Authors Note: Ok chapters like this will be used ot help you, the reader, understand the story better by seeing the conflict evolve over the world. I willl use chapters like these to help launch into new ones.
The Imperial Guard forces under Lord-General Nacin rolled over the rocky, mountainous regions outlying the city of Khudan, the rocky ground smashing underneath their treads.
The battle in the large eastern cities was one of almost limitless attrition, one which the Guard, as agrred upon by all the Tacticains in the fleet, was designed to win.
The Tau had constructed fortifications around the outlying areas of the city, surrounding them in trenches and bunkers, filled with carefully placed anti-air turrets and missile emplacements, ready to fill the skies with death. The Tau commanders had thought there defenses would be enough, no sane force would ever be able to break through without massive casualties, but as the Tau were still young and so sure of themselves they had no idea what the Imperium could unleash.
Lord-General Nacin upon hearing the of the arrogance of the Tau said to his commanders, "They thought they had faced the storm, and weathered its force, but they just crested the first wave."
Nacin's entire forces along with special companies of elite Guard storm troopers, entered the offensive with operation, "Hell's Wrath"
As the Tau watched, tens of thousands and troops and machines charged through the field of Tau energy and missile fire, the roars of Basilisk self-propelled guns, Manticore rocket launchers, Hellfire heavy artillery and other fire support weapons opened up behind the charging Guard forces.
Nacin himself led from the front, his elite honor guard units with him, as they were with all Laotian Generals that took to the field of battle. Their golden carapace armor freshly cleaned and their masterfully constructed weapons ready. Ready to protect their leader with death upon failure of that sacred duty.
As the xeno commander, the notorious Shas'el Shovah looked in horror upon the might of Emperor from his command tent. The first aircraft screamed overhead ready to unleash their weaponry. The Tau defenses were well constructed, pulse fire raced up into the heavens, arcing towards the bombers and fighters of the Navy squadrons, but the tacticians had already anticipated this move, the amount of aircraft turned the sky nearly black.
Even as the Tau aircraft moved to engage, hundreds of Lightning and Thunderbolts, the esteemed Raptor, Terrix, Kurt and Lokin squadrons leading the fight. Flights of Marauders and Furies still were mowed down in droves, whole squadrons dying, the blazes of there descents announcing there falls to the ground with the screeching of lost souls and the boom of detonated munitions.
Incendiary bombs and high-explosives detonated in their thousands up and down the Tau battle lines. The amount of ordinance creating a miniature earthquake along the ground. Plumes of dust and fire bloomed upwards, twisters of death that spiraled amongst the aliens. Furies flew over the lines, unleashing salvos of missiles onto the ground. Many still were shot down, but there were many more to take those lost places.
To the Tau's credit they reacted with surprising swiftness, their commander already ordering them into firing lines. As Shas'el Shovah looked upon his assembling warriors he felt a confidence that was out of place of the situation. They had panicked for a moment before training reasserted itself, and these soldiers were the best.
Shovah knew, he had supervised over much of their training. As he looked out upon the heat hazed plains he began to think just how foolish this attack was, there was know way they could break through his lines. But as if some sinister God was waiting for Shovah's very thoughts the first drop troopers started to land in the trenches, their grav-shuts deploying behind them.
Captain Ixis of the elite "Death Joker" Imperial Guard Storm Troop regiment fell onto the heads of the mixed Tau, Kroot, and Human rebel troopers with a grin on his craggy features.
Around him with the usual soundless precision, landed hundreds of drop troopers, there matt black armor and weapons reflecting the light of gunfire, many were hitting the ground dead, holes blown into torsos and heads. Blood misted the air, and the air crackled with the sound of battle and the sound of bodies hitting the ground.
He broke the skull and spine of a luckless human in the service of the Tau as he landed with a thump. He rolled, pressing the release mechanism of his shute, avoiding a number of clubs and blades being swung at him, and sprang to his feet. His melta-pistol hissed in his hands as it unleashed a torrent of superheated molecules which destroyed the rebels in front of him while he swung his own weapon, a buzzing micro edged saber, its quality only able to reproduced in the most advanced forges of Mars. Imbedded in its hilt was a mini-battery which caused its edges to move back and forth so fast it seemed just a faint vibration, betraying its ability to cut through armor and bone with ease.
