"All is lost!" the Tau Ethereal was completely frantic, clasping his skull and crawling along the streets of Constantis "We cannot prevail here, the Greater Good has failed us"
"Honoured Ethereal, please! Calm yourself!" Shadowsun urged madly, trying to restrain the maddened Ethereal, without any success "You cries will demoralize the men!"
"Demoralize?" Aun Shi Tau ranted "What good is morale against those monsters? The Daemons of the Warp roam this land freely, unchecked and uncompromised! We are invaders in their new Empire, and invaders never prosper! We will all of us suffer and die at the hands of Chaos, all we can pray for is a swift and painless death!" Stubbs stormed into the scene.
"What in blazes is going on here?" he demanded.
"It is Chaos, Chaos in its purest form!" the Ethereal continued "It stalks this land, ever since we arrived here have we fed it and now it bites our hand! Madness, insanity, death is all we will find here! There is no escape for us! We are all of us doomed to die here and join their mindless ranks as Space Marines of the Dark Gods!" With a sigh, the Lord Commissar revealed his gun and loaded a small dart into it, firing into the neck of the maddened Tau leader and rendering him unconscious.
"My thanks to you, human" Shadowsun said, propping up the Ethereal's body and carrying him to a Devilfish transport "Had you not intervened, many of our men would have joined him in madness"
"My duty is to execute those lost to the enemy" Stubbs said firmly "That I was forced merely to intoxicate your Ethereal was hardly an act of generosity. What is wrong with him?" Shadowsun sighed, his Battlesuit clanking as he sat on the pavement.
"It must be all this Warp energy, even I can feel it, hear its whispers" he admitted "I would have expected Aun Shi Tau, of all of us, to ignore it. But alas, he is deeply pained by our predicament" he paused and looked to the troubled face of Vance Stubbs "How are your men?"
"Bleak, very bleak" the Commissar replied "We face the largest and deadliest army ever assembled and I have but a poultry few to send to the front lines. A few hundred Guardsmen, some squads of Kasrkin and Ogryn warriors, about a dozen Sentinels, Leman Russ' and Hellhounds, and a single Baneblade" he huffed and joined the Xeno Commander on the pavement "Nothing compared to the force I brought to this world. Those blasted Dark Eldar took so many of my men prisoner, and yet so few at a time that I scarcely noticed! My artillery was all but lost at the battle of Montakaan, and my men's morale continues to plummet" he paused, lost in his own thoughts "How about your warriors?"
"The Elder Ethereals of T'au gave me a mighty force of Tau, Kroot and Vespid to bring to this war" Shadowsun began "Not to mention one of our finest military Commanders, Or'es'Ka, and our greatest Ethereal to lead them. But alas, we too were hard hit by Dark Eldar raids, and many of my soldiers have fallen in combat also. But still I keep my trump card safely stored away in our city stronghold" Stubbs looked to him curiously "A great monster of the Kroot home world, epic in size, dreaded in strength and mighty in toughness. It will be to no avail, however, if those blasted Orks have brought Squiggoths with them" Stubbs sighed.
"Indeed, and they march under Ghazghkull Thraka, so it is likely that they have" he said "I too hold a trump card, but I'd rather not share it at this time" he looked to the Commander, seeing that his words had fallen on deaf ears as the Tau Commander was lost in his own thoughts "Well, I must return to my duties" Stubbs rose and, about to leave, he turned back to the Commander "It was good to talk with you, Commander. Good luck to you" he offered the Tau leader his hand, and Shadowsun took it.
"And to you, brave human" he said.
Once more, the Chaos Sorcerer knelt before the throne of his Lord, great energy conduits now feeding him with blood and sacrifices. The mighty form of the Great One loomed ominously over him upon his throne as the Sorcerer gave his report.
