Clan Naga Sadow/Vong War/Part Two

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Unification

The Yuuzhan Vong may already have fallen but Antei was still under enemy occupation all the same. Forces from the Army of the Iron Throne deployed to the surface in two beachheads in the sunside of Narmar and the Shadowlands of Adas. While some of the Clan flew fighter cover against the droid fighters swarming across the planet, the rest deployed in dropships to the two beachheads but the landing zone in Narmar was overrun before it had even had a chance, and a rapid evacuation was launched by Goura and his team to recover Ashura Isradia and Aleho Ruoxf who had already landed in Narmar. In Adas, the second planetary beachhead was in danger of a similar fate until Malisane de Ath isolated the source transmission from the local droid control relay and organised a raid to disable it, opening a long enough window for the rest of the anti-air teams to be safely deployed.

Before the Clan could catch their breath after securing the landing zone, reports came in that FOB Spear was being overrun and the scout team was in danger of being lost. The commando unit already out at the droid bunker proceeded with haste to the Forward Operating Base to reinforce the scout unit, while back at the main landing zone the fleet deployed the rest of the mechanized division, which then moved to follow behind and rendezvous at the FOB. As the battle was unfolding on the ground, back on the Final Way Daragon was struggling to retain control of his mind, and beginning to lose it to the darkness the way Raze had. Furthermore, troubled by Daragon’s behaviour, Tsainetomo hacked into the shipboard computers and unearthed evidence that the consul had been behind the cover up of the Dystopia bombing earlier in the year. Elsewhere on the surface, Raze had not died as thought but had instead become something far worse and was now sweeping his way across the battlefield. When he ran into a team from Clan Tarentum, the two Clans went on high alert with each other. Back at FOB Spear, the droid raiding party was defeated but heavy tank reinforcements were close behind. Reinforcements were called in from Clan Taldryan and tensions ran high when Goura deliberately blew up part of the Taldryan unit in revenge for what they had done four years before during the Fall of Antei.

Cyrus Raze, fully consumed by Darth Vexatus and holding one of the two fragments of the Star of Ombus he stole from Kalekka Tower.

A number of Clansmen were captured during the battle at FOB Spear and hauled off to the nearby Jedi Command Post where, instead of killing them, Jedi Master Gelusk sought to redeem them back to the light. Zaxen Isradia’s and Zaroth Rakiroyo’s wills began to falter, but de Ath, Agrist, and Jade Atema managed to sabotage the droid IFF transponder which sent the droid forces into disarray, attacking each other as much as the enemy. Just in time, the mechanized division from the main beachhead arrived to take the battle to the haywire droids and control of the Forward Operating Base was finally re-established. With the FOB safely back in Brotherhood hands, the Clan continued further east into Antei to rendezvous with forces under Clan Scholae Palatinae’s control. There the Clan received new orders to bring in some of the enemy Jedi Generals for interrogation. At the forward camp, Goura set up several of his trademark torture devices to help procure information from the captured Jedi about the defenses guarding the other sites throughout Adas.

As the battle at FOB Spear was going on, back at the main landing zone Tsainetomo Keibatsu arrived following his discovery that contrary to everyone’s assumptions that Shan Long had killed Raze, the missing scout was in fact still alive somewhere in Adas. Sensing something amiss, the Keibatsu risked the wrath of Lord Sadow and went off mission to investigate his suspicions—although Ashura Isradia assigned Aleho Ruoxf to go with him. Deep in the desert, Keibatsu came across a raging hurricane, within which he discovered that he had been right—Raze was not dead. But the man he found was no longer Cyrus Raze. Instead the Keibatsu uncovered the horrifying truth that against all beliefs to the contrary the second traitor, Darth Vexatus, was in fact still alive, and had now taken over Raze’s body. Determined to silence the Betrayer once and for all, Keibatsu took up arms against him, but he was easily bested by the once-Sith Lord-turned-wraith. But, before the Keibatsu could be consumed, two scouts from Tarentum and four Jedi Masters arrived, seeking to investigate the hurricane as well. As the dark monster battled the six new arrivals, Aleho Ruoxf was able to recover the now-unconscious Keibatsu—and one of the Jedi who had also been knocked unconscious—and fled with them both on her swoop while Vexatus was distracted.

From FOB Spear the Clan split off into several teams to hunt down the enemy commanders, while at the camp further east tensions flared between the Naga Sadow and Scholae Palatinae forces; the two clans beginning to take the pressure and exhaustion from the prolonged fighting out on each other. Jade Atema, Alexander Anderson and Valorian; and Malisane de Ath and Agrist separately secured two Jedi captives who they returned to the eastern camp for interrogation by Goura, who thus far had not managed to procure anything further than the Brotherhood already knew—most of the Jedi choosing to die during interrogation before revealing anything. Increasingly it seemed Omancor Crask had kept many of his followers in the dark of his true reasons for developing his determination to root out all darksiders left in the Galaxy.

