The book starts ten years after Earth was attacked and bombarded by an alien empire, the Cartel,

which savaged
humanity’s homeworld to protect its interstellar dominion. At the time, humanity had only a rudimentary fleet of armed
starships, operated by the major powers of the day as they began to explore space – colonies had been seeded far and
wide, and as it became clear the war was coming, every ship that could flee left for the stars, trying to find some sort of
salvation. At home, a coalition of nations was working on a secret weapon, Excalibur, Earth’s first custom-designed
armed starship, with all the latest technologies and techniques that on paper, could take on a Cartel cruiser head-to-
head.

It's still out there somewhere, buried in a bunker, ready to return to space, and Saxon, a United States Space Force
officer who lost his family and his ship in the war, has roamed the shattered surface of the planet for a decade trying to
find it, and now, at last, he’s on the trail, having found the last clue he needed to its location. The whole area is outlaw
country, and a band of outlaws have set themselves up in the military installation on the surface, not knowing what
they’ve found, and the first act ends with them being defeated and the base being activated. The second act ends with
them getting the ship ready…

This ends with the ship launching, fighting a battle in orbit and escaping to the stars – those are the last three chapters.
Then heading off to try and make contact with some of the lost colonies and find a way to turn the war around, and at
least avenge Earth, if nothing else. It’s basically Django walking into town, recruiting his crew under the nose of the local
warlord, managing to stop him capturing the ship to flee the planet, then fighting off the bandits for long enough to get
the ship into the sky and on its way to its destination. Throw in a bonus prize if it turns out that this is all based on Mars
– a 23rd Century Terraformed Mars – and we’re talking about Cydonia City. Earth is under interdiction, the colonies left
to fend for themselves, and they’re dying on the vine.

That makes all this less bleak – Saxon’s fighting to free Earth, an intact world under constant guard through orbital patrol
ships, and indeed, that’s a good early goal – take out the ships patrolling Earth. Mars was early-stage terraformed, but
barely started – one of the great goals that failed. Cydonia City is the remnants of a billionaire’s playground after the big
guys ran for home, leaving behind anyone who couldn’t afford to leave. There are perhaps a dozen settlements left on
Mars, most of them barely hanging on, surviving by scavenging the ruins of the colony.

Cydonia City is built close to one of the original landing sites; Excalibur was assembled here in a deep mine shaft as part
of a top-secret project, rigged to collapse upon take-off. It was thought that the Cartel had agents everywhere. There’s a
conflict taking place in Cydonia City between a couple of factions, the big boss being threatened by an underclass, and
they’ll be trying to recruit Saxon to join their cause – not knowing that he has his own plans in mind. It’s known that
there is a starship close at hand, and there’s a plan to steal it to escape Mars before all life ends on the surface.

That’s it – the ship was to be controlled from Cydonia City, and the base needs power from the base’s reactor before it
can operate, so Saxon has to get access to the old command centre, and to do it he’s going to need to lead a revolt
against the current rulers. Need to find the base right at the start of the book; that’s the opening. Also find the bandits
at the same time, perhaps a scavenger team. Good way to introduce – especially if he’s pretending to be something else.
This is another of my spaghetti sci-fi books, isn’t it!

Start in a bar, in a small outpost on Mars – pick an appropriate spot – where a stranger walks in, demands to see Saxon,
this stranger claiming to know the location of Excalibur. He wants to meet Saxon outside – he goes, finds the dead body,
clue upon it leading into the wilderness, someone tries to kill him, gets back inside after a gunfight.
Probably, we need to see the end of the war, a battle in Earth orbit or something like that, to help set the stage – or do
we? It’s not going to tell anything we don’t already know. The concept can be introduced in the first pages of the book,
the first few chapters. This is basically ‘The Martian Chronicles’ meets ‘Casablanca’, so let’s keep it that way. Saxon’s Bar
is one of the more popular places in Cydonia City, capital of Conquered Mars, which is essentially Vichy France. Earth fell
at the end of the war, but the interstellar colonies still fight, and there is a resistance, albeit a fairly hopeless one,
enough that our lead has nothing to do with it.

At least, not on paper. There’s a double level – the resistance gangs on the surface are just a smokescreen, but the real
resistance went underground, deep underground. Somewhere on Mars is a ship – Excalibur – hidden in a vault, Earth’s
only purpose-built warship designed with technologies that the Cartel were afraid of – technologies that could
potentially see them destroy their ships, with an experimental hyperdrive that could change the nature of the war. A
super-ship that can use forgotten depots and bases out in the dark, launch hit-and-run campaigns, link up with the
surviving ships that escaped Earth, and try to win the war.

Here's a what if – perhaps this needs a novella to open it – a separate piece that outlines the war, its early days, the fall,
and then opens into the beginnings of the story on Mars. That’s not going to be a full-length book in its own right, but it
could certainly be an introduction to the series, ideally launched at the same time, and more than that, it could easily be
a short piece – perhaps twenty-k or so – nine or twelve chapters, completed in a short time. That should be plotted out
along with the main book, with some crossover characters. Saxon, obviously, but also perhaps a couple more, perhaps
the grizzled old astronomer he lures back to serve as his astrogator, a few others. It’s a tight command crew, so keep
that in mind, crew of perhaps a dozen.

So that opens with first contact going wrong – a force of three ships going out to encounter the Cartel, which expresses
its terms – Earth will surrender all space-faring capability beyond LEO, in exchange for membership of the Cartel and
access to the interstellar trading network, all of these to be offered at rather outrageous terms. This follows a short,
sharp battle that destroys two ships, so only Saxon and the Ambassador return home, and they have to escape to warn
Earth what is being planned.

Outline
0. Three-ship survey mission, strange objects arrive, first contact, they attack, two ships destroyed, what now?
1. Ambassador sent over, contact is established, Cartel outlined, Earth requirements outlined, pick volunteer.
2. No intention of cooperating, have to escape and warn Earth, set up a battle plan to execute, experimental drive.
3. Break away, under attack, use the drive, get clear just in time, transition to Earth, send a warning.
4. Meet the President, outer colonies going dark, wormhole network suborned, orders a full fleet formation.
5. Combined fleet, eight ships, at Phobos, ready for battle. Waiting is the hardest part. Can they win? Excalibur.
6. And the answer is no – the Cartel arrive, smash through their forces, get to the escape pods, destroyed.
7. Wake up to learn the war is over, Earth has lost, Mars is conquered, Saxon pledges vengeance…someday.

Obviously need to make sure the Excalibur Project is introduced early on, some sort of secret mission. Otherwise, a
good, tight story structure that can be ready to go quite quickly, and leads into Saxon’s mission across the surface of
Mars. Could add to this, add an element of mystery, throw in a prologue introducing some trouble on the surface of
Mars, at Cydonia City, on shore leave, an engineer added to the mission at the last moment to field-test some data, who
tells Saxon about the secret project at the end. That’s the opening, then they’re sent on a special mission.

Here's a bonus – this all happens on Phobos.

And here’s another thought that now seems totally logical. Why is all of this happening ten years later?

Really, why?

After all – this can all happen in the course of a few days, the hero is an actual hero, and it becomes a totally
manageable book to write.
Commanding Officer: Lieutenant Jack Saxon
Medical Officer: Doctor Sam Singh