Martin Hall.
An employee who had fought his way up through the IPC for nearly a century.
He came from some insignificant planet. After exhausting every possible effort to join the IPC, the first thing he did was sell off his incomparably barren homeworld as a commodity.
His ruthlessness and decisiveness were qualities every colleague who had ever worked with him praised.
And by relying on those very traits, he had successfully climbed to P37 within the IPC.
One had to understand that this position was already practically equivalent to certain managerial posts.
Of course, compared to the top employees ranked above P40, he still fell somewhat short.
But the resources they could mobilize were already astronomical.
Even the entire wealth of a single star system likely could not compare to the resources they commanded.
Even so, Martin was not the least bit satisfied.
His humble origins had given him the will to keep climbing higher. Even after living for more than a century, he still wanted to fight his way upward and touch that legendary position.
That was why he had accepted a task internally assessed by the IPC as extremely risky.
Resolve the rebellion in the Asdana system's Frontier Prison.
For that purpose, he had gathered a tremendous amount of information. It could be said that he understood this planet even better than the locals who lived on it.
"The IPC sent prisoners here to mine Memoria so it could be processed into Light Cones and sold."
Light Cones were technology unique to the Garden of Recollection, but the two sides had dealings with each other and many areas of cooperation.
Processing Light Cones was the largest transaction between the two powers.
But now, a rebellion had broken out in the Frontier Prison, the largest source of the Memoria needed to process Light Cones. That had created a problem in the cooperation between both sides.
Although Memoria could be mined elsewhere, those sources were utterly incomparable to Penacony.
So resolving this matter as quickly as possible had become an urgent priority for the IPC.
After all, the business behind Light Cones involved unimaginable wealth.
"If I can resolve this, then touching P40 may not be impossible."
Sitting inside a spacecraft, Martin couldn't help smiling as he imagined that beautiful future.
And now, his restrictions on Penacony were already showing initial results.
Every planet in this star sector knew the IPC was dealing with some reckless upstart planet.
So all of them had chosen to turn a blind eye.
One had to understand that most planets in this universe followed the IPC's lead.
The supplies, resources, and energy they needed were mostly purchased from the IPC. This point alone had already placed the IPC in an invincible position.
"After I cut off all your resources, how long can this so-called movement to forge a land of dreams continue?"
Martin reached a hand toward that barren planet. He had already completely grasped its lifeline.
With the planet's own resource output so limited, any accident could plunge the place into massive chaos.
And now, he had cut off Penacony's supply lines. The resources of the entire cosmic logistics network had already excluded Penacony.
He believed it would not be long before those criminals who had once roared in resistance would have nothing but fruit to fill their stomachs.
On top of that, he was constantly spreading propaganda and brainwashing over there. He believed it would not be long before the operation to reclaim Penacony became very simple.
"This is the sorrow of a barren planet."
Martin sighed. Penacony now was simply identical to his former homeworld.
And the future fate of the two planets would be exactly the same.
He had once sold the homeworld of his birth to the IPC. Now, he could fully reclaim Penacony as well.
"Continue isolating Penacony!"
Martin urged his subordinates.
"Cut off their supplies. Sever their exchanges. Make them birds trapped in a cage."
Only that way could they avoid deploying a single soldier and better preserve the assets on Penacony.
And only that way would his rating in this mission be higher.
When the time came, he would use this opportunity to ascend to the throne of P40.
P40. How vast would the scenery from that position be?
Martin could hardly wait.
After finishing his inquiries on the scene, Martin intended to leave. But just then, someone suddenly called out to him.
"Manager Martin, we've detected a special reaction in the star sector under our surveillance!"
Martin, who had been about to leave, abruptly stopped and went to his subordinate's side.
"What exactly is the situation?"
"Not long ago, an unknown energy fluctuation appeared in that star sector."
Martin flipped through the report and found this special energy fluctuation extremely strange.
Because it was actually different from every known form of energy in the entire universe.
It also differed greatly from every Path.
That basically ruled out the possibility of it being caused by a Pathstrider.
"What about the reconnaissance fleet?"
"It has already been dispatched. Judging by the time, it should have reached the vicinity of the target star sector."
