Events
Conflicts, discoveries, expeditions, and acts of resistance.
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African orbital bombardment
Under Brookes' orders, Vidar bombarded the African front with rail-gun slugs. The indiscriminate attack killed both United Earth soldiers and Flaxens.
African orbital strike
Lucinda and a scorpion pilot destroyed a major Flaxen base south of the Sahara. The mission formed one half of the first coordinated orbital retaliation planned with Minister Eppleston.
American death-chamber strikes
Eastcott destroyed thirty-four Flaxen death chambers across the Americas in a single scorpion mission. He selected the targets in preference to a second conventional military base proposed by Minister Eppleston.
Attack on Cylli
Brookes breached Cylli's hull with an indirect sphere-beam attack, then entered the habitat and forced Helen to assist him. His assault killed inhabitants and left him believing that he had destroyed Cylli's mind.
Attack on Echo
Brookes attacked Echo and its scorpion near Earth with a modified hawk. Lucinda and Ensign Stuart Trew were killed, and Echo escaped with severe damage.
Battle between Earth and Venus
Three hawks attacked Echo and Eastcott's upgraded scorpion between Earth and Venus after the strike on the Flaxen capital. The defenders concentrated fire and forced Brookes's formation to withdraw.
Battle of Jupiter
The battle of Jupiter is the confrontation in which Odin ambushes Echo and is subsequently destroyed by Formidable. It occurs during the Six Years' War.
Bombing of York
The Flaxens bombed York in retaliation for the penetration of their territory during Serilda's rescue. They deliberately concentrated on civilian population centers rather than military or government sites.
Brookes–Flaxus agreement
Avalon Brookes and Claudius Sirister agreed to exchange advanced military assistance for Brookes's future rule of the cylinder. Brookes promised to defeat Echo and secure Flaxen conquest of Earth.
Camp Skadi executions after the extraction
After Flint's removal, Damien Senery resumed mass executions at Camp Skadi. Echo's bridge crew watched through satellite imagery as prisoners were forced into a heat chamber and killed.
Capture of Echo
Brookes crippled Echo with three enhanced hawks and boarded under threat of a sphere-drive detonation. He installed Vidar in control of the vessel and imprisoned its company.
Copious expedition
The Copious expedition is the first attempted human mission beyond the solar system, intended to seed an extrasolar world with Earth life. The former warships Formidable and Echo each carry about a thousand people.
Defeat of Avalon Brookes
Brookes' attempt to retain control ended in an armed confrontation on Cylli's riverbank. Eastcott incapacitated him after he shot Katie Silver.
Defense of Cylli
Cylli repelled Brookes's attempt to enter and destroy Echo. She refused his forged command, resisted his sphere beam, and drove his hawk away.
Defense of Iceland
Lieutenant Frey stopped twenty Flaxen bombers from reaching the intelligence complex in Iceland. The mission preserved the team conducting the mental operation against the Flaxen commanders.
Destruction of the First Air Fleet
Brookes destroyed United Earth's First Air Fleet in northern Scotland using two hawks. The attack removed approximately half of United Earth's air power.
Destruction of the remaining chambers
After the Earth-patrolling hawk was destroyed, Echo struck the Flaxens' remaining extermination chambers. Eastcott sent Claudius a recording of the installations being destroyed.
Destruction of the Venus convoy
Two scorpions destroyed a Flaxen convoy carrying components required for the infrasound weapon from Venus to Earth. The convoy was escorted by ten small missile-armed warships.
Echo's first orbital campaign
For two weeks after the infrasound program's destruction, Echo's people attacked factories, barracks, and weapons caches across Flaxen territory from orbit. No friendly lives were lost during that sequence of strikes.
Echo's refit
Cylli's automated shipyards repaired and upgraded Echo and its surviving scorpion, restoring their ability to confront the hawks. The work transformed their propulsion, armament, armor, and supply of ammunition.
Eclipse of Venus
Eastcott and Cylli restricted the sunlight reaching Venus to undermine Claudius' regime. Ten days of reduced light brought cold, unrest, and the collapse of the Flaxus' authority.
