Here’s a snippet of the chapter preface, for a heist at Gaddoc Rail Station:

Here’s a snippet of the chapter preface, for a heist at Gaddoc Rail Station:

Building a train network between major cities cost two centuries of resources. The process of laying out routes, handling the surveying, bringing materials to the sites, protecting workers and machines, and eventually creating a route that was impervious to weather and attack was a superhuman feat. In every way, the rail system protected the needs of the living against the weight of the past and its lusts.

Politics, debts, and feuds threatened the project as much as tides of ghosts and poison sands. Only the Immortal Emperor’s resolute will and unfailing focus could provide the lighthouse beacon that united the builders enough to create the impossible. Because of that Imperial focus and mandate, those who would build tread over the corpses of those who would not. The rail line reshaped the aristocracy of the empire, weeding out those who openly defied the Immortal Emperor. Of course, that was almost four centuries ago. It’s past time for the Immortal Emperor to choose a new project.

From “Cost Uncounted: Leadership After the Crisis” by Professor Claire Redalia