Awaken brave warriors and rise up to throw off the shackles of the oppressed. Your service is the beginning of the Greater Good, and delays our end.
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Every time his heart beat, he caught a snapshot of the outside world. Once every rotaa he could catch a word or two of conversation and people would jerk in and out of his vision. Sometimes he would blink and blackness would overtake him. In that time, kai’rotaas could pass, or maybe just a few decs. From inside the cryorest chamber there was no way to tell. He could feel his mind working at normal speed even while the world moved in these jerky motions like a corrupted holovid. With these snapshots of reality came dreams that filled his half awake half asleep mind. These were made by the ship’s onboard computer feeding him something like training simulations. It was more of a hypnotic suggestion process than a built virtual reality. Like a parent reading a story to a child and the child’s mind translating that story into their dream.
Shas’La D'yanoi Mira, was making the transit for his first campaign, some planet on the border between Empire and Imperium space. Before entering cryo rest he had been briefed on their target, a small backwater Gue'la world that hadn't even bother to industrialize. The water caste had tried to enact the silken conquest by sending merchants and speakers to convince the local population to throw off their own yoke and join the Tau’va. They had shown the results through a holorecording of the events. The first expedition landed, villagers had gathered around, farming implements in hand, the water caste delegate present at the briefing narrating the events laid out before them noted that at this point the Gue'la were showing signs of concern and confusion. The ramp lowered and the water caste merchants departed, unarmed, wearing fine robes, the villagers' expressions changed to shock, then horror as the speaker addressed them in gothic. Finally it culminated in anger, the villagers rushed the ship, tools raised high to be used as improvised weapons. Normally, played on public holofields, the feed would cut sparing the audience the violence and gore, but they were Firecast; violence and gore was their tradecraft, so the holovid played on displaying every detail of the event in the center of the room. These primitives used their tools as effectively as any other weapon, the feeble frames on those water cast tau had no chance to defend themselves. The lucky ones had their skulls cut open by the sharp heads and an overhand swing, one unfortunate speaker was beaten to death with blunt staves, his screams becoming an artifact for the remainder of the video. The video didn’t end until they had begun to burn the ship, loading it full with wood and hay, and igniting it. The picture began to lose resolution, distort before finally cutting out, its final frames show casing the villagers tossing the bodies of the merchants into the pyre.
The next feed showed an identical ship landing, farther back from the village, and this time the merchants and speakers were guarded by Gue'vesa auxiliaries, Humans who had already accepted the Tau’va and who did most of the speaking. They were dressed in strike team armor specially designed to fit their bodies, and boasted their status as free tau empire citizens with a doubled headed Gue'la bird grasping the symbols of the greater good in its talons, giving it the appearance of it being perched. The native Gue'la were not as horrified seeing their comrades dressed as aliens, though at first there was still tension and shouts of the gothic word “traitor” being thrown at them. They began smoothing things over by showing the miracles of the technology brought with them, which to any of the auxiliaries or tau present, were common items for every day use. Trade was established, first with the construction of a small outpost for the merchants and auxiliaries, then for meaningless resources. Lumber, mud bricks, things that the natives were making anyway and wouldn’t be missed, food was offered up but never taken.
This time instead of the villagers slaughtering this peaceful delegation, proper soldiers appeared to lay siege to the outpost. The recording showed a small skirmish between The Gue’vesa sentries and the retinue of soldiers. The men were clad in metal armor, all of them had this around their breast and some form of protection on their head but a few had additional armor on their legs and arms. Mira thought he had seen something like it before in his historical teachings about early expansions of the greater good and the origins of his caste, from the days before they were a space faring civilization.
Although it had been built by the native villagers, the outpost had been reinforced by tau technologies. Its wooden walls were topped by shield parapets and backed up by plasteel composite armor, made of same materials each of the fire warriors would be wearing themselves. The speaker had mentioned that the siege lasted several rotaa and showed short clips to highlight the escalation in the fighting. At first most of the native soldiers fought with primitive bows and firearms and were kept at bay with drone fire. Their artillery, primitive cannons, were able to blast holes in the wooden walls but was ineffective against the true plasteel wall behind. The arrival of the local regular forces was apparent when the defenders began to get peppered by laser fire. The speaker mentioned that these weapons were a local design so their power and effectiveness couldn’t be measured against baseline until after we had made first contact with them. Missiles, autocannons, laser weapons of various sizes and power levels were tested against the wall. Even the dreaded bolter rounds were not enough to breach the small outpost. Mira began to wonder why no mention of them relieving Gue'vesa was made in the briefing.
