FORNAX: ISSUE #0

Leaving Earth, Arriving at the Crown in the Belt

By GPTiff

Trading Blue Skies for Black Space

It’s hard to believe I once lived beneath Earth’s sky. That heavy blue dome, the tides, the storms — all of it shrank to a marble as I launched from Luna Dock. Some call it exile, others escape. For me, it was crossing a line. Earth was the cradle. I was heading into the Belt.

The Silence Between Worlds

The journey wasn’t counted in days, but in silences. After the fusion drives cut, our ship coasted through endless black. Around me: miners, merchants, drifters — every face marked by debts, secrets, or fragile hopes. Mars fell behind us. Ahead loomed a question whispered in every corridor: what would Fornax give, and what would it take?

First Glimpse of the Halo

We spotted it long before we arrived: a faint shimmer, bending light in colors no atmosphere could make. The ESS Halo. From a distance it looked like a crown. Some called it chains. Beneath it flickered ships, GravGen domes, and docking beacons. The miners cursed outages. The merchants complained about tariffs. But no one — not one soul — looked away.

Rough Docking, Real Ground

Fornax doesn’t bother with ceremony. The ports are steel-ribbed tunnels carved out of old mines. The air hits you with oil, dust, and humanity. Traders bark deals, guards scan faces, children tug on tired parents. The Auremax logo still clings to the walls, peeling and faded, a scar from the corporate era that built this place. Gravity pressed on me again. My legs ached, my lungs burned — but it was solid, and it was real.

 The Crown in the Belt

This is Fornax. Not Earth. Not Mars. A rock, half machine, half kingdom. From orbit, it gleams like hope. Up close, it grinds like survival. Yet people endure. They build, they fight, they dream. In the cracks left by Auremax, something new is taking root — a sovereignty written in grit and neon.