Once again, an excellent chapter to this story. My vote is going to be for the transmitter as well. Stopping the rebellion serves Tau'va as well as Kro'le, whereas going to the hospital will just make it a giant target for a consolidated attack once the rebels know the Firewarriors are there. And who knows, if the doctors stabilized Kro'le enough for him to travel to Seko, he might already be taking action to fight (probably against the doctor's orders), even if that just entails taking out a lone squad of rebels who were attacking the hospital and using their weapons to begin sniping rebels from the roof . Just thinking out loud.

Hey everyone,

I'm really glad that you liked the last chapter, it's the one that I decided to go a little off the more creative end, 'jumping the piraña' if you will.

PhraktulKaur has sent me a PM with some helpful corrections. Because this post has gotten such great attention, I think I'm going to repost the story as a single thread- using this post for questions/development/and voting.

I am also hoping to maybe woo one of the local artists to put some rudimentary pictures together of some of the people and locations, so if you know anyone ( ) put in the good word.

Clean up

I realize there might have been some confusion, so I'll address them here and correct/add to the more finalized version of 'The Coming Storm'.

First off- the Cerax colony is set in two domes, 'Primary' and 'Secondary' which are a few kilometers apart on the surface of the planet. They were built by a combination of Vespid and Earth Caste engineers allowing for an incredibly advanced and structurally sound construction. The domes stretch up for a few kilometers and are 'capped' by a docking ring- visually, imagine the upper half of a Forgeworld Orbital Structure:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Images/Prod ... rbital.jpg

Ships actually fly underneath the lip of the dome and are tethered by tractor beams (gravitic projectors). They are then guided under the 'cap' and are allowed to dock. After the transport exploded this cap expanded to close off the dome and to prevent possible atmospheric failure.

Additionally- Nuu'l has a 'TECH GLOVE' think of it as a Nintendo glove controller. Meanwhile, Ghel'uuns earth caste pod can be seen in the Codex or expertly done by our own LordDirk:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l28/L ... ste002.jpg


If there are any other questions- please voice them and I'll add/correct/expand on the writing.

Thanks everyone!

Loved that last chapter, and I'm sure the vote is already decided, but I too vote for transmitter. The only way they have a chance is with their drones and their intel/communications.

Keep it up, and I loved your more creative narrative this time around!

-tis

(This one is for Kles'ro- you read my mind)

Recovery Ward

Kro'le woke to the sounds of screams and gunfire. Opening his eyes he calmly looked about the room, an advanced looking medical suite, and concluded that he was no longer on the Strident. Next he took mental note of his body. The wounds that had been inflicted on him were severe so it did not surprise him when his fingers brushed against skin grafts and bonding foam under a large bandage taped to his side.

"Bionics..." He mumbled distastefully. He had served in the Sa'Cea Sept cadres for eight years after his graduation and another four years under Sia't. Every mark on his body had been self-inflicted, each one a deliberate badge of service. And now his record was tarnished because he'd let himself get caught.

He swung his legs off the bed and slowly got to his hooves, adhesive sensors and needle tipped tubes pulling off him. He yanked the more tenacious ones off and stretched, feeling his muscles and bones strain with effort. How long had he been out? And where was everyone?

A blast of gunfire, not far off, rang through the empty hallways.

"And who in the hells is that..." A fist sized assistant drone detached off the wall and flew to his eye level. He ignored it, rubbing at his leg muscles and willing them to recover, he would need them soon enough.

"Please, 'La Kro'le, if you'll return to the bed-"

"Where is Shas'Ui Sia't."

"Mistress 'Ui Sia't excused herself at the conclusion of your successful surgery-"

"Where are the staff?"

"'La Kro'le, please, return-"

"I'm not getting back in bed. Where am I?"

"Bionic implantation can take days before optimal mobility returns, you are endangering-"

"Okay, never mind." He gently touched the center 'eye' lens of the drone and swiped in a counter clockwise gesture that shut it down. It drifted away and back to it's wall mount. A fresh exchange of small arms fire broke out. Someone out there didn't know how to use a pulse rifle and they were alone against a las gun, probably a pistol, and a heavier autorifle.

