Shadowsun

-From Shadowsun's perspective, humanity and Orks were not so different. They were crude, hateful, and always eager for a fight.

-The crossing of the Great Rift was a strange journey for Shadowsun. She has suspicions that there are sentient ghosts in the space that separate both halves of the galaxy.

-Shadowsun led an operation against a settlement of Gue'vesa that turned against the Greater Good. The diseased humans of the settlement claimed to have had visions of a harvest god called Nur'ghul.

-The settlement was erected on a high ground around three pillars that the humans had covered with filth and excrement. Around a settlement seethed an ocean of dog-sized omnivorous beetles.

-During the fighting, Shadowsun held back the urge to laugh and scream a warcry older than the Fire Caste itself. While she loved grand strategy, fighting on the ground is what truly fulfilled her being.

-During the fighting, Shadowsun's team was confronted by a formation of Imperial tanks. A shadowsword flanked by two Leman Russes. The fire of the Shadowsword tore apart two of Shadowsun's team. Shadowsun unclasped a disc charge from her waist and threw it inside the shadowsword's hatch before it could be closed. She detonated the charge, obliterating the heavy tank. The senior Water Caste propagandist named Rivertell thanked her for the footage. He was monitoring the mission and collecting suitable footage for his work. Shadowsun then used her melta to melt the surviving Leman Russ into a puddle of slag.

-Shadowsun directed the cadre's fire at the three pillars. The toppling pillars shut down the crude electrical system that prevented the beetle swarms from climbing up toward the settlement. As the beetles scuttled up and devoured the humans, flocks of scabrous vultures flew as one and formed a horned face in the sky.

-The face leered down on Shadowsun with its impossibly wide mouth. Somehow she could hear it laughing in her mind. It was a gurgling guttural sound. This was a foe that defied logic altogether. It was the long-feared nightmare of the T'au made manifest. Then the birds dispersed, and the vision was gone.

-The Death Guard armada disgustingly ripped themselves from the Warp in a discharge of nameless liquids. The massive ships of the Death Guard were led by larger still vessel. It was a city-sized behemoth whose foul presence alone was capable of killing all living things miles around it. It was the death of fleets, as repugnant as it was ancient. Its name is the Nephylum. Forward elements of the T'au fleet attempted to fend off the Death Guard armada but paid a heavy cost for it before retreating. Despite being rusted and corroded, the Death Guard ships shrugged off the T'au fire and proceeded to the Startide Nexus.

-A council of elements was called to address this new crisis. The council featured the caste leaders of the Fourth Sphere, Shadowsun, and a Kroot master Shaper, to give an outsider perspective. The position that a non-T'au holds in the elemental council is called Kindred Soul.  It's a great honor for a non-T'au to be invited to a council of elements. Though, the shaper didn't look like he was pleased to be there.

-Following Shadowsun around on the battlefield as well off the battlefield were her two drones. Oe-ken-yon, the command drone, and Oe-Hei, the shield drone. They acted as Shadowsun's quirky companions. During the council meeting, Oe-ken-yon began to introduce himself proudly before Shadowsun gently ordered him back.

-The sudden arrival of the Space Marine armada was utterly unexpected. With the Fourth and Fifth Sphere forces scattered around the Expanse pursuing their expansion missions, a muster of adequate forces to repel the armada cannot be done in time using the current ship drives. Using the new Slipstream drives was out of the question. They haven't been perfected yet, and mass using them risks causing a disaster similar to the Fourth Sphere's.

-Moreover, the T'au forces elsewhere in the Expanse are engaging uprisings of billions of humans. The humans sects either belong to the Star Children religion or worship the entity named Nur'ghul. Both human sects claim that their deities are coming to destroy the T'au. The Ork raiders have also subtracted from the T'au fleet's available strength.

-Shadowsun explained that the best course of action was to have the available T'au fleet engage in stalling action while they engineered a Kauyon strategy that would allow the T'au to surround and pick apart the Space Marine fleet.

-Rivertell recognized the icons on the Space Marines ships. He informed the council that they are a Space Marine sub-sect known to the Imperium as the Death Guard. They are infamous for using biological weapons.

-Since the Death Guard armada was sailing in a straight and direct path toward the Startide Nexus, it was suggested that seeker mines be put in its path. The Air Caste council member Admiral Hoizonchild said that they tried this tactic, and it was halted. The Death Guard launched boarding actions at the T'au ships placing the mines. For Shadowsun, Imperial boarding actions were a revolting tactic.  The fact that the humans fired torpedos filled not with munitions, but crammed shock troops was revolting to her.

-The council was a recording of a T'au vessel being boarded. The T'au personnel communications from the vessel quickly turned into pleading for someone to kill them. In moments, the ship started to discolor and corrode to a skeletal frame. The senior Earth Caste member hypothesized that the Death Guard were using some kind of atomic disassembler. The T'au have no choice but to engage them from afar, using the superior range to slow them as much as they can. Orbital defenses along the path toward the Nexus couldn't flee, so they were subjected to the full brunt of the Death Guard weapons.

-It was the turn of Commander Surestrike, leader of the Fourth Sphere forces, to speak his piece.  He explained that the Fourth Sphere disaster and this current crisis are perhaps linked. During their stranding in the other dimension, they were attacked by a savage race that defied all logic. Some of the manifesting creatures shared the characteristics of the Death Guard vessels in how they are decayed and rotting beyond reason yet continue to operate.

-The senior Ethereal and supreme leader of the T'au in the Chalnath Expanse Aun'La attempted to redirect the conversation and quiet Surestrike. The Ethereal's serene face changed expression as he did so. However, Surestrike continued on.

-Surestrike said that on the brink of being overwhelmed by the creatures, something vast formed near their ship. It was familiar, yet it was not entirely T'au-like. It possessed many arms, and it was faceless. The appearance of this nightmarish creature preceded the salvation of the Fourth Sphere. Surestrike believes that in time the members of the council will meet this creature, even if it's only in their dreams.

-Surestrike continues by saying that nightmares take form and shape in the other dimension. The Fourth Sphere thought their nightmares were behind them, but it seemed that the dimension wasn't done with them yet. The dimension is hostile, and it lurks behind their reality. All that are touched by it or would taint the T'au culture with it must die. There can be no peace.

-Aun'La became thunderously furious and told Surestrike enough. His command hit the T'au like a boulder. He dismissed the council to see to their tasks.

-The T'au council members made to leave except for Surestrike, who continued to speak. He said that it's a prevailing theory among the Fourth Sphere that it wasn't the T'au that first brought the hostile visitations, nor did they cause the False Idol entity to manifest.

-While Surestrike continued to speak, the Kroot shaprer, his name is Opikh Tak, stared hard at him. Aun'La motioned to the Ethereal Guards to act.

-Surestrike said that the T'au skimmed the other dimension many times with no incident. Until now, they have never encountered the creatures that made that dimension their home before, It was the experimental slipstream and the Ethereals decision to use them en mass before they were perfected that drew the creatures to the T'au.

-Now Aun'la was beyond furious. His expression was that of intense rage. It was a grave taboo to criticize the Ethereals, even if it was indirectly. It was something that ended careers and made people disappear.

-The Ethereal Guard closed in on Surestrike with their halberds raised, but he continued on unbothered. He said that the creatures targetted first the non-T'au. They attacked first those with the potential for Mind Science, for psychics. Though in theory, the allied races are a welcome addition to the cause of the Greater Good. In practice, most of them are weaklings, corrupted by moral decay.

-Shadowsun told him that she finds it hard to believe that he found such a weakness in all the auxiliaries of the T'au.  Surestrike responded by saying that the only thing the fourth sphere auxiliaries have in common is that they did not survive long in their later assigned missions.

-The Kroot shaper yelled in outrage that Surestrike made sure of that.

-Surestrike turned to the Kroot and said that their corruption of the Greater Good damned them all. The destruction of his coconspirators was assured.

