Deep within the massive jungles on verdanth lives one of the last native born Gravari Matriarchs. She is accompanied everywhere by a loyal retinue of Gravari Enforcers. But they cannot stay in this location for long. The Matriarch is searching for something deep within the planet, the Heartseed Core. A relic capable of seeding a barren wasteland with a beautiful echo-tree which will bring great beauty and lush greenery in its wake.
Hunting this matriarch is the Ascendancy, they started with simple hunters, as that is what worked for most of the other Gravari. However, this Matriarch is the last, and the Ascendancy has realized she is not just a target, but a symbol. They have dispatched their most relentless hunter: a specialist from Karn Seravia Xeno-Acquisition division, equipped not to kill her, but to capture her and the Heartseed Core, twisting Verdanth's greatest hope into another controlled Imperial asset.
Ysla, the matriarch, is younger than her escorts, viewing them as brothers as well as guardians. She learned everything from the previous matriarch of her tribe, her mother, who left her with a memory root from the last echo-tree. Before the Ascendancy burned the trees, before they poisoned the planet..But deep within, she finds the map that will lead them to the core.
Rethvek Skarnvek Krezreth, views the hunt not as a mere following and killing of a beast. He believes one must learn from the beast, one must become the beast, think like them, only then will he have the knowledge and skill necessary for his capture. He has taken only what he feels is necessary, a Survival Machete and a set of Armor. Everything else would be made or caught, he only takes what he needs.
Bollin leads the matriarch’s guard, a position he has held for the last 200 years, the grey of his hair overtaking the brown so he stands out like an owl in a sand storm. Each enforcer is equipped with a club made from their birth trees, an anomaly amongst modern gravari born on other worlds. He rounds up the other five members of his retinue and communes with the matriarch. She shows them the map and they all decide on the shortest path that will take them there. The only route means passing through blighted zones near Ascendancy mining operations. All Seven of them head off to save the Heartseed Core with the last Matriarch.
The Journey
Bollin and the other five enforcers form a perimeter around Ysla as they begin their march to the blighted zones. The Ascendancy has avoided this area of Verdanth, perhaps because they could not find iridite, or perhaps because the beasts of the jungle prevented them from pushing onward. However, in the lush jungle that is left of Verdanth all of the powerful and dangerous creatures were pushed into this small section, making it incredibly dangerous.
After thirty minutes of marching Bollin notices a shadow has been following them, unsure for how long, but he calls for the retinue to cease their march and put up their guard. As he does, an enormous twelve foot lizard-like creature bolted out of the shadows, quick as lightning. Each of the enforcers manages to get a hit in, but before they are able to drive it off, the lizard manages to wound one of the enforcers, causing minor blood loss.
Ysla quickly grabs the wounded warrior, rips off a piece of her shawl and ties it around the wound, preventing the enforcer from bleeding profusely. Bollin speaks with the warrior and they decide all will continue but that the injured enforcer will now have a partner, this partner will assist when they move and share their weight when they must carry. This will slow the group down slightly, but all members of the retinue would rather be slowed than to leave a man behind.
Two days passed before they arrived at the first blighted zone around the Ascendancy mines, the area is patrolled day and night by Rekt Tarn legionnaires; the weakest of the retinue agrees to cause a diversion to draw the attention away from the main group and the Matriarch so they can make their way past. Bollin gives him his mission and a covert blaster that can be used if he gets surrounded. Ysla gives him a final blessing ensuring that his soul will return to the trees of Verdanth, were he to die.
Using the distraction created by their wounded comrade they begin their march through the blighted zones. Within the fences they can see the Gravari that are being forced to rip up their home to access the minerals beneath. Hundreds of once gentle farmers now remove the very soil they once tilled. They attempt to continue on but a pit blocks their path, Bollin tasks two with gathering a tree or branches that they can lash together and make a bridge.
But in the woods lurks Rethvek Skarnvek Krezreth, he watches the gravari as they scavenge, he watches as they hide. He will not strike, he instead watches as they mourn the world that he now walks across, this world of warriors that also fight with strength and cunning. This world that was broken by the Ascendancy, just like his was. But like him, they too can be useful to the Ascendancy if they cooperate, but they are proud, too proud to cooperate. He will take one of them while they search, but he will allow them to cross the pit.
