2051 |
China and the EU try another assault on the Mid East Alliance. This time, significant gains are made until Israel drops tactical nuclear weapons on the Chinese army. China launches an ICBM assault on Israel, but its packet of 18 warheads is knocked down by US and Israeli anti-missile systems before reentry.
|
| 2052 |
James Lawrence, an English scientist, begins experiments on a type of space propulsion that creates an artificial wormhole for a ship to fly through.
|
| 2053 |
Even with the Israeli nuclear strike, the Middle East armed forces are rapidly falling apart. The United States organizes an evacuation of as many civilians and military forces as possible.
|
| 2055 |
All resistance in the Middle East falls apart. The EU and China claim total victory.
|
| 2056 |
Lawrence receives government funding for his research, and is moved to the United States. There, in the middle of the western deserts, he begins construction of a prototype.
|
| 2057 |
While the war rages on in air and sea, Lawrence makes a working prototype of his ‘wormhole’ drive. It's tested on an unmanned robotic spaceship, and is successful. As the war continues to degrade, Lawrence suggests that plans by made to evacuate a large group of colonists from the free world to another planet, so that life might continue somewhere else.
|
| 2058 |
The United States gives the go ahead to Lawrence’s ‘Exodus Project’. Work on the massive ships begins.
|
| 2059 |
England proper is invaded. Australia, which up to this point has remained neutral in the conflict, jumps in on the side of the Allies. They score several surprising victories, smashing Chinese troopships at sea, and retaking Taiwan, which is then used as a forward base to conduct long range bombing of China’s industrial complexes.
|
| 2060 |
English troops and citizens slowly give ground in the face of overwhelming assault. This time, there’s no US Navy to save them. What’s left of the US Air Force and Navy are too busy defending the coastline of the US from probing attacks by World Society forces.
|
| 2061 |
English troops manage to stabilize a line of resistance in the Scottish Highlands. There, the World Society’s lack of experienced air support beings to haunt them, as English troops hole up in natural defensive locations for months.
|
| 2062 |
World Society troops make another assault on the West Coast of the US. Again, they are held off by stiff resistance from the US Navy and Air force.
|
| 2063 |
The first and smallest sleeper ship is brought on line for testing by Lawrence; deemed a success, work is redoubled on the rest.
|
| 2064 |
English troops finally begin to fall apart; they retreat to Ireland. Small bands of commandos stay behind to hary the World Society.
|
2065
-2068 |
The World Society regroups its forces, and prepares for the final assaults. Meanwhile, Lawrence and his teams begin to finish up the fleet of ships.
|
| 2069 |
The World Society launches an assault on Ireland, with over 6 million men. Simultaneously, they assault Australia; capturing Sydney in a matter of hours.
|
| 2070 |
Australia surrenders. The remaining English forces in Ireland hang on by a thread. Secretly, the heirs to the English throne are spirited out of the country by an English attack submarine.
|
| 2071 |
The US is invaded, this time from the east coast. This time the attackers succeed in landing many troops and supplies. For a time, it appears as they might carry half the country. They are stopped by tens of thousands of US citizens, many who own firearms, rising in defense of their country. The invaders make little progress and the citizens hold the line until the army arrives from the west coast, where they expected the next attack.
|
2072
-2074 |
Intermittent fighting continues along all fronts. The World Society brings in its reserves and moves up more war material to stage its final assault.
|
| 2075 |
All evacuation ships are completed. Lawrence moves from building ships to stocking them with food, water, and all manner of books and technological devices. He intends to continue expanding the technology base, wherever they end up.
|
| 2076 |
The final assault by the World Society beings. Ireland is completely overrun. The English soldiers who fight are killed, and those that surrender are executed and dumped into mass graves. World Society troops in the United States break out of their perimeters and press inland. The decision is made. Roughly 30 million people drawn by lottery from as many ethnic groups as possible are loaded into the evacuation vessels. Lawrence and many leaders from the western world board the ships as well. Pinpoint commando raids by a crack group of Israeli and Delta Force operators shut down the EU’s satellite defense system, and the ships depart from Earth. The Exodus has begun.
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| 2080 |
After four years of searching, the Exodus Fleet makes landfall on Canaan, 35,000 light years from Sol.
|
| 2091 |
Sir James Lawrence, the scientist who created wormhole drive, calls for the various national governments in the Exodus to form a coalition government to keep old rivalries from splintering the colonists.
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