Clan Naga Sadow/Vong War/Part One

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The Yuuzhan Vong War (27 ABY–31 ABY)

While news from the Core was sporadic at best with the HoloNet crippled, the word on Antei was that the Yuuzhan Vong were readying an attack on Coruscant itself. And, on the turn of the year, the new Grand Master, Lord Sarin, summoned the clans to Antei for a special exercise to test their ability to combat the Yuuzhan Vong if the war were to spread. Construction of the new Dlarit Navy had not quite finished, so the Clan was forced to send most of its system defense fleet to participate, but there was little other choice was it to learn how to combat the alien biotechnology of the Vong.

Elsewhere, Lord Zorrixor had escaped captivity and taken the name Darth Vexatus. Hearing of the efforts of the new Grand Master to combat the Vong, the rogue Sith Lord returned from exile to again discuss the matter with the Star Chamber. But the time for omens and prevention was over; just after Vexatus’s arrival, the Yuuzhan Vong sprung their trap, and the clans were forced to take cover in the Shroud. Muz Keibatsu, who Lord Sarin had taken as his Shadow Hand, signalled the joint clan fleets to fall back into the Shroud and defend the evacuation of Antei.

The Clan was split, many concerned for the safety of Orian, others outright unperturbed by the Council's plight. Against the greater consensus to withdraw to safety, Vexatus and Trevarus Caerick convinced Lord Sadow to follow Keibatsu's request and fall back to Antei. Keibatsu himself was captured while fighting to hold off the Vong long enough to allow the rest of the fleet to retreat. However, the Clan soon discovered the Yuuzhan Vong had already mined the Shroud, preventing hyperspace travel. After damaging its hyperdrive in a failed jump, the Clan was forced to hold off several Yuuzhan Vong attacks while its ships drifted idle as the hyperdrive was repaired. As repairs were performed, a force of deadly voxyn boarded the Clan's ships, wreaking havoc. During the fighting, the Clan managed to destroy two Vong cruisers when Vexatus led the Clan as one in a meld to conjure a Force storm, but not before the loss of all but the Star Destroyer Covenant. By the time the Clan arrived at Antei, it had already lost half its ships, and the restof the Brotherhood was caught in a desperate fight for survival, trying to hold off the endless waves from the Vong armada.

Subcommander Drathul Amnan.

As the Brotherhood teetered toward collapse, Caerick and Vexatus fled the battle to make their way to the surface of Antei, causing Lord Sadow to order the fleet to open fire on the deserters. On Antei, the two turncoats carried out a frantic evacuation of Kalekka Tower, their reason for tricking the Clan into coming to Antei in the first place. Elsewhere, Lord Sarin arrived with a division of the new Council fleet which was also still under construction, but enough firepower to hold the Vong off long enough to execute the Braata Option to signal the retreat. Below, Caerick performed the Grand Emanation, a ritual to channel the dark energies on Antei into the members of the Clan to revivify them long enough to make it out of the system. The fall of Antei ended with a rapid retreat along the escape vector Lord Sarin's fleet had opened up through the Shroud. Sarin recovered Muz Keibatsu from the wreckage of the Vong command ship and the entire Brotherhood jumped to hyperspace, forced to abandon Antei to the clutches of the aliens. Of the chief Yuuzhan Vong who had been tasked with the annihilation of the Dlarit battlegroup, Subcommander Drathul Amnan was escalated to Commander. But Executor Eshin Shul had turned and fled for her failed voxyn plan, and Drathul was tasked with hunting down the now Shamed One if he was ever to earn the status of Warleader.

The Fall of Antei saw the greatest defeat in Brotherhood history and made the Civil War the previous year resemble a minor brushfire. In the face of overwhelming odds, many showed their true colors. Lord Sadow was furious at Trevarus Caerick, but the Clan also owed its survival to the sorcerer’s ritual. Xanos Zorrixor may technically have returned, but he was unrecognisable as Darth Vexatus, whose true motives remained unclear. Many others had lost loved ones in the battle; the Keibatsu family in particular suffered the loss of Sanjuro Sledge, son to Muz Ashen and Ashia Kagan; and Lord Sarin’s decree that Muz had become worthy of being called a Sith Lord seemed a hollow victory.

Crosscurrents

The defeat at the start of 27 ABY had set the tone for the whole of the following year. The Clan managed to limp home in a single battered Star Destroyer; its pride, its faith, and its trust wounded. People remained split over who to trust between Lord Sadow, or Caerick and Vexatus. Both groups drifted into the shadows on the slow voyage home, allowing Macron Goura and Shin’ichi Keibatsu to take the spotlight while the elders withdrew to their own business.

Anaxela Goura, Sith witch and leader of the True Brotherhood Remnant.

