When a Federation probe found a world of floating islands wrapped in a storm that fried every circuit on board, they should have left it alone. Settlers went anyway, with no way back and no machines ? only steam and hand labor. They built zeppelins, rode giant eagles, and forged kingdoms in the clouds.

For generations, the sky held.

Now the Federation has returned for the mineral keeping the islands aloft. Even if mining it means breaking them apart.

An eagle rider racing to save his home. A pilot hunting whoever destroyed her plane and killed her friends. A lord stripped of his title, flying under a corsair's flag. A Federation medic who has started to wonder which side she's actually on.

What they find isn't a world held up by nature. The balance was engineered ? and it was never meant to last.