Hey everyone!

Glad your liking the updates, the next chapter will be, ostensibly, called 'Unmasked', I hope you like it.

The member 'Zhege' has been taken his skills and drawn some of the characters of this story which you can find here, they're pretty awesome:

http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/s407/strangeway13/

Should work, hope you guys can take a look.

Chapter 9:Unmasked

The Old Place was the site of the first Kroot colonization of Seko. Generations ago, the forest had swallowed the hexagonal city as the endless storms fed the overgrowth. Now only strange, twisting buildings were left as their conquered towers still reached for the skies.

Ejrak, when he had first gone with his father and brother on his walkabout, had believed that monsters and demons infested the Old Place. It did not breath as the trees that his Kindred lived in and held shadows that light could not pierce. Other krootforms and Seko's own struggling ecosystem of reptiles and birds shied away from this place and even the rampaging nature of the Orks were spooked by it even as they advanced their own territories to engulf it. His father had clucked reproachfully and had told him to climb the nearest tower.

"The body is beset by the world to make it better, to make it strong. But we must not forget our mind, for it is attacked by a much greater foe. Fear! Conquer your fear and you will become greater than enemy."

Ejrak had climbed the tower unaided. Many times he could feel the tower shudder, as if angry at his violation, or strange creatures would hiss from within dark warrens. He cowered and shivered, but he ascended, the strong voices of his family urging him higher. When he reached it's apex at the end of that day his hands were torn, claws chipped and the pads of his feet bled so that he left a trail. But, as he clung against the steeple in exhaustion, a Kroothawk, a rare and wonderful a species of krootform, flapped about him. It called, over and over, flying about him before turning and soaring into the sunset.

"You will not stay on Seko, my son. You will one day pierce our heavens and bring honor to us amongst the stars." His father had said when he returned.

Ejrak looked at that same tower, the same patch of overgrowth his father had made camp. He shuddered with pride and loss and entered the city as the sun melted into a orange red glow.

The Shaper Councils sent war parties to the Old Place, once a cycle, to ensure that the towers still stood and that the single Tau listening post was well maintained. The Tau Earth Caste, dreamers and all too curious in Ejrak's opinion, had been fascinated with the Kroot proto-empire civilization. The Kindred's had already begun the path of voluntary regression from those times when the Tau had arrived. As such, no living Shaper even back then could tell the Tau what the Kroot people had been before the Ork invasions had darkened that golden age.

At first they had built their listening post and a small Research and Discovery Cadre had stayed in the Old Place. A month later, with pressure mounting from the Shaper's, a Water Caste dignitary had arrived and asked the scientists to quit their prying and respect the Kroot Kindreds of Seko. They had done so begrudgingly.

Ejrak could see the Tau antenna, perched on a hill that seemed to grow up from a broken tower, almost a kilometer away, deserted. He crept forward now, eyes wide and worried with the disappearing cover. The buildings were spaced apart, with dense vines and tall grass growing over their base so that they looked like the black teethe of an enormous sea creature mid-bite as it swallowed the land.

He gripped his rifle, checking the charge on it, and unsheathed one of the dozen knives he kept on the harness tied to his waist. There were two options before him.


CHOICE

Should Ejrak race to the Tau listening post and send a signal to the Strident but expose himself to any possible enemies OR should he try to stealth his way through the ruins.

Those pictures look great! Now to finish the whole squad!

As for the story, I'd say that running out in the open usually only gets people killed. There is no indication that one of the Past Walkers is nearby, but they have a nasty habit of appearing out of nowhere. I'd say that since stealth has served Ejrak so well for this long, then it would be the best way to go.

+1 for Stealth!

Agreed; the pictures do look really cool. Perhaps including names under each of them would be more practical, though. Ghel'uun was simple to pick, but I wasn't sure who the other one was representing. Very nice nonetheless.

I will also vote Stealth. I might have gone into an explanation of why, but Wolfs16 just about summed it up!

A hunter never exposes himself, unless to strike at that which is already exposed

Stealth

Stealth, of course. Them kroot are sneaky.

And good work on the excellent updates again as usual, Calmsword.

Hey guys, had a failure in the program on my computer (that's two now for this story) should have an update soon.

