The Sundered The Sundered is a " " novel – the first novel in the series – written by Michael A . Martin and Andy Mangels . Published by Pocket Books , it was first released in . Summary . In the early 2030 s , Earth was threatened by the probable collision of near - Earth objects ( asteroids ) . By this time Human technology had progressed to allow Humanity to stave off its own extinction from such threats . The asteroids were halted from collision and given the ability to achieve geostationary orbit around the Sun near Lagrange Point 5 . Because the former asteroids were heavy in mineral resources , many companies and nation - states sought to put colonies on them to either extract resources or perform scientific experimentation . These colonies were called O ' Neill habitats , after the scientist who devised the idea . One of the habitats , named Vanguard , was a premier scientific laboratory run by NICHOLCORP , a very lucrative company that was known for its patenting and manufacture of transparent aluminum . By 2053 , when World War III broke out , it destroyed many major cities , including New York , Washington , DC , London , and several middle - eastern and far eastern cities . The denizens of Vanguard and the other O ' Neill habitats believed that the fate of the post - atomic Human civilization rested squarely upon their efforts to bring energy to the planet suffering from effects of nuclear winter that could destroy most , if not all , of the Human race and other lifeforms on Earth . By about the time of 2058 , the Vanguard colony was in contact with Dr . Zefram Cochrane , in Bozeman , Montana who was working on the " Phoenix " project . Vanguard partnered with Dr . Cochrane ' s team to create a stable warp field as part of his tests for warp drive . These were tests that Vanguard scientists believed would be beneficial to the development of safe , renewable , non - fossil energy to distribute to the planet and possibly a way for Humanity to leave planet Earth and colonize other worlds . Unfortunately during the test a problem occurred in which the Vanguard mysteriously vanished from Earth orbit . All radio contact was lost and the colony could not be located via telescope . Dr . Cochrane believed that Vanguard colony was destroyed and felt responsible for the destruction of the habitat and everyone on board . However , unbeknownst to him and history , this was not the case . The Vanguard asteroid colony was transported approximately one hundred light years away from Earth instantaneously . The crew of the Vanguard clearly figured out that they were nowhere near Earth as the stars didn ' t match up with what they were used to seeing . They believed that the warp field test incident may have destroyed Earth , and that they were possibly the only Humans left . The crew of the Vanguard , made up of some of Earth ' s finest scientific minds , made first contact with several alien species , whom the crew arrogantly presumed would be benign because alien civilizations with spacecraft capable of deep space travel were believed to be beyond hate , greed , and other negative and violent traits common to Humans . They were quickly proven wrong when extraterrestrials boarded in order to raid the asteroid for its resources . The director of the Vanguard colony was a casualty of this , as her head was cut off by a Nausicaan blade .