The Valley of the Lost.

Back on the Final Way, Shan Long had convinced Daragon that he was no longer the enemy and that Cyrus Raze was the true threat. Ultimately, Daragon conceded that the Jedi were but one part in the escalating warfare on the surface, and that if they were to survive the coming battle they would need the sorcerer’s help. Against Lord Sadow’s orders, Daragon headed to the surface with his prisoner, determined to face the truth with his own eyes. But in the back of his mind the maddening darkness was pounding heavier still as he neared Antei’s black sands. At the main beachhead, Lord Sadow was furious with Daragon but had little time to worry about Shan Long while he still had a war to oversee. Elsewhere, Omancor Crask had abandoned the planet and headed into orbit to deal with Lord Sarin personally. The Jedi left on the surface knew that their fate was likely to end in martyrdom and became ever more desperate.

Orders were issued by General Faylen that the Clan was to proceed on the Hall of Immortals and secure it before the Jedi could burn it to the ground. It was then that Ruoxf arrived back, Tsainetomo and Jedi in tow. The captured Jedi was quickly carried off for interrogation, while Keibatsu had just the energy left to announce to the whole leadership the revelation he had encountered in the desert. With the situation escalating beyond their control, Lord Sadow, Daragon, Shan Long and all the others who had remained behind at the landing zone took to their shuttles to head to the Hall of Immortals and rendezvous with the rest of the Clan to reinforce.

Battle for the Hall of Immortals.

The final battle erupted in the Valley of the Lost on the steps outside the Hall of Immortals when the Clan arrived to engage the Jedi and droid forces that were setting up charges around the Hall in an attempt to bring the entire structure down. Throughout the valley, further Jedi teams were already in the process of bringing down thousand year old statues and monuments. As the Clan leaders flew across the desert with reinforcements, Daragon finally began to succumb to the darkness seeking to wrest control of his mind. Desperate, he at last submitted to Shan Long’s offer of salvation, knowing that in accepting the Mark he was betraying the trust Lord Sadow had placed in him. However, as the former traitor had promised, through the Force bond they now shared Shan Long was able to shield Daragon’s mind from the psychic attacks by whatever remained of Lord Vexatus. The consul and overlord arrived just as the Clan laid siege to the Hall of Immortals itself, heading inside to take up arms with Jedi Masters Nejj Kenten, Qira Vaal and Lordien. While Goura took up arms against Lordien, Manji Keibatsu and his apprentice, Dyrra Skye, dealt with Qira Vaal and her own apprentice; and, on the roof of the Hall, Lord Sadow himself dueled the Jedi Master in command, Nejj Kenten, while Tsainetomo Keibatsu held off Kenten’s MagnaGuard defenders. Elsewhere, Fremoc Pepoi, Ekeia Iclo, Xander Anderson and Krandon Rowella set charges along the valley’s entrances to hold off incoming droid reinforcements.

As the Jedi Masters were defeated on the surface, Lord Sarin dueled Omancor Crask in the skies above. But the battle was matched, and in the end both died after the Exodus was damaged by their fighting and crashed into the surface of Antei. However, at the Hall of Immortals, the Clan managed to defeat the three Jedi Masters and their forces. But then the darkness arrived. Whatever remained of Cyrus Raze had defeated the four warriors who Aleho Ruoxf had left him battling in the desert, and had now twisted the four into mindless berserkers bent to his will. As the Clan mopped up any straggling Jedi and the last remnants of the droid forces, a hurricane swept over the valley, blanketing the Hall of Immortals in fog. The four berserkers laid siege to the Hall, engaging Daragon; Goura; Manji and Tsainetomo Keibatsu; and Jade Atema, Xander Alexander and Zaxen Isradia. The four berserkers were slain, but not at the cost of Atema being mortally wounded, and fearing that right before its death part of the berserker’s essence may have passed on into her. As the berserkers fell, Vexatus – in the body of Raze – moved against the Hall himself, the firestorm enveloping the structure as the entire Clan and much of the nearby Brotherhood forces took shelter in the basements. The final confrontation of the war took place when the entire Clan joined their minds in a Force meld led by Lords Sadow, Paladin and Shan Long to hold back the waves pounding against the building. As Vexatus’s anger grew worse, he opened a rift in the space above the Hall of Immortals, seeking to suck the entire building into oblivion—but the Clan fought back, their combined might pushing him back and wrapping him in a bubble of their own collective energy. Vexatus lost control of the storm he had unleashed, his body ultimately tearing apart as he was sucked into the pit of the black hole he had tried to unleash.

