Escalations

[Khallesh]

[SIZE=11.5pt] Khallesh laid on the floor, clutched what remains of her arms to her chest. In the darkness and silence, she tried not to whimper. It was supposed to have been the start of a glorious escalation. She should have accepted the sacrifice stoically. Instead she had passed out from the pain, and even now it was almost unbearable. Was this the god’s way of telling her she was unworthy? Why couldn’t they have given her a quick death? [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11.5pt] Her stumps, which ended just below the elbow joint, were covered in a strange gelatinous biot. It kept the blood flowing and prevented the wound from closing up, whilst also preventing infection. In this manner the shapers could return to their work in the morning, refashioning her arms with fighting claws. Khallesh brought her knees up to her chest and allowed herself a pitiful sigh. This was no way for a warrior, one being considered for a greater command no-less, to behave. [/SIZE]

 

[Khallesh]

Light filtered into the room through the open door. Khallesh had started to experience visions as the pain grew, but she was relatively certain that the shaper silhouetted at the threshold was real. Such a slender form, thin at the waist and curved at the hip. Jun Phaath then, the master shaper herself. In her hysterical state she recalled a male shaper once trying to gain her affection. A member of another caste and another domain, she had scoffed at the idea. Though, rather than on principles, it had really been because of his slender arms, skinny thighs and weak jaw.

The shaper approached slowly and placed a bone mug next to her, squeezing some blue gel into it. "A healing remedy," she explained. "It will ease the pain and help you rest."

Khallesh managed to summon the strength to roll away and turn her back on Jun Phaath.
"It is not a trick or a test," the shaper protested, but Khallesh merely grunted. "I will let you in on a secret young, proud warrior. The gods may judge who is, and who is not worthy of escalation, but they do so through the skill of their shaper's hands. I have seen strong warriors fail to survive the process where injured or feeble warriors survive. The skill of the shaper is the only variable that correlates."

Khallesh tried to say 'heresy' but her fatigued body only allowed a sigh to escape her lips.

"I am a master shaper," Jun said gently, placing a hand in Khallesh' waist. "But the greatest artist requires both a muse and a canvas. I will not have my muse die of a stubborn nature. A stubborn nature...and trauma." Her voice took a much harder edge now, as she leant over with the concoction. Khallesh did not resist as it was poured down her throat.

"Very good. There is more you should know. Whilst you were undergoing to first part of the process, the two other domains were warriors vying for the position of subcommander managed to have the trial of combat brought forwards. You will have precious little time to recover."

Khallesh managed a noise that sounded like a query. Already she could feel the pain subsiding and her heart rate returning to a regular rhythm.

"I will do what I can to see you succeed, because whilst your traditional domain is not a natural ally, I have faith in you. I will have someone watch over you in your sleep. Tomorrow I will make you more."

Khallesh allowed sleep to slowly claim her. Realisation started to down on her: somehow she had become a pawn in a much larger game.

 

[Khallesh]

Khallesh raised her new hands to regard them. They were different hands. Would they know all the things she had taught her old hands. Would an amphistaff respond to her grip in the same way. She flexed the fingers, feeling like a third party as she observed them moving. She reached down and touched the ground, feeling the cool soil against her fingers. They didn’t seem all that different. Silently, she chastised herself. She should have been revelling in the success of her escalation and the sacrifice she had made to Yun-Yuuzhan, instead of neurotically testing her new digits.

“The feeling of strangeness will pass,” came a sing-song voice from behind her. “All experience it.”

Khallesh turned to regard the master shaper, deliberately placing her hands at her sides. “It is excellent work,” she offered.

“Oh, I know,” dismissed the shaper with a smug wave of her multi-tooled hand. “It won’t take long for your body to adapt to the changes, but I suggest you take the time to get used to it. We’ve deliberately laid down more muscle fibre to account for the extra weight. Have you tried the claws?”

Khallesh had been holding off, uncertain of what the process would be like. She would be damned before she showed hesitation before a shaper though. She willed the blades to unsheath. It took a moment, but then she felt new muscles moving and a blinding pain across the back of her hand. The biot stretch out from her arm and expanded to its full length. Then she repeated the process on her left arm, grimacing against the pain. She held her arms out, looking at the sleek blades, though they were now covered in streaks of her black blood.

“The process will be easier and less painful as it is repeated,” Jun Paarth advised. “Eventually the flesh of your hands will adapt, leaving a thin membrane for the claws to pass through. Anyway, the other domains were successful. You have just a week before your trial of combat for the position of subcommander. Take the healing salves and drinks I left in your chambers as instructed. You will need every advantage if you are to succeed.”

