986.M41 Inquisitorial transport
Raxis system
Inquisitor Karev of the Ordo Xenos stared down upon the planet of Raxis Prime. The green, brown and blue colors of the planet all jumbling to =gether to form the massive continents that covered its surface. As high in orbit, as he was, one could almost forget the number of lives that were being lost. Still, it was not something he had the luxury of forgetting.
It was reported that the Tau's forces numbered between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand troops, while the guardsmen forces numbered around two hundred thousand infantry with supporting armor, artillery, and air support. One could easily believe that the Imperial's could win through sheer numbers alone, just as they had for millennia. Unfortunately, especially when dealing with the Tau, numbers could only carry you so far.
The technological advantage of the standard Tau infantry was enough to put one fire warrior on par with a dozen guardsmen in the correct situation. Granted such situations were rare in and of themselves, but the fact that those situations existed at all was enough to put the most experienced tactician off.
What was most concerning however was not the numbers, instead, it was what the Tau were building. Scouts had reported a large metal structure, presumed to be an anti-air weapon. The only conflict with such a presumption was the sheer size of the weapon, the barrel being several dozen meters long.
Such a weapon could be devastating to ground or air forces, but Karev almost wondered if the weapon could potentially be something… more. Surface-to-orbit weapons did exist within the Imperium, but those were few and far between. If the Tau were experimenting with such technology then the results could very well be disastrous.
"Sir! Incoming transmission from the planet's surface, it's the Imperial Guard." One of the crewmen announced.
"Put them through," Karev ordered.
The video feed came up in fairly low quality, showing Commander Jerimiah, the leader of the Imperial forces on Raxis Prime. He wore standard Imperial guard flak armor, though noticeable differences occurred such as the patches and medals indicative of his rank. His hair was short, grey, and had a receding hairline. His left eye had been replaced with a red lensed cybernetic, and his face was covered in wrinkles. This man was old and had been commanding Imperial forces long enough to procure his own collage of scars.
"Inquisitor Karev, it is a pleasure to see that our requests for aid have been answered so quickly." The commander greeted.
Karev nodded, "Indeed. I have only recently finished a mission in a nearby system and I thought it best to deal with this while I was nearby." he explained.
"Thank you, Inquisitor, such aid will surely help in exterminating the Xenos threat." Commander Jerimiah said, "Though, I must admit that I expected you to bring a larger force along with you."
"Unfortunately the majority of the forces under my command during my last mission were ordered to take the place of the local PDF, and thus I am only going to be taking command of the forces available to me on Raxis Prime," Karev explained.
The two men went on to discuss the actual strategy they would use to run the Tau off-world. The Tau forces had organized themselves around a mesa, with the larger amount of infantry and armor surrounding the base, while the Artillery and air deployment sat on top. The massive super weapon sat in the middle, guarded by dozens of guns and its own personal void-shields to avoid orbital bombardment and airstrikes.
Such a defense would be difficult to breach at best, and Karev idly wondered if he should wait for further reinforcement. Shaking the notion to the side, Karev suggested several probing attacks -- all from different directions in a seemingly random order, so as to try and expose whatever weaknesses the Tau may have.
Over the next few weeks, several attacks were performed, with each attack consisting of a single regiment supported by light artillery. Such attacks were not expected to do any real damage but were instead meant to expose any weaknesses. The first few were rather useless, as the Tau were able to force the guardsmen to retreat. It wasn't until the fifth attack that any sort of weakness was found.
It was at the mouth of a river that ran from the mesa down toward the planet's ocean. The regiment attacked from both sides of the river, and found that the defense was much heavier along the river, which in and of itself was not useful -- defending such a point was pivotal, as a river could provide a way to sneak passed such a defense -- but the true benefit was where the defenses were pulled from.
