There had been chattering among Vahlan communications for weeks. Ever since THEY came. Every Vohra-controlled planet had one. Every Vohran nest had seen one. The massive, star laden sky beasts that hovered endlessly above Vohran worlds. Silent. Calm. Hardly moving. They looked similar to the Vohra’s own organically-built natural space ships, the space-whales they used to move from planet to planet. But these were bigger and scarier.
The Vahla, the Vohran elite, the defenders and guardians of every nest, they were incredibly worried. They had tackled large threats before. Defended their nests from vicious, mountain-sized monsters, protected themselves from hordes of ferocious Temthans and Banikans and all sorts of other nasties. This was something different. These sky beasts were not attacking. They were watching. They were waiting.
What bothered the Vahla more though was how every other Vohra wasn’t reacting. The normal Vohra all carried on as normal, pausing only to occasionally glance upwards, and once a day visiting the surface of their nests to get a better look. The Vahrga were insanely calm, their normally vicious and unpredictable demeanours simmered down to the point that they were almost approachable. Some in fact were calm enough to have brief conversations with, not that they had anything interesting to say.
The worst offenders though were the Vahyra. They had gone silent. The Vahyra were the queens, the rulers of the Vohra nests, and suddenly they were silent, saying nothing more than immediate commands. Egg production was still level. Nests systems were still stable. Everything was running normally, with a very slight drop in production due to the sky beasts, but the Queens had been silent, as if they were telepathically communicating with each other. They were as silent and cold as the sky beasts above.
The largest sky beast of course was hovering above the Vohran home world, simply called Vohran 1. It was the last to appear, every other sky beast had appeared first, starting from the edges of Vohran territories, and slowly appearing over time, coming in closer and closer. The whole time, the Vohra didn’t panic. The Vahla quietly worried to themselves, some even considered striking first, but every other Vohra remained quiet and calm.
There was something about the largest sky beast though. All the others were covered in stars, almost not there, fading in and out of existence, blending in with the universe behind them. The massive monster above Vohran 1, it was huge, solid, yet immune to the effects of gravity. It could have been as large as the planet itself, but no Vohra dared try to measure it. This one was covered in shining, silver stars too, but it also had streaks of red light, almost like blood, across its body. A huge being with glowing ruby eyes, staring darkly at the largest and most powerful Vohra nest.
A couple of days silence wasn’t always an issue. The Vahla knew that sometimes the Queens needed to discuss things. But it had been a week. A week of silence.
Until today.
The sky beasts disappeared one by one, apart from the largest. It circled the planet, as if waiting for something to happen.
Finally, the Vahyra Queens spoke. In a single, unified voice.
“Goddess Epani, Panelix, Goddess of Space, we bow to your might, we follow your lead, we enact your vision.”
Across the Vohra empire, the Vahla sighed, then prepared for war.