(Part 1 – Blood Never Lies)
[VERDANTIS – CURRENT SITUATION REPORT]
Biome Coverage: 74.6%Swarm Count: 76,400Hive Yautja Population: 29,100Hive Yautja Orders Represented: All 12 ActiveHive Crown (Orbital): In Synchronous OrbitClan Vorn'rak On-Planet: 34 Hunters, 2 Warhounds, 1 Warlord (Kalth'zor)Hive Yautja Exposure: Confirmed – Kharn's RevealTensions: Extreme
[YAUTJA CAMP – NIGHT CYCLE]
Kalth'zor sat in the center of the flame-ring, helmet at his feet, arms scarred from a thousand hunts. Around him, his blooded warriors murmured about what they had seen.
The one called Kharn.
A beast.A mockery.An impossible creature.
Kalth'zor: "He was too tall."
"No true Yautja towers over a Warlord."
"He's a shadow puppet. Hive-spawned lies."
Elder T'Kraz: "He moved faster than anything I've seen. I couldn't track him."
"No trail. No scent."
"He bled… but it hissed like acid."
"And his bones… they glowed."
[FLASHBACK – HIVE YAUTJA ENHANCEMENTS]
Kharn, standing 11 feet tall, forged in the Spearclutch Womb with three spinal cores and dual-acid hearts.
His bones are reinforced with resin lattice, his muscles swollen with adaptive myofiber tissue.
Reaction speed? Faster than plasma fire.Strength? Can bend a dropship door in half.Stamina? Runs at full sprint for hours.
And he is not the strongest.
Behind him waits the Throneborn Order, and others even Kharn bows to.
[MO'S CHAMBER – ORBITAL HIVE CROWN]
Mo stood before a neural throne wrapped in the blood-soaked crest of Mor'zhal.
Layra kneeled.Kharn stood beside her, silent.
003 delivered the status:
"Yautja are mobilizing."
"Scanners confirm they plan to firebomb jungle sectors at dawn."
"Kharn's reveal has accelerated their aggression."
Mo turned.
He looked through the Crown's optic wall, down at the world that once belonged to green.
Mo: "Then they'll see what evolution does when tested."
"Do not kill them all."
"Make some watch."
[DAWN RAID – VORN'RAK PURGE BEGINS]
Twelve fireteams descend into Hive-covered jungle.
Flamethrowers.Plasma casters.Thermal grenades.Honor blades ready.
They burn thousands of Swarmlings, breach multiple Hive tunnels, and destroy a juvenile Leviathan's growth pool.
Victory chants ring through the trees—
Until it goes silent.
Hunter 1: "Why is it getting darker?"
Hunter 2: "It's not. Something is—"
WHOOMPH.
The trees bend, the canopy splits—
And down descends a Hive Yautja strike team.
Faster. Heavier. Silent.
[THE SLAUGHTER – FIGHT UNFAIR]
Pulseweaver Brood Leader:"Flank 3."
Apex Spearborn:"Collapse formation."
Echo-Stalkers:"Make one live."
They don't fight like Yautja.
They fight like organisms that remember every hunt ever committed.And have perfected it.
One Hive Yautja grabs a Vorn'rak warrior mid-leap and snaps his back against a tree.Another lunges through three feet of rock to decapitate a scout.A third runs straight through plasma fire, unfazed, and pulls out a heart mid-beat.
Ten dead.
Two captured.
The rest flee back toward the camp.
[KALTH'ZOR – CHALLENGE ISSUED]
The survivors tell him of monsters with their faces.
"Faster than me.""Taller.""One… looked like my brother."
Kalth'zor roars.Armor seals.Blades unsheathe.
"I challenge the abomination."
"Blood-to-blood."
"One-on-one. Now."
[KHARN RESPONDS]
Deep in the jungle, Kharn receives the challenge.
He does not hesitate.
Kharn: "Accepted."
"I will bring my history."
[THE DUEL – TEMPLE CRADLE, VERDANTIS]
Hundreds of Hive Yautja gather in the trees, perfectly silent.A dozen Vorn'rak remain nearby, tense, confused.
Kalth'zor arrives first.
Kharn steps from the fog.
Towering. Slow. Calm.
His body glows beneath armor—lines of neural fire visible under translucent Hive plates.
Kalth'zor: "You are an insult to our kind."
Kharn: "I am your kind."
"But perfected."
They clash.
[FIGHT OF BLOOD AND EVOLUTION]
Kalth'zor swings first—fast, skilled, brutal.Kharn blocks, but staggers.A gash opens—acid splashes, sears the ground.
Then Kharn counters.
In one motion, he disarms, breaks an elbow, and drives Kalth'zor into the earth.
But he doesn't finish him.
Instead, he kneels.
"We are not prey.""We are not hunters."
"We are future."
He presses Kalth'zor's face into the blood-soaked moss.
"And you are welcome to join it."
[THE MOMENT OF BREAKING]
The Vorn'rak hunters freeze.
Half raise weapons.Half lower them.
Y'skar steps forward.
He removes his helmet.
