1 595th chapter, 891st volume, 13th library of the 50th city of knowledge, 7th universe, 974.593 cycle of eternity:

When my eyes are weighed with sleep I quench the evening candle's glow

*Excerpt, from the works of Grand Scholar, and The Great War Expert Djanus Todomari from the Imperium Archives*

On Caliupus 27th, Imperial year 1898, Federal year 3941, and Republican year 953, on the small homeworld of the Tolstoy sector a Federal fleet clashed for less than 3 hours with an Imperial one. This small battle which was the first shot in 'The Great War' was situated above a place called Graperust Manor that was owned by a Novo Albetan lawyer called William Murasaki Kuckluck.

After the 'Battle of Graperust Manor' mister Murasaki said that he had enough of the whole affair and decided to move his family 560.000 light-years to a town called New Hope within the Tremera system, to a place called Woodgrom Courthouse with the intention of avoiding the war in its entirety.

Years later, the commanders of the belligerent forces came to that very same courthouse to sign the ending of all hostilities.

So when it was over Mr Murasaki could boast that the war began on his front porch and ended in his backyard gazebo.

The Great War raged across millions of star systems, billions of planets and trillions of light years, within it farm workers from Nova Bronze City of the Towar System clashed with fisherman from Seshrim 9, lawyers and schoolteachers from the Brumbaki Plains of Bulla 8, with doctors and accountants from The Tjigu asteroid cluster.

Whole nations and ways of life would disappear only to be replaced by new ones, and within this age of chaos great heroes and villains would emerge, several sentients would join the war, each from the three superpowers. They would be at the most crucial and most bloody of the battles and somehow survive them all, and give testimony of just how much life was stranger than fiction.

A smuggler would save a country , a spy from the warrior would emerge from the darkness, a rebel would reshape the galaxy, a unknown sentient would change the way things were forever, and a potions brewer who did not go a single day to military school would become the greatest commander the known universe had ever seen or perhaps would ever see.

Thus the 'Sands of Time' flowed on and with their passing the universe changed forevermore.

Grand Scholar and Great War Expert Djanus Todomari

Imperium Archives

Caliupus 8th Imperial year 1890, Federal year 3933, Republican year 945.

Within the warp, South of the Bracken-Droven line.

9:52 Imperial Fleet Time

A great train traversed the thin plane of hyperspace, it was a massive construct composed of at least 2.000 individual wagons, each one of them was over a hundred meters in diameter and in length they all stretched out for at least five times that and more.

But despite the titanic nature of this interstellar traveler, when compared to others of its kind, it was the runt of the litter.

These wagons were forged out of fine tempered steel, with a smooth surface, and each wagon's front and back ended with a conic shaped head and tail.

Seven great horizontal sheets of metal traversed their bodies, starting at the front and ending at the rear of each wagon, runes that glowed brightly with energy were embedded on these stripes and from them magical energy was released for the purpose of moving and guiding the train towards its destination.

These bursts of energy started as a single line that, at certain points of its length, bent upwards, downwards, left and right, and at each bent smaller lines emerged, that also bent at certain intervals that in turn also made new ones emerge, giving the magic the shape of a great tree branch that looked like it sprouted from lighting itself.

But it was only the shape of a plant and nothing more, for the purpose of this train was not the production of breathable air or that of fruits, or flowers.

No, its purpose was transport ting goods to a fleet of hundreds of warship that was besieging a planet that belonged to the enemy's of the Empire, and amongst its cargo there were two very important passengers.

A surge of energy, which was called since ancient times a gust of warp wind, shook the space train not enough to cause any damage or deviate it from its course, but enough to wake up one of the occupants of its VIP room from his nap.

For a few brief moments confusion and disorientation dominated his person, that was generally what happened when you traversed between the realm of reality and the realm of dreams, and no more so than when you are inside the warp, which existed outside both of those two realms.

For it was a very mysterious and unnerving place and even veteran sailors and soldiers were not too comfortable when they passed through this plane that seemed to be nowhere, yet everywhere at the same time.

As for the drivers of this train, the feeling of dread caused by journeying in this place outside of what they considered their 'normal realm' was present as well.

For even though they had learned to overcome it and even partially control the fear; its presence remained an eerie reminder that they didn't belong here.

Rather they and the titanic construct they were driving, was merely a temporary presence, crawling on a very small part of the edge of the unknown.

With that in mind, one should now be able to understand the temporary state of confusion that the aforementioned passenger experienced.