Following the defeat at Antei, the Clan was ill prepared for the fate awaiting them back home. The system had been invaded by a hidden faction of the True Brotherhood, which had survived the death of the cult's leaders two years earlier. Led by Anaxela Goura, sister to Macron Goura, the cult had waited for a chance to strike. Believing the Brotherhood destroyed at Antei, Anaxela's forces had invaded, searching for a lost relic of Urias Orian. Marakith Skyhook had been captured and Seng Karash taken hostage; while on Tarthos Kar Alabrek had been left in ruins by the True Brotherhood's invasion forces, who sought to enter the Archives of Alabrek Castle. Its fleet in ruins, the Clan was forced to covertly insert its men into the system to assassinate the True Brotherhood commanders.

On Marakith Skyhook, Malisane de Ath was captured, learning Anaxela was actually being directed by the spirit of Severina, who was searching for the Clan’s hidden cloning facility to acquire a new clone body. While de Ath reached an agreement with the spirit in exchange for Severina leaving Anaxela to her fate, Caerick and Vexatus infiltrated the Skyhook via Seng Karash to confront Anaxela directly. Elsewhere, other members of the Clan quietly infiltrated various facilities to assemble a force to take back Alabrek Castle and the ruins of Kar Alabrek.

The end game came when Caerick and Vexatus engaged Anaxela on the bridge of the Skyhook, but she escaped to retreat and rejoin her forces orbiting Tarthos. Simultaneously, the Clan had sprung its raid on the occupying forces at Alabrek, routing the True Brotherhood armies. The Clan stormed Anaxela’s flagship, engaging Anaxela and her remaining followers in a final duel. During the battle, Obsidian station was destroyed by the True Brotherhood flagship. However, Anaxela had what she had come for, and fled to Kangaras to continue her quest for the lost scepter of Urias Orian. Secretly, as the battle was going on, de Ath had secured Severina a new body; and, true to her word, the former foe agreed to leave in peace, following the other witch to Kangaras to obtain the lost artifact for herself.

Hardships of war

From left to right: DSOG trooper, DSOG officer, DSF trooper, DSF officer.

With Orian back in the Clan's hands, the Clan was left to reflect on what had befallen them at Antei. Little news filtered through the broken HoloNet, but one bulletin would not be contained: Coruscant itself had fallen to the Yuuzhan Vong and the New Republic had collapsed. With the aliens now spread throughout the entire Galaxy, and the new fleet on order from Kaldex Transport still a year away, the Clan had no choice but to hide itself away on Orian and hope for the best.

A number of policy changes were enacted, such as the abandonment of the DAC Trooper Project in favor of a more mass produced clone army to replace those who had been lost in the Fall of Antei and the assault on Kar Alabrek. As such, numbering only thirty four, late 27 ABY saw the first and last batch of elite DAC troopers birthed. The decision was also made that the chaos caused during the Battle of Antei by the sudden revelation to the men of the Dlarit Navy that their masters were in truth Dark Jedi could never be allowed to repeat itself. With the creation of a new clone army initiated, the Dlarit Security Force was drastically restructured, with the creation of a new Special Operations Group who would know the full nature of the Dlarit Corporation and be better prepared in the future. The regular Dlarit Security Force remained oblivious; the long term goal being to slowly replace the regular recruits with loyal clones as the years went on, though it would take decades.

Wartime rationing was imposed across the system due to the loss of countless supply lines to the Core. Isolated and relatively unknown, Orian also became a favoured destination for refugee ships. The majority of the refugees were put on the Sky City of San Korinar on Amphor, which rapidly descended into an overpopulated hive of scum and villainy. Eventually the city limits around Seng Karash were expanded to make room for the ever growing refugee numbers, and prefabricated shanty towns sprung up outside the city walls. A strong division emerged between those who were employees and valued by the Corporation; and the refugees who were simply left to fend for themselves, barred entrance from the main city districts. On Amphor, the polarisation reached violent levels as military governor Xanos Zorrixor – the still public face of Darth Vexatus – instituted martial law, bringing order to the Upper City, but civil unrest to the homeless denizens of the lower levels.

The new Special Ops Division.

The turn of 28 ABY finally saw the completion of the battle fleet that had been on order with Dark Council funding from the Corporate Sector for almost ten years. Several new ships had already finished construction during the previous few years, but by mid 28 ABY the final Star Destroyers had rolled off the lines. Early in the year also saw the birthing and flash-imprinting of the first batches of mass produced clones to begin replacing the regulars of the Security Force with the new Special Operations clone troopers.

Insidious motives

The dangers of Kangaras.

Macron Goura had spent much of the year following Antei’s loss training with Trevarus Caerick and Darth Vexatus. The Elders had located a deactivated Star Map on Sepros and determined the True Brotherhood had been searching for the key needed to activate it. They sought to seduce Goura with secrets ordinarily reserved for Elders, hoping to use the man to gain control over the Dlarit Navy to aid in their quest; but the process took its toll on Goura’s psyche, and his already unstable mind finally began to break early in 28 ABY under the strain of absorbing too much power too fast.

