[Battle Report] Janneria Prime II - This Is Tor'Vash'Por | Tenth Edition | Only War | Incursion | Necrons vs. T'au

 

Luna Samara: ... and in news from the Fifth Sphere, routine experimental weapons testing by the Da'Ieldi enclave recently took an unexpected turn! Our correspondent on the ground, Caspar Hawkin, has more...

[A wide plaza of ex-Imperial style, dominated by the high grey walls of a fortified compound on the far side. The right hand side faces out to sea: conditions are choppy, with heavy cloud cover. A pair of Devilfish transports escort a Hammerhead gunship across the plaza, taking up positions on the sea wall. The Hammerhead's turret traverses as Hawkin continues.]

Hawkin (v/o): Thank you, Luna. Fire caste personnel on a live fire exercise reported contact with ves'ron military constructs in the Defyna highlands, thirty-two tor'kan inland from here. In a moment of good fortune, the exercise was led by Shas'O Da'Ieldi Aloh'ka, who led our enclave's defence against the previous ves'ron incursion, nearly sixteen tau'cyr ago.

[Cut: a broad-shouldered, slightly squat T'au in Fire caste fatigues, in a hospital conference room. Extensive scars dot his scalp, and he has carefully been shot from the waist up. The caption reiterates that this is, indeed, Aloh'ka, and the picture quality suggests this is archive footage.]

Aloh'ka: I lived. Many did not. Remember them.

Unidentified v/o: Shas’O Aloh’ka was the only survivor from his cadre. While his XV8 suit burned out the ves’ron nanodrones which threatened to paralyse him, at the cost of catastrophic system failure, he still sustained massive trauma to his nervous system and multiple limbs. It took four kai’rotaa for him to relearn how to walk; two more before he was able to return to active duty.

Hawkin (v/o): Aloh'ka's kau'ui is among four currently engaged in live fire exercises across the Defyna highlands. Defyna's abandoned fortifications and depleted mine workings predate the Janneria Prime Accord by over a hundred tau'cyr: the highlands have been used for military training ever since, although Fio'o Da'Ieldi Yen'Mesme is advocating to re-open a corridor for long distance transport and travel.

Hawkin (v/o): Two discrete contacts were confirmed in the sixth dec by Da'Ieldi forward observation la'rua, each comprising a single la'rua of ves'ron infantry accompanied by a single larger device. 

Hawkin (v/o): The smaller construct was observed to rapidly reanimate ves'ron casualties inflicted during initial long-ranged skirmishes - it's no surprise the Shas'O made its elimination a priority.

Hawkin (v/o): The larger proved more heavily armed, and despite skilful pilotage by Da'Ieldi's kor'la, both scouts were shot down within microdecs.

Hawkin (v/o): Both contingents redeployed, with the superior mobility of the kau'ui shown as their lines divided. Additional Fireknife support redeployed from the neighbouring kau'ui as the Shas'O's contact was confirmed across the testing range. In the decs that followed, the reason behind the ves'ron split deployment became clear. Additional ghoro'elash elements appeared from behind the Da'Ieldi lines.

Hawkin (v/o): Da'Ieldi command responded with concentrated fire from both shas'saal and shas'ui, in the experimental hyperpulse mode the kau'ui was originally assigned to test.

Hawkin (v/o): Despite a marked improvement in efficiency, surviving ghoro'elash took a heavy toll on the shas'saal contingent and their reinforcing shas'ui, forcing them into crossfire from ves'ron heavy infantry advancing onto the ridge which had hitherto separated the combatants.

Hawkin (v/o): Elsewhere, however, the discipline of Tau'va prevailed. Ves'ron infantry moving out across open ground were devastated by additional hyperpulse fire. Shas'O Aloh'ka displayed exceptional marksmanship, personally destroying the final ghoro'elash'ron at extreme range.

Hawkin (v/o): In the final moments of the engagement, surviving shas'saal - who'd been field testing new threat assessment analysis drones - destroyed the remaining ves'ron infantry, and exposed the apparent leader of the incursion to a pinpoint railgun strike.

[Cut: A seasoned, mature Tau warrior whose fireblade hilt is just visible in the corner of the shot, standing in the courtyard of a weatherbeaten Fire Caste military facility. He addresses an out-of-shot microphone, while in the background, a trio of Fireknife battlesuits disgorge their pilots. Caption identifies him as Shas'El Da'Ieldi Tan'Seri.] 

