Faith

[Khallesh]

Khallesh rested on the hard, fleshy surface that made up her bed. She reached out a hand and stroked a patch of discoloured matter and the bioluminescence dropped to leave her in darkness. Her room in the Grashal barracks was empty. Her entire squad had been lost fighting off the Protectorate invaders, leaving her to heal and reflect on her own. Her ribs barely ached now, but the pain in her jaw was still fresh from where it had been cleanly broken. There was also a gentle tingle from her fresh tattoos. Her first battle for Hrosha-Gul had been an occasion worth etching into her flesh. Her new scars and the growing web of tattoos told a story, and highlighted the fact that her own flesh was the canvas upon which her exploits would be written.

 

[Khallesh]

Hrosha-Gul, or “the price of pain” in the tongue of the infidels. She tried to fully immerse herself in the regret of the loss of her squad and the pain from her healing wounds. She would return from this stronger. The process would be repeated over and over: she would earn her pain in glorious battle or during escalation and improve herself with each experience. Still, sat alone in the room, the pain and memories keeping her awake, it was hard not to feel just a touch sorry for herself. Hopefully they would reorganise following their losses shortly. Then she could apply herself to more training and preparation. The Commanders would have the Yammosks replay the battle on Blaze Bugs and show them how to adapt to the tactics of the Omega Protectorate.

 

[Khallesh]

A buzzing sound roused her from her reverie. She reached out and grasped her personal villip from the bony protrusion that formed a table beside her sleeping area. With a stroke the villip stopped vibrating.

“Subaltern Khallesh Val, your presence is requested at the Third house of Shapers,” came the voice of her Subcommander.

“I will attend at once,” she replied curtly.

[SIZE=11pt]She quickly dressed into her military robeskin, coloured and patterned to represent her rank and unit. Taking the time to dress in her full Skerr Kyrric would have been unnecessary. [/SIZE]

 

[Khallesh]

She approached the building to find her commanding officer already waiting outside. He was flanked by a pair of Shapers, and even a member of the Intendant caste. Curious, even more so because she could recognise one of the Shapers as a Master. She clasped her arms over her chest in salute to the Subcommander, and even managed a deferential nod to the Master Shaper - high praise from a Warrior to a Shaper.

"Subaltern. This is Jun Phaath, Master Shaper," her Subcommander greeted her and then waved a hand towards the male on his right. "He has an opportunity for several Warriors and I have decided that you will volunteer to assist him."

Khallesh lowered her gaze briefly. This was clearly supposed to be an honour, but she suspected otherwise. "Of course," she replied redundantly. She had been volunteered.

 

[Khallesh]

"Oh yes, an excellent opportunity," Jun continued in a sing-song voice. "We shall begin at once! This will be a significant test of your constitution, I hope to find you worthy."

"At once..." Khallesh started, but the look from the Subcommander made her stop mid sentence. "If the gods wish it, they will find me worthy," she replied instead. The Shapers waved her into the building behind them and she obliged.

She heard the Intendant and Subcommander exchange a few quiet words behind her. Her senses had been developed through generations of genetic manipulation and selective breeding to create useful scouts. Clearly they had thought her out of earshot.
“Why that one?” the Intendant asked.

“Her Hunters all gave their lives. If she dies like the others, at least it saves finding another squad for her to command.”

 

[Khallesh]

"So, you have seen the Hydrastaffs we grow?" Jun Phaath asked in a friendly tone as they walked deeper into one if the Shaper's places of work. It was a simple corridor, the flesh of the creature they walked through punctuated by bioluminescent protrusions. Every now and again a Shaper would emerge from a side room, the sphincter closing quickly behind them and greet them as they passed before going about their business. Many of their shaper hands were caked in black blood.

"I have," Khallesh replied curtly. Odd how battle list pushed all fears away, yet here in the halls if the shapers - where many strong warriors did not return from their procedures - she felt a twisting fear build in her gut.

"You do not use one?"

"Nor do many Hunters. The balance is off for many who prefer to through or stab."

"As I have heard," the shaper replied with a wry smile.

 

[Khallesh]

"And what is this?" Khallesh asked, looking down at the pallid remains.

"It has no name yet," Jun Paarth replied, her shaper hand gesturing towards the features of the creature. "As you can see it has the amphibian head, but also the tail of an arthropod. A stinger, to be precise. Loaded with an incredible cocktail of venoms that can down the bulkiest of creatures. It could strike with enough force to puncture the thickest of the metal suits worn by the..."

"Why is it dead?" Khallesh asked bluntly. Paarth was a forward-thinking domain. They now had members in all castes and even dared to take on infidel concepts such as mating outside one's domain.

 

[Khallesh]

"Because the experiment has yet to produce viable results," Jun Paarth replied. Her Domain was the polar opposite of Domain Val. Val kept to Yuuzhan Vong traditions that had been watered down over millennia of living with the infidels. Even though Hrosha-Gul bred half-breeds and escalated all kinds of species, they at least followed the true God's of the Yuuzhan Vong.

"They have lost some of the pliable nature of the amphistaffs. So far attempts to bond them with Warriors has led to eight deaths, in each case the creature injecting its potential owner with a lethal dose of venom!"

 

[Khallesh]

"We do, however, believe we have found the way to shape a warrior to make them partially immune to the effects of the venom. If that works, then we believe the bonding process could still occur. It is instinct for the creature to sting at first, and we have not yet managed to reshape that. And perhaps we should not, to tamper with the instinctive nature of a killer, would be to undermine the beauty brought into being by the sacrifice of Yun-Yuuzhan!" Jun continued in her sing-song voice. Khallesh hasn't heard as many words in a single breath in all her life.

