CHAPTER XII - The Orbital Veins

By the middle of the thirty-first century, the distinction between Earth and orbit had begun dissolving.

For thousands of years, humanity had treated the atmosphere as a boundary — the final division between planetary existence and the darkness beyond. Even during the expansion eras preceding the collapse, orbital civilization remained dependent upon terrestrial infrastructure beneath it. Stations, satellites, and elevated industrial systems had circled the world like extensions of Earth rather than equal components of it.

NEX erased that separation entirely.

The city no longer ended at the surface.

Nor at the atmosphere.