Ejrak held his breath, the quills at the end of his skull rattling slightly. Hunting permeated every aspect of Kroot culture, no matter the world or Kindred, but to be hunted was something new. He hunkered down, consciously tensing each muscle so that he could bound at a heartbeats notice.

The ruins were overgrown, the sun setting. He used the shadows and the sounds of the jungle to mask his advance as he closed with the alien Tau structure that jutted out of a rock outcrop like a blocky tooth. He had not been to this part of the continent since the greenskins migrated into the ruins.

Gripping his rifle he suddenly tensed. It was quiet. The ever present sounds of insects and ever competing kroot-forms grew still. Not good.

An ork body, massive and tattooed with blue swirls, flew from the edge of the jungle trailing splinters and fluid like an obscene comet. Ejrak's brain told him, logically, that he was unaware of any Ork that had managed flight before his eyes saw that the greenskin was mostly headless. It crashed, spine snapping loudly through it's flesh, into a desiccated archway. Then, if flying orks weren't strange enough, Ejrak saw something he had not thought possible.

Two Orks, as massive as any, howled and cried as they broke from the jungle. They had dropped their weapons and looked for all the world like broken prey-beasts, terror in their beady red eyes. Ejrak remained still. There was nothing on this world that could frighten an Ork. You could beat them, you could break them, but they always preferred to fight to the death or push their lesser brethren in front of them while they made a hasty retreat.

The lead Ork turned it's heavy head as it cleared the previously airborne clan mate. It must have seen something horrible for it struck out against it's still living companion, knuckles breaking it's teethe and sending it sprawling.

Mouth covered by a meaty palm, the stricken Ork pleaded, falling on deaf ears as the Ork made a 'forget you' style gesture as it ran. It didn't get far.

Barbs, each the length of a finger, whistled from somewhere in front of the running Ork and flung it back, pinning it against a shoulder high wall. It grunted, then squealed in horror. It's companion's eyes grew wide and even the will for survival left it along with it's bowels.

Materializing out of thin air, one of the alien's stepped forward. It's armor was matte-black, a body glove underneath it that clung to a lupine body. Both it's lanky arms ended in weapons pods, each with four talons that orbited the palm. The helmeted head lazily glanced from side to side at either Ork. Ejrak recognized the look; the predator's ultimate victory.

Ejrak watched as the alien walked over to the pinned Ork. It struggled, trying to pull it's flesh apart to get out the barbs. The alien watched it, curiously, at the last second the Ork lashed out at it, Ejrak assumed the greenskin had decided it's last act would be to fight.

The hand never reached the aliens throat. In a blur, the alien realed back and sliced off the Ork's arm from the elbow. It landed a meter away, fingers twitching. A final look of surprise sparkled in the Orks head and then the alien gutted it. Intestins and gore spilling out. The alien blurted static, it's four eyes meeting the Orks two as the life left it. It raised it's claws up into the air and roared.

Ejrak would never have a better chance. The alien had turned it's back on him and it was relishing the kill. The other Ork was dragging itself away, miserably.

Ejrak thought of Skaatiq, of the other Orks and how this single alien must have bested them all. Skaatiq had died not knowing why the Shapers needed the Tau beacon activated and neither would Ejrak. Such was life.

He leapt from his cover, padded feet silently skipping across broken rock and the ever strange ruin floor. He held his breath, beak clamped shut. He hunched his back to make himself the smallest target possible as he brought the muzzle of his rifle up.

The alien's shoulder mounted gun had turned, acquiring the Ork as it slid across the ground in it's own filth. It was saying something, a curse of static, Ejrak would never know. He fired at six meters, the pulse augmented slug cracking in the still jungle air. Ejrak didn't have time to see the effect as he vaulted into the air even as the jolt of the kickback pushed the rifle upwards.

It was an all or nothing attack, both of his hands gripped the handle of the rifle like a club, the bladed edge that was the signature of the Kroot carnivore curving downward as it raised it over his head.

The alien's armor was the finest it's species could offer, but it had no field technology and the round still transferred it's prodigious kinetic force into the creature. It spun round, momentarily confused, as Ejrak fell upon it, blade centered directly between it's quad eyes.

Ejrak felt the shiver of force through his body as the blade struck what must have been bone beneath the helmets visor. He was satisfied as hot, red, blood spat into his face and he let his breath out in his own cry as the alien fell heavily onto the ground.