-The Kroot shaper lunged at Surestrike. Surestrike attempted to redirect the momentum of the shaper to throw him away, but the Shaper was too fast. His beak clamped on Surestrike's arm and crushed it. Shadowsun came with a running elbow at the Kroot's throat and sent him staggering off of Surestrike. She fell on him with all her weight and broke some of his ribs. Shadowsun brawled with the Kroot shaper on the ground and placed him in a wrestler's hold. The shaper used his strength to break from Shadowsun's hold. She kneed him in the stomach to prevent him from struggling free. It wasn't enough. The shaper reached out with his hand and took hold of Shadowsun's topknot and pulled it up, exposing her throat. Before he could sink his beak into her throat. Oe-hei discharged a lance of energy into the spine of the shaper, overloading his nervous system. Shadowsun used this chance to slam the Kroot shaper's face down on the floor and pin him with her hand pressed hard on his head and her knee on his back.

-Aun'La thanked Shadowsun and told the Kroot that he was expelled from the council and that he would be censured. Also, Kroot allies active in the warzones will be put under review. The Kroot shaper was taken out of the chamber of the Ethereal Guard.

-Shadowsun asked Surestrike if it was something he said that caused all of this, and she wondered why the Kroot were suffering under Surestrike's command. Surestrike responded that perhaps the Kroot blamed him for their race faring poorly in the Expanse. The Kroot are a race that courts the worst of fates by worshipping strange entities. They are a cursed race.

-Aun'La suggests a replacement for the position of the Kindred Spirit. The replacement is Nicassar called Ven Tah Regah. She is a firm believer in the Greater Good, and she has unique insights.

-Surestrike's second in command, a T'au called Dawnchaser volunteered to act as a liaison between the Fourth and Fifth Spheres. She asked to speak with Shadowsun alone. Shadowsun obliged and had Oe-ken-yon create a field of white noise around them.

-Dawnchaser told Shadowsun that the Kroot Shaper Tak was somewhat justified in attacking Surestrike.  The shaper was being transported away to a Gue'la palace's cell on the world of Pekun rather than being held on this orbital station. Surestrike didn't tell the full story of the Fourth Sphere and the entity. He wants to bury the Kroot's perspective of the crossing and quietly dispose of the shaper. Shadowsun must find Tak to learn the truth. She alone can heal the dishonor of the Fourth Sphere and heal their mental damage.

-Dawnchaser explained the best her trauma allowed her of what she saw in the dimension. Most of the creatures were hostile, but the entity they encountered was worse still. It was a ghost of something yet to be. Its form was a mockery of the T'au.

-After Dawnchaser left, the drones expressed their desire to help Shadowsun uncover the truth behind this mystery and grave accusations. Shadowsun thanked them and told them she wouldn't know what to do without them watching over her. Oe-ken-yon bobbed happily at this, and Oe-Hi dipped his edge in thanks.

-Shadowsun told them that something profound was broken in the T'au of the Expanse. Oe-ken-yon asked if she meant like an internal data stream with no tangible source. Shadowsun laughed and said yes. It's something like that. The unity of the T'au in the expanse is fragile, and they must tread carefully so as not to shatter it.

-Leading the Death Guard armada was Lord Glurtosk. An ancient Chaos marine that was there when his Primarch sold his soul and those of his legion to Grandfather Nurgle. Glurtosk has brought his armada to the Chalnath Expanse to seek out a treasure beyond any measure. The Startide Nexus is what he sought. It wasn't a rift into the tides in the Warp but a metaphysical fluke. It was a wormhole that connected one part of the galaxy to the other. The Chaos Lord plans to use to gain access to the heart of the T'au Empire and all the pristine clean worlds there. He would bring the gifts of Nurgle to the technological paradises of the T'au and show them the folly of hope and the false promise of technology. The T'au would either accept the cosmic inevitably of entropy and decay, or they would all die to it.

-The Death Guard armada inflicted many losses on the T'au fleet, and, in return, they sustained many of their own. However, the T'au couldn't inflict considerable damage on the Death Guard's capital ship.

-The Death Guard sorcerer Thurglaine extracted a vision from the T'au offal. He saw a world annexed by the T'au where humans are farmed like cattle by disc-like machines of the T'au. He saw that the T'au empress was there or was heading there. The planet's name was Pekun. The T'au empress was called Shadowsun. Thurglaine saw that cold fire surrounded her. She would make a worthy foe for the Death Guard.

-It was decided that while their armada made its way to Nexus, a force of the Death Guard would go to pursue Shadowsun.

-Shadowsun arrived on Pekun. The world's governor's palace had become an operation center for the Fourth Sphere. As Shadowsun's transport drew closer to the palace, she saw a  statue. She expected it to be the statue of the Gue'la Emperor, but it became clear it was of something stranger. She zoomed in to examine it. The statue was roughly in the shape of a T'au. It was eight armed, and in each and it held a weapon or a gift. It was faceless. At the sight of the statue, Shadowsun felt something moving in her mind, and briefly, she felt as if she was drowning.

-Shadowsun deflected and dismissed the Fourth Sphere escort.  She lied that she was going to meet with Surestrike so that she could explore the palace alone with her own team. Oe-ken-yon asked her why there was a need for deception. Aren't the Fourth Sphere their friends?  Shadowsun replied to her faithful helper that she wasn't sure of that.

-Shadowsun located Shaper Tak's cell. She told her team to hang back to allow her to earn the Kroot's trust. She exited her battlesuit and entered the cell. The cell was empty, but Shadowsun quickly deduced it was a trap.  She pulled back and drew her pistol. to evade Tak's arms. Tak had perched himself on the ceiling and skin-changed to match the cell's interior. He was too fast for Shadowsun to escape his grasp. He grabbed her head and was going to snap his beak on her face. Shadowsun moved her head in time, his beak caught only a strand of her hair. Shadowsun put her pistol in his eye socket and diffused the situation.

-Shadowsun asked Tak about his perspective of the Fourth Sphere crossing. He told her it wasn't merely his perspective, it was the truth. During the crossing, the Kroot were attacked by creatures that were not of flesh. They could not be eaten. They could not be learned from. The creatures hunted down all the master shapers and slew them one by one. Only Tak remained. The Kroot fought hard, but little could be done against things that were neither real nor solid.

-Shadowsun questioned Tak if the creatures were gaseous or perhaps they were holograms projected to distract them while the real enemy picked them off. Tak said they weren't. They were lies made manifest. Plagues given form. A plague that didn't need a host. They were the disease itself.

-The Kroot attempted to hide and skin change, but still, the creatures found them. They didn't only come for them in the waking world, they came for the Kroot in their dreams. They infected and twisted the minds of their finest warriors not by germ or spore but through their dreams. Fear is what drew them, and there was no hiding from them.

-The creatures were relentless. They laughed even as they died, and always came more of them. Sometimes the creatures would let the Kroot win to build up their hope before dashing it. The creatures feasted on hope, and they  wanted to prolong their game

-The Kroot endured, and they survived the crossing.  After making it to the other side, Commander Surestrike made the Kroot massacre the humans and target all forms of human psykers.  But these humans weren't Imperials. They were humans that joined the T'au way. They were praying to a faceless deity that they kept calling T'au'va. The Fourth Sphere wanted all humans that joined the T'au to be killed but the rest to be spared.

-During the fighting, the Fourth Sphere made a lot of "mistakes". A lot of collateral damage saw the Kroot casualties rise. Eventually, the Fourth Sphere T'au revealed their true colors and openly attacked the Kroot.

-The Fourth Sphere was killing Gue'vesa and Kroot because they believed that the non-T'au were corrupting their beliefs. They came for the Kroot leaders first and slaughtered the rest of the Kroot. The few that survived brought warnings to others.

-Shadowsun questioned Tak did the Fourth Sphere targeted the Kroot leaders because they had any mind science abilities. Tak said that while Kroot do not have psykers in a way similar to humans, the Kroot elders have a small measure of foresight and reality-bending abilities. They can speak with their ancestors.  These abilities are rare and not as potent and uncontrollable as the abilities of human psykers. They are respected and used only as a last resort.