He took a step forward, winced, then scavenged the room. He found a medical satchel which he then filled with items. A gas-based pain killer that he took a draught of before pocketing along with nutrient bars, medical adhesives, and a neat little vibro blade that was fully charged. He glanced at the mirror before he finished and almost laughed at himself. Reaching up to the drone he waved his hand in front of it, bringing it back to service.

"Where are my clothes?" He couldn't save the day wearing a medical gown now could he.

"'La Kro'le, I must insist you return-"

"Never mind." Armed and dressed as such, he'd at least make a good inspirational poster for all those Shas'saal in the academies.

*

"Enforcer! Lay down your weapon and the humans say they'll let us go. They are just after the antibiotics!" The Por'La nurse was on his knees. Almost every inch of the floor, walls, and ceilings of the hallway were scorched and cratered from weapons fire.

The Enforcer, one Por'La B'hot, cradled his pulse rifle from behind a planter he was using as cover. The humans, he thought there were three, had been able to enter the hospital but, with only one way in, B'hot had been able to keep them out so the humans had brought up hostages to force him out. Right now he was the only thing keeping them from gaining access to the elevator and emergency stairway behind him.

"How do I know they're telling the truth!"

The nurse relayed in Gue'sia to his captors. One of the humans barked something in their guttural tongue.

"Enforcer... They say they will kill me if you don't let them have what they want... Por'La, do not let them into the facility, we have dozens of patients and infant 'saal in the nursery... They'll kill them!" A human came out, a big male, and hit the nurse savagely with the stock of his autogun. B'hot closed his eyes.

"Alright-" A hand came out of the blackness and covered B'hot's mouth. The terrified Enforcer looked up and saw an unmistakable Firewarrior in a patient gown and a nutrient bar dangling from his mouth.

"Hey. How's it going? My name's Kro'le." Kro'le peered over the edge of the planter. He saw the nurse and the human position set behind a tipped over couch. "Yeah. That's not good. You want to give me that?" He pointed at B'hot's rifle.

"I- yes?" He said as Kro'le took the weapon. "What are you doing?"

"Are they Imperials?" Kro'le asked, priming the rifle and ejecting the power cell. "You do realize these things overheat? You've got more than enough rounds, but the power cells burn out quick if you're not careful." He jerked his thumb to the other end of the hall, "Imperials?"

"No. The city-net went down but I think they're Lady Serat's gang." Kro'le looked at him with a questioning raised eyebrow. "Oh, um. Insurgents, sir, alien fanatics. Criminals." Kro'le nodded, finishing his prep.

"Well. Let the nurse know we won't let him die."

"But-"

"What's your name again?"

"B'hot, I'm an Enforcer."

"That's great. I've been in this kind of situation before. Let them come." B'hot looked into the Shas'La's eyes and was both frightened and assured by what he saw in them.

"Okay." He stood up, hands raised. "I yield!"

"No!" The nurse shouted then was kicked forward by the human in charge. They advanced, guns up. When they reached B'hot they found him alone. After checking the rest of the hallway they returned to B'hot and the nurse.

"Why? Why did you let them in?" The nurse was whispering to B'hol, on the verge of sobbing.The humans spoke in low tones, then one slid the action back on his rifle and looked down on the two Por'La. "They're going to kill us and then everyone else!"

"I- I'm sorry."

The human smiled and grumbled in his own language then aimed at B'hot's head.

"Hey, Gue'la." Kro'le's voice was genuinely polite as it drifted from the emergency staircase. How the Firewarrior had avoided being found, B'hol would never know, and neither would the three humans.

The one aiming the autogun caught a single, incandescent pulse round in the eye, his hair briefly catching on fire before the rest of his skull exploded. Even as his body fell, Kro'le had moved to the girl, using the recoil of the first shot to carry the rifle over so that she was right down the front of the barrel. A twitch of the finger and her chest erupted, a whole clean through it.

The final human turned to run, the fight leaving him. Kro'le stepped forward and calmly dialed down the power output and put a round into the mans leg. He screamed, flesh and clothing burning as the plasma dissipated.