Roughly a kilometer in either direction away from the river, the defenses had been decreased in order to build up the defense of the river. As such, both the Inquisitor and Commander agreed to reorganize the army into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th line corps. The artillery would bombard the left side of the river where the defenses had been weakened, and the 1st line corps would advance in order to draw out as many defenses as possible.
Once the Tau had devoted their primary defenses to the left, the 2nd and 3rd line corps would advance on the right, with the 4th remaining in reserve. If the assault were to succeed then they would have a direct line of attack to the mesa, allowing them to funnel troops upwards. After the diversionary attack on the left was finished, the plan was to bomb either side of the forward line corps to keep the enemy reinforcements from dealing any real damage. Should the 1st line corps break through the enemies defense, however, then the 4th would go to support them while the 2nd and 3rd line corps would withdraw.
All of the line corps would be supported by both light and heavy tank regiments, with the artillery and air support where it was needed. Inquisitor Karev simply hoped that such an assault would succeed and that they would not have to resort to something more desperate.
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The first wave of artillery crashed into the Tau defense, alerting the Tau commanders to the new assault. At first, the Tau assumed it was just another probing assault, but the appearance of the 1st line corps made it very clear that it was not. Las-fire, grenades, and tank shells began slamming into the Tau infantry and vehicles.
Both sides exchanged las-fire and pulse emissions. If they could get in close enough, the guardsmen used their bayonets to get into close quarters combat, rendering the range advantage of the Tau completely inert. Leman Russ tanks and Chimera APC's disgorged their munitions onto the enemy vehicles and battle-suits, killing dozens of them in minutes.
It seemed as though the lighter probing attacks had made the Tau forget the actual size of the Imperial force. Unfortunately, the extensive progress made by the 1st line corps was soon halted when the Tau artillery began bombarding them and Tau reinforcements arrived.
As soon as the reinforcements did arrive, Inquisitor Karev ordered the 2nd and 3rd line corps to begin their assault. Again, just like with the 1st line corps, the 2nd and 3rd line corps made amazing progress in the beginning before. Unlike the 1st line corps, however, their progress did not come to a halt when Tau reinforcements arrived.
It seemed the Tau thought that the second attack would be to draw the reinforcements away from the first line corps attack. Unfortunately for them, the 2nd and 3rd line corps were the main assault and managed to keep tearing into the enemy line. Soon enough they reached the foot of the mesa and began setting up methods to climb the face of the cliffs.
With the successful breakthrough, Karev ordered the 1st line corps to withdraw and take the 4th line corps duty as the reserve, while the 4th line corps followed behind the 2nd and 3rd in order to provide support. When the 1st began to withdraw, many of the Tau fire warriors and battle-suits attempted to follow them, but gave up when they realized that their efforts were needed elsewhere.
Inquisitor Karev sighed in relief when he heard that the 4th line corps had successfully established a safe route from friendly lines to the bottom of the mesa. Now the real challenge could really begin.
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986.M41 Raxis Prime
Tau command camp
Shao'Noah cursed as he read Jay'ki's report on the battle. The Gue'la had somehow managed to find a weak point in their defenses and had launched two separate attacks, the first being a diversion. At first, Jay'ki had assumed the secondary attack to be the diversion, and had instead kept most of his forces to stop the first attack. Unfortunately, the second force was much larger than the first and broke through what little defenses they had.
At the rate they were going, they would be at the top of the mesa, ready to destroy everything the Tau had worked for in a day at most! He had to come up with some way to stop this assault.
"Ethereal, if I may ask, how are we to stop the Gue'la? They have managed to set up a fortified route to the base of the mesa and are preparing to scale it as we speak. If we leave things as they are, we will be overrun in less than a day!" one of the commanders explained.
"I am aware, but we cannot rush headlong into such action. If we do then we cannot hope to turn this to our advantage. Earth caste," he said, turning to one of the shorter T'au in the room, "How soon until the weapon has been completed?"
The Earth Caste member rubbed his chin in thought, "We can have it ready to fire within the next two days, but it will be unstable. We would need another five to fire it properly."