-The conversation was interpreted by the noise of fighting outside the palace. Human loader transports landed in the north. They were the same color as the Death Guard ships. The ships opened, and hordes of humans marched out. Some of the humans fell from the ramps. The height should have killed or seriously injured them, but Shadowsun saw that they merely staggered to their feet. Shadowsun scanned the humans and found that they were matching the human norms, except they were sleeping. They were sleepwalking. The sleepers were confronted by the planet's Gue'vesa'la. The Gue'vesa'la were better armored and armed than their Imperial counterparts. So Shadowsun thought that handling the sleepers wouldn't be a problem for them. Shadowsun saw that the sleepers danced as they were fired upon, and when they closed on the Gue'vesa'la they lunged with sudden speed and ripped them to pieces with terrifying ease.

-The T'au on Pekun could not tell the difference between Imperial ships in poor condition and the ships of the  Death Guard. They sent demands for identification to the Death Guard exploratory fleet that Lord Glurtosk sent back on static as a reply. The T'au, having grown used to the block-shaped Imperial vessels, didn't follow their warnings with fire. They allowed what seemed like damaged Imperial ships to close in enough to deliver their cargo. Only when the palace was attacked did the T'au realize what was going on and open fire at the Death Guard fleet. By then, it was too late.

- Lord Glurtosk landed his Storm Eagle and began his attack. The moving gun emplacements of the T'au rained fire on the Death Guard. Some shots impacted Glurtosk's terminator armor, vaporizing ceramite and one shot hit him right in his exposed guts. Seeing that the gun emplacements were surrounding his forces and intensifying and focusing their fire by the minute, Glurtosk ordered Thurglaine to plant the seeds. Thurglaine had hoped to save the seeds for the T'au Empress, but lingering too long in this killing field would be bad even for the Death Guard. Thurglaine took writhing trilobed seeds and planted them in the earth, and started chanting. It did not take long before the earth cracked open and mawed trees to emerged. The air was filled with the stench of raw sewage as immense Gnarlmaws grew and reached out to the T'au emplacements. The branches of the Nurglite trees grasped the emplacements and tipped them, sending the T'au plummeting to their deaths. With the way clear, Glurtosk resumed his hunt. All while the Deathshroud assaulted the palace from the other side.

-Up close, Shadowsun noted that the sleeping humans have patches of mold on their bodies. As the breacher and Gue'vesa'la teams unleashed fire into the horde, moldy spores escaped from the strike human bodies creating mist around the sleeping horde. When the Devilfish devasted the horde with their burst cannons, the mist became too thick for the fire warriors to see clearly and Gue'vesa'la were all but blinded. Shadowsun's battlesuit blacksun filter allowed her to see clearly through the mist, and she realized that the situation required the T'au forces to retreat to a better position.

-Shadowsun deduced that the humans were infected by some plague that was puppeting them. They were being used by the true enemies as a callous distraction. Somewhere hidden in the horde was the true enemy.

-Fire Warriors and Gue'vesa'la troops retreated in good order and boarded the same transports. Shadowsun noticed that the Gue'vesa'la saluted a faceless statue on a nearby shrine as they passed it.

-Shadowsun thought if the enemy believed that they were going trap the T'au behind the primitive defenses of the human palace, then they were sorely mistaken. In the true way of war, the territory changed hands many times. However, lives are not replaceable.  The T'au foremost assets are all capable of flight. When the enemy closes in, the T'au would simply reposition themselves and reverse the situation, pinning the enemy.

-In Imperial culture, stubbornness and belligerence were seen as virtues. In T'au philosophy, a fluid and smooth withdrawal is an act of wisdom and good leadership.

-Shadowsun was surrounded by the sleepers. One of them tore a chunk from her suits turbines. She incinerated two of the sleepers, but the remaining torso of one of them grabbed hold of her fusion blaster. Its fingers dug deep into the alloy of the weapon as it was made of clay. Six sleepers were on her. She unleashed her fusion blasters, sending three of them back as smoking halves. Oe-ken-yon fired razored micro-projectiles at the other two, and Oe-hei rammed his edge into the throat of the last one.

-Oe-Hei activated his shield and blasted three sleepers backward while Oe-ken-yon vented a cloud of plasma over one of the sleepers. This bought time for Shadowsun to head to the palace's hedge maze so that she could think of a new strategy since her usual tactics weren't working against the sleeper horde. They are proving to be more unpredictable than the Orks.

-With her suit turbines damaged, she couldn't fly away to safety. Also, neither could her forces extract her since they were engaged in close combat with the sleeper horde. She had to burn her way through the sleepers that barred her path.

-Suddenly, in a flash of greenish-yellow miasmic light, Lord Glurtosk and his men appeared before Shadowsun. The Death Guard moved slow yet menacingly toward Shadowsun, all while promising her of all the wonders and gifts they would show her. Shadowsun fired her fusion blasters at the Death Guard. The blasts were absorbed by some kind of shield around the Death Guard. She engaged her suit's electro-paralysis. Its shock was capable of shorting out power armored targets and paralyzing them. It had no effect on the Death Guard. With the sleepers swarming over her and the Death Guard closing in, Shadowsun had no choice but to cast herself off a bridge to escape.

-The strategies of Kauyon that worked successfully against the Imperial Space marines on Prefecia and Agrellan backfired disastrously against the Death Guard. Shadowsun was finding herself in an increasingly dire situation.

-Smashing down hooves first on the ground, Shadowsun resumed making her way. She was met with a manifestation that looked like diseased skin. The diseased skin split open, and from it appeared strange alien creatures. Shadowsun suit's species data had no info about the Plague Bearers. Their horrid forms revolted her very soul, and her instinct cried to her to just slay as many as she could before retreating. However, the protocol of meeting new races within the Code of Fire imprinted in her since her youth demanded that she attempts to seek peace with these newcomers. It was the command of the Ethereals that the T'au do not judge the aliens by their appearance. Shadowsun would not disobey the Ethereals. The Plague Bearers were clearly a sapient. They wielded weapons and possessed transdimensional technology. This would be of great value for the T'au'Va.

-Shadowsun told the aliens that she didn't want to fight them. The leader of the Plague Bearers responded by vomiting a cloud of flies in her direction. Shadowsun's firey suit chaff and Oe-hei shield burned the flies to ash. Another Plague Bearer approached with a bloated head in hand. He made to throw it at Shadowsun. She warned him to see what would happen if he dared try to throw it at her. The plague bearer grinned and threw it. Shadowsun in a quick reaction fusion blasted the head and the arm that threw it. The Plague Bearer laughed in response to his injury as if it was nothing.

-The Plague Bearers moved painfully slow toward her. Shadowsun found that her bio-scans couldn't properly register the presence of these aliens. She primed her fusion blasters for a cone blast. Fusion blasters are the most powerful standard issue weapon in the T'au Empire, and Shadowsun's own were the most advanced of their kind. She bathed the Plague Bearers in a tide of superheated energy. It did nothing but give the aliens slight burns as if they stood in the sun too long.

-Shadowsun was confused by this. The aliens were not following any logic. Their existence ripped something from her. Her certainty. Oe-hei said that it must some kind of Space Marine shield. She agreed and prepared to meet the Plague Bearers in close-quarters combat.

-She managed to blast apart several Plague Bearers. One of them used its battered, rusted sword to cut into her weapon arm before she kicked it away. Suddenly, Shaper Tak came to her aid and slew one Plague Bearers. The two retreated, and Shadowsun gave orders to the Cadre's Manta. She would give the Death Guard and their alien allies a parting gift. The Manta targeted the bridge's supports and collapsed it. Tons of rock and rubble fell on top of the Plague Bearers crushing them. The Death Guard on the bridge were sent plummeting down, where they were buried by the rubble.