But his foe was not dead yet. It's own weapons came up, clawed hands snapping the kroot rifle with a gesture and it's long legs kicked out and flung Ejrak over it's head. Ejrak let go of his rifle, the shorn upper half still embedded in the alien, and came up from a roll.

He enjoyed one final look as the alien produced it's own desperate cry, static and bizarre, as it tried to yank out the blade. And then he ran, pell mell, toward the Tau listening post. He easily lept over the ork who, now, regained it's courage at seeing it's hunter now wounded. It ignored Ejrak and ran in another direction entirely.

Sweat made his whole body slick and fear, an old sensation, turned his stomach as he pushed his body further. Another shriek of static, this time with a structure to it like a call. Ejrak dimly recalled there being three hunters, had it just summoned them? It didn't matter.

He reached the listening post. It was as wide as a tree trunk, strangely bare of overgrowth as though the Tau could deter the plants from marring their creation. He grabbed it, true terror now gripping him. How did it work? He raked his claws over it, scratching the paint off in desperate marks. He looked behind him. The alien was on it's knees, clutching the rifle blade. With a single twist it yanked it out, sparks and blood spilling out. It called again. Something in the far jungle answered it with a clear, strong, scream.

Ejrak swore, then, hopelessly, slammed his fist into the device.

The Tau listening post acquiesced. There was a gentle chime from within and a panel opened before him, emitting a glow as a mushroom like antenna rose into the sky. An additional burble of sound emitted from it and then it began to slowly rotate.

Ejrak hoped it worked.

A slow hiss of static sounded behind him and he turned. Standing a half head taller than him was another of the aliens. It looked at him then the antenna. Ejrak didn't know what to do. He was weaponless save a skinning knife on his hip. Behind this new comer the stricken alien still groped at his face where the rent smoked and bled.

"I have won, invader." He murmured in the language of Seko. The alien nodded. There was a click and the visor revealed the alien's face.

He spoke, in Ejrak's own tongue, "You weaken our blood, savage."

Ejrak's eyes widened, "Impossible!" Was all he could gasp.

"Not impossible, but what should have been!" Unfiltered, the voice sounded like his father's, Ejrak realized dully, but it was angry, his father was never angry. The shoulder mounted canon, bigger than the other that he had wounded, turned and fired at point blank range.

He closed his eyes. The horror he had been exposed to had robbed him of will, just like the pathetic Ork, soiling itself in it's final moments. Ejrak would not die in such a manner.

But death never came. Only light.

***

Third Claw had been blinded even as the feedback of the energy shield had kicked him almost a full ten meters back. Everything smelled as ozone and he thanked his own preference for pilfered Las technology that he had not armed himself with the bio-acid many of the warriors enjoyed.

He closed his visor with a thought, inhaling the cleansing wash of the internal atmosphere, even as he looked at the Tau structure. Leave it to the blue skinned conqueror to hide a military grade gravitic shield in a sensor tower. Such cowards.

Looking down, he saw Fifth Claw, kneeling on the ground as he impotently tried to stem the flow of blood from his face. The secondary eyes above the primary had gone dark, implying that the cerebral meld-link was also severed. It was not impossible for an individual to be able to recover from even the most grievous head wounds, the Makers had brought life back to even a Warrior cut in half. But not so if the meld were damaged. They were too far from home to repair such an injury.

No. That wasn't right. It was Home that had left them. That had grown weak, that had let the Greenskins come and destroy the magnificence of their forefathers and reduce his people to sniveling chattle, less than slaves to an Empire of whom they believed they were citizens of. Fools.

Fifth Claw knew that Third Claw was looking at him and he tried to right himself, his head lolling slightly with the effort.

"I still fight."

"It is your duty."

"Let me go on."

"You are broken."

"I am not." He struggled to rise. Third Claw moved about him, like a feline to it's prey. Fifth Claw spun, trying to watch Third Claw with his remaining eye. Third Claw lazily swiped at Fifth's leg, opening the body-glove with a talon. Fresh, red, blood rushed out.

"I am not!" He insisted. There was a plea of static-speech.

"You are broken. What can be broken, must be broken, lest our enemies learn the way." Fifth Claw stopped struggling and fell to his knees.

