Right. Well, all of you seem to like this humble affair. I suppose that it isn't every day that one reads a 40k fic which isn't a star wars crossover, gundam crossover (I haven't read any gundam) or the adventures of my Imperial Guard regiment/ Space Marine company (often with the SMs sounding like people from modern day America.) Excuse me, but I shouldn't have typed that out loud.
And before you think that the Mayor's opinions about civilians in war a little odd, remember that this was before the London Blitz and that sort of thing- i.e. campaigns to deliberately destroy enemy industry and civilians. Previous events involving civilian deaths had occurred, but often when attackers in sieges rampaged through towns.
Anyway, suffice to say that at this point, things start to happen.
It was a cause of no small amount of excitement when a message was found pinned to the notice board on the town hall saying that one Aun Or'es would be giving us a talk at six o'clock in the evening about the ideals of the Greater Good, as well as life on his home planet. This was especially odd (apart from having a five foot tall blue alien full stop) because the Ethereal had been keeping him (we had worked that much out by now) self to himself most of the time. Every inn in the town had offered the Tau rooms, and every offer had been politely declined. They presumably had quarters on their craft. Not very good ones, judging by how they used our inns, but they definitely had them.
I first heard it from the milkman, who had in turn heard it from his assistant, who when pressed revealed himself to have heard it from a bloke in the pub, who had heard it from a Tau soldier, who had heard it from god knows where. Small children could be seen crowding round the town hall expectantly, waiting for the event to begin. Journalists were clustering around the place, notebooks and cameras at the ready.
The atmosphere in town was one of nervous excitement, as those lucky enough to afford tickets speculated as to what would happen (or promised to describe it to those who couldn't.) A staff car arrived, containing one Major General Sir Richard Croft, who cheerily informed us that, in defiance of his uniform, cap and holstered revolver, he was here in a purely civilian capacity. "They're damned odd types, after all," he said when I asked him. "So, of course, I had to come." He was of middling height, tanned from service in the empire, and sported and impressive grey moustache which perfectly matched his thinning hair. A quarter of an hour later, another car drew up, this time containing the Foreign Secretary, one Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne. He was a short man, with nothing worthy of note save a large moustache and sideburns, contrasting with his bald head. I was told that he had travelled once, quite extensively in fact, but you would never believe it if you had seen him.
Happily, I was to act as interpreter. I gave a pretty good show of being as reluctant as the next man, whereas I was in fact as fascinated as the next man about the whole affair. These Tau were truly strange creatures.
The few hours passed quickly, and, as the sun began to sink below the horizon, we all filed into the town hall and sat down on whatever chairs we could find. I managed to get a straight backed wooden chair near to the stage, and watched as the others fought for space. The colonel and foreign secretary got the arm chairs, as did the mayor and most of the wealthier gentlemen. The women were all seated, unlike the majority of the guests, who had to make do with leaning on wood panelled walls. There was a small stage at one end of the room, with a stand for making speeches and now, I noticed, a string of bunting which combined Union Jacks and strange Tau symbols. There was a piano in the corner of the room, currently being used to keep the crowd happily entertained. The poor pianist had to work hard to drown out the conversation, and was therefore somewhat relieved when the door was opened for one last time. "The Ethereal, Mister Aun Or'es," the curate, one Stanley Matthewson, said, and there was a polite round of applause as the Tau, clad in white robes, made his way towards the stage. The vicar followed. He was a thin man, with the remains of red hair on his head and wire rimmed spectacles.
After a few minutes, the crowd was quiet, and Matthewson stepped forward. "Now, we are terribly lucky to have Mister Aun Or'es here," he said in an oddly high pitched voice. "He has travelled all the way from Mars, and will speak to us now about his experiences on his home planet, and the philosophy his people follow. Ah… yes. I must remind you people to remain quiet whilst he is speaking. We may never have this opportunity again, after all. And… well…" The vicar stepped back and gestured weakly. "I give you the tau himself!"
More polite applause, with the occasional cry from the poorer back row of "Martian! Martian! Martian!" A flag was lifted: a white one with a slogan-I forget the precise words, but it was daubed on in black paint and was vaguely supportive of Mars.
The applause stopped suddenly as Or'es reached into a small pouch on his robes, and produced something shaped vaguely like a saucer, but brown coloured and inverted. He fiddled with something on the back of it, and it began to hover eerily next to his head. There was a collective intake of breath, and then:
"Firstly, I must explain that you have no need of an interpreter," Or'es said. But the words were coming out of the saucer, in English, with slightly metallic, but perfectly clear accent! "although I must thank Doctor Preston for the effort." I blushed and laughed with the rest of them.