The two Por'La were in shock as Kro'le threw the rifle over his shoulder and pulled out the vibro blade.

"Kau'yon tactics, B'hot. Let the enemy in, let him feel safe, apply force as needed. I'll need you both to help me with the human, I'm going to find out what in all the hells is going on here." He took a few more steps forward before turning, "And where are we, again?"

As always, a great entry, Calmsword.
I'm glad to hear that Kro'le's doing alright, seeing as I was massively out-voted (I was half-scared - and still am - that you're planning to kill him off because we didn't choose to help him. )

If you will allow me to quote your work already, that is why I will never become a Shas'Ui.

I love it! It is awesome... great addition to the story and I really like the attitude you gave kro'le. Your narrative has improved noticeably since the story started as well. I feel like you've grown out of a formal rigid style, and adapted a new personalized touch and it is really a great addition and component in your writing.

Keep it up man, it's only getting better, and you should for sure write a book.

-tis

I appreciate that En'matis, Aun'tier.

I'm going back and doing grammatical fixes and adding a little bit more to sentences and paragraphs here and there which you can see in the repost. I think I was trying to follow a very 'BL' type of writing when I should have just been doing my own thing.

On to the transmitter!

Marvellous!!

I've been out of the loop for a week but what a bit of the story to come back to I especially love Kro'le's development in the update, him reciting tactics to B'hot made me smile

An excellent addition to the story! I particularly like the application of Kau'yon, and the judgment of who's fighting whom just from the sound of the fighting. Just out of curiosity, what would the hells referred to be for the Tau? Or would hells simply be the most accurate, if not perfect, translation of whatever the Tau concept is?

Can't wait for that transmitter!

Hey Kles'ro,

So, I wrote a short story way back when about the final days of the Mont'au from the perspective of a fearsome pre-fire caste warrior army that was ethnically cleansing their neighbors who live in cities (pre earth and water castes respectively).

I view the Tau from a perspective that there is no 'magic' that brought them into being and that their boost in technology is as a result of, culturally, no longer being able to kill one another. Imagine if, back during the Napoleonic era, we had united under a single method/religion/doctrine. The following centuries would have, possibly, brought us the technological boom that we are enjoying now.

Since they don't mention it in the codex, I've brought it up a couple times that religion was probably banned or was forgotten for the Greater Good. Me saying 'hells' is mostly my understanding of what pre-unity religion would have been like. Atheists still say 'what the hell' so my Tau sometimes say 'what in all the hells'.

It's probably not the best vocab word, but I figured with a word like 'Korst'la' which means 'Reaper' the Tau probably maintain at least a rudimentary cultural memory of the realms that supreme beings live in (not Chaos; I'm not opening that can of worms).

I hope that answered your question.

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the clarification.

The Transmitter


"I still say we should have gone to the med bay, sir." Ghel'uun said, scanning the street ahead of them with . He had patched everyone up as best as he could and had had to use up all his anesthetic and pain killers for the mutilated man found in the tavern. Since then Ghel'uun had kept pushing the team to regroup at the medical facility on the other side of the Primary Dome. Jeth had sided with the medic, adding his own, cold, monotone voice that the team should reunite with their brother. Vel'ar had made the hard choice to press for the Transmitter Relay at the base of the Administration tower.

"Kro'le's tougher than a t'pel shark. Concentrate on the mission, Shas'La." Sia't commanded, sweeping a burned out doorway with her carbine.

Making their way through the city had been unnerving with much of it still burning from starship debris. Those few civilians they ran into either turned and ran or swore and cursed them in a mix of Gue'sia and Tau'sia.

They reached an abandoned Enforcer position that had been overrun. They had used their aircars to form a barrier to no avail. "Why did you do this?" A human woman, alone amongst dozens of alien corpses, cradled a dead child. "Why did the Tau kill us? We did nothing!" Vel'ar and the team pushed past her, wordless. After a city block Sia't fell back to Vel'ar.

"Do you think the Enforcers did it?"

