[Jmenschenfresser]

2413.8
Tallik and I are back in Cephedri. The Last year has been a shuttle from one system to another assessing fleets, ships, satellites and the theory of how they best support one another. Something I am particularly interested in is the newest starbase class. 2500kt simply boggles the mind. I've been on several of the smaller stations, and those had more than enough of every luxary a Norak could want. Those things must look like cities in space. Several military designs are under construction about the continuum.

Being the simple man, or simpleton, I'll let the reader judge, that I am, I am wary of this new integration of technology and religion. My ways are the ways of century old traditions. In spite of the fancy gear our space marines now storm about in, I still wear a robe and sandals. I see some of the gear they wear and I see the points of those who argue our military is by existence alone, aggressive. I think if I were clad from head to toe in black and leather, I'd have a degree of bloodlust as well. The new integration I speak of is a device made of metal from a most unholy place back on Xiban I. The quarry for this ore is the very site of the imprisonment of He Who Is Not Named. Our legend tells us that long ago, when the universe was but an infant and the Creator had finished Her work, She fell into a deep sleep beyond the Void, in a place unthinkable to mortal creatures, but some call it the Womb of Eternity Past. Here She slept, but the fabric of the universe felt the lack of Her presence. Things began to grow cold; the Divine Geometry lost much of its original truth; murder crept into the world; and the first rebellion began. Never doubt that evil is very much aware of itself, and only by the Hand of She who guards the eternal watch, was evil made knowable and partitioned. But in those dark days, Evil grew and all its various emmanations existed as a single, focused personality. A personality which eventually became presence, which eventually became shadow, which eventually became force, which finally became being. The Great and Holy Text tells of the wars and death wrought upon Xiban. Life, on its Last breath and Last leg. Life itself was not worth the pain. He Who Is Not Named moved freely over and through all there was. Nothing stood before him which he feared. But the Almighty awoke and reentered Existence. Angered the She ripped a jagged mountain from Xiban's thick crust and thrust it through the belly of He Who Is Not Named. His blood ran down the mountain, soaking it, penetrating its very molecular structure. Still full of divine rage, She drove the mountain, top down, back into the crust of Xiban, burying deep the rotting body of evil. The plain, which was a mountain, is barren and contains a metal found no where else.

Within the Last year our scientists have suddenly encountered strange properties within this metal. I say suddenly because now that I know what it does, I have to wonder about much of Norak history. Are we really the first to know about this metal? It seems agression and hate and malicious intent are intensified by this metal, giving the user great success in his path of destruction. The supposed discovery came when the science community did tests upon several sacred blades residing in the old Imperial Palace. They contain some of this metal. Apparently this metal is too brittle to use solely in the making of blades. On to the important...

Several of our star ships are now equipped with a large chunk of this metal. Still too brittle to use in the hull of the ship, a large quantity of tonage must be allocated for the installment of this, what the pilots call, Talisman.

Personally it makes my skin crawl. Surely the Almighty will not condone benefit from her one and only true enemy. I pray constantly for forgiveness from the blindness our ambition spawns.

The Praetorians have contacted us about buying the Nevada X, and we are more than willing to sell it to them. They have already paid us the cost of having her unmothballed, and upon delivery they have promised to show us several new technologies we do not possess. I have not gone back and checked my starcharts, but I suppose they have a system or two full of useless asteroids.

Pellwain contacted me from deep within Farzah space yesterday. We had a holographic tea party, like we used to do when we were younger. Several hours passed in conversation probably only of interest to the two of us. She said the new colony was coming along. Basic infrastructure would soon be in place and the Counsel has allotted most of the world as deep space research. Perhaps there are phenomena in Knoglam which we have not seen yet. I do not know, and neither does Pellwain really. I asked her about living within telescope distance of the Farzah, and she said they can be charming in an offensive kind of way. I think that is her way of saying she feels right at home. Pellwain herself has always been considered offensive by the majority of people who meet her. If anyone can talk to the Farzah, it should be Pellwain.