Bollin wakes the next morning to find that his night guard has gone missing. This send a shiver down his spine, he heard no calls, no growls, no sounds at all. He knows the mission is too important to spend the time searching for the guard. So the remaining guards and Ysla make haste to the temple of the Heartseed Core cutting the bridge behind them leaving the only crossing in the pit.
The Temple
Outside the temple entrance is a violet-red sickness that invades the very ground, infecting the trees at the roots emerging as a blight. The entrance, hidden like the Gravari temples of old. Ysla begins the process of opening the doors but this will require her full concentration and she will be unable to move from her location until she achieves her goal. Bollin and the three remaining guards form a perimeter, careful to make sure that none go wandering alone. Each will stay within eyesight of the others, but he again hears movement in the forest along with growling, these could be more lizards, or they could be wolves. Bollin knows that not all will survive, but they all knew that was a possibility, Ysla is the only one who matters.
In the shadows of the trees above sits Rethvek Skarnvek Krezreth, watching as the wild beasts circle around the gravari, watching as the gravari do not hide, do not shirk, do not cower. The wolves close in and use their own tactics that allow them to defeat Ascendancy patrols that wander too far. But this is their world, the gravari leader appears to have spent centuries in battle, he barks orders at his men and they each follow instinctively. They move as one, they fight as one, but the wolves are vicious. One breaks through and grabs a soldier by the arm, not enough to kill, but enough to bleed.
As the last wolf falls with a whimper the great temple door opens with the groans and creaks of wood that hasn't moved in millenia. Ysla opens her eyes and sees the carnage around her, she is not filled with shock, she feels sadness, for the brothers she has lost, for the planet she has lost, for the history she has lost. A deep heavy shroud falls over her as Bollin helps her to her feet, he instructs two guards to stand outside the temple and prevent any from following. Ysla descends the steps and finds the temple interior a sanitized environment, contrasting sharply against the blight that reaches outside. But then they see it, the Heartseed Core, absorbing the poison that the Ascendancy uses for their Iridite mining, a purple-red sickness pulsating over the seed that is as large as a melon.
The remaining guard speaks with despair as he lowers his head in sadness. Bollin feels anger at the Ascendancy poison that has corrupted the heart of the world, but then the sound of battle is heard outside and shakes Bollin from his anger. He motions to the other guard and they both prepare for battle. Ysla simply stares, tears falling from her weary eyes. As Rethvek Skarnvrex Krezreth descends the steps into the ancient luminar temple. He holds his machete out and points at Bollin as he prepares for the battle. Bollin makes the first strike, attempting to kick the Ascendancy hunter into his fellow guard.
As they fight, the unconscious guards from outside begin to slightly stir, Bollin realizes the hunter isn't killing the gravari and he doesn’t plan to kill Ysla. Bollin imagines the worst fates that happened to Matriarchs of the past, cages of death, suffering and humiliation. He fights like a beast and Krezreth is almost caught off guard, not expecting such ferocity from one so old. But he still manages to disarm and knock out both the guard and Bollin.
Rethvek Skarnvrex Krezreth has expected all that has occurred but what he does not expect is what Ysla does next. Ysla grabs the Heartseed core, she touches her memory root to the Heartseed and recalls the memories of kindness that her Mother left her, the memories of siblings lost to struggle, the memories of the trees, she allows the wonderful memories to flow alongside the sorrowful memories. The Heartseed responds not with growth, but with protection, vines lash out, striking Krezreth as he reaches for Ysla, hurling him out of the temple before he can complete his mission. Then he sees the vines are not just in the temple, they are everywhere, tearing down the Ascendancy mining machines.
Before he hits the ground he grabs onto a tree and attempts to break his landing but as he does he acknowledges the folly of his attempt, he instead chooses to forgo the hunt. He will inform the Ascendancy that the Matriarch and the Core are gone, Verdanth cannot be reclaimed from nature. Back in the temple Ysla lifts Bollin to his feet, ready to begin the war to reclaim the world, neither is ready to pack in the fight, as the other four guards regroup reuniting with their watchman from the night before. The guards outside watch, as the vines targeting only the Ascendancy, ships flee the snapping vines as large as redwoods. The growth has returned, but now the gravari must learn the new nature of Verdanth, the wild protection.