Survivors outside the ruined Hall of Immortals, united as one Clan.

In the aftermath, much of the Hall itself was in ruins, but the Clan had survived—by working together as one. Lord Sadow recognized without Shan Long they may not have been able to channel their strength into a meld to direct against the Betrayer, and despite all that had happened two years earlier, the Battle of Lehon was at long last finally forgotten. The Clan was united. The Yuuzhan Vong had fallen. The Jedi had been slain. And Muz Keibatsu, a Son of Sadow, now sat on the Iron Throne itself as Grand Master of the Brotherhood. The war had ended and the Dark Age of lies and betrayal was finally at its end. Looking out across tthe glassed and smoking sands of the Valley of the Lost, for the first time in more than four years the Clan was finally able to look into the future with hope.

War's End (31 ABY)

The liberation of Antei saw the Clan triumphant and spirits at their highest since the original Yuuzhan Vong incursion into Sith Space almost four years earlier. Nevertheless, attacks along the Orian Pipeline still continued, straggling Yuuzhan Vong and Peace Brigade holdouts launching piratical raids from an unknown base and striking fear along the local stretch of the Hydian Way. With supply lines still under siege, contact with the outside galaxy and Corporate Sector remained difficult; further, with RePlanetHab's reconstruction of the countless worlds devastated by the war set to take years, the Corporation had no choice but to continue to host to the many refugees who had found their way to the Orian system, putting further pressure on already strained resources. As the Clan and Corporation now sought to rebuild, none suspected the Vong who Lord Jedgar Octavius Paladin had once feared to be hauled up in Tarthos's arctic—until his expedition in early 30 ABY discovered no trace—were real after all and had been making progress in infiltrating the Corporation's command while the Brotherhood had been occupied with organising the Antei operation.

Varesh Shai, Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong remnants, on the bridge of Yammka's Sword.

Unknown to the outside galaxy, on the edges of the Tingel Arm lingered the remains of Baanu Amnan, the worldship that the Clan believed it had destroyed three years ago during the Battle of Telos. In truth, one lone Vong had managed to command the worldship's dovin basals to pull it into darkspace. Though the planetoid-sized Koros-Strohna had torn apart during the jump, the dead fragments of Domain Amnan's home had since been taken over by Varesh Shai and his armies from Domain Shai. They had since harvested it for resources to regrow a new generation of ships. The Yammka's Sword was the first, a mighty Kor Chokk grand cruiser, formed around one of the largest pieces left of Baanu Amnan and constructed around the Warmaster's existing flagship. With his allies from Amnan and various other domains, Varesh had been leading strikes along the Hydian Way for the past two years. For his devotion, and his refusal to accept that the Supreme Overlord could have fallen, the once Slayer and now self-declared Warmaster had been hailed by his high priestess, Seef Lacap as Khattazz al'Yun—the Avatar of God. With the Yuuzhan Vong Empire's collapse, Varesh had become convinced the Gods had abandoned them—and the new Warmaster set to redeem the Chosen Race by finishing the task he believed Shimrra had set before them: cleansing the Promised Land of the Jeedai heresy.

What not even Varesh himself ever realized was that he was being betrayed by one of his own: Eckla Muyel. Supposedly a low ranking intendant, Eckla was in truth Eshin Shul, the Shamed One who had been condemned to death by the Supreme Overlord after the Fall of Antei, subsequently hunted down by Drathul, the revered late Supreme Commander of Domain Amnan, and finally left for dead by the avatar of Yun-Shuno during the Battle of Telos. However, Eshin had not died and had since infiltrated the new Warmaster's court, seducing Tolok Amnan, the young new warleaader of Domain Amnan; ever since, she had been conspiring with the Master Shaper Niiriit Phaath to imbue one of the Chosen Race with the blood of a Jedi in order to gain mastery of the Force and take her revenge on the Sith who had shamed her. Under the guise of Eckla, Eshin pushed for the attack on Orian by feeding Tolok the information that would play on Varesh's desire to exterminate the dreaded Sith, who were rumored to be even more powerful than the Jedi themselves. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Eshin and Niiriit had utilised Tolok's resources to capture countless Jedi, Sith and other Force-users, torturing them into submitting to the True Way and serving Eshin as her own "Slayers", her personal warrior elite. To this end she had dispatched the Zhaetor-zhae to Antei, loaded with spinerays to corrupt the Sith if and when they finally went back to recapture their homeworld.