Martin nodded and waited there. He wanted to see exactly what had happened in that place.
The reconnaissance fleet quickly connected communications and began reporting the situation over there.
"Reporting, sir. We've already arrived near the target star sector, but..."
The person on the other end of the communication reported in.
"We haven't seen anything special here."
If they were saying that, had the IPC's detectors malfunctioned? Or had some special cosmic ray burst occurred in that star sector?
Aside from those two possibilities, there was nothing else that could have happened there.
Martin quickly thought of both, but he still instructed the reconnaissance fleet to search the area more thoroughly.
He would not tolerate the appearance of anything that might ruin his plan.
And during that search, the reconnaissance fleet suddenly made a new discovery.
"Reporting, sir! We've spotted something unusual in this star sector!"
The reconnaissance fleet forwarded the real-time situation over.
Martin leaned close to the screen and observed carefully. Finally, he saw a black shadow constantly speeding past.
That thing looked like...
"A train?! No, a tram!"
Martin recognized the true nature of that black shadow at once.
This was clearly a product of civilization that had appeared on his poor homeworld before he sold it off.
It was commuting equipment that appeared after a civilization passed through the steam revolution and entered the industrial age.
And a train that could travel through space, with such an obvious feature, would only make him think of one force walking among the stars...
"The Astral Express?"
"But I remember the Astral Express in the IPC database having the appearance of a steam train. This doesn't seem quite right..."
"Then are you trying to tell me this technology of laying tracks through space is special effects?"
Martin's retort immediately made his subordinate shut his mouth.
True. Even if it was a spacecraft disguised as a train, it could not possibly possess the ability to freely lay tracks through the galaxy.
The only thing capable of that was the Astral Express, a product of AKIVILI.
And after confirming the other party's identity, Martin suddenly seemed to understand something.
"Could that strange energy fluctuation just now have been the reaction of the train warping?"
Otherwise, he could hardly imagine how an ordinary spacecraft could break through the many layers of encirclement he had set and suddenly appear in this star sector.
Aside from black holes, an uncontrollable factor in the universe, it seemed the only possibility was a train warp.
"Manager Martin, I remember before the rebellion began..."
Martin's subordinate suddenly thought of something.
And Martin knew what he was referring to as well.
"That's right. When the rebellion began, the Astral Express visited Penacony once too."
And afterward, Penacony experienced an unprecedented large-scale rebellion.
Now that he had sealed off the entire star system, the other side had arrived at this time once again.
"Are they here to back them up?"
Martin's expression grew ugly.
At the very moment he had sealed this star sector, the Astral Express had appeared.
That made it perfectly clear they intended to support the Nameless who had previously disembarked.
"Then, Manager Martin, we..."
After recognizing the train's identity, the IPC employees also felt the matter become thorny.
The Astral Express was an extremely special force in the universe.
They connected the star rail, allowing more planets to join the IPC.
They also connected civilizations, making ties across the entire universe extremely close.
Once the Astral Express got involved, the difficulty of handling this matter rose all at once.
"Manager Martin, should we notify nearby planets and tell them not to sell supplies to the Astral Express?"
But that was only a delaying tactic. It would be far too easy for the Astral Express to break this situation.
It seemed the Penacony secession crisis caused by the IPC would already be difficult to continue.
And just as the communications officer was about to send a retreat signal to the reconnaissance fleet up ahead, a hand stopped him.
"There's no hurry."
Martin quietly watched the train darting back and forth through the galaxy, his gaze growing deep.
He had fought his way through the IPC for nearly a hundred years, and only with great difficulty had he finally waited for a chance to advance to P40.
And now someone was telling him this chance was about to grow wings and fly away.
How could he be willing to accept that?
So...
"I remember the Astral Express doesn't have armed escorts, correct?"
Martin recalled the description of the Astral Express currently traveling through the cosmos in the IPC's records.
Because AKIVILI had fallen, the Astral Express had gone from its once-massive convoy to a single train.
And that train seemed to have no self-defense armaments.
In other words...
"Manager Martin, are you thinking of...?!"
After realizing what Martin Hall meant, every employee present couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
Martin actually wanted to shoot down this train, a train with extremely special meaning, right here.