Vel'ar didn't look at her, "Notice how the terror squads we run into are small. There's probably not that many but they're heavily armed. They're no match for actual Firewarriors but Enforcer's aren't trained for this kind of situation. The terrorists used the civilians as shields then drove them into Enforcer positions who panicked and opened fire. Yes, the Enforcers did it. But not on purpose."

*

Sia't, Cubor and now Vel'ar were all armed with a carbine and two Gue'la style weapons so they lead the way. Jeth kept his machete while Nuu'l and Ghel'uun trailed behind, wary of potential threats.

Reaching the Transmitter was uneventful, surprisingly. Vel'ar concluded that the terror squads were either holed up, defeated or in the worse case scenario; preparing for their next attack.

The entrance to the Transmitter was a different scene of violence. The Enforcer's hadn't just pulled their aircars up as a wall and hadn't bothering with riot shields. Full body armor and heavy rifles had been deployed. It should have made a difference. The piles of Enforcer dead were not shot nor stabbed but cut to bloody ribbons.

"Whoever was in charge sent a huge percentage of their forces here," Vel'ar said, kneeling by a dead officer. The Por'la's throat had been cut to her spine, her hands removed and...

"Shas'El? These people have been eaten!" Nuu'l gasped. It was true. Many of the Por'La had chunks of flesh ripped from their bodies.

"Sh'lkan barbarians." Jeth swore. The rest of the team looked for themselves at the desecration.

Ghel'uun covered his mouth with his bare hand while he extended manipulators from the pod on his other. "These aren't human, sir. I've... I've never seen anything like this."

Vel'ar picked up a pulse rifle that hadn't been shorn in half. "They'll pay. We'll make them pay."

*

"These doors were destroyed by a fusion weapon." Nuu'l said, passing his tech glove over the melted edges of fio'tak and durasteel. They were inside the lobby of the tower. More Enforcer's had been killed but those bodies were now mixed with Por and Fio office workers.

"Not the terrorists then." Vel'ar concluded. "I think this might be the real deal."

"What do you mean?" Sia't asked.

"Why now? The Enforcer's described a human female named 'Lady Serat' ran some kind of criminal network in the mines underneath the city. They shouldn't be this coordinated, this driven. They're hitting targets with purpose, nothing is random."

"Killing civilians? Why?" Cubor's deep bass voice rolled like thunder.

"They're monsters." Ali'yan spat on the floor, disgusted.

"They're fanatics." Sia't cautioned. "We've seen their kind before, they hate us and any human that sides with us. They'll do anything they can to 'reunite' with the Imperium."

"It's a joke. Imperials kill anyone that's been in contact with aliens." Jeth scoffed. "What a pointless species."

"Nuu'l," Vel'ar said aiming his rifle toward the elevator. "You lead the way to the Control Room. We patch into the city-network and turn it's defenses back on. Then we get a message to the Strident and hopefully outside. I don't think the humans plan on settling with just killing everyone that's not them." He turned to the rest of his team. "And be careful. Whatever... whatever attacked our people is not human, they may have allies of some kind that suddenly gave them the edge to do this."

He looked at Sia't and nodded, "Move out!" She shouted.


***

The Administration Tower

Lady Serat sat at the round table that was the heart of the Administration building. The room was rich, cut from white stone with holo projected art forms that curled and shifted with delightful colors. The Tau hierarchy had retreated to this final place, scared and broken. Serat had not even bothered to explain to them her plan or sin, as she had been tempted to, and had had them thrown from the balcony one by one.

Now, all of her half of the army sat in the luxury the Tau masters had enjoyed. They ate well, breaking open pantries filled with exotic foods from all over the Empire, gorging themselves after starvation had suffered them so long.

A vaulted ceiling was cut from some kind of crystal, gently magnifying the city far below as well as the hangar station that hung like an enormous chandelier. She had felt the explosion as her and her team had butchered their way to this point. The drones throughout the building had simply turned off, just as the Imperial agent had promised.

With the hangar closed and the ships trapped inside, Serat now had bargaining chips; six of them. Most were transports of one designation or another, another was some kind of luxury ship she had never seen before that looked like a giant sea creature. But the prize was a gunboat that the Cerax colony used to patrol the system. She and her people could use the gunboat once she lined up her hostages. The Tau were almost culturally soft.

