Yuuzhan'tar: One Step Too Far (Nas Kraal)

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nas Kraal"]

Curiosity killed. Thus far she'd bent curiosity to her will, but even in her moments of greatest success, she'd recognized the lethality of the incautious step too far. Recognized it, and embraced it. She'd overreached when she'd put together a team to take down Lotek'k, the Terror From Beyond, but it had worked. She'd overreached in a hundred ways before and since.

Admittedly, this time her chances of getting out alive were, at a guess, less than most. She might be flying an old Horde coralskipper from their time answering to Fringe, she might have a gently twitching and barely comprehensible five-fingered Shaper hand attached to her left wrist, she might have Sekotan seed-partners in her living armor, she might have a lambent in her lightsabre alongside the tsil, but as she landed she was keenly aware of the truth.

She was a pretender about to surround herself with the genuine article. Historically, that had rarely gone well.

Her conquests of Zonama Sekot and of Yalara had made her aware of the scale of the Yuuzhan Vong's achievements, though the qahsa she'd found in the buried damutek had shown her less than she'd like. Even so, it had been enough to whet her hunger to a fine edge. Master alchemist and beastmaker she might be, as skilled in her field as most could get, but to taste an undamaged qang qahsa, up into the highest levels -- that was the goal. Whatever the price.

 

[Tefka]

Deep Within The Tampesi Rain Forest

Hssssssss.

Two of the overgrown amphistaff's coiled around each other, each being held in one hand as the Myrshavong Nas Kraal wondered through the jungle. He came here often for hunting trips to unwind, miles away from the Obelisk and his duties to the Hrosha-Gul. The overly large Myrshavong gripped one amphistaff tightly as a Nexu was spotted in the foreground, the serpent becoming rigid and pointing it's sharp beak out as if a spear. If thrown true, there was no doubt the spear would pierce the flesh of even the wildest animals of Yuuzhan'tar.

Well, perhaps not a Gorog.

A twig snapped. The Nexu darted off. Kraal's eyes darted to his left and immediate lept up into the crevice of a tree, his bottom pair of hands gripping the trunk while one hand gripped his amphistaff even tighter than before. His body tensed with anticipation. Someone was in the jungle with him.

"Qe'u guvvuk! Amirz kulat atig?"

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nas Kraal"]

Vongsense was new to her, and when she slipped away from the Force her new sense gave her far too much information, far too unclearly. Shaped life apparently filled this rainforest. She could get no sense of her questioner's nature or location.

Or, unfortunately, language. Maybe background noise was to blame, or her poor grasp of idiom. She cleared her throat and spoke in an inexpert rendition of Yuuzhan Vong.

<I am a Shaper in search of other Shapers.>

 

[Tefka]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

The hulking Myrshavong dropped from the tree, hitting the ground with a deafening boom. The overly large creature began approaching the stranger, coming into sight. A forked tongue sprouted from his mouth, licking either side of his mouth as the monster came into view.

<You are no Shaper, Infidel.>

The Myrshavong spoke a rough dialect of the base Yuuzhan Vong language. The fact that this... human... could speak the native language of Yuuzhan'tar was the only reason the woman still stood on her two feet.

The amphistaff slithered up his shoulder, rearing back as if to strike and began hissing violently.

<You are a human. A heretic. Make peace with your gods, "Shaper", before your slaughter.>

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nas Kraal"]

At a guess, she realized when her thoughts caught up with her inclinations, her poor language skills had just saved her life. Her limited Yuuzhan Vong wasn't up to the task of justification, or she might have run her mouth a little, in enemy territory, facing an enemy she couldn't sense. Instead she held up a fist, her left, a Shaper Adept hand. A small ooglith cloaker broke away from the fist, revealing its true form, as she opened it to display the tools in the fingertips. It twitched just slightly -- a mark of weakness at exactly the wrong time.

<I have made sacrifice,> she said clumsily, <and I am here to make more sacrifice. Respect that, warrior.>

 

[Tefka]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

<Respect is earned.>

He raised an eyebrow in return, mainly out of interest due to the Shaper hand. It was not unheard of for humans to join the ranks of the Yuuzhan Vong, as the theory of doing so ran all the way back to the days of the Peace Brigade. Still, escalation...

<Who gave you that blessing>, Kraal asked pointing at the Shaper hand. He wondered if the woman had come here to join the movement.

<How did you come upon such a prestigious gift in the eyes of Yun-Ne'Shel?>

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nas Kraal"]

Well, she wasn't dead, so that was something.

<I conquered a world where the Yuuzhan Vong used to be strong.> As little as ten years ago, there'd been a substantial Vong presence on Yalara, though apparently the local Noghri had wiped them out long before Rave came along with a Fringe armada. She weighed her words carefully, but went for truth; her limited grasp of the language couldn't quite measure up to finesse.

<I found a damutek beneath a fallen mountain. Shapers slept inside, in a hibernating vivarium. I was already a maker of living things, and when I put aside technology and showed them what I had made, and how far I would go to learn, they...tested me.> Placing her hand within a hole in the wall, watching as teeth closed around her wrist and sheared in slowly, knowing that she'd be killed if she screamed, or displayed some unusual resistance to pain, or dealt with the process in any kind of weak or dishonorable way...

The process of getting a Shaper hand would stick with her for life, but she was long inured to handling traumatic memory without being incapacitated.

<Their qang qahsa was damaged. I seek a healthy one.>

 

[Tefka]

<Interesting,>

The Myrshavong contemplated this for a second. He too had come from a plebian background, rising through the ranks of the Yuuzhan Vong through many trials and tribulations himself. This... human, though distasteful as it was, had seemingly accepted the Great Doctrine and had sacrificed to the Yun'o in their name.

Or had she done it in their name? Was she here for personal benefit? In the end, it didn't matter. Everyone was out for something.

<Swear your life to the Yun'o, here.> His left lower arm pointed at her feet.

<Give your blood to Yun-Ne'shel.>

Kraal procured a coufee and offered it to the woman.

<And swear fealty to the Supreme Overlord, Al'Khattazz Yun-Amon and his right hand, the Warmaster of the Hrosha-Gul. Do this, and I will permit you your life.>

[member="Rave Merrill"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Nas Kraal"]

She knelt when he pointed, and took the coufee when offered. The dagger-shaped serrated eel trembled slightly in her hand. At this point, the only question was...where to cut. And whether she could take it. It was one thing to hold still while someone else did it; it was another thing to cut herself. She'd never swung that way. Still, having control would likely make it better.

<To Yun-Ne'Shel, handmaiden of Yun-Harla, granted the keys of creation by Yun-Yammka->

She jammed the coufee into her face. It punched through her right cheek, grating along the teeth. She withdrew it with a surgically precise yank, eyes locked on Nas Kraal, and did the same to her left cheek.

<-and to the Supreme Overlord and his Warmaster, before all other allegiances.>

Such was the price of knowledge.

 

[Tefka]

All four arms crossed over the Warmaster's chest in reverence, forming two X's. This was the form of the Yuuzhan Vong salute.

"Hrosha-Gul."