"I am of Seko."

"You are of Seko."

Third Claw made it quick.

Okay, now this was an interesting update. It would appear that there is more to the Past Walkers than simply being nasty aliens. It makes me wonder who their masters are....

sorry to hear about the second computer failure calmsword glad to see that you're back now though.

The plot thickens once again. I have my theories (as Im sure everyone does) but ill keep to myself. Its more fun that way

One of these days you are actually going to let us in on whats going on right?

Promise ... actually... how about next post?

First and foremost, Cubor was not a pilot. That is to say, he could perfectly operate an XV of almost any class, he'd had extensive training with half of the skimmers the Empire deployed and, yes, he knew how to pilot a shuttle. It was a common misconception amongst the member races of the Empire that each Caste did not have it's own specialists in every field. The Water Caste defended themselves, albeit haphazardly, had their own pilots and could, if a drone couldn't make itself available, lay one brick upon another. Each Caste had, since the dawn of the Second Sphere, been forced to become self reliant just as they were forced to work together ever more increasingly as the strangeness of the Galaxy sought to snuff out the fire of the Tau'Va.

That did not mean he was an ace.

"We can't take much more of this!" He shouted over the comm. Both his arms bulged as he fought the controls. The shuttle, little bigger than a troop carrier, had already burnt off the pleasant blue paint job it had sported on their entry into the upper atmosphere. The trailing fighter craft that had risen to meet them hadn't helped either.

Pilot lights glowed off the enemy as it sped after the Tau shuttle in the darkened sky. Hyper velocity slugs and evil tracer fire panged off the aft armor plating as the enemy sprayed fire at them in a seemingly unending torrent. Cubor gritted his teeth, the AI helping him compensate as it altered more power into the necessary thrusters to execute a brutal roll. The shuttle was not a superiority fighter and had had additional armor designed on it to suffer this kind of punishment. It also made flying it like fusing exercise weights to one's arms and flapping.

The enemy craft followed them easily, picking up speed to close the distance and finish the kill.

"Can't you land?" Vel'ar shouted through his ear piece.

"If I don't get coordinates soon, sir, I'll be landing us into the ground!"

"Open up the back on my mark."

"What- yes, sir."

*

In the rear of the shuttle, Vel'ar closed the chasis of the XV-8. His team members were strapped snuggly into blast frames along with Fy'nal who had joined them. She had made several insistant remarks and even several historical examples of the value of Earth Caste operatives in the field, all of which Vel'ar had given up on and allowed her to join. She had brought with her a more advanced version of Nuu'l's glove and had encased herself in common Firewarrior armor that contrasted the yellow of Sia't's team and the white of Ali'yans by being a dull blue.

"Sia't."

"Yes sir." She didn't turn, her visor faced forward as she concentrated on not vomiting.

"We need to get this interceptor to back off. I'm opening the hatch." There was a gasp as the XV-8's internal atmosphere equalized. A moment later the molecular needle that bonded him to the armor sank into the base of his skull. A moment of liquid unease and his vision resolved itself through the suit's head.

"If you think you can hit it, sir."

He grinned, changing channels. "Cubor, crack her open." There was a pause. Then the back hatch of the shuttle opened. On a Tau world there would be glowing cities below. Not on Seko, a savage jungle world. It made spotting the trident like alien ship easy. Magnifying the image he could only guess what the enemy craft could do. It was angular, with what looked like weapon mounts on either point of the 'fork' while the central spar was completely enclosed but must have been a command pod. It was clearly a Past Walker for it shared their armor's design. A quick analysis by his AI said that it was armed with twin bolter mounts and a variety of las emitting cannon. Human weapons?

The drone computer incorporated into the missile pod on his thruster mount intuitively projected a reticle over the enemy vessel with a unsure yellow. He let go of a breadth. The enemy had no idea, yet, what the shuttle was doing, he'd have one clear shot to hit a weak point like a thruster or, if he was good enough, knock out the cockpit.

"Remember my missile variants, Shas'El!" Fyn'al's voice broke in through the comm.

"Silence, Fio'La!" He shut off the comm with a thought. To his surprise it reopened.

