The 16th Imperial Crusade, The Gue'Vesa are at it again...

OOC: This has branched off from The Sounds of Battle...remember to read the rules before joining! (Also, this crusade probably did not happen if it did, inform me please!)

Delta 6, a once desolate and insignificant asteroid now split by two factions: the Imperial Guard and the Tau Empire. 2 Tau'cyr ago, Shas' O Mont'yr Kais Shi'Va Vior'la came because of a distress call of the colony, Shas' O met up with what the Gue'Vesa call Inquisitor Lord by the name Jamius (Jaa-me-us). Even though Shas' O lost, the Inquisitor him the name Deathwind. Now, approximately 600 days later, another distress call from the same colony...

Shas' O Shi'Va looked out of the Orca's veiwscreen, the asteroid has not changed physically, but buildings of Tau-Imperial towering over. Shas' O suited up in his Crisis suit, he checked all of his weapons, Burst Cannons, Missile Pod, Flamer, and his Drone Controller. All check. 'All Shas, the atmosphere is thick, recommended stay in suits. We will be landing in 5 centidecs'. And sure enough, the door yawned open and Shas' O Shi'Va jumped out.

"Prepare for high-altitude drop-off in 10 centidecs" rang the sharp voice of the dropship's AI.

Shas'vre'Sa'cea'M'yen'Shi'Ma'duk, was doing his last check ups on his suit. He was wearing his XV25 stealthsuit and he was happy to know that everything was in order.

"Is everyone ready?"
"Yes Vre'Ma'duk" answered his team in unison
"good, now remember the mission, every shot must be accounted for, if the gue'la are able to raise any alarm, the mission might fail. But by the One Path, we will give them the biggest surprise they ever had!"
"Ko'vash Tau'va!" Bellowed his team as a response, just before the AI told them it was time to go ofboard.

"Go go go!"

The door of the orca transport opened and the six shas jumped of the extended ramp of the orca. To make sure they reached the surface as fast as possible they did not use their jetpacks. In complete freefall they rushed towards the surface, long after their emergency system indicated they were going to fast.

"the fio don't know how good the stuff is they make" thought Ma'duk

Then slowly the shas slowed down while they were starting their jetpacks. It was perfectly timed and they all landed with a soft thud on the dusty soil. Only a small dust cloud was lifted in the air

"Perfect landing shas, time to do our job"

Shi'Va looked on the empty battlefield and wondered if anyone else found any Gue'Vesa resistance. "Enemy Spotted, I think you would want to do this on your own..." A Shas' El said. A voice said, "Look, this was either fate or just an Inquisitor's luck" Shas' O replied, "Jamius! You vile traitor!"
"Traitor? Your under jurisdiction of the Inquisition attacking!"
"You almost killed Aun'la!"
"You mean your pitiful crush? The one Aun'Va told you to stay away from?"
"......"
"Thats what I thought, now leave this place, Tau"
"You will eat those words..." Shas' O Shi'Va powered up his weapons, and jumped strait for the Inquisitor. Jamius simply dodged to the left and pointed his inferno pistol to the head of the Crisis suit. "Check"
"You think your Gue'Vesa weapons can pierce Crisis armor?"
"I am willing to try" at that Shas' O jumped backwards and shot a missile at Jamius, he dodged and shot his pistol at Shas' O, the pistol burned a small hole in the armor.
"AAAHG" Screamed the Tau Commander.
"You see, the Imperium will slowly burn away all the other races"
"I warned you two Tau'cyrs ago, this wont end well"
"And I said two...whatever ago, that you will perish as long as the Ordo Xeno exists."
"You and the Ordo Hereticus have no business here, I have a proposal to make"
"Speak before I change my mind..."
"Aun'la will be appearing here soon, if you cooperate..."
"I have cooperated for too long, you promised freedom!"
"And freedom I gave! Look at you Inquisitor!"
"Continue"
"IF you cooperate, I will take the burden you carry"
"...how do you know of that, Tau"
"I am Tau, I know a lot" The Inquisitor thought of this offer,
"Agreed, if you can handle it"