"T-That doesn't seem right. They're the Astral Express, after all. We..."
"But the IPC has no business interests with them, does it?"
Martin asked in return.
"Can you name any cooperation plan between the IPC and the Astral Express?"
"N-No."
Some of the IPC employees lowered their heads.
The IPC truly did not have any business dealings with the Astral Express.
Because the Astral Express's special status did not need business ties to maintain it.
Its past achievements alone were enough that many powers did not dare act against it lightly.
"This star sector is also a place we specially sealed off. They warped in. No one knows where their destination is."
Martin displayed the experience he had built up over years of struggle. He knew exactly what employees at this level needed most.
"If we reclaim Penacony..."
His voice seemed capable of leading people into corruption, echoing again and again beside the employees' ears.
"This achievement could promote an ordinary employee who just joined the IPC into a P10 planetary supervisor. It could make a planetary supervisor into a P20 branch manager..."
The fact that this could raise Martin to P40 was enough to show that the wealth involved behind the Light Cone business was absolutely unimaginable.
So even the scraps that leaked out from between his fingers would be a miracle medicine that could let these lower-level IPC employees soar.
Faced with such temptation, and listening to Martin's words, they gradually chose silence.
Martin was not finished. He delivered the killing blow.
"...Most importantly, these Nameless have no relation to us. Why should we make a special effort to look after them?"
One sentence destroyed every last bit of resolve in their hearts.
That was right. Whether the Astral Express or the Nameless, at the end of the day, they had nothing to do with employees like them.
You could say the IPC had indeed spread throughout the galaxy because of AKIVILI.
But that had nothing to do with them. They had not enjoyed the benefits of the IPC's rise.
Those benefits had long since been devoured completely by their predecessors in the IPC. They could only miserably complete tasks handed down by the IPC and slowly raise their ranks.
In fact, in some sense, they were victims.
Promotion within the IPC had not originally been this difficult.
For example, Martin had once learned that people who had made the same contributions he had in the past would long since have been promoted to P42.
Yet now, he was merely a small P37 manager.
While they had not enjoyed the dividends, the enormous wealth brought by AKIVILI connecting countless civilizations across the galaxy had instead made their own promotions much more difficult.
"So, does everyone understand what we need to do?"
After Martin spoke, a long-lost silence fell over the scene.
Then they all quietly began to move.
There was no need to answer. They only needed to prove their understanding through action.
Mobilize the fleet. Shoot down...
That train sailing through the galaxy.
...
Outside, spacecraft after spacecraft was silently gathering.
Yet inside the train, things were very lively.
After the card condensed from the power of FINALITY was inserted into the ticket, the train crossed endless darkness and appeared in the universe.
Having seen the sight of the cosmos, the Imagin were naturally extremely curious.
Because of that, they immediately fell into disagreement over who got to use the train.
For example, Ryutaros wanted to drag Sieg out and try flying through space with a bird.
Ryutaros said, "Flying in space sounds fun!"
Urataros said, "But flying and floating through space actually aren't all that different."
Ryutaros said, "Oh, I guess that's true."
Seeing Ryutaros begin to think, Urataros couldn't help chuckling.
"Since we've arrived in such a vast universe, we ought to have a concrete destination!"
He came to Ryutaros's side.
"Ryu-chan, I remember you like watching those animal encyclopedias the most, don't you?"
Animal encyclopedias only recorded Earth's creatures, while this place contained the creatures of an entire universe.
"Don't you want to go and see them?"
Ryutaros immediately perked up when he heard that.
"I wanna see!"
"In that case, our train's destination should be..."
After gaining support, Urataros smiled even more happily.
Unfortunately, before Urataros could finish, a pair of large red hands made his head and Ryutaros's head collide.
"You pervy turtle! You just want to go see whether there are any pretty alien women in this universe!"
Momotaros directly exposed the pervy turtle's thoughts. How could he possibly be making that suggestion for Ryutaros's sake?
He clearly just wanted to see if there were beautiful women from other races so he could go hit on them!
The pervy turtle held his head and clicked his tongue, while Momotaros continued.
"If you ask me, since we finally came to a place like this, of course we should go see what the strong guys in this universe are like!"
