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I feel like making this, but due to me not having much time on my hands I'm going to make short pieces every now and then to make my tau fluffy, and there will mostly likely be other small additions to this thread as time goes on. I'm aiming to try and get the perspectives of different tau throughout the story which I hope will give more insight into different parts of the tau forces. I hope it doesn't get boring for anyone either, I want to keep it interesting

One: Prologue

"Kor'ui B'unti, commence evasive action, starboard side."
Kor'O V'ikka was aboard the Custodian class battleship, the Vigilant. She was one of the last few navy assets of the tau, and without her the forces on the ground would be cut off and isolated. While he released no emotion, he could feel himself losing grip upon the situation. He remained calm throughout the ordeal against the imperial navy, and although he felt like yelling at the bridge crew, he needed to maintain control. Getting angry would contribute nothing towards the Greater Good.
"Launch missile batteries 1 and 3 at target seven." Target seven was the imperial flagship.
"But that goes against-"
"I know it goes against protocol, kor'ui," V'ikka interrupted, "but we want to survive, for the greater good. Fire the missiles."
"Affirmative. Firing..." Informed the tactical officer. The tactical officer was recently promoted, and despite being new, followed the protocol to the letter.
"Kor'O, enemy missiles launched. Counting... Twelve, fifteen, nineteen in total." The tactical officer said. V'ikka cursed under his breath.
"Point defence cannons are offline. We have no way to defend ourselves from the missiles." This made V'ikka tremble.
"Time until impact?"
"Six minutes, sir." V'ikka wouldn't go down. Without a fight, for the sake of the greater good.
"Eject all missiles, target seven. Give everything we have to target seven. We might as well go down fighting." Six minutes later, Vigilant was destroyed. Eighteen minutes later, the imperium had eliminated all air caste assets in space. Ground forces were on their own.

Nice plan. I'm happily along for the ride.

As someone spending a decent portion of my own limited spare time writing short episodic fiction on my phone during lunch breaks etc, I just want to encourage and support this endeavour any way I can. I know very little about Tau fluff-wise though, but I am eager to learn.

Hey Crowe,

Thanks for replying, I also hope your necromunda story goes well, I don't often see necromunda fiction

Looking forward to see thing how this expands and the kinds of Tau characters we'll see on the surface.

My only really critique is that it can be a little hard to distinguish speech from eachother. This might be something to do with little spacing between the lines, or perhaps you could start some lines with who is speaking.

A minor comment though, otherwise very good!

Thanks Smudge, I'll make sure to sort it out for the next part

Hey, I've got the second part of the story here. I have tried to rectify Smudges point with the dialogue, and I think it has gone better. I hope you enjoyed this part, and I'll see you all in the third part.

One:
Shas'el N'tirri stared with horror at the datapad. With the sudden loss of contact with the navy, it seemed like he was in trouble. Without contact, he couldn't request reinforcements nor for air support. The datapad said it was for an unknown reason, and the datapad also showed who the known survivors of the Gue'la attack were. With all the survivors organised into new groups, he had a small cadre with an armoured asset.
One of the pathfinders approached N'tirri, saying, "Reports have came in from my team. The Gue'la have settled in a wrecked building, and have started to set up a perimeter. They appear to have taken in some civilians as well." N'tirri was evaluating the situation. The civilians would help the Gue'la massively with food and hard labour. N'tirri finally replied, "Continue scouting them out. Take the firefight marksmen and his drones with you too, I want to be ready to eliminate them if need be. Taking out their commander would cause chaos among their ranks."
"Yes, commander." The pathfinder acknowledged, walking back to his squad. He also signalled for the marksman, and he quickly followed the pathfinder.

Twenty minutes later, N'tirri ordered his survivors to move. Some Tau drones had scouted out an ideal settling area for the night, about an hour's trek through the forest. It was a small, abandoned scouting post, something N'tirri was surprised the Gue'la hadn't settled in.
"Shas'ui Huterra, send the drones into the building. I want to find out if there are any gifts the Gue'la have sent us."
"Yes, Commander." Huterra replied. Suddenly a rustling came from some bushes some thirty metres away, and N'tirri wasn't taking any chances.
"Halt!" He yelled. As ordered, the Tau immediately stopped. N'tirri then ordered, "Huterra, send you and two others to investigate. I want to make sure we're safe.
Moments later, a fire warrior staggered backwards, crying in pain. He had a large hole in his shoulder. A las gun wound.

Nigel0728 wrote:
Hey Crowe,

Thanks for replying, I also hope your necromunda story goes well, I don't often see necromunda fiction

Yeah, Necromunda apparently doesn't bring in the readership. Ten parts and nary a peep. No idea if its making any sense to anyone or if anyone's reading it at all. I just keep posting what I've got. I'm enjoying it if noone else is.

My last such offering was an Eldar story, another somewhat unloved race for fiction. Thirty odd short instalments from start to conclusion. Some of it pretty out there. Then before that was a Gretchin Biography. I figure if nobody's writing it there's a niche.

If anyone wrote a BloodBowl fiction I'd read it.
You should get plenty of Tau love though. They're pretty popular I reckon.

Much better on the speech front, nice to see the action picking up!

Two things, both rather minor:
In the first paragraph, I'd instead say "couldn't request reinforcements nor for air support" - it fits better with the past tense vibe you've got going on.

The last lines, probably "Moments later, a fire warrior..." could afford to be on a separate line. It adds a lot of weight and punch to what is a very impactful line to end with.

Otherwise, very good! Looking forward to the rest!

@theCrowe
Not many people today have heard of necromunda, let alone played it. I have small gang of redemptionists myself, so your necromunda fiction is a nice coincidence.

@Sgt_Smudge
Thanks for the critique Smudge, in fact I will change those sections now.

Hey, I've got the third part today. I'm definitely not going to be posting until Monday, maybe Tuesday so I thought I'd get something out now to keep this going.

Two
The Tau were completely confused and disorientated as to what had just happened. N'tirri spotted some small life signatures with his battle suits optics. The data was sent from his suit to others automatically, so soon all battle suits were attacking them like dogs upon a dead carcass. A fire warrior howled in pain and fell to the floor, unconscious. N'tirri advanced with nerves of steel, as if he wasn't in a dangerous place getting shot by an unknown enemy. He rounded the bush to find a small group of ratings, and with a quick shot from his plasma rifle one was quickly vaporised. Then he lifted his burst cannon, and with a short burst the rest of them were killed. At least he thought so, as he felt a sharp pain in his right leg. A last on bolt had grazed it, and while it was a minor injury it was very much painful. The rattling charged at N'tirri, but with a strong kick he was knocked out. The Tau had survived the ambush.