But it did not last and it quickly gave away to remembrance, as he now reacquainted himself with this plane of existence.

Thus the confusion disappeared, as his mind recovered from the daze, and the passenger remembered that he was on a galactic train, souring in the limitless heavens of space towards its destination.

It was an Imperial Fleet supply train, carrying food, medicine, clothing, and ammunition for the 378th Corps that was campaigning on the planet Volun 4.

The train slithered its way through the warp, like some great celestial dragon, towards its lair with those supplies, along with the aforementioned corps' new commander, along with his subordinate, who was also his chief of staff.

Namely the newly minted Commodore First Class Metternich per Pelasgiamus, and his knight Commodore third class Adrian de Morowetz.

Metternich was a unique creature amongst the Empire, his hair was black as night and shortly trimmed, but not in a military stile, more like a summer style.

His skin was a dark blue, which was not unheard of in the Empire but not entirely common, and finally his eyes were perhaps the most unique thing about him, for they glowed a bright red color. That feature combined with his skin and his voice, which was low and a bit gruff, made him a very imposing visual figure.

His uniform consisted of black leather boots, black pants that were secured to his waist by a belt, along with as sheathed sword on his left side, a dagger on the back side of his belt, and a one handed crossbow on his right side.

The Commodore's chest was covered in a black tunic; on his shoulder pads there were three golden bars that symbolized his rank of Commodore First Class.

On his chest, where it curbed to his sides, were two lines of gold buttons united by a series of golden ropes that traversed his chest.

The buttons weren't meant to close the tunic; since the real buttons where on the inner side of the left flap, that, along with the office's sash on his waist showed that he was an officer and not an enlisted man.

But the buttons, combined with his uniform, bearing, gaze and voice made him to be a very impressive figure.

Metternich looked like someone who was born for war, who belonged on the battlefield, who would stand when others would fall, that was a truth that no one could deny!

"Of all things….."

Too bad he was in fact a coward.

"...it's always this nightmare of war that I find myself time and time again."

"Did you sleep well my liege?" Adrian asked him, he was dressed in the exact same uniform as Metternich; the only difference was that he had one bar on each shoulder, which displayed his rank of Commodore 3rd Class.

Adrian was an Avian, his race was humanoid in its appearance, he had white feathers that encompassed his entire skin, a great golden beak for a mouth and two black eyes that looked like they were constantly zoning into space, also his aforementioned feathers where ruffled and his beak had a slight dent in it from his first battle, giving poor Adrian the appearance more aching to a crazed half-dead chicken than that of a professional soldier.

But he was anything but weak as his past foes, or rather the absence of past foes, or any foes for that matter, was a very good testament to his skill.

"About as well as one can be expected to rest, given our current circumstances." Metternich replied and Adrian gave a nod of agreement and said nothing else, he too felt uncomfortable traveling through hyperspace.

But the commodore 3rd class was more unnerved by the fact that he was on a train, since he was used to traveling by ship, rather than the fact that he was in the warp.

"I've been meaning to ask Adrian, why is it that when we are about to meet new people you always stop grooming yourself?" Metternich enquired.

"People don't take you seriously when they first meet you if you don't look spit and speck, their true nature comes out easier that way, good thing wouldn't you say?" Adrian replied and gave a knowing smile to his commander, one which Metternich returned in kind.

Ever since they first met, Metternich had always treated him with the upmost respect and professionalism you'd come to expect an officer of his rank to give and receive, that had made an impression on Adrian, which was what eventually convinced him to become Metternich's vassal, a fact that the blue skinned young commodore would be secretly grateful for, but would also secretly hate that action for the rest of his life.

But the Commodore First Class would generally be more times grateful, rather than resentful towards Adrian for that action.

After his knight's reply, the seconds ticked away in silence and seeing that the conversation had died down for the moment, Metternich decided to once more go over the briefing papers he had been given for his new command.

He was using a farview screen to review them, and after he was done reading them, he then started to once more research the culture of the opposing nation.

The farview, or rather this variant of it, was a rectangular shaped mass of crystals with magic runes embedded on its surface, that when activated, a mist like gas would emerge from its screen and take the shape and color of whatever the farview's user desired, or if the user preferred, the farview could only project 2d images on its surface, it was very flexible device!

It was also a very useful tool, one which Metternich regularly used since he could have hundreds or thousands of books stored on it, making it for his task of staying alive, and ideal for alleviating boredom of course.

