The Belt is approaching a turning point.
The Free Belt Coalition is gaining support, but internal divisions threaten to tear it apart. Terran and Martian competition is intensifying. Corporate security forces are expanding, labor unrest is spreading, and heavily armed independent crews are becoming increasingly common.
Major stations demand political recognition while remote communities struggle simply to survive. Every disrupted shipment and failed life-support system strengthens the belief that the Belt must control its own future.
At the same time, Inanis activity is increasing in regions far beyond reliable government oversight. Artifacts move through black markets, Resonants disappear into hidden programs, and isolated crews encounter phenomena no one has prepared them to understand.
The inner planets built the Belt to supply their civilizations.
The Belters have begun to ask why they should continue doing so.