NationStates Jolt Archive

Preamble (OOC)
This is an RP dedicated to the string of events that form the introduction of the Or'Eseldi Sept. This primarily involves Menelmacar. Anyone wishing to participate, please ask first either via TG, or on IRC if I'm around.


Part I – Founding Father

It was time, and Aun'O Os saw his path clearly now. He was given what he considered the glorious task of founding a new Tau Sept. Rather than the traditional formation of a new Sept, he was given permission to search the Empire for suitable candidates. The Ethereal was young, and excited to finally get the chance to spread the influence of the Tau in name of the Greater Good. The Pale Commander was aptly named. He tended to wear pure white robes with few adornments which augmented the impact of his unusually pale blue skin. His cloven feet were his only betrayal against his otherwise 'angelic' appearance.

His first task was to find commanders of the Castes that would be willing to join his worthy cause. The first of the commanders was a noble of the Sa'Sea Sept known as Shas'El Sa'Sea Shenran Mont'yr. El'Shenran had already earned the reputation for being a fearless warrior for getting cut off from all other Tau by a Chaos counter-attack yet still fought on to complete all of the team's objectives and spent three days single-handedly defending the LZ for the Devilfish that was meant to retrieve the team when their objectives had been completed, despite being horribly injured in the process. With El'Shenran being reborn as Shas'O Or'Eseldi Shenran Mont'yr, Aun'O Os moved onto searching for other commanders of the remaining Castes.

Someone was needed to command the fleets of the new Sept, and that responsibility soon fell on the shoulders of the one reborn as Kor'O Or'Eseldi Yanoi M'yenshiva, who was previously an honourable commander of the great Vash'ya Sept. He was already an experienced Fleet Admiral, but having the responsibility of an entire Sept – even one as young and small as Or'Eseldi – was a task he wasn't sure he was ready for.

As Aun'O Os continued his search for commanders, those under his banner were already recruiting capable Tau into the ranks of this new Sept. By the time Aun'O Os was prepared for the deployment phase of his plan, the Sept was over 300 million strong. What was seen as strange was the lack of Kroot and Vespids in this new Sept's ranks.


Part II – Skipping Stones

The Sept was soon an entirely space-faring Sept. The plan was simple: they would skip through the warp deep into unfamiliar territory in small groups. The plan was that within a month, the entire Sept would be fully assembled at their destination. The first and largest of three waves was holding the commanders so that they were the first on the scene to oversee the colonisation process. Probably a risky gamble considering that for all they knew, they could be ending up in the maws of a Tyranid Hive Fleet, but this was something that would soon to prove to be a particular trait of the Sept. They weren't prepared to deviate from their goals of colonising distant space – and were going to pour everything into completing this task. It was either going to succeed swiftly, or fail in the worst case scenario. No in-between outcomes were possible.

The waves started their journey, skipping across the surface of the warp like stones skipping across a lake. Anyone with the ability to register such small tears in the warp appearing would notice that a dotted line of these rifts were opening and closing again, their heading was straight for Menelmacari space.


Part III – In the Blink of an Eye

The Lustondo System was enjoying a relatively peaceful life as a Menelmacari border world. The solely habitable planet lent its name to the system it was in. Seven other planets inhabited the system as well, but were barren and one was a gas giant.

The miners on Lustondo hadn't been warned of any approaching fleets until the first wave of ships had jumped into the system, practically on top of Lustondo itself. There were at least twenty Explorer Class and Merchant Class ships, most of which had been configured as population carriers, leaving two combat-ready Explorers and two Merchants. A further twelve Hero Classes had also appeared. Amongst these massive ships were two-score of Defender Class ships, and two Messengers who immediately started jamming regular communication methods in case they had jumped into danger. Orcas remained firmly in the gravitic sheaths of the capital ships, but were manned and ready to deploy to protect the fleet if the order was sounded. All-in-all, despite being a colony fleet, it still had formidable combat capability, and was deploying in a defensive formation to protect the lightly armed transports.

Within three minutes, all the ships had managed to jump in and assume the formation. Another five minutes and the orders had been issued to start moving Devilfish onto Lustondo's surface to secure a safe area to start building a colony as well as deploy Pathfinder teams around the planet to scout for anything that sensors hadn't managed to pick up. Probes had also been deployed to the planet, the fleet soon realising that the planet they were now claiming was home to elves. The probes contained a message in all known languages that would read the following,

“Stranger, I bid you greetings in the name of the Tau. If you are reading this, then you have encountered one of our messenger drones sent out to explain what is happening on this planet. You will soon see more evidence of us; this is no cause for alarm.