He sliced through one mans head, his brains splattering his helmet and neck, while he finished through his stoke with a masterful cut that ended the use of the man attacking him lungs, kidneys and lower intestine. As the heretic fell at his feet in a gurgling scream, he continued his butchery watching as his men push through the trenches, searing beams of lasfire and the bursting of grenades foretelling their presence. But even though it seemed the elite troops were winning he saw Kroot pushing up towards his men, charging into the men with shrill cries.
They hacked with the blades on their weapons, dismembering men, turning them to bloody chunks. Many also held long swords or a multitude of vicious knives and hooks that tore the flesh as they struck with inhuman swiftness. They broke bones with swift punches and kicks before finishing them with quick shots with their rifles as they fell to the ground. As the counter charge of avian-like aliens commenced, the Tau answered the Imperial artillery barrage with thousands of smart missiles an tens of thousands of pulse rounds that scream into the air with a shocking ferocity. The air shook with the power of the weapons that were cutting through it, dwarfing the sound of even the battling forces of armor, aircraft and infantry.
The Kroot's countercharge had splintered the men's advance, they were losing their advantage fast, if the reinforcements didn't arrive soon, he was screwed.
He turned from his thoughts as a spherical object flew through the air and landed near his feet, rolling to a stop. He started to shout a warning, "PHOTO…" when a searing flash of light blinded his vision.
He dove away from the blidning light, searching for cover. Rounds whistled past his face, smacking into others behind him, followed by short screams of dying men. He stumbled blindly about, ducking through the swirling bodies. He tripped on something that felt suspiouscly like a severed head and fell to the blood soaked ground.
He scrambled about for something to arm himself with, the blinding galre of the Photon grenade still flashing before his eyes. Finding a cold hand which gripped a vox receiver he knew that he needed help. He raised it to his ear with a blood-stained hand, " Where is our damned support! Were being massacred out here!" The vox hissed, the line silent. Ixis turned towards the sky and implored the God-Emperor for help.
If there was any sign of a answer the blood red sky gave no hint of it.
General Nacin screamed his defiance to the air as his men rode over the hastily constructed Tau defenses, fire screaming from their weapons.
He looked around the Gorgon assault transport, fifty golden armored killers met his flinty gaze, none wanting the dishonor of not meeting there commander's eyes.
The Gorgon was a heavily armored and armed transport that was designed to breach fortifications and unleash their payload of men unto the enemy, with a full platoon of men in each the term payload was perfectly suited to its purpose. On their sides were mounted mortars which whumped as they walloped out shells into the Tau forces. In front of bouncing mass transport drove the Thunderer siege tank Hammerhead, its single siege cannon and dozer blades ripping trough the landscape.
The Imperial charge was beginning to slow as they had to maneuver through treacherous terrain while taking the brunt of the Tau and their allies firepower. He saw tanks erupt into fireballs, their crews bailing out before being shot down , their bodies collapsing into bloody heaps. Hundreds of men and machines were dying around him, and if he didn't break through the aliens lines soon, he would be routed with only thousands of dead to show to his other commanders for his efforts.
He turned to his servant, his name not known to the General as his purpose was to serve, and studied the man.
While many of the hardened Honor Guard were getting at least slightly off balance in the rocking Gorgon, the servant looked for all the world like a man standing in a shallow pool for all the difficulty he was having. Nearly 6'3 and 270 pounds, hsis servant was built like a Orc and twice as vicious.
Nacin, over his long career, had employed dozens of such servants. But this one always made him impresed, whether with his ability to have never had said a word besides, here and sir.
Maybe it was the fact that he could take a rifle butt to the head and remain conscious.
There was several distuinguishing qualities about him, but best of all was his obedience. No servant had ever followed his orders without never asking a question. And in a time period of 44 years, that was impressive.
"Bring me my weapons!"
He nodded and walked towards a small storage compartment hooked onto the sides of machine, opening it and withdrawing its contents.
