Title: The Tau of A'Xol
Near the end of the second expansion sphere a small system of untouched worlds was discovered near the Vash'Ya and Au'Taal septs. The scout fleet lead by Shas'O Bork'an Mal'Tyr ; otherwise known as commander Mantis, was tasked to identify possible sites for future colonies for the empire. It was when he say a bright gleaming blue jewel in the black of space he knew he had found a spot that some of his people may one day call home as Bork'An is his. He ordered his ships to scan the system for resources that the Tau may find use for. Not long after may be an hour an earth caste scientist by the name of Fio'El Bork'an Xolan came with a datapad with a breakdown of the most abundant resources of the system. Commander Mantis; being of the fire caste whose duty was to defend and fight for the empire needed to know little of what made up the planets he protected, asked the engineer to explain his results to him, which engineer Xolan did as best he could without using too much scientific jargon as the commander put it so simply. This system contained several a rare element that are lacking the large enough abundances of in other Tau septs, the element in particular were Iridium, however, there were other resources besides the precious iridium on the planets.
Engineer Xolan mentioned to the commander that there the scans also picked up an interesting find in the form of a unique form of crystal that isn't found anywhere else in the whole empire, these crystals now known as nova crystals due to the amount of energy they can emit once they are exposed to same amount of electricity. Engineer Xolan asked the commander if he could send a small mining team to extract a few sample for study to add to this systems potential of becoming part of the empire. Commander Mantis looked out of the window of his bridge office at the sun of this still unnamed system and asked "What have your fellow earth caste named this system?" Engineer Xolan was taken aback by the query and responded "We have yet to give it one Shas'O, we felt that to give a name was an honour best handed to you." Commander Mantis looked at the pad in his hand and typed a brief word in the heading of the screen it read "A'Xol" which in an old dialect of the Tau meant "Hope". Mantis then said to the engineer "You may send your team, and I will have your current results sent to T'au and Bork'an for study." The engineer took a bow towards the commander and went on his way to the shuttle bay with his team of surveyors.
In the years that followed this event the colony world of A'Xol grew quite fast, offering new opportunities to the earth caste offering them the chance to explore new ideas and theories due to the uniqueness of this system. As the years grew one however it became apparent that the Tau of A'Xol adapted an interesting physiological trait was that their skin had changed from shades of greyish blue to a deep red as a response to the form of radiation from the blue gem sun of that the system is known for. The Tau of A'Xol took great pride in their newly red skin an thought of it as mark of great things to come.
It had been nearly forty years since the founding of the colony that it came under its first attack by the orks a fearsome green skinned creatures set upon a lust for war and carnage. The hundreds of small ork ships flew through the system like locusts, many were destroyed by the array of pulse and rail cannon satellites defending planets of interest, but some broke through the lines crash landing on uninhabited planets and moons in the system. Only the most heavily armoured of the ork ships managed to breach the defenses of A'Xol and crash some kilometers from the main colony. The Tau managed to quickly mobilise the air caste forces to combat their hated foe by bombarding them from orbit on the few worlds the orks managed to survive their landings. Sadly the Tau didn't have that luxury on A'Xol so instead they mobilised the fire caste forces and air caste fighters on the planet to combat the green skins on the soil of their home. The Tau sent drone squadrons to recon the area for the advancing fire warriors and suits. The kroot villages on the outer planes near the colony sent several squads of hunters to investigate the crash and if necessary engage the fowl green skins. Little did the orks know was that their ship had crashed near a vespid mound and had alerted the vespid to them. As the sun set on A'Xol the orks began to fight amongst themselves until their waagh boss came out of the wreck with rather large burns on his face and body and yelled " 'Oui wha' you fools doin', we're meant to be killin' some blue skinnies. Not each unless I say so you boyz got it?!" he said with anger in his voice as he kicked a grot out of his way.
That was when a the group of orks heard a rather disconcerting sound of what sounded like wings flapping very fast, one of the ork boyz said" what's that noise?" right before a bolt of green energy blasted him right in the face leaving killing the ork instantly; leaving a scorch mark where it hit. Shortly after more bolts started to rain killing many orks as they fell from what appeared to be from nowhere at all. The kroot laying wait in the forest near the crash site could hear the screams and roars of the orks as they shot blindly into the air. The shaper leading the kroot party; shaper Ka'root the second, ordered half of his forces to remain in the forest and to eliminate any orks should they try to flee through it. He then led the rest of his forces closer to the crash site and had half of those force to guard a funnel point that led to the forest behind, now only twenty men strong he led his warriors to sniping positions and began aiding the fast flying vespid rain fire on the orks. It was not long after that the vespid and kroot were joined by a full cadre of fire warriors firing there pulse weapons annihilating what seemed like endless orks. That was when the unnamed war boss called for a 'waagh' suddenly the orks became more organised they charged the fire warriors up the hill that they had been firing from it wasn't until the first ork saw the true size of the cadre that the orks truly felt fear.
Suddenly a plethora of Tau weapons fire cut down the majority of assaulting orks. The war boss angered by the failure of this boyz ordered the remaining armoured orks out of the wreckage and to the Tau. After considering the presence of the armoured orks, commander Mantis; who has taken the mantle of the protector of A'Xol , ordered his fire warriors out of the fray and had crisis suit teams in their stead. Simultaneously, stealth suits infiltrated the wreckage to plant implosion charges to safely disarm the ork ship. The heavier orks engaged the crisis suits led by commander Mantis, several of the orks fell before they could get to the Tau. The faster hitting crisis suits managed to damage a few of the orks before one manages to land a lucky strike on the commander wounding him gravely.
The Stealth suits were successful in priming the ork ship and were on their way out. As they exited the wreckage the say the battle at the hill, they say there commander fighting a in solo combat against the war boss.
Commander Mantis was literally fighting for his life fighting the dreaded ork boss, he landed a hit after hit but the orks armour was just too strong to breakthrough with pure strength alone. He pushed the war boss back with all his might and prepared his fusion blaster to fire. The Ork charged the commander and wrecked his "powerklaw" into Mantis's suit ripping his armour in two. As he laid one the ground he used the last of the suits power to fire his fusion blaster at maximum power completely vaporising the war boss. Commander Mantis thought to himself aloud as he laid dying with his battle brothers on the corpses of many orks " My duty to the empire is fulfilled, my duty to my new world is fulfilled, there can be no greater thing a member of the fire caste can aspire to more than this." And in those last few breaths he died a hero to empire and to A'Xol. His body was returned to Bork'an for burial but his armour was placed in the great hall of the fire warrior academy on A'Xol to inspire and remind others of the sacrifice of him and his men. This battle will be marked in the colonies chronicles as the battle of the Mal'Tyr planes as they have been so renamed to honour the fallen commander.
It was because of the actions of commander Mantis and others like him from all castes of A'Xol that elevated a fringe world into a thriving sept and home to ones that live there.