The pervy turtle stood up while holding his head, smiling.
"And here I thought senpai had some lofty idea. Turns out you're just trying to satisfy your own desire to fight."
Ryutaros stood up directly and pointed at Momotaros with a displeased tone.
"Momotaros is bad!"
"Nani?! You two got a problem with me?"
Momotaros rolled up his sleeves and looked ready to properly argue it out with the two of them.
Unfortunately, what he hadn't expected was that after only arguing with this childish dragon for a bit, he suddenly realized one person was missing.
Turning around, he finally discovered that the blue figure was already almost at the driver's cab.
"Hey!! You damn pervy turtle!"
Urataros was unmoved.
"As for where we go, of course that depends on who gets control of the train first."
And so Momotaros and Ryutaros temporarily set aside their grudges and charged toward the driver's cab together.
After that, during the struggle, the train flew left for a while, then right, then down, then up.
And this inexplicable behavior made the fleets that had gathered outside feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Report! I can't aim at them!"
"Same here! Their turning frequency is faster than my lock-on system!"
"How is this possible? How can a train drift in space?"
The people in those fleets looked at the train running around at random before them and simply could not lock on to it.
The other side's movements had no pattern whatsoever. Even manual aiming had an extremely slim chance of hitting.
Most importantly, the train seemed to have noticed them. One moment it twisted into a curving S-shape, and the next it changed into another letter.
This was blatant mockery!
"Damn bastards! How dare they toy with us like this!"
The fact that they could come execute this task, which the IPC had internally rated as dangerous, proved that their abilities were equal to the job.
So these fleet commanders had either won rankings in space or had actual battle records to their names.
If the names of the people here were spoken aloud, even if they weren't enough to make the universe tremble, they would still stir memories in the hearts of many.
The commander who had fought the most famous battle of the Puter War, elite graduates of cosmic military academies...
All had been gathered here by the IPC's money.
But when they accepted the IPC's assignment, they probably never imagined that in the future, famous figures like them would be toyed with by a single train.
Such blatant provocation absolutely meant the other side had noticed their ambush and was acting like this on purpose.
What else could it be? A bunch of people fighting over control of a spacecraft and steering it blindly?
Even if you dared say that, they wouldn't dare believe it.
So regardless of anything else, regardless of whether the train before them was the Astral Express, the fleet commanders here had to annihilate the enemy before their eyes.
To regain their dignity, they used all kinds of encirclement tactics, surrounding the area so tightly that not even water could pass through.
Under this maneuver, the train's range of motion was slowly being eaten away by them.
Once it shrank to a certain range, they could use concentrated firepower to shoot down this slippery train, slick as a loach.
"This is the price for insulting our dignity!"
"Enjoy our concentrated fire!"
But Sora and the others inside the train had no idea what was happening outside.
At this moment, he was sitting face to face with a person as steady as a mountain, enjoying what little peace he had.
In the driver's cab up front, those guys had already escalated to fists and kicks.
Listening to the ruckus over there and feeling the train shaking beneath him, Sora's eyes lost their light.
For the next while, I'm going to be spending my days with these guys.
Just thinking about that life filled him with...
Despair!
But fortunately, they were only arguing with each other and hadn't possessed him. That was one of the few comforts Sora had.
And it was only for a few days. Once these few days passed, he would be free!
Just as Sora was immersed in that beautiful future, a bear-like figure suddenly stood up in front of him.
Kintaros, who had originally been sleeping with his arms folded, had actually gotten up.
"What, do you have somewhere you want to go too?"
Sora asked curiously.
"No!"
Kintaros shook his head solemnly.
"I'm hungry!"
"So?"
Kintaros answered Sora's question with action.
"So first, we should find somewhere to eat!"
His massive, brown-bear-like figure walked step by step toward the driver's cab.
Relying on sheer brute strength, Kintaros easily seized control of the train.
Sweeping his gaze across the surrounding starry sky, he fixed on the planet nearest to the train.
"There's a planet there. Let's go there."
And then the train, which had been out of control all this time, suddenly sped rapidly in one direction.
"You stupid bear, what the hell are you doing?!"
"Kin-chan is bad!"