Sacking of Sadow Palace

Macron Goura leading the Sacking of Sadow Palace.

The Yuuzhan Vong invasion of Orian came without warning in the dead of night. Throughout the system, agents working for Vega Incorporated, which was headed by the discredited former mayor Sylus Vega, and his deputy, Jinkil Moksuna, a survivor of the failed True Brotherhood invasion, were at long last activated, together with with Vong infiltrators, all under the command of Bur'lorr Amnan, head of the infiltration teams and one of the warrior caste's elite Hunters. In Seng Karash, Deputy Commissioner Wyla Sarn shut off Marakith Skyhook's defenses; in Kar Alabrek, Commander Ran Arnet did the same to Tarthos's grid; but it was at the very heart of the Disciples of Sadow, in Sadow Palace, where the greatest treachery of all took place. Macron Goura, former apprentice to the Betrayer, Darth Vexatus, broke into the Hive, Orian's central intelligence database, and disabled the entire system's defense network. With Orian in total blackout, the Vong armada led by Warmaster Varesh launched its attack. Peace Brigade fleets commanded by Admiral Yashais dei Izvoshra laid siege to Aeotheran, Amphor and Tarthos, trapping the Disciples of Kressh and Ragnos planetside as the Brigaders moved to capture the cities, their strike teams led by captured Jedi and Sith who had been converted to the Vong's religion in the two years since their Supreme Overlord's defeat. Vega, who had been offered Seng Karash as a reward for his part in the invasion, mobilised his militia to seize control of security check points through Seng Karash, effectively placing the city into lock down thanks to his security access from his time as mayor. Over on Tarthos, Kar Alabrek suffered the brunt of the attack head on as the Peace Brigade forces devastated the barracks and residential districts that housed soldiers' families outside the Hub in the centre of the garrison city. As most of the Clan remained isolated throughout the rest of the system, on Sepros the main Vong battlegroup laid siege to the palace, bombarding it from orbit and deploying strike teams on a one way suicide trip to slay as many Sseeth and dark Jeedai as they could find in order to redeem the Chosen Race in the eyes of their gods. The Simus Institute was slaughtered, dozens of junior apprentices falling to amphistaff fangs or coufee blades.

Yuuzhan Vong hauling captives onto a slaveship.

The chief traitor himself made his way into the hidden sanctum of the Order of the Black Guard deep beneath the palace in the ancient catacombs; there he found his new mistress's true prize: Remulus Sadow. After defeating the infant Sadow heir's guardian, Ashura Isradia, Macron took them both to an escape craft and fled to the massive Yammka's Sword in orbit before. Back aboveground, a second betrayal, this time by Delta-1, Aurek, with the help of the bounty hunter Xarask, had captured Kharon Daragon, hauling the consul away on Xarask's ship, Razorback. As the palace smouldered on fire, the surviving DSOG troopers battling the remaining Vong drop teams, victory looking impossible, until salvation arrived in the form of Fleet Admiral Araic Simonetti. The Commanding Admiral of Special Operations had raced home to Orian with the Final Way after Colonel Kal Septka of the Palace Guard had managed to get a distress call out. With the Special Operations Division's arrival, the Warmaster's main battlegroup withdrew, their primary objectives already accomplished.

Chazrach and a bioengineered serpent assaulting Kar Alabrek.

Liberation may have come for Sepros itself however Admiral Izvoshra's forces remained in orbit of the colonies throughout the system. The Vong themselves may have withdrawn, their mission complete, having spilt the blood of many Jeedai already, but Sylus Vega and the other Brigaders had no intention of giving up their prize: Orian. Chaos erupted on the streets of Seng Karash and Kar Alabrek as—still in a communications blackout—the two Houses remained cut off from each other. The DSOG fleet remained stuck at Sepros, Izvoshra having announced that if the Brigade fleet was engaged he would issue a full Base Delta Zero orbital bombardment to deny the Corporation victory. On Tarthos, the Disciples of Ragnos battled the Jedi, Brigade and Vong hordes, cleansing Alabrek Castle of the infestation as the Dlarit Army battled a bioengineered colossus that had been released on the city outskirts. However, the chemical and biological organic weapons already released into the air, among them lethal Bo'tous spores and Vongspawning viruses, forced a full evacuation of the city, with soldiers' families being shuttled around the planet to the incomplete shell of the future Markosian City that had been begun under Governor Derev Niroth though was still under construct at the time, and not scheduled for completion until later that year. Fremoc Pepoi's son was captured during the attack, sending the young knight on a killing spree as he hunted down Captain Paterson, the leader of the Brigade's forces on the surface. Paterson's death bought the Dark Jedi teams the opening they needed to push the invasion forces out of the Hub, securing the city's central district. Despite the disciples' success, Ylith Atema was captured during the fighting, being hauled away to one of the lingering Vong slaveships.