 

[Khallesh]

Khallesh stepped into the Kaldurr. It was an odd biot, yet found frequently near any place where Yuuzhan Vong warriors resided. The spherical, fleshy interior of the creature had a number of polyps that protruded from the surface at a number of positions. The end of each could easily be grasped by one or two Yuuzhan Vong hands, and when pulled would provide an elastic resistance. The Kaldurr was, in effect, the equivalent of a multi-purpose cable press machine.

Khallesh grasped a pair of polyps before here and took a couple of steps back. She crouched down and then exploded upwards, pulling the polyps into her waist against a restoring force of nearly two thousand newtons. Whilst the extra muscle afforded her by the shapers gave her greater strength from the upper torso, there was a great deal of work to balance this with core and lower body strength. As well as that she’d need to practise. Hard. Bad enough that she wasn’t used to her claws, but the arachnostaff was still disobedient and her body still fatigued. This was going to be a hard week.

 

[Khallesh]

Two days of rest and her body still didn't feel ready. She'd undergone a significant procedure at the hands of the shapers and should have taken the time to rest and recover for weeks. Instead the stubborn warrior had been training as hard as she ever had in her life. Two days of rest and analysis had not been enough.

She'd been working hard with Commander Shuun Val, one of the greater warriors from her domain. He had been going over what was known of her two opponents with her, examining their techniques for weaknesses that she could try and exploit. He helped, because it was a matter of honour for Domain Val. If one of the others took the open position of Subcommander, she would have failed both herself and her domain.

She sat quietly on her own, listening to the noise of the crowd assembling for the first bout. Hundreds would come to watch the event, many to see who would be commanding their unit next. Two bouts fought several days apart with staff, talons and claws. Many died during these tests to determine command. Was that wasteful? Khallesh considered. It was their way. She had never questioned the traditions that her domain clung to before she had been out in the field and seen the Galaxy for herself. Seen Chazrach mown down whilst they futility waved their coufees, seen human Sith Lords commanding Yuuzhan Vong warriors as distractions whilst they took the glory. No, theirs was the True Way, and and their superiority would be proved in the end.

"It's time," Shuun Val called from the entrance, resplendent in his blood red skerr kyrric.

 

[Khallesh]

The other two domains had conspired to bring the trial of combat forwards to ensure she fought in a weakened state, so of course it made sense that as soon as the duel began her opponents went straight for her. Dubrash, stocky and strong as a Warkeeper with a vicious temperament. Kanduhn, tall and rangy and renowned for his skill with a pair of coufee.

The rushed straight for her and she immediately went on the defensive. Her fingers commanded the arachnostaff to stiffen, but it once again resisted her commands. A backhand to its head to remind it who was in charge and it managed to resist its arachnid nature to sting her.

She braced with both arms against an overhead strike from Dubrash, dancing aside before he could follow up. Kanduhn followed in close, slashing rapidly for her legs, but held at bay by the poisonous tip of her staff. She twisted and turned evade their blows, but it was stamina sapping work. Eventually she started to slow, and the other pair sensed their moment.
Dubrash came at her hard, using his strength to force her staff out wide. Her defensive circle compromised, Kanduhn pressed the attack. He screamed a battle cry and dove in, heedless of the danger. She snapped a kick at his midrift, but it barely perturbed him.

The first blow glanced of her armour with a ‘crack’, but the second found a gap at the shoulder and his coufee came away slick with her blood. Dubrash forced her staff down then pushed in hard, slamming into her with his shoulder. Even with her agility, she could not control her balance. She went down hard, trying to manoeuvre into a roll. There was the telltale ‘snap’ of an amphistaff being whipped. She didn’t even see the strike coming, it simply caught her under the jaw with enough force to slam her head back to the ground. Everything turned to black.

Afterwards Shuun wouldn't even talk to her, such was the level of his disappointment with a fellow warrior of Val. With no advisor, and no hope of a better result for the next combat, Khallesh kept to her quarters to brood.

 

[Khallesh]

Once again, the curvaceous form of Master Shaper Jun Paarth was silhouetted at the entrance to her room. Khallesh sat in silence, wallowing in her isolation as she had been since the first bout. Clearly the shaper was waiting for some sign to cross the threshold, but the huntress was in no mood for talk.

"It seems you backed the wrong warrior," Khallesh grunted after a while, decided she'd have to say something to be rid of Jun.

Unfortunately it seemed to have the opposite effect. In her long robe skin, it seemed as if she glided across the floor and into the room. “Why would you say such? It is not over yet,” she whispered. Khallesh merely grunted in reply. “You have just three days left, and yet I hear that you have done no training?”

"Even Shuun has seen what is coming and distanced himself from me," Khallesh replied, sitting up. After a moment she consciously corrected her posture, realising she was slumping as she had never done before.

"Short-sighted of course, but perhaps your whole caste has suffered from a lack of innovative thinking for thousands generations. Have you considered a plan for the final bout? Your opponents will be slightly more cautious, word is they had expected to bring you down in seconds and carry on, you put up quite the fight."