He strode back towards the general, "Here sir."
In his hands were his ornamented storm-bolter along with a staff which was covered in gold and metal, its head fashioned in the form of his home world of Laotia.
"Thank you, now ready yourself, soon we shall face the enemy."
The servant nodded, hefting his flamer and started to check its ignition systems along with fuel lines as the consequences for having a ruptured pipe would be very deadly indeed.
Nacin readied his own weapons, placing the clips into the storm bolter while pressing the button on the handle of his staff which sent a flicker of electricity down its length. Making the metal crackle with power.
In front of him the Thunderer fired its cannon destroying a part of the trenches and hurtling debris in the air before it was destroyed by some type of mine, its hull flying apart in the explosion. The other Gorgons, loaded with men from his Honor Guard and regular frontline regiments drove into the breaches made by the tanks and storm-troopers, lowering their ramps and letting a tide of men flow into the battle, their sponson mounted weapons firing all the while.
As the ramp lowered and the General charged out the hatch he rejoiced in the fact that he again was able to fight in glorious battle.
Nacin fired his bolter in short bursts of fire, its grip kicking in his hands, he saw Men, Kroot and Tau come apart under his fire. Brains, blood and bone flew through the air, while all those that came to close were shot down in bursts of lasfire by his guards, his servant walked forward, flamer cooking bodies and detonating munitions. His face masked by the heat issuing forth from his flamer.
Swarming around the advancing general was hundreds of men, along with tanks that drove around the forces, their guns and sponsons firing. Nacin strode through the carnage, his staff crackled as he struck a Kroot Carnivore in the head that tried to rip his throat out with its beak, its bones splintering and a discharge of energy frying its brain. The smell of charred flesh wafted up towards Nacin and he wrinkled his nose in mild disgust.
He stuck around him with his staff, his Honor Guard fighting around him, absorbing fire with their carapace armor. A vibration traveled through his body as a Hellhound Flame tank appeared over the lip of a copse of rocks, its Inferno Cannon swiveling. It unleashed a wave of liquid fire, its passage burning through the Tau troops, their screams resounding in his ears with satisfying loudness.
The heat of fire made hurt his face with its burning, making him squint around as its brightness hurt his eyes. He laughed as the cleansing flame did its job, "Forward men!"
He saw a Tau skimmer vehicle round around a large rock and knowing what came next ducked down under the body of a fallen Tau, yelling a warning.
The unleashed beam of energy struck the flame tank, powered through its medium armor and stroke its prothemium tanks.
The explosion sucked the oxygen from the air the heat was so intense, making lungs crisp. All things living, whether human or alien were instantly fried, burnt husks that were once bodies fell to the ground.
Nacin grimaced as the explosion filled his vision, he ducked down into cover, ramming home fresh clips into storm-bolter. He racked the slide with a satisfying clack before standing up again to observe how the battle was proceeding.
Vox chatter was in his ear, telling him that a massive Tau counter armor charge had splintered into the main force, he could see it by the firestorm raging just out of his line of sight just how large. He saw men dying by their dozens, their armor ripped apart by pulse rounds, body parts flung in the air by smart missile detonations and limbs detached from their places by Kroot blades or skulls smashed by their rifles and fists.
His advance was turning into a slaughter as men were chopped down by the aliens, the armor charge by the Tau was destroying his advance. He was filled with battle rage as he rose from cover his storm-bolter roaring in his hands like a wounded beast, his arc of fire pulped through Firewarriors, penetrating their armor with ease while it obliterated the Kroot and Human auxiliaries, as they wore little to no protection. He charged into the fray, his gun still firing into the mass, smashing around him with his staff, sending electrocuted bodies to the ground.
His men rallied around him firing concentrated waves of las, bolter, flamer and rocket fire into the melee. The men of Laotia charged the fray with blades and guns flashing, the Emperor's work was going to completed.
Ixis ran through the war torn section of land that he was fighting on. Bodies and burnt out vehicles littered the ground, discarded equipment and gore on the ground in almost equal amounts.