“When you encounter one of our landing teams or construction drones then welcome it. We have much to offer a faithful friend. We are five castes, one people. The earth caste build and manufacture, the air caste pilot and navigate, the water caste liaise and arbitrate, the fire caste guard our holdings and defeat our enemies. All are bound to the dream of bringing a new way to the universe.

“I hope you will choose to share the culture, technology, and protection of the Tau Empire.

“The one constant in the universe is change; the wise adapt.

“Believe in our destiny.”

While the probes were reaching the hands of the Menelmacari miners, Shas'O Shenran was landing with a bodyguard of two Shas'Vre in XV8's and three floating drones – two of which were armed. O'Shenran was clearly different from the others, being suited in an experimental battlesuit that looked similar to the XV8, but with additional shoulder mounted fusion blasters alongside an arm mounted burst cannon and a flamer unit. This made O'Shenran look like a cross between an XV8 and XV88. The bodyguards were heavily armed, but were obviously not expecting resistance as they approached one of the mining colonies on foot. It would be an hour before they would reach the colony this way, giving the elves plenty of time to make sense of what was going on. There were Devilfish carrying Fire Warriors within striking distance should the Commander come under attack.

At the same time, the Earth Caste drones were busying themselves in building foundations for landing pads and basic colony buildings. There was no time being wasted as builders started getting resources from the capital ships above.

The Air Caste were no less busy, having to ferry the Fire and Earth Castes as well as their equipment to the surface. They were dropping what looked to be one half invasion force, one half colony. The Messengers continued using their electronics warfare equipment in the attempt to scramble out-going communications and mask their arrival. They also monitored the system for any potential welcoming committee, or naval force. Considering the aggressiveness of the galaxy so far away from home, the Sept were pretty much expecting to get attacked or threatened rather than welcomed.

The system in question was, like the vast majority of star systems in the galaxy, useless. It was home to a single gas giant – though that was stretching the definition of giant – and a few glorified rocks. The outermost planet – further out than the gas planet, but still terrestrial, was the home of the Menelmacari ‘colony’ – really more of an outpost – on Lustondo. Thanks to Lustondo’s F2V star, despite a substantial distance, it was a liveable enough place, if you liked ‘arid.’

At least, if by ‘arid’, what you really meant was ‘no natural water or life’. As well as a lack of pretty much any sort of saleable resources. What it did have – aside from some rather appealing, but essentially useless sky blue amethyst ridges, and some seas of potentially useful (but worthless to Menelmacari industry) chemicals – was terraforming potential.

The oxygen in the atmosphere – about nineteen percent at the moment, breathable enough without incurring mountain sickness, for elves and humans at least – was due a Menelmacari injection of a conversion agent in a rust-desert in what had arbitrarily been designated the eastern hemisphere of the planet. Over a period of a month, this had ‘baked’ in the warm sunlight of the planet. This was helped greatly by the propensity of the star to increase its output considerably for around five days per year. In that month, every day transmuted the sands a little further from rust to iron, finally leaving a great mass of iron dust that could be easily gathered by magnetic means. The elves had no use of this abundant raw material yet, and their terraforming technology had not only inactivated itself when it was out of raw materials, but had been carefully expunged by some eldritch means. It was just these sorts of procedures that most of the colonists engaged in mining were working on.

It would remind its next visitors of the fire caste world of Vior’la, an impression which would be reinforced greatly if they were to experience a time of increased solar output – while not as beautiful as that binary system’s famed plasma storms, this output would impose similar difficulties for potential colonists – the elves largely solved the matter by using vast mirror-fields of their own technology, that reflected excess radiation and light away. It was not a solution available to the Tau, and so they would, if they got the chance, likely have to rely on a more physical barrier.

Another curious feature of the parched world that the Tau would notice if they were observant was that while there was a shockingly low amount of hydrogen compounds in the planet, no surface water or ice, there were several accessible veins of deuterium oxide ice – heavy water, useful for fusion fuel – buried in deep crevasses in polar regions. Hydrogen peroxide and hydrazine, both potentially useful propellant materials for low performance uses, also existed in these sheltered areas.