"So you see Hunter, we have the opportunity to expand on the cortexes of Hrosha-Gul. It will be painful, and dangerous, but I doubt..."

"I'll do it,L Khallesh replied before the shaper could attempt to goad her into compliance. She'd suffer all the pain in Yun-Yuuzhan's creation to avoid listening to the shaper wax lyrical for another minute.

 

[Khallesh]

The pain was exquisite. Khallesh ground her teeth together and closed her eyes tight to shut it out. She did not enjoy pain. Only a few twisted domains had ever turned it to pleasure. She accepted it, her life would be a series of pains that marked her achievements in life: victories; losses to worthy enemies; childbirth. Painkillers were not acceptable in Yuuzhan Vong culture.

She knew she should not have done it, but she found herself looking down. She was open from her naval to breastbone. A shaper had almost his whole hand inside her, altering her internal organs. By the slick onyx coating on several shaper's hands she surmised many had been working to escalate her. She swooned and nearly lost consciousness. Only her determination not to shame herself infront of another caste kept her from going under, or vomiting. A knot formed at the back of her throat and she choked down the bile.

The procedure lasted for two hours. Alone, exhausted and feeling quite sorry for herself, she was left alone in a small dark room. They waited to see if she recovered.

 

[Khallesh]

A week later she was led to a restricted polyp gla by the Master Shaper. Immediately she saw that this was no ordinary gla, she could not recognise a single amphistaff as being of the common variety.

Jun Paarth waved a hand nonchalantly towards a group of polyps. “Amphistaffs with four way mandibles, designed to crush an enemy’s bones. A failing experiment, I fear. The heads are ill-designed and the creature is not able to sustain itself when free of the polyp.”

Odd for a shaper to be so forthcoming about their work. Usually the caste was secretive about their work, only revealing new designs where they had been extensively tested. Either Jun Paarth was simply more open than much of her caste, or she was belittling a colleague’s endeavours. Perhaps it was a competing design. Khallesh hoped that was the case. The alternative was that the Shaper did not expect her to survive.

 

[Khallesh]

“Ah, here we are!” Jun Paath explained. A single polyp, with three fully developed arachnostaffs. “Observe the secondary feeding tract to allow the creatures to both share nutrients with the host polyp, whilst also develop the stinger.”

Khallesh grunted in reply. She had already noticed the stinger. Half a foot of chitinous segments ending in a spike she was fairly certain could go straight through her body and emerge from the other side. Her heart raced. She would show no uncertainty in the face of the Shaper, but she was afraid.

“Is there anything else I need to know?” she asked plainly.

“Not as far as we know! You are a pioneer Khallesh! As far as we know they behave mostly the same as an amphistaff. Should you discover a method of taming them, you will be adding to the cortexes of the Shapers. To think, a Warrior adding to the knowledge of our kind. Such honour!”

Khallesh turned on the Master Shaper, but could see no hint of sarcasm. Jun Paarth was smiling broadly. A snake that one, she thought to herself. More so than the staffs she breeds. She would have to be mindful when dealing with the shaper in future, she decided.

 

[Khallesh]

Khallesh approached the polyp, circling it and observing the creatures carefully. They were ready to drop. She watched them carefully as she circled, looking for any behaviour that might indicate docility. Each of them watched her in turn, appraising her before deciding she was too large to ensnare and feed to the host polyp. One of them held her gaze longer than the others. Not only that, but when she approached it did not rattle and shake its stinger as the others did.

She crouched down and waited. It was not long before it dropped from the polyp. It slithered across the surface of the gla and approached. Tentatively she reached out towards it. It lifted its head, ready to strike. As she had been taught, her hand snapped out lightning fast to grasp it under the head. It stiffened as she had expected, but then it writhed frantically. It twisted and swivelled to escape her grip.

The stinger came up, looming threateningly above her. It came down far faster than she had anticipated. Hot pain blossomed from her thigh as it skewered her. She could actually feel the burning as it injected its venom straight into her muscle tissue. It pulled it back, but Khallesh threw her weight forwards and pinned the staff down with her body weight.

The pain increased, higher and higher. As she started to lose consciousness she felt the staff start to relax and become compliant in her grip. Too late. Whatever the shapers had done, it was not enough.

 

[Khallesh]

Blearily, she opened her eyes. All of her muscles ached and her breathing came in harsh, raspy breaths. As she rolled onto her side she found the staff was still with her. It was wrapped around her forearm, as the creatures were supposed to do.

As she woke it turned towards her. That stinger raised up once again but Khallesh caught it on her other hand before it could strike. She hissed through clenched teeth back and the staff, until it returned its stinger back down to the surface of her arm.

“Fantastic!” declared a voice behind her. The Shaper must have waited and watched to see if the venom would take her.

It was not enough yet. Khallesh grasped the staff at the mid-section and yanked it off. The gestures for changing state should have been instinctive for the creature, bred in genetically over generations. It did not go rigid at first. Again its jaws opened and that stinger started to swing. She backhanded it across the back of the head and repeated the gesture. This time it complied and she held the staff out before her triumphantly.

“A little testy in temperament,” Jun Paarth admitted. “Much like the Warrior caste as a whole, I suppose.”

Khallesh did not reply, but she shot the shaper a dismissive glance. She had been victorious where others had failed. That didn’t make the pain any less. She looked down at the puckered wound on her thigh. Another scar to mark her success.