"movement up ahead" signalled a forward shas'ui.
"The movement pattern indicates it's a sentry, engage evasive patern B" answered Vre'Ma'duk and his team split in two, both going in oposite direction to get around the sentry on both sides. if one of the two would be noticed the other could support from the oposite side, suprising the enemy. There was one gue'la sentry pasing up and down the street. There was also a guardhouse, but there were no lights turned on inside.
"only one guard, shall we take him out Vre'Ma'duk?"
"Hhmm, the guard house can be used as forward communications bunker, it would be best to destroy the communication arrays. Right, engage mont'ka pattern K5" And as wel trained soldiers they followed the pattern with acurate precision. Waiting until the guard was in front of the guardhouse and then turning around the corner, killing him with a single bullet to the head and then quickly dragging him inside the guardhouse who would be breached at the same moment the guards body would be falling to the ground.
"this floor is secure, i go check upstairs"
"i check downstairs"
Ma'duk checked the interior of the guardhouse. It was clearly ment to be fully manned, but apparantly there was no-one here anymore, however, traces in the dust showed there had been recent activity
"We are not alone, be on your guard" The moment Ma'duk had said this a door opened and from the dark of the room behind it, fire was opened on the shas. Ma'duk was closest to the door, raised the corpse of the dead guard as a shield and charged his fusion blaster, while running through the door. the corpse was ripped to pieces by his comrades, but it had served its purpose. the fusion blaster was ready to fire, so Ma'duk dumped the body and cleared the corridor in one blast, leaving molten metal and some ashes of the former guardsmen.
"can we expect any more resistance from inside?"
"top floor is clear"
"bottom floor is clear"
"ok, bar this door from the inside, we will continue along this tunnel, lets see where it will go."

--AUN'LA

"Aun'Shi, you asked for me?"
"Yes, you will be going to Alpha 2, for diplomacy reasons"
"Understood"
"Take your honor guard, the Orca waits"
Aun'la did not want to go, Aun'Va did not want her to go, Aun'Shi, wished her to go. The guard escorted her to the Orca, when she boarded, the Air Caste was expecting something else...

--SHAS' O SHI'VA

"Where is that forbidden person of yours, Shas' O?"
"I will never reveal Aun'la's location to the likes of you!!"
"Naive Xeno"
The Inquisitor pulled out a glowing object, he closed his eyes and the object had a brighter glow, when Inquisitor Jamius opened his eyes, he dashed at Shas' O with lighting speed. Shas' O dodged right, and emptied a clip of Burst cannon into the Inquisitor. "HA, is that all you have, Tau!!!" and jumped in the air with his glowing weapon raised high, Shas' O Shi'Va got an idea, he requisitioned a gun drone, waved a wall of flame and had the drone hit Jamius in the face. Then, while shooting the burst cannon, fired a missile at the Inquisitor's body. Jamius flew a sixteen Tor’leks.

"scanners are picking up a door ahead"
"any security?"
"not on this side shas'vre, but the door is to thick to scan beyond."
"hmm let's get up close and have a look"

Vre'Ma'duk and his team closed in on the door that was at the end of the corridor they had been following for half a dec. There were footsteps in the dust, so it seemed the guardsmen had come from this direction.

"Can we open it manually?" asked a shas
"there is no pannel on this side, it's not ment to be opened from this side" answered another shas
"but maybe we can radio hack it?" He continued.
"Nah, it's no use, we'll have to blow it up"
"ok shas, expect resistance after door breach, so set up defense patern B6"

one shas'ui placed the explosives, while the others set themselves on the sides of the corridor, covering the door.

"explosives set shas'vre"
"ok, standbye everyone, in 3,2,1,..."

With a loud explosion, the door was blown into the room beyond, burying the guard that had been standing behind it waiting for his chance to attack the shas

"one guard down, no more in sight, lets continue onwards"

The now limping Inquisitor looked at Shas' O in a face that had no expression, "Impressive, Tau, however I must leave this place, this fight is far from over..." and with that Jamius turned around and left.