"What are the consequences of firing it early?"
The Earth Caste shrugged, "Minor damage at worst, perhaps some cracked cylinders. Nothing that would take more than a few days to fix."
Shao'Noah nodded, "In that case, then I suggest we move the bulk of our forces to delay the Gue'la, and then once the weapon is finished, we will take out their support ships in orbit to allow us to evacuate. Testing the effectiveness of this weapon in a practical situation is what our mission is after all."
The rest of the T'au at the table agreed with the course of action, even if the Earth Caste were hesitant to damage such a precious piece of technology. Regardless, the plan would move on unhindered.
They began by moving the majority of the rear and flanking guard to the front line of defense in order to slow down, if not outright stop, the advancing Imperials. They had the distinct advantage of having the high ground, whereas the Imperials would have to scale the mesa to reach their main force.
Once their forces had been moved into place, the real battle began. The Imperial's began scaling the walls, with men, vehicles, and heavy guns being lifted up the cliff. The Tau guns began raining pulse emissions down on the Imperials, gunning down several men. Unfortunately for the Tau, the force of Imperial troops was too concentrated and too large to be slowed, and the men reached the top of the mesa, lasguns firing at full auto.
The Tau battle-suits did their best to slow the Imperial armor, flipping tanks and APC's, but the sheer weight of enemy fire forced the large Xenos constructs to fall back or be destroyed. Imperial rocket launchers had caused the deaths of more than a few battle-suit pilots. The Imperials were able to gain a foothold at the top of the mesa, but after that, the rest of the Tau reinforcements arrived, halting the Imperial advance.
That was the first day.
The second day was far bloodier, with the Tau throwing their entire Infantry force at the Imperial line in hopes of driving them off the mesa. Unfortunately for the Tau, the nighttime lull in combat had allowed the Imperial's to transport artillery onto the mesa, thus allowing them to barrage the Tau's oncoming assault.
The Tau eventually did get close enough for the artillery to become ineffective, but their advantage over the Imperial's of the extreme range was lost, meaning they more often than not found themselves in melee with the Imperials, a prospect that did not go well for the fire warriors.
Blue and yellow clashed with green and red, Tau Fire Warrior versus Imperial Guardsman. Commissariats cut down any Tau able to get close to them, their bolt pistols barking as explosive rounds left their chambers. Chainswords revved as they ripped through Tau armor. Bayonets sank into soft blue flesh. Red beams of light burned away skin and bone.
The Tau were not prepared for the brutality of close quarters combat, whereas the Imperial's had been chomping at the bit to take advantage of the style. The Imperial's pushed forward, slowly but surely making their way toward the massive super weapon that the Earth caste was oh so close to finishing.
"How much longer until the damned thing can fire!" Jay'ki asked impatiently. The Imperial forces were less than an hour away from the installation at their current rate of advance, and if they couldn't successfully fire the weapon… the mission would be even more of a disaster than it already was.
"We are finishing the final calibrations now commander! Give us fifteen minutes and those ships in orbit will nothing but derelicts." The Earth Caste assured him.
The calm and collected tone of the Earth caste did nothing to reassure the commander. This weapon was supposed to be for the Greater Good, and his men were dying in service to protect such a device. A small part of his mind asked if so many lives were worth a single weapon, but a cautious look from the Ethereal banished the thought.
"All will be well, Commander. The greater good will prevail." Shao'Noah assured him.
Jay'ki calmed himself, breathing deeply. He had to remain level-headed for the time being, if for no other reason then to prove that he was worthy of the Ethereal's trust. Looking at the map, he saw the progress of the Gue'la, and how quickly they were moving. He wondered where their newfound strength had come from, but then reminded himself of the so-called 'Inquisitor'. The organization was apparently well known among the Ethereal's, so they must be talented commanders in their own right.
Once enough time had passed, the Earth Caste announced that the weapon was ready to fire.
