Editing Damocles Crusade (section)

==The First Draft==
[[Image:Chinese_or_Japanese.jpg|thumb|400px|Come home one day and learn you have a new neighbor...]]
During what the Tau called the Second Sphere Expansion, the Tau's colonization efforts brought them across the Damocles Gulf and on the other side they found human worlds. These frontier planets were easy to subvert; they had little attachment to the Imperium thanks to being cut off from it for some time, thanks to both Eldar corsairs and warp storms. There were still some loyalist factions among these planets but they were in the minority.

When the warp storms receded the Imperium decided to restore its grip in the region, and it was thanks to system defence ships that they noticed the Tau. A report came in of a Tau ship that didn't stop at the designated checkpoints, and we should get into some backstory on that. At the time the writers wanted to the Imperium to be more practical than stupid, so the Imperium would not intentionally shoot every alien race on sight (they still aimed their guns at them) because they knew they couldn't afford to fight an active war against literally everyone else in the setting. In regions where there were either sanctioned species or areas that required brief cohabitation with xenos species there would be designated checkpoints set up to guard Imperial space, done so that they could inspect xenos ships to make sure they weren't going to [[genestealer|negatively affect]] [[chaos|Imperial colonies/worlds]].

Once the Tau ran the border they were immediately attacked and the Tau were shocked to learn conflict could escalate that quickly. They tried to make a speedy retreat, but the ship ended up being destroyed by the Imperial Navy and the matter briefly considered closed. It was reopened again when an investigation was launched into what they were after Adeptus Mechanicus Genetors learned that this advanced alien race matched those of a primitive alien race found six thousand years ago.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Rogue Traders and merchants who didn't particularly care who they dealt with went to explore the eastern fringes and they started 'less' violent meetings with the Tau (how much less is up for debate). Luckily they were so far away from the main body of the Imperium that word of what they were doing was slow to get to the Administratum, allowing members of the Water Caste to establish trade agreements for goods and technology (this was also a time where the Tau weren't convinced the only way to get resources was to kill and enslave those who had them). This would later become the main cause of the war, as a large amount of alien goods and artefacts began to appear in nearby systems and an investigation would later reveal the Tau's allies within dissident Imperial factions.

When word finally did get back to the Administratum they completely lost their shit (to put it lightly) then told the Ecclesiarchy who also completely lost their shit. A 'suitable' response began to be readied, deployed a mere century later with the goal of purging the Tau. The response consisted of a dozen capital ships, five provisional companies of Space Marines made up of contingents from a dozen Chapters, and nineteen regiments of Imperial Guard.

To say the Tau were ready for the response is like saying that a watermelon was ready for a sledgehammer. The Imperium blitzed into Tau space; their first targets were worlds in which human colonists committed the crime of co-existing with the Tau, but since this was the practical version of the Imperium, instead of blowing up the planets they [[Blam|punished the humans who dealt with the Tau]], purged the aliens and left everyone else alone with a threat. After this they engaged the Tau properly in the uninhabited Hydass system.

The Imperials engaged with seven Tau warships, and it was their first real insight into what the aliens were capable of. The Tau had fantastic long-range capabilities and escorts that were great at protecting their ships from Imperial bombers, but a Space Marine strike cruiser ended up turning the fight in the Imperial's favour when it managed to get inside the Tau's formation and let off everything it had. This turned out to be a great idea since the Tau warships lacked broadside firepower; afterwards most of the Tau warships managed to retreat from the fight with the only confirmed kill being one unlucky bastard (probably the one the Marines opened up on) which was destroyed before it could be fully evacuated.

The remnants of the Tau fleet regrouped in the Sy'l'kell system, which the Imperials wanted to destroy for being too annoying to pronounce. It was home to a fertile agri-world consisting of a population estimated to be 7 million Tau, defended by an orbital station along with their aforementioned ships. Once again the Imperial strategy was to take a page from the Orks' playbook: get in close and krump 'em! It worked; the Iron Hands (the ones in charge of the planetary assault) boarded the station and overran it, burning all traces of the Tau personnel out with flamers before repurposing it as the command center for the ground campaign (not heresy, remember this is back when the Imperium had [[Reasonable Marines]]). The Tau fleet fled after the station was boarded as they knew how well they Tau performed in close combat, but in doing so they managed to avoid taking any significant damage.