Khallesh looked at the shaper in confusion, flabbergasted at both how candidly she was speaking and how well connected she seemed to be. "Why bother, they'll both put me out first."

Jun sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're in a siege, two armies compete to try and take the city from you. You cannot hope to hold against sustained attacks from both sides, what do you do?"

Khallesh took a moment to consider the question. Jun Paarth was a constant surprise. Knowledgeable, well connected, and always asking strange questions. "Attempt to turn them on each other. But how could I..."

"Well, I wouldn't possibly wish to comment on your area of expertise any further," Jun replied, waggling the varied fingers of her shaper hand. "Still, you will need practise. If nothing else, the Gods saw fit to make Paarth a prolific domain. I have countless nephews with little to take up their time, two of them will make themselves available for sparring each morning if your domain is not going to back you further."

"But...I cannot win, I lost the first bout. I wouldn't even be taking part, only the fourth competitor was killed before they could figure out how to change the rules for three."

"Yes, such a pity that. No quite right, the only way you could earn your command now, was if the others did not survive," Jun replied with a thin smile.

A tremor ran up Khallesh' spine. She had never thought the day would come when a shaper could unnerve her so.

 

[Khallesh]

"I can't help but think your support may have been misplaced this time," Prefect Strall Paarth, of the intendant caste said. The small group sat around a wide table, discussing progress and developments as they did every week.

"Odd, someone else told me exactly the same thing quite recently. However, my results will speak for themselves and we can discuss that particular part of the plan next week if it should fail," Jun replied without hesitation. She knew why the politician was remonstrating with her now, if it did fail he could distance himself from her actions. The intendant caste was nothing if not good at distancing themselves from failure. There was always a shaper, warrior or worker to take the blame.

"Perhaps we should still consider alternative courses of action? Our enemies may have outmaneuvered us this time, but that does not preclude us from making other arrangements to limit the damage." Strall retorted. Several other heads around the wartable nodded.

Jun leant forwards, ever so slowly, holding his game. When she spoke, it was clear and deliberate, every word enunciated precisely, "As always, the scheme is multilayered, do not think me simple enough to risk everything on one gamble Strall. My successes had outweighed my failures so far. Our enemies are losing ground daily, despite your failing to alter the balance of power within your own caste."

There was no response to that. The balance of power in the room, much as was happening in the shadows of Hrosha-Gul was changing. So much had happened in so short a time. The false gods of the Moross had taken their old homeworld, the One Sith constantly changed around them. These who adapted would come out on top. So few of the pawns, those like Khallesh Val, we're able to see the sides, let alone the other pieces on the board.

 

[Khallesh]

There wasn't even a hint of pretense as Dubrash and Kanduhn took to their marks. Their stances and body language indicated that they'd waste no time in trying to put Khallesh out of the fight. There was no hesitancy either, the pair bearing down on her as soon as the start was signalled. And yet, her sharp eyes noticed things she hadn't seen before. Several views of the previous bout had highlighted a great many things, but there was nothing like seeing with your own eyes.

Careful glances went back and forth between the pair as they came at her. They didn't trust each other, kept their distance. Their footwork suggested they constantly expected a surprise attack from their ally.

Khallesh dropped into a defensive posture, her arachnostaff now responding to her first command. Again she relied on her speed to keep them at bay, but this time she allowed her staff some freedom to display it's own agility. It twisted and reacted faster than Dubrash's, forcing his staff off line and always threatening his hands.

She gave ground slowly, biding her time, though knowing she had little. A sudden retreat forces her two opponents to close the gap between them to keep up. With a sudden halt in her momentum she met Dubrash's next strike head on. Her agile staff wrapped it's way around his and grasped the head in its jaws. Khallesh yanked hard, pulling the larger Vong off balance. She also left his side exposed to Kanduhn.

The other warrior could not resist. Without a hint of doubt he turned on his ally and plunged his blade into a gap in Dubrash's armour. Khallesh snapped her staff back, coiling,hissing and snapping as it went. She twisted and danced away and put some space between her and the others. They snarled and swung at each other with reckless abandon, but Kanduhn had already struck the winning blow. The other warrior displayed all of his stubborn nature, but eventually he collapsed under a flurry of blows and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.

Khallesh stalked forwards, eyes fixed on her prey. Kanduhn backpedalled very slowly, appraising his remaining opponent carefully. There was still confidence there, in his mind the fight was already done. He'd eliminated his greatest rival and was left with the weakest of the three to finish.

As Khallesh stepped over Dubrash's prone form, she slammed the tail of her arachnostaff down into his chest. The stinger split his chest plate with a crack. The warrior convulsed for a few seconds and then went quite still. Kanduhn's expression changed ever so slightly. A little of the confidence had melted. The stakes had changed.