Events took a turn for the worse when the freighter Anaxela had escaped on was located in the jungles of Kangaras. A team was dispatched to investigate the whereabouts of the missing witch, but upon arriving at Kangaras they found the crashed ship abandoned. After sensing an anomaly in the Force, Caerick headed deeper into the jungle to investigate, but the anomaly disabled his ship – as seemed to have also been the case with Anaxela’s freighter – causing him to crash. The rest of the Clan moved to follow him on foot, but as they neared the center of the anomaly they discovered that not only was it draining all their electronic gear, but numbing their connection to the Force too. The strange anomaly took its toll on Goura, his mind finally succumbing to madness as he was broken off from the psychic walls he had built up to shield his mind from his growing insanity.

The battle droids found in Hafa Chun's tomb.

In the heart of the jungle the Clan discovered the hidden tomb of Hafalia Seprosin Chunasca, the self-styled Dark Lady of the Ekind who had helped destroy Urias Orian and fought in Okemi’s rebellion against the rule of their Jedi Lords. After surviving an attack by a host of ancient lightsaber wielding battle droids, they discovered an ancient scepter hidden deep within Hafa Chun’s tomb, which was generating the interference field over the jungle in order to hide its resting place from Force adepts. The temple collapsed when Caerick prised the scepter from its stand, but with the Force dampening field disabled the Clan was able to escape. Elsewhere, unknown to the Clan while they were trekking through the jungle, Severina's clone managed to steal one of the shuttles they had come on and escape the planet, this time leaving no sign behind of her intended destination.

The aftermath of the mission to Kangaras marked the beginning of a Dark Age of lies and betrayal when Trevarus Caerick had Macron Goura relieved of command by Darth Sarin on the grounds of the young alchemist’s mental breakdown, enabling the sorcerer to wrest control of the Dlarit Navy out from under the hands of the loyal pawns of Lord Sadow.

The Dark Age (28 ABY–29 ABY)

With the Dlarit Corporation under their control, and the keystone – the scepter – they had long been searching for, Trevarus Caerick and Darth Vexatus put their ultimate plan into motion. Unconcerned by the growing unrest in Seng Karash and San Korinar, as soon as repair work for Kar Alabrek was finished all resources were redirected to Sepros to begin reconstruction of the Temple of the Void where the lost Star Map had been discovered. Lies were concocted about powerful artifacts to keep the rest of the Clan distracted, with teams dispatched throughout local space to Thule, Korriban, and elsewhere to keep people chasing ghosts as the two Elders continued their work in secret.

The Yuuzhan Vong fleet at Telos.

Caerick and Vexatus sought a nexus of dark side energies called the Heart of the Force which was located on Lehon, the lost capital of the Infinite Empire of the ancient Rakata. Once the Temple was rebuilt, they would unlock the secrets of the Star Map and obtain the coordinates. However, to do this they needed to do more than just obtain the location. They had been caged in the Orian Sector ever since the Battle of Antei, and before they could reach Lehon they would also need to clear a corridor through the Yuuzhan Vong Empire to the Unknown Regions. There were growing numbers of reports of the alien armada amassing in the nearby Telos system. The clock was ticking and the Temple was unlikely to be built before the Vong fleet was ready to push deeper into Sith Space. So, shortly after the final ships had run off the construction lines in the Corporate Sector, Caerick organised a pre-emptive strike on the worldship orbiting Telos IV. Though troubled by unfolding events, Lord Sarin dispatched his Shadow Hand, Muz Keibatsu, to oversee the operation, deeply interested in the attempt to push the Vong back from sectors surrounding Antei.

The Dlarit Navy was sent to divert the main Vong force while the Special Operations flagship, the Star Destroyer Final Way, exited hyperspace behind the worldship to deploy a small commando team to the surface to battle to the massive vessel’s core and slay the yammosk which coordinated the Vong’s forces throughout the nearby systems. The deceitful Elders recognized it was a suicide mission and did not intend for the Clansmen who infiltrated the worldship to return. However, during the insertion Vexatus’s own ship was shot down, causing Caerick to personally launch an unplanned recovery mission. Inside the worldship, the commando team – now aided by the two Elders – encountered the Shamed One Eshin Shul, who agreed to act as a guide. In the bowels of the worldship, Ylith Atema nearly came to blows with Vexatus but the Elder simply humiliated him in front of the rest of the Clan. However, Ylith strangely lost his connection to the Force, and believed the Sith Lord had stripped it from him. Eshin eventually led the team to the Well of the yammosk in the heart of the ship, but it was a trap and waiting for them was the now-Supreme Commander Drathul Amnan, now commander of his Domain’s worldship, with his elite and intensely escalated retinue of warriors. The two Elders agreed to hold the Vong leader off while the rest of the Clan headed inside the well and dealt with the yammosk, the creature being slain by the Atema brothers Tyren and Ylith.

