Eclipse
Printed pages 316–324. Records documented in this chapter; later article sections may include subsequent events.
Showing introductory records. Switch to Full archive above to include later names and revelations.
Africa
Africa becomes a principal theater of the Flaxen conquest after the invaders cross the Atlantic from the Americas. Their armies move north toward Europe.
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.
Artificial personhood
Artificial minds such as Echo, Cylli, and Vidar possess individual awareness and the capacity for relationships. Eastcott treated their lives and freedom as matters of personhood.
Camp Skadi
Camp Skadi is a Flaxen prison and forced-labor camp commanded by Colonel Jaakobah Flint. Its inmates endure hunger, disease, overcrowding, violence, and the threat associated with the red circles.
Carbon-composite enclosures
Echo's brig used transparent carbon-composite barriers identified as diamond. The cells isolated sound and could make their doors opaque.
Claudius Sirister
Claudius Sirister held the title Flaxus and ruled the Flaxens from the Hawk's Retreat on Venus. He struck an agreement with Avalon Brookes to defeat Echo and accelerate the conquest and extermination of Earth's remaining Human population.
Cylli
Cylli is a vast cylindrical space habitat near Jupiter, maintained by a conscious artificial intelligence. Its scale and sophistication draw the attention of Echo’s returning crew.
Cylli's wildlife
Cylli preserved diverse plant and animal life inside her habitat over millennia. The animals around the settlers had not learned to fear Humans.
Cyrus Eppleston
Cyrus Eppleston is United Earth’s Minister of War during the struggle against Flaxen conquest.
Damien Scenery
Major Damien Scenery is a Flaxen officer serving under Colonel Jaakobah Flint at Camp Skadi. He is openly hostile toward the camp’s human and mixed-ancestry prisoners.
Earth
Earth is humanity’s homeworld and the birthplace of United Earth. Almost ten thousand years after Echo’s departure, it is divided by the war against Flaxen conquest.
Echo
Echo is a United Earth starship and the self-aware artificial intelligence who operates the vessel. Commanded by Kip Eastcott, he carries roughly one thousand people on the Copious expedition.
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.
Flaxen combat knives
Flaxen soldiers carried combat knives with yellow handles bearing their black glyph. The four prisoners taken at Aconcagua had knives concealed in ankle sheaths.
Flaxen military
The Flaxen military wages war on United Earth and administers occupied territories, including forced-labor camps. Its officers enforce strict hierarchy and species-based laws.
Great Britain
Great Britain houses the contemporary United Earth War Ministry. Cyrus Eppleston receives Echo's first transmissions there.
Hawk's Retreat
The Hawk's Retreat was the unofficial name of the Capitol building in Venus's northern hemisphere, where the Flaxus conducted state business. Its name reflected Flaxen admiration for birds of prey.
Helen Chute
Lieutenant Commander Helen Chute is Echo’s counselor. She supports the crew through the personal consequences of their displacement.
Hubritians
Hubritians is the name later societies give the people of the advanced pre-Titan civilization. Their legacy is interpreted first as an example of sinful arrogance and later as a model for scientific recovery.
Julius Forrender
Julius Forrender is President of United Earth during the war against the Flaxens.
Kip Eastcott
Captain Kip Eastcott commands Echo on the Copious expedition. A veteran of the war with Mars, he leads a crew far removed from the world they knew.
Megan
Megan is a human prisoner in Camp Skadi and Serilda Corazon’s closest companion. Seriously weakened by the camp’s conditions, she depends on Serilda’s care and shares her concern for their fellow prisoners.
North America
North America is the initial center of Flaxen settlement and conquest on Earth. The first war leaves the Flaxens in control of nearly the whole continent, extending into much of Mexico.
Ribous
Ribous is a Flaxen alcoholic drink produced from a genetically engineered grain suited to Venus's climate. Jaakobah Flint drinks it at his Camp Skadi house.
Serilda Corazon
Serilda Corazon is a woman of human and Flaxen parentage imprisoned at Camp Skadi. She cares for her friend Megan and the other occupants of hut seven while strange visions of a starship trouble her sleep.
Solar nano mirrors
Solar nano mirrors regulate the amount of sunlight reaching Venus. A vast artificial intelligence coordinates trillions of tiny mirrors placed between the planet and the Sun.
The Sun
The Sun is the star of Earth, Mars, and Venus, and an energy and material source for later planetary engineering. Echo returns toward it after the failed journey to Copious.
United Earth
United Earth is the human government resisting the Flaxen conquest of Earth. Its institutions include a presidency, armed forces, and intelligence services.
Venus
Venus is the terraformed homeworld of the Flaxens. Earth and Mars transform it from an extreme environment into a habitable planet before the Titan.