"No! Shas'El, the new missile types, if you open a data feed to them they can gather telemetry!" Vel'ar was about to yell, but then he saw a small, unusual ideogram with a percentage sign slowly filling at the corner of his vision. He opened it and saw, just as Fy'nal had said, that the two Phor'yinn warheads we accumulating information for an accurate launch.

The Past Walker piloting the trident fighter must have given up on the scattering bolter fire and quickly switched to his las options. Red incandescent beams flashed forwards, burning a clean hole through the side of the shuttle's long range antenna.

"Shas'El." Cubor's voice was steady but there was a rising strain, "They've locked on."

Vel'ar shut down his comm completely and switched to his regular missile. "At least you can think about this!"

He fired, both, in near simultaneous succession. Two comets flashed in the night, streaking away from the shuttle and locking on on the interceptor. Vel'ar had been right, the pilot had not detected any rearward weapons mounts and had ignored possible threat. The first missile went wide by a whisper of high velocity ordinance, the second struck the juntas side engine intake.

There was a fiery blast that sent the Past Walker interceptor cartwheeling away, brightly glowing in the night as it fell into a cloud formation.

"For T'au!" Vel'ar shouted.

"It's a hit?" Sia't called.

Vel'ar's sudden victory was robbed as the interceptor returned. The pilot, a testament of skill, had pulled himself out of the dive. Vel'ar could almost feel his enemies hate emitting from the craft and watching as it doggedly climbed back in pursuit.

"Negative." He armed another missile, this one one of the lower yield.

"Sir, I just picked up a Tau signal, three hundred kilometers east!" Cubor shouted. "I have a flight path!" The shuttle dipped.

"Blast it! Keep us steady, Shas'La!"

"Copy, Shas'El."

Vel'ar lined his shot, the Past Walker had not slowed but surely it had lost some of it's maneuverability. He fired. The missile spiraled in a wide arc, internal data collecting maximizing it's area of detecting the locked on fighter in case it tried to get away. The Past Walker came head on, seemingly to challenge the plucky ordinance. In response, the missile's AI jetted forward, rushing toward the center spar that Vel'ar had targeted.

At the last possible moment a mere hundred meters out, the ship dissolved into darkness.

"What?" Vel'ar blurted. Then he remembered. The Past Walker's had, each, a cloaking device. Large scale cloak fields weren't unheard of in the Empire, but were immensely expensive to fit on anything but the most elite of forward ops cadres.

The missile, confused and with it's target now turned to thin air, widened it's arc once more and floundered hopelessly through the sky before it's fuel exhausted and the warhead deactivated. As it did so, the Past Walker ship returned, closer now, the tips of it's trident weapons glowed with power.

"They've locked on us!" Cubor bellowed. Vel'ar diverted the unused power from his thrusters and dumped it into the shield on his left arm, and just in time. Twin las beams brightened the sky, one clipping a maneuvering thruster and the other blasting directly into Vel'ar's defensive field. There was a moment where every system overloaded and Vel'ar's vision went dark.

Then he was back, residual radiation warnings blaring in his ear. He looked at the ideogram for Fyn'als bomblet warhead.

<Maximum Data Acquired>

Vel'ar didn't wait for a target lock. He bent to a kneeling position and fired both warheads.

The missiles both fell apart, duralloy shells flaking away like insectile cocoons. Inside of them were six perfectly spherical gunmetal black orbs that Vel'ar could see only in the high resolution of the suit. They spun and released from what must have been an internal gravitic stabilizing ring and floated on the night's air, buffeted in the shuttle's wake.

The enemy was so close that most of the data, had Vel'ar known, was unneeded. Each bomblet had it's own mission, and as the interceptor sped through the widening area they inhabited, they went off with the collective power of a fusion charge. The Past Walker was caught amidships, the corona blast of the explosion cutting it in half in a bright star pattern. The front end didn't last much longer as the internals cooked off, brightening the sky in an early, if brief, dawn.

"Alright. Get us on the ground." Vel'ar's voice was heavy. Who knew the condition of the Strident and if there was even a Kroot hierarchy left alive.

*

The Second Claw regarded Third Claw as he materialized out of the jungle mists. They stood, seemingly alone, on the cliff edge of what, for centuries, was believed to be a mountainside.

"The Tau have killed the Jhaakdwa." Second Claw said before Third Claw could speak.

"It is of Seko."

"I am not of Seko. I will not let myself die here."

