The Polar Divide

2247: Earth is a scorched husk, habitable only at its icy poles.  In the north, the crystalline city of Nordica faces a chilling demise as its glacial meltwater vanishes.  Thousands of miles away, amidst volcanic ash and fire, Infernia clings to life, fueled by geothermal energy. A fragile truce binds these disparate civilizations, but fear gnaws at Nordica, sharp and cold as an ice shard.
Councilwoman Evelyn Rogers, pragmatic and ruthless, launches Project Meltfire — a desperate gamble to melt Infernia’s volcanoes and replenish Nordica’s ice caps.  Leading this perilous mission is Noah Hayes, a brilliant hydrologist haunted by the ecological ghosts of a lost world. Can he drown one civilization to save his own?
Noah's arrival in Infernia is a sensory overload.  Sulfur stings his lungs, the ground trembles, and the sky bleeds crimson.  He meets Valeria Mendoza, an Infernian geophysicist whose fiery spirit mirrors her volcanic home.  Drawn together by their shared concern for their fractured world, they uncover a chilling secret — a colossal, ancient machine buried deep beneath the earth’s crust, the true culprit behind the polar thaw.
Project Meltfire isn’t a solution; it's a catalyst designed to unleash this machine’s full potential, capable of either terraforming Earth or plunging it into an irreversible ice age.  As Noah and Valeria race against time, a conspiracy unravels, reaching the highest echelons of power in both cities.  In Nordica, Councilman Elias Vance, driven by ambition, manipulates public fear to seize control. In Infernia, Valeria's brother, Mateo, a fervent activist, uncovers clues to the machine's true nature, drawing them all into a dangerous game.
Their investigation leads them to a lost civilization, the Tellurians, who created the machine as a planetary thermostat, now corrupted and turning against its purpose.  A fail-safe exists, hidden deep within the mythical Amazon rainforest, now a sweltering wasteland.  To reach it, they must traverse the perilous equatorial zone, pursued by Elias and his forces, intent on claiming the ancient technology for Nordica.
Amidst the ravaged landscape, they find unexpected allies — a tribe who refused the polar cities, holding the key to the Tellurian control center.  Within a bioluminescent cavern, pulsating with Earth’s life force, they confront their final challenge: not to control the machine, but to heal it. As Elias’s ambition clashes with Noah and Valeria’s desperate struggle, the fate of Earth hangs in the balance. In a world teetering on the brink, their choices will determine whether humanity will rise from the ashes or be consumed by the flames.