The sky over the Global Directorate had always been a bruised, flickering shade of orange—a byproduct of the atmospheric filters designed to shield humanity from the erratic, decaying pulse of the sun.

The sky over the Global Directorate had always been a bruised, flickering shade of orange—a byproduct of the atmospheric filters designed to shield humanity from the erratic, decaying pulse of the sun. For centuries, the "Solar Era" had dictated life: a frantic, exhausting cycle of harvesting light, rationing energy, and living in perpetual fear of the star’s volatile spikes.