From the log of Aun'Vre Tau Denta of the first exploratory fleet.
Log Entry DNV2 – The natives of Raxas VI were unusual in the extreme and rebuffed almost all attempts by our people to speak with them in early engagements. However due to the efforts of a rather unusual Kroot detachment we were able to begin negotiations although in the limited time available we were unable to make any lasting agreements.
Evidence suggests that all further negotiations should be carried out by our strongest Kroot allies as the situation dictates.
Transcript included
"Raaaaaargh." The Krootox raised both it's arms into the air and swung them around in a show of strength.
"Waaaaaaagh." The natives crowded round cheering in wonder. Countless fists pumping up into the air as they bustled with enthusiasm around their new idol. Occasionally a single of these Orks would advance and challenge it directly, but a single swing would take it down with casual ease.
Beside him his chief diplomat looked at him. "It appears that the natives are impressed by his size and er… greenness I think. They have taken it to be a sign from their Gods and are eager to know more.
"And they're not concerned that their previous leader was torn in half and um, eaten alive." The Kroot were wonderful allies, but it would take time to get used to their quirks.
The diplomat sighed. "It seems we triggered some unknown law and these Orks are treating it as ritual combat, so having won it was his right to do what he wanted with his opponent's corpse. Including eat it as the case may be."
Well, there was nothing for it. "I swear all we did was walk into the clearing. With their leader dead who would be next in charge? Can we identify their chain of command?"
The Diplomat winced. "Yes and no, Identifying their leaders is quite easy, it's just whichever Ork is brave enough to step forward into the ring." They both returned their attention as the Krootox disembowelled another Ork before its beak clamped down and began devouring the unlucky fellow.
He offered a weak smile. "That would make things difficult."
Log Entry DNV5
A vessel loomed amidst the darkness, vast beyond belief almost like a world unto itself floating across the void free of the stars. The technology beyond anything they had in the current era. It had at first seemed to pass them by, and caution demanded he let them pass.
But before that it was a diplomatic expedition and at the very least they should try and speak with them. Whether they were a true elder race, or merely taking a path so divergent from their own they could learn much from one another.
After a somewhat harsh introduction the beings onboard quickly became much more friendly after it turned out we weren't intending to murder them all.
Transcript included.
"You are strange creatures your presence is someway concealed from the warp itself." Her voice rang through the ship without ever touching their own sensors, spoken directly into the mind. "We almost missed your vessel and would have passed you by, how vexing." Power itself rippled across the scanners as the other ship began lighting up with power beyond belief, a significant amount of it turning towards their own vessel.
The crew were already preparing to send off a message buoy in case their fired upon them, so all that was left was to put his best foot forward. "But we have a dialogue now it is only polite to at least introduce ourselves. We are a newcomer to the galactic scale hoping to expand our boundaries and establish peaceful contact in the name of the Greater Good."
The gaze felt like a shiver running up his spine. "I can tell for a start your ship is woefully underequipped for combat and there is no way you could have been trying for long. I fear you will need larger weapons for your next expedition."
"If you must, but we will not fire upon you today." On his own vessel several men sought to protest but he silenced them. Well, it wasn't like it would make much of a difference against the vessel they faced anyway.
After a moment, the other vessel dimmed, its weapons turning away. "You truly do not intend to fight us today, as a gift for the future we will respond in kind, know that many others would not show such mercy."
His crew breathed a sigh of relief, and he pressed his luck. "Do you often find conflict with the other races?"
The gaze returned, greater in its scrutiny even as he watched the rest of his crew shiver. "Well most people are Orks, or the servants of the four," the voice stuttered as though unsure where to begin. "They are oppressive to the extreme. How to explain them if you have not met?
"Violence incarnate as the bloody one seeks war without end,
"Insipid decay corrupting all things as the putrescent one drags whole worlds into ruin,
"Unfathomable plans upon plans twisted until their lies compound upon themselves in service to the deceiver,
"And pain and pleasure entwined to excess that drowns mortals under the claim of that which thirsts."
