Cherreads

Earthborn

Zamisu_Ngubane_7488
7
chs / week
The average realized release rate over the past 30 days is 7 chs / week.
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Synopsis
In the heart of the galaxy stands the Galactic Federation, a decaying alliance of twelve major star systems built on the ruins of an old ideal: unity. Corruption, class division, and shadow warfare now define its core, and nowhere is this more visible than in Star City — the Federation’s crown jewel, and its most unequal society. When Kuzon Kai, a dirt-born farmhand from Earth’s Dustbelt, arrives in Star City chasing a better life, he’s quickly denied even basic dignity. Stripped of status and marked as a second-class citizen for being Earthborn, Kuzon is forced into Tier 3 — the city’s lawless industrial underbelly. There, power belongs not to governments, but to four criminal mafia families who run drugs, weapons, and labor markets with corporate efficiency. With no future, no allies, and barely a place to sleep, Kuzon scrapes by in a grimy tavern run by those too desperate to leave and too dangerous to defy. But as he descends deeper into the city’s rot, he begins to uncover a power vacuum, a brewing rebellion, and the unspoken truth: The galaxy remembers names — just not kindly.
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Chapter 1 - Kai Kuzon

The dust always clings hardest after the sun drops.

Kuzon wipes his brow, grit settling into the creases of his face like dried clay. The wind's picking up—not the kind that brings clouds or a hint of rain. This is dome-breach wind: bone-dry, sand-laced, the kind that strips paint off tractors and skin off knuckles.

He adjusts the coolant pipe on the broken irrigation unit. It hisses to life like it's cursing him.

"You'll break your damn back before that thing ever works again."

The voice comes from the porch—soft, worn, a little sharp at the edges.

Lina, his younger sister, stands there with a bowl of protein broth and a towel slung over her shoulder. Barely seventeen, already weathered by the land. Eyes like his. Too tired for their age.

"Could use a hand, you know," Kuzon says.

She snorts. "Could use a working climate dome. But sure, let's fix the whole planet with elbow grease and recycled parts."

He smiles faintly. She's always been sharper than him. Could've been a tech engineer—if Earth schools still worked, if the Compact hadn't gutted the Dustbelt for resources and walked away.

She walks over and hands him the broth. He drinks. It's lukewarm, but rich. Real protein. Earth-food, not lab slurry.

"You're thinking about it again," she says.

Kuzon doesn't answer. Doesn't have to.

She looks toward the cracked dome ceiling, where distant satellites flicker across the dark. "You gonna leave?"

"I have to," he says.

Her jaw tightens. She nods.

"Promise me one thing," she says. "Don't let them make you small."

"What?"

"Star City. The Federation. All of it. Don't let them shrink you into someone you're not."

Kuzon looks at her. She's not asking him to stay. Not calling him selfish. She just wants him to stay whole.

"I won't," he says.

A lie.

They sit together in silence, the wind howling around them, stars winking through the broken sky.