The yammosk coordinating the Yuuzhan Vong fleets around Telos.

With the yammosk dead, the worldship began to enter its final death throes. Eshin Shul revealed her betrayal and poisoned Caerick, hauling him off to the prison area to strap him to an Embrace of Pain. As Vexatus went to rescue the sorcerer, the rest of the Clan withdrew to the evac transport. As the vessel began to collapse, Lord Keibatsu issued the retreat, ordering the Clan to leave the two Elders to their fate and pull out. However, as the Clan withdrew, Jedgar Paladin arrived in the system to recover Caerick and Vexatus from the crumbling worldship – it seemed the Star Chamber itself was still uncertain what to make of the two wayward Elders. They had placed the lives of their entire Clan in jeopardy. And yet, despite all their recklessness, they had now routed the Vong from Telos, thus helping clear the way for the eventual reclamation of Antei.

The final battle of the year came when Clan Arcona requested emergency aid in the Dajorra system. Located on the other side of the Perlemian Trade Route, just outside Hutt Space, Dajorra was on the very outskirts of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire but it appeared they had finally drawn the attention of the extragalactic invaders. The Dlarit Navy was rapidly deployed to assist with the evacuation of Estle City on Selen, and the defense of the system from the alien fleet. The chaos during the Fall of Antei still simmered under the surface, and neither Clan trusted the other fully. In the confusion, Darth Vexatus saw an opening to rid himself of one Clan already, and manipulated Macron Goura and a visiting Brotherhood envoy, Vallen'dere, to sabotage the city’s defense grid. As Ylith Atema led the joint evacuation from Estle City’s spaceport, Vexatus and his covert team snuck behind Vong lines to blow up the turbolasers that were holding back the main Vong deployment. With the defenses down, the two Clans had no choice but to declare Estle lost and withdraw, leaving those who had not yet been evacuated to their fate. As commanding general, Atema took much of the blame for his failure to hold the city; nobody believing his accusations about Vexatus conveniently sneaking off with a small team of commandos to the defense towers.

With Dajorra lost to the Vong, Clan Arcona and the Dajorra Defense Force limped back with the Dlarit fleet to the Orian system where it was agreed they could take refuge until a plan could be formulated to reclaim their own homeworlds. The fall of Dajorra had served its purpose, however. As the Dlarit Navy and Clansmen had been distracted, Trevarus Caerick had overseen the final stages of the reconstruction of the Temple of the Void on Sepros. The plan was now but a matter of timing.

Trevarus Caerick executes Vice Admiral Larin Gendash and some of the bridge crew of the Harbinger.

The turn of 29 ABY saw the insidious plot Trevarus Caerick the Deceiver and Darth Vexatus the Betrayer had been hatching enter its final stages. With the aid of Jedgar Paladin, who believed their plan would either destroy them or earn the Brotherhood two new Grand Masters, they sacrificed the entire surviving Ekind population. The sacrifice imbued the Temple of the Void with the dark side, reactivating the ancient Star Map. With the location of Lehon finally in their hands, the Obsidian Cohort – Caerick’s private guard – stormed the Star Destroyer Harbinger, and headed to Telos, then on the Unknown Regions.

Projecting their spectres directly into the Grand Atrium of Sadow Palace during the annual Exodus celebrations, the two traitors announced their defection. They declared the Brotherhood would rot for its failure to foresee the Yuuzhan Vong threat, and worse: its failure to do what was necessary after the invasion had begun. In defense of their actions, they claimed they were simply doing what the Star Chamber should have done decades ago: embracing the true nature of the dark side. Lord Sadow was furious; his two closest Sons had betrayed him. History was repeating itself, the Overlord of Ludo Kressh betraying Naga Sadow like his namesake. Sadow issued immediate orders that all who had dealt with the traitors were to be arrested and detained indefinitely, seeing the likes of Vallen’dere and Krenth hauled off to the Cenota Facility. Lord Paladin realized he had been wrong for trusting Caerick’s word and now understood that they did not wish to ascend to Grand Mastery but to consume all life in the universe to become a god. The Clan assembled an urgent response force, rallying the entire Navy and Special Operations Group to pursue the traitors and follow their hyperspace vector. But, instead of arriving at Lehon, they discovered they had been duped – the pair had merely led them to Telos. However, Macron Goura – who bore a direct bond to the traitors – could sense them directly through the Mark they shared, and was able to guide the fleet after them.

An exogorth like the illusions the traitors conjured to delay the Dlarit fleet at Lehon.