Extraction from Camp Skadi
Hastings's Marines extracted Serilda Corazon and Megan from Camp Skadi in a covert night operation ordered by Captain Eastcott. The mission succeeded without friendly casualties or an alarm from the Flaxen garrison.
First contact with contemporary United Earth
Echo's first contact with contemporary United Earth begins through a concealed lunar radio link to Minister of War Cyrus Eppleston. It leads to a presidential visit and preliminary military cooperation.
Flaxen conquest of Earth
The Flaxen conquest of Earth is the prolonged war that follows the expansion of the Venetian settlements. By Echo's return, the Flaxens control the Americas and threaten the remaining human territories on two fronts.
Flaxen settlement of Earth
The Flaxen settlement of Earth begins as an authorized refuge for one thousand Venetians in Canada. A fabricated climate emergency conceals the settlers' expansionist purpose.
Golden age
The golden age is the period of abundant prosperity following Venus's colonization. Energy abundance and automated production allow the three inhabited worlds to provide basic needs and much more to their citizens.
Hornica's revolution
Hornica's revolution is the movement that overthrows Earth's post-Titan religious government and restores scientific inquiry. Its founding leader, William Hornica, dies before its success.
Lunar projectile strike
Katie Silver's lunar-projectile plan destroyed the hawk patrolling Earth while Echo remained protected behind the Moon. The operation sacrificed an unmanned shuttle to accelerate a spherical rock.
Mental operation against the Flaxen commanders
Serilda and eleven United Earth intelligence operatives directed a combined mental operation against senior Flaxen officers. The operation caused military divisions that became decisive in Earth's liberation.
Mirage operation
Cylli supplied a false environment to Brookes and Hawk, allowing them to believe they were fighting inside the habitat while they were actually in space. The deception removed Brookes' ability to hold the inhabitants hostage with his sphere drive.
Mutilation of Avalon Brookes
Claudius ordered a guard to remove one of Brookes's ears after the attack on Venus and the hawks' failed interception. He framed the punishment as a response to Brookes's failure to heed his orders.
Raid on Mount Aconcagua
Hastings led almost fifty Marines into the Flaxen weapons facility beneath Mount Aconcagua and destroyed it. The operation disrupted the infrasound weapons program and produced four Flaxen captives.
Return to Cylli
After the first hawk attack, Echo returned to Cylli for protection and repair. The journey at twenty percent drive power took about five hours.
Six Years' War
The Six Years' War is the conflict between United Earth and the secessionist Martian Confederacy. It ends in United Earth's victory five years before the Copious expedition departs.
Sphere-drive accident
The sphere-drive accident destroys the planned progress of the Copious expedition and separates Formidable from Echo. A hidden velocity-dependent increase in energy extraction produces runaway acceleration.
Strike on Venus
Eastcott and Lieutenant Frey struck a rare mineral processing facility in Venus's capital with the upgraded scorpion. The attack demonstrated that the Flaxen homeworld was vulnerable to orbital assault.
Terraforming of Venus
The terraforming of Venus is the joint Earth–Mars effort that turns Venus into a habitable world. It begins roughly a thousand years after the Copious expedition and takes approximately eight hundred years.
Texas massacre
Flaxen bombers killed approximately one hundred thousand captive Humans in Texas during a broadcast by Kilter Shrader. He demanded that United Earth break its alliance with Echo or face further daily killings of the same scale.
Titan pandemic
The Titan pandemic is the catastrophe that destroys the interconnected civilization of Earth, Mars, and Venus. An organism from Titan spreads from a Martian research facility and devastates the solar system within months.
Trial of Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes was convicted by the war-crimes tribunal in Wellington and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. His trial occurred nearly a year after the war's end.
War-crimes trials
United Earth tried senior Flaxen civilian and military leaders after the war. The proceedings in Wellington judged responsibility for genocide and allowed acquittal where evidence showed resistance to persecution.