--AUN'LA

"Aun'la, we are approaching Alpha 2, are you certain you want to change course?"
"Yes, Kor'ui, I wish to see an old friend"
"But what about Aun..."
"Aun'Va, forgive me for disrespect, I could care less of what he says, he needs some more sun shine."
"...Y-yes A-aun'La"
"Set course to Omega 4"
"Yes Aun'la" The Orca slowed and turned a sharp right, the Kor were told about Aun'la's feelings toward Aun'Va, little. They were told that should she disrespect His Eminence, they where to dispose of her subtly...
"Aun'La, the Orca is low on fuel, there is a Tau outpost on this asteriod"
"Then land, what is this place anyway?"
"Delta...8"
"Never heard of it, but land"
"Yes Aun'La"

--SHAS' O SHI'VA

"Sir, I believe we are receiving reinforcements"
"Believe?"
"Yes, an Orca is landing on the outpost.'
"Huh..." The Orca landed professionally, and the doors yawned open and...
"What?!" Shas' O yelled in embarrassment, what came out was no reinforcement...

--JAMIUS

"Lord, the female has arrived." A sister of battle said.
"Which female, Saint Celestine or what?"
"The Ethereal"
The Inquisitor laughed and wondered how his old friend Deathwind was doing.

--TAU EMPIRE

"Aun'La?!"
"Kor'Ui, I think we hit the wrong rock!" But the Orca was already gone.

"we've got 3 sentinels inbound vre'ma'duk"
"they must have heard the explosion, we must have found their well guarded backdoor. Let's split up in pairs each one sentinel"

After they had gone trough the blown up door, the corridor had broadened and had ended in a large empty hall. It looked as it had been used for storage, but according to the way it was build, it must have been designed to be well defendable from one side. Vre'ma'duk stays in the middle with one shas'ui, while the other four fanned out to the flanks, trying to get around the sentinels. Looking at the way they swept their searchlights acros the dark space, the shas had not yet been spotted.

"visual contact with the sentinels, aim for the driver, try not to blow up the engine, we don't want to make any more noise than necessary"

As soon as the sentinels had nearly reached Ma'duk, the two sentinels on the sides stopped moving. Shas'ui had been able to kill the drivers through the open cabines. The middle sentinel did not have an open cabine. The middle sentinel noticed the lack of movement beside him and turned around to investigate why they had stopped moving and did not react to radio contact. That moment ma'duk launched himself forward with his jetpack, dove underneath the sentinel and blew away the underside of the sentinel, killing the driver and silencing the sentinel altogether.

"well done shas, let's move on"

OOC: I changed perspective twice...just so you know!

"W-where is your retinue, Aun'la?" Shas' O could not believe that he was stammering in front of his assigned Ethereal.
"Well, Shas' O, the Kor told me that they needed to refuel, and then left me here!" She said this with enormous agitation. So Shas' O decided to call his Manta Ray, Sanctifier and have the Kor' O pick the whole Cadre up.
"Sanctifier, En route"
"Thank you Kor' O, Shas' O out." O' Shi'Va was trying not to look at Aun'la at all.
"Is something wrong Shas' O?" Aun'la was speaking in that melodic voice that all Ethereals seem to have, it was so soothing it annoyed Shas' O Shi'Va.
"N-no...not really, all that matters is your safe."
"Liar"
"The Aun is always the objective"
"There is something wrong" She was right, Shas' O knew he wasn't allowed to speak to her, even being by her was fishy. The two had been so close to each other in the past Aun'Va decided to enforce his 'no interbreeding' rule, Aun'Va was not trying to hurt the two, but protect them. Shas' O thought otherwise.
"...we should go to your original objective."
"Fine"
When they boarded the Sanctifier Shi'Va exited his Crisis Suit, and was instantly reminded of Aun'la's beauty, her slender body, her perfect light-blue tan, and the mighty Honor Blade she carried, along with the Ceremonial Robes that all Etherals wear, she was more beautiful than any female Tau to grace the universe. Worst of all, everyone in the Tau Empire knew it, even the younger Ethereals will try to flirt with her, because it was allowed. The only problem was, she liked Shas' O better than she liked Aun'Va. She did not take interest in the Ethereals because they could not defend her (Other than Aun'Va, but he was like 40, that was a disgusting thought) But Shas' O had proven time and time again that he was capable of losing the mission just to protect her. This, she admired
"Aun'La!"
"What, what!?" She figured out she was daydreaming.
"Is everything ok?"
"Yes Shas'la, what do you need?"
"Uhh, the Kor'O said we where approching Alpha 2"
"Thank you Shas' O"
"What?!"
"Uhh...I...mean Shas'la, you will grow into a great Shas' O"
"...Ok"
"Dismissed, May Tau'Va be with you" The embarassment that ran over her face was incredible, probably noticeable by every crew member aboard the ship. This time Shas' O was suited in his Crisis suit.
"Everything ok, Aun'la?"
"Not really" when she said this, the crisis suit started to disengage. Shas' O stepped out of the massive suit.