"You are prime, but the Tau bring war and may not care for your words."

Second Claw growled, the sound translating through the static filter. Third Claw almost rose to the challenge, then abated. Second Claw was a fearsome warrior and was over a century and a half old. He bore the gifts of the Maker's in his armor. He was big, and wide as well. Two additional arms had been grafted to his body, the technology taken from a slain Ioxotle the Hive had engaged and defeated. The Hive Master himself had ordered the Maker's to alter Second Claw permanently for his honor gained in that campaign.

"The Hive has killed the Strident then?"

"It will pay, as all Tau shall."

"Then it struggles. We linger."

"The work must be done if the All-Foe is to be bested."

"The mountain holds secrets."

"It is of Seko. Brethren delve now to the heart to take what is ours."

"We are the strong."

Second Claw sputtered static in agreement. Then he paused, looking behind Third Claw.

"Fifth Claw is dead."

"I have disposed of flesh and memory."

"The greenskins."

"They are not of Seko but infect it."

"The savages are weak."

"They embrace what was broken long ago."

"What can be broken."

"Must be broken, lest our enemy discovers how."

"Those that resist are dead."

"The savage that broke Fifth Claw lies behind a Tau shield, unconscious. He has activated the beacon and they will be here soon."

This time the snarl was completed with a swift kick to Third Claw's midsection. He doubled over, rolled, and came up, both taloned gauntlets bared.

"The Tau will think we are here to kill the savages, make them believe it. Gather warriors, hunt the Shapers, slay the Tau if you can."

"I fight for the Hive, the Master and the Makers."

"Prove your value."

Subsonic communication followed and eleven fellow warriors joined Third. He lept from the cliff, disappearing as he did so and joined by his war party.

*

The shuttle landed in a small clearing filled with the broken remains of an ancient city, it's floodlights spearing through the darkness and losing their beams to the thick foliage only twenty meters off. Still, the Fio that had left the beacon had installed hidden grav fields that flattened the outcroppings to form a tidy disc of flat, hardened, dirt.

Vel'ar lead the way, encased in his armor, he would be impervious to the Past Walker's acid attack in comparison to his team. After scanning the area, Nuu'l and Sia't stepped out followed by Ali'yan and Ghel'uun, Kro'le took his own time as he hefted his re-calibrated rail rifle as Fyn'al eagerly followed. Cubor was the last to join them, his armor back in place and any signs of fatigue gone.

"There's a Kroot by the beacon." Nuu'l said, pointing with his gauntlet.

Sure enough, just a few meters above the shuttle, was the fully functional Tau sensor tower, it's energy shield faintly glowing in the night.

Ghel'uun took a step forward, his voice worried. "He's unconscious! Permission to-"

"Go, Ghel'uun." Vel'ar said, "The rest of you, secure this landing zone. Fyn'al, I want you to see if you can get the shuttle in working order."

"I only have a DX Tech with me." Fyn'al said, her head scanning the world around her. "This is my first time to a non-Tau planet." She added, absently.

"Do what you can. Sightsee when we have a way out." She nodded, opening her tool arm and getting to work.

Vel'ar himself quickly checked through each of the linked-vids the XV could tap into amongst the squad. It was dark, there was a mess of an Ork corpse and what looked like a plasma charge that had left a glassy crater.

"Sir, there's a dead-" Vel'ar cut N'uul off.

"Yes I see. Check what did it and see if the wounds match those on Devvot."

"Sir, this plasma charge is low yield plasma. It's Bentu'sin." Vel'ar's eyes widened. He slowly hovered into the air and landed next to Sia't.

"Don't like walking anymore?" She quipped.

"Would you if you could fly. What do you mean it's Bentu'sin?" The Bentu'sin were one of the stranger species to have joined the Empire toward the middle of the Second Sphere. Their race were wanderers, not unlike the Nicassar, but they kept to themselves and their mining operations. Their technology was the stuff of legends and, had the Tau had a superstitious religion still, would have appeared as magic. They had gifted Ion technology to the Tau against the Orks centuries earlier and been long time allies.

"That's just it sir. This is a mining charge they use to burn off smaller sections of asteroid. It's not military grade."

"And I doubt there'd be one mulling around a jungle world like Seko."

"Yes, sir."

