[Narrative] New Day, Same Death | a Doktor Shiny Guest Post

<Da’Ieldi Enclave Compound, Shas Caste Command Centre>

<0912 local time, Gue’vesa time calibration>

Aloh’ka entered the command centre soundlessly, as was in his nature, though the automa tic door ’s mechanism was not silent and so gave him away. His mentor always did say he would have made a fine pilot for a stealth suit. Even if the door had been as silent as the man it was admitting into the room, he suspected Vre’Savon would still have somehow detected him. His perceptiveness could almost have passed for preternatural, which of course was exactly what had earned him his position in the command centre.

Without even looking up from his s canner screen, Savon wordlessly held up a metal container for Aloh’ka to take as he passed, which he gratefully did. Iced ti’san, flavoured with on’raj blossom, Aloh’ka’s preferred way to start any work shift. They’d been doing this ritual every rotaa for most of the last fifteen tau’cyr.

“I gather congratulations are in order, Shas’O.” Fio’El Tinek’wei stood to something resembling attention, though at his age it was never going to be quite vertical. He also had a cup of ti’san nearby, though his was the steaming hot variety.

Aloh’ka looked down at his legs meaningfully. “Still walking. That’s nice.”

“And even managed not to wreck the shiny new battlesuit I built for you,” Tinek’wei added with a wry smile.

Aloh’ka’s face almost smiled back, though not quite. “If I had, you’d have broken my legs yourself.”

That got a bark of laughter out of the old man. “Very true! I won’t tolerate youngsters wasting resources, it doesn’t serve the Good! Now, speaking of serving the Tau’va, what made you summon me here instead of getting to work analysing our new ves’ron debris?”

Aloh’ka’s eyebrow rose nearly a tenth of a tor’li. “They left something?” He had been under the impression the invaders had disappeared entirely as mysteriously as they arrived, even their destroyed wreckages having vanished with barely a trace.

Tinek’wei took a small holo-projector from one of his many pockets and switched it on. An image of a metal fragment appeared in the air, annotated with a size scale and other initial data. “The end of a bladed weapon, from the tripod ones that tried to outflank your troops. Broke off, and looks like they missed it when they removed themselves.”

Aloh’ka remembered them well. Arrived behind their lines out of nowhere, from terrain they had already travelled through. Had they been burrowed underground, masking their energy signatures? Or had they manifested behind them at that moment? Many of the alien species out there had access to teleportation, but the ves’ron seemed to be able to wield the technology with a skill and elegance beyond anyone else. “Why do you think they missed it?”

Tinek’wei shifted his weight a little, slightly uncomfortable. “Probably because of where we found it.” He waved at the projector, and a second image appeared. Four shas’la, lying dead on the ground, hacked apart. Blood had poured from where their armour had been sliced through (and where there was yet some trace of energy slowly disintegrating the armour, diligently annotated by the earth caste analysts), and seeped into the soil under them. The blade fragment had been found inside the chest of one of the dead, having snapped off; from the telltale churn of the ground right next to the body, he suspected the owner of that weapon had briefly experienced the might of the Greater Good courtesy of the Hammerhead crew and their railgun , and lost part of their blade when they were blasted apart.

Aloh’ka squinted at the markings on the armour. “One of the new shas‘las. Hadn’t even earned a name yet.” What a tragedy. Every member of the fire caste – indeed, every Tau - would think nothing of giving up their life for the Greater Good; but to be forced to do so when their careers were only just beginning, without even having earned their distinctiveness, felt wasteful. Who could they have been, what would they have achieved, if they’d had the chance?

“A valiant soul.” The least he could do. “Let the record show that soldier’s name was Shas’la Da’Ieldi Lar’ran.”

Tinek’wei regarded him, though his thoughts went unsaid. “I’ll make a point of it, commander.”

The door slid open again, and a new figure strode through. Tall and muscular, with a bionic eye and metallic cover over one side of his face where it had been burned off fighting some gue’la who had been less interested in the benefits of the Tau’va than the ones who lived here on Janneria. Vre’Savon had no ti’san waiting for this newcomer; then again, Aloh’ka didn’t mean to keep him long enough to drink it.

“Shas’El Da’Ieldi Ha’thas, reporting!” His stand to attention was flawless, his voice loud and harsh. 

“At ease,” Aloh’ka said, much more gently, making the subtlest hand motion for Ha’thas to take a position over by Tinek’wei.

“You’re right on time. I have an assignment for you both.”

Fire and Earth exchanged a respectful glance at each other. Tinek’wei was only chest-height to Ha’thas. 

“What’s this about?” Tinek’wei asked, technically for the second time. Now that the Shas’El was here, Aloh’ka could answer that
question.

“I have a concern regarding the last ves’ron incursion. Specifically, this.”
Aloh’ka pushed a button at the nearby console, where the recent Tor'vash’por transmission was already queued up and paused ready. A gue’vesa on the screen, with more hair on the bottom of his head than the top, and a bionic eye quite similar to Ha’thas’ own; even on the same side.

“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.”

Ha’thas looked blank. “The gue’vesa are still having trouble adapting to our terminology.”

“We can afford to be patient with them.” Aloh’ka tilted his head to bring the conversation back to the broadcast. “He makes a point that I want investigated.”

“The ves’ron ship?” Tinek’wei turned back to Aloh’ka. “It’s already left the system. If you want it to come back, I’m not the one to chase after it.”

“Question: he says the ships are usually cloaked. Why not this one?”

In the pause that followed, it was Ha’thas that broke the silence first. “Overconfidence!” he declared, “After they wreaked havoc last time, they didn’t think we would have the strength to be worth taking precautions against us. You certainly showed them otherwise, mighty Shas’O!” Aloh’ka briefly wondered if Ha’thas was the right commander for this job. He earned his rank by racking up more confirmed enemy kills than anyone else in the Sept, but he was very much a blunt instrument for blunt solutions. Still, he was here and not busy, and if he was likely to accidentally blow up half his own cadre it would have already happened by now.

Tinek’wei’s answer was, at least, more thoughtful. “The ship was also notable for leaking dioxazine into space. Clearly it was damaged: you don’t waste a rare resource like dioxazine if you have a choice in the matter. Perhaps their usual cloaking technology wasn’t operational?”

“Possibly.” Given his druthers, Aloh’ka would prefer that to turn out to be the explanation. “But what if they weren’t cloaked… because the device that cloaks them wasn’t on board?” 

Tinek’wei followed his line of thinking fastest. “You think they landed troops to install something on the planet, and are using their
cloaking device to make sure we don’t find it?”

“It’s a possibility we can’t ignore.” He fixed Ha’thas with his gaze. “Shas’El, ta ke your cadre and secure the area. Provide protection and help out the Fio’El’s staff with whatever they need. Fio’El, assemble whatever personnel you require, and scan that whole landing site. Blast the hill open if you think you have to. If there’s anything there, and they don’t want us to find it, I think we should disappoint them and find it anyway.”

“Understood, Commander. If there’s anything there, cloaked or not, we’ll dig it up. But what if we find nothing?”

Aloh’ka would prefer that outcome, which was exactly why he didn’t blindly trust it to be true. “What if you find something?”