-One of the Death Guard,  a three-horned giant, emerged from the rubble. Shaper Tak hit him with his weapon. It was a blow that would have beheaded an Ork, yet it rebounded harmlessly from the armor of the Chaos marine. The marine grabbed a huge piece of rock and threw it at the Kroot with freighting force and speed. The Kroot couldn't dodge it in time and was hit with a glancing blow as the Kroot reeled. The Marine aimed his autocannon and let fly at the Kroot. The bloodied Kroot made himself a hard target, but it was a matter of time before he was torn to pieces. Shadowsun unleashed missiles that targeted not the marines but the rubble beneath him. The rocks turned into slag, causing the Chaos marine to stumble and fall forward on his stomach. Shapter Tak took the chance to heft a giant rock and smash it on the Death Guard's head. It didn't kill him, but it dazed him long enough for the two to make their escape.

-More of the Death Guard emerged from the rubble. They were targeted by the Manta. As it was heading toward them for an attack run, the Death Guard sorcerer started chanting and created a whirlwind around himself. Then he caused an eruption of vile green liquid so immense that it splashed the palace's walls spraying over the T'au on the emplacements. It splashed over the battlefield and covered the sleepers, T'au, and the Gue'vesa. Most importantly, it splashed high enough to hit the Manta and cover its entire front. The blinded Manta had to abandon its attack run.

-Only the many armed faceless statues were somehow spared from the green liquid splash.

-Shadowsun and her drones were covered with the liquid. It turned out to be some form of fast-growing mould. It was blinding her and threatening to overtake her suit, turning it into an inert deathtrap. Her drones started panicking since their sensors were being blinded and could not protect their master. Shadowsun calmed them and told them that they have other senses to rely on. She told them to use echolocation to guide them to safety.

-Deciding that she has more of a chance without her compromised suit, Shadowsun exits her suit and continues on. Her two drone companions and Shaper Tak were alongside her. Tak ventures ahead, leaving her behind. She encounters a pile of sleepers covered with the green mould. To her disgust and horror, the mould seemed to be fusing the sleepers in nightmarish amalgamations.  The sleepers started to wake up sensing her presence. She fights her way through them, shooting them down with her pistol. One of the sleepers grabs one of her legs and breaks a rear toe. She kicks the sleeper's hand with her hoof, shattering its fingers.

-Shadowsun encounters a pair of Beasts of Nurgle probing the fallen sleepers in a forlorn manner. They excitedly hop toward Shadowsun when they see her.  Shadowsun knew that these hideous beasts were from the same planet as the other aliens she encountered. She opened fire directly into the mouth of one of the creatures killing it. This enraged the other one causing it to hasten its charge. Shadowsun used her drone companions as platforms to jump over a hedge wall. Oe-hei sacrifices himself to cushion her fall and pays the price for it. Critically damaged, Oe-hei pleads with her to flee. The grief striken Shadowsun does so with the Beast close behind her.

-FLASHBACK: During her time training under Master Puretide, he gave her the task of finding a certain precious stone he placed within a cave system. She was sure that it was a task meant only for her. Shoh (Farsight's earlier name) would have bored her to death with tales of it under the guise of cautionary tales giving further support to her suggestion that he should be named Hindsight. Kais would have bragged about it as further evidence of his monat superiority.  Shoh and Kais, the males,  were sure that she would fail when it came to it. They saw her as the weakest of the trio, especially after she opened up to Shoh about the ravenous ghosts that haunted her dreams. She would prove them wrong even if she emerged from the caves as nothing but skin and bones.

-Water started flooding into the cave system. It was not natural for an underground river to suddenly form. Shadowsun deduced that Master Puretide had ordered Shoh and Kais to redirect water into the cave system. Puretide was an inventive disciplinarian, and he punished his students severely. Though Shoh and Kais were her kindred souls, they could not resist their master long. She realized that the test wasn't about finding the stone. It was about navigating in the darkness of the caves and surviving. The water seized her and dragged her across the path she took in the caves until she was heading toward two passageways. She had to choose. Left or right. One led to salvation, and the other led to death. With no time for logical thought, she had to trust her instinct.

-Back in the present: History repeated itself. Shadowsun had to pick a passageway through the hedge maze by instinct. To her relief, she found her orca transport. With the Beast of Nurgle closing fast around to the point she could feel its breath on the back of her neck, she ordered the Orca to open fire at her position, and then she ducked.  The Orca's fire obliterated the Beast of Nurgle.

-Shadowsun saw Shaper Tak lying on his side with a pulse plasma wound. Behind the unconscious Kroot was the Orca. The sleepers were swarming over it, ripping at it with their bare hands and preventing it from taking off.

-Dawnchaser was aboard the Orca, and she was sending fire into the sleeper horde. She threw a photon grenade into the horde. The explosion that could have crippled a Gue'la platoon and even sent charging Orks reeling back did nothing to the sleepers. However, Shadowsun knew that she could exploit the light of the explosion. She ordered the Orca to direct its fire at the light. The directed Orca fire scythed through the horde allowing Shadowsun to rescue Shapter Tak. The T'au then shot off the sleepers off the Orca, and then it took off.

-Shadowsun asked who shot the Kroot. She was told that a Fourth Sphere Shas'Ui had shot Tak. The very same Ui that offered to be her escort.

-Shadowsun needed Tak alive to save the lives of thousands of auxiliaries. She rendered medical aid to the Kroot. Taking an aerosol salve from Oe-ken-yon, she sprayed the Kroot's wounds and then her own. The spray created an expanding foamy analgesic substance that sealed the Kroot's wounds. The foam was tough but porous enough to allow the healthy tissue to breathe. It was a marvel of T'au medical technology that saved countless lives. The simulants in the foam kicked started Tak's body and revived him. The Kroot gave thanks to Shadowsun for saving him.

-Shadowsun directed the Orca to retrace her path through the hedge maze to the position where she abandoned her suit. She already lost Oe-hei, she would not lose her suit too. It was an experimental marvel of T'au technology. It was one of a kind. She would not see lost to the T'au.

-Shadowsun scanned the area and saw that the Death Guard, especially the three-horned giant weren't far off from the position she encountered them. She realized that the Death Guard weren't built for speed at all.

-The Three Horned Giant was close to her suit. Despite this, she chose to drop out alone while Dawnchaser aboard the Orca poured pulse carbine fire into the charging hulking marine. The pulse shots burned holes into his thick power armor but did little to break his charge.

-Shadowsun entered her damaged suit. While she attempted to reroute its power, the Death Guard hulk poured anti-tank rounds from his autocannon directly into her. The suit's armor held against the fire, but it wasn't going to endure much more punishment.

-Shadowsun regained full control of her suit just in time as the marine giant closed on her with his powerfist raised. Shadowsun vaporized the giant's legs and then blazed her fusion blasters in the figure 8, cutting the marine into four pieces.

-Shadowsun climbed aboard the Orca and took off. She saw that the other Death Guard had caught up and weren't pleased with the death of one of their own. The sorcerer performed a horrific ritual on the deceased marine's body parts. A towering tree formed clouded by a swarm of flies. From the tree, a laughing Great Unclean One emerged. It was a creature that Shadowsun had never encountered before.

-The Great Unclean One plucked a tree from the ground and reduced it to a gnarled rotted trunk before throwing it at the Orca, It took the rear engines of Orca off and slowed down the craft. The Great Unclean then charged toward the Orca. With its eyes fixed on Shadowsun, he spoke to her. The words forced their way into her mind. The Great Unclean One told Shadowsun that her kind doesn't belong in the northern half of the galaxy.

-It pointed up at the silver glint of the faraway Startide Nexus and continued by saying that they don't have to fear. They will deliver the gifts of Nurgle to her true home.

-The Great Unclean One reached out with his hand, and suddenly corrosion and rot spread all over the Orca. It further compromised the flying capability of the craft. Realizing that there was no escaping the thing unless they destroyed it, Shadowsun hatched a plan.

-Shadowsun programmed her suit to drop down and engage stealth and then head towards the closest Earth Caste repair facility. She ordered Calmstone and Dawnchaser to enter the XV8 suits. Both were Fireblades and thus abandoned the right to wear the Hero's mantle, but under this extreme situation, Shadowsun's orders allowed them to ignore their roles. She then ordered that the Air caste pilot and Tak also enter suits. Dawnchaswe protested this. The Code of Fire forbids any other than the Fire Caste from donning the Hero's Mantle. For a T'au from another caste to don it was unthinkable. Having a non-T'au do it well was to compound the breach.  Shadowsun said that it was within her authority, given the extreme circumstance, to improvise.