If the Tau rushing from Secondary Dome tried anything, she could threaten to detonate the fusion cores of the other transports. More and more Tau would be drawn away from other vital areas in their Empire. Then, and only then, would the true brilliance of the Imperial's plan come to fruition. But for now, she would settle some old scores and a debt long overdue.

"Mother, the Imperial wants to talk to you." Tylo said from a communication terminal. Like many of the children he was fluent in Tau'sia and had a preternatural understanding of their heretical machines. It had been a necessary sin.

"Let's hear what he has to say." She spun in her chair and stood, walking over to the terminal.

The cowled face swam before her, the only thing visible was his grinning mouth and chin. She wanted to see the rest of his face, she wanted to know what he was hiding.

"My lord?"

"Lady Serat. I see you've accomplished your mission."

"Yes. Thanks to you and that nifty trick with knocking down the flying guns. How'd you do it?"

"The kor'vesa?" He chuckled, a horrible sound, like a man drowning. "The Tau were not the first to enslave the minds of the machine. Mankind has known of such tricks since we emerged from Terra millennia ago. We have merely voluntarily blinded ourselves to such wonders."

Serat didn't understand what he was saying and shrugged. "It worked, all that matters to me and my boys. We're keeping one of them close to us, just like you told me to in case the bastards figure how to get 'em back and workin'. Where are you?"

"Preparing my final gift to the Tau. You have done well, Anna Serat. Do as you will, I will be departing soon."

"How? The iris is closed, nothin's gettin' out of here until the Tau on the hangar station open it up and there's no way gettin' to 'em."

The Imperial laughed now, opening his mouth to reveal long rows of silver fangs that had replaced a human's normal teeth, and the channel closed.

Serat felt Tylo shiver. "We're done with 'em, don't worry, boy."

"His teeth... Why would he do that to himself?"

"Our's is not to question how an Inquisitor chooses to ugly his face up. Relax, Tylo. Have you ever tasted wine, boy?" He shook his head, eyes lighting up at the mention of alcohol. "Well, let's get you good and drunk!"

***

Great to see that everyone's favorite sniper is doing well! I enjoyed his update. I love how the character of each of the members is showing through more and more. Tau names often make my head spin and it's hard for me to identify who is who. But I'm starting to tell characters, simply from the way they speak or act. (Can one of our talented artists please do some character drawings?!)

I also liked the latest update. There is something way more sinister going down. Whoever this Imperial agent is, I don't think he cares about Lady Serat and her people one bit. Hopefully the team can contact the Strident before those lunatics use the other ships against it.

Looking forward to more!

Yikes!
This 'Imperial Agent' is starting to worry me. I'm also beginning to develop my own theories as to his identity. Curse this suspense!

I'm loving this story man, and the scenes of bloodshed and carnage that you painted oh-so vividly within my head...thank you.

-tis

The Transmitter
Outside the command bridge

Electrical discharge erupted from the shattered computer console as it was riddled with solid shot. Vel'ar winced as a barb of lighting sprang forth and shocked his leg. He went down, letting gravity and inertia do the job of throwing him into a roll.

"Stay down, Shas'El!" Cubor rose up from another computer bank, filling the hallway with the rest of the magazine his stolen autogun housed. A human with a rubberized rebreather over it's face screamed and died.

"These aren't terrorists." Jeth said as Vel'ar crawled to his position. They'd been caught in a bottleneck trying to enter the Transmitter tower's bridge on the forty seventh floor. They had gotten lucky, pushing the humans back and earning cover in an outer communication hub suit.

He fired off two rounds, giving Cubor time to get into cover. "Shtlk'an aliens." Jeth shook his head. Siat fired from the corridor behind them, Ghel'uun and Nuu'l with her. Ali'yan, Vel'ar, Cubor and Jeth were on point.

"And you're sure we need to get in there?" Ali'yan shouted over the gunfire.