Upon arriving at Lehon, the Clan found a ship graveyard – wreckage from the fateful climax of the Jedi Civil War nearly four thousand years earlier. On the other side of the wreckage, the Harbinger hung in orbit of the planet itself. But between it and the Dlarit fleet writhed a swarm of massive exogorths: giant space slugs large enough to devour entire starships. However, the exogorths were not actually real, but dark manifestations being generated by a series of sorcerous projectors installed onboard the Harbinger. An assault team was forced to insert onto the rogue Star Destroyer to take down the projectors to enable the rest of the fleet to engage the Harbinger directly. Onboard the stolen ship, Sakura Haruno broke free of Caerick’s mind control over the rest of the crew, but she was discovered and tortured by Vexatus before being thrown into the brig. However, she was able to free herself and made her way to the engineering bay to sabotage the ship’s systems. An assault team then managed to insert onto the Harbinger, including Macron Goura, Tsainetomo Keibatsu and Ashura Isradia. Sakura was injured, but once she regained consciousness hunted down the raiding team, and ended up saving Isradia’s life before they were saved by Goura and Keibatsu. Goura then engaged the commander of the Obsidian Cohort, Eosara, but the mercenary was able to escape to the surface of the planet.

Mount Kazinal

As the Clan fought their way through space to the surface, on the ground the two traitors had made their way to the volcanic mountain of Urati Kazinal, otherwise known as the Temple of Lost Souls. In Kazinal Core they at long last came across the fabled Heart of the Force that they had hunted for so many years. After destroying the great wyrm that guarded it, before they could reflect they were engaged by the elite Iron Fist brigade of the Disciples of Kressh. Yet, despite their years of experience, the veteran Obelisk warriors were slain to the last man. Then came the inevitable confrontation both men had known would come from the very beginning: the duel to determine who would rule as the new will of the Force itself. In the end, the answer would be neither: in their final act the two men destroyed their own prize, blowing up the Heart of the Force, and killing themselves the process.

The Heart of the Force

The Clan arrived just in time to watch the two traitors destroy themselves as the Heart exploded; the souls of the damned Rakata released in an explosive outburst that incinerated both men. But victory over Lords Caerick and Vexatus was short lived. In his final breaths, Trevarus Caerick used the power of the Rakatan ghosts to reenergise himself, being reborn into the Thunder Dragon Shan Long as a true ascendant. As Lord Sadow took up arms against the traitor in single combat, Lord Keibatsu and Macron Goura went in search of the body of Darth Vexatus. However, as with Caerick, Vexatus too had not yet submitted to death: but unlike Caerick he had not used the power of the Heart to heal himself. Instead, Vexatus had now consumed the souls of the Rakata, becoming less man than monster. As Lord Keibatsu held him off, Goura managed to stab his former master with a specially concocted variant of violator gas, based off the original Omega strained which had already been mixed with Alpha Red, but now also crossed with a virus that had decimated the population of Falleen decades earlier, which he had specifically designed to target Falleen – the alchemist had sought revenge on his one-time master ever since the incident on Kangaras. As the poison coursed through Vexatus’s veins, his final assassin made his move from the shadows: Ylith Atema. Vexatus, blind to the man who he himself had cut off from the Force, did not sense it when Atema dived at him, thrusting his weapon directly into the Sith Lord’s heart. However, instead of dying, the monster entered a final meltdown, threatening to bring the entire volcano down on top of them and consume the lives of the whole Clan. Lord Paladin signalled the retreat, sensing what the monster had become and recognizing they had to leave if they were not to be consumed by the dark void. In the end, both Shan Long and the Clan left Vexatus to the fate he had unleashed upon himself. As the volcano erupted, Shan Long evaded capture by the Clan, fleeing with the surviving members of the Cohort onboard the

Sanguinus.

As if the betrayal of the two Clan Elders had not been enough, the Clan limped home to Orian to discover Clan Arcona had taken control of the system and the Dajorra Defense Force now stood ready in orbit over the cities of Seng Karash, San Korinar and Kar Alabrek. Having been gone for several weeks, Mejas Doto had concluded the Dlarit fleet must have met its fate at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong or the terrors of the Unknown Regions. As such, he had moved to seize control of the Orian system, never expecting the other Clan to return. But unfortunate for Clan Arcona, Lord Sadow was now in no mood to discuss terms. Still reeling from his sons’ recent betrayal, Sadow launched his fleet at the occupying forces as if in a suicidal feeding frenzy. Sensing Lord Sadow could not be reasoned with, Mejas Doto realized both Clans would be destroyed in Sadow’s rage if he did not end the fighting; and so the Shadow Lord called for a truce, agreeing that Arcona would hand Orian back over to the disciples of Sadow leave the system in peace.

