bio

In lieu of answering Bravestorm's question, Farsight strode forward and triggered the hollow sampler cylinders under his XV8's heels. They thudded into the planet's crust and withdrew immediately, the battlesuit's interior scanners already hard at work. A few microdecs later the results flashed across Farsight's environmental suite. 'Take your own geological readings, please,' he said. 'I wish to draw something to your attention.'
The data sample correlated perfectly with those Farsight had taken as soon as he had left the Advent. The planet's crust was close to barren, with only the hardiest cacti able to eke a life from its meagre soil. The strata of ash and soot deposited upon it by the supervolcano chains had choked most complex life forms from the planet, but the readout showed that a thin dusting of a different kind of ash covered the upper layer. Its composition was far from the igneous, pumice-rich signature of the others; if the preliminary reading was accurate, it was biological in nature.
Farsight's stomachs curdled as the suit matched the genetic signature underneath the ash.
'Is your analysis suite giving you the same environmental readings as mine?' asked Bravestorm softly.
'The ash,' said Farsight. 'I have just confirmed it.'
'Yes,' said Moata, 'I am afraid it is… biological.'
'It is tau.'

Farsight: Crisis of Faith