Timeline
From a divided Solar System to the struggle for humanity’s future.
The opening records follow historical sequence. Later records follow source chapter order, which can revisit concurrent events. No exact dates are assigned where the source supplies none.
A divided Solar System
The six-year conflict between United Earth and Mars precedes the Copious expedition.
A journey beyond its time
Echo and Formidable depart for Copious using the experimental sphere drive. The attempt separates Echo’s crew from their era by almost ten thousand years.
A changed home
Echo encounters a vast cylindrical habitat near Jupiter and returns to an Earth under Flaxen rule.
Names, outcomes, and discoveries from later histories are concealed in spoiler-light mode.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.