-Shadowsun had the pilot program the Orca to fly a loop before entering a suit, and she convinced a reluctant Tak to enter a suit. She had Oe-Ken-Yon slave all four suits to her own.  They all then jumped out of the Orca, and they clamped near the section of the missing engine. They used their combined jetpack thrusters to give the Orca enough altitude to complete its loop. Then they all jumped on a nearby Imperial building.

-Shadowsun, to her relief, found that the XV8 suit controls fundamentally the same to her first time training with one so many years ago.  She wondered if the sense of power and invulnerability of these suits is what corrupted Farsight. She reasoned perhaps not. Perhaps it was something similar to what the Fourth Sphere experienced.

-A Manta was flying its way to their position. She knew from previous experience that a Manta's railguns held enough power to slice an Imperial titan in half.  She was certain that Great Unclean One being biological, would not withstand the Manta's fire.  However, a nameless instinct within her mind told her "not this time".  They all had to work together to destroy the thing.

-Shadowsun and the slaves suits flew as one and opened fire at the Great Unclean One. It laughed off the wounds and continued its charge. Dawnchaser screamed that she could no longer stand the sight of it. She ranted that she allowed them to die in the Du'lun Lakes and Kysan. The Fourth Sphere betrayed the Greater Good, and this was their reward.

-Dawnchasers voice was filled with elation, fury, and something chaotic and dark as she apologized to Shadowsun and overrode the slave programming. She blasted towards the Great Unclean One. Invoking the T'au'Va name, she bid the monster to be gone. She sent a spear of fusion energy into the eye of the Great Unclean One, causing him to scream in outrage.  She dodged a counterblow and sent another spear of fusion energy into his neck. She then went behind him and blasted open a huge crater in his back with the combined plasma and fusion fire. This time the Great Unclean Ones blow connected, sending Dawnchaser crashing into an Imperial temple and crushing her under tons of rubble, instantly killing her.

-Shadowsun told the monster that he would pay for that. Then the Manta arrived. It fired its heavy railguns at the Great Unclean One and sent missiles at him to boot. The attack opened up craters into his chest, and it turned his jolly mood sour with indignation. The Great Unclean One raised his hand to summon sorcery against the T'au, but before he could do that, the Orca smashed into his back directly into the crater created by Dawnchaser. The Orca had completed its loop.

-The impact took apart the Great Unclean One in a foundation of gore. Its dissolving head stared up at Shadowsun with eyes filled with deep sadness and resentment. It told her that the T'au are upstart mayflies and they could not escape the Grandfather's embrace.

-Shadowsun swallowed down the guilt and horror to reassert her iron resolve. She told the dying daemon that the T'au do what they were born to do.  They bring light to the darkness.

-Shadowsun encountered another of the faceless many armed statues. Like all of its kind, the statue was not touched by the Nurglite mould. Shadowsun destroyed it. Calmstone told her that she was an Iconoclast again. Shadowsun responded that these statues reeked of Imperial mind science and they were disguised as something from T'au Empire. They do belong here, and by their presence, they were drawing nightmarish powers. Calmstone tried to reason with Shadowsun that the immunity of the statues to the plague might be of use, but she would not hear any of it. She ordered that once the battle was over, all of the shrines and statues of this entity were to be destroyed.

-Shadowsun made contact with Commander Surestrike. She told him that the planet was being invaded by  Space Marines. A different order of the Gue'la super warriors.  They were in alliance with foul creatures. This encounter was unprecedented. It had shaken her belief in the endeavor of the T'au. It brought doubt to the T'au's understanding of how the universe worked and the forces that stood against them. Here the T'au are encountering entities that should not exist. Things from another reality.

-With an edge of cruelty, Surestike told her that she was beginning to understand and open her eyes to see what the Fourth Sphere had seen. So he is safe to assume that she would agree to stem the spread of the plague.  However, he will not enact sept quarantine protocols since they are not in the septs. Different methods must be followed. He is going to have the whole palace and the city around it leveled with saturation bombing. The order was already in motion.

-Shadowsun forbade it and warned him that if this happened, then he would answer to her and the Ethereals. He will suffer the ultimate punishment, the Malk'la.

-Surestrike said there were no Ethereals on Pekun, and Aun'La was beyond the communication range  Then he showed her footage of the plague spreading not only on Pekun but elsewhere in the expanse. It was infecting both T'au and aliens alike.

-Surestrike continued that the only way to ensure the plague doesn't spread is to destroy the auxiliaries on the world and all who worked with them. It's the only way.

-Beating back her denial, Shadowsun assessed the situation. Hundreds of thousands of Gue'vesa and thousands of T'au would die if she allowed the bombing. However, the plague must be stopped. The bombing could end the Death Guard in the palace and end the threat of their plague and that of their horrible extradimensional allies.

-A voice of her old master sprang from memory. An old lesson. Fire can cauterize. Fire can heal as well as hurt if used properly. The memory was followed by a recent horrible one. The memory of the Great Unclean One's visage with its hideous leer and sanity-wounding laugh. It caused her to retch out bloodied bile. As the memory faded, she gave Surestrike permission to enact his purge.

-Shadowsun and Calmstone were brought back to the Startide Nexus, where the Earth Caste quarantined and began to treat them. Calmstone was in the first stages of the plague, while Shadowsun was in its full grip. Though, somehow Shadowsun retained her mental faculties.

-Early in the foundation of the T'au Empire, shortly after the arrival of the Ethereals, the Earth Caste took it upon themselves to wipe out all the diseases that afflicted their race.  With their steely dedication and sharp focus, and with all castes working as one, the Earth Caste succeeded in eradicating one disease after another until T'au society was free from illness and disease. The newer generations of the T'au have no concept of disease outside of abstract terms. Diseases were viewed as things non-sentient creatures and primitive races suffered from for their lack of empathy and backward ways. The offer of curing all diseases was often the first given to other races to tempt them to join the Greater Good. Indeed, entire populations bowed have bowed before the Great Good for the chance to live free of disease.

-Despite all advanced medical technology and inventive ways they tried to treat her, the Earth Caste medics were failing to cure Shadowsun from the Death Guard plague. The only thing keeping her alive was an experimental device in the shape of a centipede that was clammed to her to pump a stream of stem cells in her body. The stem cells were rebuilding the tissue that the plague was liquefying. It was as if the shadow of entropy had entered her body to infect every cell to kill her from the inside out.

-It was reported to Shadowsun that further reinforcements to the Startide Nexus were waylaid by Orks. Moreover, a portion of the T'au fleet is busy containing Ork fleet attacks in two nearby systems.

-The report goes on to mention the rise of strange bioforms within the human populations. Mutated humans that have the characteristics of the Tyranids have been spotted more frequently. The T'au forces in the systems with these activities cannot relax their cordons

-The report ends with mentions of troubling manifestations among the Imperial forces fighting against the T'au.  Inexplicable phenomenons that the Imperials call miracles and saints appear to aid the Imperials on occasion whenever the Imperials are making stands.

-With the Fourth Sphere forces depleted and much of the Fifth Sphere stretched to the limit to contain the myriad of threats besieging the T'au in the Expanse, the forces in the Startide Nexus must make do with what they currently have to stop the Death Guard armada. They must draw a Kauyon to blunt the spear heading towards them, or else the Death Guard will pass into the heart of the T'au Empire, bringing with them their super-plagues.

-An elemental council was called. This time the Kindred Soul of the council was an ancient blindfolded human woman whose skin was blue-black. She was a psyker. The blindfold was there to protect her since too much visual input disturbs her inner calm. She was on the council for her expertise in Mind Science and Warp related phenomena. Her name was Makendra Vella.

-Originally, the Kindred Soul replacement was meant to be Ven Tah Regah of the Nicassar. However, Aun'La explained that she proved to have a deep-seated need for conflict. So the Gue'vesa psyker was chosen in her place.

