Farsight's Expedition

The might of the Kor'vattra was resplendent. Here were battleships, navy escorts, colony ships, gravpulse tugs, dropships, outrider patrols, coalition command ships, an armada of Protector class warships, Defender class starships and their larger Messenger equivalents, Gal'leath Explorer class flagships, Merchant and Hero class starships, and Emissary envoy ships. With them were smaller Mantas, Orca escorts, Shi'oni scramblers, Barracuda squadrons and Tiger Shark squadrons.
Amongst these ships were the designated transport craft of the tau work groups. The vessels held insertion contingents, breakthrough contingents, forward security contingents, encounter contingents and dense environment contingents. To the left were the water caste's diplomatic corps, unity nodes, arrangement fleets and relay comms ships bristling with stubby antennae. In the middle distance were the earth caste's settlement workgroups, bioformer vessels, prefab factory ships, space-capable prototype centres, mantlecraft, camouflage engines, engineering support frigates, special extraction teams, enclave specialists and Worldshaper's sub-fleet of terraforming cutters.
Nearer ground level were those craft with which Farsight was the most familiar – the Manta transports of the fire caste's hunter cadres, counterstrike cadres, retaliation cadres, ranged support cadres, rapid insertion forces and firebase support cadres, all supported by the Razorshark squadrons and Sun Shark Bomber squadrons of the air superiority cadres.
On the far horizon were the auxiliary forces of the allied advance. Farsight recognised the silhouettes of nicassar dhows, domati wyrmships, the stalactite-like nest vessels of the vespid, kroot warspheres looming like orbiting moons, demiurg autominer bastions and greet stealthers.
Literally thousands of spacecraft were arranged in perfect, grid-like harmony stretching up into the clouds and beyond, the smaller ships and drones buzzing amongst them taking their number of airborne machines to mind-boggling numbers. They made a Bork'an locust swarm look sparse by comparison.
Farsight felt his chest tighten at the sight, his breath shallow as he struggled to come to terms with the enormous responsibility that had been placed upon him. The number of tau lives entrusted to him had spiralled over a hundred billion. It was a mind-blowing increase on his last command.
…
The Whispering Wisdom made the sign of the fire caste, and the eyes of several billion warriors fixed upon him in adoration.

Farsight: Crisis of Faith