[Battle Report] This Is... Tor'Vash'Por? | Tenth Edition | Only War | Incursion | Necrons vs. Tau

Luna Samara: ... and in news from the Fifth Sphere, the Da’Ieldi enclave on Janneria Prime reports hostile contact with ves’ron combat drones for the first time in over fifteen tau’cyr. Shas’saal undertaking live fire training in a demilitarised zone encountered the ves’ron in a meeting engagement lasting four and a half decs. Correspondent 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): Fire caste personnel on a live fire exercise reported contact with ves'ron fighters 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.

Hawkin (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 cadre 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 team of ves'ron infantry accompanied by a single autonomous combat drone. 

Hawkin (v/o): The smaller drone was observed to rapidly reanimate ves'ron casualties inflicted by long ranged fire, almost totally negating the initial engagement - 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 shas’la, both scouts were shot down within microdecs by high-energy laser fire.

Hawkin (v/o): Additional battlesuit support redeployed from the neighbouring cadre as the Shas'O's contact was confirmed, and word spread across the testing range. In the decs that followed, the reason behind the ves'ron split deployment became clear as additional ves’ron - heavier infantry armed for close quarters engagement - appeared from behind the Da'Ieldi lines.

Hawkin (v/o): Da'Ieldi command responded with concentrated fire from the infantry trainees, in the experimental hyperpulse mode the cadre had been assigned to test.

Hawkin (v/o): Although several ves’ron were destroyed, survivors and reactivated casualties took a heavy toll on the reinforcing battlesuit team and their forward observers, forcing them into crossfire from ves'ron heavy infantry advancing onto the ridge which had hitherto separated the combatants.

Hawkins (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 melee-adapted ves’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: the hilt of his bonding blade 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'o'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.

[Cut: a readout screen from a low orbital perspective, with the pale atmosphere of Janneria visible at the bottom of the display. Overlaid are stylised graphics indicating a 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 decs of this morning.

[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'vesa 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: Joining me in the studio is Por'El N’Dras Rhen'na, who as an original signatory to the Jannerian Accord has recently celebrated fifteen years of co-operation 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. 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. As such, the act of holding onto it, as an accomplishment in its own right, is arguably of greater political value than the enclave itself…