[Journal Log J-472 | Year: 2481]

There are figures in history whose names transcend time, but their actions remain obscured. Hou Yi is one such figure. In the wake of the Corporate Collapse, records were destroyed, rewritten, or lost. But through fragmented accounts, internal memos, and what remains of his personal logs, we may reconstruct the truth—or at least, something resembling it.

[Confidential Corporate Memo | Helios Initiative | Date: 2139-04-16]
To: Executive Board, Helios Initiative
Subject: Tactical Deployment of Orbital Energy Distributors

Following recent deliberations, we have confirmed the authorization to integrate Helios Suns (Orbital Energy Distributors, Mark IX) into targeted climate engineering operations. As outlined in our initial proposal, the Nine Suns will not only optimize controlled solar exposure for high-priority sectors but also act as a strategic deterrent against destabilizing forces.

Projected Implementation:

Tiered energy distribution to registered corporate-aligned regions. 

Geothermal recalibration in compliance with Partner-State agreements. 

Demonstrative deterrent measures if necessitated by insubordinate entities. 

Access to the Suns remains strictly patent-locked. Any independent solar development remains in violation of the Global Intellectual Property Stability Act (GIPSA).

Our control over light is our control over the world.

[Journal Log J-473 | Year: 2481]

By 2139, the world was no longer run by governments in any meaningful sense. States still existed, but they were little more than custodians of corporate wealth. Helios Initiative was one of the megacorporations that defined this era, its control over solar energy making it as powerful as any old empire. They did not merely sell energy; they dictated who could receive it, how much, and at what cost. Independent farming was extinct. Cities in corporate-aligned zones flourished under a constant, moderated glow, while disfavored regions suffered engineered droughts or artificial cold spells.

Helios had turned the very sun into a currency, an instrument of power.

Hou Yi, once a senior engineer at Helios, had been part of the team that built the Nine Suns. His personal logs suggest he had no intention of becoming a revolutionary. Like so many, he had only wanted to create something that would better the world.

[Personal Log | Hou Yi | Date: 2142-02-27]

I keep telling myself I was blind. Maybe I was. Maybe I knew exactly what we were doing, but I told myself the ends justified the means. Unlimited energy, stable agriculture, no more winters of starvation—wasn’t that the dream?

But we never owned the Suns. Helios did. And Helios only cared about control.

Three years. That’s how long it took me to understand that we weren’t making the world better. We were making it obedient.

The day I knew I had to leave was the day I saw the reports from Sector 19. The sun burned there for five days. The people didn’t resist after that.

[Declassified Incident Report | Internal Security Division | Date: 2142-10-31]
Unauthorized Interference with Helios Control System

Summary:

On October 30, 2142, an unsanctioned override of Sun-06’s orbital path was detected. The anomaly was traced to Helios R&D Satellite Relay 3, where unauthorized personnel gained access to classified climate modulation protocols. The interference caused Sun-06 to deviate from its programmed trajectory, casting unpredictable solar exposure across unauthorized zones.

Immediate corporate response teams were deployed to reassert control. The unauthorized access was terminated within six hours, but substantial deviations in energy distribution caused economic destabilization in non-compliant regions.

Suspected perpetrator: Hou Yi (Former Engineer, Helios Initiative)

Status: At large. High-priority target. Engage on sight.

[Journal Log J-474 | Year: 2481]

Hou Yi didn’t take down all Nine Suns. That was never his plan. He was an engineer, not a warrior, and he knew that an outright attack on Helios would be impossible. But on that day in 2142, he managed to override the controls of a single Sun—Sun-06, which had been keeping an embargoed region in near-permanent darkness. For the first time in a decade, those people saw the sky.

The act was small, a single crack in the foundation. But it was enough.

The interference disrupted Helios’ carefully managed energy flows. It showed the world that their grip was not unbreakable. More acts of defiance followed. Protests turned into uprisings. By the time the full collapse came years later, it was not the work of one man, but the culmination of thousands of small acts of resistance.

Hou Yi was never found. Some say he was captured and buried in an unmarked grave. Others claim he lived long enough to see the first corporate regimes fall. But in every version of the story, he remains the man who dared to touch the sun.

[Unverified Last Entry | Personal Log | Hou Yi | Date Unknown]

I did what I had to do. But I keep thinking—what if there had been another way?

What if I had found it before it was too late?

Maybe someone will, someday.

[Journal Log J-475 | Year: 2481]

We are the descendants of a world he helped change. Not alone. Never alone.

The Nine Suns are gone. But their light still lingers in our stories. And in those stories, Hou Yi still stands—forever aiming at the sky.