"Target the lead ship of the Imperials! Quickly!" Jay'ki ordered.
On the battlefield, many guardsmen looked up at the massive, hundred-meter long cannon as it shifted position, pointing upwards. Purple and pink lightning crackled as the weapon began to glow. A massive beam of pink energy suddenly surged from the weapon as it fired into the atmosphere.
The group of Imperial ships watched in horror as their lead ship, the Litany of Fire was torn in half by a massive beam of pinkish warp energy. Inquisitor Karev stared from the bridge of his ship, wide-eyed at the destruction wrought by the Tau's latest weapon.
Down on the planet's surface, the Tau on the battlefield cheered as they witnessed the successful firing of their latest weapon. Such cheers were soon turned to screams of terror as the Weapon, the compound, and anything within a kilometer of the weapon was consumed in a burning, eldritch explosion.
The minds of the Psyker's used to fuel the weapon had been torn asunder by the Tau scientists and with no control of their own abilities, let out such a scream within the warp that they opened a rift. A kilometer across, the hole in the planet's surface appeared to be a whirlpool of demonic energies. Guardsmen called for a retreat as daemons began pouring out of the rift, tearing into the Tau fire warriors that hadn't been caught up in the initial blast.
Such creatures were the denizens of the warp, monstrosities birthed from pure emotion in service to the dark gods of chaos. Lasfire and pulse emissions did almost nothing to stop such creatures, as they simply kept rushing forward and tearing into Tau and human forces indiscriminately. The Tau, with their commanders dead in the explosion, panicked and were wiped out fairly quickly.
The Imperial's used the distraction their enemies provided to withdraw to their fortifications and watch as the daemons destroyed the Tau utterly and completely.
Fire Warriors were skewered by tentacles and spikes, bitten in half or swallowed whole, or simply torn apart by massive claws. The guardsmen, more often terrified than not, opened fire with artillery and heavy weaponry in order to take down as many of the creatures as possible.
Up in orbit, Karev stared in horror at the blip of glowing pink visible on the planet below. Vox operators were panicking as they relayed orders and requests for reinforcement, meanwhile, Karev could only stare.
"Sir! What are we going to do!?" one of the crewmen asked.
Karev blinked, "Get a message to the astropath, tell him I need to send a request for aid to a specific set of coordinates." he ordered. The crewman nodded, relaying the message and coordinates.
"I hope you get this Jarod… I don't know what we'll do if you don't."
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"And you're sure they actually went through with such a plan?" the red daemon asked incredulously.
"Yes, my lord. The Xeno's known as the Tau have opened a warp rift on the world known as Raxis Prime, and have been summarily wiped out. The Imperial loyalists remain, however, and it is unknown if they plan on staying or evacuating." the sorcerer explained.
The red daemon Primarch huffed as he gazed out the window of his tower. His precognition warned him that the planet had a much larger role to play, and for some reason, he was getting that same sensation he did when he spoke to the Slaaneshi marine.
"Tell me, whatever happened to that Slaaneshi marine? How did his raid end up going?" He asked.
The sorcerer Astartes shrugged, "His band was wiped out, and if I hear correctly, Lucius the eternal was killed in the assault. A temporary setback to be sure, but rumor has it that he has yet to return even now."
This notion caused the daemon Primarch to raise a brow, "The first captain of the Emperor's children has yet to return? What could possibly be taking him so long?"
"We are unsure, however… some fear that he may have actually been put down… permanently."
"Permanently? I thought only a creature with pure mercy in their mind could outright kill him? What, did the shrieking skeleton himself get off his throne put a stop to him?" he asked.
The sorcerer scoffed, "Nothing so ridiculous as that, my lord. No, it is simply a rumor, nothing more."
Magnus the red hummed as he began to scry the planet of Raxis Prime. Out of idle curiosity, he sent a minor daemon to observe the ensuing battle. Perhaps he would finally understand what Tzeentch was constantly laughing about.
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