Dubrillion

Attilath Ehun stared expectantly at the small villip nestled in his palm. His other hand rested on a desk, the index finger hovering impatiently over the 'execute' key. His hands had touched, and even created, so many unclean things over the past few decades. But Attilath kept reminding himself that it was all for a righteous end. 'For Yun Yuuzhan shall forgive such whoredom when the abominations are used to undo the infidel'.

And Yun Yuuzhan would soon be arriving with his divine army and his great wrath. Attilath's Supreme Overlord Quoreal Deng had often spoken of this glorious day. Quoreal's murder had been a horrible injustice.

With a slurping sound the villip inverted itself, taking on a familiar visage. Not only had the lips and nose been cut off, but so had the eyelids. "Supreme Overlord Quoreal Deng," Attilath Ehun whispered. Being in his personal quarters, he doubted anyone would or could be listening in. But it never hurt to be cautious. Quoreal had a growing number of enemies, especially among the Shamaane Domain and the supporters thereof. "Belek tiu."

"Krazhmir Zho has just reported back," Quoreal said gravely. "He has found the seed of Yuuzhan'tar."

"And the seed of Yuuzhan'tar shall be an omen unto the children of Yun Yuuzhan. It shall be an omen of doom. For the seed of Yuuzhan'tar was corrupted and has become an infidel." Attilath quoted the line from the sacred Quang Quasa.

"More proof that the ancient texts speak the truth," Quoreal said. "If we proceed with this invasion, we will surely be destroyed. We must wait upon Yun Yuuzhan. 'For only the greatest of the Yun'o can subdue the great tsup. Yun Yuuzhan shall sanctify the wayward seed of Yuuzhan'tar'."

"Yes, we must wait," Attilath agreed. "But our Koros-strohna are dying. We may not have to invade to be destroyed. The people will murmur at this. Many don't believe as we do; they will want to invade. Omen or no omen," he warned.

"I realize this." There was a weariness in Quoreal's voice that worried Attilath. "There is a nearby protogalaxy that should be able to sustain us until Yun Yuuzhan arrives."

"He would not ask us to make this long and arduous journey unless he could find a way to preserve us."

!

Attilath Ehun knew he was too late, that it had already been done, yet still he ran. The doorway pushed itself open. Out strode a dozen or so warriors, some dragging dead bodies or severed limbs. At least one had been beheaded. Both arms sported a bony spur. Quoreal had had such spurs. And walking behind the warriors, holding the murdered Overlord's head, was Shimmra Shamaane. Quoreal's face was still contorted in rage and agony. The leader of the Praetorite movement was dead.

"Quoreal is dead! For Shimmra took his head! Oh how he bled! He bled bled bled!" Onimi, Shimmra's demented jester scuttled along behind him, uttering another one of his cursed rhymes.

"Kneel before your new Supreme Overlord!" Shimrra thundered victoriously.

"Kneeeeeeeel!" echoed Shimrra's deformed familiar.

Mentally screaming every vulgarity he knew, and inventing new ones, Attilath obliged. Rising, he crossing his arms. Shimrra was a coward! If he wanted the throne, he should have challenged Quoreal in ritual combat, before a large audience, before many witnesses. 'For Yun Yuuzhan shall set his face against dishonorable and illegitimate rulers. They and all their endeavors shall come to ruin'.

"Belek tiu!" The Praetorite Yuuzhan Vong would pretend to serve Shimrra. And one day he would lose his own agnostic head!

!

A gentle slurping from without Attilath's waking dream pulled his mind back to the present. His heart raced as the villip transformed, creating a facsimile of E'thinaa Fiur's face. "Proceed." Seemingly of its own accord, Attilath's finger pounced upon the 'execute' key. Lines of horrid green symbols trickled across the screen.

Bulwark

"When you and Deevon have kids, Silve, that'll make me a grand-cousin," Alde'rado told his cousin, smiling.

"And me and Deevon's kids would be your grand-cousins?" the young Twi'lek woman pointed out with a chuckle.

Alde'rado frowned. "That could get a little confusing."

"Yeah. Let's just stick wi..." The image winked out. Alde'rado had a bad feeling about this. A Galactic Alliance Star Destroyer, a Mark II no less, shouldn't have this kind of issue. He pulled the comlink off of his belt. It beeped before he had a chance to activate it. Well, that couldn't be good. The Twi'lek man brought the device up to his face. "Captain Rado."

"Officer Klide, here. A massive comms blackout just went up. We can only reach the rest of our fleet and Dubrillion."

"I'll head to the bridge," Captain Rado said as he stepped into the hallway. He put his comlink away and headed to the bridge at a brisk walk. His speed increased as he went along, and his lekku slapped against his back. The pair of guards by the entrance to the bridge saluted as Rado came to a stop, and his retinas were scanned. He slipped his thin frame past the door before it could fully open.

"Captain on the bridge," one of the officers announced.

Captain Rado jogged over to Klide's station. Its screen and the pink-skinned Zeltron man's grumbling made it clear things weren't going well. "Keep trying, Klide."

"Yes, sir," he murmured, barely audible.

Rado was just sitting down in the captain's chair when dozens upon dozens of starbursts briefly obscured the darkness of space. They dimmed, and faded into nightmares. Some were the Yuuzhan Vong ships he'd learned of as a child. But the others were worse. These Leviathans, as they were called, were covered in dead-looking exoskeletons, bristling with horns and spikes. Alde'rado felt his lekku slap against his chest for a short moment before he got them under control.