"That means these Past Walkers are known to two member-species, Shas'Ui. Dark implications that we still don't know who we're dealing with."

"I might have an answer, sir." Ghel'uun broke in. "Might want to have a talk with this Kroot."

This time Vel'ar turned and trotted up the ridge the sensor tower was mounted on. Ghel'uun had lowered it's shield, taking it down from it's maximum security level and leaving the active sensors on. The Kroot, a younger male by the look of him, was holding a small skinning blade to Ghel'uun's throat who, in turn, had both hands splayed open. His eyes were wide, milky white as they caught the illumination from the landed shuttle.

Vel'ar instantly charged his plasma rifle and prepared to make ash of the terrified male. "Don't worry sir, I've got it under control. I've worked with the Kroot before, just don't say or do anything." Ghel'uun said, one of his hands gently waving off Vel'ar. "But you've gotta hear this."

It was chirping and clucking, a strange and impossible to understand language, at Ghel'uun. Ghel'uun was nodding, shaking his head, then pointing at himself, then Vel'ar, then the perimeter.

"Yes, brother, we are the Tau."

More clucking.

"I don't know. We met your blood far away and they told us to come to warn you."

The Kroot shook it's head and snorted derisively.

"We were late, there is much danger that hunts us now." Ghel'uun cautiously pointed at Vel'ar. "He is my prime, brother, my warrior-kin are all around us. We have come to help your blood, your kindred."

The Kroot said something that sounded like a gulp and a wheeze. The quills rattled. Ghel'uun didn't say anything but removed his helmet. The Kroot lowered his knife, then sank back on his heels and cradled his head.

"What was that, Shas'La?" Vel'ar said.

"I haven't the faintest idea, sir. I think we're the first Tau he's ever seen. I offered help and he insists nothing can... That a "war of the blood' is about to kick off. The Kroot can be very colorful, I think he's in shock."

"A war of the blood?"

Ghel'uun shook his head. "All he would say is that his name is Ejrak of the Seventh Spear Kindred and that he had seen and fought the father of his father's father, my Kroot doesn't cover this kind of thing."

"He fought an ancestor?" Vel'ar looked at the huddled Kroot

"Well that's just it, sir, he uses phrases that don't differentiate between himself and the Past Walkers. Ejrak, here, seems to think he's a Past Walker, or the other way around. To him there is no difference. It doesn't make sense." Ghel'uun looked at Ejrak, then Vel'ar. "Sir, what in all the hells does this mean?"

I have been reading this since the start and I LOVE it!

I loved the update too! I had no idea this was the direction you were going, but I have to say, it's pretty awesome.

Oh and Or'es, I've added the spoiler tag to your post so anyone who clicks on the Latest Posts link won't have the reveal spoiled for them. Glad to see your promotion!

I have been thinking along the same lines as Or'es, though there are a few details I haven't yet managed to wind into my suspicions. Thoroughly enjoyable, Calmsword. Keep the updates coming; I must know more!

Thank you Wolfs16, I got a little excited there I just assumed EVERYONE was following this. They should be.

Need more story....gah its killing me...so good must have!

Great work Calm, and if you'd like to use any elements from my story as you've requested...By all means sir!

I would be honored!!!!!

-tis

Hey everyone! I'm so happy that you liked the reveal. Dangling a carrot like this hasn't been easy, but there are cookies in places that give a slight reveal.

You know, one of the big inspirations for this was actually the original Ciaphus Cain novel concerning the Tau/Kroot and Imperium. Now that we're getting a 'follow up' to that I'm hoping a lot of what I learned there follows through.

I don't know how many pages I'm up to in total(there's more on my computer then there is online) but I'm going to be looking to edit all of this into BOOK 1 of what will hopefully a 5 book series. There's more artwork that I have to upload as well as character models I've been sculpting. All of your support has really inspired me to spend my free time writing.



But there is the rest of this story to tell before we talk about the future...

PS: Or'es= Congratulations!

*sigh* calmsword, can you PLEASE write our next codex

I never got into the harry potter/lord of the rings/twilight (shudders) books, but this must be what it feels like to be one of those kids lined up outside of a bookstore at midnight waiting to get the next installment.

Judging by the views on this thread, it looks like im not the only one in that line either

Nope, you're definitely not alone in that line...