"Yes! I'm a tech, Shas'La!" Nuu'l blasted down the hallway, forcing the humans to duck for cover. "I want to stay as far away from this kind of co'roi as possible!"

Vel'ar punched his leg, ignoring the pins and needles as blood flowed back into it. "We've gotta flush them out, Jeth." The close-quarters specialist looked at Vel'ar, as though evaluating him for the first time.

"It's going to be unorthodox."

"Well?"

"Understood, Shas'El." Jeth cleared his throat, sounding like static. "I need as many power packs as we can spare." Vel'ar passed him two, leaving him half an energy value. Pulse rifles housed many thousands of rounds, depending on their make, but required massive quantities of energy to function. Every Firewarrior should, at any time, have no less than twenty such power cells. Running for their lives did not award such luxury.

"Ali'yan! Sia't! Throw me your spares!" Ali'yan fired off a string of pulsefire then tossed him one. Sia't took a moment before throwing him another two.

"Don't waste these." Vel'ar cautioned. Jeth only chuckled then took out his machete. Using the blades edge he stripped the restrictor coils off of the power packs. He grabbed a wire from a destroyed consol and used it as a thread to bind them.

"It's not a waste if it does the job, Shas'El." Jeth grinned, "Cover me."

"Cover fire!" Vel'ar bellowed, rising up with Cubor and Ali'yan. The far corridor exploded as all three Firewarriors gave it there all. The humans retreated, pushed back by the heat spike as the doorframe glowed white hot from the barrage. They were good, definitively not common street scum. They had matched the Tau tactic of mixed cover fire perfectly, they simply did not have small arms that could match pulse weapons.

Jeth broke from cover, running pell mell down the twenty-odd meters to the other end of the hall. The Firewarriors recognized the pattern and kept up the barrage, forming a kind of halo around Jeth so that he could get as far as possible without worrying about some brave human taking a peak. The humans meanwhile crouched and waited for the Tau to eventually run out of ammo.

Halfway through the hall, Jeth tossed the makeshift bomb through the doorway with one arm with his machete in the other, looking for all the world like some mad suicide bomber. The device bounced once, twice, through the doorway into the opposite room and exploded with a flash that forced the Tau to cover their eyes. Jeth meanwhile had thrown himself into a wall consol, the skin on his face and arms an unclean brown as it was burned by the close proximity.

"Now!" Jeth's monotone voice scrambled with exertion.

Vel'ar leapt up and ran through. Pulse technology was a derivative of plasma tech. If enough material could be used during the conversion from it's inert state to it's active form it could blast a hole through tank armor. Jeth's jerry rigged device had burned right through the decking before it had exploded. A human had been flash melted to a consol, another had caught superheated shards and been disemboweled before he could run. Another three humans were clutching their face masks, completely blind. Vel'ar didn't need to order their execution as Cubor put a round into each.

Jeth walked in, smiling at his handiwork then frowning as he saw the corpses. "What in the sand are they?"

Vel'ar looked, seeing one of the masked humans and at the purple black ichor pouring out of it's wounds. "Ghel'uun?"

The medic ran up, saw the corpse, and bent to pull off the mask. Underneath revealed something that was barely anatomically human. Wide set eyes peered out at the Tau from death clouded pupils. Heavy bone ridges rose from it's eye sockets and cheek bones with pink, unnatural hued, skin stretched to cover them. It's mouth was a slash that opened from ear to ear and was filled with feline like teeth.

Ghel'uun rubbed his fore head, "Scan says... This doesn't make any sense. It's human?"

"Yeah, my eyes say different." Jeth said, hefting his machete.

Nuu'l bent to look at the corpse. "I read humans sometimes have different evolutionary paths, like the Kroot but less diverse. Maybe we're looking at a new caste? It's about as ugly as an Og'ery'n.

"Some kind of mutant." Ali'yan said, looking away.

"It should still have the same blood. This... stuff looks more like the insides of a Vespid." Ghel'uun hypothesized.

"Concentrate on the mission, get a signal to the Strident and lets see if we can do some good." Vel'ar said, tapping Ghel'uun on the back. The medic rose.

There was a sudden scream from behind a door on the far side of the room. Not human, not Tau.