The sky was still filled with dozens of aircraft, tracer fire leaping from their weapons. Wrecks crashed to the ground, most of them filled with their crew while others managed to eject from the cockpits, drifting the ground.
His weapons felt heavy in his hands, his blade covered in xeno and human blood while his Melta-pistol was burning hot from use. Behind him stood several squads of storm-troopers hell-guns and grenade launchers along with several more squads of regular guardsmen and even a few tank crewmen. Almost one third of his men were wounded, slowing him as he moved towards the huge battle on the horizon leaving a trail of blood and used bandages behind them. The few medics he had frantically trying to save the lives of their comrades.
The air was rife with the sounds of battle, gunfire, artillery and the screams of dying traveled across the wind. As he moved he would encounter groups of Tau, Kroot and Rebel Guardsmen, each one he and his men dispatched with ruthless efficiency.
As Ixis moved further along the fortifications he saw more and more signs of the Guard forces being butchered. Tanks cracked open, smoke pouring from the breeches in their hulls. A carpet of bodies so deep that it covered parts of the trenches where the fighting was thickest. All this was repeated over and over, and Ixis knew that the cost of this battle would be terrible.
His thoughts were interrupted as the man in front of him turned, "Sir, we have approached a bunker. Your orders?"
"Follow me."
He moved to the front of the line of men to get a better view of the bunker. From the back the large construction didn't seem as impressive compared to the front. From its front Ixis could see streams of fire emerging from the bunkers firing slits heading towards the massive clash of forces out on the ground in front of it. Hundreds of pieces of armor of all classes fought alongside thousands of infantry in a open area with no cover except that of wrecked vehicles and dead comrades.
The area was filled with shells and bursts of energy, filling the air with a cacophony of war. Ixis had seen nearly twenty three years of war in the Emperor's name but was still momentarily shocked at the scale of the engagement happening before him.
He turned to his equally awestruck men, "This way, quietly."
Knowing he had to snap them out of the sight fast, they crept towards the thick door of the bunker.
There were no guards so clearly they thought no enemies would be getting through their outer ring of defenses.
Too bad for them.
"Stack up."
Men formed on either side of the large blast door, readying their weapons. He aimed his Melta-pistol at the door and loosed a lance of thermal energy, melting thorough its hardened surface.
A storm trooper then swiveled into the doorway and loosed a salvo of grenades form his whirring Grenade launcher into the confines of the bunker. The sound of the detonations and smoke drifted out from the doorway, along with the screams of dying men and aliens.
"GO!"
His few dozen men he had under his command entered the doorway to the bunker. They reached the main chamber where the heavy fire directed towards the Imperial forces had been coming from, the grenades handiwork obviously shown.
There was a collection of shrapnel ridden bodies, blood spattered the walls and floor, both the dark red of humans and blue of the Tau Firewarriors. Weapons lay on the ground where dead hands had dropped them, and mounted in firing position was a multitude of Tau pulse weapons and human shell firing platforms.
"Secure the bunker."
His men branched off in different directions around the fortification, advancing cautiously. He started over to a munitions room, its confines filled with weaponry and ammo when he heard a stream of heavy lasfire overlapped with the sound of pulse rounds and bullets.
He immediately turned to the sound of the close combat, running towards one of the many passageways, his heart ringing in his ears.
He entered a room with firing slits cut into the walls, the inside echoing with the clamor of battle.
Human auxiliaries and Tau troops were engaged in close combat with the mix of storm troopers and Laotian Guardsmen. Bayonets and combat knifes bit into flesh while las and pulse rounds struck armor and bone.
He jumped into the fray with a , "For the Emperor!" on his lips, his sword already swinging.
Ixis chopped downwards with his blade, severing a spine and continuing the stroke into the hardness of Tau battle-plate before cutting through its abdomen, receiving a shriek of pain for his efforts. He raised himself just in time to avoid a officers sword which was held in the hands of a traitor guardsmen, it instead bit into his leg, his black carapace armor deflecting the blow. He lashed out with a kick that broke the mans nose before stepping forward and running him through with his blade, a torrent of sticky blood washing onto his hands.