"Ladies and gentlemen. As your priest has already pointed out, my name is Aun Or'es. It was not my name given to me at birth; in our culture, we earn names with our achievements. But it will serve in our society. Which, it has to be said, is radically different to your own." There was a pause for effect, which was utterly silent.
"Now, before we go any further, I must clear aside several misconceptions that you humans seem to hold about us. For one thing, we do not, in fact, come from Mars. We come from a rapidly expanding system of worlds-an interplanetary state- the centre of which is called, oddly enough, T'au."
Someone stuck his hand up-from the back row, I recall. A farm worker with a flat cap and a gaunt face.
"Yes?" the Ethereal asked.
"Well, your-ah-etherealship, if it wasn't your bunch who set those lights up-I mean to say- who did?"
"I do not recall any lights," The Ethereal said.
"How can't you 'ave?" The man stopped, embarrassed. "I mean to say that, well, it's been in the papers for about two weeks now, and you have portals in that Ironclad of yours, don't you?"
"He's right, you know," the foreign secretary said. He had an Irish accent. "If your own craft did not make those lights, then we must revert to our own theory. Namely, that there were either volcanoes on the planet mars, or that creatures on there are firing something at us out of some form of gun. We have seen the lights, after all. And the contents of that craft could be potentially dangerous. Your people may well need to take steps to tolerate it."
The Ethereal was now spitting words into some form of portable telephone he had produced from another pouch in his robes. Another minute passed, and it took that long for the hall to interrupt into chaos. People were shouting questions, arguing, wondering who was going to be hit first. I was personally terrified. What kind of technology did the Martians have to evade whatever observers that the tau had?
Two shouts rang out, and everyone froze. General Croft strode forwards, smoking pistol in hand. "Order!" He shouted. There were a few whimpers from the crowd. I looked at my hand, and found it pale with shock. The colonel turned to the Ethereal. "Mister Or'es? May I suggest that this meeting shall be adjourned? If action is to be taken, we need to decide what is to be done."
The Ethereal nodded, his saucer device evidently a two way affair. "Indeed we do, Colonel." He turned to the crowd. "I must apologise, but this meeting is now adjourned. May I now most humbly request that you are to all leave, save for General Croft, the mayor and foreign secretary. If a flying machine passes overhead, there is no need to panic. It will contain several of my advisers."
There was a virtual stampede for the door. I managed to get out quickly, and returned home. I bolted the door, pocketed my revolver and, for the first time since childhood, began to pray. Even as a strange humming sound could he heard outside, I prayed. Eventually, I climbed into bed and spent a restless night tossing and turning, listening to rumble of distant thunder.
The next morning, newspapers reported several cylinders to have landed around the South East of England, and others could also be seen. Reports came in from Paris and Moscow, Washington and Berlin, Istanbul and Vienna, Tokyo and Shanghai. Across the world, the cylinders (presumably Martian in origin) had arrived.
A new age was dawning, but we had no idea what form it would take.
The narrative is now regrettably interrupted by what I can draw out of the minutes taken from the "council of war" between Major General Sir Richard Croft, Shas'Vre Montyr, Aun Or'es, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice and the Mayor of Henley on Thames. There will be other sections similar to this- for instance, extracts from the memoirs, newspaper interviews and suchlike will be used to describe fights, getting the bigger picture, or other such additions which a humble university lecturer cannot hope to get hold of by him self.
(All enter the Town Hall. Montyr is not wearing his armour, instead is clad in robes like the Ethereal. Major General Croft has brought along me, a military clerk by the name of Corporal John Septimus. The Ethereal has his so called "Drone" machine performing the same service, and Fitzmaurice has a secretary by the name of Patrick Johnson doing the same for him.)
Mayor: Pray be seated, everybody. Can I get you anything? Tea? Something stronger?
Croft: No, thank you. Now, it would seem that this world of ours may soon be under assault from a form of warfare of which we know literally nothing. If we are to fight a war against such foes, we need knowledge. (Turns to Montyr.) Now, Major-that is the rough equivalent of your rank, is it not?
Montyr: (into translation drone) Lieutenant would be nearer, Mister Croft.
Croft: My apologies, Montyr. Now, as a "multi planetary empire-"
Or'es: (also into drone) We prefer not to use the term empire, Colonel. It sounds as if we are the dominant race within it, which is not the case- indeed (he stops talking.) We only provide the political doctrine.
(A small smile crosses Fitzmaurice's face. Afterwards, he informs me that he has doubts about the non imperialist nature of the Tau nation.)
Croft: As I was saying, your "multi planetary…nation" may well have previously received assault from foreign powers.
Or'es: Indeed it has. We have met them with almost total success.