-Shadowsun explained to the council that efforts to disperse the Death Guard armada failed, but she is planning a Kauyon strategy tp stop them the moment they break formation to enter the Nexus.

-Surestrike motioned to the council that Shadowsun's Kauyon was only causing disaster.  She is allowing the Death Guard to move unimpeded toward the Nexus. Worse still, the Death Guard are seeding their diseases on nearby worlds. Despite the efforts to burn out the plagues, they continue to spread.

-The Earth Caste council member explained that there is more than one disease at work. First, there is the necrotizing disease Shadowsun and her aide are afflicted with.  Others include hemorrhage, palsy, and bone diseases. The bone disease was especially gruesome. It causes the bone hyper-grow and rupture organs and the entire body. The diseases are hyper-aggressive, and they propagate through unorthodox means. It's the council member's belief that the diseases are not normal, but phenomena unleashed from the dimension that the humans call the Immaterium.

-The Slumbering Plague was the most dangerous of them.  It casts its victims into a deep slumber and removes their physical limitations. It somehow enhances their physical strength. It doesn't spread through airborne or through physical contact. It spreads spontaneously. Its victims are taken after bouts of nightmares. It's the council Earth Caste member's belief that the plague spreads by fear. Fear of the plague itself. The knowledge of the existence of the plague is the vector itself. Currently, there is no cure or effective treatment method for it

-The council members turned to Vella. She explained how the Imperium handles such situations. The Imperium would have issued extermintus and conducted a cover-up campaign. However, she doesn't recommend these measures since these inhuman activities were what caused her to join the light of the Greater Good. It would be better if the T'au hit the disease at its source rather than the symptoms.

-Shadowsun chimes in by saying that she believes that the Death Guard's otherworldly allies are the source of the plagues. She encountered them on Pekun. These beings seem to be made of the plague itself and follow no natural law. More than once, the T'au's weapons failed to harm them despite the fact that the creatures have no armor or technology.

-Aun'La revealed that he knew about her visit to Pekun and why she went there. Her unlawful interrogation of the Kroot criminal was known to him thanks to the footage from her command drone. Her venture is the reason that they are in this dire situation with the plagues.

-Shadowsun gave Oe-Ken-Yon an angry glare causing the drone to shut down his lights and look inert.

-Shadowsun argued that the expedition to Pekun was not useless. She gained insights that might prove vital. She understood now more of the truths of the cosmos that were previously known to the T'au.

-Aun'La, with sadness in his eyes, said that such knowledge province of the Ethereals only. As a pupil of Master Puretide she is given more liberties than any of her caste, but it's not her place to know such matters nor define them.

-Aun'La and Surestrike sidelined Shadowsun. The smug Surestrike takes over as acting high command and subtly taunts Shadowsun that her forces are too engaged to arrive in time for her to enact her strategy. Shadowsun is told by Aun'La to focus on her full recovery. If either Surestrike or Shadowsun disobeys his orders, then they will face the Malk'la.

-After the council was dismissed, Shadowsun berates Oe-Ken-Yon. The drone apologized and said that he says no choice. He is bound to serve the Ethereals the same as her. Shadowsun silences him and orders him to leave and not return. At this, Oe-Ken-Yon reels up his rim in disbelief.

-Shadowsun tells him that she is going to replace him with a basic command drone. Oe-Ken-Yon dips low, almost touching the floor as he floats toward the door. He asks if he can offer one final service, bring her medicine to help her sleep. Shadowsun tells him to just leave.  Oe-Ken-Yon stands a moment at the door's threshold and then goes.

-Shadowsun got an idea. She was told that she was forbidden from endangering the lives of other T'au with her command, but she wasn't forbidden from endangering her own. Calmstone warned her that she was starting to sound like the traitor Farsight. Shaowsun responded that Farsight didn't stand idly by nursing his wounds while his men to died on Arthas Moloch. He also led a one-man attack on a space marine capital ship, and not only did he survive but crippled it. Such fire is what they need now.

-She needs to contact the auxiliaries to aid her. Aun'La didn't forbid her from commanding them, and Surestrike was too distrustful to use them.  Shadowsun buttered up and pleaded with Calmstone to help her. Calmstone let out a weary sigh and got out of the room to fake a seizure to distract the Earth Caste medics from Shadowsun's escape.

-The T'au have more than one stomach

-Shadowsun was using a stealth vessel whose Ghostkell-based technology allowed it to slip undetected by the line T'au fleet vessels. Its stealth tech was advanced enough to slip past Imperial sensors. Aboard the vessel with her were four non-T'au. Shaper Tak wielding a heavy Kroot gun.  Ven Tah Regah of the Nicassar. A Charpactin elder called A'haia. Finally, Oe-Hei.

-Oe-Hei was rebuilt, and his sentience was ported to his new chassis. Though, not all of his memories were ported. Shadowsun felt comfort at his returned presence. Though, when she turned reflexively to where Oe-Ken-Yon should have been, she felt a pang of loss at his absence.

-Regah and Tak made a wager with each other. Regah believed that Tak wouldn't survive the mission. Tak retorted that if Regah died before him, he would eat her flesh to discover the source of her ursine-like race's strength. A'haia commented that this was barbaric. On the homeworld of the Charpactin, cannibalism was forbidden. It's hard to believe that the great T'au'Va allows it.

-Shadowsun told A'haia that the Greater Good is not a god; it's a philosophy. And it does allow it. A'haia replied that the Great T'au'va doesn't mind a misnomer, but she does mind eating one's allies.

-Shadowsun explained to A'haia what he sees as barbaric is a key part of the Kroot culture.  The Kroot do not do it to satisfy their hunger but to increase their strength and evolve. It's unsavory, but the price is worth it. Without the strength of the Kroot, the T'au Empire would have fallen years ago.

-A'hari responds to Shadowsun by saying that it's a pity that the T'au didn't meet the Charpactin sooner. If they did, with the Water Caste and Charpactin working as one,  the T'au'va would have built a whole empire without a single shot fired. And continued on pointing at Tak, and no corpse devoured.

-Tak assured A'haia that finds greatfungus to be disgustingly bland and that their species have no worthy strength to inherit.

-As the non-T'au continued to bicker, Oe-Hei said he was glad to be a drone. Shadowsun joked that sometimes she wishes she was one too.

-Oe-hei asked Shadowsun do the Kroot eat alloy. She said no. Do they eat hyperplastic? She said no. Do they eat electronics? Shadowsun, worn out by the continuous questions, yelled at him that he has nothing to fear.

*Personal note: As shown in the Karskin novel and in the BFG board game, Kroot can devour technology and gain insights from it. Just don't tell that to Oe-Hei.

-The stealth ship was heading towards the Death Guard capital ship. A'haia was doing his best to mask their psychic presence.

-Shadowsun contacted the council members, who agreed to contact her in secret. She asked the Air Caste admiral to create a diversion for the Death Guard armada. She asked Earth Caste's senior engineer to disrupt the constancy of the Startide Nexus wormhole the moment the Death Guard capital ship made ingress. He agreed but will do it for a short amount of time. He cannot risk the wormhole collapsing.

-From the Kindred Soul, Gue'vesa Vella, she asked that she contact the Gue'vesa populations and have them pray to the T'au'Va at the specific time she told her. Before going on this mission, she had all her non-T'au allies contact their people and also get them to agree to pray at that exact time. If there is power in the faith and belief like the Imperials claim, then perhaps they can turn this power against the Death Guard.

-Oe-Hei asked if such a thing could work. Shadowsun said by her secular understanding of the cosmic, the answer is no, but after experiencing the things in Pekun, seeing the faceless statues unaffected by the green mould, she believes now it can make a difference.

-To drift past the Void shield of the Death Guard capital ship undetected, they turned off all technology aboard the stealth vessel and shut down the engines. Tak said that the Kroot do not need all that fancy junk. The Kroot rely on nothing but their minds, bodies, and souls. They are enough. Shadowsun pointed at his heavy Kroot Gun and said nice gun-tech. The two shared a laugh together over it.