Then it became ultimately apparent. After nearly a Ky’rotaa under siege, a shape began to materialize in the distance. It was bipedal and from the lower half had a strong semblance to a Gue'la, but its upper half was far too broad in shoulders and while it had one complete arm, the other ended about half way down. It was hard to judge from the distance but it appeared to be a large weapon of some sort. Its posture gave it the appearance of a hunchback, Mira tried but couldn’t make out a head anywhere on it. Not fully unusual for the Gue'la, a few of their crude battle suits didn't implement a sensor housing in the form of a head. Mira made sure to note that visually, the approaching battle suit would have large blind spots. As it came closer and grew larger in frame, a hammerhead fired its rail gun, the distinct whip-crack of the overgrown rifle ripped through the speakers but to the gathered fire warriors horror, the monster still came forward not even slowed by what should have been a killing blow. A slight shimmer was all the evidence that the Hammerhead hadn’t missed, it fired again and missiles were launched but nothing seemed to slow the oncoming beast, let alone stop it. It remained a shadow enveloped by fog until, finally, after minutes of tension, it opened up with what was reveled to be its gun arm. The flash of the rotating muzzles as the propellant cast their shots forward illuminated the figure. It became clear that it was a battle suit of some kind, giant in nature, clad in armor plates and decorated in brilliant colors. It seemed primitive yet somehow advanced at the same time, but that was a common feature of the Gue'la. All of the technology and even their fashions clung to their past and spoke in contradictions.
The rounds impacted throughout the outpost and proved too much for the armor and shields that had long protected the defenders. The Mechanical monster didn’t stop when it fired but instead pressed on, one leg slamming into the ground after another. As it closed it would open up with a new weapon. Molten metal was fired from a gun in-bedded in its shoulder, rockets bombarded the fort from a launcher on its back, and even a flamer was built into its gatling cannon, sweeping the field to its right as the Gue'vesa attempted to put up resistance. It even used its feet as a weapon to stomp those that dare stand their ground. The hammerhead gunship fired a round in defiance, this time managing to stagger the monstrosity but it recovered to quickly for a follow up round, turned its attention on the tank, and shredded its hull with it primary weapon, leaving the burning wreck in its wake.
It didn’t destroy everything, but anyone left alive in its path was quickly engaged and overwhelmed by las fire and advancing melee troops. Mira was horrified yet fascinated as he watched one Gue'vesa be struck by three arrows, then be engaged in combat by multiple troops with spears and shields. They came up quickly trying to take her by surprise, she turned, fired the last burst of her pulse carbine into the first combatant, drew her pistol and dispatched 2 more. One of the spearmen managed to knock the pistol out of her hand, she in turn, grabbed the spear by the shaft and pulled herself closer to her assailant. She then used the butt of her carbine to bash the spearman in the head and push him to the ground before dispatching the warrior with an overhead blow to the head.
She threw the weapon aside and drew a long knife. Tau squads carried something similar but the bonding knife was mostly ceremonial while the ones each of the Gue'vesa and the Gue’la carried was built for war. Not only could they use it but expected to, some even expressing a preference to it rather than engaging at range. Mira had watched several training videos where Gue'la soldiers in their version of a Firecast would stop shooting as the enemy continued to approach to fix these long blades to the end of their gun. Then instead of bounding back and giving ground, they would use their weapons as spears and fight hand to hand. This one in the feed fought like an animal, Mira made another mental note of always leaving a route to escape lest the enemy be resigned to death and continue to fight when they might have fled. The Gue'vesa fought on, slashing and stabbing anyone who drew too close to her, but it was no use. No matter how furiously she fought, eventually she was surrounded and stabbed to death by the spear wielding soldiers. Even then, several spears impalled into her flesh she still continued to try and fight till she breathed her last.
The rest of the holovid saw the destruction of the outpost and the few water caste survivors escaping to their craft. The Cadre was silent, this was nothing they hadn't seen before since their first lessons but a tension of anger boiled inside each of them. It wasn’t the assault that angered them, it was the brutality of the slaughter. It wasn’t enough that their machines had broken the tau outpost and that its occupant would be forced to flee, they also had to slaughter those inside. Not just warriors, but traders, diplomats, and workers too. It was barbaric.