OOC: Vilts will be back!

When Aun'Va learned of the Imperial colony on Delta 6, he ordered Aun'la to turn the Orca around.
"Yes Aun'Va, Kor'O!"
"Yes, Aun'la?"
"Go back to Delta 6, Aun'Va wishes it, no questions!"
"Y...yes Aun'la" The Kor'O did not want to pilot through the under siege Tau fort, but Aun'Va wished it, that was all that mattered.
"Aun'la, is there anything wrong?"
"Yes, Shas' O, its Aun'Va..."
"About us?"
"...he said do anything to stay away from you."
"I understand, Kor'O! Drop me off in the middle of the Imperial colony!"
"Shas' O, I respect you and your bravery, but I cannot comply."
"Kor'O, I did not ask a question, the Aun wills it!"
"I will drop you at the edge of the Tau fort, I have orders as well"
"I will not forget this Kor'O"
"Shas' O, you don't have to, in fact you don't have to do anything..."
"Kor'O?"
"All you have to do, is DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shas' O did not have time to equip his battlesuit, so he grabbed his portable Burst Cannon and Pulse Carbine and prepared for the worst, which came in the form of what the Gue'Vesa call, a Warp Portal. The first thing that came out, was the Kor'O; Hundreds of 'Chaos' came out afterwards and annihilated the ship, Aun'la dressed up in a fire warrior suit with out Shas' O knowing.
"Shas'la! Where is Aun'la?"
"I...she is safe on the planet"
"Good, go ahead and drop down."
"What about you?"
"I will follow shortly." The 'Fire Warrior' listened and ran for the drop pods, unfortunately, Aun'la did not know how to work it.
"Shas' O, I dont think these pods are working!"
"Did you press the flashing red button?" A few centidecs later, Shas' O heard a loud 'BOOM' and smiled, he knew it was Aun'la, because Fire Warriors die before their commander, its part of training.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!!!!!" the mad Gue'Vesa where yelling.
"Shut up!" Shas' O Shi'Va said and pumped three clip into the squad of Gue'Vesa. Then he ran for the drop pod.

"According to the holo-map, we have just past their defences underground"
"indeed, my sensors are picking up the distant sounds of artillery, that means the tau forces have landed and are now on their way, we must hurry"

The Shas moved from hall to hall, from corridor to corridor and met only light resistance in the form of small guardposts and patrols, as if they didn't know they were under attack. Suddenly Ma'duk stopped in the middle of a large hall.

"we are right underneath it now"
"do you think this will work shas'vre?"
"if we can blow out a large chunk of the ceiling and then use a second explosion to let the basilisks come down"
"ok, lets do it!"

Ma'duk took up a defensive position, guarding the shas from any gue'la attackers, while they placed the first round of demolitions. The AI had calculated the optimal location and according to drone surveys from space they could wipe out the entire eastern artillery position, if it would work.

"All explosives are in place"
"perfect, regroup on me and let's give them some fireworks"

The shas returned to ma'duk and made sure they could not get hit by debris by hiding behind some metal crates that had been left behind. Ma'duk triggered the explosives and simultaniously all of them blew up. The rockcrete ceiling started collapsing, scattering large chunks of building material around the hall, dust everywhere.