Tan'Seri: Kau'ui shas'saal bor'eh'kais... [Our trainees showed exceptional skill, in an encounter outside their current experience. I'm proud of them, and proud of the performance of the new hyperpulse design too - the Earth caste have excelled themselves there - [cut, barely noticeable, suggesting some comment has been redacted]. We outnumbered and outmaneuvered the ves'ron, and the greater part of their strength - the light infantry on the commander's side - took a lot of killing, but they were indecisive. Holding back, for some reason. Once they were gone, the support elements disappeared - just a long line of light where the front line had been, and they were gone.]

Hawkin (out of shot): Do our intelligence operatives have any idea why the ves'ron were here?

Tan'Seri: Da'noh - asso... [It's a puzzle. They appeared, apparently out of nowhere, attacked a cadre of trainees on a live fire exercise in an area with no strategic value, and withdrew. It reminds me of the first contact experiences, in the Second Sphere. Inscrutable, violent, and with no conventional goals. If they did achieve something here, it's something only they're aware of.]  

[Interior: a glass-domed structure, rain blattering against the panes. Within, several ranks of technicians in sheer purple uniforms - some sporting Mechanicus-style bionic enhancements - are at work, their terminals displaying output from long-range auspex as well as local radar and sonar scans.] 

Hawkin (v/o): Following the initial military contact, gue've'sa personnel responsible for system defence confirmed a point of origin for the ves'ron attackers - a single starship sighted moving away from Janneria Prime over the next two ro'taa.

[Cut: a middle-aged human with a Tau-made bionic eye and an expansive, flared beard. They occupy a command chair overlooking the room from the previous shot, and scanner bleeps and bloops punctuate their speech. They are identified, by caption, as "SDF Commodore Copthorne."]

Copthorne: Under normal circumstances, necron vessels of this apparent class and configuration have an incredibly sophisticated cloaking device. Until they, if they don't open fire, they're aus - that is to say scanner ghosts. Never see them coming or going.

[High orbit, with the pale atmosphere of Janneria visible at the bottom of the display. This stylised rendition is replaced by the readout of sensor sweep, which shows the blue of system defences at alert and an indistinct cloud of static, with a white contact at its heart.] 

Copthorne (v/o): This one seems to be damaged, or contaminated. According to our fio'ui colleague it's bleeding a rare mineral called dioxazine, and we caught those emissions on and off over twenty-eight, er, nineteen... the day of the contact, and the day after. Contact was lost in the small, ah... early, the morning before this.

[Cut: the Jannerian shorefront again, this time clearly being filmed by camera drone. Layers of lido structures descend the shallow cliff until they reach the sea itself; human auxiliaries are digging in, while temporary defence turrets are erected in the open spaces.]

Hawkin (v/o): Governor de Gomme's office has announced her address to the Stannary Convocation - that's the parliament of senior miners and free traders who traditionally advise the gue'sa governor here on Janneria - will go ahead as planned. As such, while the ves'ron appear to have withdrawn for now, the Da'Ieldi enclave and gue've'sa counterparts remain on medium alert. I'm Caspar Hawkin, for Tor'Vash'Por.

[Int. Tor'Vash'Por studio. Luna, the hostess, taps her dataslate theatrically, then turns to the t'au seated two places down from her at the desk, who wears elaborate Water Caste robes.] 

Luna: Thanks again, Caspar. Joining me in studio is Por'El Da'Ieldi Rhen'na, a signatory to the Janneria Prime accords, who recently celebrated fifteen tau'cyr of peace on the planet in question. Por'El, welcome.

Rhen'na: It's a pleasure to be here, Luna.

Luna: I wonder if you could illuminate us - what's the history of the ves'ron presence on Janneria?

Rhen'na: Of course. The previous ves'ron incursion came at a sensitive and, it turned out, highly apposite time. Shas'O Aloh'kah's cadre may not have prevailed in battle on that occasion, but their mere presence - the fact that an attempt was made - was highly persuasive to my counterparts in those negotiations. It could be said that without the ves'ron, Janneria would never have embraced Tau'va at all.

Luna: And is there a greater significance, do you think, to their reappearing now?

Rhen'na: To an extent. I doubt the ves'ron particularly care about sept succession, or that the intrusion is deliberate, but - Da'Ieldi is among the possible inheritors of the N'Dras sept designation, and a not insignificant part of their case rests on their stewardship of Janneria, proving that they're capable of managing other worlds. The enclave's quite difficult to reach - even slipstream drives have to divert hundreds of tor'oh to find navigable space - and as such quite difficult to communicate with, or protect...