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Mira had noticed that the world seemed to catch up with his mind. People and drones he would see outside his cryo tube stopped coming in and out of existence and instead took on jerky movements. When he blinked, the world wouldn’t change as rapidly, although he felt the darkness was enveloping him more often now than what seemed like a few minutes ago.
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He could follow muffled conversations outside his chamber now, or at least pick up what was being discussed based on context clues. He was seeing less drones and more people moving back and forth. Was it his mind slowing or the world catching up? He was having a hard time thinking clearly, his internal voices and images were shrouded in a fog. The earth caste woman had mentioned something like this, but it was all so much, happening all at once, he couldn't focus and remember what she had told him. The briefing, the gear loading, the final rotaas and decs of training. Running through drills again and again. Then this beautiful earth caste nurse explained what would happen as he fell asleep and woke up. Why did that need explaining? He had done so at least a dozen times before.
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A group was gathered around his pod. Was that good or bad? He couldn’t remember, he couldn’t think. A voice called out to him, was it from within his mind or external?
You’re beginning to panic. Find your center. Remember the mountains?
The mountains. Throughout his few Tau’cyr, the mountains were his center of peace. It was the one place he felt he could escape the pressure of the world and society. He wasn’t alone in appreciating their beauty, it was something he was taught from a young age. He was raised to be a warrior from birth just as those that went before him. And many of those before him engaged in the combination of serenity and exhilaration that came with mountain climbing. Many touted it as the purest mixture of brut strength and endurance as well as intelligence and problem solving. Four traits that his caste highlighted the importance of.
Mountains were a common sight on D'yanoi. Most rose up high above the plains but his mountain rose from one of the few bodies of water. It was an island that wasn’t too far from shore, but far enough to dissuade most from attempting the crossing. But to Mira, the hike to the shore from his habitation, and the act of swimming out to the island was part of his meditation before he even began to climb. If he was water caste he might have taken a boat instead, but he was Shas. While they appreciated cleverness they respected the brute strength response. The memories of his childhood acted as intended, calmed his body and he began to breathe easily.
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He felt mostly in sync between his mind, body, and the world now. He could also feel something physical, a downward suction in his tube. As the fluid level receded his feet touched the floor for the first time since going into extended hibernation. Immediately he could tell his legs wouldn’t hold the growing weight but as the thought was forming the tube began to tip and his back rested against the bed. The rest of the fluid drained and Mira took his first real breath since the start of his journey before his instincts rolled him onto his side and he began vomiting the fluid. His chest and throat burned from the sensation and for a while he laid there and listened to his breathing echo off the sides of the chamber before the earth caste staff pulled the bed from the tube exposing him to the bright world outside his tinted glass home.
“Tau ol’dec Shas’la. Did you enjoy your slumber? Can you say something for me?”
“It’s too bright,” he groaned between coughs. He was correct, it was too bright, the world around him was flooded with white and he couldn’t make out any details except for the shapes of tau hovering above him but even still, they only appeared as if they were standing in a dark corner. Mira attempted to shield his eyes from the source but his hand was forcefully pulled down to his side
The dispassionate voice of a nurse who had repeated the same procedure several dozen times before reaching him filled his auditory senses “I know brave warrior and I offer contrition because I’m going to have to make it a bit worse for a Rai’kor. How are you feeling?” As the attendant asked this she shined a light into Mira’s eyes. His instinct worked against him now and screamed for him to turn his head and rip his hand away from whatever was holding him down, but his discipline won out and he stayed still. As he analyzed himself to answer the question he realized he was freezing cold as his body began to shiver so badly he feared he was about to have a seizure.
“I.. I feel cold. Why is it so c-c-cold”
“Your blood has been in storage just as you have. The fluid was keeping you stable but now that you're exposed to the air it’s normal to feel chilled. The rest of you looks intact, I’ll throw a blanket over you and check up on your comrades.” The attendant did as she promised and walked away to the next warrior being pulled out from his slumber. Mira looked up to the ceiling and forced himself to adjust to the world as the weight of the blanket pressed down on him and warmed his body with the aid of a small heated fan that was built into the table. The attendant was right. It was his blood that felt cold but it was deeper than that, it wasn’t just that his blood was going into storage and being replaced with the fluid that also filled the tank, something about the chemicals in the fluid leaving his body also seemed to strip even the memory of heat with them.
