Fiction Catch-Up: Arbelos and Swarmworld Arcturus
Very soon, we’ll be headed to our next world, the realm of Harness (previewed in our last dev update). But for today, we’ll be looking back at the first sets of stories from the worlds of Arbelos and Swarmworld Arcturus. If you haven’t yet had a chance to read these stories, now is a great time to get started! So, what has been going on in these two very different worlds?
Arbelos is a world recovering from war, teetering on the brink of an even greater crisis. Unbeknownst to the populace, the experimental rupture weapons that ended the last great war have opened a breach into the beyond. And worse, great powers like the Astiagen Coalition have begun to venture into realms unknown, with little regard for their inhabitants or the consequences of provoking them.
On Arbelos, wars are fought with mechs called “traks,” armored ground vehicles. These range from the tank-like traks built during the Shroud War to advanced M-Traks (“modal traks”), fighting machines capable of engaging in treaded or legged mode based on the terrain.
The first four Arbelos stories take place within the country of Varall, a land caught between the ambitions of the Astiagen Coalition and its global rival, the Oberect League. Riston, a veteran of the Shroud War turned reporter, has attached himself to a unit of Varallen Irregulars equipped with two M-Traks and a mission to scout the war-wracked region called The Serpent’s Maw. But within, there are dangers much greater than just the ghosts of the Shroud War.
Start reading at Chapter 1: The Drop
In the crimson glow of Arcturus, human explorers have found the Swarmworld. A vast network of satellites and enclosed environments built by some unseen architects in the murky past, it ha proven a refuge for those daring and desperate enough to seek it. Far from the power struggles and deprivations of Earth and the Sol system, these new arrivals have built a life in this thoroughly alien place.
But humans are not the only inhabitants of the Swarmworld. Massive mechafauna prowl the artificial environments. Though these animalistic mechanoid entities are possessed of their own instincts and will, they seem almost eerily attuned to human usage. And so humans have utilized these “fauns,” modifying the mechanical creatures to aid with construction, logistics, scouting… and sometimes combat. Even forty-thousand lightyears from Earth, humans can’t outrun its nature.
But the Swarmworld is not some new frontier to be exploited. As humanity has carved a place for itself on the blooms, massive environments hanging in the void, many eyes have watched, waited, and learned.
Brandon Perdue’s gripping stories begin with a seemingly ordinary day for Maris. The young colonist knows little of the world beyond the petal she inhabits, and dreams of exploration and adventure. But her fateful discovery of a long-forgotten faun will shatter her peaceful life and hurl her face-to-face with a threat not just to humanity, but perhaps to the entire Swarmworld.