Pirates of Ash

A WORLD CHOKED BY VOLCANIC ASH. A NAVY BUILT ON LIES. A century after a cataclysmic meteor shower shattered the surface of the planet Lystia, humanity lives stranded on isolated mountain peaks, surviving high above a toxic, roiling sea of dark clouds. In this brutal skyline, the wind dictates trade, survival, and power. Order is ruthlessly enforced by a corrupt military government, whose elite naval fleets hoard resources and rule the skyways with an iron fist. Opposing them are the factions of the skies—ambitious merchants sailing for coin, lawless pirate fleets flying the red flag, and whispered rumors of wild men born from the deep ash clouds. The story follows Richard Adams, a disgraced former Navy Captain who was court-martialed, betrayed by his superiors, and left to rot for five brutal years in the subterranean cells of Cylinder Prison. Released as a broken outcast with no home left to return to, Richard’s fate collides with Donathan Baker—his childhood best friend turned notorious outlaw. When a stolen, highly classified naval intelligence dossier falls into Richard's hands, it exposes a shattering conspiracy. The high-ranking military leaders he once swore his life to defend are entirely corrupt—and directly responsible for the murder of his father. Now, alongside a rogue pirate crew, a battered merchant runner, and a dangerous, unactivated power dormant inside his own blood, Richard turns his cutlass against the empire he helped build. Navigating shifting allegiances, hidden genetic secrets, and high-altitude warfare, an ousted captain's desperate war for absolute vengeance begins.