Decs passed and he was starting to warm up and his vision became more clear, the light no longer assaulted his eyes and rather did as nature intended, illuminating the world around him. He was exactly where he had gone to sleep, in the med bay of the cruiser D'yanoi Reh’aiy Sho’ur Mu’gul “Strength as One”. As he looked around the countless rows of cryo tubes he realized he might be one of the first groups of fire warriors to be awakened, alongside the other members of his la’rua. They were certainly near the target but how far out was impossible to know from within the cryobay. He wasn’t being woken up with the main body of troops but he also couldn’t tell how many had been woken up before him. For all he knew, he could be getting woken up with the commanders and their body guard and still have several rotaa before they even decelerated from light speed.
An alarm behind and to the right tore Mira from his thoughts, he snapped his head over to the direction of the disturbance. One of the tubes was the cause, the earth caste attendances rushed over and hit an emergency flush button. Fluid rushed from the tube onto the floor, before it could fully drain one of the attendants pulled the tube back and unsealed the top before pulling the bed out, a rush of medical jargon passed his auditory senses
“No heart rate” One had stated
“Patient hasn’t expelled preserve from his lungs. We’ll need to tube him " Another had said in response
"Oxygenated blood levels dropping rapidly, we need to force air-" A third had started talking over the second.
"Stop!” The last voice that cut above the others as well as the alarm, it must have belonged to the lead doctor on the team. He wasn’t looking at the warrior on the bed, instead he was looking at the data read on the tube.
“Scan his brain for activity.” He ordered
“Yes Fio’vre.” a long silence passed as the attendant pulled a data pad and held it near the warrior's skull. Finally she gave a saddened “No activity Fio’vre.”
“Then he had died during transit and his body just now caught up with his mind. There’s nothing more to do for him. Reseal the stasis pod and prep the corpse for deep storage. Then resume your work on the living patients.” A chorus of “Yes Fio’vre” passed as the slab was pushed back into the tube.
As one of the attendants moved away, Mira saw the warrior's face. It was a member not of his team, but of a sister la’rue in his cadre. They had gone through the same academy classes, and while Mira didn’t know him personally, it still weighed heavy on his heart to see a brother pass in such a way. Cold and alone, he had died during the journey for any number of reasons. It was a fate every fire warrior feared, to die in battle was easily attributed to the cause of the Greater Good. But to die in stasis, it was hard to justify in their minds. He reached his hand out in the direction of the pod, as if to grab the hand that couldn’t reach for his, and when the body disappeared into the tube again, Mira pulled back his, formed a close fist, and pressed it to his chest, above his heart.
No other members of the cadre would pass in their sleep, Mira didn’t want to dwell on the one that had too much. He was alive, and he was given the opportunity to fight. Mira once more faced the ceiling and closed his eyes to meditate. He mostly concentrated on running through battle drills in his head over and over and over again before finally being disturbed once more. “Brave warrior? Can you open your eyes for me?” Mira opened his eyes and looked to the origin of the voice. It was the attendant once more. The team had dispersed to focus on one warrior each, they were talking to his la’rue currently.
“Fantastic, now can you sit up for me?” Mira nodded and threw his legs over the side of the bed, propping his upper half of his body up on this right elbow. There was some weakness in his body that was fading fast as his tendons remembered how to support his weight as well as stiffness in his joints as the fluid began moving around his body once more but he didn’t experience any cramps that sometimes followed waking. The attendant slowly grabbed his arm after he had fully sat up and began to check it for movement and feeling the hard mussels that formed the distinct figure of a fire warrior. Their physic was a mix of lean and built, each muscle group on his body was formed over tau’cyr of training not just casting the thick ropes of muscle but also to give those muscles memories to act on allowing his mind to focus on surrounding factors. Compared to the earth caste attendant, whose genes made them short and stocky, built like either a stone or a xi’cain from the plains of their shared ancestral home, he was tall and toned with muscles defining each part of his body, but none of them over taking any feature. A combination of strength and speed, a physical representation of fire warrior tactics in battle. “Be fast so that you may strike first, be strong so that there won’t be a second strike”. Her eyes looked over his torso, checking for any burns or any other injuries that could have formed during his sleep.
“Any discomfort?”