The Clan was left fractured following the betrayals at the start of 29 ABY. Darth Vexatus may have been dead, but Shan Long had escaped and was still out there somewhere. Lord Sadow became paranoid for the survival of his bloodline and began secretly seeing Sakura Haruno in the hopes of fathering a new heir. The martial law he had instituted following the betrayal was upheld as he shut himself away in Sadow Palace, refusing to have audience with any by his loyal Sons – and even them he no longer felt entirely comfortable around. Fortunately, the destruction of the worldship at Telos the previous year had spared the Orian system from further threats, but refugee ships continued to pour in from the worlds along the nearby Hydian Way that had been ravished by the Yuuzhan Vong.

Unknown to the Clan at the time, a group of wayward Jedi had been among one of the refugee transports that arrived in the system seeking sanctuary. Like most refugees, they were sent to the Lower City of the Sky City on Amphor, San Korinar. With no money or additional transport, the Jedi were left stranded in the system – the dark shadow they felt increasingly pressing upon their minds. Among them was Aisha Qifaxa, the apprentice of a Jedi Knight who had been slain on Telos prior to the planet’s liberation following the destruction of the worldship stationed there.

Despite the woes of Orian in the Outer Rim, in the Core, the newly formed Galactic Alliance – which had replaced the fractured New Republic – had begun turning the tide against the Yuuzhan Vong, whose empire’s forces were now stretched thinly trying to hold onto both the Outer Rim and the Core Worlds. However, in the backwater reaches of Sith Space where the Sons of Sadow called home, news of the Galactic Alliance’s successes did not filter through with any frequency, much of the HoloNet communications grid still damaged.

The leviathan behind the outbreak at Lor Zatean.

Problems continued to mount against the Clan, the next major incident occurring when a number of unexplained deaths occurred at the beach resort of Lor Zatean on Aeotheran. When the Dlarit Police sent also turned up dead, the Clan dispatched a small team to investigate. It quickly became clear that the water supply had been poisoned by a particularly deadly xenomorph, which buried itself inside its victim’s body until it was ready to emerge, bursting forth from inside and killing the host in the process. These creatures quickly grew to humanoid size, infecting new victims. The infection was spreading so quickly the Clan did not think it could contain it. Prisoners were called in from the Cenota Facility to act as bait, eventually luring the Clan to a nearby dormant volcano where they discovered the source of the xenomorphs to be an ancient leviathan. Too strong to take out by conventional means, the Clan was forced to call in an orbital bombardment to kill the leviathan and sterilise Lor Zatean.

Toward the end of the year, Lord Sadow’s paranoia reached boiling point and he set things in motion to draw out any further traitors within his midst. Ashia Keibatsu and Ashura Isradia withdrew from Orian, claiming to be heading to a meeting with the Dark Council-in-exile. Those left behind in Orian began to sense a growing disturbance in the Force and Derev Niroth had a vision of the destruction of the Orian system. After sensors detected signals corresponding to the Imperial Remnant emanating from Inos, Niroth declared himself governor-general-in-interregnum. As acting governor-general, he assembled all military assets in orbit of Tarthos to prepare for an attack, leaving the other worlds in Orian defenceless. Rumors began to spread through the system that Lord Sadow had been arrested. With the betrayal earlier in the year still fresh in people’s minds, Faeril Munlear ordered her counterpart to stand down, fearing he was amassing forces for a Civil War.

As Niroth dispatched his forces to Inos to investigate the disturbance in the Force and the Remnant comm signals, Munlear urgently dispatched her own ships to uncover whatever he was after first. However, the entire distress beacon had been a deception, orchestrated by Lord Sadow to weed out those who were no longer loyal to him – but it had unwittingly backfired. As the two fleets engaged each other, forces from the Imperial Remnant arrived, responding to the distress signal. With the situation spiralling out of control, Lord Sadow emerged from his false detention and announced the truth of his deception. No longer marshalled against each other, the Clan regrouped to engage the enemy force. Just as the Imperial fleet threatened to overwhelm the Clan, Task Force 61 from the Navy of the Iron Throne emerged from hyperspace, following a premonition by Lord Keibatsu.

With the help of the Dark Council fleet, the Imperial forces were at last dispatched. However, Darth Sarin was furious at the setback the damage to the Clan’s forces might cause, not only with Niroth and Munlear for their haste to doubt each other, but also with Lord Sadow and Ashia Keibatsu for having orchestrated the operation in the first place. Far from having ended with Lehon, the Dark Age of distrust and betrayal seemed as strong as ever. The year ended much as it had begun, with Sadow’s attempt to weed out those he could not trust having completely backfired. Parts of Kar Alabrek stood in ruins; Alabrek Castle had been heavily damaged; and much of the Dlarit Navy needed repairs.

The winds of change

By the start of 30 ABY news finally began to filter through from the Core of the death of Shimrra Jamaane. With the Supreme Overlord’s death, the Yuuzhan Vong’s faith in their gods had been utterly destroyed. Most surrendered, and those refusing to accept defeat committed ritual suicide rather than face a life of shame. But in the Outer Rim some Vong remnants dug in and continued to pursue their holy crusade. Worlds such as Antei remained under occupation; and the Dlarit Navy remained plagued by frequent attacks as it tried to keep the spacelanes to and from Orian secure.

