Narrative Tactical Review: The Tau of War

Shas’O Tau’N Mal’Caor Run’Al surveyed the battlefield, a pall of smoke drifted across the ruins, the smell of death filling his nostrils and the tang of ionised air from pulse gun and las rifle made his skin tingle. The sudden silence was deafening, making his ears ring. He contemplated the loss of lives. This had been a costly victory as he had known it would be.

 As previously, the Tau air caste had bombarded the area, reducing a sizable part of the city to ruins, but unlike before the “Gue La” had dug in, their sizable infantry squads supported by elite assault troops and a multitude of specialist weapons. This was not the way he preferred the hunt but he had understood the need for consolidation.

He thought back to key moments of the conflict; An imperial troop carrier had dropped off a squad of assault troops that had nearly destroyed his own HQ and had then had made short work of a Hammerhead Gunship. The fearsome kroot that had been totally wiped out only accounting for a single enemy veteran squad and worst, their leader had survived the encounter. One of his Shas’la dying horribly, pierced by a dozen lasgun bolts. Although both Shas’ui from the fire warrior teams had shown themselves to be heroically courageous - either one would make a suitable replacement - his eyes stung from the personal loss he felt.

It had been necessary to use his infantry as a distraction, using them as little more than bait in a trap. The plan had been to surprise the humans with his reserves, who would surround and confound them, pinning them with massed fire. The plan had nearly backfired; partly due to the slight delay of his reinforcements and the resistance to superior Tau weaponry afforded by the cover the Humans had utilised; not to mention the unexpected arrival of so many Gue La by means of their sudden aerial attack. Had it not been for the stoicism of his fire warriors who refused to break even though their losses were considerable, the Tau initiative would have suffered a major setback if not total failure.

“The Hidden Spider” cast his mind back to the moment when victory (and defeat) had been decided.

He had been forced to abandon his stand-and-shoot stance when he realised that both his Shas' La had fallen to concentrated fire from two larger than usual enemy infantry squads and their Headquarters team. His own Battlesuit would not have withstood another salvo, so he had assaulted the snipers who had been targeting him, shooting as he went in.

One of the Human squads had broken cover, presumably aiming to overwhelm him with numbers. From the corner of his eye he had seen the veteran squad leader who had survived the Kroot attack charging though the ruins toward him, but the man levelled a powerful-looking hand gun and promptly disappeared in a ball of plasma energy. Luck had played its hand, so it was in this as it had been in many previous battles, and so it would always be “for the greater good”

The Humans had clearly learned from their comrades mistakes and had largely ignored the Broadsides, which having had no tanks to target had made little impact in the battle. Although savages, the Gue La were clearly not fools.

Mal’Caor Run’Al signalled to the Shas’ui for the force to move on to the next rendezvous point. He felt grief and anger over the heavy Tau losses, fuelling his desire to destroy all Gue La resistance. His mind was already formulating plans for the next and final conflict, this time it was not just for Tau, not just for “The Greater Good.”

This time it was personal.

The Coming of the Hellspore: Slumbering Evil

Being the report of Inquisitor Harlon Jade of the Ordo Xenos, submitted via astropath 109.997.M41

As part of my ongoing investigation into what could become a serious threat to Imperial security on many worlds, I present the following report of my activities on the mining colony of Valorax X and an explanation for my team’s extermination of all colonists.

I became aware of the threat caused by what I now call Sleepers thirty eight standard months ago on the hive world Goorad Prime.

A small cell of what appeared to be eco-terrorists were apprehended in an attempt to poison a large proportion of the principle hive’s water supply. This would have resulted in well over forty thousand deaths.

On convalescence and curious, I involved myself in the follow-up investigation. During interrogation, all three of the surviving eco-terrorists, though human, exhibited odd patterns of speech and psycho-neuroses. They proved 100% resistant to all forms of torture and gave up nothing. I conducted one of the interrogations myself and must admit to feeling unsettled by the curious insect-like way that the cell leader stared at me.

During post-mortem examination, all three terrorists were found to be infected by an unusual strain of the same virus they were trying to infect the hive with. Further examination revealed a discoloration of the cadaver’s bones. Although all members of the group appeared human in every physical respect, their skeletons were yellow.

With no further answers to find I closed the investigation, completed my convalescence and moved on.

Twelve thousand light years and many months away, my ship approached the mining colony of Valorax X for much needed supplies. We were welcomed to dock and trade but when my team and I boarded we found the colony almost deserted. It was run by a skeleton crew of eight. We accepted their hospitality, however feeling nauseous, I declined their offer of food. It was that happenstance that saved my life.

Half way through the meal, the team I had taken with me began to convulse as though violently ill. Simultaneously the eight crew members entered the hall carrying light arms of obvious xenos manufacture. I fought them off and fled back toward the docking bay, calling for help on my com.

Suddenly however, the halls were filled with abhorrent yellow skull-faced colonists, all reaching for me, using makeshift weapons in an attempt to apprehend me. I was captured and taken back to the dining hall.

The link between my investigation on Goorad Prime and this chance encounter was clear. The distinctive yellow skulls of my captors as well as the odd glassy stares of the apparently human “colonists” made it definite. Most horrifying of all was seeing several more of the leering skull-faced creatures wearing the clothes of my team mates. The poison in the food had evidently caused a transformation into these monsters.

One of the human-looking fiends began to prepare an injection of yellow fluid and I started to form an impression of what had occurred here.

These “sleepers” - the human looking ones had not been part of the original colony. They had arrived as we had and used their macabre drug to transform each of the colonists into one of these skeletal spectres, just as the team on Goorad Prime had attempted to do to the entire hive. They wanted to infect me too; possibly with a variation that would make me like them; and use my ship to move on.

Before I could be injected, the remaining members of my team stormed the hall and rescued me. Every one of the skull-faced abominations was killed, though several more of my men were cut down as well. The sleepers were also exterminated.

On further investigation throughout the station, it was clear an exodus had been planned. Ships had been made ready for departure.

I now believe that these sleepers, and the virus they insidiously try to propagate could cause severe problems for the Imperium. If this vile corruption spreads exponentially, it could soon form a major threat to our dominace of this area of the galaxy.

Where the Campaign Stands

Right! This took longer than I thought it would but here we see how the campaign stands at the moment.

These maps show the action currently taking place down the length of Valorax VIII's super-continent, Pariah.

My goal now is to take the conflict across Valorax to a much higher level, going from a series of minor incidents to all out kick-ass war. There are, for example, several factions who have yet to make their presence known in anything beyond a superficial capacity. It's time that they got involved BIG TIME!