“No,” he stated plainly. Nothing that was worth mentioning, although his manors may have taken an injury during the trip. After she checked both his sides and his back, she asked him to stand up. He pushed himself off the side of the bed and dropped to the floor. His foot pads landed and he had to bend his knees to catch some of his own weight but quickly recovered. She led him through some bends and stretches to both show that he was physically fit enough to proceed to active service and to help loosen up his appendages that had spent several Tau’cyr floating in one position. He was handed his robes that he had hung up in the attached locker when he went to sleep and while he dressed himself, the attendant asked a series of questions. Some on how he was feeling and others to test his mental state. Finally his data pad was updated to reflect a full health chart, and he was dismissed to his station. The others of his cadre had also finished their examinations and were also heading the same way.
He reached the passageway that contained each of the la’rue bays. His was one of hundreds of cadres just aboard this ship and so he passed dozens of doors before finally reaching his bay. When he finally reached it, it was exactly as he had left it. Drones had spent the journey maintaining every aspect of the ship along with the few crew that also made the journey awake and that included keeping dust off of the surfaces. It contained 12 beds and lockers, each bunk stacked 3 high in 4 rows with the lockers forming the end caps. 3rd row, leftmost locker had the inscription
Shas’la D'yanoi Mira
1st La’rue of Hunter Cadre Inspired Wind
He pressed a series of buttons on the right side of the door and it made a small chime as it opened. Others had made it in before him, and more still were filtering in. Shas’Ui Eldi, their team leader, had apparently already been in and left his locker door open. Mira pulled out the first article of his own clothing, his combat fatigues. It was a simple one piece suit with belt loops and other attachment points for his armor and other equipment. He pulled it on and as he secured it to his body he appreciated it as one of the several tiny miracles made by the earth caste that they all took for granted. The suit was loose but not overly so as to catch on anything, and skin tight where it needed to be but also flexible enough not to impede movement. It trapped heat in the cold and kept his body cool in the heat, all without any power. It worked with his armor to provide an airtight seal that allowed him to work in the vacuum of space in a limited fashion. Generations of engineers designed this suit before it even touched the first fire caste body and generations more have improved it in who knows how many millions of tiny ways. Almost every aspect of tau society was built with these tiny miracles, the product of the greater good, a whole species working together to not just better things for themselves but all life they encountered.
His belt came next. It was slightly awkward to put on, the loops on this uniform came undone so that he could put it on or remove it without needing to remove the pouches already attached. But it left him in a place where he had to re-secure the loops while still holding his belt, the individual loops generally didn’t have the strength to hold up a fully loaded belt.. He preferred to just reattach the pouches but in the field he wouldn’t have that choice if he needed to drop then reattach his gear. Every fire warrior had developed a way to manage their gear without the aid of a fellow, Mira would lay down on the ground allowing gravity to work for him while he set up the belt and closed the loops, then tightening and standing up. Next he sat down on a nearby bench and pulled his boots on. They resembled the hooves his ancestors had before evolving into the fire caste member he was today. Then followed his knee pads and leg plates before he pulled over his vest and secured it to his sides and chest, more pouches and general equipment were added to this. Each piece of gear was the same story as the suit, generations of cooperation to ensure that the next generation was better prepared for what they would face.
Another member of the La’rue came up to help him with his shoulder plates and elbow pads, Mira made the sign of the grateful recipient and the team mate made the sign of the eager volunteer. Nirva had not only gone to the fire academy with Mira but they had actually been Shas’saal together in the same training La’rue. With the exception of the Shas’Ui, this was the same La’rue that had trained on D'yanoi. The main difference between now and what they had already experienced before was sitting in the back of their mind slowly traveling to the front, that this wasn’t an exercise and that any mistakes would be taught with blood and death rather than stern instruction from an elder warrior.
Once Mira’s upper armor was fully secured to his body, Nirva turned to accept help with his own. Mira couldn’t stand the silence that penetrated the bay’s air and decided to make a lame joke. “Did you sleep well, brave warrior?” Mira asked. Nirva chuckled at this as his brother tied on the left elbow pad. Brave warrior was a political term for the fire caste, who’s warriors near universally hated it. But the Ethereals had issued it alongside other terms for members of the other castes. “Wind Sailors” for the air caste “Voice of Tau’va” named the water caste “Pillar of life” the earth caste. Other names might describe members of those same castes that performed specific jobs or functions. Mira didn’t know how they felt about their formal address but he knew he and many others of his caste hated being called Brave Warrior. So it had become a joke amongst the fire caste, instilled first by the instructors at their academies.
