohemia

Most people wrote him off as a crazy man. Others were more skeptical: they wondered what a Martian man was doing on Earth collaborating with terrorists. People said: he's a criminal: he escaped from Mars and joined up with pirates and all the other dispossessed and frustrated scumbags in outer space - what do you think he wants? Money, money, money! What do you think drives him? His own greed! Spite! His diabolical schemes for grabbing power and fifty wives like all the other rich pirates.

What about this Zeus fellow?

– Verses 679-680 from the chapter called Adolescence