"get the second load up their, the gue'la must have heard this, so hurry up, we will have troops inbound very soon i guess"

The shas went up again placing a new round of demolitions

"shas'vre, you got troops inbound, need assistance?"
"negative, focus on your task at hand, i will manage"
"understood"

Ma'duk moved from his position, opening fire on a group of gue'la, trowing a grenade at another group and dodging aside again. Lasgun fire lit up the corridor and the hall and gave ma'duk a good look on the enemy. He downed a few of them before he moved to another position, hiding behind crates and walls. The gue'la had been stopped and were now cramped in a small space, ready for the slaughter.

"shas'vre, we are done, we are coming!"

And while the shas'ui moved in to help ma'duk, he triggerd the demolitions and with an even louder bang than the first time it all came down. Rockcrete, dust, soil, machinery and bodies, it all came down like a waterfall, filling the hall and stunning the gue'la with fear. Ma'duk and his shas finished of the last of the gue'la.

"shall we continue on, or shall we move to the surface again ma'duk?"

The battle wore on. Elements were in place, and the gue'la have been engaged. Long range bombardment ment the average fire warrior team would have near to impossible odds of closing in on the objective location intact. The devilfish would have the best chance in closing ground on the gue'la. In a devilfish M'yen looked among his squad. The faces of brave soldiers, ready to lay their lives should the need. All for the greater need of the Tau Empire. It is what moved M'yen to lead them, it's what moved him to teach them.

An alert sounded within his comm. Unexpected. But good news.

"Heads up!", M'yen spoke with an assertive, fatherly tone, "A skilled stealth team of XV's rendered the eastern source of bombardment ineffective. Seeds of confusion have been sown, and we will tend to the saplings. We are headed that way with another joint team. We are to secure the area, and contact the stealth XV's. Take and hold untill our own Hammerhead offensive touches ground. Kovash Tauva!"

"Kovash Tauva!" the squad gave a firm response.

Checking his gear, and equiping his helmet. Before long the pressure disengages and the hatches open up to a world of anarcy. Chuncks of rockcrete jut out in jagged edges from below. Shards of machinery and what used to be a basalisk battery. Gue'la ran abouts, some attempting to muster a good defense amid the horror of surprise. It would be no use.

The two devilfish hovered as the two squads disembarked, all the while sending a fusillade of firepower downwind into the gue'la crew and soldiers. M'yen leads his squad amid the rubble, the return fire was disorganized and ineffective as their force stretched between threats known and unknown.

OOC: New Character
BIC:

Elurian Starhunter let the energies of the warp wash around him. A terrible feeling but addictivly thrilling at the same time. Just as the pressure of the immaterium was becoming too much for his concious, there was a sudden yet subtle, Crack! As he popped through dimmensions.
Like the fangs of a spider his powerblades snapped forward on his forearms. He had appeared before a helpless Mon'kei Guardsman who spun around in fear jabbing with his beyonet. Elurian moved like the wind. Slicing away the end of the lasgun's barrel and the guardsman's head in one foul swoop of his arm. With a series of cracking noises 4 more warpspiders appeared around him. Their armor swirling with the vibrant green markings of the Korelii Temple.
They stood in a circle.
Krellis Khanrad looked over at Elurian, "We have reached planetside, what is our next course of action my Exarch?"
The Eldrich's graceful tounge made every eldar's words to their ears like the taste of honey to their mouth. It's swooping pitches and tones all blended together perfectly. A single mispronounced letter could make one word or even a statement entirly different.
His powerblades glittered and shimmered as they evaporated the Mon'kei's blood from their surfaces. "The webway gate must be closed as instructed by the Farseer. We head south." He pointed off to the distance, "Reconnect at that ruined structure in two."
"Hail" they replied. Together the team cracked through dimmensions and re-appeared a kilometer away on the roof of the ruined imperial bunker.
"Now, the bunker below us is full of combat, we can sense it's pain. We go down. Regroup when the fighting has settled."
"Hail Exarch"
"May Isha guide your feet and may Khaine steady your aim. For the Asur, our Tau allies need us."
"HAIL!" With that cry another Crack! split the air and the smell of ozone was all that remained atop the bunker.

