by Kelne » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:06 am
As it turns out, the message from Rajender to the others comes through in short order, summoning them to his quarters. The servitors are unstrapping the goon and hauling him to his rather unsteady feet as Vipsanius and Dauphin leave the lab, and there's little doubt he'll make it to his destination, there to spend the rest of his days at hard labour. At fate far too good for him if Vipsanius were to have anything to say about it. Finding the outsider in amongst the crew should pose no great difficulty should it prove necessary.
Rajender's front room is everything one might expect from a member of a powerful dynasty - Well-appointed, hung with icons of the faith and subtly intimidating to visitors. The three are familiar enough with it however, and Dray seems to cope well enough, though such luxury is surely unfamiliar to him after all these years.
After a little prompting, Dray begins his story, "It was some twenty-five years ago, Lord, that your Lord-father set out to the Koronus Expanse at the head of a fleet. It was his aim, after some previous expeditions, to extend the reach of the Emperor's Light as far rimward as he might reach, and to establish contact and trade relations with as many worlds as we might encounter upon the return voyage. I served aboard the Emperor's Testament, under Captain Vos Karlon. It was, from the outset, an ill-fated voyage, plagued by warp storms, xenos raiders and rebelliousness among the crew. We reached as far as Raakata among the Heathen Stars before the order was given to turn back, and we saw little profit of the voyage."
"It was as we were traversing Winterscale's Realm that a particularly violent warp storm blew up, throwing us off course and separating us from the fleet. When we finally came to rest in an uncharted system, the ship's astropath heard a faint message, a cry for help from a stricken Imperial vessel. At first we believed it was from the rest of the fleet, but it was soon determined that it was what the astropath termed an echo in the warp, hundreds, perhaps thousands of years old. Further study of the message itself revealed it to be from the Righteous Path."
Dray paused here to let the implications of this sink in, clearly expecting others to be familiar with the name of the ship. Alas, it seems he has misjudged his audience. Seeing this, he elaborates, "The story of the Righteous Path dates back to the time of Saint Drusus," he sketches the sign of the Aquila, "During the Angevin Crusade. Imperial forces were sweeping across the expanse of space that would soon become the Calixis Sector, punishing the enemies of our Lord Emperor and bringing light to worlds lost for centuries to darkness." It is obvious that Dray was either familiar with the legend to begin with, or has become so during the years since his voyage.
"Among their number was Lorcanus Ryn, a great warlord and free-captain, filled with bloodlust and greed but also with an unwavering faith in Drusus and the Emperor. At the helm of his grand cruiser, the Righteous Path, he was the scourge of a hundred worlds, carving out a bloody path before him as the crusade conquered world after world. One such world was Kystallan, an ancient colony of man which had long ago fallen to the heretical worship of false gods and the teachings of treacherous prophets known as the Talisar. It was a world of immense wealth and blasphemous grandeur."
"It was, however, no match for the might of the Emperor's armies under Lorcanus Ryn. The warlord descended upon Kystallan, sweeping away the fallen civilisation in three days of fire and blood. When the killing was done, and the corpse counters began gathering up the detritus of war, Ryn marveled at the riches he had won. Never before had he seen such naked wealth; temples piled high with artefacts of rare and wondrous make, statues gilt with gems and gold, and shadowed vaults of forgotten and forbidden archaeotech. Legend spins many a tale of further riches beyond even these, though their true nature has been lost."
"Whatever the truth of Krystallian's wealth, Lorcanus was not content merely to sample it, nor did he trust his fellow crusaders to carry it away. So he set about filling the Righteous Path from stern to ram. He tore out gun decks and launch bays, marooned thousands of crew and stripped away the vessel's innards until she was bursting with plunder. The warlord then vanished into the warp and out of the pages of history."
Dray seems, despite himself, to have caught a trace of the old excitement he must have felt when he first heard the news, "Of course, there have been many expeditions in search of the Righteous Path. Most believe her irretrievably lost in the depths of the warp, or destroyed outright long since. Some believe however, that Krystallian was situated on the rimward edge of the Calixis Sector, a scant few light years from the Maw. It is conceivable that she was caught in the tides surrounding the Passage and carried far beyond into the Koronus Expanse."
It seems Dray has come to the end of this portion of his tale, leaving an opening for questions.