Editing Argo Brigade (section)

===Shas'La Yun’a Kias first contact===
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''Recordings from Tau central library''
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Shas'La Yun’a Kias checked the outlay for his pulse rifle for the sixth time in the last hour. Satisfied that it read the same digits as the last five times, he slotted the weapon back into the hold above his seat and crossed his arms, wary of the sudden drops and jerks the re-entry craft was making. Nervously, he used his inbuilt os to open a copy of the mission briefing his unit had been handed before boarding the transport and heading for the planet below.

[Classified]
Received M999.XXX, XX/XX XX.XX.XX.XXX
Quelling the populace here has been difficult. Use of XXXXX has been XXXXXXX. Casualties among XXXXXXX heavy, requesting reinforcements. Enemies units have XXXXXXX us. Lost contact with command. Warning: watch out for-
Message end.

10 days ago their transport freighter had made an unscheduled detour, diverting the course it took by over 30 degrees and lowering its thrust. Neither Kias’ unit nor any other he had contact with had received any information on the reason for the detour, but nine days later 400 Tau of the Fire caste had been assembled in one of the transport hangers, told they were to aid in the pacification of the planet below (the name for which no Tau could correctly pronounce), forwarded their ‘briefing’, a document full of missing info and ambiguous in its meaning, and packed into the smaller re-entry craft like U’ina. Since then Kias had barely spoken a word to anytau, staring at the bulkhead above him and continuously rechecking his equipment. He had not bonded well with his squad, being fresh blood. The honours on the units file listed participation in over 30 active warzones, a feat he doubted he would ever match. Gruff, solemn and hard they had treated Kias more as a domestic drone then a fully fledged Fire Warrior in his own right. Kias dreamed of a day when they would see him as an equal, and drifted to unconsciousness with these thoughts on his mind.

Kias was broken out of his reverie when the re-entry craft suddenly dropped what felt like 90 metres, combined with a loud, high pitched squeal he recognized as the incoming fire alarm. Immediately adopting the brace position drilled into him in training, he gritted his teeth as the craft executed an upward climb, sending unstowed gear flying through the craft. With a solid thunk a drone tore free from its rack and went through the head of the sergeant next to Kias, firmly planting itself in the wall behind the nco’s head. A few seconds later Kias blacked out as a hole the size of a large bovine opened in the ship and the engines lost power.

The rookie soldier awakened to his corporal shaking him on his shoulder, calling him to action. Kias could not hear, but from gestures to the surrounding area and his tactical display the other soldier managed to convey that they had landed in the jungle surrounding the Shas’tia, or Military Centre of Command. Upon further examination of the terrain around him, Kias saw that the section of the craft they had been in had torn free, and kindly deposited the corporal, ten privates and himself in a small clearing. Of those ten privates four were dead, though the other six stood in a rough semicircle around the part of the ship they’d landed in. Moving groggily, Kias followed the nco into the jungle, heading for the destination their ship had been travelling before it was wrenched from the sky.

Four hours later the team came upon their first bodies. Nailed to the trees in imitation of crosses, over 50 tau corpses of varying stages of decay, along with a number of what he presumed to be Gue’vesa. Kias managed to stare for three seconds before removing his helmet and vomiting into a nearby bush. A number of privates looked in his direction, but most were to engrossed in the sight of so many crucifictions. One of the other privates trotted over to the corporal and bent his head toward him. ‘Ka-os?’, he muttered over the internal comms. The nco pointed at a sign hung around a tau’s neck and shook his head. Shrugging the private stepped back, while Kias pulled himself back together. The nco turned back, ordering them to form a line and advance. As Kias passed the sign the senior member had pointed at he noticed it was hung round the neck of a member of his unit, and was painted using tau blood.

"By the word of His Holiness the God-Emperor, Xenos are an abomination and do not deserve to live."

Fighting back the urge to be sick again, Kias followed the rest of the squad into the jungle.

It took their unit another 8 hours of trekking to reach the Shas’tia, and by then they had passed almost 500 crucified tau and an uncountable number of their auxiliary races. Kias hadn’t been sick, but his gut pulled weirdly when he thought on it. As they crested the final ridge, they saw what awaited them. The Shas’tia had been designed as an example of the modern Tau might: a gleaming 700ft tall pyramid surrounded with some of the fiercest security measures it’s designers could implement. The light yellow colour of it has been flawless, but even from a kilometre away Kias could barely tell it’s true colour. As far as they could see, every available space had been taken up by a crucified Tau, giving the pyramid a rotten blue colour that made Kias lightheaded. Two privates behind him fainted, while another just dropped his rifle and sobbed. The corporal turned to look at Kias, raising his weapon as he did. Kias stood stock still as he watched the nco’s head disappear into a blue-green puff of blood. He didn’t move as lasfire rained down on them, cutting the other privates to pieces. He didn’t move when the blue men walked to him and dragged him to a cage and he didn’t move when they truck the cage was in drove to the Shas’tia. He remained unmoving while they held his hands and feet against the plasteel of the building and nailed them in place. When the next batch of tau prisoners were dragged past his corpse two hours later he was in the same position he was placed in, and he remained like that till his flesh rotted away and his bones fell to the ground.
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