"Emperor's black vaping bones," Klide breathed. "They're here already."

"At least a hundred enemy contacts," announced the gray-skinned Durosian sensor officer.

"Helm, full speed ahead, out of blackout. Life support and weapons power into propulsion. Launch all fighters. Head out of blackout. Hyperspace asap," Rado ordered.

"Yes sir."

The new arrivals wasted no time; the more familiar vessels opened up with magma weapons, while the Leviathans launched bolts of pale purple energy. The Bulwark's shield trembled under the barrage of lightning and fire from over a dozen enemy ships. The other three Star Destroyers and support craft around Dubrillion were in the same predicament.

An odd fog of dread settled over the bridge. The Aether. The deck was vibrating now, as if it, too, were afraid. From what Rado had gathered from the briefings, the Leviathans were essentially corpses animated by this evil energy that was opposed to the Force. Zombies, essentially. And beings who existed in the Force could sense the use of the Aether's power due to this opposition or the Aether's foreign nature. Rado had rarely given much thought to the esoteric.

"Coralskippers," warned the sensor officer. "Hundreds, sir."

"Target them to protect our fighters," Rado ordered, cringing at the sight of over a hundred coralskippers heading for the Bulwark. He knew none of the fighters would make it.

"Yes, sir," the weapons officer said. "But they're coming in pretty low. It'll be hard to hit them."

"These Vong are familiar with our ships' capabilities," Rado said gravely.

"And they knew exactly where our ships were," the Durosian added.

"They have someone on the inside," Rado reasoned. "I think some of the Vong from the previous invasion were waiting for these ones."

"They also put up the blackout right before these Vong arrived," Klide noticed. "If there's a way around it, we won't live long enough to figure it out."

"Incoming, starboard side." Rado glanced at the corresponding display screen. A ship about three times the Star Destroyer Mark II's size was headed on a collision course. The bow of this ship ended in an enormous crustacean-like claw. The lower jaw was down, revealing massive jet-black, pyramidal teeth. Nestled within the base of the claw was an octopus-like beak, arranged horizontally. Violet burst of rage spewed from either side of the claw.

"All available weapons, target claw. And push all systems to the limit," Rado ordered.

"Yes sir," replied the systems officer. "Are you trying to trigger a catastrophic overload?"

"Yes," Rado said grimly.

The Yuuzhan Vong vessel's shield pulsed nonchalantly under the Bulwark's fire, and diverted all its available weapons on the Star Destroyer's starboard flank.

Metal groaned like a wounded animal as the claw slammed into the Bulwark, and bit down. Explosions accompanied deforming metal. Whitish clouds of air and crew members, who flailed about briefly before their blood boiled or they froze to death, were sucked out into space. The giant claw disengaged, and the Yuuzhan Vong vessel backed up, leaving a cut going roughly a quarter of the way through the Star Destroyer's middle. It directed its fire at the gouge it had made.

"Shields at nine percent," the systems officer warned, shouting to be heard over the wailing alarms and screaming metal. The alarms were soon silenced, allowing Rado to hear the faint whistling of escaping air. And he found it a bit hard to breath. He'd always heard that a person's life flashed before their eyes when they were dying, but if they never lived to te...

A massive violet energy beam burned through the bridge, vaporizing Alde'rado's body. The Bulwark's shield gave out after a few more hits, and within a minute the Star Destroyer was reduced to giant chunk of flotsam. The other Alliance capital ships socombed in much the same way. Their fighters were overwhelmed by coralskippers or the occasional blast from a Yuuzhan Vong capital ship. Not a single Alliance fighter made it out of the blackout.

!

Something began to call out to Attilath's mind. It was incredibly dark and almost menacing. A chill spread throughout his nervous system. But he pushed it down; E'thinaa had experienced this same fear when Yun Yuuzhan had first reached out to him. Attilath had simply never encountered the divine before. It was foreign, so of course he'd have this reaction.

My son. I am Yun Yuuzhan. Attilath was astonished by the kindness in this voice. Be not fearful. You have served me faithfully. You have only consorted with machines so that the infidels may be undone.

Thank you, my Yun. Belek tiu!

Your brother, E'thinaa, tells me you have an Infinity Gate, which can transport our ships nearly instantaneously to the world Coruscant, which is conveniently near the center of this galaxy. I want you to summon it.

Of course, my Yun. Attilath typed in a series of commands, causing more green vulgarities to scroll across a second monitor. We lack the means to create a communications blackout at Coruscant, but the enemy ships there have already been dealt with.

That is alright, my child. I need you and your cell to remain on Dubrillion to protect the communications disruptor, until such time as the galaxy learns what has happened here.

I obey, my Yun.

!

Few would have guessed that some of the asteroids in high orbit over Dubrillion's surface were not quite what they seemed. Though the flaring of thrusters hidden within crevices and craters would have certain indicated something was amiss. Nearly two hundred of these bizarre boulders blasted out from the asteroid field, and gathered together. They began to form a gigantic ring. An orange energy beam burst forth from one of these space rocks and linked it to one of its neighbors. A second orange beam connected this neighbor to yet another asteroid. This process went on, speeding up as it did so, until the asteroids and their energy beams formed the Infinity Gate. The stars beyond this ring elongated into lines before melting into a gray abyss. When the process reversed itself a second or so later, the stars seemed to have moved. Scores of Yuuzhan Vong ships began passing through the gate.

A/N: E'thinaa and Attilath (yes he was named after Attila the Hun) aren't technically brothers.