It didn't take long for the pulse of life to return to London after the Martians fell. New London is not that different from old London, except that certain advances in science have led to new technologies based on steam and clockwork that have enhanced the lives of the people living there.

Below is a brief history of both the restoration of London post invasion and of the construction of The Undercity, proceeding the formation of MIND and operation MIRANDA.

(Original Book Timeline created by LeanArticWolf)

June 24, 1894

The final Martian war machines fall, signifying the end to the first martian invasion.

July 4, 1894

The first set of refugees return to Dead London. Reconstruction of the city begins.

September 12, 1894

The greater part of New London is built, civilization is returning to normal. Several war machines and samples of red weed are taken to laboratories in Ealing and South Kensington.

September 24, 1894

The artilleryman, with the help of the new Mayor of London, Amelia Jameson, gathers a group of scientists, engineers and soldiers together. MIND is formed.

September 30, 1894

Construction of the Undercity begins. The MIRANDA project is born.

October 1, 1894

Two almost intact Martian corpses are retrieved from fallen war machines by MIND. One of these is taken to an Undercity lab for study. The other is donated to the Natural History Museum. By now Carter's theory that the Martians were killed by Earth born bacteria is widely accepted.

October 3, 1894

In Ealing, an attempt to recreate the Martian Black Smoke results in the release of a poisonous gas that kills everyone in the laboratory and hospitalizes over 50 civilians from the surrounding area. Simultaneously, an investigation into the Martian heat ray results in the destruction of the South Kensington Laboratory and sets fire to many houses in the South Kensington area. Officially all research into martian technology ceases. Unofficially, research continues in the labs of Undercity.

October 25, 1894

After the disasters in Ealing and South Kensinton, research turns instead to understanding how the aliens were able to make use of hydrogen to provide fuel for their machines. The steam-fusion reactor is born, a cross between a super-efficient steam engine and a portable nuclear reactor capable to splitting hydrogen atoms. It becomes the basis of all steam powered technology from this point on.

December 12, 1894

Construction of New London and Undercity is complete. Steam powered transportation and airships are now commonplace, as is electricity. Observatories continue to scan the skies for signs of a new invasion, using telescope with new lenses built from examining the lens technology used in the Martian heat rays.

January 3, 1895

Studies into the mechanics of the war machines themselves bring a renewed interest in creating micro-gears and springs. New clockwork devices and augmentations are created, pushing civilization into a new technological era of steam and clockwork.

October 26, 1903

After almost eight years of research, the Undercity scientists are able to reverse-engineer the captured war machines to create a series of steam-mechs. Though not as powerful as the original war machines, these steam and clockwork creations are capable of dealing a serious amount of damage. Meanwhile twenty martian war machines are currently held in secret and training of human pilots to use the machine's telepathic control systems has begun.

December 18, 1903

MIND finishes construction of the Salvation Cannon. A huge hydrogen accelerator that is capable of firing a capsule containing a small task force of humans into space on a one-way trip to mars. Plans for the training of successive generations of a suicide squad begins.

February 12, 1904

Many of the original volunteers, many of them mere children are driven mad in their attempts to pilot the Martian war machines. A few are shown to have the strength of will to interface correctly with the alien technology and they become the Green Knights, twenty soldiers who will pilot the alien war machines when the time comes.

May 26th, 1910

A breakthrough in the recreation of the black smoke allows the creation of the Scarlett Death, a biochemical weapon that is apparently harmless to human life but which should kill any Martian life it comes into contact with. This is stored ready to be deployed as a final solution.

January 10, 1911

Present day. London is now a bustling utopia and the telescopes pointed at Mars continue to show only silence from the red planet. In a few days time, all that will change.