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To those who may or may not have caught it, Asat Pramad actually revealed an incredibly interesting tidbit about Ashveil's Shadow and the past Galaxy Rangers:
Between Ashveil's third character story and the conversation between Tiernan and Acheron in Bullet & Brain, In Our Time, one of the great unknowns is how Tiernan and the other Rangers wound up in the Sea of Nihility. As it so turns out, it's during In Ravages Does the Whistle Sound of the 4.4 MSQ that we finally understand the connection.
Simply put, the vortex that Ashveil summons seems to act as a "portal" into Nihility, which explains how Tiernan and the other Rangers wound up in the Sea of Nihility following Operation Zulo.