"The terminal I need is that way." Nuu'l said, his voice filled with self loathing. Vel'ar checked his shot-counter. It was pitifully low.

"Shtlk'an aliens." Jeth only muttered. The door to the bridge opened and in walked the tallest human Vel'ar had ever seen.

It was eight feet tall and would have stood eye to eye with one of the genetically modified creatures that Vel'ar had fought on Dal'yth, the 'Space Marines'. But it's resemblance stopped there. The neck was multi-jointed so that it could shift in two different directions, it's eyes as strange as the dead human at their feet. It's torso seemed emaciated, starved, and it was wrapped in strangely pristine white clothes that made it seem almost priestly. It raised a pug snout up, tasting the air then silently opened it's mouth, bearing needle like fangs. Saliva spread like a web as two, serpent tongues danced in the Tau's direction. But most terrifying of all was that, despite the many obvious mutations it's body had suffered, it's expression was a familiar one that both Tau and human shared; Hate.

"Shas'El?" Ali'yan took a step back.

"Scan... Scan says... human, Shas'El." Ghel'uun's eyes were wide, confused. Vel'ar saw fear poisoning his warriors, veteran though they were, the monster before them was unlike anything any Tau eyes had ever seen. He aimed his rifle right at the giant's head.

"Weapons up, Shas'La! Blast it-" Vel'ar dropped his rifle, hands spasmed open so drastically that he shouted in surprise. The rest of the Firewarriors did the same.

"No. I don't think so." From behind the monster stepped in a man in power armor and the same, white, robes. He raised a gauntletted fist, strangely Tau looking in it's designe. He flexed his other hand and passed it over the Tau. They screamed, falling to their knees. "That's better. It's so rare to see you people where you belong."

Vel'ar's mind suddenly swam with images of dying Tau, burning worlds and the smile of the man before him. He reached for his eyes, fingernails scratching at his face as horror boiled up from his stomach. Icy fingers seemed to probe into the frontal lobe of his brain before he realized what was happening.

"He's a telepath!" Vel'ar shouted, willing his body to try and stand, to grab his weapon, to do anything. There were training programs the Empire had instituted since the discovery of such beings. He tried to build a wall in his mind, to visualize it and resist the mental invasion.

"Yes," the hooded man said, chuckling. Vel'ar could just make out chromatic fangs behind the pallid lips. "Not witchcraft, not 'psyker magic', no... Shas'El Vel'ar... The Tau have always so quick to answer the mysteries of the universe with single words and logic." His fingers twitched in Vel'ars direction. Any hope Vel'ar had of resisting the attack melted as his stomach twisted in his abdomen. He vomited onto his chest through clenched teeth.

"Now. What to do with genuin warriors of the Tau'va. You know, Vel'ar. You're not supposed to be here."

Medical Building, rooftop

Kro'le looked out at the colony's vast ring. He had been to worlds with such facilities but never one that had been violated so. There were fires raging across the face of it, every now an again a fuel main would explode and brighten entire blocks with fire. High above, where the dome met it's apex, the smoldering wreck of starships had collided with one another or had been forced to explode. The lone hangar terminal looked pathetic, it's pristine white fio'tak blackened by fusion cores gone radical. He could even see the telltale hull of the Strident, impotent as it lay in dock.

"Where are the colony's security protocols? There should be at least a thousand defensive drones buzzing through the city." He peered down off the lip of the roof. Heights had never bothered him.

The Enforcer, B'hot, was a different story, preferring to stay by the landing pad at the center of the roof. The nurse Kro'le had saved had rushed to help patients and survivors and left them. Kro'le thought that was for the best.

"I don't know, Shas'La. The Transmitter tower is supposed to control all networks. In the event of an attack the signal can be taken over by the docking station. The only way to cripple our security protocols would be to know how to bypass the colony " Kro'le looked across the empty space to the other side of the dome to where B'hot pointed . The Administration tower seemed to grew up from the upper decks and branched outward from the wall to hang over the city. Underneath it was the familiar, eighty foot flat panel sensor of a major transmitter.

