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Heirs to the Void Ep. 2 - The Shadows Have Eyes...

What's Inside:

"The Shadows Have Eyes..." includes 22 craft, 2 outposts, and an entirely new block palette tailored to the flavor of the Xel'At Qarr. Due to space constraints I chose to omit a more detailed writeup of the contents and the narrative introduction below is only an excerpt of a longer version (link to be added here when said version finds a home...). I hope you enjoy Ep 2 and as always, thanks for playing!

- Ha11uc1n0g3n


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Heirs to the Void Ep. 2 - The Shadows Have Eyes...
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"Lt. Commander Raal, are you hearing me sir? The flagship of the alien fleet claims that they are the descendants of..." Ensign Turse paused for a moment to listen to the message still coming across the comms. "The descendants of the Marah Tribe, and if you would believe it sir, they sound overjoyed to have found us." The ensign's own confusion was mirrored on the faces of the other crew assembled here on the bridge of the Xel'At Imperial Dreadnought, Leviathan.

Raal's deep-set, coal-black eyes were as cold and devoid of colour as the vastness of the Expanse around them. Though he had listened to every word of the outlandish message that the ensign had relayed to him, the Lt. Commander showed no sign of it. Instead his attention was focused on a distant point some 100,000 R.U.s in front of the ship. He seemed to be waiting for something.

"There," he said pointing. In the vastness of the black ahead, a barely perceptible golden twinkling seemed to materialize where the Lt. Commander was pointing and it soon dawned on the crew that the twinkling must be the light of the T'ahrkan sun off of the hulls of the alien fleet as they crossed into Xel'At space. Officially, Raal noted, this act was equivalent to a declaration of war upon the Xel'At Imperium.

"System, record to shiplog Access Level 3; On the 17th of Vida just after 13:00:00 the unknown alien fleet entered Xel'At space in what can only be considered a declaration of war upon the great Xel'At Imperium. We, the crew of the dreadnought Leviathan, intend to engage the invaders in accordance with the Imperial Code of Law section 13, paragraph 4, that dictates the proper military action when making first contact with an invading force. Begin recording protocol for X-4 battle data acquisition, access level to be determined following the engagement." When he finished, Raal turned to the assembled crew.

"Gunnery Sergeant Maxr, has the Leviathan's main cannon come online yet?"

"Yes sir, Lt. Commander sir! Fully powered and at 100% operational capability sir!" Maxr replied without hesitation.

"Excellent sergeant, your efficiency in the execution of your orders is well-noted." Maxr beamed with pride.

"Bring the main cannon to bear on the approaching fleet and prepare to fire upon the first capital vessel that comes within her range. For now we maintain an air of indifference to these void-scum interlopers but when you have your shot Maxr, take it without hesitation. After a millennia of waiting, the day has finally come to take seek vengeance against our ancient betrayers."

"All hands to battle stations, move move!" Raal barked.

"Ensign Turse, remain on comms with their flagship while we approach. Tell them we accept their offer of friendship and wish to come aboard to finalize the agreement in person."

"Yes sir!" Turse went to work.

"What a pleasure even," Raal continued, though his words were no longer addressed to anyone in particular, "to have stumbled into the perfect opportunity to avenge our ancestors when after so long it seemed such an opportunity would never come. We, the Xel'At, betrayed by every one of our allies at The Great Crossing, now lie in wait under the guise of accepting an offer of friendship that we ourselves intend to betray." As he continued to turn the situation over in his mind, Raal's temperature began to rise.

"But how unfathomably stupid of these bast-ards to think we would trust an offer of friendship from a people whose ancient betrayal led to the near extinction of our tribe! From what shallow and contaminated genetics must these Marahns have spawned to think we would allow ourselves to forget their heinous crime? To forget how they left us to die, how they abandoned us along with the rest, left us to battle the Dark Ones alone, while they fled to a safety that had been bought for them at the price of 10 million Xel'At souls!"

The thick, pulsing vein that wove a path along the port side of Raal's wide brow evidenced the murderous rage that now filled the Lt. Commander, and was further complimented by the shift in colour that his eyes had undergone while he spoke. Where only moments before his eyes had been an empty, charcoal black, they now resembled two brightly glowing embers set deep into his hardened features. He could sense the anger of the crew beginning to boil in their blood as it did within his own and was sure that his impassioned words had affected them as intended.

The story of The Great Betrayal itself was well known to every Xel'At alive. In the earliest times of the New Imperium, it had been canonized into 113 lines of verse by the High Mantrik Priest and Regent Imperator, Daeneth Qarr, and following its publication was integrated into the Xel'At system of early education. For centuries now, as part of a tradition the Xel'At have come to consider sacred, every Xel'At child born is required to commit the entirety of those 113 lines to memory. Then, once a child has become confident of their ability to recite the story without even a hint of variation, they are summoned to do so publicly in a ceremony that the Xel'At call "Voicing." Prior to its successful completion, a Xel'At child is forbidden to speak under any circumstance unless a "Voiced" elder has called upon them to do so. If a Xel'At child is brave or foolish enough to challenge this mandate they are severely reprimanded and often beaten to within an inch of their life. In ages past, if a child was found to have broken this rule a second time the child would have their tongue removed, though in the current era a two-time offender is simply beaten more cruelly and viciously than when they broke the rule the first time. To date, no Xel'At child is known to have broken this rule more than twice.

Finally, when a Xel'At youth has completed their Voicing ceremony, they are then granted the liberty to speak as befits their station and class among other "Voiced" members of Xel'At society. As a consequence of observing this tradition, often a child of the Imperium is much better acquainted with feelings of rage and betrayal than they are with other more foreign emotions or concepts, such as 'love' and 'peace'.

Raal, having survived over a decade as an officer in the Imperial Starfleet, had allowed himself recently to ponder the likelihood of ever truly understanding any emotion as intimately as he had come to understand the intricacies of rage and betrayal. By the end of his lengthy analysis he had determined that the possibility was unlikely and in the end concluded that it was not something that would come to pass in his lifetime. However, as the hulking Leviathan's main cannon came within range of the Marahn fleet, a thin smile pulled itself taut across the Lt. Commander's features as he realized that his conclusion was about to be proven incorrect.

He would also come to know revenge.