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The Testimony of Inquisitor Lord Revic to the Forum of Ansamas
An old man approached the brass etched pulpit, ascending the stairs to inner section. Struggling to stand, he coughed, clearing his throat, leaning on his staff, he begun.
?Long after I departed with Dregan and his Tarellian band, I received word that my acquaintance within the Thurm brotherhood, Akrhan Phyllokk, had successfully returned to his kin, in the vicinity of Pech. Unfortunately he was unable, though I suspect unwilling, to take me any further on my journey to Condeh Khar. The subject of the Tobari was a troubled one it would seem, and he was unforthcoming except to wish me fortune and prosperity in such a dangerous endeavour.
?As we journeyed, we were waylaid many times, once only just escaping a confederation of alien pirates that boarded as far as the command core of the Tarellian carrack. Fortunately Dregan?s warriors retaliated with sufficient swiftness to prevent the carrack from being totally overrun. On the borders of Berelan Space we encountered the drifting hulks of a dozen smaller starships that, according to Dregan, were left as a result of an apocalyptic war between two of the minor races fleets in the near area.
?Soon we arrived at the Caredlio Portal, a gap in the obscuring dust clouds that border the Khareshi expanse. There we allowed some of the crew to leave, through their choice, and we continued north-eastward through the portal. After seventeen months within the expanse, we discovered on of the reputed hulk sites. An aeon old graveyard, the twisted and stripped hulks spiralling through the void in the expanse, appearing derelict and abandoned over the ages.
?At that point, unknown to ourselves, the expanse was not dead. Deep within the slowly arcing hulks energy signatures appeared, many. Within scant moments the expanse was alive with signatures.? Revic winced momentarily, recoiling from some distant memory it seemed.
He let his staff fall, grasping the rail, he steadied himself. ?They took the ship, and the crew. I saw no more of Dregan in all my voyages since. I will not say how I escaped the expanse, suffice to say that it was at extreme cost.? A deep, distant whirring sounded from Revic, he raised his arm and pondered his coppered and bronzed forearm, glinting with the hint of ancient polish, dulled over the decades. ?I was compensated, and my objective achieved, but I now know why Akrhan Phyllokk spoke with such foreboding pessimism of the expanse. Truly, he was wise beyond his years to be sceptical of that place. Until such a time, as the Imperium is able to act in force to quarantine the region, if even such a thing is now possible, then I foremost speak for the immediate return of all Imperial agents within the one hundred light year of the locale??
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"Number 6 calls to you
The Cylon Detector beckons
Your girlfriend is a toaster"
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