What water there was, was… on its way. Two years ago, the Menelmacari had gathered a colossal number of comets from a barren neighboring system, and inserted them, via a portal that was no longer there, into a languid orbit around the Lustondo sun that would transfer them gradually into the planet’s gravitational field. For now it seemed like nothing so much as a tremendous string of pearls that slowly, from slight wobbles in their orbit, would begin, in a few months, to feed into slow orbits down to burn up in Lustondo’s nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere.

It was far from the most efficient way of bringing a few thousand lakes of water and carbon dioxide – which would be fixed by another terraforming treatment, while the resulting greenhouse effect would be insignificant, the planet was hot enough, and the carbon would be better used gathered in soil anyway – to the planet, but it was the most graceful. Already, from the surface, at night one could see the comets burning in a spectacular searing line of white dust.

This was essentially what the Tau found on Lustondo. The planetary population hovered around nine hundred, with about five hundred elves, a few dozen of them were directly related to planning future development, and lived there, and others operating small businesses of various kinds catering to the terraforming-oversight population, and each other. The others were mostly there to admire the comet-line and the crystal mountains.

Of course, the Tau didn’t have it as much their own way as they would have liked. The elves were quite aware of the Tau’s approach for several weeks in advance, even before they exited, which due to the size of the sun and its radiation was more than a day’s travel away from the colony.

The planet was surrounded by a satellite network that, anywhere the Tau had been previously, would be far more typical of a far more populated world, but which was standard on just about every world, no matter how insignificant, flying the banner of the House of Fëanor. Tens of thousands of satellites, orbiting in a tightly-arranged mesh of perpendicular orbits, perfectly orchestrated so that satellites passing northwards would travel perfectly between ones passing southwards and vice-versa. They were all identical to one another, and had very substantial sensor and comm suites directed both downwards and outwards, and provided considerable sensor resolution of both every square inch of the planet’s surface, and almost the entirety of the Lustondo system as well.

The Thirty-seventh Menelmacari Imperial Gravitic Battle Fleet, headquartered aboard the dreadnought MIS Ancalagon, had been informed, and had been tracking the Tau for some time.

Even if the Tau had not been detected before their actual arrival, their efforts to jam communications would have been inconvenient at best. The Menelmacari had ways of communicating that the Tau would not begin to comprehend for millions of years. However, initially, it had been decided to see what the aliens attempted.

Most of the research projects had been shut down in preparation, or moved into the planet’s settlement, rather than far-flung buildings. If the Tau observed these buildings, they’d find something far beyond their science, but not their experience. They were composed of sand – not sandstone, actual sand – that was made to stand in columns and walls apparently solid. It was a necrontyr technology, one they’d used on the many similar planets (including Vior’la, in ancient times) they had settled. By means for which neither English nor Tau had the necessary technical terms to relate, energy fields supported the sand and drew energy from the baking sunlight, and the radiation storms.

If the Tau were to explore these buildings, they would find most were unfurnished and empty. Because of their nature, they could be established, and then left to stand indefinitely; they would last as long as the sun shone and the ground beneath them stood. But they could be easily disrupted. A single Tau weapon discharge could destabilize a cathedral-sized sand-building, and bring it crashing down. The only obvious way to learn that was by trial and potentially lethal error, or deduction based on the energy tolerances involved.

The elven presence on the planet had, in the last day, been drawn back significantly, with almost all items of Menelmacari technology outside the colonial capital itself vanishing. When the Tau arrived, only the ‘city’ – really just a town – itself was left.

So Shas’O Shenran, when he arrived over the horizon, was greeted with his first sight of Menelmacari architecture. At first glance it did not appear to be too different from Tau architecture. Curved surfaces and straight lines blended to form a unified graceful shape. But where the Tau used often innocuous-looking pastel colors - that is to say, 'you can have any color you like, as long as it's beige' - the Menelmacari buildings shone and shimmered reflectively. In the case of this outpost, the central complex was laid out in the form of radiating spokes from a central tower, and there were numerous doors and windows that shone with an interior light, but both were obscured enough, even with the enhanced sight of a battlesuit, that it was impossible to see what lay inside.

A number of bulges of silver dotted the miles of sand between the valley where Shenran came into view of it, and the outpost itself, in all directions. The hill on which the outpost stood also shimmered strangely, as if under some arcane dome, and sported a number of more obvious guns, possibly capable of reaching into orbit – not Grand Cannons by any means (though in time, with further terraforming and colonization, the Menelmacari would surely build such things here, as they did on most of their more populated worlds) though, and it was not an excessive amount.

