It was a battle without an adversary, and an order that at once both hinted at witchcraft and salvation. So it was often with the Blood Ravens and their auspicious and hidden past. Though the economy of war often elluded the minds of generals or even the books of historians, tt was not something that local govenors and system rulers overlooked. It was their purses that went to plunder.

The fleet had sat there at Dorius IV for a week, patiently staring at the stars and eating up recourses while doling out only combat pay for hundreds of thousands of navy men. In that silence, eventually the booming voice of Librarian Caninus broke, "The time is near. Signal the launch of the interceptors."