He yanked out his sword with a grunt of effort and looked around the room, seeing the enemy defeated. Bodies littered the floor, mainly Tau and traitors but with Imperial's mixed in, mostly the Laotian's but a handful Storm Troopers also. Men walked about and put mercy shots in to the wounded that were writhing on the ground, before taking whatever ammunition they could find.
He told them to fortify the area before heading back towards the munitions room he previously was going to enter, walking back down the hallways.
As he reentered the main chamber he saw men wheeling heavy bolters, autoguns and even a few burst cannons towards the firing windows again, ready to direct the bunkers firepower towards the aliens out on the war torn landscape in front of them.
Ixis opened his vox channel, "Sergeants report. Is all the bunker secured?"
"Yes, sir" the reply of many different officers crackled down the net.
"Casualties? "
"Light casualties sir."
"Good. Any weapons we can use?"
"We have Hydra flack batteries on the top sir." That would be that rouge of a Sergeant Florin, the only hothead under his command.
"Hydras Florin?"
"Yes sir. This was obviously a Planetary Defense Force bunker before it was taken over. It is well armed and supplied."
"Good, get your men to use those batteries to shoot down the enemy air-craft."
"Sir I don't think we have time for the aircraft."
"And why is that?"
"I see a large force heading in our direction, it's definitely not ours."
"Damn."
Ixis glanced around the chamber, men already at the firing points, shooting towards the enemy below and then back at the munitions bunker.
"We got plenty of ammo and firepower, lets use it. Start getting those Hydras ready to fire Florin."
"Sir, why would we start shooting the aircraft, we have infantry problems."
"Who said we were gonna shoot the flying buggers?"
Nacin was perhaps the most tired and most cheerful in his entire life.
He had come to that conclusion as he fought for the ravaged ground that was now the center of his entire existence in these past few hours.
The ground was transformed from a hostile desert of hardy plants and animals to a terrain whose insides were bared to the sky as munitions impacted upon its skin.
His arm send blares of pain to his brain as he fired his Storm bolter, his muscles torn from the task of absorbing recoil. He mowed through waves of the enemy, all the men he could rally behind him, whether it be Honor guard, Guardsmen or Tank crewmen.
Armor on both sides rammed into each other in clashes of titanic steel while firing their large cannons and weapons. Everything else around him faded as the task of shooting, ducking and breathing took precedence before all other nerve impulses. There was no fear, there was no hesitation there was just simple animal instinct.
His cycle was interrupted as his weapon finally rattled out its last batch of shells and he lifted his staff with both hands, his arms aching form exhaustion.
He hacked through a tangle of barbed wire, its length coked with bodies of both sides. On the other side was a site which was perhaps the most unwelcome thing he has seen for awhile.
A column of xeno might was stretched before him and his men, the huge battle behind him momentarily forgotten.
It seems that we didn't hit them quite hard enough after all.
Nacin mused as he saw the Tau regrouping, massive Battlesuits strode forward towards battle. Weapons the size of small cannons were clasped onto their arms, ready for firing. Nacin sighed before turning backwards towards his motley collection of men, thoughts of victory gone from his mind.
"It seems that we need to stop here and prepare for death in the Emperor's name."
The men didn't even seemed shocked such was their fatigue, they just readied themselves.
Good men, couldn't asked for a better bunch to die with.
As he turned backwards towards the approaching Tau he saw his loyal servant come apart under a burst of Tau fire, thinking only of his master even at the end, making sure his death got none of his blood upon Nacin.
Then as he steeled himself for his doom he heard a peculiar sound which he thought he would only hear a few times in his entire life. The sound of a Deathstrike Missile.
It hit the approaching Tau with a sound like reality being torn apart.
Deathstrike missiles are the only vortex technology which the Imperium was able to produce with any quantity, making them a key, if fragile part of major Guard offensive.
As they hit a miniature vortex opened itself upon reality. It sucked things into a void of darkness and those caught at the edge of its blast were cut neatly in half or flung away with horrible force.
The General laughed at this embodiment of the Emperor intervened in his fate.
He was still laughing as the first Medical Chimera carried him away.
