Uro-ik v’alh Battleship Yammka’s Sword
Antei Orbit, Metal Green Sector, Outer Rim Territories
Day 124, 29 ABY

The sphincter dilated with an audible pop, and Varesh Shai entered the Yammka’s main command room. As the Slayer passed, battle technicians analysing blaze bug displays averted their gazes. Many still found it uneasy to look upon the face of one of the Supreme Overlord’s Jeedai; they claimed the Slayers were an affront to the caste system. But the will of the Great One was the will of the gods themselves, and only a heretic would denounce Varesh to his face. To challenge a Slayer was to challenge the gods. And the Slayers were still the answer to this war, and to the infidels who called themselves the Jeedai.

That was why he’d been stationed out here: on this misbegotten Outer Rim planet the infidels had named Antei. Where the rest of his brethren had been recalled to Yuuzhan’tar to die in glorious battle in the defence of the Supreme Overlord against the heretics of Zonama Sekot, he had been sent to the homeworld of the Sseeth, in case they should return. It had been several klekkets since he had heard from Yuuzhan’tar—not that that in itself was unusual with the interference from the foul anomaly that cloaked this world—but he was uncomfortable being out of contact with the Supreme One for such a long stretch of time.

The priests out here could not be trusted to interpret the will of the Yun’o adequately, and of all of the would-be heretics, it was they who looked upon him from the corners of their eyes the most. Priests did not understand the realities of battle, or the inadequacies of their blind faith. That was why Shimrra alone interpreted the will of Yun-Yuuzhan, the Creator. He understood the need for the Slayers creation, and this was why the shaping protocols of the Eighth Cortex were for the eyes of the Supreme Overlord only.

Word from the Supreme Commander was that Yuuzhan’tar had fallen. But Varesh would believe it when he saw it with his own two eyes. Talk of the God-Chosen’s demise was heresy, and the Yun’o would never have willed defeat upon their Chosen Race, even with that fool Nas Choka in charge. No, the Supreme Commander was a heretic, like the rest. But it was not for Varesh to question Shimrra’s choice of commanders.

It was only his duty to die.

In the centre of the room, Romm Shai released the hooks clasping the skin of the tall-yor hood to his face and pulled his arms and head free, then stepped down from the Yammka’s cognition throne. ‘Gadma dar, Warleader,’ the commander said, slapping his fists against each shoulder. ‘Belek tiu.’

Varesh studied the blaze bugs, arranged in several swarms to represent the local astrography. Blaze bugs distinguished themselves by colour, or else by subtle changes in smell or the drone from their wings. Most of the bugs shone a vibrant scarlet; but a new group, their light dimmed to a dark black sanguine, the colour of dried blood, fluttered into a confused cluster on the outskirts of the map display. To any but a Yuuzhan Vong these changes would have been unnoticeable, but to the carefully attuned eyes, nose and ears of a warleader, Supreme Commander, and Slayer the meaning was clear.

‘The fleet must have fallen,’ Varesh announced dryly. He had expected as much. ‘The Warmaster was a fool for blindly trusting a group of brenzlits as fleet commanders.’

If Varesh knew nothing else, one thing was always certain: Shimrra was never wrong.

Except this time.

Years had passed assigned to watch over this godforsaken planet, but the Jeedai had never returned. It was time for him to return to where he should have been when the assault on Yuuzhan’tar first began. He pulled his eyes away from the devastated navy returning home, then turned back to Romm. ‘Signal my battlegroup and take us out of this anomaly.

‘Then set course for Yuuzhan’tar. Nas Choka has had his chance.’

It was time to return to the Supreme One’s side.