Fire Breathers laying siege to Seng Karash.

Across the system on Aeotheran, Delta-32, Orenth, performed a similar betrayal to the one on Sepros, allowing the Brigade's forces onto Marakith as fire breathers assaulted the city walls. As the chaos unfolded, Malisane de Ath and Agrist used the opportunity to launch a raid on Vanise Tower against Meria Vanise, who they had unmasked as the former founding triumvir of the True Brotherhood Severina. Though Severina initially bested them, setting a resurrected Tslotha Garnath on them, de Ath subsequently lured her to a final confrontation in Dystopia, where he had planted a bomb within the head of Talorthane Zemar, the Vong he had captured back during the Fall of Antei. Unable to sense the deception, Severina had no opportunity to prepare herself for the explosion, which was powerful enough to bring down the entire tower. Marakith's tractor beams secured the wreckage, but with Orenth's betrayal the city was held to ransom, the rogue Delta-class Advanced Commando threatening to drop the wreckage on top of the Dark Jedi battling in the streets below. As the Disciples of Kressh ushered the civilians into the central Government District, setting up a triage unit in the Peace Headquarters, Tsainetomo Keibatsu infiltrated the skyhook and fought Orenth off, the DAC escaping, but the skyhook re-secured.

Peace Brigade siege

Sylus Vega, President of Vega Incorporated.

As the Vong fleet returned to Baanu Amnan out in Wild Space on the outskirts of the Tingel Arm, the fighting continued throughout Seng Karash and Kar Alabrek, the Dlarit and Brigade fleets locked in a stalemate. It was five days before the Vong left behind on Sepros had been dealt with, the wounded addressed, and Colonel Septka able to start working his way through the wreckage—within which he discovered the truth of who had betrayed them. In the ruins of the Hive, Septka discovered the digital footprints left behind by Wyla Sarn and Ran Arnet that incriminated them as the culprits who had sold the Corporation out. Septka relayed the new information to the Clansmen still trapped in Seng Karash and Kar Alabrek. As Nix Graves and Dyrra Skye made their way into the Police Headquarters to arrest Sarn, in Kar Alabrek Fremoc Pepoi and Raven went to arrest Arnet. However, none had been prepared when Sarn revealed herself to be a Vong, using the surprise to escape into the city; similarly, on Tarthos the Disciples of Ragnos were unprepared for how deep the rot went, their own security team turning against them, buying Arnet the opening he needed to escape. As Graves and Skye led their teams after Sarn, heading into the Undercity to a secret mining shaft that had been installed during Vega's time as mayor to lead to an abandoned mine, Pepoi and Raven chased Arnet into Tarthvos's arctic reaches, heading off in search of the Vong base that Lord Paladin had speculated about so long ago. The two teams respectively made their way to Vega Mine in Aeotheran's jungle and the wreckage of Obsidian Station, which had crashed into Tarthos four years earlier during the True Brotherhood invasion. Finding Vega Mine infested with Killiks, the Disciples of Kressh fought their way through the insect swarms and Vega's hired mercenaries, fighting off the corrupted Shadow Academy student Fiula Muyel along with Vega's bodyguard, Ghon; once the team reached Vega himself, they beat the access codes to reactivate Marakith's defenses, then executed the treacherous mayor. Elsewhere, the team on Tarthos battled the corrupted Jedi Knight Khalee Muyel and the Vong commander himself, Bur'lorr Amnan, to reactivate Tarthos's defense grid. During the fighting, however, William Darkfire was knocked unconscious and captured by one of the Vong warriors, who fled with the incapacitated Obelisk journeyman.