If the Tau found themselves struggling to fight in space, the opposite ended up being true in the ground conflict. When Imperials came down they found the Tau quick to adapt to their tactics, responding to aggression with an extremely well-equipped mechanized infantry formation backed up by armoured columns. This was also the first time the Imperium witnessed a soon-to-be classic sight: a Hammerhead turning a Leman Russ into Swiss cheese. The Imperium also found out the hard way that any unit left unsupported would soon be in a world of trouble, discovered when crisis suits nearly wiped out the entirety of an Imperial Guard company by swooping in without notice (the massacre only being prevented by both Stormtrooper and Scythes of the Emperor reinforcements). Still, the Tau couldn't hope to match the Imperium's numbers and once the Fire caste fell, the rest of the world went with it. The Tau evacuated the most qualified workers and dismantled any advanced technology they didn't want the Imperials to nab (presumably if they'd met the AdMech before this they wouldn't have bothered) and the Imperium cleansed the planet.

A short break was called as the Imperium took to going over their collective plans again for taking Dal'yth, but in the meantime an expeditionary force was sent over to deal with Tau in the Viss'el system. Unlike the Tau in the Sy'l'kell system, those who lived in Viss'el inhabited an ice-covered water planet of no strategic value. Not seeing any purpose in landing on a planet that they weren't going to use in the foreseeable future, the Imperials performed an orbital bombardment, melting the ice around the main colonies and drowning the poor bastards.

The attempt at taking the Dal'yth system is what finally ground the crusade to a halt. Actually getting there took five months of journey (one can only imagine what it would be like for the Tau going the opposite direction) and even when they arrived they did so piecemeal. The arrival itself wasn't any better than the travel time; when the Imperials arrived they found Pra'yen was protected by an orbital station similar to that guarding Sy'l'kell but significantly more dangerous, being fitted with an array of heavy railguns. Its first volley crippled an Imperial cruiser, and eleven Tau ships emerged behind the planet to support it. The Imperium broke formation in order to engage them and kept to the usual strategy of 'get close and broadside them.' Interestingly the Imperium used their escorts on the orbital station instead of devoting their ships to their usual support role against an enemy fleet, which turned out to be the correct thing to do as while they took heavy losses, they were more effective against it then they had been against the Warships (where they'd performed terribly thanks to the Tau's escorts).

Just when it looked like the Imperials were about to win, the Tau unveiled their trump card: having planned for the Imperials to come in close they decided to rely on their Kroot allies, and ordered in a Kroot Warsphere since it was more capable than the Tau at that distance. Unfortunately for them, the Imperium was quick to realize that the Kroot's guns were laughably short-ranged and the sphere itself, while huge, was also slow. Before it could reach the fleet in full (who were beginning to scatter, which would've put the ball in the Tau's court) it was engaged by one of the flagships, the Blade of Woe. The Admiral in command accelerated his ship to its maximum speed and tore across the Warsphere, and its ensuing salvo ripped the giant ship apart. The end result was a Pyrrhic victory: the Tau fleet, the Warsphere and station were destroyed at a cost of four capital ships and fourteen escorts. At this point those in charge began to respect the Tau's ability to fight and for a while they considered turning back, only to find the lure of a major Tau world too tempting.

Dal'yth Prime was next on the Imperium's 'worlds to fuck up' list, and at first they approached the planet cautiously as it was protected by '''THREE''' orbital stations. Fortunately for the Imperials the Tau had made the RTS mistake of only investing in defences along your border wall and had only one huge armada, so none of the stations were anywhere close to as dangerous as the one at Pra'yen, and after approaching them carefully the Imperium found they could be destroyed at their leisure. Expecting another Tau fleet at any moment (one which later turned out to never be coming as the Tau really did put all their eggs in one basket) the Imperium immediately began the ground assault, only to find that it was even worse than the last time they engaged the Tau on a planet's surface.