"The four of them take many guises and all seek only the destruction of all creatures, it is best that you know not too much for your presence is light and they are unlikely to find you. Perhaps like that you will one day grow into a weapon capable of turning them back. Or perhaps that too is a vain hope, only time will tell."
He paused considering her words and smiled wryly back. "If they are as terrible as they sound we would be glad to find common cause against them for the Greater Good of all. We hope to be better neighbours at the very least."
Was the whole galaxy caught in a conflict similar to how the four castes had once warred with each other for eons? But then that was even more reason for them to go forth and act as a guiding light amidst the darkness between the stars.
Something like laughter echoed into his mind at a joke he didn't understand. "Oh, what a difficult challenge you set yourselves, although you can rest assured you have been the most pleasant conversation from a younger race I have had in…" She seemed to trail off the silence growing as the moments passed and he wondered if they were having a malfunction. "Perhaps the most pleasant conversation ever, the galaxy truly sets a low bar for us all sometimes."
The void itself tore and then the giant vessel vanished from existence, a brief word echoing back. "We will watch your civilisation although we may not join it as it stands."
Log - We will advance with caution, however for any who come after us we note down that these words should be taken with some degree of doubt. Many times we have been told of monsters merely to find that our enemies were misunderstood and could still be turned to the Greater Good.
Log Entry DNV8 – We have located what we believe to be the servants of the four.
From the first moment we obtained orbit and hailed them they hurled abuse at our vessel. This was done despite lacking any ships is orbit of their own, and in one conversation they even demanded we get closer so they could hit me with their sword.
We remain quite safe on our ship far out of reach. But I see why they can be called servants of the bloody one.
The city below was filled with smog and dust from waste poured freely from the higher levels that choked their working classes by the thousand. Cramped squalid conditions, a crush of living creatures in a space far too small to contain them. Disease ran rampant through their city almost by design as they sacrificed their own in what can only be described as a death trap.
A corruption seething through their society as they wallow in their own filth worthy of being called putrescent.
From listening to their broadcasts in orbit we heard countless lies, both as to their actions and our intentions which we attempted to dispel as well as their own. From claims that they had scared us off and that we stood paralysed in fear, as though it was bravery to throw away your lives uselessly, to assertions that they had pushed us off the planet after a glorious victory for a battle we did not fight.
In one embarrassing situation we actually launched a rescue operation for a strike team that had gone to the surface after they announced capturing them, only to find out that are team was elsewhere and they'd failed to realise we'd sent any teams in the first place.
Truly worthy of being called the deceiver.
The final segment of the four eluded us for some time, as honestly none of them seemed to be enjoying themselves at all. However, after some time we found a truly opulent building rising above the squalor festooned with gold. Our first scans of those leaving had led us to believe that it served the bloody one, as all those who departed from it were heavily injured. It soon became clear these wounds were self-inflicted, as whole crowds flocked in to whip themselves into a frenzy while screaming out adulations to their Emperor.
They call themselves the Imperium. But think of them not as monsters, instead I would hearken back to the days of the past when Tau fought Tau and the four castes stood at war with one another.
Their masses do not wish to suffer but are kept as such by their circumstances. Lied to by rulers who allow their suffering to continue by callousness and deceit in equal measure. As much the victims of their own abuse as the perpetrators of it, knowing the truth we should seek to convert their worlds and bring them into the fold that their masses no longer need die so meaninglessly and that they may join the civilised races for the Greater Good.
AN: This was not the Tau oneshot I was planning, but it is another Tau thing and was fun to write.
When the Imperium meets just about anybody the only thing they receive is violence, but then it is also their first and last resort so of course everyone wants to punch them.
Given that the Tau seem to find friendly races they can get along with to some extent left right and centre, with an ever expanding list of auxiliaries I tend to assume everyone else gets much politer interactions with one another. The old adage about if everyone you meet is an arse to you perhaps a mirror would come in handy.