With the planets' defense networks reactivated, the DSOG fleet that had been waiting in orbit was finally cleared to engage the Brigade ships. Without the Vong armada to support them, Admiral Izvoshra's forces were no match for the advanced Dlarit warships and Dark Jedi battleteams. As the Final Way micro-jumped to Amphor to engage Izvoshra's battlesphere itself, the Kaleesh admiral signalled the withdrawal, issuing orders for all Peace Brigade ships to fall back to the rendezvous point with the rest of the Vong battlegroup in the Tingel Arm. However, Izvoshra's Nightsister-turned-Slayer, Nen Muyel, overruled his orders, informing the Patriot's Fist's Chazrach slave crew to hold where they were because Varesh had never had any intention of the Brigade surviving the battle—nor any desire for them to lead the darksiders to the hidden Vong shipyard's location. Nevertheless, as the Fist took heavy fire from the Final Way, Izvoshra took up arms against the converted Human Slayer, besting her in single combat in order to finally signal the full withdrawal, what remained of the Brigade fleet withdrawing with him. With Orian liberated, Fleet Admiral Simonetti knew they had no time to spare and that if they were to finally bring an end to the war they would need to pursue Izvoshra back to hidden base that the Vong had been striking from. Though it went against every bone in his body, Simonetti initiated Operation Rancor, the Corporation's final doomsday protocol, which authorised the use of the Violator Gas Bomb stored in the Cenota Facility on Gamuslag, a warhead loaded with enough of the pathogen to wipe out all life in an entire star system—and, unlike Alpha Red's deployment at Antei, Violator Gas was indiscriminate about what it killed. With the VGB loaded aboard the Final Way, Simonetti took what ships remained operational and headed off in pursuit of Izvoshra.

The mobile criminal space city of Refuge.

During the Sacking of Sadow Palace, Kal Septka had managed to plant a tracking device on the Ghtroc Class 580 light freighter onto which Kharon Daragon had last been seen being carried onto by an unknown Trandoshan. As the rest of the Clan headed off in pursuit of Izvoshra's straggling forces, a lone Clansmen was spared to head off in search of where the consul had been taken. The Razorback's trail led the lone Dark Jedi operative to an empty region of deep space just off the Hydian Way, where the trail promptly went dead. As the operative feared he had reached a dead end, an immense space station emerged from hyperspace, the fabled mobile criminal space city of Refuge. The Dark Jedi managed to get on board and infiltrate the city as it jumped back into hyperspace again. Followingthe bounty hunter who had taken the consul, the operative discovered he had arrive too late, and that Daragon had already been moved to another location; however, he encountered the true extent of the betrayal: Delta-1, Aurek, the very first of the thirty-four Delta-class Advanced Commandos—and the man who was meant to protect Robert Daragon at all times. After beating the information out of the treacherous commando, the Dark Jedi secured the coordinates for where the consul was to be taken and headed off in pursuit on a journey that would take him to the other side of the galaxy.

Jinkil Moksuna, Vice President of Vega Incorporated.

While the Special Operations fleet headed into the Tingel Arm, the operative tracking the consul journeyed to the other end of the Hydian Way to the Phare system in the Minos Cluster—the original home of the Disciples of Sadow until the Exodus twelve years before. The Dark Jedi found a ruin of what the system had once been. Without the firm leadership of then-governor Astronicus Dlarit or the resources of the Dlarit Corporation, the system had fallen into disarray, taken over by the criminal underworld. The Imperial Remnant had long since imploded, its fleet lost to warlordism and infighting. Traveling to the system's capital, Sif, the operative found the Saraii—the local Chiss offshoots— had become polarised; the name Sadow was still remembered fondly by some, but by many others it was synonymous with the viceroy and corporation that had abandoned them to the corrupt remnants of the Empire. Making his way to the capital city of Juraas-Kur, the lone operative came across a familiar name: Vega Incorporated, overseen by Vice President Jinkil Moksuna, twin to the very same Jingi Moksuna who had been slain in the True Brotherhood attack four years prior, and whose criminal and corporate power had made him into Sif's de facto governor. The rot ran deep, the Clan's enemies having united and marshalled against it together to bring down Orian, Vega Incorporated having become an arms manufacturer for the Peace Brigade fleets of Yashais dei Izvoshra that now served Varesh Shai. The lone operative fought his way inside Vega Incorporated's headquarters, battling through the ranks of mercenaries to where the consul was being held before taking up arms against Moksuna himself and rescuing Robert Daragon.

The slaveship that captured William Darkfire.

While the Disciples of Sadow had been driving the Peace Brigade out of Orian, Varesh Shai's fleet had left Orian Space, heading back out to Wild Space, believing themselves victorious. However, in the days that followed, the Warmaster grew unsettled upon his armada's return to Baanu Amnan. Still awaiting the return of the Supreme Overlord, Varesh began to question what more the Gods expected of him, having proven he was greater than even the Sith. Following the counsel of Tsaak Shai, his religious guide, he at last heeded the word of the high priestess, Seef Lacap, recognizing that the Jedi conversions and intercaste affairs of Domain Amnan had gone on long enough and that Tolok Amnan and Eckla Muyel must suffer the consequences of their blasphemy. The Warmaster issued orders to his fleet's commander, Romm Shai, that Tolok was to be relieved of command and all Amnan forces were to either to swear loyalty directly to him or else be destroyed.