-Shadowsun told Tak if they survived the mission. She would do everything in her power to give him a Ghostkell suit.

-The stealth vessel fusion cutters cut a way into the Death Guard capital ship, and the party entered. They were met with a loathsome insectoid creature. Regah blasted it back with her mind, and Tak finished it off with his gun.

-Shadowsun led the way to the ship's bridge. When asked how she knew the way, she answered that all Imperial ship designs are stagnant. They all follow a similar internal design.

-Nurglings attacked the group. Shadowsun realized that these creatures were acting like the immune system of the ship but in reverse. They didn't protect their host from disease, they made sure that all within it were just as diseased and corrupted.

-The party fought as one, their different strengths covering for each other and banishing the shadow of despair. Shadowsun told them that they were fighting well and warned them not to get touched and infected by the daemons. Tak told her that it was already too late. Not all of them are wearing sealed suits. By breathing the air of the ship, they are risking living decay. As Regah said, this is a one-way trip. Shadowsun said she refused to believe that. She cannot.

-Sleepers emerged from the onrushing tainted water. The party did their best to fight them off, but they were finding themselves overwhelmed. One of Regah's claw arms was grabbed and snapped by one of the sleepers. Oe-hei saved her by ramming his edge into the attacking sleeper. Shadowsun and Tak were being pulled down by the sleepers.

-A'haia told the party to cover their eyes and then unleashed a flash of colorful psychic light. The light knocked out the sleepers off Shadowsun and Tak. Shadowsun noticed that the sleepers were waking up and noticing the horror in themselves and around them.

-Shadowsun took footage of the effects of the psychic light on the sleepers. Would she had known this earlier on Pekun, the humans there would have been saved. Here was the cure to the slumber plague. A'haia told her that it is as simple as finding the correct brainwaves. However, the humans aboard the Death Guard ship are too far gone to be truly saved, and it's all because of them. He pointed to Plague Bearers shuffling toward them. It's because of the Daemons of the Warp the nightmares made real.

-Shadowsun fear was swallowed up by the inferno of rage. She raged that the Ethereals were hiding the existence of these daemons from the other castes. How could the T'au claim that they are enlightened when the greatest of lies hid the existence of an entire dimension filled with sentient creatures? Daemons or not, all these creatures must die.

-The party noticed that the path direction was changing at random. It was as if the ship was remolding its internal structure to trap them within it. The path forked, and once again, Shadowsun was forced to make a choice.

-FLASHBACK: Shadowsun escaped the cave system. She was disgusted by herself. She had fallen into her master's trap. An automatic Kauyon in which she was both the prey and doom. She found her master waiting for her

-Puretide showed her a stone that fit his earlier description. He told her that the mountain holds many such stones. The wisest student looks past the physical world and finds the inner truth.

-Shadowsun thought that she understood her master's listen. She told him that what he means is that she is the stone and, through adversity, she would smooth her edges and move frictionless in the river of fate.

-Puretide, angry now, told her no.  A foolish child would dare to presume the mind of their teacher. Shadowsun had insulted him. And if she dared to put words in his mouth again, he would punish her severely.

-Puretide asked her if she had made a choice in the caves and where did it come from. She confirmed it and said it came from her heart, not her mind. It was instinct.

-Puretide said that she was wrong.  It was faith.

-Shadowsun was about to say that the Ethereals taught that faith was a backward concept, but he silenced her. He told her that the Ethereals, for all their wisdom, can never understand it. To win victory, one must sometimes leap a chasm without knowing the landing. This is what makes a great warrior and a visionary commander.  It's to have faith in oneself. To have faith in every part of their existence, to trust what lies within, and in doing so, to inspire others.

-Shadowsun asked what if faith in herself made her choose the wrong decision. He replied that swiftness and certainty are weapons of their own. Decisive action can turn into momentum that crushes the enemy.

-He continued by saying that Shadowsun's great strength is her deep thinking. It's also her greatest weakness. Being patient and slow can be turned against her, especially when a quick resolution is needed to secure victory. In his tutelage, she is going hone her Kauyon, and he will teach her how to strike suddenly from within. And If she dies from his training, then so be it.

-As she followed her master back. A despairing inner voice whispered to her that he didn't care for her, and she disgusted him. A calmer reasoning voice came afterward. It asked if Master Puretide didn't care for her, then why did he come for her and wait so long?

-Back to the present: Shadowsun told the party to get left. She was sure of it. Tak removed her rebreather and licked the air around her head. He told the rest of the party that it's truly what she believes. A'haia questioned Tak about how he could know that. He said that he picked up the ability to taste minds from those he devoured. A'haia said that it appears that the entire party are psykers except for Shadowsun and her drone. Psychic abilities are not so rare in the T'au Empire. Tak told A'haia that his mind tasted like oliy road snow, much to the annoyance of the fungus alien.

-The party reached the ship's bridge. Shadowsun put her fusion blasters on the minimum setting and went behind the crew on the bridge. She stealthy used the shimmering invisible discharge of her low-setting fusion blaster to cook the brains of the bridge crewmen one by one. One of the crewmen fell forward on his panel, and the ship fired one of its weapons, causing the admiral to be alarmed and notice Shadowsun.

-The admiral alerted the Death Guard. A huge fly-headed mutant came at her. He smashed her with enough force to send her crashing into a control panel. Something broke inside her, and she felt the plague's rot spread inside her. The mutant came at her again. She sent flechette rounds into his face bursting one of his compound eyes. He grabbed her, and she blasted off with him sending him right into a nearby console. The jutting spike on the console pierced the mutant's head, killing him. She used the mutant's body as a shield from the Death guard's fire, but more were surrounding her. She was hit by a rocket, and the explosion tore off a plate from her suit. A grinning Death Guard was fixing his reaper autocannon at her and firing. His shots were finding their mark and threatening to crack through her armor. Tak came to Shadowsun's aid and blew off the Death Guard marine's head with his heavy Kroot Gun.

 -Shadowsun ordered Oe-Hei to play the recording. Suddenly the voice of Lord Glurtosk boomed on the bridge. It was recorded from their encounter on Pekun. His angry voice confused both the tainted humans and the Death Guard. This allowed A'haia to blast the entire bridge with colorful psychic light. Both marine and humans were stricken by seizures.

-Shadowsun confronted Lord Glurtosk. Her shots were blocked by his force field as he laughed and swung his scythe at her. A shot from Tak's heavy Kroot Gun slammed into the side Glurtosk's head. Heavy Kroot gun shots, in Shadowsun's knowledge, have killed Ork warlords. Yet, it didn't bring down this lord of Chaos.

-Glurtosk sent two packs of Death Guard at Tak and Shadowsun each. Shadowsun blazed her Fusion blasters and whirled like a tornado cutting three Death Guards into pieces. The fourth marine had his head obliterated by her missiles.

-As she dodged the attacks of the remaining marines, Glurtosk took the chance to swing his scythe at her. He cleaved off her foot. Shadowsun screamed in sudden pain. Her suits rendered medical aid and extinguished the pain allowing her to resume the fight. She tangled Glurtosk's scythe's shaft with the bridge's ceiling chains trapping it. She knew Glurtosk, like all marines, would become overconfident when he smelled blood and would be too prideful to let go of his weapon. As he tried to free his weapon, Shadowsun smashed her good foot with all the suit's strength into Glurtosk's forehead. The blow didn't move him an inch. Then Shadowsun engaged the suit foot's punch cylinder. It punched through Glurtosk's head with ease, and at last, he fell down.

-The Death Guard sorcerer summoned a huge swarm of flying maggots from the corpse of the fly headed mutant. The flying maggots overwhelmed her and were about to devour her when she saw that her three alien allies were praying. They were praying to T'au'va. Their combined prayer was repelling the daemon maggots. The aliens came near Shadowsun and turned back the daemon with their faith. Shadowsun took the chance given to her by their allies and launched flechette rounds into the sorcerer. They tore chunks from his neck and face causing him to scream and order the Nurglite horde to close on them.