Captain Ixis looked out upon the corpse heaped firing emplacements that had once been the strongpoint of his defense. As the Tau had advanced, overlapping there advance with perfect fields of fire Ixis had sprung his trap.
The Tau Shas'vre, armored in his mighty suit of techno sorcery, had obviously thought that the potent anti-aircraft batteries placed in the bunker wouldn't be used on his infantry. But thanks to the ingenuity of Ixis that option had been dispelled.
As the first of the enemy filtered into the field of fire of Ixis's troops he gave the order to open fire.
A collection of Heavy bolters, Stubbers and Lasguns along with the Hydra flak-batteries blossomed into life, shredding the Tau.
Ixis had laughed as the xenos had floundered beneath his fire, before that laughed died as soon as it appeared as the Tau Sahs'vre had rocketed up into his men along with several packs of Kroot, led by a fearsome Shaper wielding two wicked blades.
The Battlesuit landed its canons whirred into life spitting out hundreds of powerful rounds of energy, turning men to scraps of meat and bone. The Kroot lashed about them with blades of all sorts, all the while shrieking some fearsome battle cry.
He turned towards the men who were wheeling forward a Tau burstcannon which they had modified to allow them to fire, "Cover me".
He ran through the stacks of ammo and weaponry which his men had stacked up, heading towards the Tau commander.
As he ran he rallied other troops to him or killed Kroot which were dining upon his comrades flesh. He raised his Melta-pistol loosing a stream of energy form its muzzle before ducking beneath one of the gore stained blades of the Kroot Shaper.
It whirled and danced around him, avoiding his blade and using its own weapons to cut at his armor, leaving long raw marks on the Storm Trooper's flesh. He again lunged trying to catch it off balance before it struck again but it just deflected his clumsy strike and slashed him across the arm for his efforts.
The Kroot stepped forward ready to deliver his death blow but one of the Tank crewmen he rescued along the way fired at it with a worn Laspistol drawing the Shaper's attention from Ixis. He quickly scooped up the buzzing blade and while the Kroot hacked apart the crewmen and carved through its back with his weapon, feeling its blood spatter his face.
He began to work his way towards the Tau commander again before stopping short as he witnessed the carnage the war machine could create.
It weapons still shooting at a tremendous rate, it strode around the battle ripping through chests and punching off heads with a crackling fist that was attached to its arm. It would periodically sweep its other arm around in a wide arc, smashing through bodies with its mechanical strength. He sprinted towards the machine, narrowly avoiding energy rounds and Kroot blades before doing a siding dive and landing near one of its legs. As the mechanical tonnage began to raise its appendage to crush him he pressed his pistol against one of its joints and squeezed the trigger, letting the harsh whiteness fill his vision.
Shas'o O'Ro looked upon his assembled forces with pride.
As the Gue'la had driven into the Tau's defenses on the planet O'Ro had felt his rage build with each day. Only with his continued faith in the rightness of his cause, the Tau'va had kept him from unleashing his anger.
He knew that the time of retribution had come for him. The Ethereal Monat had just informed of that his fellow Shas'o were ready for the worldwide offensive that would begin.
Days of watching his forces be slaughtered were still fresh in his mind as his forces marshalled out of the gates of Tilbaut, heading for the great city of Khudan.
O'Ro made a impressive figure in Tau military, taller than most Tau, but still whipcord lean, he had acquired a reputation for tactical brilliance over his years of military service in the Fire Caste of Sa'cea, his heavily modified Commander Battlesuit painted with the fiery orange colors of his world.
His troops below him also bore those colors upon there armor, wearing them with pride throughout every war zone. O'Ro took one last look at his forces before signaling his bodyguards that it was time to leave.
The might of the Tau'va would always prevail over the Gue'la Corpse-Emperor.
Authors Note: YES THE TIME IS FINALLY HERE! All Tau fans rejoice as I will now be able to write from Tau point of view with the gracious and most satisying help from The Lone Hunter, Author of the Great Battlegrounds Series. Thanks man for all your help. Also plz review as they will help me make this story better for all to read if you find any errors! LMJ