The inertia from the sudden turn also made Sieg, who had been posing the whole time, lose his balance.
Sora reached out to support him. Sieg couldn't help but cough twice.
"Ahem. You have done well. I now appoint you the new chief steward of my servants. You must properly manage these four fellows."
Hearing that proclamation of appointment, Sora merely rolled his eyes at him.
"You go if you want. I sure can't talk sense into these guys."
For example, Kintaros with an empty stomach was absolutely invincible right now.
Even if the other three used all their strength, they still couldn't wrest the wheel back from his hands.
The DenLiner finally had a clear direction.
But this sudden change also made the fleets outside turn pale with shock.
From their perspective, the tram that had been swaying endlessly and was nearly impossible to aim at had suddenly charged straight in one direction.
The change truly startled them.
Most importantly, the tram had broken directly through without encountering any obstruction!
"How is that possible? Didn't we already lay an inescapable net?"
"Exactly. We set up an inescapable net together. How could it break out?"
"It's—the gap! They caught the gap!"
Although the inescapable net they had laid could, once completed, surround every direction even in space so tightly that not even water could pass, it had one weakness.
When contracting inward from the outside, there would be a tiny flaw.
That gap appeared only for a very brief time, less than three seconds.
And on a cosmic battlefield, three seconds wasn't even enough for a spacecraft to break out.
So they had never cared about that flaw before.
Yet that guy had actually caught that less-than-three-second opening.
One had to understand that without knowing the encirclement, it was very difficult to seize such a flaw.
And yet the commander of this train had successfully broken through their inescapable net the very first time he encountered it.
"What terrifying observational ability! What decisive execution!"
To be honest, if circumstances allowed, they would have liked to board the other party's train right now and interview the person who made that decision about what they had been thinking.
Such decisive judgment was truly rare in the world. Even without meeting the person, they felt a kind of sympathy for him as a fellow expert.
Unfortunately, the situation at hand would not allow them to do as they wished.
"Although your judgment and decisiveness are far beyond ordinary people, unfortunately, we have met at this time."
Although you escaped the inescapable net, the restricted escape route has also made your trajectory predictable.
The targeting systems of spacecraft one after another locked onto the train sailing away.
The weapons hidden beneath their decks had already begun charging.
Under this kind of concentrated volley, no life could possibly escape.
Let alone a so-called Astral Express that, according to their records, had almost no firepower or defenses.
"Goodbye."
The fleet commanders gave the order to attack.
At the same time, Sora inside the train suddenly shivered, as if realizing something.
He climbed to the window and looked back, immediately showing an expression of surprise.
Behind them, the pitch-black universe was now dazzling as broad daylight.
Laser beams seemed intent on driving away the darkness of space.
Missile trails cut through the cosmos, leaving burning tracks behind.
"WTF!"
Even Sora's mouth fell open in shock at the sight.
Could it be that FINALITY had discovered he could travel through time and wanted to silence him?
Otherwise, how had he gotten caught up in a cosmic war the moment he landed?
Sora's actions also drew over the Imagin who had failed to beat Kintaros.
After seeing the light blooming behind them, they each showed surprised expressions.
"Using such a grand scene to welcome me seems a little much, doesn't it?"
"Yay, yay! Fireworks!"
Urataros and Ryutaros reacted very differently after seeing what was happening behind them.
As for Momotaros, who also saw the many attacks coming from behind, his hands began trembling on their own.
"This is... this is..."
He said excitedly, "The cosmic battle scene I've been waiting so long for!"
He had once seen a manga called X Gundam, and the war scenes depicted inside had fascinated him for ages.
Now that he had come to this universe, he finally had the chance to realize that dream!
Momotaros straddled the motorcycle and controlled Sora's body, snatching control of the train back from Kintaros and inserting the ticket into it.
Immediately afterward, the entire train completed its transformation in an instant.
"Cosmic war! My cosmic war!"
Momotaros instantly twisted the throttle all the way.
...
"Don't blame me. Blame yourselves for being the Astral Express and getting in the way."
Martin watched the distant starry sky blooming like fireworks and murmured.
Under that kind of artillery coverage, the Astral Express, a train that fundamentally had no armaments whatsoever, should already have been completely destroyed.