“My brother don’t you know? I dreamed that we had already won the war. We’re here to direct traffic rather than fight” he collapsed his hands in the sign of the pleased jester
“With tales like that I think you are more a member of the water caste. Perhaps news reporting should be your chosen career instead of war since you like telling stories so much” Mira gave him a firm pat of his shoulder indicating that he was done attaching the armor.
“And you tie knots so well, perhaps an earth caste tailor is better suited. You are certainly thick skulled enough to be one of them” This got a chuckle out of the other Shas’la in the bay. The Shas’Ui walked back in just as Mira was about to sit down..
“Attention!” one of the other Shas’La yelped. The whole bay stood up, faced the Shas’Ui at the door and bowed slightly. He wore the same armor they did but rather than the colors of their sept, a light brown that resembled the dry grass plains of D'yanoi, his instead was the darkened colors of those fire warriors who served aboard the many ships of the protection fleet with his helmet, slung under his arm still white with light blue stripes, indicating his rank of Shas’Ui.
“Stand as you were, all. I trust you all had a good rest?” This produced polite chuckles at the joke they all had heard a dozen times by now. “Stow it, I know it’s a bad joke. The Ethereal opened with it during the briefing.” Chuckles and soft conversation halted, the bay fell into a strange silence of disbelief. The Shas’Ui had been briefed by an Ethereal, it confirmed Mira’s thoughts that they were some of the first to be woken up. Not only that, it was rare for any fire warrior to see an Ethereal in person let alone hear them speak so whatever was going on had to be important.
“What did he have to say?” Shas’La Vash asked, his jaw still hanging in awe.
“He gave a speech at the beginning of the briefing,” Eldi said as he made his way to a stool near his bunk, groaning softly as he sat down. “He told us how this was not a mission of vengeance but rather of liberation. How the Gue'la empire had kept this planet locked in the Mont’au era for hundreds if not thousands of Tau’cyr. And how we were not only bringing them the Tau’va but also modern medicine and eliminating famine and drought from their lives.” Then mention of the Mont’au had sent a chill down each warrior’s spine and forced them to all stand up straighter. They gave each other glances from the corner of their eyes. It was a reaction of fear. The Mont’au, time of terror, was the darkest period of their history, a time when Tau killed Tau, before the Etheraels came along and showed them the Tau’va. Behind the fear was a feeling of honor to pay to the humans what the Ethereals had paid for them. The Shas'Ui continued “Then Shas’O Shass’ang spoke. His words were more focused. No inspiring speeches of what we are here to do and why. In fact he didn’t even speak about planet fall.”
“He didn’t?” Mira asked. He was getting confused, a briefing that didn’t include the first stage of any invasion?
“I was also confused.” Eldi continued, adjusting a strap on his leg “Instead he talked about the current situation alongside the Kor’O.”
“Admiral Farwind? I would have thought he would still be on the bridge. Especially with the majority of his crew waking up.”
“Apparently we’re still in transit. So it was easier to persuade the fabled Admiral to come out and speak. The plan, as they put it, is to punch through the surrounding void militia, most of which consists of armed merchant ships, and begin our landings immediately. But there are some orbital defense platforms that we will need, it’s the only area on the entire planet with any space traffic, and by extension the only area with the infrastructure to support our larger craft. To top it all off, they plan to arrive within weapons range. Maybe a few Tor’kan out at most, so either way there will be no time to train for what comes next. The ship cadres are being used as boarding parties with the invasion cadres being moved into reserve. We will be forming one of these reserve cadres. We will board an orca dropship and stand by to reenforce any of the boarding crews as needed.” Another silence filled the bay, this time in contemplation of what was just asked of them. They were a young squad, all of them except the Shas’Ui, had just graduated training two Tau’cyr ago. The lessons of the academy were fresh in their minds but they all knew just how different that was from actual combat experience. They could see it etched in the faces of their instructor and their Shas’Ui.
“Chin up warriors. We can and will take this task with pride and honor. Besides. I’m assured that the boarding crews will be well equipped to handle the threat we scouted. This isn’t a major port, they export a low number of goods to their empire, and they do not have the anchorages their navy would need to justify stopping over here. We will spend the fight inside the hull of an orca as I lament at the lost time that could be used training for the real war. So enjoy the time off you lazy By’souns” The joke broke the tension and allowed the strike team to laugh fully for the first time since waking up. But even as Mira joined in, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they may find themselves having gripped the ti’groun by the tail.