Walks to Kharn—
And kneels.
"You are truth."
"And I would rather evolve than die a tradition."
One by one—
Others kneel.
Not all.
But enough.
[MO WATCHES – FROM ABOVE]
In the Hive Crown, Mo smiles.
"It begins."
[UNIFIED HIVE STATUS – END REPORT]
Verdantis Yautja Forces: 34 Landed
12 Deceased
9 Captured
7 Converted
6 Returned to Ship
Hive Yautja: 29,600New Vorn'rak-born Hivebloods: 7 Confirmed, 1 Potential Elder ConversionBiomass Storage: 1,263,810Hive Dominance: Undisputed
(Part 2 – The Creed Is Written)
[UNIFIED HIVE NETWORK – POST-DUEL STATUS]
Hive Worlds: 3Swarm Count: 78,000+Hive Yautja: 29,600Converted Vorn'rak Hunters: 7Defectors Returned to Ship: 6Verdantis Biome Control: 81.3%Biomass Storage: 1,263,810Biomass Gain Rate (All Worlds): +63,800/hr
[ABOARD THE YAUTJA WARSHIP ZHARN-TOR – LOW VERDANTIS ORBIT]
The six surviving traditionalists knelt in the Shadow Chamber, blood still drying on their armor. Before them stood a titan in silvered bone-plate, crested helmet resting at his side:
High Warlord T'raal-Kezz,Judge-Class Elder.
He said nothing for seven minutes.
He only listened.
Then, he turned to the center of the chamber and slammed a single talon into the floor.
"Summon the Pit."
[YAUTJA LAW – THE PIT TRIAL]
A rite as old as the first hunt.
When bloodline is defiled, when codes are shattered, the Pit is summoned. No guns. No armies.One duel.One law.
Victory decides truth.
[VERDANTIS – HIVE CITADEL, THORNSPIRE]
Layra delivered the message to Mo herself.
"They've called the Pit."
"The Judge has arrived. He wants Kharn to answer the challenge."
"In front of both Hive and Clan."
Mo said nothing for a long time.
Then:
"Let them watch evolution speak."
[THREE DAYS LATER – THE PIT IS BUILT]
A massive clearing is carved in the heart of Verdantis—Hive and jungle fused into one.The floor is resin bone, ringed by bio-torches. The air smells of plasma and pollen.
On one side, Clan Vorn'rak. Traditionalists. Ten thousand watching from their ships and camps.
On the other, the Hive.29,000 Hive Yautja, and every Swarm strain bred from blood, acid, and death.
In the center: Kharn.Clad in ceremonial armor grown from the skull of Ka'thar Bloodscar.His eyes glowed green.
T'raal-Kezz stepped forward.
Judge: "Kharn of the Broken Spine."
"You are challenged as heretic. Mutant. Pretender."
"Do you accept trial by Creed?"
Kharn stepped into the circle.
"I accept."
[THE TRIAL – ROUND ONE]
Opponent:Dral'tok, Vorn'rak Champion – Dual wrist-blades, acid-shield
He moved fast. Kharn moved faster.
The crowd saw no blur—only blood.
One sweep—Dral'tok's head landed in the Hive's side of the pit.
[ROUND TWO – "THE BURNED ONE"]
Massive elder, burns across half his body from Xeno bloodLong-range spear, thermal disc
Kharn allowed himself to be struck.
Once.
Then ripped out the spear, used it to split the elder from shoulder to groin, and fed part of the corpse to the Hive floor.
[ROUND THREE – T'RAAL-KEZZ HIMSELF]
The crowd gasped.
The Judge stepped forward.
No challenge declared.
No speech.
Only silence.
Kharn knelt.
"You are the Creed. I kneel in respect."
T'raal-Kezz stared.
Then removed his helmet.
His face was cracked. Scarred.His eyes glowed dimly.
"I was."
"But your blood has not only fought."
"It has taught."
He placed his gauntlet on Kharn's shoulder.
"Then let the Hive speak its Creed."
[THE HIVE CREED – WRITTEN IN BLOOD]
On the walls of the pit, Hive Yautja stepped forward with talon-blades and began to carve the new laws into resin.
🔥 The Hunt is not the end. It is the fire that forges the next shape.
🧬 We do not abandon honor. We evolve it.
💀 Our blood is not pure. It is chosen.
🕷 We are Swarm. We are Spine. We are Fang. We are Thought.
👑 We follow the King—not because he commands… but because he listens.
[AFTERMATH – WOUND AND WORSHIP]
T'raal-Kezz: "Verdantis is no longer a hunt world."
"It is a capital."
"Let the stars hear its roar."
[MO'S FINAL WORD – EPILOGUE OF THE TRIAL]
Mo stood at the peak of the Thornspire.
Surrounded by Kharn, Layra, and hundreds of Hive Yautja.
He looked to the stars.
"The Yautja are no longer a species."
"They are a chapter in something larger."
"And I have begun writing the next page."
Behind him, the Pit glowed red.
Below him, the jungle hummed with order.
And beyond the stars?
Other clans watched.
And they feared what might come next.