And what happened in this sealed-off star sector would be known to no one.
The throne of P40 was not far away now.
Just then, a communication suddenly reached Martin.
It seemed to be a report of the battle results.
Martin composed himself, then connected the communication.
He was ready to hear the news that the Nameless had been annihilated.
And he did indeed receive news of an annihilation.
Only, the ones who had been annihilated seemed to be just a little strange.
"Manager Martin, the intel was wrong! The intel was wrong!!"
The instant the communication connected, a giant face shoved itself right in front of Martin.
Martin was startled by that huge face, but quickly calmed down.
"What happened?!"
"This train's fire support is terrifying!"
The person on the other end turned the communication around and played an image in front of Martin.
He saw a strangely shaped train constantly advancing through space.
The yellow carriage extended axe blades, intercepting all the incoming laser fire and shells.
The blue carriage left behind one hidden mine after another, making the entire starry sky extremely dangerous.
The purple carriage had an extremely powerful cannon that could blast open a path with a single shot.
And the red engine at the very front was pulling the entire train's speed to the limit.
How was this lacking firepower?
This was clearly firepower maxed out!
"Requesting support! We request support!"
Before the person on the other end of the communication could finish, the roar of a tram suddenly rang out.
The next instant, the screen turned gray and white.
"How is that possible? How could this happen...?"
After the fall of AKIVILI, the Astral Express really didn't have weapons equipped.
That was something everyone in the universe knew. How could there be an error?
But compared to worrying about that, what Martin needed to focus on more right now was the other side's actions.
If the Astral Express had not been silently destroyed, then he was in danger.
Once the other party left combat status, the fact that he had tried to surround and destroy the train would become known to many people.
He could not withstand the public opinion that would come then.
"What do I do? What do I do?"
Martin thought frantically, then suddenly came up with a method.
In that case, he simply had to make sure everyone over there could no longer speak.
...
"Mikhail, do you have time right now?"
"What is it, Hanunue? Do you need something from me?"
"A neutrino burst occurred not far from Penacony. Some spacecraft wreckage fell from space onto the planet. Can you go take a look?"
"All right."
After receiving the task, Mikhail headed toward that location.
Only, when he was nearly there, he seemed to hear people talking.
"Senpai, thanks to you, now we can't go anywhere."
"Momotaros is an idiot! A big idiot!"
"I have witnessed the power of hunger."
"What could I do?! Who knew those guys would launch a sneak attack at the very end? Sora, you be the judge!"
"My head hurts. Can I take a break?"
Had someone already reached this place ahead of him?
Mikhail frowned, unsure what to do.
He knew that the entire outer space region was currently sealed off by the IPC. Anyone who had fallen here along with spacecraft wreckage was definitely from the IPC.
With only his strength, could he really defeat them and obtain supplies?
Forget it. He would try.
If he could obtain supplies, then at the very least, some people would be able to eat their fill.
Mikhail slowly approached that place. At the same time, he took a pocket watch out of his coat.
The power of TRAILBLAZE was within it. As long as he could press it and end the battle afterward, that would be enough.
"Hmph. I knew there was an enemy here."
However, just as Mikhail was sneaking closer, he suddenly heard a voice from very close by.
Turning his head, he suddenly saw a body made of piled-up white sand beside him.
Momotaros looked at the person hiding himself in front of him, clapped his hands, and snorted twice.
Then... he rushed into Sora's body.
Immediately afterward, Sora's hair stood up as though he had been struck by lightning. A few red highlights gathered at the tips of his hair, making him look wildly arrogant.
"Let me say this first: I'm at a climax from the start!"
With a flick of his belt, he skillfully pressed the red button.
"[HENSHIN]!"
'[SWORD FORM]!'
As Momotaros's DenKamen Mask slid from the back of his head to the front and split open, pieces of red armor slammed onto his body one after another.
Mikhail couldn't understand what exactly was going on with the person in front of him.
"Ore, sanjō! I have arrived!"
---
T/N: wooooooooaza
T/N2: heres ur bonus chapssss i forgetty teehee
bonus chaps
200 stones -> 1 chapter
400 stones -> 2 chapters
600 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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