To begin with the drop was contested by large numbers of Tau flyers, and while the drop was eventually successful it bought the Tau the time they needed to set up. The Imperials headed for the nearest city, Titans and armoured formations clearing the way and ploughing through the streets, but they were beset upon by enemy missiles fired from hidden positions well beyond their own range, taking heavy losses in the process. Units had to be detached to drive back Tau spotters, which they couldn't do because they were beset by Stealth Suits, which they couldn't fight because that required the guns the missiles were taking down, which they couldn't deal with because the Tau were driving the Imperials fucking crazy. Gradually the Tau broke up the Imperial advance until it consisted of three spearheads instead of one large force, and they appropriately picked out which units would fight against each spearhead. The one made up of Titans was countered by Tau Manta Missile Destroyers. The second spearhead was predominantly made up of veteran light infantry who liked to cover camp since the Tau's markerlights were too busy being used on tanks to take away the infantry's cover saves. They were beset upon by Kroot who managed to do the whole 'urban combat' fighting a lot better than the regular Tau did. The third spearhead consisted of Space Marines, a mix of chapters from the Iron Hands, the Ultramarines and the Scythes of the Emperor. They were countered by Crisis Suits, and together the three counters stalled the Imperial advance once they'd left the city, causing the front to stabilize twenty miles north of the initial city's center, along the line of a broad river.

Combat on Dal'yth took months, mostly because the Imperium found it hard to engage with the Tau in a number of conflicts. The Tau possessed superior night-fighting capabilities which they exploited every chance they got, opening up fire when it was pitch black only to withdraw at dawn before the Imperials could fully get a grasp on what they were fighting. The worry of a new fleet continued to gnaw at them as the current Imperial fleet would not be able to take on the same sized force as last time, and while plentiful reinforcements had been promised at the outset of the crusade none had arrived. One General concluded that as they stood, they did not have the resources for the task at hand, while an Inquisitor was thinking now would be a good time to evacuate the planet [[exterminatus|and then blow it up]] (not really a surprise, all things considered) as he reasoned the Tau were too dangerous to be allowed to exist. The only reason Dal'yth didn't become another molten hellhole is because a number of the other commanders found the Tau to be honourable in a fight and the thought of having to resort to exterminatus instead of cleansing the planet properly left a bad taste in their mouths (though aside from arguments about the best way to purge the Tau they didn't actually try to stop the Inquisitor from ordering it, and the crusade ended before he did).

While the other commanders debated about which xenocide is the best xenocide, a General down on the ground decided to get shit done. He formed the titans up with the Imperial Guard regiments and attempted to force the river line down its right flank, trapping the Tau against the sea. He did this after pounding other sectors the Tau could've retreated to with artillery and ordering Imperial Navy fighters to begin offensives against Tau airfields which, while costly, did prevent the Tau flyers from taking to the front. This proved to be highly successful at first, changing the battle line in the Imperium's favour and gaining the ground troops easy access to a bridge that would allow their forces to cross the river and get to the city on the other side without much fear of retaliation, until the Manta missile destroyers showed up again. After they reappeared a running battle was fought through Dal'yth's suburbs, ending with the Tau falling back and infesting the now fallen city with Kroot, though the Imperium wouldn't end up fighting them because they'd managed to seize a starport and the General decided it was time to get the hell out of dodge. He began evacuating the troops from the planet, and surprisingly enough the Tau decided not to do anything when the Imperials were evacuating, reasoning that there was no benefit in impeding their enemy's retreat (especially when that might piss them off enough to come back for another go) and both sides held parleys under the flags of truce. There was quite a bit of resistance to this evacuation by both the Space Marines and the Inquisition, but the General found himself to be vindicated when a call came in from Inquisitor Kryptman: Hive Fleet Behemoth had just arrived and they were needed elsewhere.

Later the terms of the truce between the Tau and the Imperium would be hammered out, but in both cases it was a facade of peace. After the Imperials left the Tau went on to retake their lost worlds, assimilating some groups of human deserters/renegades in the process. In return the Imperials preyed upon them like a malicious scientist observing how their test subjects squirm, abducting them for whatever experiments they wanted to do while sowing mistrust and doubts about the Farsight Enclaves (even managing to get the Water caste to talk about the 'Tau mercenaries' as they called them). The end result of the conflict is the Imperials learned how the Tau fight and gained respect for them as warriors (the only thing they'd end up respecting them for), while the Tau found their optimism about how they could easily take the galaxy had been checked. In the end the Tau would have likely made further gains into Imperial space, but by then Hive Fleet Kraken showed up on their doorstep, at which point they went from ''checked optimism'' to '''THIS GALAXY IS FUCKED UP.'''