Curwen Sunei, the Dark Jedi hermit found living on the 42nd moon of Inos.

However, in spite of the continued threat to the Orian Sector, the collapse of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire had made the impossible possible, proving the aliens could be defeated in time. Now a year after Lehon, the Clan tried to move on from what had happened during the Battle of Inos, and the Dlarit forces began stockpiling resources to prepare for the coming operation to finally liberate Antei from the Vong. But the problems of the past few years were not eager to be forgotten. During a celebration held at the Dystopia nightclub in Seng Karash, senior members of the Clan narrowly survived an assassination attempt on Lord Sadow. Further unexplained bombings occurred across the system at San Korinar and Kar Alabrek. The wartime martial law continued to be upheld.

Trouble seemed to be drawn to Orian. Inmates at the Cenota Facility began suffering nightmares of a coming apocalypse. Worse: so did Robert Daragon. The police investigation into the bombing of Dystopia turned up nothing. The population began fearing an underground terrorist organization, most likely originating from the seedier elements that had snuck in with the masses of refugees. Disorder broke out between the two groups. Employees harassing refugees; refugees assaulting employees. However, the Clan knew something else was at work, sensing a dark cloud was falling over the system. The source was believed located when a team led by Macron Goura tracked down a thoroughly insane sorcerer named Curwen Sunei in the ancient tombs on Inos 42. During the mission, young apprentice Aleho Ruoxf was captured by Sunei and tortured. After battling through the insane sorcerer’s horde of reanimated corpses, Goura and Tsainetomo Keibatsu bested Sunei, saving Ruoxf. However, they spared Sunei, believing he could be of more use to them alive than dead, and perhaps able to spread some light on the recent spate of ghostly hallucinations.

Cyrus Raze, the man appointed by Kharon Daragon to investigate the nightmares plaguing them both.

But the capture of Sunei did not bring an end to the troubles plaguing Orian. Daragon’s nightmares became worse and he secluded himself away as his health began to fail him, suffering repeated blackouts. The consul unearthed deleted footage that revealed Cyrus Raze, a brief apprentice of Trevarus Caerick and Darth Vexatus, had been behind the assassination attempt on the Clan’s leaders at Dystopia. The revelation appeared to confirm what Daragon had long feared: that the shadow that had fallen across the Orian system was the work of Shan Long and his surviving agents. The consul had the man brought before him and, with the help of Macron Goura, discovered Raze had been suffering the same nightmares as Daragon and others. Although, unlike the others, Goura himself had learned how to shield himself from psychic invasions after what had happened to his mind on Kangaras. Privately, Daragon revealed his condition to Raze and offered to cover up the man’s crimes if he put a team together to venture to Antei before it was recaptured and search for answers in the ruins of Kalekka Tower. Raze knew his chances were slim, but it was that or the consul would bring him before Lord Sadow. In the end, the man begrudgingly conceded to Daragon’s demands.

As Raze put his team together and the rest of the Clan and Dlarit forces readied themselves for the return to Antei, a second problem was brewing in the Lower City of the Sky City of Amphor. The Jedi stranded in the system were getting closer to uncovering the truth behind the Dlarit Corporation’s masters. Furthermore, a wandering Force-sensitive named Jaspen Kraitus had found his way to the Orian system, following dreams of a man who Kraitus believed could give him the answers he sought about his parents and the tattoo that had always adorned his forehead. When he crossed paths with wanted posters for one ‘Trevarus Caerick’ he thought he had finally found his man. Kraitus employed the now-bounty hunter Aisha Qifaxa to investigate his suspicions, but she was discovered by a team from the Dlarit Special Operations Group and taken into custody by Macron Goura. As Goura awaited pickup with his new prisoner, both Kraitus and the other Jedi who Aisha had had dealings with converged on the spaceport to save her. Goura narrowly escaped with Aisha, but Kraitus and the other Jedi had now discovered each other – and the truth behind the Corporation’s masters.

One of the last surviving Ekind warriors.

Aside from the joint threat now of both the Jedi who had uncovered the truth of the Corporation – although it still remained unclear how much they actually knew about how deep the rot went – and the still unexplained feeling that something worse was coming out in the darkness, the Clan faced a series of other setbacks during the year. As Kar Alabrek underwent repairs following the chaos of the Battle of Inos, new problems arose in the northern hemisphere of Tarthos when an isolated holdout of Yuuzhan Vong was discovered. The outpost was eradicated, but it remained unclear how or when the aliens had infiltrated the system, and threw up an entirely different concern about how many more Vong infiltrators could be masquerading as other species behind their ooglith masquers. A separate situation arose on Sepros where it emerged a small number of Ekind had escaped the ritual sacrifice of the rest of their species and gone into hiding. They had now started regularly attacking the Clan facilities located on the planet, so efforts were made to defend against the raids. However, the continued attacks defied all previous experience with the usually fearful and disorganised Ekind, leaving some suspecting the hand of a presently unknown third party.

