IMPERIAL TRAIN

In the world of Brogan, five regions depend on the rails to survive. Steam-powered trains move Drakena water from Emigre's mines, timber from Verdantia's forests, and grain from Perigon's prison farms. All of it flows through Verge's gray exchanges toward Rabell's hungry factories. The system works. Until it doesn't.

Ed Tharne, fresh from the UTC Train Pilot Academy, runs freight through country where desperate people block tracks for tribute. His sister Nova studies among the daughters of the timber barons, quietly building something in her dorm room that could change everything. Gary Fenn hauls premium cargo he isn't supposed to question while his debts pile up. Mara Kessler runs agricultural routes through Verdantia, watching prisoners cut the same trees she once climbed as a child.

The UTC keeps the lines running and calls it progress. The Council meets, argues, and delays. The trains don't stop, but the truth that holds the system together is starting to come apart.

Imperial Train is about a world built on motion and the people caught inside it, those who thrive, those who break, and those who are finally seen when the system that ignores them starts to fail.