-The party was surrounded by sleepers, cultists, Death Guard, and Plague Bearers. It seemed that it was over until A'haia and Regah decided to sacrifice themselves. Regah lifted A'haia up with her good claw. A'haia, in flawless high gothic, told the horde that he was their god. Look at him and be at peace. Then flashed them with his light.

-The horde froze in place, staring at the light, The Death Guard were blocked from marching forward by the crowd. One of the Death Guard made to throw his power sword at A'haia. Shadowsun launched a missile at him, but it was too late. The thrown sword cleaved A'haia in half, killing him. Regah screamed in grief and charged the Death Guard. Oe-hei followed close behind her protecting her from bolter fire. She grabbed a Death guard and flung him at another. Then she smashed down a Death Guard and stomped his head into paste. Tak came to her side swinging his Kroot gun. He cleaved off legs and slashed throats. Their shared grief at the death of their comrade gave them the strength to fight their way to Shadowsun.

-The fly mutant revived and was growing larger. It covered the bridge with a tornado of flies. Shadowsun's back visual feed could still see, and it saw a hull window with the image of a god squatting before a vast cauldron. It reminded her of the huge daemon from Pekun, making her mind recoil.

-An old memory appeared in Shadowsun's mind. She remembered telling Kais that she still feared the hungry ghost. She asked him what does it want and what does it fear. Kais answered by telling her we ghosts love nothing and fear only the void.

-Shadowsun told Oe-Hei to protect Regah and Tak. She superheated the hull window and then smashed through it, sending all of them into the vacuum of space.

-As she floated away from Death Guard ship, she saw that the breach was being sealed by something vast and black protecting the Death Guard on the bridge from the vacuum's pull. The Death Guard capital ship entered the Startide Nexus wormhole. She had failed. She pondered the vastness of the galaxy and how she was insignificant. A single ship. An entire empire was all nothing when set against this vastness. The fire in her died, and she thought that humanity had already won. Much of the galaxy belonged to them, and they ruled it with cruelty. So why shouldn't she accept it and let herself sink into the abyss to the slow lingering death that awaits? As she allowed herself to sink into the darkness, she heard a voice laughing in the depths of the void.

-The spell of despair was broken when her suit alerted her to non-human life signs. She saw Tak sitting cross-legged on top of Oe-Hei. Regah was close by, floating. She was motionless and cold, but faint brain activity revealed that she was alive in a hibernating state. Oe-Hei was enveloping them in an atmosphere bubble. Tak told her that he could also enter into hibernation. This should slow down the use of breathable air.

-If the worst happened, Shadowsun told Oe-Hei that he should tell the T'au command that the Charpactin lights could cure the Sleeper plague. Oe-Hei said that's already done and he sent it via tight beam. Shadowsun thanked and praised the little drone. Oe-Hei dipped his rim gleefully at his master's gratitude causing Tak on top of him to open his eyes in alarm.

-Shadowsun's second message was to send a message drone through the Startide Nexus with as much information as possible to warn the mainland of the coming threat.

-With all of this done, Shadowsun and her party floated in space with a distress call, waiting to be saved.

-Back on the Death Guard capital ship, Lord Glurtosk lived. He was consumed by rage to the point that he ground three of his teeth into powder. Yet he still lived, and he continued his path to glory and conquest. By the blessing of Nurgle, the hole in his forehead did not kill him. He found it hard to think, but his brain tissue would reknit in time.

-The sorcerer Thurglaine had used the bloated body of the fly-headed mutant to plug the hole in the bridge. The mutant screamed and flailed as his innards were continuously being sucked out by the vacuum.

-Thurglaine warned Glortosk that his foresight revealed that the path to Nurgle's favor was no longer through the Startide Nexus portal. The signs point out that it will lead to disaster if they continue.

-Glurtosk called him a liar. The outraged sorcerer said that he has a connection to the Warp that Chaos Lord could never understand. How could he call him a liar when he has grown fat from his visions while doing nothing but bluster? He was a disgrace to the Death Guard and their Primarch.

-The sorcerer warned him again that to go through the portal was to risk his demise or the old stasis that trapped Death Guard in the past. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. He must turn back now.

-Glurtosk responded that when he reaches the Eastern Fringes and meets up with their Primarch, he will ask him whom he considered more valuable. The dedicated captain that kept the course and delivered the blessing of Nurgle to an entire empire, or the meek sorcerer that turned aside at the last moment.

-Thurglaine wished Glurtosk, his battle brother, luck. He said that perhaps one day they would meet again in the Garden of Nurgle, but in all honesty, he doubts it. Thurglaine teleports himself and his men off the ship.

-FLASHBACK: during her journey to escape the cave system with the water pushing her forward painfully, Shadowsun was overcome by darkness. In the blackness, a light appeared. A translucent figure manifested before her, many armed and in each hand carrying either a weapon or an object. The figure was unaffected by the rushing water, and it brought its faceless head inches before Shadowsun's. The figure brought an amphora toward Shadowsun. Silver bubbles emerged from it and filled Shadowsun's hungry lungs with air. Shadowsun asked what it was. The figure told her that she was the commonality of species, It was destiny.

-Shadowsun said that it was nothing but a ghost. The faceless figure said that it was true. Set against the vastness of the universe, it was nothing. However, a seed can flourish if Shadowsun, the child of hope, let it.

-The water became calmer and less violent. Shadowsun asked the figure how she could repay it. The figure simply said that it just wanted to exist.

-In the present: Shadowsun woke up back at the Startide Nexus facility. She was met with Oe-Ken-Yon, who once again offered her apologies for what he did. He informed her that her alien allies were rescued and doing well.

-He told her that the Ethereals found Suretrike taking her command to be folly even in such dire circumstances. The Ethereals reinstated her as high commander and put Surestrike and the Fourth Sphere under her command. Both the Fourth and Fifth Sphere now answer to her.

-Shadowsun told Oe-Ken-Yon that if she had the energy, she would get up and punch him out of the air and order him to leave all over again. The drone begged her to allow him to give her the rest of the news. She allowed it.

-The drone said that the Charpactin method worked. It cured the Sleeper plague from T'au and non-T'au. The plague was ended. That's the good news.

-The bad news is the capital Death Guard ship and two escorts entered the Startide Nexus portal. The T'au Fleet wasn't able to stop it in time. The rest of the Death Guard armada, however, broke off and retreated.

-As for the messenger drone that was sent to warn the mainland, it didn't go alone. Oe-Ken-Yon sent a slaved copy of himself after it. The slaved drone didn't see any evidence of the Death Guard in the wormhole. His investigation led him to one conclusion.

-Shadowsun warned him if he made her ask him for it, she was going to somehow rise like a phoenix and break him over her knee

-The drone gave his conclusion. The Death Guard ships must have been pulled from the wormhole tunnel and thrust into the Warp. They did not complete their passage toward the mainland.

-Shadowsun thanked the T'au'Va and told Oe-Ken-Yon that she forgives him. She told him to give Regah and Tak her regards and tell them that she wishes to resemble their team again with a member of A'haia kin as a mark of respect for their late comrade.

-Oe-Ken-Yon asked if would be allowed to join her side again. She said she could tolerate his presence a little longer. Yes, he can return to her side.

-She told the drone one last thing. On Pekun, she told him to send an order to destroy the statues and temples of the faceless entity on the world. She wanted him to cancel that order.

-In the Warp, The Death Guard capital ship was becalmed, not moving, not going anywhere in the darkness. It was the same ordeal the Death Guard suffered ten thousand years ago when they became prey to Nurgle. Lord Glurtosk saw a faceless vast entity come toward his ship. It was both human and T'au in shape. It had many arms. Some were Kroot. Some were ursine claws. Some were fungal tentacles. Its many arms held weapons, tools of knowledge, and wisps of light.

-The Chaos Lord asked it what it was. It said its name was the Goddess T'au'va.

-Glurtosk cried out that the T'au are godless. The entity responded that their allies are not. Then its many arms closed in on the Death Guard ship holding it in place. Glurtosk screamed until his mind came apart.