During the opening year of the Yuuzhan Vong War, a rebellion erupted on the Yuuzhan Vong slaveship called Tsam P'ah. This vessel held thousands of captives, seized from numerous planets by the Yuuzhan Vong. The Yuuzhan Vong intended to use these captives as forced labor on the occupied world of Artorias. The surface of Artorias saw the Artorias resistance slay a significant number of Yuuzhan Vong guards, creating a need for replacements from the Tsam P'ah. With the departure of many guards to the planet, the prisoners recognized an opportunity for insurrection. Princess Kaye Galfridian of Artorias and a captured warrior named Arbeloa spearheaded the prisoners' attack from within their holding area, targeting two guards they had drawn inside. The rebellion spread beyond their cell, as the prisoners freed thousands of others and eliminated the remaining Yuuzhan Vong guards, including the slaveship's captain. Having seized control of the ship, the prisoners fled Artorias and gave the vessel a new name: Heart of Artorias.
In the year 25 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong, hailing from beyond the galaxy, launched an invasion of the galaxy with the objective of conquest and enslavement. Artorias was among the worlds that succumbed to the invaders, resulting in the capture of many of its inhabitants aboard the slaveship called the Tsam P'ah. Among those captured were Nina Galfridian, the Queen of Artorias, and her Princess, Kaye Galfridian. The Tsam P'ah remained in planetary orbit above Artorias, with the intention of using the prisoners as slave labor on the planet's surface following its transformation by the Yuuzhan Vong.
Sha'kel, the slaveship's commanding officer, sought to apply his knowledge of Galactic Basic, and ordered the Artorian Queen to be brought before him. The Queen declined, as she was tending to a wounded companion, but her daughter offered to go in her stead. The commander revealed the Yuuzhan Vong's plans for the galaxy, explaining how they would impart the meaning of suffering. To emphasize his point, Sha'Kel stabbed her in the shoulder. Upon returning to the other prisoners, Kaye discovered that her mother's friend had passed away. Subsequently, Nina Galfridian entered a catatonic state, triggered by the previous loss of her spouse, son, and planet.
Galfridian gradually earned the trust of the slaveship's commander through their interactions. However, she was secretly formulating a plan to retaliate against her captors. Arbeloa, the last survivor of a warrior race that had been annihilated by the Yuuzhan Vong, was among those eager to join her in the fight, in exchange for Sha'kel's head. He worked to overcome his restraints in order to assist her when the moment for a revolt arrived.
Meanwhile, the Artorias resistance on the surface of Artorias had been working to sabotage the planet's Vongforming. The Yuuzhan Vong sentries suffered significant losses, and the Tsam P'ah landed on the planet to provide reinforcements. Recognizing this as an ideal opportunity to strike, Galfridian and Arbeloa initiated their plan. They pretended that Arbeloa had captured Galfridian—the commander's favored prisoner—and wished to trade her for his freedom, successfully luring two Yuuzhan Vong guards into their cell. The two guards realized too late that they had fallen into a trap, as the entire cell population attacked them. The guards inflicted casualties on the prisoners, but they were eventually overwhelmed. Following the battle, Galfridian placed two Twi'lek women in charge of her catatonic mother and had another prisoner bring her the appendage of one of the guards. Galfridian used the device attached to the guard's arm to open their cell.
Before proceeding, Arbeloa and other prisoners fashioned weapons by breaking off pieces of their surroundings. The prisoners continued their fight against the Yuuzhan Vong guards outside their cell, opening other cells and freeing thousands of other captives. Many prisoners perished in the struggle, but their numerical advantage eventually allowed them to defeat their captors. After all the guards had been killed, Galfridian led Arbeloa to the ship's command center to fulfill her promise: Sha'kel's head. Arbeloa decapitated the commander and later crafted it into a head covering.
With the Yuuzhan Vong eliminated, the prisoners controlled the slaveship. However, they were still in danger, as the Yuuzhan Vong still had a significant military force stationed on the planet. The Queen, having recovered from her catatonic state upon witnessing the resistance on Artorias and realizing that her life partner was still alive, assumed command of the ship through the cognition throne that Commander Sha'kel had previously used. She initiated a hyperspace jump away from Artorias to assist other refugees of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and the ship, renamed Heart of Artorias, eventually arrived at a conflict over the planet Dibrook.
The revolt was first depicted in the fourth edition of the Dark Horse comic series Invasion, which was released on October 7th, 2009.