OOC: Cool, Eldar, thats a twist. And are you in the same place we are?
BIC:

"Shas' O..."
"Yes, Aun'la?"
"Lets leave.."
"But the Orca..."
"No, the Tau, lets leave"
"W...Wha....?!"
"Yes, the Tau"
"Bu....Tau'Va...and..."
"Aun'Va is controlling us" And then Shas' O figured out what was going on.
"Shas'La!"
"Yes, Shas' O?"
"Kill Aun'la"
"...Shas'O?!!!"
"Don't question me!" the Fire Warrior did what Shas' O said. The fake Ethereal cried out and maroon blood spilled out on the asteroids grey ground.
"Stupid Gue'Vesa"
"Indeed Shas' O"
"Stop it Aun'la, and take off that almost confusing suit!"
"Shas' O?!"
"Come on, I know its you"
"Shas' O, its me, Shas'la Kais"
"Funny, come on now"
"...Shas' O, those pods where really not working...I overrode them."
"...Where is Aun'la"
"Before you sent me away to the pods, I was going to tell you that she was missing"
"So why didn't you tell me this"
"I assumed that you thought she was on the asteroid..." Shas' O had a new mission on his hands now, he shifted his Crisis suit and thought...'Jamius, you jerk'
"Alright, Shas'la, you want to re-try your trial by fire?"
"No, no I don't"
"huh...thats new. Ok." Shas' O Shi'Va thought, 'confront Jamius, and save Aun'la. Relatively doable' And so he jumped towards the Gue'Vesa camps.

"Sir, there is a Tau approaching the camp" A guardsmen said
"And?" The sergeant replied
"Orders?"
"Guess."
"Kill it"
"Praise the Emperor, I have one idiot" the other guardsmen then started to wonder where they stood according to the Sergeant.

"(sigh) another Gue'Vesa construct" Shas' O muttered so he did what he always did, send in his gun drone, let it kill as many as possible, and explode at the last second. Then he would jump into the bunker and destroy anyone left, and of course, it worked. BOOM, Shas' O's cue to jump in and kill everyone. After a little while, the Gue'Vesa sergeant remained.
"No, no please great Emperor, not now."
"(sigh) what is the point to whining to a non-existent being?"
"No, no, no, please God Emperor of Terra, no"
"Look, I have an offer for you"
"Oh no, no, good Emperor not now." Shas' O could not blame the poor Gue'Vesa, his face was full of his and his teams blood, pulse scars where present all over his ragged body. The only thing he had was faith in his 'Emperor'
"GUE'VESA, STAND!!"
"No, no, please no" Shas' O was getting annoyed...so he left and worried about the real task. "Praise the Emperor!!!" Shas' O ignored it.
There was a buzz on Shi'Va's comms"Say it, Ethereal! (Smack)...Ok, Ok...Shas' O Shi'Va of Vior'la, turn around, do not trace this, any sign of aggresion will have me killed by order of the...the...(Smack)...order of the..." The comm went out.
"Kor'Ui?!"
"Yes, Shas' O?"
"Get comms with Inquisitor Lord Jamius"
"...Patching..."
"Thank you"
"Yes, Tau, have you given up yet?"
"You traitor, we had a deal, blackmail was not part of it"
"What I said was not blackmail, it was an offer"
"Offering of death!!"
"Not death, redemption"
"Redemption of what?! My dead Ethereal?!"
"I never said that."
"Than what was this?" Shas' O replayed the message.
"Not my transmission..."
"Liar"
"Shas' O, I have not touched your beloved Ethereal!"
"My hands are clean, but my gun is missing bullets"
"I am sorry what?"
"Your hands can be clean, but your mouth can be filled with blood"
"If you are insinuating I hold your Ethereal, you are wrong, I am on Alpha 2..."
"With your Sisters?"
"Plus the Vindicare Assassin"
"Than who?!"

BTW: Do not worry about what I am doing, I am on another part of the asteroid, doing personal matters.