As the domains' alliances were falling apart, over on the Voice of Agony Eshin Shul and Niiriit Phaath were conducting their final experiment. The pair had tried for so long, injecting Vasi Khess, Niiriit's former student, who had been shamed because of her experiments' side effects, with countless blood samples from their captured Jedi-turned-Slayers. With the blood of Remulus Sadow, son of Astronicus Sadow and heir to the Sadow dynasty, one of what the Master Shaper referred to as the Children of the the Ancients, the pair finally hoped that a pure sample would fulfill their quest for Force-sensitivity. Instead, the injection sent Vasi into shock, killing him. With Niiriit's experiment a failure, Eshin stormed out of the laboratory with her two Slayers, Shok and Krag Muyel—formerly known as Macron Goura—and headed back to the cells to retrieve Remulus and get out before she could be caught up in the unfolding battle between the two domains. After Eshin had gone, however, Vasi reawakened, tearing free from his restraints and mocking his former master for her "victory" before he incinerated her with Force lightning, declaring himself the Light of the True Way and that it was time for the Shamed Ones to rise up and claim their rightful place as the Promised Land's Gods.

Vasi Khess, Chosen of the Extolled.

As chaos unfolded on the Voice of Agony, the Patriot's Fist arrived back with the surviving Peace Brigade fleet. Infuriated, when Izvoshra contacted the Yammka, Varesh cursed the infidel admiral for returning to Baanu Amnan's location, fearing that the Kaleesh had placed the entire fleet in jeopardy and risked leading the Sith there. Taking his rage out on his high priestess, Varesh executed Seef with a lightsaber he had taken from one of the Sith apprentices he had slain, condemning her for her failure to divine the betrayal of their Peace Brigade allies. Declaring that Yun-Yuuzhan had forsaken them, Varesh announced that his armies would forever be remembered as the Yammka Vong, the Children of Yun-Yammka, the Children of War; that it was a curse their generation must carry if the Chosen Race was ever to redeem favor with the rest of the True Gods.

As Varesh was denouncing his own gods, Vasi Khess was rampaging through the Voice of Agony, liberating Shamed Ones—now declared the Gods' Chosen: the Extolled—from their forced servitude and slaying all those who had oppressed him, from warriors, to priests like the Apostle of the Undying Flame Taug Lacap. Vasi encountered the captive Ylith Atema in the cells, who had been experimented on by one of Niiriit's apprentices. Vasi battled the Sith into submission, hurling him unconscious halfway through the ship's interior into an amphistaff garden. Elsewhere, one of Vasi's other initiates was converting the captured William Darkfire into a half-alien hybrid, implanting numerous biots. As Vasi butchered his way through the ship, Eshin retrieved Remulus and Ashura Isradia from the cells, hastening to the bridge where Tolok was waiting for secure her transportation off ship—and ultimately away from Baanu Amnan forever. The ship itself was by this point in danger of breaking up, sustaining heavy fire from both the Yammka Vong and Peace Brigade fleets. Eshin reached the bridge just in time to witness Vasi's arrival, leading a pack of fellow, Shamed Ones, the now Force-sensitive Vong incinerated the entire bridge crew—Tolok along with them.

Leaping to his mistresses's defense, Shok Muyel charged at Vasi only to be struck down along with the rest. Vasi scolded Eshin as the worst of all of them, worse still than even Varesh himself, who he said at least had faith as an excuse, and condemned her Sith Slayers as heretics. Krag hurled his own wave of dark energies at the Chosen Vong, the two's attacks momentarily locking together, until Vasi got the upper hand and hurled Krag away. Vasi then reached out into the mind of the Voice of Agony, exerting his will over the thousands of biots and directing them to charge the cruiser into the side of the Yammka—just as the Dlarit fleet arrived at Baanu Amnan.

