Centuries of disaster and warfare have transformed most of Earth’s nations into authoritarian private prison colonies. Those not imprisoned barely scratch out a living illegally while governments focus on increasing their control over a malleable populace. The planet’s biggest cities execute one death row inmate daily under the guise of crime prevention, and this new form of human sacrifice has taken on dimensions never before imagined. The spectacles are expensive and highly ritualized. The deaths are thought to literally feed the sun, but unbeknownst to Earth, the inmates are being saved from their fates.
Long ago the corporations of Kilonova Complex, orbiting Mars, discovered bodies in space suits floating toward the Sun. The corpses’ trajectories always pointed back to Earth. But some of the bodies were still alive, and before long Kilonova Complex had developed a highly profitable slave trade. Today the prisoners from Earth are given a fresh start after proving their “gratitude” to the corporation that rescued them from death. Most slaves are sent to the gladiator rings or the brothels, where they toil for years, awaiting freedom.
The economy is booming, but powerful forces are mobilizing for a war of expansion with Earth. They operate in secret, determined to make contact and to plunder what they can. Meanwhile separate cells of revolutionaries are gathering weapons and adherents for wars of their own. The coming battles will cause massive destabilization and change the lives of everyone on Kilonova Complex.