Just as the eleventh hour approached, a final complication was thrown into the already chaotic situation: Sakura Haruno finally gave birth to the next heir to the Sadow dynasty, Remulus Sadow. However, as the Dark Council and the other Clans neared their final preparations, the Clan had no choice but to put its own concerns on hold and ready itself for the reclamation of the Antei. Whatever the outcome of the now imminent military campaign, the Clan knew the winds of change were blowing. Whether or not this would be for the better remained to be seen; but one thing was certain: nothing would be the same after the liberation of Antei.

Liberation of Antei (30 ABY)

As 30 ABY neared its close, after nearly four years the Brotherhood was finally ready to return to Antei and reclaim it from the Yuuzhan Vong who had taken it in the disastrous battle at the start of 27 ABY. A joint task force from the Dlarit Navy and Dlarit Special Operations Group rendezvoused with the Navy of the Iron Throne and the other Clan fleets at the Radama Void located near Ord Radama from where the fleets then proceeded to the Shroud surrounding Antei. The Iron Throne forces went on ahead, attempting a risky micro-jump directly through the Shroud itself. Without Trevarus Caerick anymore, and with Lord Paladin on the Dark Star helping guide the Council fleet in hyperspace through the Shroud, Clan Naga Sadow was also forced to pass through the Shroud along with the rest of the Clans at sublight to arrive two days behind the main forces from the Navy of the Iron Throne.

The Du'san Boundary.

Ahead of the main force, Cyrus Raze and his team had already passed behind enemy lines and inserted onto Antei. There they made their way across the Jadan Pass into the heart of the Du’san boundary to Kalekka Tower in search of answers to the darkness that was plaguing both Raze and Robert Daragon. When Raze reached the tower’s summit he encountered the man who Daragon had suspected was behind it all along: Shan Long. However, as Raze entered the traitor’s presence, what was left of his mind was finally consumed by the darkness inside him. As the darkness reached out to consume the energies of the fragments of the Star of Ombus arrayed around Shan Long, Shan Long blasted Raze off the top of Kalekka, sending him tumbling into the boundary’s volcanic depths. While Antei’s fate had never concerned Shan Long, he knew his exile was at its end. His darkest fears had been realized, and if he was to win the coming battle he would need others’ help – and they his. So, taking Raze’s shuttle, Shan Long left Antei to return to the Clan he had abandoned two years earlier.

Outside the Shroud the Clan rendezvoused with Raistlin Majerus and the Kangaras Division, which had been reassigned to Antei and been launching regular raids on the Vong forces for several months. However, Majerus reported that of late no movement had come in or out of the Shroud, as if the Yuuzhan Vong had fallen silent. As they made their way inside the Shroud, the Clan came across a number of derelict hulks – Yuuzhan Vong cruisers that were literally breaking apart and liquefying as if in their final death throes. Macron Goura led a small team to investigate the drifting hulk of the yorik-stronha spy ship Zhaetor-zhae while the rest of the Clan hurried ahead to rejoin the Dark Council at Antei, desperate to find out what was going on. While the away team investigated the fast crumbling Vong ship, Goura was attacked by a spineray. The situation became more complicated when Raze’s scout transport returned to the Final Way carrying Shan Long, who was immediately arrested. Lord Sadow placed the traitor under the direct watch of his closest and most loyal Son, Robert Daragon, until they could decide what to do. But, before the Sons had determined the betrayer’s fate, the fleet arrived at Antei, emerging through the Shroud head first into a massive graveyard of dying Vong cruisers. The Yuuzhan Vong were already dead.

Omancor Crask, Jedi Lord and General.

Master Yoni opened a direct transmission to Lord Paladin on the Dark Star who revealed that Antei had been taken over by Omancor Crask, a Jedi General and style-appointed Jedi Lord who had taken it upon himself to wage a new Sith War, having foreseen a coming darkness that would eclipse everything that had been seen before. Also, Paladin sensed Shan Long’s presence and issued strict orders to Lord Sadow that the sorcerer was not to be harmed until the Grand Master had personally interrogated him. Just then, Goura contacted the fleet to report his findings that the Vong ship had been infected with a strain of the Alpha Red virus – raising doubts over Crask’s claim of being a Jedi, who for years had refused to sanction the virus. However, the answers would have to wait. They had a planet occupied by a rogue sect of Force-users in command of a vast droid army. Not planning to run away and abandon their homeland a second time, the combined forces of the Army of the Iron Throne and the Clans began their invasion – their liberation – of Antei to take back what was theirs.