Operation Rancor

The Dlarit fleet arrived just in time to witness the Voice of Agony collide with the Yammka's Sword. Uninjured, Vasi revealed himself to the Warmaster, issuing his death threat. Varesh concluded that Vasi had been the heresy he must undo. The Warmaster gave his aide, Tsaak, leave to escape—accepting that it was his place as Warmaster to die, and Tsaak's to continue the Yammka Vong's crusade should he fall. Unlike Vasi, the collision had knocked Ashura and Krag unconscious, though Krag had narrowly managed to shield the baby Remulus from the falling debris; Eshin, however, had been buried underneath rubble, her legs crushed. When Krag came round, he initially went to rescue Eshin. However, knowing she would die no matter what now happened, Eshin revealed how she had manipulated them all; how she was not really Eckla Muyel, but Eshin Shul, the Shamed One who had masterminded the attack on the Dlarit fleet at Antei, who had betrayed them at Telos; how she had since corrupted Krag to the True Way through the spineray that had attacked him on the Zhaetor-zhae at Antei a year earlier; how she had never sought anything other than the death of all those who had shamed her, Vong, Jedi and Sith alike; and that Vasi was the weapon she had now forged to bring down both ancient religions together. As if awakening from a dream, Macron Goura finally broke free of the spineray's control, ripping it off his back before executing Eshin, then going to help Ashura and Remulus and get off the Yammka before it was destroyed in the unfolding space battle. Upon encountering one of the Dlarit teams who had by now stormed the Vong flagship, Macron put Ashura and Remulus into one of the Vong escape pods and—in spite of the proconsul's protestations—launched it towards the Final Way before anyone could stop him, then instructed them to take him to the VGB so that he could at last finish what he had started in order to atone for his role in everything that had happened.

Elsewhere, Manji Keibatsu was leading teams led by Nix Graves, Dyrra Skye, Fremoc Pepoi and Raven, who were helping transport the VGB to the Hall of Confluence in the center of the Yammka. Ylith Atema had since awakened from his duel with Vasi and was now en route after the Extolled leader, who was now also converging on the Hall of Confluence to take revenge on the Warmaster who had shamed him. As the VGB crew neared the Hall, the Warmaster himself arrived, along with his personal retinue of Hunters, and a now corrupted William Darkfire. As the journeymen battled the Hunters, Fremoc reluctantly taking up arms against his friend William, trying in vain to convince him to see reason, Manji joined up with the now freed Macron Goura and the pair of Sons of Sadow engaged Varesh. However, strong as the pair were, the Warmaster seemed virtually indestructible, his very skin immune to attack.

Elsewhere, Ylith had caught up with Vasi and the pair engaged each other again, Ylith drawing power from the curse Darth Vexatus had left him with, but still not enough to hold the Vong off. With Ylith hurled away again, Vasi continued on to the Hall of Confluence, where he finally encountered Varesh. Growing desperate, Manji and Macron held back, leaving the two Vong giants to destroy each other first. As Varesh dueled Vasi, Fremoc managed to get through to what was left of William, convincing the mutilated man to tear from off the Vong implants, ripping his own face off in order to free himself of their control. As Vasi scorched Varesh with lightning, Varesh's ceremonial Vonduun crab armor, together with the biots that encrusted his skin, began to peel off, but still the Vong Warmaster continued. It was at that moment Ylith arrived, his cursed body still empowering him when he leapt at the Force-charged Vong, battering him into the side of the VGB—damaging the warhead in the process, and spilling toxic fumes across Vasi, the Shamed One finally dissolving into a pool of blood as Macron Goura leapt at the bomb, clenching his hand around the broken valve. With Vasi dead, and Varesh's armor burnt off, Manji charged at the Warmaster again, supported by fire from Tyren Atema. The second of the Atema brothers' gunfire surprised Varesh enough for the Keibatsu, together with Fremoc, Soolin, Dyrra and Ryuk, to cleave their lightsabers through the Vong's chest, carving him into pieces.

The Yammka being torn apart during the detonation of the Violator Gas Bomb.

With the two Vong finally dead, the Yammka venting atmosphere from the impact crater, suicidal Vong from Domain Amnan launching kamikaze runs along the grand cruiser's side, and the VGB venting gas, the Clan rapidly began heading back to their evacuation ships, only Macron staying behind—nobody else able to withstand the toxic gas, and the alchemist still carrying the guilt for having helped the Vong. But William Darkfire refused to see the Son of Sadow throw his life away, and—despite Macron's protestations—announced he would stay behind instead. Begrudingly, Macron handed the valve over to the mutilated journeyman and hurried off after the others, who were now battling their way through the evacuating Vong to their transports. William held out as long as his hand could suffer the burning to buy his fellow Clansmen as much time as he could, only finally letting go when two Vong arrived to investigate what had befallen their Warmaster. Declaring his Oath of Knighthood, William at last detonated the bomb, the Violator Gas spreading throughout the ship, killing everything instantly, dissolving Romm Shai on the bridge, before the Yammka collapsed through the orbit of the nearest chunk of Baanu Amnan, hitting the surface with the full force of several megaton warheads, shattering into thousands of pieces and flinging burning lumps of contaminated rock throughout the system and into every other piece of Baanu Amnan. The flaming wreckage of the Yammka slammed through the surviving Vong cruisers, splitting them in two, as well as smashing through the bridge of the Patriot's Fist and taking Admiral Yashais dei Izvoshra with it.