Nearby, there was a sizeable construct in the planet’s sand-building style, obscured from direct view, just where one might want to set up a camp. But Shenran was likely to interpret that as a trap.

Of course, he probably didn’t expect what came next. A radio signal in perfectly pronounced – with a fire caste, Vior’la accent – Tau, on a Tau military frequency, too. All it said, simply, was: “For a race that has devoted an entire caste to diplomacy and interpersonal relations, you don’t seem too keen on making a peaceful impression.”

Part IV – He'ra

“Telemetry upload in progress,” was called across the headset of each Tau who had reached the surface of the planet almost as soon contact was made. The days were gone when Tau warriors were forced to cease their activities in order to upload their battlesuit telemetry – and they were now quite capable of continue their activities while the upload was continuing. The voice they heard was now only a formality and a notification of what was happening.

“We have a security breach in communications! Track the source and prevent further attempts! Our primary objective has failed. We've walked right into a trap!” O'Shenran called over the comms network. The heavily vocoded voice of O'Shenran was heard by only the upper ranks of the Fire Caste, and the commanders of the other Castes. “We are proceeding to the settlement despite this setback. Stealth Teams, identify the stationary gun platforms – co-ordinates being sent now – if they are active, mark them for the Pathfinders. I want all potential threats neutralised.

“I want our HQ built as quickly as possible, and defended, now!” O'Shenran continued relaying orders, “For the greater good!”

While the Fire Commander issued orders, Devilfish were being deployed on a massive scale from the ships above the planet. The battle network came alive with chatter as orders were issued on a team-level. They were delivering troops and resources to the HQ that the Tau were setting up. Construction drones under the supervision of the Earth Caste were busying themselves at a fanatical rate, but despite the urgency, the base they were constructing looked as if it was meant to last. It was only half a dec before an entire Battle had landed at the HQ site to defend it. The Stealth Teams nearest to the Fire Commander's position started to converge on the gun emplacements to scout them out.

The Air Caste were just as busy, trying to find out who, what, and where the transmission came from. O'Yanoi was quick to suspect the satellite network of the espionage. “We need to analyse one of those satellites. Despatch an Orca to retrieve one for the Earth Caste to examine. We also need to keep scanning the system for other ships. I needn't remind you that protection of the colony ships are our top priority,” the Air Caste's commander said calmly. He was on the bridge of the Tau flagship Kar'tyr, standing alongside the sept's leader. Aun'Os was also calm and collected, a stark contrast to the organised chaos on the planet below.

“This appears to be a new encounter. They employ the trickery of the Eldar, but are far too brazen and cocky to be the High Ones... Far more human in that respect,” Aun'Os stated to the Air Commander who nodded in acknowledgement, “A dangerous combination to be sure. We need to make sure we can learn everything we can about what we're about to encounter before we encounter it. If they are as stubborn as the Gue'la, then we are unfortunately going to have to be prepared for aggression.”

As the Ethereal continued talking with Kor'O Yanoi, one of the Orcas that were being towed by the Kar'tyr was freed from the gravitic sheath it was attached to so that it could retrieve one of the satellites.

Aun'Os thought of all the options laid before him and decided that his direct intervention was required. “This is Aun'O Or'Eseldi Os Olro, Leader of the Or'Eseldi Sept,” he declared over the same military channel that had been breached, hoping that whoever intruded before was listening now, “We bring the Greater Good to a new section of the galaxy. With this exploration, we encounter new systems, new planets, and new peoples. We Tau have yet to back down from such encounters. Our Fire Caste grant us the defence we need when leading to such endeavours and they are the greatest asset anyone could ask for when fulfilling that role.

“We are not in the habit of eradicating life as soon as it is encountered. The Fire Caste are the first to make contact purely for protection of the Sept. It would be good to remember that the Fire Caste are defenders, not attackers. When the Fire Caste are satisfied that the rest of the Sept is safe, then the Water Caste shall make themselves known.

“If whomever breached our communications is still listening, their best move now would be to send representatives to meet with the small team sent to establish contact at the largest planetary settlement.”