(Another smile from Fitzmaurice.)
Croft: And what sort of tactics have you employed? More to the point, how can we adapt our own forces to adapt to these tactics.
Or'es: It would help if you were to give us more details about the composition, number and positioning of your forces.
(Croft gives a brief summary of the British armed forces. But he fails to mention his own Division: Sixth Division of Third Corps, consisting of 18,073 infantry all ranks, with 5,592 horses, 76 guns and 24 machine-guns. The other eleven Divisions number the same, but there are a total of six divisions on the British Isles. The rest are in the Empire.)
Or'es: You have no… land ships? No aircraft?
Croft: None beyond experimental stage.
Montyr: In which case this defense will be more difficult than with our own forces.
Croft: How so?
Montyr: Well- (turns to Or'es.)
Or'es says something in his own language. Montyr turns back to Croft.
Montyr: Our common tactics are to keep the enemy at bay in space, which is impossible with our low numbers of ships here. If they break through, they will start to land troops, often near to major centres of resistance.
Croft: In that case, we had best fortify London.
Montyr: Since we do not know the offensive capabilities of these aliens, it would perhaps be best to engage them outside of your capital city.
Croft: Right. Would that mean scattering our forces across the country to meet any threat?
Montyr: Indeed so.
Croft: And how are we to bring our full strength to bear once they attack? Bringing up men by train will take time.
Montyr: It could be possible to use our Tau troops as a mobile reserve. We have extremely maneuverable… flyers, which could feasibly respond to any sudden threat.
Croft: I see. How far can they travel per day?
Montyr: With sufficient fuel, we could travel up the British Isles in five hours. Easily.
There is a brief silence.
Croft: It would seem that your forces are ideally suited as a reserve, then.
Or'es: Just so, General, just so.
Mayor: What should be done with us civilians?
Or'es: We should probably evacuate them.
Mayor (shocked tone): But we are civillians, man! In war, you do not go out of your way to kill non combatants, damn it!
Or'es: It occurs in our wars-involving…other powers, of course, killing our own, but it still happens. On a large scale.
Croft: Bloody hell. You come from a hard world, Ethereal.
(It is worth noting that Croft was a veteran of the Second Boer wars, in which concentration camps had been employed. It is also worth noting that he deplored the practice.)
Or'es (oddly sadly): Indeed we do, General. Indeed we do.
Fitzmaurice: I shall see to the arrangements, sirs. Or, more accurately, someone else in His Majesty's Government will. In the meantime, best of luck to our brave soldiers! And pray that the Martians don't prove to be aggressive.
Both Tau: For the Greater Good!
Mayor: Ah…yes, I suppose so. For the greater good and all that.
((They discuss logistics for another hour, all of which can easily be found in the London archives.))
The article below is a translated extract from L'Humanité a French Newspaper, where an Ethereal did manage to deliver his speech without interruption.
Crowds gathered today at the very foot of the Eiffel Tower as a so called "Ethereal", a leading member of the alien Tau, by the name of Aun O'Kais, made a speech about his political ideology. Aided by a translating machine, he explained much which may seem strange to human ears. Here to help us to explain it to us is Doctor Louis de Cateau.
"Broadly speaking, the Tau political ideology is based around something that they call "The Greater Good." The nominal leaders of the nation are the Ethereals, who, according to ancient legend, managed to unite the warring factions of the Tau nation.
"The Greater Good fundamentally is an ideology which puts the good of the state ahead of the good of the common man. This may seem very familiar to students of history, with particular reference to past kingdoms and empires, but it is in fact quite different.
"The Tau are split into five "castes", which are based around our ancient Aristotelian elements: the Earth Caste are workers, the Water Caste are bureaucrats, the Air Caste are pilots, the Fire Caste are soldiers, and the Ethereal Caste are leaders. A tau is born into his or her caste, and they may not move from it for any reason. Whilst this may seem somewhat oppressive to our own tastes, especially when compared with communism and socialism, we are informed that it is by far the least oppressive of political ideas in the area. Indeed, there is apparently a so called "Imperium" of a totally different race, which is led by a magical corpse and is based around slowly degenerating technology. It is no wonder, then, that many smaller alien races flock to the Tau for mutual protection and technology which is admittedly far higher than our own. Examples of these would include the "Kroot" and "Vespid", who have accompanied the Tau expedition.
"Whilst it is extremely unlikely that any set of ideas which put state ahead of individual and encourage such iron obedience would ever be implemented in human society, it is worth noting that the Tau have managed to avoid the troubles of civil wars and suchlike since they adopted these ideals. If a human society was to be dragged to the dire straits that the Tau had apparently suffered, it may be the case that such ideals may be a whole lot more likely."