But as they got closer and closer to their destination, he silently wished for eternal boredom.

"I'll take a lifetime of boredom over any battle, at least boredom doesn't come running towards me with a big sharp magical weapon with the intent to play squash with my head!" he thought to himself, hoping that this tranquility would last forever.

But all good things must come to an end, for a beeping sound was heard from the train's internal speakers, signaling that they were nearing the exit to the warp and that soon they would be arriving at their destination.

"It is a good thing that the higher ups decided to use a warp portal train instead of a ship to get us here, last thing we need is some bloody raid ambushing us before we arrive at our new command." Adrian said to his liege.

"Well, despite the best attempts of the seemingly universal, and unstoppable, power of stupidity to create a catastrophe, the vile forces of logic and reasoning have seemingly prevailed and vanquished this oh, so great foe!" Metternich said in a hammy tone which clearly indicated he was joking and Adrian showed his appreciation with a good chuckle.

A warp portal is, as its name suggests, a portal which after being situated on a planet or in outer space allows faster travel trough the warp.

If a ship is using a portal it's speed increases at least twice as much, if not more, depending on the state of the warp between two points, the size of the gate, and the amount of power it had access too.

Also, when in hyperspace there was the danger of being ripped apart by gravity fields or energy nexuses if a ship was not in peak condition or low on power, and if it was traversing a less than ideal hyperspace route, well you get the general idea.

Why a wandering comet, a small dust field, of even the remains of a small passing solar flare could tear a ship apart!

"A vessel made with more money than most people can imagine and top of the line knowledge and technology destroyed by a few pebbles….and this is supposed to represent the best of the galaxy…kriff!" Metternich thought as his mind wandered to the warp portal that the train entered when they left the departure base.

A warp portal used the great power provided by either the sun or a planet's energy nexus to engulf a ship, or in this case a train, in a protective field as it traversed the warp, defending it to a certain degree from such perils and shredding whatever was in its way.

Also ships who did not use jump gates had to have a build in warp sanctuary and plenty of power crystals to make the jump, a ship using a jump gate would not require an expensive warp sanctuary or power storage crystals in order to jump, all the ship needed was it to be was airtight, also the energy required to enter and exit the warp was provided by the starting gate and the destination gate, thus the gates were faster and cheaper and that was always the way to go.

But for all its advantages the aforementioned warp train had no means of its own to enter and exit warp without a gate.

It was also impossible for trains to change and adjust their route when using one, this was one area where they where outclassed by ships.

And if your enemies managed to find just the right conditions along your route with the train, they could pull you out of the warp and ambush you, a train of course could be retrieved with a special support ship designed just for that purpose and be back on its way, but until then it was vulnerable to attacks.

But that was a moot point since military trains where armed to the teeth, that combined with their long bodies gave them excellent options for defense, they could form a protective sphere or dodecahedron, which unlike ships had no vulnerable point and had excellent anti-light ships defenses.

For the most part, it truly was the safest way to travel when confronted with pirates or enemy space raiders, but heavier ships were a different matter altogether.

Fully fledged warships were an entirely different kettle of fish, and when it came to pure magical power then a ship was the way to go if you wanted to outmaneuver, outrun, or outblast your foe.

Or the occasional enemy train if you got lucky in raids. That is if you managed to get close enough to a route without being cut down by patrols.

So it was a constant debate between the advantages of rigidness, but high security, against greater flexibility with freedom, but also the presence of an unknown danger, and many supporters of both sides argued day and night over which was best.

For both means had their pros and cons, but for the current route, one which took the train trough friendly territory and lands, where the Empire was the dominant power (at least for the moment) the train was best suited for such a purpose.

That and the fact that many would think that a fleet corps commander would never 'lower' himself to ride a simple train instead of a battleship or even try to score one of the highly sought after Capitol ships, and that was also the reason Metty chose the train, since it also gave him the element of surprise over his potential enemies.

Who couldn't see the tree because the forest was in the way, or so to speak.

And, for the young Commodore First Class, that thought brought him some piece of mind from his troubles.

"Though I am grateful that I will not have to worry about being torn to shreds by some small space pebble or flying into a minefield and being ambushed while traversing or entering a new system, the idea that I have to face death sooner rather than latter is not a very appealing one."

Metternich thought to himself, as he lamented the sad state of affairs he currently found himself in, and within his mind he briefly looked back on how he had arrived to his current predicament, thoughts that he would eventually write down in his posthumous memoirs.