Meanwhile, it had already been determined who had the honour of making first contact for the Water Caste. A young woman and one of the few non-Tau in the Sept. The seventeen tau-cyr-old was a creature who was a lot more human in appearance than the Tau. Despite being a young adult of her race – the Ol'Yanoi – she had the physical appearance of a fragile adolescent girl. However, she carried the curious trait of her race; her pale blue skin gave off a slight glow. All creatures from her homeworld, including the world itself had this trait. Her ears were also slightly pointed, but that was hardly noticeable, even if her knee-length blonde hair was tied back. Por'Vre Or'Eseldi Shierra Savon was reading in her quarters. They were more cramped than she was used to back at the academy she was a part of before, but she was content with what she was given, particularly as she knew that her accommodations would change soon anyway.

The Tau stealth-suits a problem in dealing with the ground based guns. For a start, designating the guns was a problem because they were deployed so that there was no position where they could be easily approached or safely attacked without first having to neutralize another. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but for the stealth teams there was an unpleasant surprise.

The gun platforms reacted to ‘marker-light’ beams.

At least, most of them did. From the distance, most of the ‘guns’ looked like silvery eggs a foot wide, half buried along their longest axis. Some, it seemed, were redundant, though they still formed part of the defense network. Others reacted to marker-lights by moving, either burying themselves, or hovering from the ground and moving to another location.

The actual guns, though, reacted to the touch of designators on their silvery carapaces by swiveling their top section toward the enemy, a pair of narrow dark barrels being uncovered and extended half way along. More than that, several others typically activated and aimed at the target – clearly the weapons were networked.

They’d not had permission to use lethal force to preempt an attack. But the message was clear enough: if any of them were attacked, there would be an immediate reaction.

These were the small sentry guns that dotted the ground like weeds. Most of these were newly installed a few days ago, but some were older. It was part of the supplies generally used by elves on such worlds, both colonists and scientists, to deter intrusion by both hostile groups of sapient creatures and dangerous animals.

The big guns reacted quite differently to being designated in that manner. Nothing appeared to happen, unless one was observing the exact spot very closely, when one might notice marker-light beams being refracted subtly when they hit, indicating some strange shielding mechanism.

--

Capturing an Elenpalantír satellite proved considerably easier, at least at first. Aside from the various elfy styling, this particular model boiled down to being a roughly man-size cylinder in red metal, with black lenses for its optics, and a number of strange protrusions at the business end, presumably some kind of aerials for monitoring of radio and other communications. These sections, as the Orca approached the satellite, were covered in golden lens caps. Seemingly of its own gravitic volition, the satellite settled lightly down on the floor of the dropship when the ship’s rear hatch closed around it like a crocodile’s maw.

The surface of the satellite was almost featureless crimson and gold, but for the fluid, brush-stroke ‘Fëanorian Tengwar’ characters of Menelmacar in black. Aside from the ‘business end’ there was not even a scratch on it, it was as though most of its outer shell had been cast in one solid piece of metal, cool to the touch.

Someone on the surface noticed, as when the dropship was half way back to its mother craft, the satellite said simply, in Tau, the same accent as had been used before, it spoke in the same voice, even, “I am a bomb…”

Then… “One tenth of a Dec remains until detonation…”

And of course, the Ethereal’s message was received, too. The answer to that was simple enough.

“Defenders you may think them, but when you defend what you take from others without permission, you are no longer defending. The word for that is invasion.

“You are welcome to send your representatives to this world, and for now, your military presence will be indulgently tolerated while they visit. Your representatives will be admitted by teleportation…”

--

Meanwhile, in the colony, a number of residents peered anxiously at displays in the main control room, part of the building ironically labeled the ‘Town Hall.’ The ceiling was about fifteen feet in height; the elves preferred high ceilings when they were available. The room was dominated by a central open area, where a three-meter orb of the planet and the near space was being projected. Other, flat screen monitors showed the locations of nearby Tau, and of course, the Tau base. The holo also indicated the positions and nature of Tau units on and around the planet, annotated with shimmering golden tengwar text.

“Are you certain that’s a good idea?” an elf asked, a moment after the speaker tapped the button on the communication console around the open area to cut the channel.

“Positive. The Tau don’t have anything that really qualifies as a personal scale teleporter, let alone our portals. And there’s a setting on portals to force a user to leave weapons behind, which will keep our guests from getting aggressive…”

“Really? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Yes, it’s an obscure function. Essentially, when the portal links space, it sets it to scan, and not permit the passage of anything matching various parameters, essentially, anything likely to explode or coherently emit more than a given energy level. Weapons, or at least, components of them, get left behind, while the user still passes through. If nothing else, that might keep them on their toes in dealing with us,” the speaker said, “Which is a good thing, I’d say.”