Kro'le brought his pulse rifle up, glancing through the imager scope. Kro'le's eyes were perfect, a genetic oddity if the Earth Caste doctors could be believed. A minor mutation of the iris allowed him to bring long distance images into near perfect clarity. This gift had brought him the highest honors of any shooting field he had trained on.

"There's been fighting at the entrance."

"That's over eight kilometers-"

"Looks bad... So, if I could get into the Transmitter's bridge could you turn it back on?" He looked at B'hot, grinning as the Por'La's mouth fell open.

"Um, I'm not qualified for a combat mission-"

"But you've been in the building, you know where things go and what it looks like when the Transmitter is working, right?" Kro'le walked over to him and then past him to the ambulance air truck resting on the pad. "We take this over and drop right into the bridge. You're qualified to drive, yes?"

At hearing that he wouldn't have to actually enter the building, B'hot perked up and jogged to the other side of the cockpit. "Yes, sir!"

***

"Stand up, Shas'El." The human snapped his fingers. An invisible force jerked Vel'ar up, his spine almost snapping as he was wrenched upright. "Come, let us talk." The cowled head turned to the monster, "Diana!" It turned, eyes strangely softened as it looked at the man.

Something below Vel'ar's ability to comprehend exchanged between apparent master and the mutated fiend. It turned to look at the immobile Firewarriors, back at the man, then something dislodged from behind it's back. Two more, horrendously grotesque, arms sprouted from 'Diana', each ending in a quad-taloned paw. Translucent skin had grown over a black, insect carapace, the four points sliding out from folded skin like knives rising out of a sheath.

"Even without me, Shas'El, Diana would paint the walls with your warriors insides. Something I've seen before and would be delighted to see again. You will behave, yes?"

Vel'ar nodded, feeling the ice cold fingers pull out of his mind. As they left he felt his own control return as well as a horrible sense of violation.

"Good." The man turned and walked into the bridge. Vel'ar followed.

The bridge, to Vel'ar's surprise, was almost untouched. Those Tau bodies in the room had been laid out, not piled or left where they died. All of the terminals were alive with scrolling text, hololith images and humming with operation in a vast oval. A single pane of transparasteel made up the far wall as well as the floor to permit what would have been a beautiful view of the city.

"What is it Shas'El, please, speak your mind. We telepaths don't always like to take everything. And you don't have much time." The human's tone was conversational, as though the passive massacre of Vel'ar's people meant nothing.

"Who are you, Gue'la?" Vel'ar said through gritted teeth.

"I am the death of your people, Shas'El. I am the harbinger of destruction for your parasitic Empire" He spoke perfect tau'sia that somehow possessed a hint of a T'au accent. "I know how you Tau love your titles, though. You may know me as Inquisitor Rayle."

(CHOICE)

Since we've been having such a great dialogue, why don't we leave this one open. There is enough 'time' to ask 2 questions. I'll let you guys decide.

WHAT

This has been a crazy past two updates. Just who the heck is this guy?! It seems like some kind of Chaos influence, but maybe not... The whole team is pretty much stuck. That monster will tear them to pieces if they move. But at least we have Kro'le to come to the rescue! I sincerely hope Enforcer B'hot makes it. I have this whole Half-Life Blue Shift thing going through my head.

It's the twist- I hope you're liking it. I never played Halflife- what's the blue shift thing?

Depending on the questions asked will have a direct influence on what exactly happens to the team. And yes, it is a very sticky situation (You should see my notebook, I've got a spider web of possibilities and this one is one of the bleakest).

Half life is an old game where played a scientist who unleashed interdimensional aliens in a secret testing facility. They made a bunch of expansions and one was Blue Shift, where you played a security guard who was trying to protect scientists and just escape! It had a neat, blue-collar guy-in-way-over-his-head type vibe. So the Enforcer just reminded me of it.

So we will have opportunities to vote on responses in this conversation? It sounds like it could get a bit tedious if we take too long to respond. Everyone stay at your computers!

Thank you for making such an engaging story. I'm excited to see where it goes! Is there going to be an end, or is this story going to grow for the forseeable future?